Budget Update: June 2017

Budget Update: June 2017

Okay, RM8421.75 is a lot to spend in a month. BUT. RM2095 went for Raya (mostly duit raya giveaway – Raya costs covered in
this post
) and another RM1320.17 went to taxes. So really I ‘only’ spent RM5k ish, and that’s inclusive rent (RM1200), travel plans in July (close to RM1000) and business-related costs (RM1000~).  K fine no excuse definitely overspent in June 2017. Will aim to do better for the second half of 2017. Omg so fast.

That brings up an interesting observation. Earning more makes me less calculative with spending. It’s a good problem I guess, but I have to be very, very mindful of this – as a self-employed individual, who knows when my income will suddenly dwindle. It’s to my best advantage to get used to low expenses rather than being rudely forced to make spending cuts.

I’ve also made a few lifestyle upgrades, these past few months. For example, I’ve switched from regular milk to almond milk. This alone is twice the usual cost. It’s a small luxury that I thought I ‘deserve’. I’ve also stopped relying on thrift shopping for clothes and get them brand new. Lifestyle upgrades are hard to notice, because you always try to justify them somehow, and often there are good justification. In the almond milk example, I told myself that it’s healthier (less/no hormones).  For the clothes, I tell myself that I save time when buying new from the shops rather than spending hours looking for the right fit/condition/price. For others, I tell myself that choosing the item with the superior quality will last longer, which is technically true.

Note to self: balance is key. Focus on experiences, not stuff. Buy quality, sure, but buy less.

Yay of the month:

Raya
 was surprisingly enjoyable this year. Second-hand happiness from my parents – they are extremely happy in becoming grandparents. There are 4 generations in my family now, woah.

Between March-May 2017, Ringgit Oh Ringgit logged about 95k in traffic. I
earned USD146.83 via Google Adsense
, which arrived as RM581.70 in my bank account. This is not my first Adsense payout, but it was the fastest so far. Last time it took roughly a year to hit USD100. Am amazed and grateful at how reliable blogging is as passive income. Part of it is because of the niche – finance ads pay higher. Time and time again I’ve invited you guys to also join in the personal finance blogger bandwagon. See got proof now.

Only gained 3kg despite having a lot of
nice food during Ramadan
. Happy with my cook-at-home/eat out ratio. One time my sister and I bought a whole side of salmon fillet and pan-fried it (occasion: brother’s birthday). Oh it was so good. Ramadan bazaars this year were amazing.

Really enjoyed the
mango season
. I think I ate like 10kg by myself. No regrets.

Technically happened on 1st July, but had a really good time trying
VR gaming
 at VR Lab, Publika. RM60 per room per hour (depends on room) for up to 6 people. Many locations available, check the
VR Lab website
 for more info. Some of my favourite games include: the skiing game, the walk the plank experience and Fruit Ninja (yes, that Fruit Ninja). Many games available, see the list
here
.

#TeamRavenclaw
 according to the
Time’s Sorting House quiz
. Have always rooted for them, a soft spot for them. Ravenclaw was not given enough development in the Harry Potter series.

Interviewed by CompareHero and Small Cap Asia 🙂 Read it
here
 and
here
! Topics related to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Somehow I’m being known for this, but I actually like personal finance in general.

Nay of the month:

Not as productive
 as I could have been. Lethargy due to lack of energy due to fasting was no joke. Thankfully most people were understanding, but I have to work harder, moving forward. Have to keep up my professionalism.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the more you tell people that you’re watching your weight during Raya Open houses, the more they will make it their mission to feed you. Am I wrong here lol.

Did not manage to even finish reading one book 🙁

Wasted RM20 on a
parking fine
 ugh

Brought a new plant into my home. It died within a week. Poor Dave 🙁

Things to Look Forward to:

Going to the
Rainforest World Music Festival
at Kuching, Sawarak, woo!

Want to expand my business and my team.
Are you a (non-fiction) writer with samples of work
? Comment below, I may have work for you 🙂

Finishing off all this Raya food and cookies in the house. Just when the supply was dwindling, received a big jar of chocolate chip cookies. I mean, thank you and all, but…

Continuing workouts that I held off in June. Willing myself to make that painful-but-necessary payment for a personal trainer. Used her tips received from just one session, improved a lot. Should be a worth-it purchase for my health. Need to lose that Raya flab and get the dopamine I need. Most successful people put a priority on fitness, I’m not an exception to this rule.

Second half of 2017, bring it on.

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
review
).


Budget Update: June 2018

Budget Update: June 2018

More than half of my June 2018 expenses went to Donations and Gifts. RM1250 given out as duit raya, and a whopping RM2500 given to a friend to help her out.

Might as well tell you what happened. A friend (someone really dear to me) was driving and got busted for having recreational drugs in her possession. The police demanded RM3000 in bribe money. My friend was not able to negotiate it down and didn’t have enough in her bank account. She had to find the money asap, and came to me.

I was pissed off. Pissed off at the friend, pissed off at the police blatantly asking for bribes, pissed off at myself for giving the money anyway thus contributing to this stupid corruption culture in Malaysia.

Never again. I will never do this again. This is not the kind of person I want to be.

Tell me your bribe stories. Everyone has one. Tell me what I can do to protect myself if this happens again.

Yay of the Month:

Aside from Donations category, my other expenses were under control. RM3700 in monthly expenses is an okay amount for the shitload of things I did in June 2018. Am particularly proud of how I saved transportation costs to go to Writer’s Retreat in Penang. Wanted to take a flight, but that would’ve cost me almost RM400. I took the bus instead for RM92 (and got 10% discount, AND cashback via
Shopback
!)

Organising a writing competition.
 The theme is personal finance, naturally 😉 Here’s an open invitation for you to submit your short stories! I’m offering RM100 cash for each accepted entry out of my own pocket you know. Check the full details and ideas for stories
here
.

Transferred
RM3k to PRS account
 early this year. Usually I do it around the end of the year. But hey, the earlier I do it, the faster my interest can compound. If you have surplus money to invest, I can recommend PRS (see my guide
here
) – you’ll get tax relief for up to RM3k annually.

FreeMalaysiaToday
 have started to republish my articles 🙂 Noticed an uptick in site visitors. If you’re a new reader, welcome!

Bought 12 games during
Steam Summer sales
. Laughed my ass off when playing Racettear: An Item Shop’s Tale. I play a girl who must pay off her family’s debt by selling classic RPG items (think swords, armors, amulets, etc). Don’t think my haggling skills are very good there, I keep getting my house foreclosed lol. Other than that I’m also having fun with Stardew Valley, a Harvest Moon-esque game. Now trying to save up money to buy a barn.

Used up two vouchers from HappyFresh and
reduced my groceries bill
 by RM35 total 🙂 Use code ‘suraya63’ to get RM25 off your first order (I get RM20 off, too). ProTip: Go to HappyFresh website from
Shopback
and get additional cashback from there!

Tweaked my
website layout
, did you notice? I like that I can fit in more articles in the front page now.

Read three books
:
The Kitchen God’s Wife
 by Amy Tan (do you wonder about background stories of immigrants? Why and how they end up where they are? This book tells a Chinese mother’s story in China before she arrived in America);
Me, Myself, and Us: The Science of Personality and the Art of Well-Being
 by Professor Brian R. Little (the inspiration behind
How You Behave With Money, Based On Your Personality
 article); and Y
ou Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth
 by Jen Sincero (like many people, I have this mental roadblock when it comes to charging more for my services).

Got myself a new experience –
a perm
. It was RM78, which was reduced to RM68.68 after using up existing Fave credits. At the shop, I had to pay RM50 more to get the ‘better quality perm, not Chinese auntie perm’ – so ended up paying RM118.68 in total. But hey, I’ve gotten more compliments on my hair so I’m not mad.

Discovered I have
over 175k in Maybank treatpoints
. Forgotten all about them for at least a couple of years, so was pleasantly surprised. Browsed the redemption catalogue and decided to get two x RM200 Lazada vouchers for 87.6k each. I’ll earmark the vouchers for ‘fun’ purchases – guilt-free spending occasions doesn’t happen very often!

Switched from Maxis to Yoodo
, that select-what-you-use plan under Celcom. Now I’m paying RM85 for 40GB data and 50 call minutes (and no sms), instead of RM128 for Maxis’s 40GB and unlimited calls and sms plan.
Savings: RM43 per month, or RM516 per year!
 Switching was easy – everything from sim card order to porting (I’m keeping my number) was done through the app. If you want to try it out too, get FREE RM 20 when you sign up using my
referral link
 (I get RM20 too). You can also enter my unique Referral Code zwbai7716 at the confirmation page when you activate.

Nay of the Month:

Went a bit overboard with the food this Raya. Gained 4kg in one weekend alamak. It’s back down, but I need to be more mindful.

Have decided to let my virtual assistant go. Taking a more active role in blog management and marketing now. Enjoying the learning process.

Chasing a client for payment
. Usually I impose a 50% deposit before work rule, but that assignment was urgent and I stupidly completed the work, thinking I had nothing to worry about as they’re a well-known company. It’s been a couple of months now. I’m annoyed.

Earlier this year, I engaged with a
 trust/will-writing
 agent. It was okay in the beginning but became a nightmare: was told what I wanted was not possible, late updates and progress, and then they lost my payment (which they, as it turns out, didn’t charge in the first place despite me filling in the forms – so lucky me here). So yup. I don’t trust As-Salihin anymore as a company. How can I trust you to manage my money if anything happens to me if you can’t even help me now? Do you have other trust/will-writing companies to suggest?

Things to Look Forward to:

Good Vibes Festival
!

Researching ebook marketing and payment systems to implement. Finding editors and book cover designers. This whole
ebook-creation process
 is fun! And seriously I can’t wait to see what kind of personal finance stories I’ll get. So excited!

Attending events and meeting people. I want to look for someone new to love.

Oh! You know how media outlets and content creators always ask you to support them by signing up for their monthly subscriptions? I’ve never liked any of them enough to actually commit to that… until The Try Guys – formerly of Buzzfeed –
went independent on Patreon
. Now I’m actually paying them because I *want* to support them. It’s a strange feeling. Do you give your hard-earned money to anyone just to show your support? Friends and family doesn’t count!

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
review
).


Budget Update: June 2019

Budget Update: June 2019

What a memorable month. More about that under ‘Yay of the month’ section below.

For the past few months, I’ve battled my ‘solopreneur’ identity quite a bit. I feel like I should take advantage of this momentum I’m having and expand, get a team under the Ringgit Oh Ringgit brand. I thought of hiring a team of writers and video editors, create more content.

