My May & June 2020 expenses update.

Assalamualaikum, & hello!

It’s funny how I haven’t updated my blog since my April 2020 expenses in May. Heck, I even skipped out on our May expenses update last month. Oh well. Hopefully, I’d have a little more time (and actual discipline) to sit down and finish all the posts and ideas I have in my head -.-

Anyhow – to my expenses for the past two months!

May 2020 expenses

I am honestly quite surprised at how our expenses did not go over RM4,000 in May. This is despite us spending quite a lot on duit raya and donating to charity (especially during Ramadhan).

But I guess since it was also Ramadhan, we saved up a lot on food (less dining out). And we also went back home for buka puasa with both of our families and ended up bringing back quite a lot of home-cooked food, which helped us to reduce our spending on groceries for a week and a half. So that kind of balances the expenses out, maybe?

June 2020 expenses

Our expenses went up quite a bit in June, which initially caught me by surprise. But when I took a look into the individual expenses, I found out the reasons behind this abnormal increase in expenses:

• Paid the security payments for the rental house in Denai Alam. My parents actually prepared a house for me to use when I’m back, but since it was too far from where I work (Seri Kembangan), they decided to rent it out. I’m responsible to pay the security payments every two months, but I somehow forgot about it in April for May/June (due to MCO). So I had to pay double in June to cater for May/June, and for July/August as well.
• Went for my yearly dental check-up (which I can claim back from my employer). Also had my hair appointment to cut/dye my hair again (very much needed after a long MCO).
• Our electricity bill was adjusted post-MCO. We’ve been paying ~RM50 or less for March-May, but in June it went up to ~RM650. But, to be honest, considering how both of us are home almost all the time, with at least one air-conditioning switched on all the time, it’s understandable for the bill to go up to roughly ~RM200/month. Hopefully, it’d be more stable from now that TNB guys are out there checking the meters again.
• Bought a bunch of paint-by-numbers kits from Doremi_Painting for Aiman & I to do at home in July/August while I have more free time (my school is on summer break now). They were also generous in giving me 20% off any kits, which was unexpected!

Other highlights from May/June.

So, all in all, I think May/June has been quite fun. I did a lot of ‘firsts’ during these two months, including:

• Gave my first ever career-related workshop, in collaboration with Seeds Job Fair & Persatuan Pelajar Malaysia Korea (PPMK). It was scary at first, but it went well!
• Organizing my first Job Search 101 class in early May. Since then, I’ve successfully organized three job searching classes for graduates and students, with the fourth one happening on .
• I had my first ever paid engagement to host a resume-writing webinar with a local university. The lecturer found me via Twitter okay!
• Went on Instagram Live for a few times, both on my own and with NAMSA, to talk about job searching, interview tips, and more.
• Became a career coach with TalentCorp’s KisahSiswa initiative – I wrote more about this on my #SayWhat newsletter issue here.

I also spent some time on my professional development, where I attended some training and workshops on LinkedIn, university admissions-related stuff, and more. Covid-19 has definitely left an impact on higher education, so a lot of my students are worried about how their transition to university would be like in the next few months.

Looking forward to the second half of 2020.

The first half of 2020 has been… interesting, to say the least. In my previous #SayWhat update, I shared some updates on my 2020 resolutions. I’m hoping that in the next month or two, I can finish off the big project that I’ve been working on.

I have a lot of things I’m looking forward to in July (and August), including:

• Mini getaway with Aiman next week (maybe? we haven’t decided!)
• My fourth Job Search 101 class ()
• A that I’ll be hosting
• Family trip to Langkawi in August
• My 26th birthday in August
• Work-related stuff in August (A-Levels results day!)
• Meeting up with friends (very much overdue!)

Until I see you in the next post (whenever that is!), stay awesome and take care everyone!