December Spending & January Budget
Money Diaries 2023
Welcome to my first post of 2024! And hello to everyone who is new to this newsletter — many of you just recently subscribed to me after watching my 2024 YouTube videos. This is my monthly blogpost where I share my spending for the last month + my budget for the new month, with some brief reflections on how the budget had worked out for me. It’s a way for me to stay accountable to myself to check in every month on how things are going on the finance side of things.
It sounds like a lot of work, but I’ve come to really enjoy the routine of sitting down every month to check in with my finances. I make my favourite drink (iced coffee), I play music that I really like (these days it’s been a lot of Taylor Swift), and I get to it. If I’m not writing this blogpost, it would take me about 1 hour, but since I write these blogposts, it usually takes me 2-3 hours. And no matter how busy I am, I’m always glad that I took the time to reset my finances, plan a new budget, and start on a clean slate every month.
December 2023 Spending
Fixed Spending (Utilities, Insurance, Transport, etc.)
Public transport: $100.57 ($100 budgeted)
Electricity bill: $76 ($100 budgeted)
Gas & water bill: $30.24 ($50 budgeted)
Joint Account: $320 ($200 budgeted)
Shortfall: -$71.40
Comments: I had budgeted $100 for public transport but I’m still shocked that I hit exactly that. Goodbye to the days of $70 monthly transport costs! On the flip side, that means I’m going out more and socialising more, and having a more active life outside of the four walls of my home. Also, with the season of socialising and gift-giving, my partner and I overspent our budget by quite a bit, so we had to top up halfway through the month.
Household Spending (Food & Household Expenses)
$350 budgeted, $417.84 spent (exceeded $67.84)
Food: $211.68
Dining out: $139.99
GrabFood: $32.79
Drink: $28.40
Groceries: $10.50
Household Expenses: $168.94
Household toiletries: $62.85
Household tools: $50.58
Household cleaning supplies: $47.38
Home improvement: $8.11
Taxi: $37.24
Shortfall: -$67.84
Comments: Shortfall everywhere!!! I usually don’t exceed my budget for food & household expenses but this month I did. I bought quite a few backups of household essentials and toiletries, so hopefully those expenses won’t be so high in the earlier part of the new year.
Joint Account Spending (per person)
$200 budgeted per person, $336.17 spent
Food & Drink: $214.61
Shopping: $37.69
Gifts: $33.37
Taxi: $27.90
Experiences: $22.6
Total: $336.17 (per person)
Comments: I realised I forgot to track the past two months… but anyway this month was a high-spend month because it was the season of holiday gift-giving and socialising.
Sinking Funds
Monthly Sinking Fund
$100 budgeted, $358.91 spent (exceeded $258.91)
Personal care: $196.60
Entertainment: $45.96
Non-essential home tools: $38.95
Charity, Donations, Causes: $29.11
Home decor: $28.03
Experiences: $11
Gifts: $6.21
Books: $1.57
Tech & Apps: $1.49
Shortfall: -$258.91
Comments: No surprises here; I had expected to blow my $100 monthly budget and to have to dip into my Medium-term Sinking Fund. If you’ve seen my 2024 Money Goals video, you know that I’m planning an online-shopping ban for 2024. I’m hoping this will reduce my tendency to overspend in this category — but more importantly, I hope my purchases will be more considered and intentional.
Extra “passive” income from December 2023
Selling: $83
Credit card cashback: $53.87
Interest money: $8.56
Total: $145.43
Comments: I’m transferring all of this to my Medium-term Sinking Fund. I use my Medium-term Sinking Fund to offset all the shortfalls in other categories.
Year-End Bonus (1 month)
I received a 1-month bonus in December, which is approximately $3,177 after CPF (I skimmed a bit off the top to supplement my January budget so that I have exactly $4,100 to budget). I’m allocating my bonus in the following way:
Investments: $1,000 (Approx. 30% of my bonus — for all my bonuses, I’ll try to apply this rule and put 30% of it into retirement investments.)
Holiday Fund: $1,000
Driving Fund: $500 (I’m resuming my driving lessons in 2024)
Family Fund: $377
Medium-term Sinking Fund: $300
January 2024 Budget
P.S. I usually take last month’s salary to budget for the next month — i.e., my January budget is coming from my salary that came in December. Since I haven’t started work at my new job, I technically haven’t gotten my first $4,500 salary yet. What I did was take skim a bit from my AWS bonus to add to my take-home salary for December, adding up to $3600 (excluding $500 in extra income from side-hustles) to budget for January.
There are U-Save vouchers this month for S&CC (0.5) and utilities, so I’m taking them out of my budget for January.
I’ve also finished paying off my Taxes for 2023, and I don’t have any monthly taxes to pay until the next cycle starts sometime in May.
No change to my life insurance premium payments.
No changes from the original plan.
With the extra cash that I don’t have to budget for utilities this month, I’m putting an extra $100 in Medium-term investments and Family Fund respectively.
For this month, I’m just going to invest my $700 in StashAway General Investing (which is a roboadvisor) while I continue educating myself about other methods of investing.
Here are my allocation percentages this month:
Looking good so far!
In case you missed it, here are my YouTube videos explaining my money goals and my budgeting framework.
My 2024 Money Goals:
How I’m budgeting my salary in 2024:
My daily expense tracker app:
I recently did an update on my Net Worth for 2023: