Katie* is a senior executive in a MNC company.
Every morning, as soon as she ignites her car to work, she spends about RM8 (to and fro) for petrol.
When she reaches her office area, she pays her daily parking of RM2.
She skips her breakfast, but buys her cup of coffee from the vending machine (RM1). Come lunch time, she heads to the nearby mall for lunch (RM10, at least!). She works hard, no coffee breaks and spend about RM8 in average for dinner.
Now, let's do the math.
Assuming Katie* works 22 days in a month, her incurred expenses would be:
Petrol: RM8 x 22 days = RM176
Parking: RM2 x 22 days = RM44
Coffee: RM1 x 22 days = RM22
Lunch: RM10 x 22 days = RM220
Dinner: RM8 x 22 days = RM 176
Total expenses = RM638
This does not include the weekends Katie* would like to spend some quality time with her friends and family, and would eventually spend some a good sum of money at the malls. Or when Katie*'s car decided to break down with some maintenance of wear-and-tear which requires unexpected sum of money. Or the days when Katie* decided to have breakfast, or perhaps do some grocery shopping for food and necessities. Or when Katie's friends have birthdays, weddings, funerals etc which comes out unexpectedly.
The fact is Katie* is just like everyone else in you and I's circle of friends. People are either trying really hard to skimp on meals, or to really look good by overspending. This is real, when I have spoken to quite a handful of people who failed to see their expenses, but when listed out, they got surprised of what they actually spend on, and compared with their income.
Now, this is Katie's side of story, what about yours?
