Who is Affordable Earl?

Born in the Philippines and migrating to Australia with his parents and older brother when he was 3, Earl was always a name and not title. Growing up, his parents loved to ask him, “how much do you think this was?” after scoring a bargain at the shops. He didn’t realise til later that they were on a limited budget and were making the most of what they had. His parents worked hard to make sure Earl and his brother had everything they needed growing up. The Migrant Spending Mentality was instilled in him in those early years and hasn’t gone anywhere.

The Migrant Spending Mentality

• Rule Number 1. Everything is expensive

• Rule Number 2. You should never pay retail

• Rule Number 3. Quantity over Quality

• Rule Number 4. You can get it cheaper somewhere else

• Rule Number 5. You never have enough money to make a purchase 

Earl got older and (subjectively) wiser. Finding out that in some instances quality is better than quantity ie. paying more for something that is made better and will last longer is still better than buying multiples of something cheaper but will fail sooner. Subreddits like r/BuyItForLife and websites like OzBargain fed into the ‘Perceived Value/Quality’ equation. But the equation doesn’t account for variables like y=you don’t need that, or g=you’ve already got that.