No Spend September – Week 1
Week 1: Sept 1-7, 2010
Budget: RM105 = RM15/day
Actual: RM105.85
Let me start my No Spend September (NSS) updates with my epic fail of the week.
A McValue meal comes at the lovely price tag of RM12 something. I’m gonna round it off at RM13. And then I ordered the Groovy Lime Sunday, which bumped up the price tag to about RM17. To add to the irony, this was at 11.00pm on a day when I managed not to spend a cent.
Regardless, I spent much less than I usually do in a week and that alone is an accomplishment. I did fairly all right most of the time, being able to keep my spending limited to around RM15. I had days where I went over by a few bucks, but I compensate by spending less the next day.
Knowing that I have a daily budget of RM15 didn’t really make me want to spend less. It made me think about what I’d rather be spending it on. Will it be a fancy RM4 drink or Chinese tea at RM1? (Getting mineral water is often more expensive.) A cheap meal and snacks later, or no snacks after a meal I’ll really enjoy?
How did I spend my free time? There’s mostly a lot of my usual computer time and a lot more reading than usual. But I’m actually getting bored of reading. In the coming week, I’m gonna try to balance the reading with some creative writing.
There are a number of purchases I could have done without but even with that, I only went over my week’s budget by 85 sen. I’m mean, WHO’S COUNTING A COUPLE OF SENS, RIGHT? NOT ME.
I was gonna say “Hopefully I’ll do better next week” but I know I already committed my epic fail for Week 2. Possibly for the whole month.
No Spend September
Coming across No Spend Month over at Small Notebook was timely. I thought I was doing pretty well getting my spending and saving under control but I fell off the wagon big time the last couple of months.
I’m going to Hanoi and KL in October, and I’m still paying off my credit card bills from the last KL trip. Very bad!
I managed to put away a small amount of spending money for Hanoi and briefly considered throwing it at my credit cards to make the debt go away. But I decided that what I saved should simply not be touched for any other reason.
But for now, I have two salaries to go before I go on holiday, and a fairly decent chance of killing off those bills first.
So September onwards, I’m limited to the essentials only, so I expected to spend a lot of time alone at home with my past spending sins to keep me company.
You might have noticed that I’ve not included family in this project. I live with my parents, so I don’t have to worry about rent, utility bills and such. And my parents are already pretty damn good at being frugal. I just have to look out for myself.
That’s my objective. Here are the details.
Budget:
RM450, or RM15 a day.
Which includes:
- Eating out, which is impossible to avoid completely because of work.
- Entertainment, which I’m really good at thoughtlessly doing.
- Groceries & household items
Does not include:
- Bills
- Savings
- Insurance
- Work expenses, which includes petrol
- Health/Fitness expenses
Absolutely not buying:
- Books or magazines
- Clothes
There we go. I’ll update as I go along.
Updates:
