Expenses - June 2019

For the last few months (since June), I stopped blogging about our expenses because there were just too many things ongoing - our house was doing renovation with a few hiccups, CZM deciding to do a semi-retirement (it ended after 1 month. lol.), I was looking out externally and went for a few interviews (decided to stay on now - shall blog about this another time), visited and returned from Canada/USA (yet to blog about this too) and planning for our RTW (Singapore - Mexico - Peru - Bolivia - Brazil - Switzerland - Singapore) which is happening next month.

Anyway, I should not be procrastinating too much before the year ends and finally took some time and tabulated the expenses for the last few months as well as our annual expenses. You will soon understand why we barely buy/invest this year.

Current Profile: 29 years couple who got married last year but are still staying separately with our own parents while waiting for the renovation of our BTO to be completed.

Our total expenses were $14,035.27! The breakdown would be as follows:

KPO Expense Fund (our common fund): $9,129.03

KPO: $2,421.26

CZM: $2,484.98

House

House will be our biggest expenses for the next few months. We made the first 10% downpayment for our renovation and you can read more about it here - Renovation Cost for Our New House.

We have started paying for our mortgage/housing loan. The loan amount is about $380k, amortized across 25 years will mean we need to pay $861 each. We are paying this using our CPF OA. Why are we not using cash? Long story short, we are generating higher returns with our cash. You can read about our strategy here - Chiong Housing Loan or Take It Slow?

Vacation

Vacation is still one of our biggest expenses. Most of it would be for the upcoming Canada vacation. The increase in other subcategories is because we went to KL for a few days and I just got reminded that CZM owes me another travel post. lol.

Parents
$1,360 - This is the total amount we are giving to our parents as allowance.

Darling/CZM
$484.51 - 3 x Lancome Advanced Génifique Serum bought from Duty Free (forgot the size)

$200 - CZM signed up for some massage/facial thingy.

$64.04 - Watson

Food
$473.98 - Our combined food expenses are still on the low side because we are still staying with our parents and I usually skip lunch.

Treat
$339.95 - Treated family, friends and colleagues to food/drinks. I can't really remember what's the special occasion but I had a Chope reservation at New Ubin. Guess that's where the majority went to.

Credit Card
$241.57 - Paid annual fee for Citi Premier Miles to get 10k miles and some processing fees for the transfer of miles.

Insurance
$189.00 - This is a fixed monthly cost for the basic coverage - $1 million term life ($71), Early Cancer Care - 150k ($64) and hospitalization ($53).

Transportation
$110.28 - Our EZ Link/Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) for the month. Read about this Samsung Pay x SimplyGo x Visa Hack if you are a Samsung mobile phone user.

$56.4 - Cab

Gift
$138.00 - Wedding red packet for a colleague at JB Pekin Restoran (北京楼).

$2.90 - CZM bought something for a friend.

Mobile
$98.33 - First month of my mobile plan (pro-rated + 1 month in advance) M1 Corporate Individual Scheme (CORI), mySim70.

Entertainment
$20 - CZM and I went to watch a movie.

Summary
January 2019 - $11,712.06
February 2019 - $7,301.63
March 2019 - $6,954.84
April 2019 - $5,236.49 ($30,027.34 including the next 5% downpayment)
May 2019 - $4,860.15
June 2019 - $14,035.27

Our total expenses for 2019: $‭50,100.44‬
Average expenses per month for 2019: $‭8,350.07

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"Semi-Retirement" For CZM

Nope, we did not strike ToTo (I wish!) but we will be doing something most would not be doing. We dropped a teaser in our previous StashAway - May 2019 post stating that we will stop contributing to CZM's SRS account. Did you manage to guess it correctly?

CZM has resigned from her current job to take a "short" break after working for > 6 years, leading a semi-retired life. Yes, quitting without another job with the plan to travel! People leave a company for many reasons, usually a combination of both push (ridiculous hours, bad culture, etc.) and pull factors (higher pay, more interesting roles, etc.). For CZM, the push factors were definitely huge and it certainly accelerated our RTW plan or caused us to make such a decision.

