3 rules I follow to keep my expenses low 🤑💰

Budgeting is a huge part of my lifestyle and now that I’ve just started my first full-time role, I’m starting to save up for some of the big-ticket items I’m gonna be purchasing in the future!

To do so, I follow 3 general rules that have helped me keep my average monthly expenditure at or below $500. If you’re saving up like me, I hope these rules can serve as guidelines that help everyone control their spending a little more!

1. No Grabs/Taxis unnecessarily! 🙅🏻‍♀️🚘

I think it’s very common in this day and age for us to take advantage of the convenience that ride-share apps like Grab provides. You know that feeling when you wake up groggy in the morning and feel so sian to go to school/work that you decide to take a Grab just for an extra 15-20mins of sleep? We’ve all been there! But after tracking my expenses religiously, I realized that even if I were to do so only once a week, that would still add up to almost $150 in expenses per month!

Of course, there are some occasions where I give in to exceptions. For e.g, when my friends and I share a Grab and it comes up to like <$5 per pax or late nights out when public transport is no longer available. Although, I do still try to keep these instances to a minimum!

2. Avoid unnecessary spending during lunch breaks 🍱💸

As an office worker working in a hybrid-arrangement, I’m in office having lunch with my colleagues 3 times/week and I don’t always get to choose what we eat. This means that prices of my lunch across the week fluctuate, but what I can control is what I spend on during my lunch break.

Many of my peers usually have a main + a drink and sometimes even grab a snack to bring back to the office for later. I personally try as much as possible to only spend on 1 main at lunch! I’m pretty lucky to have a substantially-stocked pantry in my office that includes various biscuits, snacks, coffee and tea. Hence, I always have caffeine and snacks available if I’m feeling peckish!

These snacks and drinks may not be 100% aligned to my personal preferences (e.g 3-in-1 coffee vs my fav Kopi C Peng Siew Dai), but it’s more than enough to get by and it helps me save a lot of 💵 overtime.

3. I only indulge in “affordable luxuries” when discounts are available 🛍️👟🧋

I came across the term “affordable luxuries” somewhere on Lemon8 but I didn’t save the post :-( Hence, my personal definition of “affordable luxuries” are items like bubble tea, clothes/shoes that I don’t immediately need, skincare/make up that I’m itching to try but is not urgent/necessary.

While I find it almost impossible to close myself off completely to these affordable luxuries, I do let myself indulge when I’m able to get them at a discounted rate. For e.g when bubble tea shops run 1-for-1 promos, or if a blogshop I like is having a warehouse sale! This not only helps me to stretch my dollar, it also gives me a sense of satisfaction when I find a good deal, such as bubble teas for less than $3 in town !

At the same time, it’s easy to overdo this because you may end up spending MORE if you’re always spending whenever a promotion is available. So it’s important to set your personal expenditure limits as well!

All in all, I mostly follow these rules so that I can also save for other large expenses in the near future. These include concert tickets, overseas travel, birthday/anniversary gifts, celebratory meals etc.

After all, I’m still trying to find my footing in the world of adulting and I hope this post has helped you a little with that too! 🥰

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