But slowly, through personal reflection, I figured out that (a) I’m really happy being a one-person team, (2) I have no desire to be the boss of anybody, and (c) having a team would require an office, and I worked so hard so I didn’t have to *go* to an office every day.

Maybe I’ll change my mind in the future. Maybe that’ll still happen, out of necessity or change of heart. But for now, I’m loving the way I work. I can still outsource if the workload gets too much. I can still collaborate with other people to create content that I can’t personally create.

Any of you consider yourself solopreneurs? Do you plan on staying that way or planning to expand? Let me know in the comments section.

Yay of the Month:

Went on a fully-sponsored programme to Estonia
🙂 The programme organisers didn’t skimp on the budget either. I’d estimate they spent RM10k just for my costs, including the flights, accommodation and food. I still spent about RM900 of my own money for travel insurance, souvenirs and personal spending, but that’s nothing in comparison.

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Completed 1-week media course in Estonia, funded by the Government of Estonia and Baltic Film and Media School, Tallin University . It was great. Learned so much about the media landscape, e-government, startup scene and more . Thank you so much for having me, Estonia. You were beautiful and magical . Article about the trip and lessons learned coming soon in ringgitohringgit.com! . #estonia #tallinn #nordic #baltic #europe

A post shared by
 Suraya Zainudin
 (@surayaror) on
Jun 25, 2019 at 12:56am PDT

MPH Distributors agreed to stock Money Stories From Malaysians: Volume 1
?? And the thing is, they don’t just stock MPH Bookstores (like you would assume). They also stock at Kinokuniya, MyNews, Popular Bookstores and other locations. What even is my life oh my God

Plus, it turns out that MPH Distributors ordered 750 copies of the book for its first order?? I thought they’ll just start with 100-200 books, to minimise risk. I had to spend RM2700 to print more books because I didn’t have enough in stock!

On that happy note, a reminder that
 submissions for Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 2 is still open
! I can’t guarantee it’ll end up in bookstores too, but you bet your sweet ass I’ll do my best.
Click here for more information
.

Obviously I’m happy it’s no longer puasa month lmao

Did a
30-day decluttering challenge
. While I wasn’t exactly consistent with it, I still managed to sell, donate, throw and replace items that I’ve been keeping on for a lot longer than necessary. I finally threw away the hole-y dress and pillowcases, and bought myself new mugs (and they were not thrifted!)

Blessed with work
. Received a lot of income-generating inquiries and opportunities. Some in my capacity as a personal finance blogger, some in my capacity as a business writer.

Obsessed with the
white kebaya top
 I got for Raya (a desire totally evoked by the #bringbackthekebaya crowd, but I ain’t even mad lol). To make things sweeter, my mom gave me like 5 of her old skirts, so combined with skirts I already own, I can get a lot of outfit combinations out of it. I’ve worn it twice since, and received lots of compliments 🙂

Using a fancy notebook for the first time. It makes me feel so decadent, mmm

View this post on Instagram

My partner gave me this fancy, linen-covered, name-personalised custom notebook from @summorieco as a VDay present. He picked the cover colours himself 🥰 . Now that my previous notebook is running out of pages, time to use this. Writing in it feels decadent, it’s a premium item after all. A few years ago I was exclusively using free notebooks received at events je kot 🤷♀ . Why is it the nicer something is, the more you DON’T want to use it because ‘sayang’? This is not just me right 😂 . #thoughtfulgift #notebook

A post shared by
 Suraya Zainudin
 (@surayaror) on
Jun 10, 2019 at 8:19pm PDT

Nay of the Month:

My knee pain flared up again. Usually, it’s triggered by strenuous physical activities… or weight gain. I’m 99% sure that the latter is to blame this time around. Long story short, I’m on the
keto diet
 again.

Pissed that I didn’t manage to see
Christine Lagarde
, the Managing Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF) live in action. Registered myself for the special engagement session and everything. I blame jet lag (it was the day after I touched down). NST published her
speech transcript
 though, so at least I can read that.

Gave away RM2050 in duit raya money. Wow it sure did increased from last year, what happened? That sure is a lot of mon- Be ikhlas, Suraya.

Found out that
Indah Water Consortium raised their rates
 from RM8 to RM14? Yeah it’s just RM6 but that’s a 75% increase!

Didn’t manage to read any books in June 2019. None, zero. I’m a bit disappointed with myself, I’ve always managed to finish at least one book per month for years. Oh well, will do better in July.

I lost my favourite pair of gym pants 🙁 🙁 I’m irrationally attached to that pair, quite sad I didn’t have the chance to say goodbye.

Bought
new bedsheets
 and threw away the MUJI bedsheets that I bought maybe 8 months ago. You would have thought MUJI’s stuff is high in quality right? I thought so too, but the last time I counted, there are at least 10 small holes in them. Very disappointed, it was expensive kot.

I thought I bought a bag from an indie, small shop. It turns out it was a
dropshipped item from China and sells for way less
. If it’s any consolation, some of you have pointed out that while the two shops used different images, the quality of the actual bag might be different. Here’s hoping the bag I bought is of good quality.

Things to Look Forward to:

Being part of a panel session at
Affin Hwang Asset Management’s Investment Forum 2019: Wealth & Beyond
. Check out my fellow panelists!! Please Suraya don’t make a fool of yourself in front of all these people omg omg NERVOUS KOT

View this post on Instagram

Come see me at @affinhwangam ‘s Investment Forum this 20th July at MITEC Kuala Lumpur! . My fellow panelists are: 🔹YB @hannahyeoh 🔹Pn Fazleen of @akpkofficial 🔹@aarontang84 of Mr-Stingy.com 🔹Moderated by @drjasonleong . You know how you know you’re not exactly ‘poor’ poor, but you don’t feel rich either? Yeah we’ll be talking about that . Register and get your tickets at ahc-conferences.com. My session is in the morning so you can still go to Genting for Good Vibes Festival after that 😁 . Also, let’s take a moment to appreciate the gender and racial diversity among speakers and panelists at the event. Good job there Affin Hwang . #mitec #affinhwang #wealthandbeyond #malaysia #kualalumpur #gvf2019 #goodvibesfestival #personalfinanceMalaysia #pelaburan

A post shared by
 Suraya Zainudin
 (@surayaror) on
Jun 25, 2019 at 11:23pm PDT

And then going to
Good Vibes Festival
 directly after the forum lmao. I’m so happy they got Yuna to headline!

To end this monthly budget update article, another reminder that the writing competition is still ongoing. You have until the end of July to submit your personal finance-related stories. Anything goes – fiction, non-fiction – as long as it has a personal finance element, I’ll consider it 🙂

See the
types of stories that made it into Volume 1
 for inspiration 🙂

If you can’t/don’t want to submit, do me a favour and send the link to the
writing competition
 to the most creative writer you know? Most of the authors in Volume 1 were all previously-unpublished authors and it would be great to publish more new authors this time around!

—

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
how expense tracking works
)


Budget Update: June 2020

Budget Update: June 2020

There goes half the year. How’s everybody doing? Still alive right. Thankfully we were spared from the murder hornet and the swine flu storylines.

In terms of spending, the data says that I spent a total of RM7,508.45 in June 2020. The top 3 highest-expense categories were (yet again) Donations & Gifts, Utilities & Rent and Business. The Donations & Gifts data is simultaneously true AND a bit misleading – read more under the Yay of the Month section.

In terms of earning, well let’s just admit that I failed spectacularly in achieving my lofty ‘moonshot’ new year’s resolution goal, ‘earning RM100k by June’. Not even half that. But my earnings weren’t that bad to be honest, considering everything. I still have the rest of the year to work on it. Plus my investment value and net worth still went up, so that lessens the sting a little bit.

Talking about investments. Will it keep going up though? We’re acting like everything is okay (well, the stock market is). I’m not buying it – I do think we’re in a horrible, horrible bubble which is about to pop, and recession will be something we’re forced to deal with, instead of pretending it’s not there.

But of course, I’m no economist, and I know many parties are working hard to AVOID the worst-case scenario from happening.

What are your thoughts about everything? Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future?

My Spending Breakdown in June 2020

In this section, I’m sharing what I spent on in the whole month, in their respective categories. From highest to lowest, my expenses were:

Yay of the Month:

Did you, um, saw my
Bernama TV

appearance
 by any chance?

Had a mini-miracle
. The payment for a weirdly easy and generous job that I got unexpectedly and out of the blue came through, and almost fully covered the amount I gifted towards my parents’ (large) pending electric bill. Times like these make me feel abundant and full of faith that God will ultimately provide.

Fast forward to a few days ago. Decided to pay off bil electric tertunggak rumah parents. Ribu2 jugak la. Close one eye bayar oneshot habis

Semalam payment client tu masuk. Almost the same amount dengan bil tu

Rezeki ni kan, bila tuhan nak kasi, senang sangat

— Suraya ringgitohringgit.com (@surayaror)
June 13, 2020

My application for the
Geran Khas Prihatin
, worth RM3,000, was approved. Obviously I’m over the moon about this mini windfall. As of writing time, the money has not been deposited yet into my account, but I’m already planning how to spend it.

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My application for Geran Khas Prihatin, the special grant for small businesses lulus… I want to redistribute this money to the Malaysian economy while improving my biz. Suggestions? Note: if you applied, check at gkp.hasil.gov.my #gkp #gerankhasprihatin #bisneskecil #smallbusinessmalaysia #lhdn

A post shared by
 Suraya Zainudin
 (@surayaror) on
Jun 2, 2020 at 11:45pm PDT

Completed my
online-based

kursus kahwin
! I’m super happy about this MCO side-effect – it was both faster AND cheaper. And most importantly, it saved me the time needed to do research and look for recommendations.

Got my online kursus kahwin date sorted out!

So happy. Its faster (4 hours instead of 1.5 days), cheaper (RM50 instead of ~RM80++) and NO NEED TO HEAR LEWD SEXUAL JOKES FROM USTAZ

— Suraya ringgitohringgit.com (@surayaror)
June 12, 2020

Rehomed some
books
 I had lying around and earned RM125 🙂

View this post on Instagram

Done today: audited books collection and sold off 20+ books, oneshot. Added RM125 to this month’s income ✌ . Sure, I could have gotten more for the books. But this method is also an extremely efficient and fast way of selling off clutter in the home – taken within hours. I’m happy, buyer happy, everybody happy 😁 . Next up: audit wardrobe. I did it in bundle format the last time with great success, too #jualbuku #sellingtips #speedselling #sold #timeismoney #followmeontwitter

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 Suraya Zainudin
 (@surayaror) on
Jun 17, 2020 at 12:45am PDT

Added a
new budget category
, just to track wedding-related expenses. You’ll see it reflected in the next few months in my budget updates.

