It has been quite a hectic month. I was kept busy with the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy and also spent a week overseas at a resort. This helps to explain why I have not been blogging much lately. With the June holidays here, I can finally catch a breather.

Since most of the expenses of the trip (resort stay & air tickets) were already accounted for half a year ago, we only spent an additional $400 on a day trip out snorkelling and on some other miscellaneous expenses like food.

Therefore, it’s not surprising that the expenses barely passed $3,000 for this month. The average expenses for the year has also moderated to about $3,500 and who knows, we could be on target to keep expenses within $42,000 this year instead.

Eating Out: $301.30

Hawker ($119.80) – Some simple fare at the food court and some occasional indulgences at Toast Box.

Fast Food ($23) – A meal at Burger Up and another one at Mac’s. The standard has dropped alot at Burger Up and I doubt we are going back anytime soon.

Restaurants ($158.50) – Just 3 entries this month as we cut down before and right after the trip. The daily buffet breakfasts at the resort was just too much. Just 3 entries here. One at St Regis for a semi-buffet, one at Miam Miam (50% discount) and another at Tampopo as we visited Liang Court.

You know you have to cut down when you come back because every meal is like that for 6 days

Groceries: $152.40

Supermarket ($77) – Most of the expenses were incurred at Mediya when we went to Liang Court. We bought some unagi at $18 for a huge portion (double what you get when you order a bento at a Jap restaurant) for next day’s lunch and some sashimi for late night supper. And of course, some instant noodles. 

It went pretty well with two packets of Jap instant noodles

Wet Market ($75.40) – Just 2 trips to the Kovan market since we didn’t want to have fresh produce in the fridge when we went overseas.

Beverages & Snacks: $15.60

We had an icecream treat at Andersen’s when they were having a 1 for 1 promotion and two cups of Koi Green Tea.

Utilities: $271.91

Electricity, Gas & Water ($168.81) – Electricity usage surged to about 536kWh for this month. 65KWh of gas and 8.4 Cu M of water meant the bill added up to $168.81. This is the highest bill we have received to date and is probably due to two months of high usage of electricity and gas. Let’s see if things moderate over the next few months.

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

Transport: $50

1 EZ Reload transaction for the Mrs.

Departmental: $165

Clothes ($165) – Uniqlo is having a GSS sale and I stocked up quite a few Polo Ts, T-shirts and bermudas.

Work: $94

Electronics ($94) – As the Mrs is taking in more and more students, we have to replace both the drum and the toners of our printer more often.

Others: $422

Movies ($22) – It’s been close to half a year since we visited the cinema. The weekday morning tickets with a popcorn package was well worth it for Infinity Wars.

Travel ($400) – All in (accom, air tickets, travel insurance & other expenses), we probably spent about $1,800 for a 6D5N stay at The Amatara Wellness Resort. It’s been about 7 years since we went for a beach/resort holiday and I would say we thoroughly enjoyed it. 

The view from the room. It’s great to ensure we get to chope our favourite spot.

Enjoying our Kindles by the pool interspersed with episodes of soaking in the water was truly relaxing. Otherwise, we would be eavesdropping on other couples and sussing out their nationalities (especially Asians). 

A picture of my back view in the pool. A must-have for every financial blogger worth his/her salt???

We have never stayed in a resort with better facilities and service. Aargh… I doubt we are willing to trade down for a similar holiday and the hedonic treadmill strikes again!Unlimited canapes and cocktails means I end up tipsy every night

Total: $1,472.21
Overall Total: $3,133.21 (included fixed expenses of $1,661)

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

Thanks for reading.