budgetary issues

Truthfully, I've abandoned my quicken from mid-March until April- so that means I have no idea where my money went for those two months. But mmm after checking out my calendar, I knew most of them went for travel. First, my trip to KL in March and another one shopping spree to Bandung in April. This travel-craze gotta stop! It's sooo draining my bank account- maybe I should learn to backpack when travel-save more and travel more...
But from my mid-year audit (should consider auditor as a career) - my expense for fuel in January was ~RM250, while predicted expense for fuel this month is ~RM400++ (that's like almost double of what it used to be!). I would rather spend that extra rm200 on something else like my emergency fund, insurance or even to charity. I'd say that now, but honestly seeing money, I probably spend it on myself. Even now, I've been extremely kedekut with my fuel-only drive to parents home once a week still costs a lot. Should really consider carpooling. It's kinda sayang to see empty passenger seats beside me and at the back (single passenger tambah jammed only). So... I'm advertising myself- any interested hitch hikers??? Don't worrrryyy, I'm an extemely careful driver (hahahaha) and I promise (double promise even) to wake up early!

**Good finance article: Young, Prosperous and Frugal

So from news/rumors, I heard that batch of spm 99 of my school will have its 10 years reunion in January next year. Hmmmm, if I'm like Marissa/Serena/Blair Waldorf, I wouldn't mind showing off my face. But i'd like to think I'm more like Seth Cohen or Dan Humphrey- hehehhe... It's not even confirmed yet, so we'll see if people can actually plan and execute it (i've retired from the planning business yea).

I received sms from Aisya- who mentioned about eco-bag after she read this. This article mentioned how environmental awareness in m'sia is still low. What shocking is this: if we collect the rubbish/garbage m'sian throw away in only NINE days, it could reach the height of KLCC! In average, people are using 8 plastic bags in a week and it takes 100 years to 500 years for plastic to decompose. Apparently recycling in Msia is one of the lowest in the world with only 5% compared to Switzerland 52%, Germany 48% and other european Countries. But it's sooo true, I've never seen a proper recycling center in KK. I mean, I've seen few, but most of recycling bin are filled with other garbage... I've gotten my red-envirosax from mia bambina earlier this year that I just toss in my handbag for my groceries. I wonder if I should learn to make compost (not gelikah this?)....

time for bed... See if I'm rajin to update tomorrow ;)

frugality in action

So, over the weekend I've been thinking of new ways to cut down expenses. Every ringgit counts!
1)Thinking of downgrading Streamyx at home. currently using 1MB Rm88 and thinking to switch to 512KB plan RM66 (amount saved RM22). We're using the rm66 plan in papar home for few computers, and so far it's bearable.
2)My mac compact powder is halfway finished (bought in march this year), with everything sooo expensive, there's no way I'm buying another mac (except for its nice concealer). Thinking of switching to less fancy brand (same as whimsy's plan), how's body shop?
3)Make own drinks. Will stock up nescafe 3-in-1 in the office. RM9 for 30 packets (enough for 1 month of caffeine supply)
4)If there's meeting at another dept, walk (instead of drive) under the freakin' hot sun! Plus, I get 15 minutes of free exercise-I'm gonna try this tomorrow.
5)Walk to the market to buy groceries. Pasar/Market is considered near my house. I'm guessing it's less than 1km. Parking near the shops are difficult after work (very limited!), even more the police tend to summon those who park illegally even for 5 minutes (obstructing traffic at highway). I can consider this as my half-marathon training :)
6)Use less aircond- I'm going shopping for a standing fan (good quality one) for papar home, I'm guessing the price should be around rm150. Amount saved from using less-aircond rm40 monthly? I know this is the opposite of saving, but over few months, I should see less electricity bill.
7)Plan journey. Go back to papar-home twice a week only (except when carpooling with others) - or when i'm out of baju/craving for mom's cooking/pick up barang tertinggal papar's closet. With fuel price costing rm2.70/litre, journey from papar home to office can cost whopping rm20 return trip.

