How Much Money We Spend a Month (Frugal Living, Financial Minimalism)

Where do you live, and how much do you spend a month? (Only if you're comfortable with sharing, of course!) And share with us, what's the biggest challenge that you face when it comes to managing your personal finance? 👇

P.S. Hit the LIKE button if you enjoyed the video or if you wish to see more videos on the topic of money in the future!

How blessed your future children will be, having you two as a living blueprint!

The best advice I could ever come up with on saving money,
Never buy snack again, just stop snacking, don't even snack on nuts or fruits or veggies. No snacks.

Only breakfast lunch and dinner,

I recommend only cooking with fresh produce, no boxed or bagged or preserved foods, all fresh perishable foods.


My favorite dinner is fried rice (rice, sesame oil, green onion, onion, carrots, garlic, soy sauce,) you can modify however you want, use any meat you want

Usually I'll make four portions worth of it,


My favorite breakfast is quinoa, eggs, and spicy sausage, (I'm an athlete, these three ingredients are high in protien, and sausage has other important nutrients for fitness)

If you'd like something more flavorful, try replacing sausage with chorizo.


For lunch I usually drink what I like to call a "super smoothie" almost always using kale and berries, and whatever other ingredients I can get in there for further nutrients (I do this for athleticism, and because it's incredibly quick to digest, making me feel good the rest of the day)

These are also really cheap to make, but you need a good blender, and it takes some practice until you get good consistent smoothies.





This is the healthiest diet I could come up with when I was studying nutrition,

My lunch and breakfast are usually the same, but I like to explore different dinners, (and I experiment a lot with different smoothies)


Avoid sugar. Just trust me. You'll get plenty of sugar from other foods especially if you do daily smoothies.


Food costs are usually the most difficult to overcome, there's been a lot of times I had to starve myself to pay rent.


When I cut out snacking I nearly halved my grocery expenses, I still buy deserts and snacks rarely as a treat, I like it that way, instead of expecting them every day I earn them.

I'm shocked by the amount for food. I guess that's ok for two people but I try to spend $100 a month just for myself and when I get to $120... I got something nice like shrimp or scallops.

Our family of 3 (2 adults and a 13 y.o., plus cat) living in Canada, Gatineau spend about $60K per year. Rent and hydro are about $1200/mo, food is the 2nd bigest, and we mostly cook at home. Car is paid off in full, maintenance is affordable. Internet $80/mo. One cellphone $60, second is paid by my husband's workplace. Working from home, one salary. Kid goes to expensive private school. We save a bit too. Can very easily tighten our belts by 10-15%!

Greetings from Bangalore, India! This video kind of debunked my perception of Singapore as a very expensive place to live.

Some of the expenses you listed is quiet on par with an Indian metropolis. Here's what I spend* in a month(coverted to USD and rounded off)

*there many who spend far less.

Water and Gas - $20
Electricity - $10 per person (I don't own an AC)
Home Internet - $15
Mobile Plans - $5
Transport - $300 (I drive around in a car, a scooter would be 1/10th of this and we don't have an MRT yet)
Food + groceries - $150 (for a 4 member family)
Entertainment - $10 for a year (stopped movies and concerts after pandemic)
Misc - $75 (repairs + maintainance)

I live in Tangerang Selatan for about 4 years. Cost live here a lil bit pricy in Indonesia. I always write down my expenses every day for every purchases. I have my monthly expenses in early month. I spend 30% - 35% for monthly expenses. It is including food, monthly needed, transportation, utility rent costs, etc. I live in a dorm with my collagues and it’s help. My office near with my dorm too so I just have to walk to go to office. 40% -45% for saving and investment, 5% for charity, 20% for lifestyle. I love minimalism too!

Pro tip: cutting your hair by yourself👍

Excellent post.

i really enjoyed this video.. it seems like ppl think there is only 1 way to save money, use money and yeah money money money.. but I really prefer this perspective of money and frugal living. thank you for sharing~
i get paid monthly and by the end of the next month im broke.. never sure how, since most of my money is a fixed amount a month.. I never really know where my money has gone.

I am 36 and currently living on a passive income so i no need to worry about bills at all. And also i have another sideline which pays me every month as well . So basically this sideline , passive income and a part time job i am doing right now. I commit 3 to 4 days work week. As slacking at home doing nothing cam get really boring. The only burden i have right now in my life is paying off the mortgage . Another side income i forget to mention is also i rented out 2 rooms to tenants, i am living in a hdb four room flat ( not bto) and collecting extra 1200 sgd per month for a number of years now. I am not rich at all , just living and maintaining a minimalistic lifestyle as well. Just may never know when the funds i have now can be use for emergencies at any unpredictable moment.

During the pandemic, I learned to cut my husbands hair. That saved us $30 us a month.

Love the vids guys, keep it up. Hello from Croatia 😃😃

Does that mean that you don’t watch Netflix ?

My WiFi alone is $130 Canadian. The cost of living here seems way more expensive.

Wow. Where do you live? $20 for utilities? $30 for gas. $5 cell phone bill? 😳I live in CA. I’d feel like a millionaire with these expenses.

I really love this. I've been thinking of going freelance (I'm a copywriter) and potentially travelling or something because I've been feeling more anxious recently. Sometimes it's so easy to put pressure on yourself to be successful regardless of mental health.

If you live primarily for yourself, eg:

1) don’t need to support parents (their medical and monthly allowance); or

2) put aside monthly donations to help the less privileged

then you are saving a large chunk of money for yourself.

