every dollar matters

in case if you are wondering how i manage my finance, probably this would help you too.
i'm not telling you what you should do, but i'll let you know things i always did.

record my expenses

every dollar matters.
i always note down my expenses, whether it's a five dollars meal,  or two dollars snacks, everything. there was a point of time where i thought "it's only two dollars, i don't think it's that significant." and thus i didn't record it. by the end of the year, i always do a check to my actual cash in bank and reconcile it with cash as per my expenses record.
it doesn't tally by a thousand and i don't know where it goes.

before i'm using smart phone, i have a book to record my expenses.
while some expenses come with receipts, most of my daily needs are not, and o forgot to record it at the end of the day.

now that i have my iphone, i downloaded an app to track stuffs i bought, and it helps me to record the moment i made my purchase.

i have my monthly income and expenses, stating whether i'm in deficit or surplus on that particular month, as well as personal balance sheet items that i reconcile at year end.
i might be one of the extreme, and yes, this is what i did.


set a budget and live on it 

i noticed by setting a budget to my expenses makes my finance more stable.
once i receive my paycheck, i transfer it to another savings account and won't withdraw any from it (unless for urgent expenses or investment opportunity arises).

what's left is for my living expenses.

i'm not a mega rich person, but i like being a stress free and not having to worry how to pay next month rent in case i over spent for current month.

everything is well budgeted, and it has some money left for buffer in case of overspending.


increase my income / lower down my expenses

we all know that income - expenses = savings.

most of us who work a 9 to 6 job make a living from paycheck to paycheck.
no worries, me too.
i don't have time to focus on other business here, so i try to circulate my savings here and there to generate few more extra dollars.

i won't touch about it much, so let's move on to how to lower down the expenses.

now that i can track my expenses accurately, i can focus on sorting out items between "want" and "need".

needs would be: monthly phone charges, utilities, rent, foods, clothings, some miscellaneous expenses for gifts, etc.

let's talk about foods here, it's kind of tricky part.

i used to go dine out a fancy meal, and spend 70 SGD for a single meal on weekend.
now? no more.
i realised that food is one of many needs that you can control how much you want to spend for it. the exact need would be "to satisfy my hunger" and it does not have to be that fancy.
it could be a 3 SGD chicken rice from hawker centre, or 9 SGD bak kut teh from a local restaurant.

now that i cooked my own meals to office, i can save even more!
my average cost per meal does not exceed 2 SGD, and it's way healthier than getting my lunch outside.

of course there are times where i want to eat at fancy restaurant, and this brings me to my next point.

be that coupons whore

there are many ways to fulfill my needs.

as i mentioned above, i have the options to satisfy my hunger by having a humble meal, or fancy one. how if i want a fancy meal but don't want to spend that much?

try to adopt "kiasu" mentality and subscribe for restaurant newsletter for coupons, and use credit cards for promotions. be a "kepo" person and do researches on groupon, entertainer app, eatigo, money digest, SG promotions, or any other platform that can increase the value of money.

when  it comes to promotions and discounts, it applies to everything.
clothing, foods, goods, flight tickets, anything.

knowing what you need is good, and knowing where to get it makes it great.

saving for  next holiday