As Singapore core inflation was expected to rise through the year, I re-started tracking my expenses (excluding car loan) from May. With the year coming to an end, I am now able to share how has my expenses varied over the months.

Till October, I was still thinking that on average I should be able to keep my expenses to $7k per month. Unfortunately, the spike in year end spending was higher than expected, resulting in an average of $7.3k! $300 might not seem a lot but annualising it and multiply the amount by many years will make it substantial. Also with higher expected inflation and increase in GST in the next few years, I should be more mindful about my spending.

No doubt there are a couple of one-off expenses this year such as my daughter’s braces and my new iPhone 14 which will not repeat next year. However, the thing about ad hoc spending is they appear in different forms in different year. Last year I need to replace the TV; this year I need to replace my phone; next year I need to. So in this sense ad hoc spending is actually quite regular!

I have re-categorised tour under leisure/entertainment and with some adjustments, the following is next year’s projected expenses.

If I am accurate in my projection, it is going to hit $7.4k a month! There are some uncertainties in the budget, so hopefully it will end up as a case of over budgeting.

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