This will be my first post of Tracking My Expenditure series. For this series, I will be tracking my monthly expenditure and record them here. The reason for doing this is for personal record and for me to better understand where my money goes every month. I hope by me sharing my expenditure, it will motivate you to do the same and start tracking your own expenditure.
Previously, at the end of each month, I always wondered where my money has gone. Do you experience the same thing? That’s why I’ve decided to track my expenses starting from July 2020. Hopefully, I will be more aware of where my money goes every month and like the quote from John Adams, makes me rich. =)
Those who attend to small expenses are always rich.
John Adams (1780)
With that, let’s start our MELEPAK session and track my expenses for July 2020.
My July 2020 Expenses
Let’s just get to the point and start with how much I spent for the month of July 2020. Well, in total, I spent $3360.05. The breakdown for what I spent on in the image below:
It is an interesting exercise tracking every single cent of my money for the month. This is the first time I really track my expenses and I must say it is a fun exercise that I would recommend to everyone.
Currently, I am using the Seedly Expense Tracker app. It is easy to use and have a minimalist interface. I like it a lot BUT there is no way to extract the report at the end of the month. The image you seen above is edited by yours truly from multiple screenshots from the app.
What Did I Spent The Most On?
So in July, what did I use $3300 on? From the chart above, you will noticed that my top 3 biggest category is Family, Insurance and Kids in that particular order. So let me explained a little what these categories are.
Family
This easily made up the biggest chunk of my expenditure every month. This is me being a dutiful son and loving husband. =p It is basically ‘allowance’ money for both my parents and wife. $500 for my mum, $300 for my dad and $124.53 for my wife.
Both my parents are retired, well not really. More like semi-retired? But still, I help out by giving them some ‘allowance’ every month. They are still paying off their home mortgage loan so the amount that I gave, plus from the rest of my siblings, helps to pay off the loan and then some for their daily expenditure.
For my darling wife, Kay. Well she is working and helps out in our monthly household (alhamdulillah, thank you love!) but I still gives her monthly sum of $124.53. I am sure you are wondering why the weird number. Well, I believe she doesn’t really need the money as she is earning well too so I figured I give her a sum that is significant. So $124.53 is just my way of saying 1 2ove 4ou 5o 3uch!!!
Investments
For my monthly expenditure, the investment component is actually my GE Great Wealth Advantage plan that I signed up late last year. Although I paid a lump sum for this investment, I charged it to my OCBC card interest free. So each month, I’ve to pay $830.50.
This is not my only investment each month as I do set aside a sum for my stock investment.
Kids
The 3rd biggest component for my monthly expenses is for my kids. For the month of July, half of the $800 spent was for our pregnancy check up. Yes, we are expecting a 2nd boy at the end of the year!! (Pregnancy is not cheap) The other half is Dom’s swimming lesson fee for the next term. You can read all about Dom’s enrichment classes in this post.
So that is the 3 biggest category that I spent my money for the month of July. Other than this 3, the rest are still reasonable. With us selling our HDB resale flat and staying with my in-laws, my food expenditure drops significantly to around $200.
Anything I Need To Improve For Next Month?
Based on my July 2020 expenditure, there are nothing that I should be concern with that needs drastic improvement. However, as a goal for August 2020, I will try to reduce the whole expenditure to lesser than $3000. I strongly feel it is possible as there won’t be any swimming lesson fees for August as it is being paid for. On top of that, the pregnancy check up should be lesser as there is lesser test for August.
So let’s see if I can stay within my budget of $3000 for the month of August 2020.
Join Me In This Expense Tracking Journey?
Honestly, I find this exercise of tracking all my expenditure therapeutic. Sounds crazy right? But it really is. So I am challenging everyone that is reading this to join me in this journey. Go to your app store and install any tracker app and start tracking. In a month time, do share with me via comment section how it is going.
Alright guys. Thank you if you are still here at this point. I appreciate you and always wants to know what are your thoughts and opinion. Do send some love by sharing this post and comment below. With that, that’s the end of our MELEPAK session. Take care and happy tracking.
