How I Save Money ?

So, a friend asked me, "How do you save money?"

First of all, it's how I lead my life. I spent almost all of my allowance on food. Yes, food is my top priority. I rarely go shopping, I do not own any awesome gadgets, most of the time, I just use whatever I have.

I owned a laptop (Sony Vaio, has been using it for 4 years now), a phone (HTC One, after my old one broke, and I have extra money, hence I supposed buying a better phone is like an investment and I have no intent of buying or changing to a new one in three years time) and that's it. I wear my old clothes until they turn dull, or tear apart. I used to have an Onizuka Tiger (a pair of shoes, bought for 50 dollars in Toronto) and it lasted for about 3 years. The best one I've ever had since I used them to play futsal, going to class and even hiking. It ripped during my last hiking trip to Broga.

So, I don't really spend money on things I find useless, or I don't need it. Yeah, I also desire a camera (a compact SLR or DSLR), a Gopro, what else, pretty clothes like everyone else. But if I can still use my old one, why bother spending? Yeah, you can say that I'm a little stingy, cheapskate whatever, but the thing is I don't have an income (at this point).

I came from a normal family (neither rich nor poor, but we can afford a living I guess). I received a scholarship from the government, so I don't really want to burden my family with all the allowance they have to provide for me every month, I can use the money from the scholarship I got. But yeah, they still give me some every month. So, when I don't really generate money on my own, I basically have to refrain myself from overspending, Lavish way of life is not an option here.

I spent in on food. Good food, but quite pricey. Not that kind of food you will eat every week, but once a month is still okay (I'll be totally broke if that happens). I only receive enough money for a living, a fixed amount every month.

So, here is  the idea that I came up with. Aside from keeping track of your cash flow, I guess you can do this. At least it works for me. I have 3 bank accounts. I do not know why, it just happened that way. The moment I turned 18, my father changed the accounts' name, so now I totally have control over the money on every account. So, I keep one account with my father, and use the other two. By the time, I received my scholarship, I need to make a new account. So here is the summary of the account I have.

Bank A - Scholarship money / Living allowance
Bank B - Saving / Loan Account
Bank C - The spending account (by the end of the day, the amount is nearly zero)

My primary account is Bank A. This is where I get my fixed living allowance every month. Bank B is my saving account or loan account. I'll explain after this. And Bank C is my spending account where every time I want to buy something I'll use the money from this bank.

Okay, since every month I'll use my money from Bank A, every first week of the month, I'll withdraw the fixed amount I get for that month. This may not feel safe, withdrawing quite the sum of money (a month allowance people) at one time, but this is the trick. So let's say my allowance for a month is 1000. So, I 'll withdraw 1000, and for the rest of the month I'll use only the money I keep in my wallet. Even, when I happen to be short at the end of the month, I'll not withdraw again. Because the money is enough for me to live for a month, if I need more that's mean I already overspent. If I need to stuff on instant noodle and nasi bujang (rice with omelette), then I should.

During my internship, during raya or sometimes my parent give some cash every month, all the money that I received I'll deposit them in Bank B. Every year I'll have a fixed amount of money I set Bank B to have. In 2012, it is 1000. 2013, it is 1500. And this year, it is 2000 (it should increase every year, that's the point of saving). Getting a fixed amount ( like a cut point or something), I can keep track of my money and still save a lot. This is my saving account. So, sometimes during emergency I need extra money, I'll take it from this account. So let's say I need to use 500 ringgit. So the balance of the account is 1500. But I already set the amount to be 2000. So I need to find money to top it up again, so the balance will be 2000 again. It's like a credit account. The amount must be always what you set it to be.

Bank C is where I keep my money for the things I want to buy. The other day when my phone broke, I borrowed a friend's phone and used it for almost half a year. During that time, little by little, I cashed in some money into this account. Not a huge amount at once. I was saving up my money to buy the new phone (the HTC One I'm using right now). So every month, I'll cash in some money till it reaches the amount I need. So, I returned the phone and bought a new one. And then again, the balance of this account is almost zero. I still deposit some money at the moment for travelling purposes.

So, using these three bank accounts, I managed to save my money. But the thing is, you'll also need extra income. Income from part time job, allowance from parent, duit raya, duit whatsoever you receive, don't spend it all at one go. Plan your spending. As a student, this is what I do. I don't have that much luxury and I don't really want to burden my parent (I already received scholarship money), so all the things that I want or places I want to go, I need to come up with the incentives on my own.

So, that's how I save money.

Currently, saving some money to travel to either Indonesia, Japan or Australia. I also need a camera or a gopro. Either one. And don't mind my grammar. Too lazy to check it.