With Singles Day & Black Friday shopping plus a vacation to account for, it’s not surprising for us to have spent more than $6,000 this month. But well, this is somewhat expected as we haven’t really held back in our spending recently.
Besides busting the year’s budget, it also appears that it’s impossible to keep within $50,000 for 2017 too. And I reckon a better estimate of our average expenditure is now $4,500 rather than $4,000.
That’s a significant increase but we can easily live with that going forward. In fact, some increases in expenses is pretty much inevitable since we are already coasting to FI.
Eating Out: $553.60
Hawker ($75.20) – Only 9 entries since there was a week we weren’t in town. And we spent an average of $8 each time.
Fast Food ($13) – 1 Mac meal each at SAFRA Punggol where we get to enjoy a complimentary Sundae each when we order a meal.
Restaurants ($465.40) – 11 entries and we spent about $40 for each visit. Quite a few gatherings and meet-ups as we wind down for the year.
Groceries: $132.40
Supermarket ($25.30) – Quite unexpectedly, we just made one trip to the supermarket this month.
Wet Market ($107.10) – 3 trips to the Kovan market for chicken, fish and vegetables.
Beverages & Snacks: $71.70
Snacks ($64.30) – We pigged out a little bit on Bing Su, Gelare and other desserts this month.
Beverages ($7.40) – Some sugar cane and a couple of hot beverages at Toast Box.
Utilities: $227.99
Electricity, Gas & Water ($120.79) – Electricity usage was about 389kWh for this month. 39KWh of gas and 8.1 Cu M of water meant the bill added up to $120.79.
Cellphones ($107.20) – $61.55 for me and $45.65 for the Mrs for our mobile services. Mine comes with upsized data to 7GB and for this month, I subscribed to M1 Data Passport.
Transport: $50
1 EZ Reload transaction for me.
Departmental: $586
Clothes ($166) – The Mrs bought a pair of Keds and I got a pair of brown leather shoes., along with some clothes from Padini & Uniqlo.
Personal Items ($360) – We bought a new set of Sheridan bedsheet and a Tan Yu pot from Tangs during the Black Friday weekend.
Books & Stationery ($60) – Two Moleskine weekly planners for next year.
Miscellaneous: $2,870
Gifts ($370) – A wedding lunch and some X’mas gifts
Travel ($2,500) – Excluding the air tickets which we had paid a few months ago, we spent roughly this amount on accommodation, food and shopping during our recent trip to Taipei.
Total: $4,491.69
Overall Total: $6,152.69 (included fixed expenses of $1,661)
Nice way to keep track of the expenses. Do you use an app or good old Excel?
Hi chrysalis,
I use an app on my iPhone.
Woah!!! It really seems that when you are happy with your job, you don’t think too much about spending, cos you can now slowly accumulate and spend a bit more to make yourself happy, cos you don’t mind working for a longer period instead.
The more relaxed method which is definitely better. Cos it’s a long journey and to enjoy the journey is important.