Lifestyle expenses
As I keep track of my expenses using Microsoft Money (yes, I can be anal like that), I thought it’d be interesting to see how much money I spend in cafes.
So, from 01 January to 31 December 2003,
MYR340.39 went to Starbucks
MYR201.75 went to Jerome’s
MYR181.18 went to Dome
MYR168.39 went to Coffee Bean
MYR103.66 went to San Francisco Coffee
MYR 79.70 went to Cafe Appassionato
MYR 60.38 went to Alexis
MYR 58.00 went to Chinoz
MYR 43.44 went to Delifrance
That’s MYR1236.89 in total spent on the above cafes. It does not include the sums I had spent in “proper” restaurants for “proper” meals throughout the year, or the smaller total amounts spent on the odd visits to other cafes. My total food bill for the year amounted to MYR10,112.88 - this includes all groceries, meals, snacks, coffee (including the cafes listed above). This also includes sums spent treating friends and significant others to meals etc. The surprising result of the report was that I had spent MYR364.42 in, of all places, McDonald’s!! I obviously have a very healthy diet…!
The largest identified recipient of my money in 2003 was IKEA. I had spent MYR3102.54 in the shop - mostly because of a new 3-seater sofa and foot-stool. The second largest was Isetan - MYR2930.69 went into clothes and fashion in the departmental store for the year!
Updated at 21H: Here are more ghastly details of my “lifestyle expenses” last year.
* I spent MYR1108 at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas in 2003 - this was for season tickets to a selection of concerts over the course of one year.
* TMNet took MYR848.78 of my money for ADSL broadband services.
* MYR2012.21 was spent last year for vacation (not including the shopping and food that became part of it).
* MYR531.82 was spent on gifts (for various occassions).
* MYR4302.32 went to various leisure expenses, mostly books, magazines and the cinema. Yes, I do spend a lot on reading material.
Posted on March 1st, 2004 by jl
Filed under: Notable: Personal
do you enter the amt straight away on your PDA or do you do it at the end of the day or the week
I hope you have a loyalty card from Starbucks and get your lifetime supply of, er…. napkins?
Holy cow.
Now I see the relevantness of MS Money, heheh (yes I can be anal too). You’re giving starbucks waaay too much money, friend. But then again as long as you feel it’s worth it
LoL.
js: I try to do it on a daily basis. I have an application on my Palm PDA that will sync with the desktop MS Money. I sometimes key in the data immediately, but most days I just wait until I get home at the end of the day. Since I use credit cards for most of my purchases anyway, there aren’t that many cash transactions to keep track of.
?: Well…with the Hong Leong MTV credit card, I get 20% off at Starbucks. The problem is that the bank cancelled my card a month ago due to suspected cloning and still HAS NOT replaced it!!!
Ash.ox: it’s not as much money as I expected. I thought it would be more…! With the average bill at Starbucks being MYR10, I would have gone there about 30 times last year. That works out to about 2.5 times a month. Not as often as I thought it would be…
Actually, that makes it about as many times as I go there. Interesting, once you put it that way. Of course, my regular DVD and video game vendor will tell you that I’ve probably spent as much on them.
Gaaah.
(runs off to get MS Money)
At least u keep track of yr money, so u can rectify any areas that need modifications.
how i wish i can be as organised as you, jikon, to keep track of my spendings.
methinks what i spent on a lot would be food (sure one as in penang the food paradise!) and beauty stuff!
ha! not surprising eh for a lady to spent on beauty stuff. you know stuffs like cosmetics, hair colour, nail varnish and even toiletries (sorry dunno spelling) like shampoo, hair gel or spray and so on. and do you know last year i started going for facial which cost me around RM1200 for 6 sessions! taken 2 rounds already and am going for the 3rd soon.
ahh… vanity is my name indeed.
I bet you’re an accountant.
cherzleen - au contraire, my dear. I’m a political scientist who gave up on economics a long time ago! In fact, I’m just about to give up on positivism altogether!
you might also want to include domain name fee, server fee for blogging (if you pay for them, lah)
hey there…been a reader since a fren told me about your rantings on DFP’ bag policy. Anyway, I use Quicken for my expenses, just to share. Another thing, since you spend a lot on concerts, y don’t u subscribe? At cheaper price, u can enjoy a lot more concerts and get discounts for the other concerts which are not in the subscription…..(talking on the assumption that you are not one yet)
take care!
I’d just like to say I’m an accountant and proud!
I don’t keep the records you do Jikon (you know, rather like builders have the worst houses?) although I do when I’m “up against it” (financially I mean!). It’s certainly useful to use it as you are to reflect on your spending patterns and decide whether you’re happy with them.
I dread to think how much I spend on, er, “entertaining” myself and others… maybe I should keep records to prove to myself it’s not as bad, or worse? than I assume?!
Mike x
u obviously a ‘coffee / cafe freak.’
that’s an awfully insane amount of money spent Jikon.
should consider cutting off a bit.
cekbi - yeah… I know. That’s why it helps to analyse the data once in a while and make adjustments where necessary.
The thing is, most of you out there are probably spending the same amount, if not more, in cafes. You just don’t know it!
OmiGod….
That reminds me..I have yet to activate MS Money on my PDA! Fantastic job, Jikon, on the expenses. Salute!