I Eat Instant Noodles Everyday But I Drive A Luxury Car

I am not sure how things spiralled to this state of living. It could be my desire to show people that I have “made it” in life. It could also have been a really persuasive car salesperson. 

I visited the Audi showroom with an interest in browsing for a car. At that point, I was bringing home quite some income and I was confident that I would be able to afford a luxury car. 

After I test-drove a few Audis, my eyes were set on a sedan version in white. I knew that the car would impress relatives and friends and I would be a happy car owner. 

Little did I realise that when I started doing up my sums after the first month of car ownership, I hardly made enough to afford food expenses. Owning a car included more than just the downpayment and car loan but also the maintenance fees, petrol costs, car insurance and road tax.

I decided that I would compromise on my diet because I could not sell the car immediately after I had bought it. I went on a full instant noodles dinner diet. When I got home from work I would cook instant noodles for myself for dinner. Suffice it to say the food lacked nutrients and led me to fall sick easily. 

This lasted for a few years, and I would always eat instant noodles whenever there was no need to pay for social gatherings. I also started limiting meeting my friends to save money. 

The decision came for me to sell the car a few years later when I was doing badly at work and my income was cut by 50%. I was struggling with debt and credit card bills. The last straw came when I visited the doctor and he said I had high blood pressure and requested for my diet routine. 

The doctor told me that instant noodles often contain high levels of sodium and should not be taken as a main staple diet. 

Although I got to own my dream car for a few years, the struggle to keep up with the costs and the negative health outcome is not something I recommend to anyone.

This article is part of TSS Confessions, a weekly column where we delve into personal finance topics that are unscripted and genuine real accounts from people.