I never thought I would ever be interested to track my expenses closely, cos I tend to run on estimates.
But when I was introduced to the freegan community, I realized that at a certain point, tracking of expenses is necessary.
When you're trying to cut off $50 from a $500 budget, you really need to know where the money has gone.
Whereas if I'm trying to cut off $100 from a $1000 budget, all I need to do is to stay at home for 1 weekend.
The mentality is very different, cos when working with smaller numbers, the small numbers really count.
From my previous expense tracking, I came up with the following and classified what I deemed fixed costs. I travel with my wife on her business trips around once a month so I deem that as a fairly fixed cost.
Anyway...
My usual spending is usually $1,000 discretionary spending which is above what is deemed my fixed expenditure. So I was hoping to bring that down to $500 by cutting expenses by getting free stuff.
Food/Dining out came out to be $541
Groceries was under $2
Gifts came up to a whopping $316
Misc stuff was $24
Total $883 in cash/card purchases
Not to mention we spent ANOTHER $130 worth of vouchers on gifts. So gifts was actually $446.
So there was Christmas gifts for family and office colleagues, and my wife bought meals for a couple of colleagues who came over from overseas and stuff like that.
We still live in a society so some of these things are inevitable to maintain good relationships and networks.
I'm quite pleased with Food/Dining, cos this comprises our weekend meals, my wife's weekday lunches and even all our Special Christmas dining.
We spent an additional $90 dining voucher so the actual spend is $631.
In the above table, this used to be Food + Wife's lunch estimate + Food Court = $650.
Seems like not much change at first look, but you have to realize that Dec is a celebratory month for both our birthdays and Christmas dining, so we tend to eat out a little more than normal months. So for us to keep it constant is already a feat in itself.
Wife bought some new footwear at $24, which is the misc spending.
And the best expense reduction is in my Groceries which dropped to $2.
I got some free vegetables from Pasir Panjang and Little India.
I get excess food from my mum when I visit her on weekends, previously, I would just tell her to pass the leftovers to my sis, but, hey, that's good money I'm giving away.
I think about it this way... If my mum were to give away $100 and is willing to split between me and my sis, would I have asked my mum to give it all to my sis? No right? I would likely ask for half the amount.
Similarly, might as well I get some of the weekend leftovers since she's giving it away anyway.
Also, I "dabao" stuff which can't be finished at restaurants. Even if it's just fries and mashed potatoes. Especially if there is a gathering and there's food leftover, I'll ask for it. I mean, I don't grab it, it's pretty much, if someone else in the group wants it, then by all means they can take it, but if no one wants it then, might as well I get it. It's pretty much "money" on the table.
Ok, so where do I go from here.
I spent $883 in cash/card, and another $220 worth of vouchers.
Now, I'm not sure if I would have managed the expenses differently if I didn't have the vouchers. ie, If I needed to pay cash for gifts, I would likely have found other cheaper alternatives, or if I didn't have that $90 dining voucher, we might not have gone to that restaurant in the first place.
So I'm a bit split on how to look at my spending for this month...
But as you all know, I don't care about definitions, cos that's just not in the spirit of things. I'd rather focus on what I can do for my next month expenses.
I'm expecting expenses to be somewhat similar to the above... so I'll budget something like the below.
Food/Dining expected to be around $500
Groceries to be kept under $20
Gifts should drop to $0
Misc stuff I'll budget $50
Total $570 in cash/card purchases
Gifts should be down to zero.
I think keeping groceries at $2 is pretty unreasonable, so I think $20 would be a better estimate, but I'll try to keep it lower than that by getting stuff for free.
Misc stuff is pretty much any thing which might need replacement, so... it really depends on what happens within the month.
As for food and dining out, well, we still spend normally on weekends, but maybe we'll look for cheaper alternatives, I'll be happy to keep food and dining at $500 or so.
If I can hit the $570 budget then I think it would be a great achievement. And if I can do that for a couple of months then I'll likely drop the spending on one UOB ONE card.
Once again, I'll say, it's not about just cutting down expenses. It's also about maintaining some quality of life as well. So if it's too troublesome or if I end up not enjoying my meals or my activities, then I might as well not cut the expenses. For the past month, it was fun and my meals were still good so it's still ok. Let's see what happens next month to get a better sense of how things are turning out.
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