After accumulating sufficient miles, I blogged about our next goal - Star Alliance Round the World (RTW) in Business Class! The main issue with such an ambitious plan is not the number of miles required or the money it costs (not really true, it was definitely a concern) but the TIME and ENERGY. Most people will have about 14-2x days of annual leaves and taking them consecutively will only mean 2-4 weeks of travelling time which is simply too short. Assuming if we were to spend about 1-1.5 week in each country/stopover, it would take us at least 2-3 months. We played around with a few ideas such as taking sabbatical leave but not all company has such policy especially in Singapore...

As we grow older, our body/health will naturally deteriorate. Looking at our parents now (40/50+), they no longer enjoy travelling as much because it is extremely tiring and their body will start aching. In addition, once you have kids, the cost of travelling will increase while the pace will decrease significantly. It is also impossible to travel with a piece of mind without them. With all these in mind, our decision was to whack and travel first before settling down to have kids. The next step was to evaluate if we will have any issue financially.

We did some cashflow exercise and concluded that we can manage even without her job. This can be done by doing the following:
1. List down all your income sources (salary, dividends, rental, etc.)
2. List down your fixed expenses (insurance premium, taxes, etc.)
3. List down/estimate your variable expenses (food, transport, etc.)
4. List down/estimate upcoming major expenses (vacation, renovation, etc.)
5. Build a table of income and expenses group by Month
6. Pivot the table to get an overview of your cashflow (ideally, income > expenses)

You can find a template of the cashflow exercise here.

We did not list down mortgage/housing loan because that will be deducted from our CPF OA which will not affect our cashflow. Our decision to keep $20k and not let HDB wipe all our OA during key collection has proved to be an excellent and prudent move.

Interestingly, news travels fast and she was introduced to a job where she gets to work with a previous manager whom she enjoys working with. Since there is no harm trying, we both agreed that she should give it a shot and asked for a huge increment. lol.

CZM managed to get into the final round of interview and is currently torn between taking a break from work, doing the once in a lifetime RTW travel or going back to work... My opinion is if the compensation isn't sufficient/ideal, it will be an easy decision. Otherwise, we can always postpone the RTW and do it a few years down the road with/without kids. CZM just can't help worrying...

What do you all think? Were you once in a similar situation, made a decision which you regretted? Is it really impossible to travel once you have kids? Appreciate if you can take some time off to leave your comments for CZM!

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Expenses - May 2019

I have been binge watching 4 seasons of Lucifer for the last few weeks (not really binge since it took me so long to complete everything), hence the delay in some of our posts. We went to the set/behind the scene during our Warner Bro's Studio Tour at Hollywood last year (Honeymoon to the United States - 3 Days 2 Nights in Los Angeles) and I told myself I need to watch this show. This show is pretty similar to The Mentalist with the supernatural stuff (Angel, Devil, etc.). I like watching police/detective show/anime (Kindaichi and Detective Conan).

Current Profile: 29 years couple who got married recently but staying separately with our own parents while waiting for the BTO project to be completed this year.

Our total expenses were $4,860.15! The breakdown would be as follows:

KPO Expense Fund (our common fund): $993.29

KPO: $2,201.96

CZM: $1,664.90

Parents
$1,360 - This is the total amount we are giving to our parents as allowance.

Vacation
We rented a campervan/RV from Fraserway for the upcoming Canada vacation. Paid a deposit of CA$500 which works out to be $524.89.

$205.43 - The cost of our accommodation in Parkroyal Serviced Suites for our Kuala Lumpur Food Trail - 4 Days 3 Nights.

Food
$613.52 - Our combined food expenses are still on the low side because we are still staying with our parents and I usually skip lunch.

Gift
$379.64 - Bought a gift for CZM during my vacation to Eastern Europe.

$188 - Wedding red packet for a secondary school friend at Grand Hyatt Singapore.

Darling/CZM
$544 - CZM signed up for some massage/facial thingy.

