After reading a lot of post in facebook and some articles, I realized there is a lot of saving guide. But it is really hard to save money in KL / PJ. The capital of Malaysia has too much hidden cost that always exceeding the budget.
1. Parking and petrol. Once you have car, parking is one of the hidden expense. You feel like it's nothing but a month can cost you to around 100 or even more if you travel a lot. Anywhere you park, it costs money. Your rented condo, your office, shopping mall and so on. For petrol, this is another biggest expenses that comes together when you have car. Even though you might say you just use your car to work, it will still cost you at least RM150 and above. And usually when you have car, you don't stay at home at weekend.
2. Car maintenance and insurance. If you drive your car less, you still need to maintain it at least once in 3 months. Sometimes it is just coincidence that the big maintenance that usually cost at least RM300 is timed together with car insurance. You will feel like stabbing yourself in the heart why you get the car at the first place. Not to mention if your car tyres burst when you are driving with no reason, it will cost about RM150 per tyre. Imagine this month the car tyre burst, next month fix the air cond, third month maintenance, 4th month car insurance due...... how are we gonna save money.
3. Gym and sports. If you subscribed to gym membership, it feels like it's only RM150/month, or maybe even lesser, but it is still money. How many times you need to go to make it worth your money if you subscribed to gym monthly. The trainer told me at least 3 times a week. I subscribed once when there is a haze because I can't go jogging at the nearby park. When the weather is better, I straight cancel off my membership.
For other sports, some of them will cost a lot too especially sports like badminton and futsal. Badminton is costly because of the shuttlecock. Futsal is because of the court rental.
4. Entertainment. Maybe you said "I will not go clubbing or pub, so entertainment is not a cost to me." Not really. Even movie, karaoke, cyber cafe, bowling, pool, bird park, escape room and so on is cost. It's just that sometimes it is a bit small and we don't put them in our budget list. Don't even mention those who drinks at bar or club once in a while (month maybe?), that will cost even more.
5. Food and drinks. No! I am not saying you cannot eat or drink. You can eat and drink of course. But do you see that sometimes drinks are not so necessary. Drinks in restaurants is just overpriced. For example, a meal of Nasi Lemak Chicken Berempah maybe cost about RM12, the drinks of Limau Ice might cost RM5, which is about 40% of the food price. Save it up 3 times, you can eat another meal. You can try to bring your own drinks for a month, you will feel that you saved up a lot in that month.
In short, saving is really hard in Malaysia but I believe there is still many ways to do it. Get part time job or second job or freelance job so you need more time to work instead of spend, or find some cheapskate way to live in KL/PJ, I believe there is a lot of articles like that. I also just start saving more from this year. How many people who in their 30s have more than 10k in their bank account?
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