This CB "Circuit Breaker" month flew past quickly and everyday felt like the same whether it is weekday, weekend or public holiday like 1st of May.
Definitely a "new" kind lifestyle I wasn't expecting since I started working and became parent. Even the calculation of expenses became much easier with much fewer categories of expenditure.
I am curious on whether if we managed to save more $ when we "work from home" or "WFH". Almost all the financial bloggers blogged about how much they had "saved" for the past 1 month when they WFH.
Let's do some calculation and let the numbers do the talking. I track my family related expenditure so I will use that as an example since everyone is at home for the past 1 month.
Top 3 Spenders
1) Grocery/Necessity
This category hit an all time high (an increased of 87% from previous month), this is not unexpected since now, me and my wife do not dine out for lunch during weekdays and we had our lunch/dinner, 5 days a week at least.
Unconsciously, we are "stockpiling" food at home, for eg we used to buy 1 week supply of groceries, but nowadays, we tend to buy 1.5 weeks at least like more frozen food such as chicken wings, fillet, pork etc. We also standby at extra 1 x 10kg of white rice and 5kg of brown rice and two bottles of cooking oil.
I also think that grocery prices went up although I did not compare for each item but I am pretty sure because I did all my family grocery shopping previously and I knew on average what should be the spending pattern. A few cents/dollars increase makes a whole lot of a different if we are buying in bulk.
We did not intend to stockpile to be honest but I think the fear of sudden tightening of rules like CB becomes CCB made us bought more groceries than usual when we visit our favorite supermarket Sheng Siong (okay, we admit we are both shareholders). It's a FOMO (LOL) or Fear Of Missing Out syndrome.
I made sure my fridge is always stock up with groceries and cupboards ready with snacks/biscuits that my kids love to eat and my wife ensure she got her "junk" food aka chips on standby as well.
We ordered wines and beers from online platforms for the adults as well as ice creams for the kids. This is extra spending but we are just trying to stay "sane" by having these extra comfort drinks and food.
Necessity like shampoo, shower gels, facial wash etc also got stocked up as well for the family.
2) Eating out ("da bao")
Food again, my runner up (an increased of 63% from previous month)
So now we cook and eat home cook food for 5 to 5.5 days a week (both lunch + dinner). Weekends, I will drive out to buy lunch and dinner for the family (not a big fan of food delivery) also to catch some "fresh" air.
We mostly don't cook during weekends to allow the helper to take a breather and relax as well as to catch up with household chores.
We used to bring the kids to visit their grandparents on Sunday for dinner at their place, this obviously have to be scrapped now so another dinner at home.
Honestly, the numbers are quite scary, I think we also ordered a few times of supper via food delivery because it is so convenient now.
Most hawker became very innovative (the most positive things about this CB, it force every business to rethink their business model) with their offerings nowadays because they wants to survive.
3) Helper
I am sure many are surprised for this category, my 2nd runner up (an increased of 9% from previous month)
I gave my helper a small cash bonus of $100 in April as I knew her husband is not able to work due to the lock down in her home country. This extra cash is to help to tide her family over this difficult period.
I want her to be mentally happy as well and not worry about her family. I believed if I take good care of her family, she will be happy and my family will be happy as well. At this difficult time, we needed each other's support and we honestly cannot do without her.
Additionally, since she will not be able to go for her off day on Sunday and MOM instructed all employer to allow their helper to take off day at home. To be very honest, it is very difficult for her to be 100% doing nothing and staying in her room, I am fine with such arrangement but not my kids, they will disturb her. So to prevent her from thinking she need to work during her off day, we pay her for all off days when she is at home during CB. This helps to eliminate any misunderstanding when comes to monetary compensation. She happy, we happy.
Top 3 Savers
1) Car
Runner up (55% reduction from previous month)
Pump lesser petrol and paid zero ERP since we do not need to commute to office anymore. I also managed to cancel my office season parking for Apr and May so more savings in this category.
2) Town Council/Utility Bills
Champion (100% reduction from previous month)
Reduced to zero during CB due to rebates by our Government for our 4 room HDB.
3) Holiday/Entertainment
2nd runner up (100% reduction from previous month)
All travel were cancelled and we got refunded all our hotels and flights that we prepaid for, thank god that we bought travel insurance.
Conclusion
Overall, our family spending saw at least a 10% increase (instead of savings 😂) from previous month so we did not save more money from WFH like all other bloggers.
Our utility bills will sure (100% guarantee chop!) shoot up (OMG!) when we receive the bills in May for Apr usage.
-No thanks for my kids whom are using more water in their bath tub every evening (just want them to feel happier).
-No thanks to our home office, running 2 operating systems for at least 9 to 12 hours a day to consume electricity.
I will be looking to tighten up our family wallet a little more on grocery shopping in May to curb wastage on stockpiling and extra spending on snacks and alcohol.
Hope you enjoy my write up on family expenditure.
Stay safe, Stay healthy.
#SgUnited
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