Credit Card
$288 - The fees/cost to buy miles from Citi CNY $8,888 for 38,888 miles promotion

Mobile
$278 - The price of my Samsung Galaxy S10+ with 2 years M1 Corporate Individual Scheme (CORI). The plan I got was mySim70 which cost $45.50 per month for 35 GB data, 300 minutes of talk time, etc. It still makes sense to get the corporate plan ($45.50 x 24 months = $1,092) which costs lower than the retail price of just getting the phone without a contract.

Transportation
$142.33 - Our EZ Link/Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) for the month
$90.88 - Cab

Insurance
$189.00 - This is a fixed monthly cost for the basic coverage - $1 million term life ($71), Early Cancer Care - 150k ($64) and hospitalization ($53).

Others
$20.46 - Treated family, friends and colleagues to food/drinks.

$20 - Gift for CZM's colleague

$14 - Gambling: Toto, the fastest way to fulfill our millionaire dream.

$2 - Bought SSB for multiplier (DBS Multiplier + SSBs + Joint Account = Higher Interest!)

Summary
January 2019 - $11,712.06
February 2019 - $7,301.63
March 2019 - $6,954.84
April 2019 - $5,236.49 ($30,027.34 including the next 5% downpayment)
May 2019 - $4,860.15

Our total expenses for 2019: $36,065.17
Average expenses per month for 2019: $7,213.04

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Expenses - April 2019

I blogged about our BTO HDB Key Collection & Door Opening Ceremony and it caused our expenses for the month to shoot up significantly.

Current Profile: 29 years couple who got married recently but staying separately with our own parents while waiting for the BTO project to be completed this year.

Our total expenses were $30,027.34! The breakdown would be as follows:

KPO Expense Fund (our common fund): $1,023.73

KPO: $16,071.79

CZM: $12,931.82

See! Watson again. lol.

House

Both the Loan (the next 5% downpayment) and Home Protection Scheme (HPS) were paid using our CPF OA as well as the town council Service & Conservancy Charges (S&CC) charge using NETS when we collected our keys.

Bought some packet drinks and bottled water for the contractors.

Parents
$1,360 - This is the total amount we are giving to our parents as allowance.

$1,173 - My dad's MediShield and hospitalization premium deducted from my CPF MA. This has reduced (compared to $2,232 - Expenses - April 2018) because my brother started working and has taken over my mum's premium.

Vacation
$150 - 2 x Jetstar return flights to KL next week!

$442 - 2 x Scoot return flights to Vietnam in September.

$43.60 - Travel insurance for Europe trip.

Insurance

$402.20 - My annual MediShield and hospitalization premium deducted from CPF MA.

$192.00 - This is a fixed monthly cost for the basic coverage - term life and hospitalization. The premium for the hospitalization went up...

$5.50 - Etiqa fire insurance for our house for 5 years. Mandatory for key collection.

Food

$449.49 - Our combined food expenses are still on the low side because we are still staying with our parents and I usually skip lunch.

Transportation
$133.38 - Our EZ Link/Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) for the month
$100.40 - Cab

Others

CZM bought some new clothes and some stuff from Watson.

$16.80 - Gambling: Mahjong

$10 - Gambling: Toto, the fastest way to fulfill our millionaire dream.

$24 - Bought a Liverpool jersey for a friend on his wedding.

$9.11 - Treated family, friends and colleagues to food/drinks.

$8 - Entertainment: Popcorn and watched Avenger with CZM. The movie tickets were purchased through Grab credits when we topped up the account due to Amex promotion.

Summary
January 2019 - $11,712.06
February 2019 - $7,301.63
March 2019 - $6,954.84
April 2019 - $5,236.49 ($30,027.34 including the next 5% downpayment)

Our total expenses for 2019: $31,205.02
Average expenses per month for 2019: $7,801.26

Our expenses have been skewed by the second downpayment. If we were to remove such one-time expenses. Our combined expenses would have been only $5,236.49. Oh well, till next time!