This isn’t new, but I’ve really been enjoying cooking at home, mostly after being inspired by various homecook-related content. In the last few months, I’ve made at least 10 new recipes, including chili with black beans, cajun fish, leek & potato soup and more. My obsession with not wasting food or ingredients also perfected a new grocery-tracking system, which I wrote about here:
I Figured Out The Perfect System to Stop Food Waste

MPH Distributors ordered more copies of
 Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 2
 to stock in bookstores!! Obviously happy about this!!!

Today’s blessing-in-an-email: MPH Distributors ordered more copies of
#MYMoneyStories
 vol 2 to stock up in bookstores nationwide 🥰🥰🥰
pic.twitter.com/ur37tuuQiN

— Suraya ringgitohringgit.com (@surayaror)
June 30, 2020

Another blessing of the month: a couple of new clients, plus the fact that some of my previous clients contacted me again for repeat work. I melt when this happens… You liked my previous work? You really, actually want to work with me again? Uuuu okay I’ll do my best!!

Bought
reusable cloth masks
 for myself, and also as father’s day gifts. Hope the masks actually get used…

Managed to (finally) complete reading one book, after not being able to focus for months! Loved Douglas Edwards’ personal anecdotes in
I’m Feeling Lucky: Confessions of Google Employee Number 59
. He really gave the readers an insight into how it’s like working for Google during its early days, pre-IPO. At one point, he fantasised about Google stock going up to $10 per share. At this section, I quickly checked the current ticker for GOOG. It’s… $1450 per share now, as of time of writing. Google made Mr Edwards a rich man, no doubt about it.

Nay of the Month:

My
cats have been vomiting
 more often nowadays, and I don’t know what caused it. The only difference to their diet is I recently got them one of those Ciao cat treats (which they LOVE). I know what you’re thinking and no, the expiry date seems fine and they even vomit on days when I don’t give them treats. Don’t know what’s the issue to be honest. Will keep monitoring them.

Speaking of cats, my online order of cat toys and cat grass have been
stuck at the post office
 for a couple of weeks now. Have to make the time to pick them up uuuggghhh so mafaaaan

Groceries bill
 was kinda high at over RM800. I’m sure it’ll average out okay, and to be fair I’ve been eating in A WHOLE LOT MORE than before, so it’s okay? Idk.

Things to Look Forward to:

Enjoying my parents’ joy in planning my wedding, which can now (should be able to) go up to 250 guests instead of 20. Yeah, it’s my day, but hey. They’re happy. Plus I can afford it, so why not.

Learning online courses which I bought but haven’t gone through yet! Will I ever! We shall see!

Keeping this momentum going and read another book. I don’t want to lose my ability to focus again!

What are YOU looking forward to, now that we’re in the second half of the year? How are you with your financial goals? Let me know in the comments section!

—

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
how expense tracking works
)


Budget Update: June 2021 – #KerajaanGagal

Welcome to another edition of my monthly budget updates, where I break down my expenses by category and share the highlights and lowlights of the month!

#KerajaanGagal. Enough said. I am angry and sad and channeling all this negative energy towards bullying BNPL service providers and shading tone-deaf people who are lucky enough to be unaffected by financial hardship at this time and congratulating themselves for being able to save and invest more. Read the room.

Okay, let’s get on to the budget part.

Budget Update: June 2021

In June 2021, I spent RM11,985.76. The top 3 top expenses were:

Business (RM4,515.39)
 – Paid CFP Module 3 course, bought SEO technical audit package, got a new microphone for work
Donations & Gifts

(RM3,011.21)
 – Parents’ electric bill, food gifts/care packs for family, donations to Refuge for Refugees and WeListen Packs
Utilities & Rent (RM1,287.26)
 – Gotta keep a roof over our heads

Cumulatively, the top 3 expenses make up 75% of my total June 2021 expenses.

My Spending Breakdown in June 2021

Here’s what I spent on in the whole month of June 2021, in their respective categories and from highest to lowest amount:

Yay of the Month:

#1 – Completed CFP Module 2

2 down, 2 more to go 🙂

Wanna know what they teach in Certified Financial Planning course? Read here:
My CFP Journey, Part 2: What I Learned in CFP Module 1 & Module 2

#2 – Used grocery shopping / meal planning/ ordering food as outlet for sanity

I’m generally an optimistic person, but I’m not unaffected by this overall feeling of despair. Aside from helping out via donations, I tried hard to distract myself by finding joy from ‘mundane’ activities. It’s amazing how grocery shopping, meal planning and ordering food has helped me maintain my sanity.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

The downside is, unfortunately, weight gain. But you know what? I’m not going to let it get to me. If I escape this whole thing with *only* weight gain, God I’m lucky.

You can't ever fat shame me 😘
pic.twitter.com/x54msYmqRC
— Suraya ringgitohringgit.com 🏴 (@surayaror)
June 27, 2021

The other downside is high groceries cost for the month at RM1,175.96, and technically avoidable food ordering totalling ~RM375 – so RM1500 in makan cost for a household of 2.

But it
was
a stock-up month for groceries, which will average out to RM750-850 or so, plus ordering in supports small businesses (this is what I tell myself to feel better haha).

#3 – Increased my steps rate

I was checking my phone’s Health app and FREAKED OUT over my lack of daily steps – some days it’s as low as a few hundred steps only!

So I made some effort to walk around a bit more, even if just in the house. It kinda worked – my average step count in June 2021 was 4,793 steps per day. Other months were just in the 1xxx range.

And I managed to 2-in-1 it, too.

Pace around my (small) apartment while read articles, know know dah hit 6k steps 😮
— Suraya ringgitohringgit.com 🏴 (@surayaror)
June 18, 2021

#4 – Re-continued Youtube channel

As a solo personal finance content creator, I find myself constantly overwhelmed juggling content creation + marketing + community management. There is so much to do, so many skills to master! I’m not complaining – most of it is good stress, I’m enjoying the challenges and learning processes, so it’s all good.

Working on my Youtube channel and learning video editing skills is one of them. Honestly my skills are still amateur at best, I’m still working on it, but you know I give good info, so go watch my latest video ya? 🙂 At least with this one my voice is clear. Microphone baru la katakan.

Watch it at:
[VIDEO] 3 Google Chrome Extensions Malaysian Should Know to Save Money! (You MUST Install #1! WAJIB!)

#5 – Gave 3 talks

I did:

Tempat Terbaik Untuk Menyimpan Wang with MyAgeing™ Financial Literacy and Educational Hub (MyFiLE), UPM
3 “Money Tips” Orang Muda Perlu Tahu with Athirah Nayan, Islamic Financial Planner
Is Buy Now, Pay Later A Force for Good or Evil? with Fintech Fireside Asia (spoiler alert:
I argue its evil
)

Thank you to everyone who attended and supported <3

#6 – Making progress in short term goal – grow IG to 10k followers

Started at 7.6k, as of writing time it’s at 8.4k, thank you so much! If you haven’t, please follow me on my Instagram –
IG/surayaror
. I really really want the swipe up feature.

New short-term goal – get 10k followers on IG so I can get the swipe up feature. I humbly request you to follow me there 🙏
https://t.co/tyNfmHJeRK

pic.twitter.com/uTtGADskkj
— Suraya ringgitohringgit.com 🏴 (@surayaror)
May 24, 2021

#7 – Misc

Read
five books
 (good job Suraya!!):

How to DeFi: Beginner by CoinGecko
How to DeFi: Advanced by CoinGecko
The Suitcase Entrepreneur: Create Freedom in Business and Adventure in Life by Natalie Sisson
Overheard: The Art of Eavesdropping by Oslo Davis – Note: this is a collection of cartoons by a newpaper cartoonist, not a manual. Must clarify that!!
We Are All Weird: The Rise of Tribes and the End of Normal by Seth Godin

Noteworthy shows:

Rorouni Kenshin: The Final on Netflix
The Parisian Agency: Exclusive Properties on Netflix
The whole
Great Art Explained Youtube channel
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Bought for myself:

12 x books from Big Bad Wolf book sale
Face masks (replenish supply)
Hair mask (replenish supply)
Gym pants (threw out old pair; using the one in one out rule)
Pre-ordered Anna Tan’s latest book
Amok
. Look at that cover! Go get yourself a copy, e-book version also available

Nay of the Month:

#1 – Replaced retainer – cost: RM800

My bruxism (teeth grinding) at night is so bad, I literally go through one retainer a year, when they’re supposed to last you for five…

I was going to wait until I was fully vaccinated to go to the dentist, but my retainer wasn’t giving me protection and all the teeth grinding was causing me to wake up with sore jaw. So I finally dragged myself there after getting one jab and got a replacement pair + mouth guard for RM800.

Ouch at the price, but necessary.

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A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

#2 – Hot weather

It *was* hot, wasn’t it?? My aircon bill, which is usually RM13 or so, ballooned up to RM135.

#3 – I miss my family..

I understand why lockdown is necessary but also cases aren’t going down, so what the heck, PN govt? :’)

Things to Look Forward to:

We got our
 second dose vaccine date
! Should be fully vaccinated by mid-August 🙂
Paying my taxes
. As I’m writing this, LHDN updated the submission date from July 15 to August 31. Shall I just get it done or shall I wait to do it next month? Hmm…

Well, that was my June 2021. How was yours? What’s your yay of the month, nay of the month, and something you’re looking forward to? Tell me in the comments section 🙂

—

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
find out your budgeting style
)


Budget Update: June 2022 – Renovation is Over!

Welcome to another edition of my monthly budget updates, where I break down my expenses by category and share the highlights and lowlights of the month.

So how was your June? Was it good, bad or meh?

My June was consumed by moving process. Now that our home renovation process is over, we could finally:

buy remaining items we need, and
install water filter and bidets, and
hire movers/ arrange delivery, and
declutter and pack all of our stuff.

So far, the calculations show that we will spend roughly RM58k all in all to transform our 678sqf bare unit into a livable space.  Of that, RM34k is for renovations and RM25k is for furniture and appliances.

I’m aware that I’m throwing around all these big numbers, some of you must be going like holy shit RM58k???

