Budget Update: May 2020
Budget Update: May 2020
In May 2020, I spent a total of RM4799.69, with two-thirds of that across only 2 categories: Donations & Gifts and Rent & Utilities.
Most donations went to Raya food orders (saved my family the trouble to cook on Raya Day 2) and duit raya giveaway. At first I was like hmm I should donate to other causes too (and I did), but then I remembered, charity starts at home.
May 2020 was a very strange month. I think I was out of focus for a good chunk of the month, due to (1) fasting, and (2) still processing the pandemic. Some days I feel like I’m handling it well, some days I just kinda zombie out and just do the bare minimum, professionally speaking.
What would you suggest I do? Advice wanted. I want to ‘snap out of it’ so bad. I want my pre-pandemic mental clarity back.
My Spending Breakdown in May 2020
In this section, I’m sharing what I spent on in the whole month, in their respective categories. From highest to lowest, my expenses were:
Some categories, like Social (activities with friends) are not recorded at all, because those expenses didn’t happen.
Moving on to the yays and nays of the month –
Yay of the Month:
- Bought my first ever premium phone – iPhone 11. Managed to put it on an instalment plan, so that’s RM289.12 which I need to pay every month for the next 12 months. (warning! not promoting instalment plans! I can afford to pay in full.) (I need to mention this purchase enough times so I can justify it as a business expense come tax season lol)
- Happy to say that MPH Distributors agreed to stock up Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 2 in bookstores! You’ll soon see copies in stores. (although… I’m aware bookstores aren’t doing too well nowadays 🙁 Support your bookstores if you can, everyone)
- Sent flowers to my Mom for Mother’s Day and made her very happy 🙂
- Had an okay Raya, considering everything. My first time Raya-ing in Klang Valley.
- Website traffic SHOT THE HELL UP. RinggitOhRinggit.com recoded 75k views in May 2020 (it was hovering between 55-65k per month previously). I still don’t know which page shared it. If that’s you, THANK YOU
- Did a few collaborations, including with Unrestricted Stage:
- And did my first international webinar
Nay of the Month:
- Didn’t read any books. Again.
- Paid a backlog of electricity bills that I completely forgot about, totaling RM194.15. Sigh, the sucky part of being an adult is forgetting a problem = postponing the problem, not eliminating it. So it’s just best to tackle it head-on (I should take my own advice)
- Website income was greatly affected due to less ad spend by companies
covid-19 has greatly impacted my income from website ad 🙁 USD200 in Dec ’19 to USD80 in May ’20#ezoic pic.twitter.com/ivZ3bNNws8
— Suraya ringgitohringgit.com (@surayaror) May 26, 2020
- Paid RM75 in service tax for my 3 credit cards, or RM25 each
- My driving licence expired, so I paid RM152 to renew it for another 5 years
- The SOCAR car I booked had a flat tyre. Not their fault, and to their credit, they replaced with another vehicle soon enough, but wow was that mafan.
Things to Look Forward to:
- …? What am I looking forward to? I’m not sure. I’ve always had some sort of travel planned out, but obviously none of that is happening now.
What are YOU looking forward to? Do share, can do with new ideas and inspiration. Feeling a bit lost.
—
To read about my past monthly budget update, click here. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (how expense tracking works)
You can actually try to call your bank and ask for your RM25 to be waived. I’ve done it for PBB and SCB before. For MBB, they want you to use TreatPoints to ‘waive’. For HLB, they will never waive it.
Thanks for the info, PKLee! Oh use Treatpoints is it? Hmm might as well continue collect to redeem other cash vouchers :/
Anyone have tried calling CIMB?
Nice one! I liked how you shared it and it has inspired me to start tracking mine too. I’ve also been more disciplined and vigilant in my spending during this pandemic. Even renewing my domain name had me at ‘need’ or ‘want’ aduh!
I’m biased, but domain name would be a need!
Haha do what’s best, there’s no right answer. Who knows you get a client from your website this year, who hired you cos you look professional? 😀
Suraya, why did you go for the installments rather than paying in full? Isn’t lump sum payment cheaper?
P/s: Totally understand the zombied out feeling due to the pandemic. I normally take more naps and more screen off time.
Hey Anon,
My personal opinion is loans and installments are best used by people who don’t need it. I’ll always (hopefully) have enough in my account to cover the automatic deductions. That’s why I took that option.
Thanks for the advice. Need to take more naps I guess!
You can still get 0% interest installment if you use credit card and pay on time though.
Would you mind sharing some tips to increase web traffic?
Aside from content, I am obsessed with trying out different digital marketing strategies. Wrote a case study here: https://ringgitohringgit.com/blogging/blog-digital-marketing-strategy/
Thanks Suraya! Great advice. I really should be more aware of my spending.
Sometimes I was “zombie out” too and feeling moody. What I would usually do is “do something”, e.g balcony gardening, watching how-to guides on Youtube, website audit for clients, and just anything.
All the best with your spending, and your business over at Jinmatic, Terence 🙂 Thanks for swinging by!