Under most circumstances, its the impulse buys that breaks your monthly budget. Impulse buys was my monthly budget waterloo most of the time... apart from that its issues beyond my control.. major car breakdown, parents medical bill etc which we would have no way of predicting. But if we can control our impulse purchases, we are definitely on the road to sound personal financial management.


This post has been edited by Grengo01: Nov 22 2006, 01:28 PM

i've reupload it at Lowyat.net

Yeah, impulse purchases are quite evil. That and impulse eat-outs. When you're just strolling along in a mall or whatever, and you feel hungry. And then you see a nice western restaurant like TGIF and go "Well, why not?"...

Same goes for overpriced gourmet coffee outlets. I prefer cheap white coffee 3-in-1 drinks.

Yeah. I think the problem is here.


I don't have education load or car loan


The rooms in my area is around RM300-RM400 and I am living with my cousin. Trying to eat lesser now


The calls are not related to my job but for my family and love one


Yeah. There was time when have to go to shopping mall restaurant or mamak which usually cost RM15-RM20 each visit. But I believe self-discipline very important in order to save money. I am following my own rules to cut food and phone cost now. Just see how much I can save later

ok i'm one of them.

i like other stuff like computers parts, cameras, some toys, and i'm into fish hobby and stuff.

what i do is i plan my purchase, and i don't buy what i don't need.

for example, i was using an X800GT. however in preparation for NFS:Carbon i actually sold it off and top up RM 300 for a 6800 Ultra well still can't play full details but that's not the point. hehe.

there's 101 items to buy on my list, it's just about when to buy them and how to pay for them. 0% flexible payment schemes are very helpful, as long as you can commit yourself to it.

some say it's bad, better off pay all at once. but if you think about it, if paying all at once means setting you back RM 2,400. you're immediately setback in cases of emergencies. compare that to a monthly RM 200, that's easier on your side and you have ample time to cover the payment.

i've just finished my 12 month term for my sis' wedding gift (digicam) and halfway paying for my fiancee's notebook.

Interesting point on impulse eat outs... which I am still pretty prone to at this moment. Cant resist the temptation of some good food, but I guess that is pretty controllable as it tends to be kind of "self reward" mechanism only at weekends. But on gourmet coffee, yeah, I truly shiver at the idea of paying RM10 or so for a cup of latte each time I want a cuppa.. but I cured myself of the desire to have a cuppa.. .

one way to prevent impulse spending is to bring lesser amount of cash around.

Wont work if you still have a credit card and you cant control your usage though. Heh.

But it's true, those impulse buys really kill you! I'm guilty of it occasionally as well, though I've never touched the RM300 that I "pay myself" every month.

This post has been edited by jhcj: Nov 22 2006, 04:42 PM

There is something called the ATM card. And when you see something and the urge is BUY BUY BUY at all cost, your ATM card will be the first thing u sodomize....

Hi,

1) That is why "Pay yourself first" saving method work. You hide a certain amount of money from yourself every month. The money is either deducted to go into unit trust or goes into a saving A/C with no ATM card.

So, you have NO money and NO easy way to get at your money. You will have to think twice before you buy something.

2) If you really cannot control yourself, do not carry your credit card. Pay cash on everything.

3) Ditto. Do not carry your ATM card.

Dreamer

yeah, that's why i said one of the way.

without credit card (or even WITH cc), cash in hand could lead people to spend. but without sufficient cash - it actually makes one think further on whether to withdraw that sum.

for the credit card part, you have to use what i mentioned earlier - always treat it as cash taken from your savings and it'll be fine.

if you spend RM 75 through CC now, take it as RM 75 gone from your savings already. cos you really have to allocated that sum for next month payment.

Usage of credit card has pros and cons.
If you manage to control your expenses, then credit card is really help me save a lots. By paying phone bill and broadband bill using credit card, I can get some percentage of rebate. Then, why not we use the credit card? Anyway, everytime we use credit card, we have to reserve the same amount from our saving account for the credit card payment.

Furthermore, using credit card when shopping and dining sometime may get discount.

micro sounds a bit like being stingy...
i dunno but it sounds like a good way tosave.. but it also sounds like a way not to enjoy life...

I always pay myself 1st every month. After banking into my mum, car loan and study loan, all the rest - 60% is for myself.
I have virtually 0 expenditure, not even petrol or phone. Food too!!
(company subsidized)

But whenever I go back to Malaysia, my accounts will automatically drop to 0

Depending on how u choose to manage ur expenses. I usually have around 100++ for savings (250 for investments) but I still can enjoy life. This is because I set aside a portion of money to go out wif my frens. This is all after I deduct some money I set aside for my family, education loan, rent, etc

hmm... true but..
i do not mean to intrude
i do think that going all the way to even check on how u step your gas lol
is a lil bit bordering on the edge of stinging..

but credit card also have it own charges at the same time. So does it really save ur money? If the rebate+discount > charges

nah. don't get confused about micro-management vs being stingy.

to me, stingy is defined by wanting everything cheap and not willing to spend a little bit even for enjoyment and not even willing to spend on needed things blablablablabla.

micro-managing finance is not a stingy act. it's an act of prudency, or better put : optimizing your finances.

by micro-managing it actually helps you in understanding your spending pattern, work on the bad and maintain the good. in the end you get more to spend for yourself and at the same time have more to save.



it's like how we consider a car's FC before buying a car. flooring the pedal like silly isn't going to help your $$$$. you get lesser KM per Litre (or RM), so since driving is an ongoing (long-run) thing and once it's a habit then you're losing out on $$$ - it's like spending more for travelling.

i take note of not only the pressure on my accelerator, but also the time to travel and also the road to be taken. so by optimizing route, it helps save time and $$$.



some credit cards allow you to get discount at various places. this helps you save. not all places charge % fee from cc usage.

and you get points too, which you can redeem goods (which reminds me, i haven't redeemed my goods yet.)



it saves time too.

for me, i use my cc at petrol kiosk most of the time. and of course, online purchases.

But isnt it only heavy user that charges will be less than the discount + goods?
Usually light user that hardly spend dun use that much discount too....charges pay a lot lar....

i agree bout the heavy user thing..
alot of the goods u redeem need a lot of points..
@goldfries: i see.. ok.. i didn't mean any malicious intent by that statement i just wanted to know more detail..