Perhaps I’m desensitised to it by now, but for those of you who are unaware of home renovation costs, yes it does cost that much. I even know people who spent 6-figures just for renovations ON TOP of the house cost. (Comparatively, this figure makes mine look downright affordable.)

Some of you have asked, so I’ll do a breakdown post on exactly what we spent on and where. Look forward to it 🙂 For now, let’s get on to the budget part.

Budget Update: June 2022

In June 2022, I spent RM15,350.09. The top 3 top expenses were:

Home Reno + Deco (RM8,492.54)
– Paid the final renovation instalment in lumpsum, plus monthly EPP
Utilities & Rent (RM
12,548.69
)
– Half mortgage and extra one month more in rent
Social (RM931.81)
– Brother and BIL birthday lunch and AFS meetup

Cumulatively, the top 3 expenses make up 80% of my total June 2022 expenses. (My belief is, if you want to save money, always trim from the top 3 expenses rather than cut out a few ringgits from other already-low expenses)

My Spending Breakdown in June 2022

Here’s what I spent on in the whole month of June 2022, in their respective categories and from highest to lowest amount:

Yay of the Month:

#1 – House renovation finally done!!

Due to several factors, our home renovation process was delayed* by a few months but it’s finally done! We got the keys to our new home and it is BEAUTIFUL. The Makeover Guys / EasyHome people did a great job.

*Not the Makeover Guys’ fault. They were efficient actually, I’m satisfied with the service. The delay is due to condo’s defect check repair process

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A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

#2 – Earned 5-figures from affiliate marketing

It’s going to take some time before I get the money but yeah. Income-wise, June 2022 was a good month for me. I’m on track to reach my annual income goal.

#3 – Enjoyed social activities

Had fun meeting up with people I haven’t met in *years*. At RM930, this translates to higher social activities cost for the month but meh, it’s worth it 🙂

#4 – Sold items

Sold my nikah dress and an office chair. Minus delivery fees, I made RM213.

I still have a bunch of books and misc items to sell/donate. Hopefully can make a couple hundred more 🙂

#5 – Appeared on..

#1 –  Booktalk at Pesta Buku Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur 2022

Thanks Iman Publications for inviting me along with Enam Angka Menjelang Dua Puluh Lima author Financial Gory at panel session during Pesta Buku Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur 2022.

I’m working on something with them. Stay tuned 🙂

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A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

#2 – ALAMAK, TAK CUKUP DUIT! (Cara Bina Cash Flow Keluarga) | Adlil Rajiah + Suraya Zainudin

Technically this happened in July (1st) but close enough. Collaborated with Adlil Rajiah, my high school friend and author of the popular parenting book ‘Why So Serious, Parents?’. Watch the full video below:

#6 – Misc

Read:

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Wonderland: How Play Made The Modern World by Steven Johnson

Watched:

Basic human rights taken away by governments all over the world hahaha eff everything

Bought for myself:

Books
Preloved dress from Carousell
Containers from thrift store

Nay of the Month:

#1 – Website technical issues

Paid to fix some technical issues for the wesbite. Originally quoted a few hundred ringgit, but I was so happy I paid RM500.

#2 – Paid one *more* month of rent

Every month delayed to move into new place means I paid extra RM1200 per month in rent. This is in ADDITION to the mortgage we have started paying.

Tbh I could have saved at least RM3000 if home renovation had been completed on time but let bygones be bygones, I’m not going to let this ruin my mood.

Things to Look Forward to:

Settling into new place 🙂

Well, that was my June 2022. How was yours? What’s your yay of the month, nay of the month, and something you’re looking forward to? Tell me in the comments section 🙂

—

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
find out your budgeting style
)


Budget Update: June 2023 – Confinement Month

Welcome to another edition of my monthly budget updates, where I break down my expenses by category and share the highlights and lowlights of the month.

So how was your June? Was it good, bad or meh?

For me, June 2023 contained multiple big expected and unexpected expenses. The big ones were budgeted for, but the unexpected ones threw me off.

I try so hard to be thrifty and frugal in my daily life but unexpected expenses kills me man. Compound here, RM2.4k gone. Someone asked for help, another RM2k. I can't keep up like this
No advice needed, just need to vent
— Suraya: bestselling Bergaji & Pokai book (@surayaror)
June 21, 2023

As you can see, I’m spending
thousands
 in unexpected expenses. And there’s nothing I can do about it.

While it sucks, I don’t wish to dwell on this longer than I need to and torture myself. All I can do now is make peace with it (and make more money, I guess).

Let’s get on to the budget part.

Budget Update: June 2023

In June 2023, I spent RM13,295.49 The top 3 top expenses were:

Donations & Gifts (RM4,985.29)
 – Parents’ electric bill, gift money and presents

Project M (RM4,811.40)
 – Paid balance for confinement lady

Utilities & Mortgage (RM1,371)
 – Half mortgage and bills

Cumulatively, the top 3 expenses make up (a whopping) 85% of my total June 2023 expenses.

(My belief is, if you want to save money, trim first from the top 3 expenses rather than cut out a few ringgits from other already-low expenses)

My Spending Breakdown in June 2023

Here’s what I spent on in the whole month of June 2023, in their respective categories and from highest to lowest amount:

Yay of the Month:

#1 – Ended confinement period

As some of you may already know, I
gave birth
 in May 2023. The traditional Malay confinement period – or pantang – can last as long as 44 days, but generally one feels ‘better’ after around 2 weeks post-birth.

For me, I had the extreme luck to get a wonderful stay-in confinement lady, Kak Sha. Y’all, she was amazing. Her massages, her meals, her support with baby care… top notch.

In June 2023, I paid off the balance for confinement service, which explains the high cost under ‘Project M’ category. In total, I paid RM6000 for one month of her services. But seriously, she was worth every cent and then some. I must admit I got attached to her and when she left, I cried :’)

#2 – A programmer turned my idea into an app (so cool!)

Software engineer Afif Sohaili aka Programmer Dad turned my grocery-tracking system into an app, which is FREE for you to use! Try it out at
https://groceror.netlify.app/

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A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

#3 – Managed to complete some pending work

Thanks to Kak Sha my confinement lady, and also my husband, I managed to find time to complete some work pending – two sponsored posts on two very different types of financial products. Have a read!

The Beginner’s Guide to FCPO Trading in Malaysia [SPONSORED]

Explaining Every ETF You Can Invest and Trade on Bursa Malaysia [SPONSORED]

#4 – Bergaji & Pokai on best-selling list during PBAKL 2023

I was so sad over not being able to attend PBAKL or Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair this year, but what to do, I gave birth and all. All I could do was do some online marketing.

Despite that, Bergaji & Pokai sold well at the fair?? I’m so happy!

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A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

Not only that, a follower also reported the book was SOLD OUT at PBAKL 2023, because he fought someone else for the last copy? (My head straight went to rom-com situation LOL)

No but imagine you found your spouse cos you both fought over my book 😂 I mean why not, both dah suka topic kewangan, dah nampak sikit sekufu kat situ 😂😂
pic.twitter.com/LvKLYnHQwM
— Suraya: bestselling Bergaji & Pokai book (@surayaror)
June 5, 2023

#5 – Bought medical card for baby Mika

I bought Baby Mika a medical plan that covers him for up to RM150k annually and unlimited lifetime. Cost: RM143 per month

Glad to have this out of the way. Babies are considered high risk, medically speaking. If anything happens (hope not), his bills are covered.

#6 – Misc

Read 0 books

Bought for myself:

2 pants from Uniqlo (impulse buy)

New pans and pots to replace my old ones

A haircut

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A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

Nay of the Month:

#1 – OPR increase reflected in mortgage and ASB Loan

In early May 2023, BNM increased the OPR from 2.75% to 3%. Thanks to that, our mortgage increased by RM88 and my ASB loan increased by RM8.

I understand why they do the move (some macroeconomic reasons), but sigh higher monthly commitment nonetheless.

#2 – Paid RM600 to get 80% SSM discount

I covered this in
Budget Update: May 2023
 article under Nay of the month, but basically I got hit by 4 x RM2000 compounds from SSM. That’s right, 8000 big ones. For the horrible crime of… not submitting annual declaration.

Thankfully, one can get discounts via appeals. It’s a long story but I finally got approved for 80% off discounts but only after paying RM600 (or RM800 total).

Things to Look Forward to:

Watching Baby Mika grow. As I’m writing this, Baby Mika is 6 weeks old 🙂 I know the newborn phase doesn’t last very long (2, 3 months at most?), so I’m just looking forward to get as much quality time with him as possible.

Dip my toes back into work. Technically speaking I’m still in my maternity leave, but there’s no harm doing a little bit of what makes me happy, even if it’s technically work, yes?

Well, that was my June 2023. How was yours? What’s your yay of the month, nay of the month, and something you’re looking forward to? Tell me in the comments section 🙂

—

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
find out your budgeting style
)


Budget Update: March 2016

March Budget Update Summary

I don’t know why, but this post was hard to do. It wasn’t like March wasn’t a great month, because it was. I guess there was so many things, and my brain just wants to nope out of the task of organising itself out.

If I can describe March in a couple of words, it would be this – back on track. Almost exactly 6 months ago, I moved to Ipoh. It was a great learning curve. I tried to open a business – that failed. I tried looking for local jobs – salary sucks + not much opportunity in my field. I tried to reach out to my contacts and made a few calls to friends of friends. In one instance, I cold-called a contact given by my uncle – not technically but I practically grew up with him, he’s my father’s friend since his uni days, a really nice guy – and broke down crying at the end of that call because I felt so pathetic, like I was begging.

That was the lowest point, but what went down must come back up again, and it did. I became a freelance writer (related: read my guide on
expenses and incomes
 of this trade). Now I make more that my old job’s salary, back in KL. And people have been approaching me for writing projects. I have a lot of opportunities, and even turned down low-paying jobs because I can.

Now I’m at that point where I feel like I’m back on track, life and career wise. It’s a good feeling. I’m very thankful.

Yay of the Month:

I
doubled
 what I made in February. And I’m working on projects that I really, genuinely enjoy. From home. Life is good.

Worked out
 a lot. I became a regular gym-goer – at least twice a week. At RM5 per visit, this is an expense I’m happy to pay for. I also got myself a MiBand to track my steps and sleep.

