Slowly hoppin' back on (and THANK YOU)

And a full week ahead, may I add : /

I'd like to say a heartfelt thanks to all that has left a comment on my last last post. THANK YOU. 

I was shot to both sides of the world the past week - a swinging pendulum that gravitates towards the negative, and a lot of sadness in the mix. Things are looking better right now, although there's still a lot to follow up, I'm in a much better place now, emotionally speaking. It amazed me how everything ceased to matter (money was the last thing on my mind), when the world (almost) came crashing down. 

Developing a sore throat in the past few days, I decided the whole weekend to be a stay-in, and hopefully a no-spend as well! I had oatmeal this morning (surprise, surprise), I put water on a higher ratio than oatmeal and loved the watery consistency. By the time I had the second bowl (I used a small bowl), I threw in some dried sultanas and they are GOLD. Not that I had any problem with plain oatmeal but the dried raisins just upped the whole ante and I downed it quickly. Some almonds were also thrown in and it's delicious and balanced (I hope). Some fresh fruit would be nice, but I"ll use what I have. This combo should be featured more often everyday!

I just got a few more pairs this week (March) from another brand. I can live with garment replacements should the need arise, but I'm still saying NO to new clothes/bags/shoes. I unsubscribed from newsletters of apparel retailers sometime ago and didn't aware that I'm missing anything until they sent me promo codes a few days ago for a major sale event. Being very careful, I did not click onto the sites and see what's new and the deals, it's all the more easier to avoid clicking on it than to spend time debating and saying no. Willpower is like a muscle that has to be flexed frequently to strengthen it, too much exercising leads to fatigue sometimes. Auto-pilot is the way to go!

Also organized some papers and letters, and paid my taxes. Even though I don't have to pay a large sum this year, I dreaded on it because of the paper decluttering, today as I went through the papers I thought I might as well paid it and put the tax demand note back to the folder. Staying in might just be my new favorite hobby.

For the upcoming trip in Easter I just modified the list I drafted for my previous trip (oh USA!) and will do some final tweaking tonight. So far I still have to buy travel insurance (putting it to the last few days), schedule a driver at the destination, and exchange currencies. This trip *should* go on as planned.

The coming week will be quite packed as I've got some side hustle scheduled, dinner with a friend, lunch with coworkers (16!), reading through a travel guide book and start thinking on the itinerary. I want to pack a facial session (congested skin!) but will likely postpone it since my throat is feeling bleurgh at the moment. Spending wise, I'm still on track at the moment.

Should my body and spirit allow, this weekend should see a bit of things getting done, I try not to be ambitious here so there is no weekly goals post for the coming week (or maybe more), because honestly, in such a state, being ill and all that, I'd be grateful to just get by, instead of being hard on self for not following a list and whatnot!

How's March treating you so far?

January's Saving Rate

This is probably a bit late but who cares ;-)

I've just finished dabbling with the figures, the calculations are based on pre-tax income I made (after retirement compulsory contributions), any extras I made (via side-hustles, allowances, vouchers, birthday money). Expenditures include the regular ones that take place monthly, and yearly categories that I've budgeted for (e.g. new eye glasses, work-related expenses, money for grannies, tax) and money for folks (this amount is almost the same amount of my monthly budget, kinda huge).

*cues drumroll* So I managed to save 45.85% of income in January! Pre-tax.

For those who wonder why I kept my calculations pre-tax when calculating the savings rate...well, that's because I"m new to the tax system and there are a lot of factors that drastically changed the amount I was paying for before, and now. I cannot calculate exactly how many % of my monthly income will go to paying tax but all I can do, right now, was putting away enough money each month and build up a cushion. 

Right now I have a savings account, a checking account that includes tax and emergency fund (so 3 accounts). I also have a fixed deposit account tucked away in another bank, that also comes with a checking account which I do not use currently. I prefer to separate emergency fund from the tax reserve fund, and another account for yearly categories/replacements (stuff like dental checkups, and replacing electrical appliances in the household), savings account for savings, checking account for regular monthly expenditures. I'm thinking maybe I need more number of accounts than I thought I need. But that's for another day!

When looking at the 45.85%, I was thinking those extra income I earned really made a difference. Guess how the number will drop if I'm relying solely on one job??? That kinda worries me...

Change of seasons and preparations

It's been a good 12 days since my last check-in. I finally got a small tax refund :) it's a small amount (about US$30 odd dollars) but nevertheless it's nice to have a refund after all. 

The past 12 days had been hectic and frankly the protest news had got me mentally fatigued and I wasn't in the mood to do anything really. I'll catch up with the blog posts I missed and the comments to make. Nowadays I prefer the TV off, it annoys me and upsets me when my mom switches it on. I can't remain calm when I watch the news, and I feel very sorry for the cops who are literally fighting a battle each and every day/night. I care (about what's going on, but every time I watch the news I got upset and terrified by what's going on. Those people are really nuts, and I can't stand to live in such a place anymore. When I have the money, I'll leave. One more reason to save $!

