Quote:
Originally Posted by aargee I'll put this foremost question to everyone, including Pramodh. How many of you have reduced your monthly expenses? I firmly believe that by doing so, you can actually start saving a lot. I'm just curious to understand if I was the only person to undergo the pain on reducing the expenses or are there several people along with me? I don't intend to say that I stopped eating out, I stopped going to cinema hall etc; what I intend is my monthly expense was Rs X, now I've brought it down to Rs X-Y & that Y is a considerable number. |
Aargee, i have relocated from Hyderabad to kerala in the middle of a month, my bank account was completely drained when i did so, the next month i got sal for only half a month, my wife was not working and i had to pay EMIs as well, so let me give you a rough calculation my sal was say 20k, EMI was 10k Rent 4 K, phone +petrol was 2k still i was able to manage my self with the remaining 4k. The point is there is no decipline in our lives(most or rather some of us ) today, we will modify our life styles automatically according to what we earn, For us Short term is a day and longterm is a month, a year sounds like 10 years and 10 sounds like 100, so we end up living a life which is not at all lavish but also not lean. Quote:
Originally Posted by abdriver2000 That's a good thought!
Speaking from my own example, I try to purchase monthly groceries from Big Bazaar. This gives me a 1-2% savings. I pay the bill using a SBI card which gives a further 2% cashback.
For electronics, I try to replace only when it is broke and not because it is outdated. That too, I pay using 0% EMI options wherever available.
I prefer riding a bike to work and keep the car for family outings only.
Me and my better half usually buy clothes during off season sales.
All of the above easily result in a saving of about 30K annually. People may think i am kanjoos but when you are the breadwinner in a family of 6, every paisa counts. |
30k annualy is a great amount i paid that much tax with a lot of flexible benifits and 15% sal cuts, i would have been extreamly happy if i was you. Quote:
Originally Posted by ghodlur Although I have not able to reduce the monthly expenses, I have been able to keep it in control. In fact every year the monthly expenses have been increasing taking into account the inflation however the other misc expenses such as movies, frequent eatings outside, lavish expenses on clothes etc have significantly reduced. Instead the saved money these days is going for the various premiums such as life, car, home, medical etc. Earlier I used to have a spreadsheet to track the expenses but these days its difficult to maintain. My simple philosophy is out of 100% take home allocate 40% to monthly expenses, 20% savings (compulsary), 20% EMI on loans, 20% contigency funds. I try to allocate the Annual bonus or any other income to Insurance premium, other major expenses such as travel, festival expenses etc. It sometimes becomes too much taxing to keep a track of expenses and many a times have to juggle between the funds. Finally end up waiting for the annual increments to take care of any shortfalls and the story repeats again. |
This is what i also say, let me tell you my salary had gone up 30% from hyderabad to kerala, My house rent had come down by 2.5k a month, my fuel bills have come down by 2k a month. Monthly grocery bills have come down by 2k everymonth after we shifted from hyderabad. The last movie we went for was my name is khan which was almost 2 months from today. But still where is the savings?
Today i was having a discussion with a friend who had saved some amount that he can easily afford a 30 lac property without any liability, his 10 years of earnings were sufficient to cataput him to this amount of savings so on an average 3 lacs per annum, Though i dont ask his salary but i am sure it will not be 15 lacs so that 3 lac is just 20%. Without knowing all this i just asked him how many months can he sustain himself without and income, his answer was couple of years . I am not sure if any other guy working for an IT company would have such an answer.
Pramod
Last edited by pramodkumar : 13th April 2010 at 14:34.
|