My expenses for March is extremely high and it is kinda depressing @_@" The bulk of it is either for Vacation or Wedding which is fine but I made a stupid mistake that cost us $200! [Update: I have successfully gotten a refund!]
Current Profile: 28 years old male planning to get married this year and is still living with his parents
Let me recompute the expenses (Vacation and Wedding) from our mutual fund (KPO Expense Fund), you can read more about how we manage our finances here. Technically, the expenses for March should be $6,058.76 - (($333.40 + $237.32 + $1070 + $139.9) / 2) = $5,168.45. [Update: I have successfully gotten a refund! $5,168.45 - $118.66 = $5,049.79]
Vacation
I blogged about how we use miles to redeem one-way SIA Suites air tickets to the United States, New York previously - Redeeming KrisFlyer Miles for Singapore Airlines Suites = 38.6% Cashback! We booked an Alaska Airlines flight from New York to San Fransico for US$246.62 (SG$333.40).
Singapore Citizens visiting the United States are eligible for the Visa Waiver Program but would still be required to apply for authorization through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) which cost US$14 if you apply through the legitimate site - https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/. I am always pretty careful but not sure what happened that day, I went to this site - http://www.esta.us/singapore.html and was eventually redirected to https://www.evisaonline.com/en/usa/esta.html which cost us US$88 instead (SG$237.32). I only came to realize it now while blogging about it. Zzz. [Update: I have successfully gotten a refund! Due to the difference in FX, the refunded amount is SG$240.54. lol.]
CZM and her family have this Travel Fund where they will contribute on a daily basis - working adult contributes $2 per day while the student contributes $1 per day. I thought this is a pretty interesting idea/way of managing money too. Long story short, they have been saving for 4/5 years with the goal of traveling to New Zealand. CZM asked me to tag along to enjoy the economy of scale as there will be no additional cost for things such as car rental and accommodation. A 2 weeks New Zealand vacation for $2,800 (all expenses included) seems like a pretty good deal?
Parents
I previously blogged about my promotion and increment - Salary - You Are Your Best Investment and it was only effective from February so I gave my parents more allowance as well.
Food
My food expenses are exceptionally low because I stay with my parents! Most of it is incurred when I am out with CZM.
Health
Technically, this is not a real expense (100% covered by company's insurance/benefits) but I decided to include it to keep the expenses tracking more realistic. CZM and I go to the dental every 6 months for cleaning/scaling. During the last visit, the dentist asked if I have been brushing my teeth too hard because I have receding gum. After that, I went to google about it and 1 of the cause is aging. Hmm...
Insurance
This is a fixed monthly cost for the basic coverage - term life and hospitalization.
Me
The $69.97 is the installment for Surface Pro which I got about 2 years back. One of my hobbies is money/notes collection and I expense it off because I kept some nice notes which I received during CNY. The hobby started when my dad gave me his collection which included a $50 orchid series note!
Transportation
I would always pay for CZM's cab ride home during night time since I am too lazy to send her home. That was one of our agreement. lol.
Public transportation seems a lot lower because of 2 reasons:
1. I am no longer using EZ Link Auto-Reload. Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) is a much better choice as you pay what you use instead of triggering top up where the money is stored in the EZ Link card. The best part is miles can be earned too (using UOB PRVI Mastercard)!
2. $0.50 Discount for commuters who enter stations before 7.45am on weekdays.
Other
Went to a temple and donated.
Treat
Nothing worth mentioning.
Gambling
There was the $8 million ToTo draw. Shared $10 with CZM and the rest with colleagues. The fastest way to retire did not materialize. lol.
Entertainment
Watched Black Panther + popcorn.
Summary
January 2018 - $2,256.43
February 2018 - $1,759.01
March 2018 - $5,049.79
Total expenses for 2018: $9,065.23
Average expenses per month for 2018: $3,021.74
Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right -->)
Current Profile: 28 years old male planning to get married this year and is still living with his parents
Let me recompute the expenses (Vacation and Wedding) from our mutual fund (KPO Expense Fund), you can read more about how we manage our finances here. Technically, the expenses for March should be $6,058.76 - (($333.40 + $237.32 + $1070 + $139.9) / 2) = $5,168.45. [Update: I have successfully gotten a refund! $5,168.45 - $118.66 = $5,049.79]
I blogged about how we use miles to redeem one-way SIA Suites air tickets to the United States, New York previously - Redeeming KrisFlyer Miles for Singapore Airlines Suites = 38.6% Cashback! We booked an Alaska Airlines flight from New York to San Fransico for US$246.62 (SG$333.40).
