When something has a good ratio of happiness to expense, we tend to refer to it as an ‘efficient’ source of happiness. Having a few cheap but enjoyable experiences a week has been vital to us sticking to our frugal ways and stops us from feeling like we are sacrificing too much. Here are my current top 5 sources of efficient happiness:
Eating cheap local foods
Living in one of the most expensive cities in the world means eating out cheaply isn’t always the obvious choice. However, when you’ve been here a few years you can easily build up a repertoire of cheap, enjoyable places to eat. In Asia a lot of these are various rice and noodle dishes, but cities are cosmopolitan places, so we know where to find cheap pizza by the slice, a ‘secret’ (or unlicensed) Nepalese restaurant and hole in the wall sushi bars. Going out to eat and having it cost about the same as a home cooked meal is a guilt-free happiness we can enjoy each week.
Home cooking
Eating well and eating a wide variety is a big source of efficient happiness for us. Apart from eating out a couple of times a week, cooking is a three-fold efficient happiness. First, it’s an activity in itself. We enjoy cooking together and making new recipes. Second, home cooking can be cheap, especially when you batch cook. We try to make at least one big one pot meal at least once a week so that we can freeze two or three extra portions for an easy weeknight dinner. Finally, you have to eat anyway, so spending money on ingredients for an interesting home cooked meal can feel like a minor cost.
Visiting local markets
We are lucky enough to live near to wet markets, which a lot of locals take for granted and a lot of ex-pats find intimidating. These markets are fantastic, they have an ever-changing rotation of items according to what is in season or in good supply There are regular, reliable stalls, which carry your weekly essential groceries and where after a few visits the owner will recognize you and often give you little freebies (I got given a guava last week!). New market stalls will pop up for a couple of weeks at a time selling all kinds of things, often cakes and desserts, snacks, exotic ingredients and local crafts. Just walking around the markets can be an experience in itself.
Walking in green spaces
There is an evening hike we often do in the evenings after work. On this walk, depending on the time of year there are various types of wildlife. One of my favourites is seeing fireflies in the autumn. Getting out and ready for a hike sometimes seems like a chore, but only until I reach the start of the hiking path and then it’s a great way to unwind and forget about work, as well as a good time to talk without any screens or distractions.
The Sea
This one is just for me, Converse isn’t such a big fan. We live pretty close to the ocean. Just seeing it is relaxing and renting a kayak or paddle board is relatively cheap. Even the journey to the ocean is great – catching glimpses of it as you wind down the roads towards the water. I’m not a big fan of just lying on a beach, but going out on the water always reminds me how lucky I am to live in Asia. It feels so far removed from grey London drizzle.
Homemade Coffee
This one is just for Converse. He really, really likes coffee. It’s not the cheapest source of happiness, but it makes the efficient list because of how happy it makes him. It also takes a reasonable amount of effort. He buys the locally roasted beans from a nearby factory building, but they are high quality and not the cheapest. He then grinds them at home (with an electric grinder) and fills metal, reusable pods to put in a Nespresso machine. He likes that despite the extra work involved he has avoided paying money to Nestle to buy their disposable pods, he’s limited the amount of waste created and he’s got higher quality, freshly ground coffee from a local seller. I don’t love coffee like he does, but the smell of freshly ground coffee is great and it makes the apartment smell amazing.