Expenditure Update: June 2015

Last month was a pretty special month as the Mrs and I actually spent 2 weeks together almost 24/7. She was enjoying her sabbatical and I had 2 weeks of protected school holidays. And quite interestingly, our expenses came down to a very manageable $3,500.

Moral of the story?

Staying at home watching DVDs and playing games is really quite low maintenance. Not surprisingly. Ooops…

So with June’s expenditure in, this brings our estimated total expenditure for the first half of the year to $23,500. 

That’s pretty satisfactory in my opinion and can be considered rather low (especially with the inclusion of the mortgage of a 5 room flat) for two young adults.

Coupled with passive income that’s coming close to $1,000 a month, this probably reinforces my belief that both of us are at a stage where we could take some risks with our employment choices. The Mrs is likely to take a big paycut to work in a friend’s start up while I transition to self-employment in the upcoming months. More on those in upcoming posts.

Last month’s goal went quite well as my records showed I ran 14 times and swam 4 times. So yeah, I did exercise at least once every two days on average. For July, I have decided to give myself a break.

More time for some reflections as both of us chart new paths. 

Details of our June expenses are shown below:

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Eating Out: $701.70

Hawker ($304.80) – One expensive zhi char @$135 when we invited some relatives over to play mahjong at my in-law’s place. Otherwise, more home cooking would have lowered the expenses in this category.

Fast Food ($54.90) –  6 entries here as the Mrs had a rare meal out alone at Long John Silver’s. And of course, the occasional Mac meals when we want some aircon and comfort food during the afternoons.

Restaurants ($342) – A couple of cheap buffets and some Groupon buys that helped us to keep within our “invisible” budget. The most expensive meal was one at Uncle Leong’s in Punggol. If you don’t order crabs and order smart, that’s a pretty value-for-money dining venue I recommend.

Groceries: $85

Supermarket ($68) – A few trips to get some cheap staples that consist mainly of fruits and vegetables. We are now pretty selective about the aisles that we frequent in NTUCs and GIANTs.

Baking ($8) – The Mrs spent about $8 at Phoon Huat as she made some kueh on a Sunday.

Bakery ($9) – Some gourmet bread when we went on a day trip to Johor Bahru. Nowadays, we rarely eat bread for breakfast and rely mainly on fruits and nuts.

Beverages & Snacks: $64.50

Beverages ($15.20) – A relatively cheap Boost Juice and some Yakult in JB and some sugar cane here and there at hawker centres.

Snacks ($49.30) – The damage here was done by a box of durian, some bak zhang and a couple of Japanese desserts. But apparently, it’s really quite small damage compared to what many of my peers spend on a day out. 😉  

Utilities: $155.02

Electricity, Gas & Water ($76.99) – Electricity usage moderated at 231kWh and the lower tariffs help to keep the bill low. even as the weather continues to frustrate. Yes, I tend to shower thrice a day when I spend the whole day at home. We used about 11kWh of gas and 5.01Cu M too.

Cellphones ($78.03) – $28.03 for the Mrs’ plan and $32 for mine.

Transport: $112

1 EZ Reload transaction for each of us and a cab trip that set us back at $12 when I was out with my friends till quite late. (Yes, it’s that time when I was out with my JC classmates. )

Departmental: $275.75

Clothing ($275.75) – Almost $100 was spent in JB as I stocked up on some very cheap T-shirts (Less than $7) and a pseudo–compression gear for running. It’s also the GSS and there were some ridiculous promotions. One such promotion was held in the Adidas outlet store at Chinatown Point. I think we bought a pair of sneakers, 2 AC Milan jerseys, three tops, a pair of shorts, a bag and two water bottles at at total cost of $159. And yeah, we have sold some of the items @Carousell for a decent profit.  😆

Medical: $100.50

A trip to the dentist for both of us and mine was subsidised by my employer.

Miscellaneous: $120.50

Others ($120.50) – A baby shower, a movie and some board-game fun during that SAME outing with my friends.

Total: $1,614.97

Overall Total: $3,499.97 (included fixed expenses of $1,885)

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