Penny-pinching or frugal, Mrs Lee Kuan Yew was a role model

Mrs Lee nee Kwa Geok Choo - sons Hsien Loong front, Hsien Yang back

Tabitha Wang

I wish I had known Mrs Lee Kuan Yew. There was much to admire about her. She excelled in everything she set out to do.

She wasn't just a student; she topped the Senior Cambridge Examination for the whole of Malaya and Singapore for her year and then went on to get First Class Honours in Law in Cambridge.

She wasn't just a wife; she was a co-partner with her husband, helping to build a fledgling nation.

And she wasn't just a mother; she was mother to a Prime Minister, a doctor and a top businessman.

But what really made her No 1 on my list of women to be admired was something I read in her granddaughter's eulogy for her.

Li Xiuqi remembered her "Nainai" as someone who was not just "kind-hearted, sharp-minded and tower of strength". But also "frugal to a fault".

I loved the touching anecdotes, especially the one about what happened after Mrs Lee's first stroke: "While she was still away, her children quickly seized the opportunity to renovate and elderly-proof the old Oxley Road house. They levelled the bathroom floor and installed a shower.

"This was a big deal because all these years, my grandparents had still been bathing with the old-fashioned system - scooping from a tub of water the same way they bathed me when I was little!

"So, my granny came home to find her tub gone and a shower in its place. She was not pleased at all and refused to bathe at home for several days, choosing to bathe in the Istana instead.''

And then there was the Quest for the Perfect Hairbrush: "In Tokyo, my granny went to Tokyo Hands, a seven-storey DIY store. She has always been on a lifelong quest for the Perfect Hairbrush. She found a nice hairbrush there. It wasn't expensive.

"But even purchasing it was a struggle for her because Nainai has always been frugal to a fault. In the end, the hairbrush won. Nainai said: 'Well, I'm already so old, I can afford to buy it' and put down the money. She went home smiling, hairbrush in hand."

I see now that Mrs Lee was the original Budget Tai-Tai.

As the daughter of an Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation general manager, the wife of a Prime Minister and the mother of another, plus a successful lawyer herself, she could very easily have immersed herself in a life of comfort and no one would fault her for that.

Instead, she chose a simple life - in which ordinary things like a hairbrush and cheap black sports shoes from a loving granddaughter gave as much satisfaction as a designer handbag or expensive footwear.

In this age of instant gratification, it is great to be able to find someone who knew the joys of delayed gratification.

Remember those days as a child when you had to save up months of pocket money before you could get that toy you wanted? Somehow the toy that you pinched and scraped for always seemed more precious than one you got as a present.

I still like to save but I have to admit to being tempted by interest-free credit. Now, I don't wait for months for that LCD television I've been eyeing - I just put it on my credit card and let the monthly instalment take care of itself.

After reading the eulogy, I am inspired to go back to leading the simple life again. Maybe not bathing with water scooped from a tub - it's way too cold to do it in Hong Kong now that autumn's here.

There is, however, that iPad I've been eyeing for quite some time now. I can't afford it yet but maybe if I save up a couple of hundred a month, I can get it by the end of next year.

That will be my Perfect Hairbrush. - TODAY