Budget Update September 2024 – Grocery Shopping in Another Country
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 September? Well, we went traveling – belanja my lil family their first Europe trip! Did 10 days between Denmark + Sweden + Abu Dhabi. Total spent: RM23.5k. Shared the expense breakdown in this instagram post so feel free to click it if you wanna know 🙂
Now let’s get on to the budget part.
Budget Update: September 2024
In September 2024, I spent (a whopping) RM23,346.28. The top 3 top expenses were:
- Dates/Travel (RM16,114.16) – Copenhagen+Malmo+Abu Dhabi trip
- Utilities & Mortgage (RM1,371) – Half mortgage
- Business (RM1,319.81) – Hired copywriter, fb ads

Cumulatively, the top 3 expenses ASIDE FROM TRAVEL make up 16% of my total September 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 September 2024
Here’s what I spent on in the whole month of September 2024, in their respective categories and from highest to lowest amount:


Yay of the Month:
#1 – Grocery shopping in another country
At over RM16k, can’t deny that my travel spending is crazy high. But I did get to do one of my fav thing EVER – grocery shopping in another country.
We did just that in Copenhagen. I knew eating out is going to be expensive so we mostly cooked ourselves. We got an apartment with a kitchen and spent hours in Lidl and Netto just looking for fun ingredients. We got bread, fruits, fish, vegetables, milk and eggs. We got pastries, snacks, ready-to-eat meals and cereals. Everything was different and new and exciting.
It was just perfect, I’m still getting a lot of joy remembering the grocery runs.
#2 – Got one of the nicest reviews for my course
I mostly rely on word of mouth and social media marketing to promote my course, How to Buy Your Own Damn Insurance/Takaful course (which is available at Shopee – Obligatory link: https://shope.ee/7KUZeNqjvI)
Received one of the nicest reviews ever. Scroll right to read the whole thing!
#3 – The Landing Page project is bleeding money… but fun
Something I’ve been quietly working on is a landing page project, where the hope is I could find the right ad set to automate course sales. The hope is I could spend say RM100 in ads and it’ll generate, say, RM1000 in sales.
But easier said than done. I’ve been testing for a few months (with the help of some people) and I haven’t found a winning ad set yet. In fact expenses for this project have wayyyy outpaced income. Frankly this project is losing me money every month.
Yet I’m enjoying the challenge. I’m enjoying tinkering with it. Figuring out hooks funnels effective copy FB targeting, they’re all fun. My only wish is I have more time to dedicate to it.
Takpe, soon baby Mika will go to preschool and I’ll have more time for this. I’ll just have to be patient.
#4 – Misc
Read 0 books 🙁
Bought for myself:
- A dress and 2 jeans from H&M
- Some belts from Loviso (which I regret)
- A new phone case
- 2 dresses from Carousell for RM70
- A massage
- A shawl to support a social enterprise
Nay of the Month:
#1 – Paid additional taxes to LHDN due to an honest mistake 🙁
So I declared one particular income (book royalties) in the wrong column and LHDN pursued me. I had to pay RM709.04 extra 🙁
Yeah I *could* dispute this error but (1) you still have to pay the amount first, dispute later, (2) I only had 1 week left to do it before the dispute period runs out, and most importantly (3) I know the behemoth amount of paperwork needed to prove my innocence and decided shit, I’ll just earn back that money somehow…
Received a love letter from LHDN telling me I need to pay an additional RM709.04 in taxes for 2022 🫠
— Suraya: bestselling Bergaji & Pokai book (@surayaror) September 21, 2024
I checked and I did in fact declared this income…but in the wrong column
could do rayuan I guess but that'll be sooo much paperwork arggh anyone had experience? pic.twitter.com/AmVG6gqE7G
#2 – Lost one of my fav earrings..
Lost one of the gold earrings that my husband gifted me on my birthday… It’s the prettiest one I’ve ever owned and I’m genuinely sad about it 🙁
This makes the second gold earring I’ve lost in 5 years…
Things to Look Forward to:
- Planning for December trip
- Find out the result of my ASBF application. It’s been more than a month and they want more supporting documents but I think I have a fairly persistent agent, so
Well, that was my September 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)