Post a Comment On: Occasional Ramblings

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Piggy Series
Originally uploaded by Jepster It's a fresh new year and I'm still trying to pay off the expenses I incurred during the holidays. That is why for this year, I have resolved to be more budget conscious (no more impulse buying *sob*) and hopefully finish the projects I have started last year that I was not able to complete because of lack of funds. The biggest of these projects is of course my flat which after more than 2 years since moving in still looks like a storage space with a small clearing for the bed and a small table.

Things that I should spend less on:
* Eating out -- I used to cook often but lately I have been eating out a lot. I hope to change that this year. The downside is that I tend to get fatter when I do my own cooking :p
* Buying overpriced coffee -- Ok I admit it, I have probably spend a whole lot of money on coffee than I should have just for the months of November, December and January. All because of a lousy planner that I have just gave away to friends. It would have been cheaper if I just had bought them the planner instead of collecting all those promo stickers from Starbucks.
* Impulse buying -- the year 2007 was a landmark year for me in terms of impulse buying. The items ranged from a nice mini tripod that I just had to buy to a very nice Bluetooth keyboard for my equally nice new phone (the keyboard was one-third the price of my phone). That also includes all the cheap but moderately useful items I buy from my favorite budget gadget store (CDRKING). And did I really need that new widescreen LCD monitor? I'm guessing not.
* Fuel and car maintenance related expenses -- I'm not sure what I can do about this category but this represents a huge chunk of my total expenses in 2007. A colleague suggested I stop doing my maintenance checks with the OEM and stick with 3rd parties offering the same services instead. Almost all of my Christmas-bonus just went to that single maintenance repair. Bummer huh... :(