The total expenses for May broke $6,000. WOW.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be so flabbergasted because that might be what many middle income DINKs are spending every month?
An overseas trip for the Mrs, some purchases for myself from department stores and the purchase of a new laptop contributed to the extraordinarily high expenses this month for the 15HWW household.
A more accurate picture is probably the average expenses for the first 5 months of this year which is about $4,000. Extrapolating it would result in an annual expenditure of close to $50,000, which is what we expect to roughly spend in 2015. No surprises on that front and it would be an achievement if we can keep to within $45,000. (Calling out to Mrs 15HWW!)
June’s Challenge: Exercise every other day
The no soft drinks challenge was a resounding success even though I ended it early on the 30th of May by having a meal at KFC. After more than a month without soft drinks, there wasn’t really a craving. And when I drank a cup of Coke yesterday, it just wasn’t that satisfying.
Guess tastes can and do change. 🙂
Exercising every other day during my June holidays sounds like a great idea. That would be less taxing than exercising every day and it shouldn’t be too difficult since I now understand that it’s ok to be inefficient. (Simply loved that article!)
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Eating Out: $1186.85
Hawker ($249.15) – The Mrs was not around for a week when she went overseas. Moreover, when she was in town, she cooked a few meals too.
Fast Food ($37.90) – 1 meal at Mos Burger, Mac and KFC and a breakfast at Mac.
Restaurants ($899.80) – A scary month of eating out as we enjoyed crabs on two separate occasions, which ramped up the expenses for this category. A mother’s day dinner added to the expenses too.
Groceries: $114.05
Supermarket ($114.05) – 4 or 5 visits to the supermarket to get some supplies for cooking. One of the more costly trips were to get the different mushrooms to make mushroom soup.
Beverages & Snacks: $134.60
Beverages ($29.10) – Work-related expenses since there is a need to socialise and the weather is really hot at times.
Snacks ($105.50) – 2 packets of durians, a couple of trips to the restaurants for desserts and plenty of grass jelly dessert near school when out with my lunchtime kaki.
Utilities: $165.85
Electricity, Gas & Water ($87.82) – Electricity usage spiked up to 278kWh as tariffs went down and the weather became even hotter. We only used 8kWh of gas and 5.0 Cu M of water during this month.
Cellphones ($78.03) – $28.03 for the Mrs’ plan and $32 for mine.
Transport: $106
1 EZ Reload transaction for each of us and a cab trip that costs $6 when I was late for tuition.
Departmental: $870
Clothing ($280) – A pair of Skechers. There was a store promotion and together with a Groupon promotion, a top range running shoe costs only about $120. My old pair is really coming apart after more than 4 years of wear and tear (not an excuse). I bought a Braun Buffel wallet during its recent Expo fair and got some G2K shirts at the outlet in Changi City Point during the same trip.
Books ($56) – Popular Expo fair and we bought some assessment books for our students. We never claim such expenses from our students, in case you are interested in hiring either of us? 😉
Electronics ($534) – Since I was entitled to claim $450 from my workplace, I decided to get a new laptop as my 3 year old laptop appears to be dying (more likely just an excuse).
Miscellaneous: $1710
Others ($110) – A baby shower, a haircut and renewal of the Popular Card membership.
Travel ($1600) – The Mrs went to Seoul with her family and relatives for six days. It’s a rough estimate since the air tickets cost $800 and the accommodation set her back by $250 (Airbnb). Considering that she didn’t buy alot of stuff, $1600 was just about right.
Total: $4,287.35
Overall Total: $6,172.35 (included fixed expenses of $1,885)
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I’m thinking that now the Mrs is taking a sabbatical, it’s time for more home cooked food 😉
My own laptop lasted till about 5-6, although there’s nothing more I hate than dying electronics.
Although if it were me, an overseas trip means spacing out purchases, no laptop and crab dinners for sure! However my fixed expenses are much higher so I’m really in no position to say much :p
Hi Singaporemm,
Yup, eating at home for at least one meal every day.
As I said, it was more or less an excuse and to take advantage of those claims. There is now two laptops, two iPads and two iPhones shared between both of us. =p
We don’t space out expenses. Since the GSS is going on and there are some good offers or freebies, we take advantage of it. I have been putting off buying new clothes and shoes for almost half a year already!
Saw your post on expenses and that’s some expensive rental!
Mortgage, not rental. We’re not that crazy la come on, at least some of it is building equity right???? Hahaha *defensive*
Stumbled upon your post.
Do u guys own a car?
Our expenses averaged about 4.9k. Take away the expenses for the car we are looking at 3.7k on average.
Like u we track our expenses diligently. 🙂
Hi Mary,
We don’t own a car although the thought does pop up once in a while. =p
If we have a car (unless it’s fully paid off, we probably would struggle to keep expenses below $5k every month.
Please don’t get a car unless the employer pays for it. it’s really a waste of money when our public transportation is pretty good. And if all else fails, there’s GrabTaxi and Uber.
I also found that no sale in Singapore beats a sale on Amazon or other online stores so I’m not tempted to buy anything if I am willing to wait (for the overseas shipment to reach me).
As for books, I’m an ebook convert. I found that the NLB overdrive portal finally works and I can borrow ebooks and send them to my Kindle (after a few workarounds).
Hi Mickey J,
Yeah, I agree that 90% of the time, public transportation more than suffices. That’s all we have relied on for these few years and even cab trips are rare. But still, the convenience is tempting at times.
You’re right about Amazon but I rarely buy many stuff at one go. And there was a time when I booked some Crocs online only to find out that they were cheaper in Singapore on a day when Crocs held a 40% discount.
As for books, I still prefer my hardcovers borrowed from the library. =)
Many people are not in a position to save anything for their future due to the exorbitant kind of life styles they have adopted. They spend too much on electronics, entertainment and shopping in expensive joints. Eating out, expensive groceries, beverages and snacks, transport and rents as well as miscellaneous expenses are just some of the expenses that can be exaggerated to extreme levels leaving you broke throughout. Cutting down on expenses is a great way to start accumulating wealth.
Reckon the expenses going to spike up once you have kids. You can compare your NTUC insurance against SAF insurance from Aviva. May have a chance to save some money there.
Hi moneyiq,
You are right about expenses. By lowering it to a much more reasonable level, one can also open up more options in life.
Yes, the SAF group insurance is indeed cheaper but paranoid me prefers an individual insurance rather than a group one at present. However, if I need additional coverage, that could be where I turn to.
New reader. Just discovered your blog from another sg personal finance blog and have enjoyed reading your posts so far! I haven’t gone back to read all the posts yet, but just curious. Do you and the Mrs pool all your income into one pool and then share all expenses as well? In my household we certainly don’t, any holiday that I take would most certainly be counted as my personal expenditure and not a household one!
Hi qook,
Yes, we pool our finances together. We always thought that’s the way households should work but apparently, that behaviour puts us as the odd ones out. =p