The temperatures have dropped a bit and it was definitely getting cooler. I've made a to-do list to prep for winter and there is just so much to do. Bear in mind that we don't have snow here so it might not be "cold" by each person's standard. Without further ado, here's the list:

1) Reshuffle wardrobe and put the winter pile at the front, summer pile to the back

2) Dig out the winter shoes, booties and tights (for some reason my tights always go "missing" in the mornings, or the wrong ones keep popping up)

3) Purge old clothes, winter coat and donate

4) Clean room with bleach once again (repeat every 3 months)

5) Hang up the curtains in room

6) Stock up on shampoo

Regarding item (3), I had a younger cousin who I gave my old/purged clothes to for the past few years, she's always taken it for "granted" and was reluctant to come to a train station near my home, the pile was heavy each time. She insisted that I meet her up at the train station near HER home, and she was also the one who had a student discount on train fare, and I don't! I got fed up by her attitude and laziness, it seemed to me that she doesn't really "care" for the free clothes, mind you some of them are brand new. I would call her up and asked her to pick up the clothes on a holiday weekend and she would reply reluctantly and keep telling me she's busy (hello she's a student). I don't want to go through this nuisance and suck up her attitude. I would rather bin the pile or donate it, it takes less time and less effort and at least I don't have to deal with her bat-shit. There has been lots of family troubles going on which bothered me personally lately. 

I have a coat in mind which I'll trash it because it got a bit small for me now, and the buttons keep falling off after I stitched them back for a few times during the past several years. Maybe I"ll take it with me next time I travel, and bin it upon return to shed some of the luggage weight. I always do that with the torn and worn undergarments. I've also set my eyes on a few nice coats but I don't think I'll get them (not at full price anyway), there's just too much in my wardrobe already! I'll go through the coats one by one and see which one can stay / go, then we'll see if there's a chance for some new additions.

The current blanket I'm using is not enough for winter and I should really just get a nice warm duvet/quilt but a nice one filled with down will be really, really expensive. Plus there's the storage issue and I"m not sure if I can use it during summer too, will sleep on this and come back to it later? It won't fit in my current budget anytime soon...hmm...

Budget-wise, an overspent have been recorded(!!!). I think I've done pretty good so far up to mid October, spending less than half of the amount for food (up to today) and I did not make unnecessary trips to the supermarket. But I screwed up majorly in the clothes and beauty section. Remember the GAP gym bottoms I mentioned last time? They were not budgeted but it was a 30% off total. The real blow came when I ordered a mini tote with 25% off in an FF sale! Then I snagged 3 shorts on clearance, because when is a better time to buy summer items for next year? Now! I should put a stop to the spending on clothes.

The beauty department was where the major overspent appeared. I came across the rarely-in-stock cotton puffs and stocked up majorly, then I got a nice coffret by paying less than half (thanks to cash coupons). The cotton puffs I'll use up eventually but the coffret is NOT a "need" but a "want" obviously. Then there's the shampoo stock-up. I made an order last minute because the house is running out of shampoo and the order (which has a nice surprise 10% off) will bring 9-10 bottles of them for all of us in the house. That shall last for about a year or more. I'm very pleased with the deal, but I need to budget for this time and again.

Our office will see a colleague departing who is really close with me. This week and the next will be full of social lunch occasions, we're talking about 5-6 of those with different parties but the same colleague!! GAHHH, there's really no way to get away with it but to chip in and pay for her share. So I'll do so. I've re-purposed an item which will be gifted to her, which I'm very proud of, lol. Last week I treated two of my relatives to dinner and it was a good one, albeit it's came around a bit more than I budgeted for - but I'll gladly pay for the time spent together any day.

Next month we'll see a weekend getaway trip with a bunch of friends, and the long overdue haircut shall also happen next month, my hair resembles a stack of dry hay as of late. I hope I can make a bit more from the side-hustles next month, as October has been a bit sluggish in that area. A formal budget review shall come next month too, as the current one is a pilot one made in July which needs some adjustment and tweaking.

Hope everyone has had a good month so far!

Stocking up on essentials

Yesterday I had lunch out with a former colleague who is also a friend of mine (despite she's retired at her 50s), we talked a lot about the strikes going on in the city, and our family members who hold different views. I told her I'm sourly disappointed with the people around me who seemed to be in support of the strikes, now I don't think it's wrong to voice out opinions, but a fine line has to be drawn when it comes to the consequences. The collateral damage incurred in the "supposedly innocent" strikes here we're talking about are: bus drivers, minibus drivers and taxi drivers driven out of work because the major roads are blocked, routes are cut (until god knows when), no surprise to believe that some are told to take days off. We're also dealing with shopkeepers and merchants who have to close their stores due to the riots and possible chaos of the strikes, the insurance companies DO NOT insure / reimburse damages due to political riots / instability. We're also talking about numerous working adults who had to "fight their way" (me included) when commuting to work each day, students who cannot attend schools because of the chaos and lack of transport. A resident of the strike area complained that he has to walk 2 hours to a nearby place where he can get there in a little bit more than 30 mins. I told my mom to stock up on some fresh food in case the trucks aren't coming in on time to replenish the supermarket stores...I've been so turned off by these people causing all the troubles.