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
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Expenses - March 2019

We went to the first Southeast Asia Pokemon Safari event in Sentosa and CZM managed to catch a shiny Lapras! KPO was not as lucky :'(

View this post on Instagram

Pokemon Go Safari Zone comes to Singapore! This is South East Asia first Safari Zone. KPO and I were lucky enough to get the tickets to the zone but not lucky enough to catch all the Shinies 😂. For people participating in tomorrow's Safari, all the best! May the shiny luck be with you~. #pokemon #pokemongo #pokemongosafarizone #gottacatchemall #sentosa #sentosaisland #singapore #kpoandczm

A post shared by KPO & CZM (@kpo_and_czm) on Apr 21, 2019 at 4:49am PDT

Current Profile: 29 years couple who got married recently but staying separately with our own parents while waiting for the BTO project to be completed this year.

Our total expenses were $6,954.84! The breakdown would be as follows:

KPO Expense Fund (our common fund): $3,383.45

KPO: $2,576.78

CZM: $994.61

Vacation
Vacation continues to be our biggest expense.

We will be travelling to the USA/Canada due to Cathay Pacific blunder - Thank You Cathay Pacific! Another First Class Flight on American Airlines. This is the deposit/installment (2/4) for a private glacier kayaking and camping tour we signed up for by Compass Heli Tours. The plan is to take a helicopter into the middle of nowhere in British Columbia, kayak in the glacier lake and camp/stay in the 5 billion stars hotel where the temperature could go below zero. Hopefully, the experience will be as magical as the price (~SGD$5,165).

We booked quite a few flights:
- Scoot from Singapore (SIN) to Vietnam, Hanoi (HAN) and back
- Air Canada from Washington D.C. (IAD) to Toronto (YYZ)
- Air Transat from Toronto (YYZ) to Calgary (YYC)
- Air Canda from Vancouver (YVR) to Washington D.C. (IAD)

I know, it is crazy...

Me
I blogged about this previously
$1,282 - NAS (Network Attached Storage) @ Portfolio - February 2019
$92.45 - Lazada Surprise Box - Save or Waste Money? + random stuff

Parents
$1,360 - This is the total amount we are giving to our parents as allowance.

Food
$586.77 - Our combined food expenses are still on the low side because we are still staying with our parents and I usually skip lunch.

Gift
$388 - Attended a wedding at PARKROYAL on Pickering (with CZM)

Transportation
$187.40 - Cab
$134.73 - Our EZ Link/Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) for the month

Insurance
$192.00 - This is a fixed monthly cost for the basic coverage - term life and hospitalization. The premium for the hospitalization went up...

Health
$148 - Went for a biannual dental appointment for cleaning/scaling. Not an actual expense because I can claim all of them back from my company.

Others

$21.65 - Darling, Cab: Not an actual expense because CZM can claim cab for doing OT. This is normally excluded but I am lazy to clean it up.

$15.50 - Darling, Watsons: It seems that CZM will always buy something from Watson almost every month for it to become a category by itself. No idea what she bought. Hahaha.

$8.70 - Darling, Online Shopping: CZM bought some socks from Lazada.

$35.60 - Treated family, friends and colleagues to food/drinks.

$28 - Entertainment: Watched a movie + popcorn together.

$10 - Gambling: Toto, the fastest way to fulfill our millionaire dream.

Our combined expenses would have been only ~$2,700+ after removing those large one time expenses (Vacation, Me and Gift). Till next time!

Summary
January 2019 - $11,712.06
February 2019 - $7,301.63
March 2019 - $6,954.84

Total expenses for 2019: $25,968.53
Average expenses per month for 2019: $8,656.18

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
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Expenses - February 2019

We spent almost every weekend meeting IDs and they are all charging so differently. Most have GST while some don't. When we prompt further, we were told that they have multiple "companies" under their name and they can split it such that customer will not incur GST. Another annoying thing is that the payments have to be made in either cash or cheque, no credit card means no miles/cashback back for such big spending. Anyway, we will be taking a break from the renovation/IDs and do some fun stuff!

We managed to grab some preview tickets for our family to Jewel Changi Airport on 13th April!

