Expense Report: July 2015

July is the month where all hell broke loose in terms of budgeting because I spent 3 weeks of the month out of Singapore. 2 weeks was spent in Taiwan, backpacking from Kaohsiung to Taipei and 1 week was spent in Melbourne, Australia on a business trip.

Before the month started, I wasn’t too worried about how travelling affects my expenses because I assumed that the reduction in expenses in Singapore would offset the increase in travel expenses. Turns out, they are not as proportionate as I had imagined!

Transportation: $58.04 

Commuting charges on the B.M.W (bus, MRT, walk) is slightly higher than last month due to 2 expensive taxi rides taken this month. I also took more train rides to work instead of cycling because the weather was bad during the week when I wasn’t travelling.

Food: $124.75 

Food expenses broke last month’s record by recording an all-time low expenditure on food. I’m not proud of this because it meant that I spent quite a lot on food during the short period of time I was in Singapore this month. It’s very bad and I aim to bring my food expenses back to normal in August.

Groceries: $27.24 

I incurred very little expenses on groceries this month as I was overseas most of the time and I didn’t want to buy groceries that would spoil by the time I return.

Shopping: $159.96

I bought a bottle of whisky for $95 at the duty free shop in the airport when I returned from my trip and a Celio leather jacket that was on a moving out sale for $64.96 that I felt was a rather good deal.

Entertainment: $24 

I had a few drinks with my colleagues so $24 was incurred in this category.

Miscellaneous: $1928.18 

This was where I spent a lot this month and really deserve a face punch. $150 was spent on a red packet for a friend’s wedding and $16 on some overpriced Bak Kwas for colleagues in Australia. I also donated $300 to the company’s charity auction and got myself a Fisher & Paykel washing machine, which wasn’t really a bad deal.

The ultimate face punch for me is spending the remaining $1648.18 on travels. I mean, that’s easily a month’s worth of expenses for me! The only consolidation I have for myself is that $630 of my travel expenses came from my discretionary fund and that was money I accumulated each month when there was surplus cash.

Total expenses for July: $3213.45 (including fixed expenses of $891.28) 

Although we have a holiday coming this month, I’ve made up my mind that I’m not going to splurge on a holiday until I have enough discretionary fund to do so. Oddly enough, the 6-month MMAE Index continues to inch downwards to 2069 because my expenses in January was way higher than July.