Then we went to a grocery store and I happened to see the cotton puffs I plow through monthly is back in stock. PJ being PJ, jumped at the opportunity and stocked some - well, a lot - boxes up. I gave 1 box to the colleague. They'll be enough to run for entire year without the need to replenish, this quantity will cover both my mom's and my usage.

Then I headed to a "beauty samples spree" after work, paid NOTHING but got a handful of tubes, jars and sachets, gotta love beauty memberships, YAY! Also had a bowl of my favorite noodles and it was a hearty meal. I deliberately went home a bit later than the usual peak hours to avoid the rush hour crowd and traffic, and it was way easier to manage than returning home straight away. 

For the whole life insurance thing, I decided to sleep on it a bit, still on the fence. Term life insurance is an option but one that I'd like to forget - term life insurance here insures up to age 75 only, which is nothing but a gamble whether I'll die before 75 or after 75. If it's the latter, nobody will be able to get a cent out of the payments. One could say that the money I put away monthly for whole life insurance might do better if put into a mutual fund or something, I don't know if it's true (yet), and I'm too new to the field of investing. Speaking of which, I have a plan to get into investment next year...we'll see. My former colleague suggested I buy some gold because its prices are dropping, but I'll have to rent a safe deposit box at the bank and pay rent for it (!), plus it's not like they have tons of safe deposit boxes at the banks for rent, so one has to queue for god knows how long.

I'll probably have a trim at the hair sometime this month - it's looking awful in photos since August. The shampoo stockpile is running out so there will be a chance that I'll do an online order for shampoos in November. My online liquid soap order arrived yesterday and it was splendid. I'm also hoping to get a few hyper-pigmentation spots on the face removed come winter when I sweat less and see the light less.

About a week ago I've sent documents to the Tax people and am waiting to hear from them. Stupid me, I forgot to fill in some information 3 years ago and hence they did not factor that the retirement contribution I paid when calculating my taxes back then. The good thing is that the person on the other hand of the phone said they could do a re-assessment to see if there'll be tax dollars returned to me. :-)

Mid Week Update

Last Friday and the past two days of this week went by in a whiz. I was pressed tight at work and my migraines + nausea came out rather mercilessly. I felt shit last week to a point that my boss asked if I'm feeling unwell (well, clearly I was). Coupled with that was the crisis going on in the city right now - strikes everywhere so buses are cut. 

Now to give you a clearer picture, I don't live near a train station. So, for the past two days I've been WALKING to the nearest train station (sweated profusely may I add), take the train and go to work; take the train from work to the train station nearest to my home, and WALKED back to my place. Never had I seen SO MANY people on the street walking about, because the buses and the stuff are cut due to strikes. This additional time and effort in my daily commute for the past two days also come with a few cents higher in commute costs than usual. A few cents shouldn't be the cause of concern, but I'd rather not have that (plus the extra leg walk! This is lose-lose situation). 

Due to the strikes going on about the city, I had a panic moment on Monday on my way home. I thought "what if the strikes went on and the supermarkets weren't re-stocked properly?"And so off I went buying a few spring rolls from a noodle shop and mush them into the freezer. Yesterday I thought today and tomorrow will be a public holiday so I might eat one or two meals at home, so off I went to the supermarket and got some asparagus (not on sale, bummed) and peppered ham (on clearance price but not so much cheaper...). The ham will expire (tomorrow) before I can cook them all but I plan to stash them into the freezer for later use. Thus these spur-of-the-moment purchases bumped up my food spending (see last paragraph). 

Lesson to learn here: ALWAYS, ALWAYS have ready to cook/eat food in the stockpile. Be it dehydrated or frozen food, add in some quick-to-cook pasta or noodles and voila! This morning I cooked the asparagus with the ham and the ready-made pasta. To be honest the flavored pasta packets suck in flavor but they'll have to do. At least I don't have to panic at the thought of having no food!

At work, there had been a particular guy who just came to the office (but is not new to working in the department), he was being an @$$ to people who work around him, myself included. That affected me, but I wasn't the key to the solving of the problem either so there's not much I can do on my level. 

The tax notices came in on Saturday and I had a shock (a good one). I had been putting money away every week for "tax payments" and it looks like I'd be dipping into 5% of it. The remaining funds would be tucked away towards the savings pile or the "travel" fund (I don't have one set up). Thoughts??

I just calculated my finances for September, realizing I overspent in the beauty and clothes category. The food category was overspent but bear in mind that it covered my parents' birthday dinner. I'll budget for this come next year. I had stopped buying yogurt altogether, so that was quite a (key) change. Really need to work hard on trimming the beauty and clothes budget. In previous post I mentioned that I want to get a few serious jogging bottoms for the winter season. I did not end up getting any in September (indecision, indecision), please see the upcoming post for an update on this. I put aside and maybe dismissed the thought of renewing my magazine subscription as well, so that's money saved (for now)!