Read some really
good books
. I highly recommend
The Invention of Nature.
 It’s about Alexander von Humboldt, arguably the first person who talked about man-made climate change and its negative effects. He’s a household name in Europe, and I’m ashamed that I didn’t know about his great contributions to science before reading this book. It’s like that time when I was 17 and met a German girl and she referenced the Holocaust and I went ‘what?’ and she’s like ‘you’ve never heard of it??’ and I’m like ‘no, we didn’t learn about it in school’ and she’s like, ‘here’s a website about the genocide. With pictures.’ and I finally knew about this important part of history for the fricking first time.

Took a
Facebook ad
 – something I was always curious about and wanted to try.
Here’s
 everything I learned about it.

Nay of the Month:

Spent
a lot
 this month. Almost RM3k. Granted it was the unexpected insurance premium and zakat that made March so costly. And perhaps I spent a bit too much on groceries. In my defense, a new Jaya Grocers just opened in Ipoh!

Speaking of
zakat
… Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the expense. I just don’t like that I feel obligated to support JAKIM and JAWI by giving money to them. Did you know that by paying zakat, I don’t have to pay income tax (or rather, its completely tax-deducted)? I want my money to go towards, say, scholarships fund. Or health care. But no, it goes to the religious body that I don’t even support. I don’t know what to do about this, I feel like my hands are tied. They issued a fatwa about how
it’s a sin
 to give zakat outside of these institutions and I feel religiously pressured. Suggestions for me?

This is totally selfish, but I hate that RM got stronger slash USD got weaker. I’m
losing a few hundred ringgit
 from the exchange rate (because I get paid in USD).

Things to Look Forward to:

Working on all the projects that I love.

Learning and applying more productivity hacks. Time is valuable. I finally learned how to automate my Twitter!

I need to be more strict on myself with this
keto diet
. I cheat all the time, even though it makes me feel horrible.

Spend more time with friends and family. I think I got too side-tracked because of work, but they are supremely important to my life. If I know you in real life and I haven’t met you in a while, please know that I love you and I miss you ;_;

Have a good April, you guys!

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
.


Budget Update: March 2017

March 2017 Budget Update Summary

I suck, I think I forgot to log some expenses. They are probably closer to RM8k, but I can’t remember the details or what I paid for. Annoyed with myself.

I’m consistently spending RM7-8k per month now. Granted, that includes business expenses (about RM2.7k in March) and a short vacation, but still. I’m torn – should I split my personal and business expenses?  Or remain it as it is? Splitting makes practical sense, but a budget that works is something that I can do easily, and the easiest is to combine them :/ Readers who track your expenses, how do you do it? Happy to hear all advice!

All-in-all, March 2017 was a fulfilling month. I had fun and worked hard. I learned more personal finance stuff (see my book recommendation under Yay of the Month), and one of the points is regarding earning. Specifically, one should never reveal how much one earns because it’s just not ‘classy’. I quite enjoy my transparent style when it comes to finances though… I’ve been sharing my income sources and how much I earned through my work, but now I’m not so sure if I should continue giving this information. Ah well, for now I’ll just say my income>expenses in March and leave it at that.

Lately, the Malaysian personal finance scene is expanding and I’m so stoked to see how this develops. Personally, I’d love to follow someone’s adventure to pay off their big loan, or side-hustles they do to finance a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Do you feel like dabbling in blogging about your personal finance? If yes, I support you 🙂 Contact me if you need advice on website-related things and stuff!

Yay of the month:

After working out somewhat consistently for about a year, I’m so much happier with my body. As in, how
strong
 it’s getting. I have arm muscles.
I have arm muscles
. I’m less intimidated to go for physical activities, something I’ve mostly avoided all my life. I like this feeling, even if those activities cost more than staying at home.

Had a fair few
career-enhancing activities
. Project meetings. Recurring clients. Handling more responsibilities. Networked. Work-wise, I’m at a good place.

Made some tweaks to
Google Adsense
 and wtf it increased my blog passive income by a lot. Ringgit Oh Ringgit generated close to USD1 per day despite usual number of traffic. It was only like 30 cents or so previously. I really like blogging as a passive income strategy. I get financial benefits and have fun at the same time. Yay to hobbies that make money 🙂

Bought new makeup, had a haircut. Feeling cute 🙂

Went to
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
.

Had a socially fun month. Met up with old and new friends. Entertained a few foreign friends and enjoyed playing host. Siderant: I find it annoying when people find local food that they’ve never tried / don’t like repulsive. We shouldn’t make fun or look down at what other people like to eat, period. Durian-lovers don’t like to hear your ‘eww’ reaction when durian is mentioned. Be respectful to other’s peoples’ cuisines, especially if it involves insects or other sources of protein (ie balut). Be polite okay?

Finished an AWESOME personal finance book! Find
‘The Rules of Wealth’ by Richard Templar
. If you like my style of writing, you’ll definitely like this book. It’s divided into short, 2-page articles about wealth ‘rules’, from the mindset, to the goal, to ways to grow and preserve wealth, to how to use it to enhance your life. It’s written for the 40-50s age group, but inclusive enough to have something for everyone. I highly recommend it, two thumbs up.

This writer now reviews performance arts, too! Read my thoughts on the play
A Language Of Their Own

here
!

Nay of the month:

Being physically active did cost me:
my heel hurts
 when I walk. I need to stretch my feet often and wear supportive shoes. Bought myself a pair of Scholl sandals, they are so expensive wtf (RM228). But no regrets, immediate improvement. The reason why I’ve developed this is because I liked to wear shoes with thin soles, it did nothing to cushion impact when walking. This means I have to gradually replace all my shoes with thin soles with thicker ones. Or maybe I can just ask the roadside cobbler for this? Hm.

When filling up Form B for tax payment, I found out that my tax bracket is the highest it’s ever been. My income is now
taxed 16%
; previously it was single digits. It’s hard to complain without sounding entitled, so I won’t, but gosh that’s quite a bit of money to give to the government. I have to cut back next month and beyond.

Bitcoin
 price crashed again and I almost sold all. I didn’t (which turned out to be a good move), but whoah I was so nervous during that time.

I’m more lax in expense tracking and I wonder if I missed to log any expenses 🙁 Have to improve on this. Must quickly log after each payment.

I thought my groceries bill was kinda high…

My only earphone is not working 🙁 I need to get a new one; it makes working out more fun and dammit I need all the distraction I can.

Putting my
keto diet
 on hold after a few half-assed attempts. I’ll get back to it if my weight gets out of control again. I’m really enjoying rice though – haven’t had it in months.

Things to Look Forward to:

Participating in Bloktex Conference! I’ll be at KL Convention Center on 8-9th for this blockchain event 🙂 Come visit me at the Wirex booth! If you want to attend the conference, I have a promo code
 in this article
 (Ctrl+F ‘Bloktex’)

Been making monthly instalment payments totalling about RM450 per month to pay off washing machine, fridge, couch, and other home stuff. Looking forward to having these expenses paid off by April/May.

Do more things to improve my health/fitness. Need to finally try out that gym near my place for variety and fun.

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
review
).


Budget Update: March 2018

Budget Update: March 2018

Professional life = awesome. Personal life = sucks.

Total expenses = scary, but mostly for the right things. Two-thirds of March 2018 expenses went to donations. Almost a quarter went to essentials like business, taxes and rent. The remaining went to groceries, a flight ticket, insurance, public transportation, mobile bill and some miscellaneous items (like a new chopping board to replace the yucky old one).

Two things that happen on a more regular basis now are invitations to events in my professional capacity and increased interest from advertisers to collaborate. You may be seeing more sponsorship posts in Ringgit Oh Ringgit from companies/organisations that want you to know about their products and services. I will try my best to be objective and fair to all parties, especially the readers.

Speaking of readers, thank you everyone who sent lovely notes and emails. It makes me feel really happy to know that my content helped you in your life. I love you, I mean it. Thanks for making my life purposeful. It’s more than what I hoped for when I first started this blog.

Yay of the Month:

Produced my first (and possibly my last)
 theatre show
. Proud that In A Different Light: An Earth Hour Tribute was a sold-out show. Glad people loved how we did our digital marketing. Happy that we received so much support from the non-theatre world. It will be repaid.

Served as a panellist, moderator and participant in a few events. Fun to meet like-minded people. Marion D’Cruz even agreed to be my mentor!

Paid
zakat and taxes
. Stings, but they had to be done. Like last year, I paid my zakat to Islamic Relief Malaysia (
writeup
) – they give out receipt for tax purposes. For taxes, I paid but still have to sort out the filings.

Provided capital for my sister’s business. She was so touched, she sent me the ugliest crying selfies. Lol padan muka siapa suruh hantar. Love you.

Achieved the lowest weight in my adult life. Before you ask, I’m on
keto
.

Fintech Singapore listed Ringgit Oh Ringgit as
one of the best personal finance blogs in Singapore and Asia
!!!!

Ran out of protein powder and coincidentally there’s a sale. 100 servings for RM175, or just RM1.75 per serving. The last time I got it, it was RM209. Score!

Read two books
.
Big Magic: Creative Living Without Fear
by Elizabeth Gilbert and
A Short Story of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson. The former encouraged me to pursue my creative impulses for the sake of doing, while the latter covered a bit of everything from quantum theory, geology, chemistry, botany, evolution, astronomy and a whole load of other stuff. Unexpectedly, both taught me that life will simply move on, regardless how big (I perceive) my personal problems are. On a personal level, it’s okay to grief. On a cosmic level, it’s way too small to matter.

Inspired to continually tweak and optimise this website. Notably, fixed a caption issue that bugged me for ages!

Website traffic
 improved, but only marginally. Small progress is still progress though.

Nay of the Month:

The company that was supposed to do my trust for me (As Salihin) decided that they can’t do the trust after all without a wasiat/will, despite the earlier assurance. Wasted a lot of time with them.

In the span of 2 days, I bought 8 games from Steam. Just RM23.74 in total, so it wasn’t a huge amount to waste. But still, my productivity level dropped.

Did not quit smoking after all.

Overwhelmingly confused by the tax documents CP500. So LHDN will now calculate income tax based on our last recorded earnings and want us to pay in six instalments?

For the last 5 or so months, I’ve consistently earned more than USD100 per month via Google Adsense. In March 2018 it went below that amount. Have to step up quality, share-worthy posts.

Things to Look Forward to:

Going on a solo trip to Hong Kong. Got a cheap-ish flight in April. Should be fun. At least, a distraction. And something to write about. Now in the process of booking accommodations. Looking for a ‘living in the city’ experience – want to walk around, check out museums, go grocery shopping, meet people. Where should I stay there? Any recommendations and tips for Hong Kong travel appreciated.

Dating again.

Filing my taxes and claiming back overpaid payments.