We were also lucky enough to get tickets to the first Pokemon Safari event in SEA on 20th April! Back to our high expenses for February 2019 @_@"

Current Profile: 29 years couple who got married recently but staying separately with our own parents while waiting for the BTO project to be completed this year.

Our total expenses were $7,301.63!!! The breakdown would be as follows:

KPO Expense Fund (our common fund): $2,758.45

KPO: $3,285.15

CZM: $1,258.03

Vacation

Vacation continues to be our biggest expense. I have color-coded them for easy reference.

I will be going on a tour by Hong Thai Travel to Eastern Europe with my parents and $1,838 is the remaining payment. Made the payment in advance in order to hit the Citi Premier Miles CNY $8,888 promotion.

We will be travelling to the USA/Canada due to Cathay Pacific blunder - Thank You Cathay Pacific! Another First Class Flight on American Airlines. This is the deposit/installment (1/4) for a private glacier kayaking and camping tour we signed up for by Compass Heli Tours. The plan is to take a helicopter into the middle of nowhere in British Columbia, kayak in the glacier lake and camp/stay in the 5 billion stars hotel where the temperature could go below zero. Hopefully, the experience will be as magical as the price (~SGD$5,165). We also booked some accommodations (1 in Vietnam and 1 in Canada).

We went to Bali for 3 days 2 nights and spent $831.75 in total. I think we spent a lot considering that our accommodation (Furama Xclusive Villas & Spa, Ubud - Lagoon Pool Villa) was free. Everything in Bali was just so expensive! As for what we did, CZM has a post still in draft mode and I will leave it to her to update you guys. Haha.

Parents
$1,360 - This is the total amount we are giving to our parents as allowance.

Food
$597.18 - Our combined food expenses are still on the low side because we are still staying with our parents and I usually skip lunch.

Gift
$288 - Attended a wedding at Conrad Centennial (with CZM)

$248.88 - Bought birthday presents for my younger sister and CZM's dad.

$50 - Housewarming ang bao/red packet for a friend

$9.50 - Valentine's Roses for CZM from NTUC. Hahahaha.

Treat
$160.05 - CZM treated me to Cheek by Jowl – Michelin-Starred Modern Australian Restaurant for my birthday.

$125.25 - Treated family to Chin Huat Live Seafood.

The rest are just tea/coffee for friends/colleagues.

Transportation
$108.85 - Our EZ Link/Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) for the month

$93.30 - Cab

Insurance
$177.00 - This is a fixed monthly cost for the basic coverage - term life and hospitalization.

Others

$88.00 - CZM goes for facial or massage once in a while.

$71.95 - Health: I fell sick and went to Raffles Medical (supporting my own stocks). lol. Not an actual expense because I can claim all of them back from my company.

$40.00 - Lost money playing mahjong during CNY.

$21.85 - Watsons: It seems that CZM will always buy something from Watson almost every month for it to become a category by itself. No idea what she bought. Hahaha.

Our combined expenses would have been only ~$2,900+ after removing those large one time expenses (Vacation and Gift). Till next time!

Summary
January 2019 - $11,712.06
February 2019 - $7,301.63

Total expenses for 2019: $19,013.69
Average expenses per month for 2019: $9,506.845

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
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3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

Expenses - January 2019

We received an email from HDB that our house will be ready soon and the email states that we can collect the keys around May!

Taken from Qanvast - https://qanvast.com/sg/interior-designers/voila-45

CZM spent a lot of time designing the house (something like the above)/floor plan using ppt and we sent out to a bunch of IDs for quotation. Some of the quotations we got were around 50-70k. Faints!

As mentioned previously, I will be tracking our total expenses as a married couple starting this year. I can foresee that our expenses for this year will be the highest ever due to the above (house renovation, new furniture, etc.) + our US/Canada trip. Thinking back, wedding expenses were not that huge because we were able to recoup some/most of it at the banquet.

Current Profile: 29 years couple who got married recently but staying separately with our own parents while waiting for the BTO project to be completed this year.

