I think Dopey's post makes a lot of sense.

Just a few points to note. I probably have to agree to some extent on Dopey's point about being less distracted whilst overseas when it comes to spending money unnecessarily on nice cars, entertainment etc. I think wherever we are in this world, we will always be tempted by nice things as long as they are accessible to us. However, the difference probably lies in how much we are willing to pay for access to those things. I currently work and live in the UK and find that entertainment can be quite costly. A few examples :

1) A typical cover charge to enter clubs is £20 (RM140) and that does give you a free drink. One drink in a UK nightclub costs a minimum of £4 (RM28). And the concept of opening a bottle of JD is almost non-existent. In KL, cover charges are almost non-existent if you are willing to share amongst friends to 'open bottle'. One bottle of JD is approx RM350, split amongst 5 friends - that's RM70 per person plus at least 3 glasses of drinks each for the rest of the night.

2) Cinema - One ticket at TGV costs RM10. One cinema ticket here costs between £8 to £14 (RM56-RM98) depending on cinema and location.

Of course the argument is that I'm earning in GBP so the conversion costs should not affect me. True, but also my income tax rate is 40% and all UK employees have to contribute a further 2.5% of gross salaries to National Health Insurance. This effectively reduces my nett income to about half and hence reducing my purchasing power.

With the knowledge that I have rent to cover every month as well, it really puts me off spending so much unnecessarily on entertainment/clothes. It's hard sometimes because who can resist clothes right? After all, I am a girl and I love to shop. But I think once you have lived here and realise your purchasing power, you will realise that you really should resist temptation most of the time.

It's like eating out vs cooking. Eating out in London can set you back about £6 to £10 for a normal one-person meal in a chinese restaurant. For that same amount you can buy groceries (meat, veggie and fruits) to last you at least 4 days. It's not only me - trust me, ask Malaysians here in London if they willingly eat out every night. Nobody does.

If want to shop, wait for the summer/winter sales. You can almost buy anything you want at greatly reduced prices.

Car? Most people are happy to just take public transportation here. In UK, you have to pay for a Congestion Charge just to drive in London. Plus parking and car insurance is not cheap at all.