Right-Sizing The Dollars And Cents

If there's anything that we've learnt in the past months, it's to plan ahead.

- Cara Van Miriah

1 Reset Your Budget

Before you slash your expenses, place them in two categories: essential and non-essential items. Essential items include housing, food, Internet service, handphone, transport and healthcare expenses. A new wardrobe and handbags are non-essential.

Organise the items in an Excel sheet or Word document so you can see how much you spend on each item monthly. It'll help you to cut non-essential items first, say experts of this budget-honing strategy.

Sure, it may be painful to cut back or give up some luxuries like monthly spa treatments. Giving them up isn’t going to make you financially secure, but overhauling a bunch of habits in one effort – even a forced one, to simplify your life – will mean savings that are much greater than a few dollars per day.

Adam Wong, editor-in-chief of The Fifth Person, an award-winning site that provides investment knowledge and promotes financial literacy, points out: “Instead of going on a binge when life returns to normal, ask yourself if you (really) need those items... you can certainly reduce spending if the Circuit Breaker has shown that you can survive (happily) without some things.”

The cuts in overall expenditure can contribute to a significant amount of savings in a year, highlights Dawn Cher, an independent financial-lifestyle specialist who's behind the popular financial platform SGbudgetbabe.com.