Happy new year. Hopefully i will be able to keep some of my resolutions this year.
Let me give some examples for the same.
I believe one should keep a track of all the expenses one makes. I initially used to keep a track of all my expenses in a small spiral pad and then total them at the end of month which will give me an idea how much i have spent. Then I requested a friend who is very good with MS Excel to create a template for me in MS Excel where I will convert the data from paper to the spread sheet. I followed this habit also for a year. Then I some how stopped doing this. Then I spent about 29000 INR( $ 650 + on the date of purchase) to buy a smart phone. What a blunder. The lollypop i gave to myself was since the phone has editable MS Excel I need not first put the stuff on pad and then convert it in Excel. I can straight put the data in the phone and then send it to my laptop via email. Big mistake. There were multiple reasons for the same:
1. The screen on phone though more than 2 inch is still not user freindly to enter the data in MS Excel. You have to scroll up and down and left and right to reach the right cell. So it took more time.
2. I lost the stylus of phone and since it was purchased in pre i-phone era so i could not do data entry by finger.
So now i had a costly phone instead of a Rs 10 pad and i could not do the data entry into it. And due to my lazyness I could not go back to the note pad entry and then conversion to file mode.
So I have hardly any records for my last 2 years of spending.
I intend to change that and keep the records for 2009 from today onwards. No I have not bought a phone where i can make data entry with help of fingers but I have bought my favorite Rs 10 Note pad. So I plan to stick to the same and then convert the entries into an MS Excel file at the end of the week. Thanks a lot Sudeep for creating the spread sheet for me, i still have got it.
Let me give some of the places where I have been literally wasting money and will try and not waste on these items:
1. Gym membership. I pay about 1500/month in gym membership but I do not go on an average for more than 10 days in a month to the gym. I will still continue with the same at least for next 3 months, but I plan to go there and burn some fat. As I cannot afford to buy another set of trousers due to expanding waistline. In 3 months time I hope to loose about 5 kg and then start going to the gym in the new apartement complex i will be moving. I will have access to the free gym their. Annual savings: 18K
2. Eating out: Imagine on one hand i am paying for gym membership and not going there, on the other hand i also go out and eat on the days i have missed the gym or even when I have gone to the gym. So you loose money on both counts and I am actually gaining weight instead of loosing it. I think the term for this phenomenon is called : Moron. Annual Savings: 15K ( only eating when in office, not including the weekend eating out)
3. Movies and Books: I love watching movies and reading books. The problem is more than watching and reading I love buying and collecting them. I have a whole lot of books and movies still in their original packing waiting for last few years to be opened. So I have deicided till I have read or watched each one of them I will not be buying any new books or movies. I think this should save me a neat bundle and the Misses will be happy. Annual Savings: 10K
4. Impulse Purchases: Books, movies, clothes, after shave lotions, shoes you name it and I have been buying them on the spur of the moment thanks to the credit cards that I have. No more sir. I have realized the importance of shopping with help of a list and only things that are in the list when we are leaving home will be coming to home. So no more trousers till the current ones give away ( some of them are in original packing bought in hope of losing weight). This is coming to an end immediately. Annual Savings: minimum 25K
5. Giving loans to Friends: I have been giving money to my friends for quiet some time typically sums of 10K+ per case. Now I like my friends and would like to continue to help them. But the challenge is nobody returns the money on time and I do not want to chase them for money although it is my own money. I some time wonder that I have taken money out of my MF or FD and given to a friend and he doesn't have the courtesy to return it on time? And even when the money comes back it is never the full amount in one go it typically comes in small instalments which means I can not use it for any thing substantial and tend to spend it all rather than putting it back to the investment it was in. Even if the money was not taken out from an investment it still is a lost oppurtunity for me. So from now onwards money will not be loaned to freinds and colleagues. End of story. I may be loosing some friends due to this, but hey if some body is friend only due to money then maybe I any way need to re-look at the relationship. Annual Savings: Not sure
Submit bills for reimbursement: I have to spend a lot of money for my official duties on travel, for buying gifts for clients, taking clients and my team out for dinners. Typically i forget to claim some of them specially if they are small amounts. But since i plan to keep records for all the expenses now onwards I will submit my expense report every month to get the money back. This should help in easing my work by not having to work on a big chunk of bills every few months, it will also make sure I do not end up spending money for offical expenses from my pocket. Annual Savings: 3-5K per annum
So hopefully by adhering to these points i will be saving a good amount of money. I also believe that i will be saving from other heads also once I become conscious of my spending patterns and keep a record for the same.
Happy saving money.
Let me give some examples for the same.
