A few posts ago, I wrote about my goal of saving at least $20,000 this year. I also mentioned about my anticipated big expenses this year, which were mainly my Philippine holiday and my hubby’s immigration expenses.
Let’s see that again…
Philippine holiday:
- Airfares – $2,000
- Pocket money – $3,000
Hubby’s immigration:
- Visa application charge – $2,000
- Airfares – $2,000
- Pocket money – $3,000
The good news is, I’ve saved a few hundreds on the airfares, as they turned out to cost much less than what I had in my budget. Hurray! Hurray!
However, sometime in between that post and this, I have acquired another regular monthly expense – my mobile phone plan of $29 each month, for 24 months. I do believe it was a good decision to get that plan though. With my previous phone, I pay, sometimes, as much as $99, during those times when I had to send more text messages to him more often, to answer his questions regarding some requirements that were necessary for my visa. It was not good. I end up spending a lot, but still not having the liberty of texting or calling him as much as I want. With my new phone plan, I was able to call him for almost an hour last Valentine’s day, text him more often, and can even talk to him for two minutes every night, just to hear his voice and say a sweet good night.
Now, with the help of
- all the foods I’ve taken to work, instead of eating out or buying ready-to-eat meals,
- using my new phone to the advantage, including tweeting items on sale at my online store
- additional savings, because I set aside a bigger budget for the airfares than what I actually spent
- religiously monitoring my income and expenses
I’m happy to report that as of now, I’m anticipating a savings of $15,000 by the years end.
But still, that is not my goal. It’s $20,000 or more… preferably more.
What have I recently done to hopefully increase my anticipated savings?
- read Ramit Sethi’s blog and gained confidence to ask a salary increase from my boss (not yet approved, but we’re having staff appraisal meeting next week!)
- opened another eBay account (which I will use only for selling) and sell stuff regularly
- read Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad (still currently reading…) which I was lucky enough to find at the library last week!
- continue patronizing my favorite Op Shop (which sells $2-and-below clothes, etc), instead of the usual retail stores
- borrow books, magazines and DVDs from the library, instead of buying (no problem joining Black March, so there! :-D)
And what do I want to do to be able to earn/save more?
- follow Robert Kiyosaki’s lessons in Rich Dad, Poor Dad and use my brains to be able to make my money work for me
- have more discipline on time management… meaning,
—- check Facebook only once a day and spend a maximum of 10 minutes on it
—- check emails only twice a day (morning and evening)
—- stop idling away hours on Pinterest! (lol!.. but really, yeah, I should)
—- use all these saved time on more productive, money-making tasks
At the moment, that’s it. I nearly died on typing “stop idling away hours on Pinterest”, but it’s indeed a practical goal. Maybe, when I get that pay raise, I’ll treat myself with 30 minutes of idling on Pinterest. :-)
