an experiment

i'm halfway through this experiment i've been conducting recently. since i got my most recent paycheck. it's about saving money and setting budgets for consumption. and it's quite likely a feasible way to go.

i'd started off on the first day of receiving my paycheck for October. yup, i then proceeded to document on PAPER, what amounts go to where, such as to save up, for my parents, and so on. all my spending, thus far, have been recorded, in a dollars-less-cents rounding up manner. i'd jotted down the rough descriptions of my spendings. no receipts. it's all laid back in a way. so i'm keeping track of what i'm spending on.

and then there's the budgeting. i've laid the rules for myself. a mere $3 for my daily lunch during work. in order to achieve this goal of $3/day in a stricter manner, i've managed to not get myself a soft drink during lunch, and instead chose to get my drink when i get back to the office and have my plain water from the pantry - which costs nothing. there were days when i exceed this by a little, say $4 if i were to order a drink. this gets deducted from the next/past weekend.

well yes, i have a budget for each day of my weekends. i'd defined my weekends to be inclusive of fridays. so it's 3 days of $45 each. it's been reliable so far, with me not really exceeding the amounts (if i'd been spending at all) because there were times when we don't really go out at all during the weekends. spending time at home saves money :) so the amount from that day we spend not doing anything gets "saved" and can be re-used elsewhere. this means my original amount that i'd decided to save is theoretically left untouched (which is good).

i'm doing this probably because i think that i might not have very strong willpower to save properly. so if you think you want to try this here are the main points:-

1. start from the nett amount you get from your paycheck (after CPF)
2. set aside the amount you wish to save monthly
3. make estimates (reserves) for phone bills, ez-link/cashcard topups etc.
4. determine the amount you wish to spend daily for lunch/dinner ($3 is a good place to start)
5. calculate the number of days you expect to have this lunch/dinner (excluding those you may eat at home or even weekends)
6. multiply 4 with 5 and you get the total budget you'd expect to eat from
7. divide the remainder by the number of weekends (for me i'm including friday so it's 3 days per week for 4 or 5 weeks for the month)
8. the amount you get from 7 is the budget you have for your daily use during your weekends.
9. that's it, your paycheck has been fully assigned/utilised!

i know this is still an experiment halfway through, still in progress but i hope to see a happy ending by the end of this month. the reason why i'm writing down my expenditures with pen and paper instead of typing it out, is because i see that i have something physical to look to.

seeing the amounts on paper in a way signifies some sort of determination i've had which in turn motivates me to persevere and not to disappoint myself by exceeding the budgets i've laid out, aka written in black and white. and at least i can still see where i'm going if i need to spend a bit more (maybe on presents, magazines, treats to reward myself with? kekeke) i know just roughly how much i can afford to push for. and then i can still make adjustments elsewhere.

it's part psychological effect, part financial planning (loosely put) and it makes less of a hassle than if i were to really start working the accounting books in strict format. personally i think this might seem like nonsense to some, but i hope this post can inspire some too... :)

ps: this photoset is cute.

*only youuuuuu*