I believe one should keep a track of all the expenses one makes. I initially used to keep a track of all my expenses in a small spiral pad and then total them at the end of month which will give me an idea how much i have spent. Then I requested a friend who is very good with MS Excel to create a template for me in MS Excel where I will convert the data from paper to the spread sheet. I followed this habit also for a year. Then I some how stopped doing this. Then I spent about 29000 INR( $ 650 + on the date of purchase) to buy a smart phone. What a blunder. The lollypop i gave to myself was since the phone has editable MS Excel I need not first put the stuff on pad and then convert it in Excel. I can straight put the data in the phone and then send it to my laptop via email. Big mistake. There were multiple reasons for the same:
1. The screen on phone though more than 2 inch is still not user freindly to enter the data in MS Excel. You have to scroll up and down and left and right to reach the right cell. So it took more time.
2. I lost the stylus of phone and since it was purchased in pre i-phone era so i could not do data entry by finger.
So now i had a costly phone instead of a Rs 10 pad and i could not do the data entry into it. And due to my lazyness I could not go back to the note pad entry and then conversion to file mode.
So I have hardly any records for my last 2 years of spending.
I intend to change that and keep the records for 2009 from today onwards. No I have not bought a phone where i can make data entry with help of fingers but I have bought my favorite Rs 10 Note pad. So I plan to stick to the same and then convert the entries into an MS Excel file at the end of the week. Thanks a lot Sudeep for creating the spread sheet for me, i still have got it.
Let me give some of the places where I have been literally wasting money and will try and not waste on these items:
1. Gym membership. I pay about 1500/month in gym membership but I do not go on an average for more than 10 days in a month to the gym. I will still continue with the same at least for next 3 months, but I plan to go there and burn some fat. As I cannot afford to buy another set of trousers due to expanding waistline. In 3 months time I hope to loose about 5 kg and then start going to the gym in the new apartement complex i will be moving. I will have access to the free gym their. Annual savings: 18K
2. Eating out: Imagine on one hand i am paying for gym membership and not going there, on the other hand i also go out and eat on the days i have missed the gym or even when I have gone to the gym. So you loose money on both counts and I am actually gaining weight instead of loosing it. I think the term for this phenomenon is called : Moron. Annual Savings: 15K ( only eating when in office, not including the weekend eating out)
3. Movies and Books: I love watching movies and reading books. The problem is more than watching and reading I love buying and collecting them. I have a whole lot of books and movies still in their original packing waiting for last few years to be opened. So I have deicided till I have read or watched each one of them I will not be buying any new books or movies. I think this should save me a neat bundle and the Misses will be happy. Annual Savings: 10K
4. Impulse Purchases: Books, movies, clothes, after shave lotions, shoes you name it and I have been buying them on the spur of the moment thanks to the credit cards that I have. No more sir. I have realized the importance of shopping with help of a list and only things that are in the list when we are leaving home will be coming to home. So no more trousers till the current ones give away ( some of them are in original packing bought in hope of losing weight). This is coming to an end immediately. Annual Savings: minimum 25K
5. Giving loans to Friends: I have been giving money to my friends for quiet some time typically sums of 10K+ per case. Now I like my friends and would like to continue to help them. But the challenge is nobody returns the money on time and I do not want to chase them for money although it is my own money. I some time wonder that I have taken money out of my MF or FD and given to a friend and he doesn't have the courtesy to return it on time? And even when the money comes back it is never the full amount in one go it typically comes in small instalments which means I can not use it for any thing substantial and tend to spend it all rather than putting it back to the investment it was in. Even if the money was not taken out from an investment it still is a lost oppurtunity for me. So from now onwards money will not be loaned to freinds and colleagues. End of story. I may be loosing some friends due to this, but hey if some body is friend only due to money then maybe I any way need to re-look at the relationship. Annual Savings: Not sure
Submit bills for reimbursement: I have to spend a lot of money for my official duties on travel, for buying gifts for clients, taking clients and my team out for dinners. Typically i forget to claim some of them specially if they are small amounts. But since i plan to keep records for all the expenses now onwards I will submit my expense report every month to get the money back. This should help in easing my work by not having to work on a big chunk of bills every few months, it will also make sure I do not end up spending money for offical expenses from my pocket. Annual Savings: 3-5K per annum
So hopefully by adhering to these points i will be saving a good amount of money. I also believe that i will be saving from other heads also once I become conscious of my spending patterns and keep a record for the same.
Happy saving money.
How about postponing the implementation of resolution number 5 for a few days. I do not want to miss this close ended scheme, let me take some money first :)
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