Our total expenses were $11,712.06!!! The breakdown would be as follows:

KPO Expense Fund (our common fund): $7,772.40

KPO: $2,229.22

CZM: $1,710.44

Vacation

$4,121.25 - The total cost in SGD for 2 pax return First Class flight to Washington DC due to Cathay Pacific blunder - Thank You Cathay Pacific! Another First Class Flight on American Airlines

$1,000 - I will be going on a tour by Hong Thai Travel to Eastern Europe with my parents.

Gift
$2,980 - That is the total amount of red packet we prepared for CNY. The bulk of it goes to our parents ($888 x 2) and grandparents ($188 x 4). The rest are $20 for siblings, and either $8 or $6 (random strangers).

$380 - Attended a wedding at Andaz Singapore (with CZM)

Parents
$1,260 - That is the total amount we are giving to our parents as allowance.

Food
$629.74 - Our combined food expenses are still on the low side because we are still staying with our parents.

Transportation
$293.58 can be further broken down to $171.13 (EZ Link) and the rest on cab ($122.45).

Insurance
$177 - This is a fixed monthly cost for the basic coverage - term life and hospitalization.

Others
$100.04 - Online Shopping: CZM bought some new/CNY clothes.

$65.85 - Health: I fell sick and went to Raffles Medical (supporting my own stocks). lol. Not an actual expense because I can claim all of them back from my company.

$32.00 - Watsons: It seems that CZM will always buy something from Watson almost every month for it to become a category by itself. No idea what she bought. Hahaha.

$26.25 - Credit Card: Converted DBS points to KrisFlyer miles ($25 + GST).

$12.00 - Gambling: Toto, the fastest way to fulfil our millionaire dream.

$5.50 - Hobby: We collect overseas and old notes. It is an expensive hobby...

Summary
January 2019 - $11,712.06

Total expenses for 2019: $11,712.06
Average expenses per month for 2019: $11,712.06

This is the first time I am compiling our expenses together. To be honest, it is such a mess! The plan going forward is to remove the "Darling"/CZM category, nest it under the existing categories and hopefully they will be clearer and neater next month.

On the bright side, if we were to remove the one-time expenses such as Vacation and Gifts. Our combined expenses are only ~$3,600+. Till next time!

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
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3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
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Honeymoon to the United States - Total Expenses

The initial plan was to let CZM finish all her itinerary posts first before ending it with the big question - how much did we spend in total? Unfortunately, CZM is getting busier with her work so I shall share the total expenses for the honeymoon trip first.

A quick recap - we spent 15 nights 15 days in the United States and 1 day (~7/8 hours) in Japan during the layover.

Transport
Surprise, surprise. This was actually our highest expense. We rented a Mercedes Benz Convertible for about $2k. The rest of the expenses were fuel, subway, coach/buses, and Uber.

Souvenirs
We went to 3 different outlets and bought quite a lot of stuff either for ourselves or our family. Brands such as Coach and Kate Spade were having 70% sale due to the Black Friday week. We also went to Google Store and bought some shirt and bag. lol. This includes food items such as Tokyo Banana and CZM's favorite - Shiroi Koibito (白い恋人/白色恋人).

Accommodation

We spent about an average of $163 per night. Could have been more but I was able to find and make use of the BRG (Best Rate Guarantee) policy to bring down some of the prices slightly. We tried asking if they can waive the resort fee if we don't need/use the additional services they provide such as Wifi, water, swimming pool, etc. and were rejected.

IMPORTANT: None of the hotels provide water kettle. It was damn annoying because we like to boil water (Asian culture?) to drink/make tea/milo or even cook cup noodles (yes, we brought some over). In the end, we always had to go down to the reception/kitchen to ask for hot water and that means giving more tips -.-"

Flight
The cost of our flight was relatively lower because we redeemed Singapore Airlines Suites to New York and flew in Economy back. Hahaha.

