Budget Update: February 2024 – Extended Maternity Leave
Welcome to another edition of my monthly budget updates, where I break down my expenses by category and share the highlights and lowlights of the month.
So how was your February? Was it good, bad or meh?
For me, February 2024 was very much centered around family. After much thought, I have decided to be baby Mika’s primary caregiver for at least 2 years and thus have pared down my work to the bare minimum.
Reflecting back, I think I was already doing this unofficially ever since baby Mika was born but I wasn’t intentional with it so I was dealing with guilt as well – not fun.
However, I do know that even during this ‘break’, I still want to work. I enjoy it too much. I don’t want ‘mother’ to be my only identity. So I’m just going to work as a hobby I guess. A hobby that still generates me RM5k per month on average in 2024 so far – not bad.
Now let’s get on to the budget part.
Budget Update: February 2024
In February 2024, I spent RM8,442.28. The top 3 top expenses were:
- Donations & Gifts (RM1,703.70) – Parents’ electric bill, gift moneys
- Insurance & Medical (RM1,598.40) – Annual medical cover
- Dates/Travel (RM1,345.97) – Compiled umrah expenses
Cumulatively, the top 3 expenses make up 56% of my total February 2024 expenses.
(My belief is, if you want to save money, trim first from the top 3 expenses rather than cut out a few ringgits from other already-low expenses)
My Spending Breakdown in February 2024
Here’s what I spent on in the whole month of February 2024, in their respective categories and from highest to lowest amount:
Yay of the Month:
#1 – Sold over >100 courses on Shopee!
My How to Buy Your Own Damn Insurance course have hit three-digits sales on Shopee woohoo!
The next figure to reach is 300, so that I can claim ‘over 1000 have taken the course’ hehe.
But for real, I’m grateful. Y’all leave amazing reviews on Shopee, too. I’m crazy thankful.
#2 – Finally subscribed to Youtube Premium
No more ads on Youtube woohoo!!! I was okay with it until they started serving 20-second ads in the middle of videos. So now I’m paying RM33.90 per month for the Family plan.
Additionally, since Youtube Premium comes with Youtube Music, we have also unsubscribed Spotify. Happily, the transition wasn’t horrible. I found a service that transferred most of my playlist over, so I’m not starting from scratch.
#3 – Bitcoin hit ATH
Welcome back, bitcoin all-time-high. I missed you 🙂
#4 – Attended a couple of weddings
We had a couple of weddings from extended family members. It was fun to attend them (and watch relatives ooh and ahh over Baby Mika’s cuteness haha)
#5 – Brought baby Mika to a play session
I’m super happy and the RM70 was absolutely worth it. I learned so many things. Now I can do some of the sensory play myself too, with things lying around the house
Yesterday I took Baby Mika to a sensory play session. It was RM70
— Suraya: bestselling Bergaji & Pokai book (@surayaror) February 26, 2024
There were at least 20 kids. RM70 x 20 = RM1.4k
Minus tools, rental space etc; pure profit is RM1k/day
8x a month is RM8k
Run by 3 people-that's RM2667 per person. Better income than childcare center! Good! pic.twitter.com/sU8jsvxQPf
#6 – Misc
Read 1 book:
- We Need to Talk About Money by Otegha Uwagba
Bought for myself:
- Baju kurung
- Dress
- Some skincare
- 2 x Scholl sandals
- Some stuff from Uniqlo
- A new Ledger Nano
Nay of the Month:
#1 – Cat had fleas
Yoshi the cat had fleas. I suspect he picked it up from the cat boarding place, when we were away from umrah.
Thankfully, we were able to quickly get the fleas drops medication thing and seems like Yoshi is recovering from it well.
#2 – Bought but didn’t attend courses
I bought a couple of courses but find myself not attending them. Which is obviously an example of wasting money.
Not sure if this is a good or bad thing. Need to self-reflect on this a bit more.
Things to Look Forward to:
- Ramadan. Hope it will be a spiritually fulfilling month for me. I’m also curious how or if it will affect my budget. Will I mostly cook at home, or buy more food? Guess I’ll find out.
Well, that was my February 2024. How was yours? What’s your yay of the month, nay of the month, and something you’re looking forward to? Tell me in the comments section 🙂
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To read about my past monthly budget update, click here. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (find out your budgeting style)