So far, I've started my frugal plan for breakfast this morning: 1 cuppa instant coffee and half packet of tiger biscuit... I know... I know... it's sooo inbalanced-no fruits nor protein - but with price of fruits/milk/others go up, who can afford having a truly balance meal?

my frugal plan

After reading whimsy's frugal plan, I'm inspired to think of my new frugal plan as well...
1-Have breakfast at home/bring breakfast from home (amount saved RM2-RM3 daily)
2-Make own coffee at the office
3-Go home at 5 SHARP or after 6 PM to avoid crazy traffic (amount saved, I'm guessing RM3-RM5?)
4-Avoid eating(driving) out on lunch break (despite the lousy food they have in the office cafe)
5-Less gayut/sms on the phone (amount saved RM10-RM30)
6-Switch off lappie(thinkpad) before going to sleep (except when I'm downloading my tv shows). Herda, how about we trade shows?
7-Learn to sleep with the lights OFF (yes, I've been sleeping with the lights ON all these while)
8-Only switch on AC right before going to sleep and/or if it's really hot
9-Only use hot shower for super-early morning shower or super-late shower
10-Plan/have groceries list to avoid going groceries shopping so often
11-Limit (fancy) dining out
12-Limit books purchase, except for super-good books which are worth to add in my books collection. Be best friend with library. I mean how many of us bought RM35 book, read it once, and toss in the bookshelf just to show off our book collections?
13-Find a multipurpose shoes/bag that can be used for everything. No more that formal bag/casual bag/i'm hip bag/big camera bag/escape bag/and the gazillion other handbags we need for many different reasons
14-Avoid unnecessary shopping

fuel hike

I'm sure all of you aware of last night's big news. The increase of fuel price from RM1.95 to RM2.70. It was raining super-heavy yesterday evening, and I didn't know about it until I get to parents home. No wonder it was jammed on my way (I thought it was due to the heavy rain). When I got home, my dad was busy filling up fuel all the cars at home. And... in Papar there's only ONE gas station which is near Papar Superstore. The other one closed at 6pm (What kind of gas station closed early???).

My car previously for 10 ringgit can last for 60kms, now it's only for 40 kms.
Home to office 25kms ~travel time 40 minutes to an hour one way
Parents home to office 60kms ~travel time 1 hour to 1.5 hour one way
* I wonder if there's any shift work in kk I can change to. lana/mel said working in shift has an advantage of not having to go through heavy traffic during peak hours.

With this new fuel price, I am pretty sure there will be price hike in other things. Food, groceries, transportation, and everything else. The hawkers also will take advantage of this. Example, for breakfast, mee goreng will be rm2 from rm1.50 and fried egg from rm0.80 to rm1 - so that's rm3 just for breakfast! Okaylah, maybe for some people rm3 is nothing, but still, every small thing adds up.

I think this would be hard for the low-income group. People might now know about unemployment rate in sabah. It's a sad thing to see many graduates with degrees but without jobs. Since malaysia doesn't enforce any minimal wage, employees take this as advantage and freely give low-salary to these people. Being a clerk with RM500 pay is considered very normal in kk. You're lucky if you get your first salary above 1k. My first pay didn't even qualify me to get a credit card, so I'm pretty grateful now...

Crimes of course expected to go up (obviouslly). Pencuri also have to work over-time to overcome this price hike.

I remember the last fuel-price hike, they say they would be using the subsidy money to improve public transportation. But in KK, I don't see any difference in the public transportation. The buses still the same, they're driven by reckless and dangerous driver, stop as they like without signals, come out from junction as they like. I don't even know if the drivers even hold a legal mykad/driving license. Scarrrry... Train/Tram/Lrt are non-existant in kk (for now). Right now, they're building new railway for the KTM train from tenom-beufort-papar-kk. No, it's not the super-fancy fast train. It's the leisure old-fashion super-slow train which takes longer time than driving. I think that's why people in sabah mostly drive personal cars (4wd - to compensate the bad roads!).

Altho, eventhough it's 40% price hike, they say it's still considered one of the lowest price in the world(aside from brunei). Maybe we need to get away from this subsidy-mindset, too bad they had to do it sooo drastically rather than slowly. Hopefully the subsidy money would be diverted to something that could benefit the people (not one of those space programmes again!)...

Since it's World Enviroment Day today, I take this as a good sign to start thinking of energy conservation. On my way home everyday, I always see many maaaaany cars with 1 passenger(driver) only. Maybe it's time to consider car-pooling. Also other things like only use the needed water/electricity. Reduce-Recyle- and what else? Oh maybe we should go back to nature like plant our own vegetables (whimsy's plant looks soo nice).

Here are my frugal websites in my google reader:-
http://www.frugal101.com
StopBuyingCrap.com
Fisforfrugal
thesimpledollar