Category Archives: Spending / Expenses

AKPK Debt Management Program Blogger’s Trip In Kuala Lumpur

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Posted by Vedis the DMP Blogger on March 4, 2010 – 9:07 am
Filed under Spending / Expenses

Wow, I have been away from my AKPK debt management program’s progress blog for a while! February was long gone and March is here and will be here for a few more weeks.

Time flies, right? Christmas and Chinese New Year was like yesterday only and now it’s March the 4th.

After spending 3D 2N in Kuala Lumpur, I came home yesterday afternoon. It’s a rewarding trip although I had to attend a relative’s funeral on the first night.

I enjoyed my second day in KL the most. Right after breakfast, my younger sister sent me to her beautician for a 2-hour facial, eye and neck treatment. The treatment fee was charged into my sister account, so it’s a free treatment for me. :-)

After the facial treatment, my sister and I had lunch at a nearby coffee shop. I tried to pay for it, but my sister was faster than I was when it came to pulling out money from the purse. So, free lunch for me.

At night, she brought along her two sons and together we went to the Jusco at Setiawangsa. We had our dinner at Sushi King. Ouch, more than RM90 for 4 of us! Of course, my younger sister footed the bill, again.

Each time I try to pay the bill, she will insist on paying. After a few times, I just let her pay without pulling out my purse at all. ;-)

One of the reasons why my younger sister insists on paying is that I am the guest when I am in Kuala Lumpur. I am a guest, so she will pay. Similarly, I will foot the bill when she comes visiting me in Ipoh.

I think another reason is that she takes my visit as an opportunity to spend money. You see, she works very hard and long hours in the shops with her husband. Three shops in a row! They own one and rents the other two shops for their motor biz.

She works from 9 a.m. till 8.30 p.m. every day, except Sunday. In between, she has to go to banks and fetch her kids to and fro schools and tuition centers. Day in and day out, …

She admits that she has money, but she has no time to rest or go traveling. When she finally squeezes out a few days for a short trip, her husband will rant a bit. Sometimes she is fed up with her never ending work routines and hubby who only loves working.

Wow, isn’t it good to have a hubby who enjoys his work very much? My sister is very lucky to have such as a workaholic hubby. Similarly, my brother-in-law is fortunate to have my sister who is good at handling the money, finance, management and customer service of the company.

Due to the workaholic hubby and her acumen in business that they are able to buy another house which is of RM400,000 in this bad economy. Phew, a RM400,000 corner-lot double storey house!

Coming back to my trip in Kuala Lumpur, I spent very little, RM37 on bus fare and less than RM20 on foods and drinks!

How AKPK Debt Management Program Blogger Saves Money As Emergency Fund?

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Posted by Vedis the DMP Blogger on January 30, 2010 – 3:20 pm
Filed under AKPK Debt Management Plan, Credit Card Debts, Credit Cards, Debt Management Tips, Financial News & Updates, Free Debt Reduction Tips, Saving Money, Spending / Expenses

Question: My wife and I know we should have an emergency savings fund, but with one income we have nothing left to save after paying expenses.

But I’ve been thinking of a way to deal with this problem. We charge about $2,000 in monthly expenses to our credit cards, which we then pay in full each month.

My idea is this: Instead of paying off the cards every month, I’ll make only the minimum required payment and save the rest. Once I’ve accumulated a decent emergency fund, I would then begin paying down the cards. Do you think this is a good strategy? — N.G., California

Doesn’t this sound familiar to many people? It definitely sounds familiar to me. ;-)

There was once upon a time in 2007 that hubby and I were living on one income. Life was tough then because there’s so little income in hand, yet there were so many bills like car and home loan installments, term loans, and as many as 15 credit card payments waiting to be paid every month!

It’s very difficult to save for emergency fund after paying all the expenses because there was literally no money left at all!

But since hubby and I enrolled in AKPK debt management program and hubby started his full time teaching job, we have been able to save money as emergency fund.

If you are thinking of paying the minimum credit card payments and saving the rest as emergency fund until you have accumulated a decent amount of emergency fund to paying down the credit cards, well, it may/might never come true.

Financial experts say so. And I say so; I did what the reader above thought of doing and it didn’t work for me. It’s either you find extra money/income or cut down on expenses or do both if you want to save money as emergency fund.

I agree with Walter Updegrave, the author of the article of Big No-No for Building Emergency Savings that, “If you can’t save today because you have no money left after paying your expenses, how are you going to pay those expenses, plus come up with an extra $xxx a month to pay down the credit card balance you racked up to accumulate your emergency fund?”

I also concur with him that it’s more practical to spend less than you make or cut down your expenses to save money.

Well, the reality is that there is only one way to save — and that’s to spend less than you make. There are a number of ways to do that. You can go the “cut the latte” route and avoid relatively small daily expenditures that add up. You can create a budget and then go over it line by line, looking for specific areas to squeeze. You can try two techniques that I’ve advocated in the past, focusing on big-ticket items or employing strategies that can effectively fool you into being a better saver. Whatever works for you. But one way or another, you’re going to have to find a way to pare your spending.

… But I also know that borrowing to save is an oxymoronic concept that’s more likely to create problems than solve them.

What A Lucky Money Month For AKPK Debt Management Program Blogger!

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Posted by Vedis the DMP Blogger on January 20, 2010 – 8:23 am
Filed under AKPK Debt Management Plan, Credit Card Debts, Debt Management Programs, Emergency Funds, Income Streams, Saving Money, Spending / Expenses

AKPK Debt Management Program Bloggers Money LuckIs January a prosperous month to you? I think it is a lucky money month for me, the AKPK debt management program blogger, and hubby.

For me, a sudden increase in the number of product reviews is doubling this month’s income. If I add in my AdSense and Amazon earnings, wuahaha, this Chinese New Year is going to be a prosperous new year.

So far, my personal savings has reached RM1,700 without hubby’s knowledge. ;-)

As for hubby, besides his monthly salary of RM2,000, he will have a one-month bonus or maybe 1/2-month’s bonus. We are still grateful if he is only given a half-month bonus. After all, he only commenced his work on the 1st of July last year.

Oh, there’s still Ang Pao for him from the school! The amount of money given depends on his work performance. It will be between RM500 and RM1,000.

After deducting this month’s RM680 AKPK debt management repayments, RM820 car loan, RM374 home loan installment, RM150 bank overdraft interest charge, RM270 flat rental, RM110 phone and internet service charge, RM33 handphone fee, electricity bill, food and grocery expenses, there’s still money left to be saved as emergency fund and pay back some personal debt owed to friends/family.