Singapore Citizens visiting the United States are eligible for the Visa Waiver Program but would still be required to apply for authorization through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) which cost US$14 if you apply through the legitimate site - https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/. I am always pretty careful but not sure what happened that day, I went to this site - http://www.esta.us/singapore.html and was eventually redirected to https://www.evisaonline.com/en/usa/esta.html which cost us US$88 instead (SG$237.32). I only came to realize it now while blogging about it. Zzz. [Update: I have successfully gotten a refund! Due to the difference in FX, the refunded amount is SG$240.54. lol.]
CZM and her family have this Travel Fund where they will contribute on a daily basis - working adult contributes $2 per day while the student contributes $1 per day. I thought this is a pretty interesting idea/way of managing money too. Long story short, they have been saving for 4/5 years with the goal of traveling to New Zealand. CZM asked me to tag along to enjoy the economy of scale as there will be no additional cost for things such as car rental and accommodation. A 2 weeks New Zealand vacation for $2,800 (all expenses included) seems like a pretty good deal?
Wedding
We paid the second deposit to the bridal shop, Rico-A-Mona after selecting the suits and gowns for both the prewedding and actual day and bought some random stuff/props for the pre-wedding photoshoot.
We paid the second deposit to the bridal shop, Rico-A-Mona after selecting the suits and gowns for both the prewedding and actual day and bought some random stuff/props for the pre-wedding photoshoot.
I previously blogged about my promotion and increment - Salary - You Are Your Best Investment and it was only effective from February so I gave my parents more allowance as well.
Food
My food expenses are exceptionally low because I stay with my parents! Most of it is incurred when I am out with CZM.
Health
Technically, this is not a real expense (100% covered by company's insurance/benefits) but I decided to include it to keep the expenses tracking more realistic. CZM and I go to the dental every 6 months for cleaning/scaling. During the last visit, the dentist asked if I have been brushing my teeth too hard because I have receding gum. After that, I went to google about it and 1 of the cause is aging. Hmm...
Insurance
This is a fixed monthly cost for the basic coverage - term life and hospitalization.
Me
The $69.97 is the installment for Surface Pro which I got about 2 years back. One of my hobbies is money/notes collection and I expense it off because I kept some nice notes which I received during CNY. The hobby started when my dad gave me his collection which included a $50 orchid series note!
Transportation
I would always pay for CZM's cab ride home during night time since I am too lazy to send her home. That was one of our agreement. lol.
Public transportation seems a lot lower because of 2 reasons:
1. I am no longer using EZ Link Auto-Reload. Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) is a much better choice as you pay what you use instead of triggering top up where the money is stored in the EZ Link card. The best part is miles can be earned too (using UOB PRVI Mastercard)!
2. $0.50 Discount for commuters who enter stations before 7.45am on weekdays.
Other
Went to a temple and donated.
Treat
Nothing worth mentioning.
Gambling
There was the $8 million ToTo draw. Shared $10 with CZM and the rest with colleagues. The fastest way to retire did not materialize. lol.
Entertainment
Watched Black Panther + popcorn.
Summary
January 2018 - $2,256.43
February 2018 - $1,759.01
March 2018 - $5,049.79
Total expenses for 2018: $9,065.23
Average expenses per month for 2018: $3,021.74
Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right -->)
Hi KPO,
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, I have this same habit of collecting nice notes I chance upon too.
From paper notes.. to notes with beautiful number. I’d use to see it once every fortnight or sometimes even more frequently.
Similarly, I discount them off in my expenses app as well. On some occassion it’s huge when I see a beautiful piece of $100 note with pretty numbers.
This is when my expenses for the ‘me’ section balloon up.. LOL.
I’m shock to see that after sometime of doing so, the amount actually stashed up to over 1K SGD.
Crap!! I guess that’s my emergency-emergency funds??!
Maybe after my emergency funds is depleted. I have this 2nd emergency funds that I probably forgotten about and can rely on?! Haha
Hahaha. That's interesting! I used to look at it more often, now almost never take them out. Every time when I go overseas, I will always try to keep notes of different denomination (good condition) and bring them back too.
DeleteCZM has the same hobby too. I believe our emergency-emergency funds could be a few thousands >.<
if you have not gone to US yet, you can ask for a refund for the ESTA (USD88). I did that before. Not sure if the conditions had changed. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteHi Adarina,
DeleteThanks for sharing your experience. I emailed them to ask for a refund yesterday and it seems that they have proceeded with it.
It was stated on their site that they do full refund within 30 days. Will be monitoring closely!