I’m hoping for a quiet, reflective, yet busy April. Making an effort to chase happiness. Praying for yours, too.

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
review
).


Budget Update: March 2019

Budget Update: March 2019

My expenses in March 2019 scared me. The number was so high!

The top 5 expenses in March 2019 were Business, Dates/Travel, Utilities & Rent, Misc Needs and Groceries. Together, those made up 82% of last month’s expenses.

Looking at the data, I can see why expenses were high – there were many lump-sum one-off purchases. For example:

Book printing – paid off the remaining RM1950

Book delivery and packaging costs – around RM1500

Good Vibes Festival 2019 tickets and accommodation – RM700

Bought a new fridge – RM899

Lump-sum one-off purchases throw me off. They are the business expenses (important!), the replacements for important gadgets and tools, the events you book so you look forward to the future, things like that. They’re all important.

I guess – and maybe this is a long time coming – that I have to come to terms that my expenses are never going to get as low as during my early 20s, when I could get by with RM2-3k-ish per month. Every month I beat myself up for saying my expenses were high, but I’m also a much different person since then. I have upgraded some areas in my lifestyle. For example, I’m paying RM1200 per month for the luxury of not having housemates.

Lifestyle upgrades. Money is finite, desire is not.
How do we balance what we buy to make our life a little bit better and more comfortable but at the same time making sure the indulgences doesn’t get out of hand that we get into debt?
 Does anyone else have this worry? I’m sure some of you are battling the exact same personal struggle. Maybe that’s a post worth exploring.

Yay of the Month:

My book, Money Stories from Malaysians broke even within 2 weeks of pre-order sales! The long story, including expenses and breakdowns is at
Selling Online in Malaysia: My Book Sold Well So Here’s A Case Study
 article

If there’s anything I learned during the whole book publishing process, where I curated short stories submitted by Malaysians, it’s that y’all have such amazing stories to tell. I’ve read books mostly from international authors all this while, and decided to consciously seek and
read more books by Malaysian authors
. Had a great start and bought 4 books during a GerakBudaya event during the International Women’s Day sales. Scored some really good titles, can’t wait to read them!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Suraya (@surayaror)
 on
Mar 16, 2019 at 1:32am PDT

Had Nasi Lemak with David Wang (of
ClickWP
), James Clear (author of
Atomic Habits
) and John of
The Minimalist Baker
 😀

Attended a
time management workshop
 conducted by Ashley Suelyn and found out that I respond well to inner expectation (ie: keeping a New Year resolution or self-imposed goals) but resist outer expectations (ie: meeting work datelines or peer pressure). That means I need
purpose
 to get meaningful work done – so I have to find purpose in things I don’t necessarily like to do, but is good for me. It was a great workshop, well worth the RM25 fee. Take
The Four Tendencies quiz
 and find out why you act and (equally important) why you don’t act.

Managed to sell more items on Carousell and made a bit of pocket money from clutter.

Paid RM240 for another 3 months of
gym membership
at a local gym. So far, so good. I’m utilising it well. Went 8 times in March 2019. I want to aim for 10 in April 2019.

Read 2 books.

Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear
 (TL;DR – make small but consistent improvements every day) and
Aini’s Railway Odyssey: An Exile’s 18,200km Journey Home from London to Kuala Lumpur by Nooraini Mydin
 (the 8-weeks budget trip costs her around RM27,500, including all the scams she fell prey to. Chinese scammers are
very
 unapologetic about taking money from tourists.)

Helping my dad sell his
office at Phileo Damansara
. If you have RM850k in loose change, hmu

Bought some tools to help me create more personal finance content!

Being interviewed at Leaderonomic’s The Pennywise Show 🙂

Nay of the Month:

Accidentally poked a hole while chipping ice from the freezer and
had to get a new fridge
. RM899 in unexpected expenses, ughhhhhh. I was so annoyed I complained to everyone who would listen. In the process, I compiled everyone else’s unexpected expenses too… so at least I got something out of the whole experience. You can read it here:
24 Malaysians Share Their Uncommon Unexpected Expenses

Accidentally let a facial
voucher I bought on Fave expire
 🙁 Wasted RM65

Went to
Zoo Negara.
 It was horrible, I’m so embarrassed that this is what we have to offer to the world. It’s not just the dirty, rusted, unkempt cages and sad-looking animals. It’s also the fact that (1) they had the cheek to ask audience members to donate RM10 each to take pictures with the birds, DURING the animal show itself. Can you imagine watching a show with a picture-taking session in the middle of it?, and (2) there were many staff members whose job description is apparently to get you to pay for a picture-taking session at various checkpoints at the zoo. If you had plans to go to Zoo Negara, don’t. Until they get their shit together, go to Singapore Zoo instead.

Ate too much again. Spent RM140+ and gained weight. Stopped intermittent fasting because it just made me crave food. Sigh, this is quite the process.

5 months or so ago, I ran out of my favourite
shampoo
, Kerastase. I love it but at RM200+ a bottle (lasting 16 or so months), it’s quite the splurge. So I’ve been making do with RM10-30 drugstore shampoo. Unfortunately, my hair is falling out more than ever. I decided to cut my losses and bought Kerastase shampoo, even though I have not finished all my existing shampoo yet. Sigh, I hate it when the product I love is so expensive!

No takers yet for this cat 🙁 Do let me know if you or anyone you know is interested to adopt this cat. She’s a sweetheart. Area: One City USJ

Things to Look Forward to:

Will be reading an excerpt of Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 1 at the
Kuala Lumpur International Book Festival
 at PWTC on 7 April! Thanks again for the opportunity,
Malaysian Writers Society
 <3 If you’re a writer – go join as a member. The community is so amazingly supportive.

Good Vibes Festival 2019.
I know it’s hipster af but I did have a good time last year, so that’s why I’m going again

Collaborating on digital marketing with
Nicole from I’m Funemployed
. I do it ameteurishly, she does it for work. Excited to learn from a pro.

Testing out the digital marketing tools and services I bought. Wee I feel like a kid testing out different toys hehehe

A big challenge for April 2019 (and the coming months) is to find my ‘why’ for things I don’t necessarily like to do, but is good for me and my personal growth. I just want to focus on being a little bit better every day, because as James Clear says, ‘habits compound’.

To end this month’s budget update, here’s a fun call-to-action for you: take the
Four Tendencies quiz
, leave your results in the comments section, and let me know what you want to improve on (pick one: ticking things off your to-do list, beating procrastination, instilling leadership as a core value or to finally finish reading a book).

I’ll share with you a habit-forming strategy that works for someone of your tendency. The knowledge blew my mind – I hope it’ll blow yours away, too.

—

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
how expense tracking works
)


Budget Update: March 2020

Budget Update: March 2020

For the first time ever, my Expense chart only showed 4 categories:

Business (49%, representing RM5,535.74 – mostly RM4200 as 50% deposit for book printing),

Donations & Gifts (RM3,850.95 – mostly Zakat and Covid-19 donations),

Groceries (RM716 – stocked the hell up), and

everything else (combining the other 8 expense categories).

A lot? Yes. Some, I planned. Others, nope. It’s a lot of expenses, but
all
 most of it were mindful, non-frivolous expenses. I gave what I could, even though I always feel like I could do more.

In terms of mood, I would divide March 2020 into:

First two weeks: oh I’m sure this problem is nothing we can’t manage, the government/other parties will sort it out soon enough

Last two weeks: OMFG YES WE MUST
ALL
 DO OUR PART TO OVERCOME THIS

What a decade, this first three months of 2020.

Yay of the Month:

Amid the Covid-19 crisis, I’m happy to see lots of
acts of kindness
, people being compasionate beings. I am grateful that I have the emotional capacity to process overwhelming grief over sudden life changes and lost opportunities, and the mental resilience to still be able to look at the bright side. You helped:
Malaysians Share 7 Silver Linings from the Coronavirus Pandemic

My landlady agreed to
waive my rent for one month
. Bless her. Now I’m more motivated than ever to care for the property, make minor repairs, pay future rent and future bills on time.

Enrolled myself in
SOCSO Self-Employment Scheme
. My one year of coverage costs RM442.80. Read:
How to Apply for SOCSO / PERKESO Self-Employment Social Security Scheme

Ringgit Oh Ringgit FB page hit 10k likes
! It took 4.5 years. A long time, a lot of effort. Thank you.

Appeared on
Bernama Radio
. Was supposed to go to the station, but we did it via phone call without (much) problem 🙂

View this post on Instagram

Live on @bernamaradioofficial now! Listen on radio or on their fb page . Edit: done interview! Listen at https://t.co/tBe18DLIFW

A post shared by
 Suraya Zainudin
 (@surayaror) on
Mar 24, 2020 at 7:07pm PDT

Website ad money
 came in via
Payoneer
. The sucky exchange rate worked in my favour, I got more RM for the USD. Note: This is 5 months-ish worth of website revenue, only for ads. I use
Ezoic
 instead of Adsense (for websites with 10k and above monthly traffic only)

Paid my zakat. TIL I’ve been doing the zakat-as-tax-rebate thing wrong for YEARS. That’s the thing about personal finance, isn’t it? There’s always areas where you think you’re doing it right, but it’s not. Have to always unlearn and relearn.

Thank you everyone for the help. Have since updated my zakat article

https://t.co/0bMY69cJZe

— Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)
March 18, 2020

BigPay FINALLY refunded my money. I got back my RM950, stuck in a dispute since Dec last year.

I scored a
nice carpet for RM15
 from my local thrift shop (bought before MCO). Finally my living room setup is complete, after living at this apartment for close to 5 years haha. My cats love it 🙂

Sempat
day-trip-ed with my family to Melaka
 before the MCO. We visited the Melaka Zoo and Jonker Street, and ate way too much <3

Sempat attended one last workshop before the MCO, I Am Remarkable Workshop facilitated by the brilliant award-winning photographer Shamma of Paloma Pictures (browse her pictures – so good!)

View this post on Instagram

Women circle + powerful conversations at #IamRemarkable Workshop #2! . Thank you @palomapictures.me for creating a safe space to share stories ❤ . So glad that we completed this before the movement control! #oyscommunity #courage #openness #authenticity #storytelling #iwd2020

A post shared by
 Own Your Story
 (@oyscommunity) on
Mar 19, 2020 at 11:04pm PDT

Read one book
:
Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine
. My personal takeaway is, you can’t truly opt out of consumerism. Even if you do a no-spend challenge for yourself, your decision impacts others. For example, your friends and family might – out of their own free and goodwill – spend more so they can enjoy your company. If you take the offer, you’ll feel guilty over taking advantage of them. If you don’t, you might lose quality time, and eventually the relationship. Also, you’ll waste a lot of time if you only look for free things.