Singapore Airlines Suites, Singapore to New York - 240,000 KrisFlyer Miles + $259.60
Alaska Airlines, New York to San Francisco - $403.70

American Airlines & Japan Airlines, Las Vegas to Japan to Singapore - $1,286.60

Food
It includes the 15% (lunch) or 18% (dinner) tips. Considering we spent 16 days there and 3 meals each day, I would think it is pretty reasonable? ~$65 per day and ~$22 per meal for 2 people! I think the best/most memorable dining experience would be the Beef Wellington from Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen in Las Vegas! We spent about $176.73 there.

Attraction

Klook is a pretty good place to lower the cost of the various attraction. In addition, it can be combined with ShopBack or KrisFlyerSpree to get more value/lower the cost further! If you do not have an account, can consider checking out our Referrals page :) Unfortunately, we lost money in Vegas! Was hoping we would win back the money we spent in Hell's Kitchen. lol.

Others

Random stuff such as data sim card in the United States and portable wifi device in Japan. KPO got slightly lazy and lost track of the cash. lol. We started with US$2,000 cash (exchanged our money in Arcade before the trip, hence the same FX rate) so >80% of the cash was still being tracked.

Cosmetic, Insurance, Tips and Visa
CZM bought Shiseido, Fancl, and Kose. The typical girl stuffs.

We bought FWD travel insurance.

Tips were mostly given to hotel staffs ($1 each time).

I blogged about the mistake we made when we were applying for our visa/ESTA here - Expenses - March 2018. We asked for a full refund and they honored it but due to the difference in FX rate, the bank "gave" us more money. Interestingly, I was monitoring closely but they did not proceed to cancel our ESTA so it became more than free.

To be honest, our total expenses were lower than expected (not complaining) and we certainly enjoyed ourselves (even though it was damn tiring)! If the above exceeds your budget, I guess you can try to cut down on the car rental and accommodation :)

Travelling to the US soon? You might be interested in these blog posts too:
- Honeymoon to the United States - 3 Days 2 Nights in Yosemite
- Honeymoon to the United States - 2 Days 2 Nights in San Francisco
- Honeymoon to the United States - 3 Days 2 Nights in New York
- Honeymoon to the United States - Renting a $275,888 Mercedes Benz Convertible with Hertz
- Singapore Airlines Suites Experience - SQ26 Singapore to New York
- Singapore Airlines Suites Experience - The Private Room

- Singapore Airlines Suites - Book the Cook

- Redeeming KrisFlyer Miles for Singapore Airlines Suites = 38.6% Cashback!

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 --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

Expenses - December 2018

It has been a very sad and dramatic week for many especially the family. It is extremely difficult to come to terms with death when it happens so suddenly and even more so for the parents (白发人送黑发人 - to see one's child die before oneself). RIP Aloysius Pang.

I am lagging in some of my updates, shall try to publish them before the month ends!

Current Profile: 28 years old male who got married recently and is still living with his parents. Staying separately with his wife while waiting for the BTO project to be completed this year.

You can read more about how we manage our finances here. Removing our shared expenses which come out of our mutual fund (KPO Expense Fund), my expenses for December would be $4,354.30 - ($2,340.65 / 2) = $3,183.98.

Got to generate this to lie to myself that I actually did not spend so much money >.<"

Gift
Attended 5 weddings on December:
- W Singapore Lunch Banquet: $500 (with CZM)
- Andaz Singapore Lunch Banquet: $200 (solo)
- Resorts World Sentosa: $180 (solo)
- Regent Hotel Singapore: $500 (with CZM)
- Hilton International: $180 (solo)

Before I started working, I hated getting "bombed" because my pocket money was $50 per week. I either try not to attend or I will give $50 which was 25% of my monthly allowance. When we got married, I told my siblings gf/bf to just come and don't need to give red packet because I knew how painful it was. lol.

Nowadays, I will attend the wedding as long as I am not travelling/working. I tend to give slightly more based on the cost of the banquet referencing this site - Wedding Ang Bao Rates while $500 is the standard rate for our best friends regardless of the venue.

Insurance
This is a fixed monthly cost for the basic coverage - term life and hospitalization.

It is higher this month due to the annual premium of CZM's hospitalization plan from Aviva - MyHealthPlus, Plan 1 - Opt C.

