How Relax managed his December cash flow

This post is contributed by Relax, the blog author of Wise Curve – get smarter every day!

How Relax managed his December cash flow

Hi guys, it’s me Relax. Last month I shared my November 2008 cash flow with you and now here’s December’s. December was a month with festive mood. Did I get tempted by Xmas and Happy New Year celebration and spend a lot of money? We’ll see.

I spent a total of 602.48 Ringgit Malaysia in December. That’s a whole lot of improvement – 40% less than in November. I was a bit amazed. What happened in December?

I have cut down my priority number 3 spending (nice stuffs). As I planned in November, I visit café less and stay at home more. Now I drink much less coffee, which is healthy for me. I drink 3 in 1 coffee for my 20 minute afternoon power nap, which increases my work productivity. I also managed to buy fewer books, although I still spent quite a lot of money on knowledge resource. I’m a self improvement freak and books are my gems.

Since December, I do two activities regularly, which cost me nothing – running and blogging. I run to build up my physical fitness so that I can cope with long hours of work in the future (Jackie Chan does that always. I’m following him). I blog to share my knowledge and experience, while making new online friends. I’m happy and I don’t need to spend much.

Since I spend more time at home, I seldom go out and spend money. You can have a look at my spending frequency on this graph (Expensr).

There’s a huge spending spike on 5th of December. I was at MIECC for Trade and Consumer exhibition and I spent a bit more than usual. I should cut that down.

Last month someone requested to have a look at my MS Excel sheet. Here’s how my spending record of first few days looks like on Excel. At the end is the total money spent in a month.

Now it’s January 2009. I wonder if I can still live frugally through Chinese New Year? So far, this month I have spent RM 100. Oh yeah, here’s a money saving tips for you. Cut your hair after Chinese New Year, because it’ll be expensive to do so before that. Have a nice month!