There are two options to get extra money. [1] Get it more by part-time jobs or businesses and [2] Bending the expenses of the family. Considering taking part-time job might consume our valued time and part-time business needs initial capital to setup. So we struck off the number [1] and we went for number [2]. All we had to do was to reduce our monthly expenses. It sounded simple. But when it came to implementation, it really got on our nerves.
First of all, we set a financial goal to save money, RM12000 in 18 month. As calculated, we had to save RM666.67 for 18 months and stopped doing unnecessary activities.Yes, I’d really hate to make a sudden halt to our holier-than-thou Macdonald enthusiasm, our movie DVDs cravings, and cheap-and-take-it-for-granted items of Pasar malam.
We had to make several sacrifices. No more weekend breakfast at On The Run. No more wasting RM10 on washing car at Car Auto Restoration. Don’t even think about buying your favorite Coca-Cola Canvas Poster at Bazaar Shah Alam. Say goodbye to your wishlist for 18 months.
During 18 month, we faced a lot of obstacles. Most of the weeks, we had budget blown out and unexpected expenses occurred all of a sudden. Our dapur broke, we need buy the new one. Our rooftop leaking, we have to wage someone to fix this. The sliding door which is our main entrance right now had a problem, we need replace the rail as well as the roller.
To cover the expenses, we were forced to use our own budgeted office allowance.(We set our own office allowance, portioned by every week. It felt like schoolboy who got pocket money from his parent, where he received RM10 every week and went to school every day. Apparently, this concept works well with us).
The most challenging part was when Amirul felt sick and his illness was quite serious. Well, meeting with doctor became more frequent and the illness still didn’t relieved. Eventually, we turned to child expert, which cost us dearly. Consequently, our planned budget had blown out and our employee medical benefit had reached the limit, it left us with no choice but to withdraw our savings that month. So we determined ourselves to save extra for the next month.
Most of the readers knew the concept of pay yourself first. We implemented the theory into practice. What we did was doing immediate transfer to our ASB account as soon we got our monthly salary credited so that we couldn’t even get to smell the money. That’s the priority step we’ve taken.
As a conclusion, we managed to reach our goal, the arrow hit the bull’s eye. Hence, it was difficult to swim across the river of daily temptations without getting caught by the strong flow. In a period of 18 months, it’s a little heartbreak just to watch things we want behind glass of boutique and not to buy it.
Read further of WikiHow: How to Save Money
5 Responses to Bending The Expenses Of The Family
isabelle March 10, 2010
i wished i had the strength to do it.
but hey, somebody told me..like it or not, we still have to do it.
else, it'll never be saved.
KambingBujang March 10, 2010
dat y isabelle, berkat meyimpan ni la we managed to buy 2-storey house at bangi area. kalu tak mmg area semenyih la location my house.
temp. housewife March 11, 2010
my hubby is better in managing our budget. I'm not so good and I tend to waste a lot especially when I go Dollar Store with my daughters.
Anonymous March 12, 2010
I'm also expert in managing our family budget, theoretically. In practical, we failed. It's like we wanted to buy everything we've touched.
KambingBujang March 12, 2010
temp.housewife : actually both of us suka spending; me more on clothes and Mr Hubby more on gadgets. However, after we having baby and expecting new one soon, both of us spend money wisely and alhaldulillah so far so good.
Anoymous : everyone is like that. however we need to discipline ourself in order to save more money for future