Survivor Series No 12: How To Stay Lean In This Down Time

Posted by admin 31 March, 2009

How to stay lean in this down time

money This statement is, I am afraid, easier say than done. The basic necessities such as groceries, bills, food stuff still need to be paid and these items are must-have expenditure. You can’t delay too long on paying electricity bills or the house will be in total darkness after two to three months of payment default. Some families experience this mini crisis at home and it is not only a moral buster but also pretty embarrassing. This perhaps is the lowest a family can get to. But you will be shocked that many thousands of families go without power at any give one time due to the failure to pay housing power bills.

When I was jobless, our family made out a list of items that we can do away with and we were surprised that they are quite substantial in cost savings when implemented over a period of time:

a. Movies – as a ticket costs around $9.50 during weekend, we save around $30 when the family avoids the movies which we indulged in at least once a week previously. Savings – $120 per month

b. Restaurant – we like a pamper or two occasionally when we were doing well but the downturn had discouraged us from eating in such posh places. We saved around $150 per month this way. Foodcourts are still decent eateries anyway.

c. Holidays – this is a big ticket expense and by not going on holiday we must have saved at least close to $3000 a year. We sticked to cheap holidays in neighbouring countries if we absolutely need a family holiday spending not more than $500 per trip. Gone are the days when we travelled lavishly to Europe, Australia or New Zealand at least once a week. Savings – $2500

d. Car – I was fortunate not to have own a car at all in my life. This is another big money drainer and could easily save us at least $700-800 a month. I must have been the only family in the condominium that does not own a car. Savings – $700 a month. No regrets.

e. Housing – purchasing the private house without first having a full time job must be the biggest purchase mistake of my life. Many friends have advised me to sell and downgrade to HDB flat but as the property market then was very weak, we may even need to top up the bank’s loan after selling the house. So we continue to service the mortgage loan by hook or by croak and it was only after five years later that we could sell the house incurring a loss of around $150,000 due to the bank’s interest. This was deducted from our cash deposit placed with the bank when we first purchased the apartment. No savings here – only major loss.

f. Miscellaneous – I stop buying my favourite music CDs and DVDs. I borrow books from public libraries or buy from second hand bookshops. Savings – $100 a month.

g. Handphone plan – I always find our handphone plans here expensive so I decided to switch to a top up card. There were months that I had over $100 in bill charges when I had a local telco plan and I decided that this had to end. Top up card is affordable and I can control my usage as I can track the balance of the value on my phone. For the big three telco regular plans, there is no way that you can know how much you have spent until the bills come and you get a rude shock of your life. There is also the temptation to upgrade your phone with all the attractive new plan to change your phone every few months. Savings- $50 a month.

h. Maid – we had a maid for about a year or two before we decided to cease her services. Our daughter was only seven years old then and needed someone at home to care for her needs. However, we realized that we could perform most of her duties without sacrificing much at all and by putting our daughter in a after school day care when she turned 10 years old, the maid services were not so essential after all. Savings – $700 a month.

There are many ways to stay lean during tough times but we do not need to be miserly about it. Though cost cutting is important we also do not want to abruptly change our lifestyle totally. That will be total misery as if being jobless is not miserable enough. If you decide to catch a movie to unwind, go for it. Nevertheless, tough times need tough cost-cutting measures. There is no two way about it.

Gilbert Goh

I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us. Frances Hodgson Burnett

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