View this post on Instagram

Irony is breaking one’s self-imposed shopping ban for this book #boughtit

A post shared by
 Suraya Zainudin
 (@surayaror) on
Mar 15, 2020 at 3:13am PDT

Nay of the Month:

Effing everything’s changed. And yes, things may be worse for others, and yes, I am grateful for everything, but also yes,
I AM ALLOWED TO GRIEF
.

I was excited to launch
Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 2
 and
Cerita Duit Orang Malaysia: Jilid 1
, but now that’s postponed. I could open orders now, but after thinking about it, I am not willing to take money from you until the printing company can confirm with me when they can start printing again.

I was only starting to get excited over my wedding plans – which was going to be a big (yet frugal) one, hosting 1500 people from both bride/groom side – but looks like that’s not happening

Anxiety levels
 went through the roof. Cried more than a few times out of frustration and helplessness.

Things to Look Forward to:

Please MCO be over soon 🙁

Being creative with what I can make with the groceries I have left (this is becoming a source of joy for me now)

View this post on Instagram

Groceries running low. Digging out back-of-the-pantry items. I found tapioca flour and I have leftover pasta sauce, and a quick online search brings me to a bomb-ass-looking gluten-free pizza recipe. Score! . #pandemicpantry #glutenfree #tapiocaflour #dudukrumahdiamdiam

A post shared by
 Suraya Zainudin
 (@surayaror) on
Mar 24, 2020 at 6:41pm PDT

Oh well. As they say, life goes on, pandemic or no pandemic, the new normal or no. I think I will just embrace the uncertainty, because that’s the only sure thing right now. Easier for the head to cope.

How are you taking everything in? In the acceptance stage already, or still processing?

—

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
how expense tracking works
)


Budget Update: March 2021 – (New Side Income) Vending Machine Business

Welcome to another edition of my monthly budget updates, where I break down my expenses by category and share the highlights and lowlights of the month!

So, Q1 of 2021 came and went. I hope you’re still on track with whatever goal you’re pursuing.

As for me… a lot of my 2021 plans are going along well. But because I’m human, *of course* I’m going to obsess about the one that I’m not doing so good in – my lack of exercise and lack of discipline with portion control, which resulted in weight gain.

And here’s the thing: I know why. I eat for comfort, and as an avoidance activity. What am I avoiding? Working on Money Stories from Malaysia: Vol 3, my personal finance short story compilation. It’s something I’m forcing myself to do because I want to be the type of person who does these kinds of projects, but gosh the thought of facing the mountain of work I have to do to produce and publish the book is so overwhelming for me.

So I eat to comfort myself.

This is not an excuse. I *will* get the book done. I’m just sharing the mental load that happens while working, even if the project is supposed to be a passion project. Fact is, no matter how ‘fun’ a project seems, work is work. And there’s nothing you can do about it except putting in the effort.

Done confession. On to the budget breakdown section.

Budget Update: March 2021

In March 2021, I spent RM24,881.95. The top 3 top expenses were:

Business (RM18,272.48)
 – Vending machine upfront capital – balance, SEO content audit for RoR, CFP Module 2 payment
Donations & Gifts (RM1,935.75)
 – Husband’s birthday present and dinner date, Compound That Sh*t t-shirt from Suyin Invest and DividendMagic, paid parents’ house electric bill
Utilities & Rent (RM1,276.75)
 – Gotta keep a roof over our heads

(So if you minus the biz expenses, I spent RM6.6k, which includes ~RM2k in donations)

My Spending Breakdown in March 2021

Here’s what I spent on in the whole month of March 2021, in their respective categories and from highest to lowest amount:

Yay of the Month:

#1 – Testing a new side income with vending machine business

When I shared this info online, it’s obvious that people were interested about how earning money via vending machine business works.

I hear you. I am planning a full article to write about my experience, so wait for that for full detail. Until then, enjoy this twitter thread (click to read more):

Testing earning from vending machine business. Waited for months, now only got location – in an IT company with 200+ employees
Initial cost: RM6k
Monthly recurring cost: machine instalment + location rental + possible Internet cost + refilling service + product cost (RM600-1k)
— Suraya | suraya.eth (@surayaror)
March 23, 2021

#2 – Passed my CFP Module 1 exams

My journey to be a Certified Financial Planner is going well – I passed the first module! Currently taking Module 2 lessons 🙂

1 down, 3 more to go!

#3 – Bought medical coverage

My medical card plan is super old; it only gives me RM200k annual limit. I’d like to upgrade my plan, but don’t have the mental capacity for it.

So I’m doing the next best thing. Bought a term medical insurance with high annual limit. Just in case.

#4 – Celebrated husband’s birthday

His first birthday as a married man 🙂 I thought I did well on the celebrating part: I took him out on a nice date and gifted him a professional financial planning session. He was so happy :))

#5 – Subscribed to Fahmi Reza

Is it just me, or the government becomes more and more authoritarian by the day?

I wish I’m braver, but I’m not, I’m a coward who fears repercussions. The least I can do is support people who are brave.

I am now a proud patron of Fahmi Reza on Patreon
https://t.co/D5AoIZSjLs
— Suraya | suraya.eth (@surayaror)
March 16, 2021

#6 – Investing into my business

I hired a professional to do a comprehensive SEO content audit for Ringgit Oh Ringgit. Depending on the month, I’ve hovered around the 50-75k in traffic per month for the longest time. Time to try new things to hit my goal of reaching 100k per month.

#6 – Misc

Read
one book
:
The Vogue Factors: The Inside Story of Fashion’s Most Illustrious Magazine
 by Kirstie Clements. Such fascinating insight on the magazine slash publishing industry. As I was reading, I actively had to resist the pervasive thoughts of lifestyle/fashion as trivial; I shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss them. There’s a reason why they are billion-dollar industries.
Low groceries. Working on finishing the food we have before we buy more
Extended Netflix subscription for another 6 months (RM11 per month x 6 = RM66)
Bought a pretty phone case and 2 dresses 🙂 I needed more modest fashion options in my wardrobe, and these dresses are so pretty, I got them in two colours 🙂 It’s hard to find long dresses (I’m 168cm) so when I find them I tend to stock up!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ✨Plus Size Raya 2023 Collection ✨ Plus Size Ent SA0436508-D (@malaysiaplussize)

Nay of the Month:

#1 – Feeling really sad about the country

I feel discouraged by the current situation. It’s hard not to. The wealth gap continues to widen – so much that the PM said
B40 may have expanded to B50
. Most fresh graduates are
earning minimum wage
. At the same time, CEOs (and upper management?) see their incomes increase.

What, I wonder, will happen once i-Sinar money runs out? What will happen to the small businesses that depend on the B50 purchasing power then?

It’s like watching a slow-moving car driving towards a disastrous end but not able to do anything meaningful about it.

Whatever future we’re heading to, I don’t think we’ll like it. I hope I’m wrong.

#2 – My kailan plants died

All of them wilted, then died 🙁 I really don’t know what I did wrong.. I’m discouraged, but I don’t want to give up, so back to restarting the balcony garden project I guess..

Things to Look Forward to:

Paying my
Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 2
 co-writers. If you look at the T&C of the
writing competition
, writers can opt to get upfront RM100 OR a % of profits made on book sales. Most of them chose the latter option. Happy to day sales went well – I think they’ll be happy with the amount!
The start of Hungry Muslim month (props if you understood that reference). I plan to kick start my one meal a day, too.

Well, that was my March 2021! How was yours? What’s your yay of the month, nay of the month, and something you’re looking forward to? Tell me in the comments section 🙂

—

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
find out your budgeting style
)


Budget Update: March 2022 – Mixed Feelings over Endemic Phase

Welcome to another edition of my monthly budget updates, where I break down my expenses by category and share the highlights and lowlights of the month.

So how was your March? Was it good, bad or meh?

For me, I have mixed feelings about the endemic phase.

Now, OBVIOUSLY the pandemic was bad. Millions of people died and tens of millions more are suffering from Long Covid. The economic impact was enormous, especially on the most vulnerable. So many people waited for the endemic phase so they can improve their business, study better and meet family members.

Yet… Can I admit I kind of enjoyed the just-stay-at-home part of the pandemic stage? I feel guilty for admitting it, simply because I know how privileged that sounds, yet as a homebody, I liked how I was at home on most days. I liked how webinars and meetings were shifted online.

Now, I’m having anxiety over adapting back to ‘how it was’. Perhaps you are too (are you? Or just me? Idk).

Eventually I guess all of us will get used to it. We humans always adapt, don’t we. Happy endemic phase everyone.

Let’s get on to the budget part.

Budget Update: March 2022

In March 2022, I spent RM11,760.27. The top 3 top expenses were:

Business (RM1,800)
– Paid writers – more in Nay of the month section
Insurance and Medical (RM1,390.33)
– Usual insurance plus 1 year medical term insurance renewal
Utilities & Rent (RM1,291.56)
– Bills, and half of mortgage

Cumulatively, the top 3 expenses make up (only!) 51% of my total March 2022 expenses. (My belief is, if you want to save money, always trim from the top 3 expenses rather than cut out a few ringgits from other already-low expenses)

My Spending Breakdown in March 2022

Here’s what I spent on in the whole month of March 2022, in their respective categories and from highest to lowest amount:

Yay of the Month:

#1 – Profited from FarmFresh IPO

Bought at RM1.35 and sold at RM1.73. Minus fees, I made 28% from Farmfresh IPO listing, all within almost exactly a month 🙂

First time IPO was a good experience. Panic kejap forgot trading pin but in the end all good. Order matched at 1.73. Syukur 🙂 duit raya settled!
— Suraya | suraya.eth (@surayaror)
March 22, 2022

IPO strategy is an investment strategy that is medium risk. It does need a fair amount of capital but basically how it works is (1) apply to buy IPO before listing (success rate very low; Bumi folks get 2 chances to apply) and (2) sell the minute market opens (profit is NOT guaranteed but historically in your favour)

Of course, there are a lot of nuances and in-depth info and tips. Do you want a separate post on IPO strategy? Let me know, no point write if no demand 🙂

#2 – KL Staycation

It was husband’s birthday so I gifted him a staycation 🙂 I spent so much but hey I only used part of the IPO profit (and the rest invested and ‘locked’ back in ASB).

