Expenses Review 2016

That time of the year when i look back at my expenses in 2016... and see how much better or worst did i fare financially...

I really only started tracking my expenses in 2015 when i got YNAB, and my first year expenses were recorded in 2015 expenses review.

It was pretty interesting to see where my money went to. I guess it would be even more interesting (for me that is) to see where i stack compared to last year.

Car Expenses: $31,687.88 (2015: $33,198.99)
Pretty consistent here. The slight disparity was because I did without a car for slightly under a month where i sold off my fancy ride to get a more down-to-earth vehicle. I expect the expenses in this category to drop in 2017.

Fixed Expenses: $17,792.31 (2015: $14,234.21)
This category is getting higher, and boils down to me increasing my insurance cover as described in here. Also taxation is higher (if i recall, there is a 1-off relief previous year) due to slightly higher income. An area which i can manage better, with SRS, topping up with CPF perhaps. I have been putting this off because I kept some cash on hand to fund my home. Now that that is out of the way, I can look to reducing some income tax expenses.

Monthly Bills: $2,322.48 (2015: $2,943.24)
Phone bills, gym membership. Slightly lower this year, as I managed to get reimbursement for my gym fees late last year as part of corporate benefit. Also my phone bills gets transferred to my 'family account' as part of a total package from Singtel. So likely i will drop this category in 2017.

Daily Expenses: $7,566.51 (2015: $9,081.47)
Total family expenses goes here (food, entertainment etc). Went down due to a conscious effort to cook more at home. Although in the grand scheme of things - it didn't look like it helped much. Maybe savings of $100 a month.

Holidays: $2,839.81 (2015: $8,239.05)
Too busy to take a break - a good thing for the wallet!

Personal Expenses: $6,538.75 (2015: $6,175.5)
Somewhat similar to last year. Was higher this year because i cabbed everywhere when I was without a car. Surprising to me though - because I thought I DID try to watch my spending on other areas like office meals and social entertainment expenses.

Bringing me to a total of $68,747.74 (2015: $73,872.46)
So, after a year of belt tightening, I cut my expenses down by $5,000 p.a. Which is about $600 a month.

Total essential expenses would be $43,897.57 [$31,897.57+$12,000 family expenses] (2005: $42,140.98)

And the daily maintenance expenses would be $3,500. Approximately same as last year as well. Having said that though, I still need to factor in the mortgage of my new house. So in reality, the figure per month is higher.

Overall, I think it is quite surprising to me. Looks like the efforts I have put into cutting my expenses did not bear as much fruits as I thought it should. It certainly felt like I put in more effort than satisfaction I get in the return for the savings!