January 2016 Expenditures

New Year! New spending habits? Well it is the first month of the Year 2016 which by the way has just flown by, where does time go nowadays? I just remembered Christmas and then suddenly it is already Chinese New Year!

This is our third month of recording our expenditures and we are still discovering what is important to us as a family and how we should be frugal and prudent in our spending.

Hubby believes in eating well and doesn't mind spending good money on a good meal. I on the other hand sometimes hesitate. It is important to me to have good facial and beauty related products. I like and enjoy having a smooth and good complexion, well cut and coloured hair, massages and good make up products. One more thing that I realised about Hubby is that he will pay for convenience! Eg. Buying a bottle of mineral water vs packing a water bottle. (Unless I do it for him and make sure that he brings it along!)

After all, "being frugal and prudent isn't about deprivation or hardship, but about spending money only on what truly matters" (says Mrs Frugalwoods in her posting) So this next couple of months we are going through the process of finding out what truly matters to us. I am going to continue with my clothes buying ban. This is fairly easy, because I am now almost 40 weeks pregnant! I want to fit back into all my old clothes pre-pregnancy. But I have been able to put aside more savings and investments over the last 3 months and it feels really good! Hubby and I are in complete agreement that we need to be really careful with our expenditures and savings due to the general economy and some plans that we would like to see through this year. More on that soon!

Here is our January 2016 Expense Report. It was an expensive month for us in terms of eating out, car maintenance and fuel. I have also added parking and toll expenses from mine and Hubby's TouchnGo cards. I will look to include our household utilities which I will also be reporting on this year onwards to get a better picture of our spending and where we can save on. This February we are definitely going to look into reducing our mobile phone bills by possibly changing operators. We have been with Maxis for far too long (more than 10 years now) and they don't treat their existing loyal customers very well apart from being a part of their Maxis One Club. (Can you believe that hubby's phone data plan only has 500MB? He is currently paying extra for their wireless broadband package for 5 GB. Many years now and they didn't even bother to upgrade him) I on the other hand started with 2 GB and they recently upgraded me to 3GB. Anyway, Hubby's contract has expired and mine will be expiring sometime in July this year. We will port his number over first and then do mine when my contract expires.

Item/Vendor	Amount (RM)	Notes
Beauty	410.83	A Brazilian in preparation for Baby#2. No shaving! Dermalogica Essential Cleansing Solution (Pro Version) for my face.
Eating Out	1,678.00	Lots of time out with friends and family! Really didn’t scrimp here at all. CNY Yee Sang and just about anything we wanted! J
Car Maintenance	1,349.00	Hubby’s car was finally repaired from the accident but Honda returned it in a terrible condition and it was due for a service anyway.
Fuel	994.72	Hubby still driving me everywhere in case Baby #2 decides to make and appearance.
Parking & Toll (TouchnGo)	156.19	Hubby’s TouchnGO Auto Reload Card
Parking & Toll (TouchnGO)	25.82	We are paying for Hubby’s parents using my TouchnGO Auto Reload Card
Mobile Phone Bills	604.36	We are paying for my parents, hubby’s parents and our monthly mobile phone bills
Medical/Medicines	744.55	Hubby top up for cholesterol pills, in-laws meds and Baby #2 check-ups (2 times this month!)
Home Cleaning	330.00	Pre-paid 4X cleaning sessions and 2 grass cuts and clean ups for the garden
Home Maintenance	380.00	Cut the two tress in front of our house
Groceries	253.80	Didn’t cook at home at all! Mainly for CNY cookies, mandarin oranges and fruits.
Gifts	215.15	Bought stuff for Sue, Yiing’s baby gift and Cake for Jacq
Kids (Misc)	89.90	Two homeschooling talks and a pair of Big Hero 6 shoes for Chapati.
Clothes	30.00	My PBM #stepup50 t-shirt
Shopping	28.00	Indulgent Gourmet Chocolates from Love18 Cafe
Total	7,290.32

Gong Xi Fa Cai everybody! May the Year of the Fire Monkey bring prosperity, happiness, love, good health and lots of success! Hubby and I are waiting anxiously for the arrival of our little fire monkey!

Wish us well and a safe delivery for baby and I!