April is my birthday month. In fact, I just celebrated my birthday less than a week ago. However, instead of splashing out on a meal, we kept it relatively simple this time round.

A $50 dinner, a few slices of pandan chiffon and a free ice cream sundae from Swenson’s.

This is the first time we didn’t order anything to go along with the free treat. So one more image below for you, Swenson!

It was my preferred option since we had already spent quite a bit dining out this month, falling victim to birthday month promotions at places like Sushi Tei & Canton Paradise.

However, because somehow there wasn’t any big miscellaneous expenses, we still managed to keep the month’s expenses to $3,250.

With that, the average monthly expense for this year has dropped to a very reasonable $3,668. Maybe, just maybe, we can maintain this ballpark figure till the end of the year.

Eating Out: $819.80

Hawker ($140) – The Mrs needs respite from either my “tasteless” chicken breast or the cleaning up after her cooking (pan-frying makes the floor oily). And of course, some much needed variety other than home cooked food. 15 entries this month, mainly at the food court.

Fast Food ($13) – Just one Mac meal! Nowadays, we only have Mac’s at Punggol SAFRA since we get a complimentary Sundae with every Extra Value Meal!

Restaurants ($666.80) – We pigged out this month. We had lamb chops twice at Swenson’s when they had a 1 for 1 lunch promotion. We also dined out twice at Sushi Tei and Canton Paradise since there was a 20% discount during my birthday month.

$23 for two sets of this is pretty worth it in my opinion

There were also visits to Aston for a buffet at Marina Square and we had a good meal at TWG Marina Bay Sands on my birthday.

Groceries: $297

Supermarket ($196) – This is bumped up by a visit to Watson’s and Unity respectively and we bought durians from NTUC Fairprice!

Wet Market ($101) – Just 3 trips to the Kovan market as we ate out more often. It’s also cheaper as we are forgoing halibut from our steamed meals.

This is where we get our weekly supply of vegetables and white corns! The white corns are incredibly sweet and can even be eaten raw!

Beverages & Snacks: $39.80

I am not a big fan of cream so my go-to cake is Bengawan Solo’s Pandan Chiffon. Even if it is ridiculously priced as compared to its competitors.

Utilities: $141.52

Electricity, Gas & Water ($38.42) – Electricity usage was about 292kWh for this month. 41KWh of gas and 7.7 Cu M of water meant the bill added up to $103.42. The GST voucher helped to offset $65 of the bill.

I reckon that those living in 3-room flats could have up to half their utilities subsidised

Cellphones ($103.10) – $51.55 each. Both our plans comes with upsized data to 7GB.

Transport: $50

1 EZ Reload transaction for me.

Departmental: $183

Clothes ($183) – Some purchases at Royal Sporting House when they ran a sale and the Mrs bought a new pillow.

Work: $60

Books and Notes ($60) – Some books purchased at Popular and some soft copy past year papers.

Total: $1,591.12
Overall Total: $3,252.12 (included fixed expenses of $1,661)

“Those who attend to small expenses are always rich” – John Adams

Thanks for reading.