Myn’s Deets: Q1 2016 Expenses round-up

Some quick Wally observations for the first three months (Jan-Mar) of the year:

• Food & Drink is by far the bulk of my expenses – 56%.
• In that segment, roughly $200 a month is on lunch (which is about the same as last year)
• Caffeine addition is kinda out of control; I’ve spent an average of $92.18 per month on coffee – which is almost one cup a day… Oops.
• On average, I’ve spent $15 per month on my phone -YEAY! I topped up $100 of prepaid phone credit on the 3rd of January, and I still have a balance of $49.90 left, plus $3.18 worth of bonus, so that means I’ve only spent $50 in total heheh. I’m still on Easi and with $100 top-up, you get a bonus of $32 which can be spent on calls, texts, and data. When my bonus is running low, I sign up for the DST MBB (mobile broadband) plans. In January I spent $10 on 1gb for 30 days, and in Feb and March  I bumped that up to $20 for 3gb for 30 days. Anyone else want to ask me why I haven’t signed up for Prima post-paid yet (which is $35 per month for the cheapest plan)? Didn’t think so!
• A total of $60 on my fuzzy little buddies- that’s two rabbits and a guinea pig – which is roughly $20 per month on my pets. They haven’t had any vet visits, so that’s just food and hay. And Petlink still hasn’t restocked litter (paper and wood pellets) so my stockpile at home is dwindling fast and needs to be replenished soon -_-
• $60 renewing my passport.
• So far, 25% of my expenses has been the Misc (gift box) category – which is basically “money that went to others” (gifts, sedekah, lanja, charity). In terms of percentage of total expenses, this is a bigger chunk than expected but the actual cash value is quite close to my 2015 average. Took my family out to eat (and this is a table of almost fifteen people), chipped in for a parent’s holiday flight ticket, our domestic helper went home for a month so she got a small bonus, etc.
• I haven’t gone shopping at all yet this year, woah. I spent $49 on Bare Minerals powder (make-up) but that’s literally it. This incredible feat is mainly due to the fact that I haven’t traveled this quarter, nor have I felt the need to do any online shopping. I anticipate some shopping in the next few months though; I’m planning a short trip potentially in May and chances are I’ll have some time to shop.

Click here for my full 2015 expenses report.

All in all, my average monthly expenses (total spent/no. of months) have still sort of stayed on track. But on a year-over-year basis, I spent much more between January-March 2015 mainly because I was in Bangkok this time last year. So if I did plot a graph of expenses across all months for 2015, I spent quite a bit in the early part of the year and then it drops and flattens out in the middle, before spiking upwards again around August (when I had my big Eurotrip).

For 2016 it’s been pretty steady and monotonous so far… But then again I haven’t traveled or gone shopping yet 😛

And if you’re wondering, yes I have also been

1. Saving a chunk of my income
2. Paying off debts – I have a credit card which I clear in full prior to the end of every month so I’ve literally never incurred an interest payment (and hopefully never have to)
3. Spending less than I earn – when I go off on big holidays I sometimes do spend more than I make in that month; but as a guideline your annual expenses should never exceed your annual income. Or to be safe, you can even track it on a quarterly (3 months) or half-yearly (6 months) basis; that’s up to you. But if you blow through six months worth of salary in the first three months of the year, that’s definitely not a good start.