let’s talk about 💵: internship allowance

Hello Zesties 🍋! Today’s post is going to be my #RealTalk on how I budgeted and spent my summer internship allowance. Full disclosure, my internship allowance was $1000 per month and the entire amount was credited into my bank account because it was ALLOWANCE, NOT SALARY so there was no CPF contribution 🥲.

I interned from May to August 2023, I will be sharing my expenses in July because I had unexpected cash outflow that would otherwise not be present as I fell sick 🤒. I think it reflects reality better, and demonstrates the importance of budgeting and savings as opposed to my other smooth-sailing months.

For simplicity’s sake, I budgeted based on 20 working days every month. I did not budget for transport, my phone bill and subscription fees as these are considered fixed to me as I will be incurring and accounting for them no matter how much I earned. While food is a necessary spending, I had the choice to decide what to eat and hence I budgeted. Personal care and shopping was budgeted as well.

🚌🚉 TRANSPORT

💸 actual: $70 / 7%

Transport fee means EZ-Link card top ups for me because I take public transport to commute to and from work. This was a necessary cash outflow for me because I had to travel to and from work as I WFO throughout my internship. Hence, I did not have a budget for my EZ-Link card top ups, I top up whenever my balance is low. Transport fee that will be incurred during leisure commute i.e. when I go out on weekends is negligible because I know I wouldn’t go out that much as I will mostly be resting at home.

* I do set aside $28 / 2.8% for one Grab or Gojek trip per month that will come from my savings pool if need be, if I wake up late. But luckily I did not have to use it throughout my 10 week internship HAHA.

📱 PHONE BILL + SUBSCRIPTIONS

💸 actual: $59.54 / 5.95%

I pay for these even on the months that I am not working so there’s no budget for this category because it is a fixed amount of money outflow per month. I did not add new subscriptions throughout my internship and in fact for the past two years because I simply did not need any.

* But of course not all of my subscriptions are absolutely necessary as though I can’t live if I don’t have them - like Spotify premium and Netflix, so if I was on a tight budget I would have cut these 2 entertainment subscriptions out.

🍚 FOOD & DRINKS (LUNCH) + OUTSIDE FOOD

💰 budgeted: $150 / 15%

💸 actual: $128.55 / 12.86%

Food at the coffeeshop near my workplace ranges from $3.70 to $7+ but I usually buy the $5.50 noodles or $5.70 pineapple fried rice so that’ll be around $110 to $114 over 20 days. I just gave a $150 budget to myself to account for going out with my friends on weekends.

✨ PERSONAL CARE

💰 budgeted: $200 / 20%

💸 actual: $340.50 / 34.1%

I think I cared for myself a little too much in July but no regrets!

🛍️ SHOPPING

💰 budgeted: $50 / 5%

💸 actual: $45.75 / 4.58%

Shopping includes shopping for my own wants alongside birthday gifts or red packet for family or friends during their birthdays.

👨🏻‍⚕️ UNEXPECTED CASH OUTFLOW: MEDICAL

💰 budgeted: 0

💸 actual: $83.40 / 8.34%

*Medical fees refers to money spent on GP or dental visits. My parents have bought hospitalisation insurance for me. The rest of the out of pocket fees will be paid for using their CPF. This is not financial advice but I think hospitalisation insurance is important to purchase.

I did not budget for any medical fees because I fall sick around once a year or a year and a half. I had to see my GP for throat inflammation and get antibiotics. I also bought extra lozenges and herbal tea to soothe my throat 😷.

🏦 SAVINGS

💰 budgeted: $470.46 / 47.05%

💸 actual: $272.26 / 27.22%

Whatever amount I have left at the end of the month will go into my savings account! Since I spent $727.74 in July, I saved $272.26.

All in all, although I blew my budget in a few categories, $1000 was sufficient for me to get through the months I interned and I had savings at the end of every month. I am grateful towards my parents because thanks to them, I have a home 🏠 and can enjoy home cooked food 🍚 so I save money on housing, breakfast and dinner. I gave my parents and younger brother a small red packet from my first month’s (May) internship pay as a form of gratitude because it’s our tradition to give a small red packet 🧧 to family members with the money from our job’s first month salary hehe 🥰.

Looking back, I wished I took out $50 to $100 to invest monthly though, but oh well I did not know much back then and did not want to risk anything before educating myself 🤓. If you know your investments you can possibly try to set aside a sum that you are comfortable to invest while you are young to harness the power of compounding 💰💰.

That’s all from me! I hope you managed to takeaway something useful from my post and gained some inspiration on how to budget your internship allowance ☺️. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions or comments!

#MyLemon8Diary #Adulting101 #HolidayChallenge #internship #studentlife