Personally, I find doing 1) and 2) joyful and uplifting. They are rewards that money cannot buy.

So it all boils down to making lifestyle choices.

No inherent right or wrong.

Hi, what brand of white shirt do you use?

Yo, this is so well thought out and presented. Thanks for being transparent with some of your finances. I've been working to live more frugally myself, it's tough but has been so rewarding.

May I know what mobile plan and home broadband you are using within your budget?

There are $5 mobile plans.....? 😦😦😦

Your voice is crisp.

Well spent expenses - thanks guys !

May i know do you use any platform to keep track on ur daily expenses? Please do share with me. Thanks!

I love this! in Singapore we're always forced to upgrade our lifestyle whenever we earn more. it's like a never ending rat race... I love how both of you are contented with the very basics yet not being overly frugal. It's basically boiling down to things we need and we don't!

Currently I think I'm spending more than both of you combined haaha (even without paying for any bills on my end) so this is a good goal to stretch for!!

Just one question if you happen to see - what would you recommend someone with a busy life style to cut down on? Main bulk of my expenses are for grabs (to save time) and food delivery/eating out. Not much time to cook. :(

One of the most important lessons is to build a small house. A large house is expensive to maintain.

We live in Singapore as a couple and spend around the same as well - SG can be pretty cheap and affordable if we don't splurge on everything and have more home cooked meals! :)

Family of 5(3kids), monthly expenses is $5600. We are east and west with my partner

the moment I heard your voice I knew you were Singaporean lol

Great video! Thanks for sharing!

I think if there are kids, such lifestyle may be more difficult

If you are satisfied/content/happy with your life, then keep doing what you are doing. What other think is immaterial. They don’t pay your bills and never will so their opinion is just that an opinion without substance.

How do you survive in Singapore without AC? Just rely on Fan?

Wow! Cost of living is so much higher where I live compared to you, and I am in a low cost of living place for my country.

Power is $90/month and I have only 4 lights, 4 appliances and no tech, entertainment or air conditioning. Our heat is $85/month and that is keeping the thermostat low and wearing sweaters & slippers. Our water basic rate is $66/month. Our 2 cell phones basic package is $130 a month and that is with 1G shared data.

Basic stats for 2 people in 600 sq ft:
Basic utilities & insurance comes to $750.
Fuel for vehicles $300 (it is over $5/g here)
Groceries for 2 adults $600-700
(Note: that is very basic food).
Property tax is $200
Entertainment $0
Beauty (hair/makeup/etc) $0
Eating out/take out $0
Clothing $0
-------------
Subtotal: $1550 - $1650 just for the basics.
That does not include rent or mortgage, any debt, retirement or savings. That is literally just necessities.

We don't have public transport and have to commute (56km one way) to work each day. Because we only have 1 grocery store in our area, groceries, especially fresh produce, is very expensive.

We don't eat out or have take away. We have no streaming services, memberships or subscriptions. I don't spend on beauty or salon. All our furniture is thrifted or second hand, as are our clothing & household goods. Our phones are older tech. We don't have tv or computers. We don't pay for entertainment.

We hike and spend time in nature, read books, play card games or BBQ with friends (not currently allowed, because Covid).

We keep our lives very simple. We grow what foods we can, but because the climate is cold, we have a very short growing season. We don't buy new cars or have car payments, but save up and pay cash for older, low-mileage vehicles (I have a 2005 Hyundai).

Great video !!!! Support from fellow Singaporean =)

Totally same spending with me. I also spend about 10% of what I earned. And invest the rest

I personally think being successful in life is when we find what is comfortable for our own lives, spending in what makes us truly happy at the present without ignoring a restful future. Great video.

I retired in 2019 at age 36. my partner is finishing up his employment run and will join in 3 years time. as minimalists, SGD500 per mth is highly possible, we seem to get by completely fine with it. movie projection room, enjoying cooking, and buying classic styles when necessary is the way to go for us. everything else enjoy is in Nature and is mostly free of charge. pandemic has not really impacted us much, because we were already living streamlined way before it.

Really well made! Loving the gorgeous typography :))

I think I'm going to go ahead an find a cheaper phone plan, I work from home, and even when I was out before, I wasn't using data. (I'm spending 50-60 a month for my phone and feel like it could be so much less)

The biggest challenge for me for my personal finance is online shopping apps like lazada and shopee. So I'm planning to uninstall them.

In the Philippines, I made a budget of PhP 10,000 a month. (conversion, 50:1 USD)

what do you do or intend to do with all the money you saved/grow?

Am in my late 20s. I track my saving instead of my expenses as I found that it's easier and create less anxiety. 😅 I save first before I spend any of my salary. In short, 50% expenses (included commitments), 25% saving, 15% investment, 10% goal/dream/lifestyle. *I had saved up my emergency funds

Binge watched almost all of your videos in one sitting. Thank you for all the inspiring and informative videos! 👍

No matter how much I save. For some reason, I'll be sneaking into my savings at the end of the month, a tiny bit. But thanks for sharing. I would take a thing or two from here and cut costs as much as possible.

I think the biggest challenge has been managing the discretionary expenses. It’s so easy to spend too much on things that don’t necessarily add as much value we we thought. Or maybe that’s the problem - we don’t think through or weight it out as much as we should have before spending.

Where are heads? It looks like those amateur porn, where people want to do porn and posted it online, but at the same time not reveal faces.

Challenge = self control