And as much I hate to admit it… we are both city folks. Had so much fun visiting Lalaport mall in search of new things to add to our new home and trying new restaurants.

#3 – Met up with friends

Managed to meet up with some friends, that made me happy. Hey David 🙂

Also met up with friends from the pf space. They’re cool, go follow all of them on IG!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

#4 – Appeared on..

March 2022 was a busy month for me. I appeared on..

Bursa Malaysia’s Ring the Bell for #equalityforequity campaign

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

Twitter’s #SheInspiresMe campaign

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

HSBC’s Financial Fitness talk

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

And BFM’s Enterprise Biz Bytes

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

#5 – Done Hibah Amanah ASB!

It was quite a mafan process so I compiled what I know into this article:
The Exact Steps to Do Hibah Amanah ASNB – Estate Planning for ASNB Investors

Done hibah amanah ASNB, for myself and husband! Fee was RM100 instead of RM180, yay saved money. Husband belanja pulak tu 🥰
Ps – RM180 fee is completely waived if you add RM30k in fresh fund, not if you have RM30k in account. Staff explain tadi
https://t.co/DCzBNElRv4
— Suraya | suraya.eth (@surayaror)
March 16, 2022

#6 – Misc

Read 0 books 🙁

Noteworthy shows:

Bridgerton Season 2 on Netflix
A lot of news about Ukraine-Russian war

Bought for myself:

N-Cool pillow pad from Nitori
2 pairs of ankle pants from Fitgear
Reusable bees wax bag from
Saffron and Serai
 (the purple bag on the table)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Saffron & Serai (@saffronandserai)

Nay of the Month:

#1 – My siblings got Covid

It was stressful but ultimately everyone recovered, so I’m grateful. I’m also happy my parents are still safe so far. Hope it stays that way.

#2 – Shelved Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 3

After going back and forth and spending countless hours agonising over it, I decided to make a decision – shelved Money Stories from Malaysians: Volume 3.

If you’re one of the writers, you should have received my email. If not, check your inbox, or reach out to me.

This decision cost me money. A few thousand. Not to mention wasted so much time. Yet I feel good. I didn’t want to be sunk-cost fallacy to be my main driver to continue the project if my heart’s not in it.

Made a hard decision that will cost me thousands of RM. I feel bad.. but free. Been living with guilt for almost a year
— Suraya | suraya.eth (@surayaror)
March 11, 2022

#3 – Delayed home moving

Us: *Submitted defect check report to developer which we just bough new unit from* – Hi pls fix this as per your obligation, thank you

Them: *2 months later* Omg you submitted?

🙂 All this while we tried to reach out to get status but now only was told they haven’t started ANYTHING.

We planned to move in by May, now that will be delayed by at least a few more months. As you can imagine, I am pissed. But I am also trying to stay calm and go with the flow.

Things to Look Forward to:

Fasting month. Not looking forward to the caffeine withdrawals on first week..

Well, that was my March 2022. How was yours? What’s your yay of the month, nay of the month, and something you’re looking forward to? Tell me in the comments section 🙂

—

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
find out your budgeting style
)


Budget Update: March 2023 – Rest is Hard

Welcome to another edition of my monthly budget updates, where I break down my expenses by category and share the highlights and lowlights of the month.

So how was your March? Was it good, bad or meh?

For me, March 2023 was… disorienting.

I’m going through something major at the moment and its driving me nuts. The advice given was simply – Rest.

Rest is hard for me, I’m so used to working. Even when I’m not working, I’m thinking about work. So most days I’m just cruising on autopilot, trying not to stress myself out. Work-wise, I could only focus on one thing at a time, ie my course launch and marketing.

This unfortunately meant I wrote less articles. Predictably, my analytics suffered – both website and social media traffic are down. It’s expected, but still made me sad.

Yet, I survived another month. And most days I am happy and content instead of succumbing to panic and anxiety attacks (what if no one hires me ever again???). So that’s good.

I'm currently in my 'do less' instead of 'do more' phase and honestly except for the guilt, am having a pretty good time
The guilt will take some time to unlearn I guess, if ever
— Suraya: bestselling Bergaji & Pokai book (@surayaror)
March 21, 2023

Let’s get on to the budget part.

Budget Update: March 2023

In March 2023, I spent RM7,697.36. The top 3 top expenses were:

Insurance & Medical (RM1,522)
 – In addition to my usual monthly insurance, also renewed my annual term medical insurance

Donations & Gifts (RM1,419.70)
 – Parents TNB bill

Utilities & Mortgage (RM1,327)
 – Half mortgage and bills

Cumulatively, the top 3 expenses make up 57% of my total March 2023 expenses.

(My belief is, if you want to save money, trim first from the top 3 expenses rather than cut out a few ringgits from other already-low expenses)

My Spending Breakdown in March 2023

Here’s what I spent on in the whole month of March 2023, in their respective categories and from highest to lowest amount:

Yay of the Month:

#1 – Had a successful course launch

In total, 420 people (hehe) bought my How to Buy Your Own Damn Insurance/Takaful course. The launch ended on 31 March 2023.

It’s too soon to say whether the course is doing what it should (help you buy your own damn insurance), but I know it has helped at least one person buy their insurance so far!!

Someone actually did take action and got themselves insured after attended my course! Hurrah!!! I'm so happy!!
Review shared with permission ❤
pic.twitter.com/OcLDSqSpNR
— Suraya: bestselling Bergaji & Pokai book (@surayaror)
April 2, 2023

#2 – Celebrated my partner’s birthday

I got him something he really wanted (something guitar-related, makes sounds, idk that’s the extent of my understanding) and treated him to dinner 🙂

Using my money to make loved ones happy is the best <3 I am very grateful.

#3 – Family members facing health issues

In March 2023, multiple close family member faced health issues. At one point we were ready to say goodbye to one of them, even.

I’d put this under Nay of the month except for 2 things: (1) Illness and death is unavoidable in life, best to face it head-on with as much love and care as possible, and we definitely tried our best, and (2) the re-realisation of how important family is.

#4 – Appeared on:

a) Utusan Malaysia centerfold!

This one was such a honour. My mom was so proud of me, and my partner told me his father (aka my FIL) shared it in the family Whatsapp group lol.

The older generations of my family have no idea what I do so this kind of give them some idea. It was nice 🙂

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A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

b) Antarabudaya Malaysia Volunteer Sharing Session

Gave a talk on topic: Top 5 Popular Investments in Malaysia. Also promoted my favourite NGO, Antarabudaya Malaysia 🙂

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A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

c) Oh Sebenar International Women’s Day Community Event

It was lovely to meet some of you at the event!

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A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

d) Belum Raya, Dah Pokai? with Iman Publication

A fun Twitter Space activity 🙂

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A post shared by Suraya Zainudin (@surayaror)

#5 – Misc

Read:

Started 3 books, finished none 🙁

Bought for myself:

Muji duvet cover

Books

Nay of the Month:

#1 – High groceries cost

In March 2023, I spent RM1,183 for groceries for our family of 2. That’s a bit more than the usual RM850 or so average.

Guess just have to go on ‘clear out pantry’ challenge. That always works and reduces expenses (and waste too).

#2 – Liquidated some crypto BEFORE the (minor) moon

My timing sucks la. I’ve been meaning to sell a small bit of my crypto stash and when I finally did, the price went up.

Yes I know there’s no way I could’ve known but still.

I’m not complaining since its not like I sold at a loss or anything, but it’s still annoying. Classic ‘what if’ syndrome.

Things to Look Forward to:

Raya holiday

Well, that was my March 2023. How was yours? What’s your yay of the month, nay of the month, and something you’re looking forward to? Tell me in the comments section 🙂

—

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
. Graphs are taken from my expense-tracking app Money Lover (
find out your budgeting style
)


Budget Update: May 2016

May Budget Update Summary

May was awesome, the great really out shadowed the bad by like, a mile and a half. All in all, very grateful.

There were moments when I got depressed (for lack of better word) when I saw some new achievements of Facebook friends. Seriously, everytime I go on FB I feel like shit afterwards. Is this common? I looked it up, and apparently yeah, it is. Just shows that nothing you achieve can ever be enough, so just stop letting it distract you I guess. Do your thing, because if not, no one’s going to do it for you. #wahsurayasodeep

I also felt re-awakening of my desire to be a digital nomad. For those who don’t know what this term means, it’s basically someone who can work remotely and is location-independent. You can work anywhere as long as you have internet. I’m seriously itching to go grocery-shopping in a Tesco in Europe. I also can’t wait to complain about winter. Oh I’m going to need one of y’all to (gently) break this news to my parents.

Yay of the Month:

Some amazing guys and I launched
WangTarik
! It’s a personal finance platform in Malay language, so my dears please go ahead and read that one too for money tips ya 🙂

I turned 28 and no one asked me when I’m going to get married #win

Bitcoin price skyrocketed like crazy. Ether price increased as well. USD strengthen against RM. Between the three of these, I’m a very, very happy woman.

I went on an island holiday (read
here
for total cost).

Got more freelance writing work. Notably, I got published in
HongKiat
!

Watched One Punch Man for the comedy (highly recommended!) and Owari no Seraph for the eye candy (A+ for character design, C- as soon as they speak).

Nay of the Month:

Junk food month. I’m so ashamed of myself, putting this much crap in my body. Because I was traveling, I stopped doing keto for a while… but I never got back on it once the travel was over. There is definitely a change in general moodiness – I tend to have higher highs and lower lows while on a normal (ie not keto) diet.

Also did not work out as much as I wanted. No excuse, just plain ol laziness. Which I really have to fix in June.

I’ve gotten lazy with logging in my expenses (I use the Money Lover app). Usually I’ll straightaway record whatever spending I make right after I buy it, but now I tend to wait a few days. It’s screwing up my data and I hate it!

So basically, in May I did well in my professional life, but in my personal life I was a lazy piece of shit.

Things to Look Forward to:

Fasting month…? Raya…? Tbh I’m not the biggest fan for both but yeah an obligation is an obligation.

Also, screwed sleeping pattern due to waking up to eat sahur at night. This will be my first keto fasting season. Theoretically, keto can make fasting easier because it’s all about satiety. Let’s see if that’s the case or not.

In the spirit of Ramadan, try hard to be a better person. I’m a staunch believer that you can be a better Muslim by being a better person, not the other way around. I’ll start now. You there. Yes, you. Correct your posture. Don’t hunch. Later back pain. Ok? Alright, be well now.

Have a good June, you guys 🙂

To read about my past monthly budget update, click
here
.