Here are my monthly financials for February 2021.
It is good to keep track and review your monthly financials so you can be in control of your finances.
Having a fixed income and knowing my expenses will not exceed my budget allowed me to not track my expenses before I left my job. I did not feel a need to track my finances strictly as I know I can control my spending. I only tracked my investments diligently.
Since I will not have a fixed source of income soon, I decided to start tracking my financials starting from January 2021. Money will be tight so I need to be extra prudent. This also helps generate content for my website.
Top 3 Income Sources
Allowance – S$1,200
This is from my monthly SGUS allowance. I will stop receiving this when my course ends in May 2021.
Other – S$143.93
S$120 worth of angpows is from my parents. I have passed all the red packets I have received to my mother. This is to cover her angpow expenses. I started doing this last year.
S$23.93 from my IPT training allowance. We get a token sum to cover our transport for attending Army IPT training. This amount is for one session.
Interest – S$134.03
This is made up of the coupon payments from Singapore Savings Bond and interest from Singlife.
Special Mention – Clinical Trial – S$70
This is for attending a screening session to check for eligibility for an upcoming clinical trial. I will be writing on the clinical trial experience when I am done with it.
Top 3 Expense Sources
Investment – S$500
This is my monthly investment in STI ETF using POSB Invest-saver.
Gift – S$220
This is for angpows given to my parents and grandmother. Try to give out e-angpows instead of physical ones next year to reduce waste.
Groceries – S$103.45
The bulk of it is spent at Kim Mart. I came across this site to buy frozen food when I was researching cheap frozen foods in bulk. I have been purchasing from them since 2018 and I make a bulk order every 3 – 4 months. The minimum order for free delivery is S$80 so I only buy it every quarter or so.
I usually buy chicken as it has the most value for money. Take note that not every product is cheaper at Kim Mart. You will need to do some comparison in prices before making your purchases.
The graphic above shows a brief comparison between similar products between Kim Mart and Giant. You can see that there is quite a large amount of savings if you purchase it in bulk from Kim Mart.
However, sometimes, there is some special offer at a grocery store that is cheaper that makes it cheaper than Kim Mart but this does not happen frequently. For example, there is a 1kg packet of frozen chicken breast at only S$3.85 (usual price at S$6.95) available at NTUC at the moment.
Currently, they have a CNY promotion with discount codes valid till 28 February 2021. Remember to check for promotions and key in the codes when during check out. I forgot to check for promotions and I lost out on $6 worth of discounts.
Source: Kim Mart
Money Manager App
I am using an app called Money Manager to track my income and expenses. It is a free tool available on mobile available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
As far as I know, the data collected from the app is for tracking the ads you view and interact with on the app.
Please check out their privacy policy on what information they collect and what is it used for.
Personally, the value this app brings to me outweighs the value of the information I provide to them.
Comment and let me know what you think about tracking your finances.
