Suraya's Monthly Budget Update

Budget Update: October 2023 – Working with a Baby

BySuraya
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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 October? Was it good, bad or meh?

For me, October 2023 was a productive month. I’m definitely trying my best to get used to working while taking care of my baby (baby Mika is 5 months old now!). Some days, I manage to put him to sleep and can get in a solid hour worth of work.

But if I’m honest, that’s rare. Most of the time, I could only do my work if:

  • My husband takes care of him, or
  • I do my work at night, after the baby falls asleep, or
  • The work can be completed on phone (rather than laptop)

This means writing is extremely hard (even now, baby Mika is trying to claw me as I type this).

There are some solutions, of course. Using Kiddocare is one. I have even bought 6 sessions. But I find that I ‘save’ them for out-of-home jobs, when most of the time I work from home.

The other solution is going over to my parents/in-laws. I think they’d be fine with this as well – they’d love to spend time with baby Mika too. It’s just, I love working in my own space and set my own schedule.

As of now, baby Mika is still ‘easy’ to take care of – he haven’t started to crawl, let alone walk. But once he does… I think I’ll really have to sort something out just so I can work.

Ah, ramblings of a working mom 🙂 But no matter what, I am grateful that (1) I primarily work from home, and (2) I’m self-employed. I love the flexibility and thank God everyday that I get to spend this much time with my child.

Now let’s get on to the budget part.

Budget Update: October 2023

In October 2023, I spent RM14,196.18. The top 3 top expenses were:

  • Business (RM3,671.78) – Website hosting renewal
  • Donations & Gifts (RM3,591) – Parents’ electric bill, for parents
  • Dates/Travel (RM2,779.25) – Deposit for future travel

Cumulatively, the top 3 expenses make up 72% of my total October 2023 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 October 2023

Here’s what I spent on in the whole month of October 2023, in their respective categories and from highest to lowest amount:

Yay of the Month:

#1 – Renewed RinggitOhRinggit.com for another 3 years

I spent RM3,022.02 for 3-year website hosting and an additional RM469.16 for website migration service.

It looks like a lot but divided by monthly, it’s only ~RM100 a month to keep ringgitohringgit up and running – more than worth it as far as business cost goes.

#2 – Speaker at EPF’s Financial Literacy Week 2023

On 17 October, as part of EPF’s Financial Literacy Week 2023 I delivered ‘Potong Dulu, Belanja Selebihnya’ at EPF Learning Campus. It was wonderful! The EPF team was so professional and wonderful!

Side note: I hope everyone knows that these events may be free for YOU, but really it was subsidised. They pay their speakers (at least, I was paid) so that you can learn for free. Make use of the free stuff!!!

Anyway, you can watch the replay at https://youtube.com/live/CHwY0fHWlco?feature=share (my session starts around 2:00:00).

#3 – Paid deposit for future travel

I may have spent over RM14,000 in October 2023, but RM3.5k of that was for website hosting (see #1), and another RM4k was deposit for future travel plans, scheduled around late Jan 2024.

Can’t wait for this 🙂

#4 – Sold baby stuff

At ~650square feet, we don’t have a lot of space for extras so regular decluttering is a must. Happily I’ve managed to throw out and sold quite a bit of items. In particular, I’ve sold a bunch of baby stuff, adding RM350 in my pocket yay.

#5 – Bitcoin went up + won RM50 from Luno

Always happy when bitcoin price went up yay.

To add to the joy, I found out I also won RM50 worth of bitcoin from Luno :)) Don’t tell the rest of the digital asset exchange but Luno is my favourite now <3

#6 – Misc

Spoke at:

#1 – The Landscape of Digital Entrepreneurship and Freelancing organised by Mereka.io

#2 – A session on Managing Personal Finance for SIDC’s Islamic Capital Market Talent Development Programme

Read 1 book:

  • Born a Crime : Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

Bought for myself:

  • 1 x dress
  • 3 x tudung
  • 2 x Oxwhite shirt
  • Secondhand baby books
  • A beautiful abstract painting from independent local artist
  • 7 x books from Bookxcess

Nay of the Month:

#1 – High groceries

Despite redeeming RM300 worth of AEON Big cash vouchers from Maybank Treatpoints last month, at RM1,105.51, my groceries bill was still high! Wtf did I buy?!

#2 – Ate out a lot

We ate out 8 times in October 2023! That’s twice a week on average, a lot! Definitely something to cut back on.

…Or should I? Admittedly the eating out gave me a lot of joy. I won’t stop, just reduce perhaps. 1x a week max.

This is the justification I gave myself. When I shared online, can see many of y’all think like this too ahahahah

Things to Look Forward to:

  • Continuing to sell more courses and books on my Shopee shop
  • Reading books and writing articles

Well, that was my October 2023. 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)


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