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.

Me
I bought DJI Osmo Pocket!

Vacation
Bought 2 return air tickets to Bali from Jetstar. Yes, we will be travelling shortly on Feb again. Haha.

Tried out honestbee laundry (2 of our winter coat) and it was an extremely bad experience. They delivered CZM's winter coat to someone else and took like 2/3 weeks to get it sorted out before returning to us. They gave $10 laundry credit as a form of apology but I rejected them and told them in the face that I will not be using their laundry service again. So they refund the cost of 1 winter coat.

The transport cost was the taxi ride back home when we came back from our honeymoon.

Food

My food expenses are exceptionally low because I stay with my parents! Most of it is incurred when I am out with CZM.

Treat

Treated CZM's family to Dian Xiao Er and colleague to drinks.

Transportation

Public transportation seems a lot lower because of 3 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 BOC Elite Miles Mastercard)!
2. $0.50 Discount for commuters who enter stations before 7.45am on weekdays.
3. We went vacation for 2 weeks!

Entertainment

Watched some movies (Bumblebee, Aquaman and Mortal Engines) and ate some popcorn.

Unknown
Missing cash from my wallet which I cannot explain/never track. lol.

Summary
January 2018 - $2,256.43
February 2018 - $1,759.01
March 2018 - $5,049.79
April 2018 - $1,572.54
May 2018 - $1,863.74
June 2018 - $2,282.07
July 2018 - $2,197.94
August 2018 - $2,130.01
September 2018 - $3,011.75
October 2018 - $6,500.97
November 2018 - $4,796.14
December 2018 - $3,183.98

Total expenses for 2018: $36,604.37
Average expenses per month for 2018: $3,050.36

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 --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

Expenses - November 2018

November expenses were crazily high (5 digits!!) as well due to our honeymoon to the United States. You can read about our honeymoon here (more to come!):
- Singapore Airlines Suites Experience - The Private Room
- Singapore Airlines Suites Experience - SQ26 Singapore to New York
- Honeymoon to the United States - Renting a $275,888 Mercedes Benz Convertible with Hertz

Current Profile: 28 years old male who got married recently and is still living with his parents. Staying separately with his wife while waiting for the BTO project to be completed next year.

You can read more about how we manage our finances here. Removing our shared expenses which come out of our mutual fund (KPO Expense Fund), my expenses for October would be $11,180.72 - ($9,592.28 / 2) = $4,796.14.

Got to generate this to lie to myself that I actually did not spend so much money >.<"

Vacation
The bulk of my/our expenses came from our honeymoon to the United States. The total expenses are around $13k+ and I will be blogging about it in detail in a separate post.

Gift
Bought the Dyson Airwrap for CZM. If you have not heard of this, you must be living in a cave. All the girls went crazy over it (including CZM) and it was even out of stock for a period of time. I told her that it will be her present for the whole of next year. lol.

Gave a red packet for our nephew that turn 1 year old.

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.

Insurance
This is a fixed monthly cost for the basic coverage - term life and hospitalization.

Food
My food expenses are exceptionally low because I stay with my parents! Most of it is incurred when I am out with CZM.

Me
The $69.97 is the installment for Surface Pro which I got about 2 years back. This should be the last payment!

Transportation

Public transportation seems a lot lower because of 3 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 BOC Elite Miles Mastercard)!
2. $0.50 Discount for commuters who enter stations before 7.45am on weekdays.
3. We went vacation for 2 weeks!

Treat

Treated CZM and colleague to drinks.

Summary
January 2018 - $2,256.43
February 2018 - $1,759.01
March 2018 - $5,049.79
April 2018 - $1,572.54
May 2018 - $1,863.74
June 2018 - $2,282.07
July 2018 - $2,197.94
August 2018 - $2,130.01
September 2018 - $3,011.75
October 2018 - $6,500.97
November 2018 - $4,796.14

Total expenses for 2018: $33,420.39
Average expenses per month for 2018: $3,038.22

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 --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)