August proved to be another “high-expenses” month. Close to $5,000, which is easily at least $1,000 higher than the usual. I could point to two chief culprits:
The one week experience of spending holiday money in Singapore and of course, a new sofa (our saving grace was that it was a display piece).
Nonetheless, as I get more used to my new lifestyle of not having to report to an office (hopefully from now till forever) and that we are not planning for any holidays from now till the end of the year, the expenses should come down. When I am happier and have more energy, the willpower to resist frivolous expenses is really much stronger.
Keeping within $50,000 for this year seems like a reasonable target. We shall see in a few months’ time. It’s election season and guys, fiscal discipline is important. 😎
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Eating Out: $1,104.40
Hawker ($241.60) – The usual “budget” eating out and some treats to friends here and there. I am actually quite surprised how consistent this category is over the past months and years.
Fast Food ($38.70) – 2 MacDonald meals, another 2 at KFC, a Subway sandwich and using some National Day coupons to get 2 baguettes at Delifrance.
Restaurants ($824.10) – Hugely bumped up after our one week experience at the start of the month. 18 entries for this month which also means that we dined out at restaurants at least one every other day. A luxurious lifestyle, I must say.
Groceries: $107.65
Supermarket ($67.65) – Started steaming and cooking simple lunches at home. My favourite is the corn and carrot combo together with some roasted nuts. Yeah, I am lazy.
Market ($40) – Cashew nuts, almonds and pecans from wholesalers at Bugis. It’s really much cheaper to get these dried goods there as compared to supermarkets.
Beverages & Snacks: $72.90
Beverages ($19.60) – A $4 100 plus when we caught the Arsenal vs Everton match (complimentary tickets) and a cup of KOI in addition to the usual few cups of sugar cane at hawkers and lemon tea in school.
Snacks ($53.30) – We enjoy Japanese parfaits and have tried a few. In our humble opinion, the Kyoto Delight @St Marc’s Cafe is definitely value-for-money, if you have $8.80 to spare.
Utilities: $177.40
Electricity, Gas & Water ($103.37) – Electricity usage moderated to 302kWh as air con usage was moderated, especially in the day. We also used about 23kWh of gas and 6.8Cu M of water too, a significant decrease from the previous month.
Cellphones ($74.03) – $42.03 for the Mrs’ plan after the upgrade and $32 for mine.
Transport: $100
1 EZ Reload transaction for each of us.
Departmental: $1,062.80
Clothing ($94.80) – I bought two pairs of running socks from 2XU for $20. They are the kind that won’t give me blisters so I believe it’s well worth it. The rest were incurred by the Mrs during our crazy first week.
Books ($18) – More assessment books for my students’ final preparations in the end-of year examinations.
Furniture ($950) – We sold our old sofa and bought a new one. The fabric sofa wasn’t giving us much comfort and we decided to find a leather piece. Even after accounting for the revenue of the old sofa, we still had to fork out another $950.
Miscellaneous: $428
Movies ($60) – Gold Class tickets @VivoCity and a pot of flower tea to go along with the experience.
Others ($368) – Bought some Pandan chiffon cakes for our neighbours and some expensive honey from Yummi House. 6 bottles in total.
Total: $3,053.15
Overall Total: $4,875.15 (included fixed expenses of $1,822)
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Hi 15hww
Just curious. Are there any special plans for your household to reduce any of the discretionary spending now that you no longer hold a full time job? I would think that household income would be tighter but I could be wrong if you have any further plans.
Hi B,
I think if we can maintain our all-in expenses at $50,000 for a year, there is little need to reduce discretionary spending by quite a bit. Even for 2015, our total income should hit $80,000 and that will be the target for 2016. I will be monitoring our income every month from next year onwards.
Without a doubt, savings would likely reduce for the next couple of years but my sense is there should be little cause for concern if we can still save >$20,000 a year. In the worst case scenario, it is possible to reduce our expenditure to $40,000 a year or even $30,000 a year.
Hi B, I believe it will be more credible for me to answer your question 🙂
Generally we are not scrimping on every cent that we spend, still dining out at restaurants, buying gift for friends and giving dinner treats to our family. But I would say we will think twice for big ticket items. Then agaIn, I also realised that when you are happy and contented with life, as we are now, there’s no need for retail therapy or splurging to destress. So all in all, I would say we are leading a comfortable life now.
Thanks both Mr and Mrs for the reply 🙂
I believe you guys are in a comfort zone due to your hardwork in the past few years so you guys totally work out and are able to afford a similar lifestyle even if savings are going to be lesser.
The reason why im asking is because im in a rather similar situation, perhaps more so for you guys in 2016. I look forward to having more tips and discussion from you guys especially on the savings on expenses part, where we are not the strongest here.
Hi B,
I think you and your Mrs are in a similar if not better situation?
Sometimes, it’s about taking the leap first and then see how it goes. It might come to a point where both of us have to go back to become typical employees. But at least we get a couple of years of break?
At the same time, I can also understand how working for a couple more years always give one more buffer. Especially with kids.
Just curious if you really experienced the goodness of Yummy House honey? I saw them before and appears really expensive as compared to regular honey.
Hi Anonymous,
The salesman was quite lucky to catch us during that “special week”.
I would say it does taste better than others that we have used before and if you buy in bulk (6 bottles or more), the price would be close to manuka honey sold at many other places.
Just curious – what kind of restaurants do you go to? From the looks of it, each pax is about $25 [$824/18]/2.
Cafes kind?
Hi dowz,
The restaurants we regularly frequent are mostly <$20 per pax like Din Tai Fund, Sushi Tei or Tim Ho Wan. The per pax cost seems quite high as sometimes, we would foot the entire bill when we dine out with my siblings or with my in-laws.
Hi Mr/Mrs 15hrww
These lifestyles and family finance are only possible when both of you have the wisdom to enjoy what truly matter and save on what truly doesn’t matter. It is very nice that both of you form a great team in managing your future and family finance. Happy for you.
By saying so, it doesn’t mean my family is doing the reverse. We are on the same shores. 🙂
Hi Frugal Daddy,
I think in terms of frugality, your team is probably heads and shoulders above us. :p