Mid-year review

Now that I'm no longer working, I do not have to be frustrated by the often tiresome and exasperating exercise of doing mid-year review of work performance targets. Nonetheless, targets are inevitable things that we have to set and aim to achieve in both our work and personal lives.

While reviewing work targets is no longer an exercise that I sweat over for the duration that I've taken a leave of absence, there are some "targets" that we set out for ourselves as a family. Definitely, the word "target" is a loosely used term for us and the review process is certainly not as rigorous as those at work. Nonetheless, it continues to be very relevant and important in order to achieve a harmonious, happy and balance family life. And one of these targets is about our savings.

Earlier on when Louis and I discussed and agreed for me to become a SAHM, we recognised that our savings would have to take a dip. Still, we decided to attempt to save somewhat close to the figure that we used to be able to save as a dual-income family. It was manageable last year as I still drew an income for the first half of the year.

However, it has been rather challenging to continue to save that amount this year, amidst increasing household expenses on our end, as well as overall price increases in many household items across the general economy.

For the first half of this year, we have been nipping regularly into the amount that we sat aside for our monthly savings. A quick look at our savings balance points out with great certainty that we would never be able to save the amount that we did last year at any rate.

To us, this is an alarming concern. Louis and I are both highly risk-averse individuals and we do not have much investments other than those in our savings, fixed deposits and some small amount of insurance cum endowment policies. This may sound very unwise but we are slowly working our way towards other forms of investments that matches our risk appetites.

Apart from some one-off expenses and our occasional spending on travels, there aren't that many extravagant items that we spent on a monthly basis. Yet, we couldn't understand why we kept digging into our savings. Again, a quick look at our monthly household bills show that we are spending significant amounts each time we go to the supermarket for groceries, utility bills and costs related to driving a car.

Of course, I have read recent newspaper articles of family who saved more when they shop wisely and cautiously at supermarkets like NTUC, Shop-N-Save, Giant vis-a-vis the more expensive and high-end places like Market Place, Tanglin and Jasons. Admittedly, I haven't been very conscious of our spending whenever we grocery shop; happily filling our shopping baskets at places like Jasons and Tanglin at times out of convenience, instead of the more price-friendly neighbourhood supermarkets.

With increasing tariffs on electricity and water usage, we are also finding our utility bills soaring based on current usage patterns. Indeed, there are situations in which we can reduce our electrical and water consumption rates as there are many everyday situations where we are wasteful e.g. leaving the TV blasting to an empty living room, leaving lights and fans on when there's no one around etc. Apart from reducing the hole in our wallets, there's the added side benefit of reducing our carbon footprint.

And so, Louis and I resolved that we could lower some of our household expenses by keeping a closer tab on our spending patterns and habits. After all, if overall household income isn't going to change by much, we need to reduce our expenses so that we can continue to achieve our yearly targeted savings :)

Thus, and in no particular order, these are some of the actions that we would be taking:

• Review our monthly grocery expenses and work out a lowered budget that we should stick to for future spending
• Plan our food menu ahead so that we only need to buy what is necessary, instead of buying impromptu while at the supermarket
• Abstain from shopping at high-end supermarkets, unless absolutely necessary
• Turn off all lights, fans and electricity power points when not in use
• "Go public" to reduce usage of our car to save on fuel and related ERP and parking charges, i.e. Louis would take the public transport to work whenever possible

We have also reviewed and agreed that the amount that we had targeted to save on a yearly basis was a little on the higher end and might not be realistic. Hence, we have revised it to a more achievable figure of half our total household income. Hopefully, with all the actions above, we would be on the right track to achieve our new targeted saving amount :)