Bills, Bills, More Bills and Fines

I was just pondering a comment that an acquaintance made today. He told me that "you must have saved a lot of money" and he based his assumption on the fact that both my wife and me were working in semi-government organisations in relatively "good positions". I was trying to point out without much success, that we were not exactly in the corporate sector and compared to what some people earn, our monthly salary is like peanuts.

I was just trying to find out where all our money went and a list appeared.

Of course there are the monthly bills: my house rent (thank God its cheap here in Kedah and I don't have to pay for the electricity), our car loans, payment on the yet to be complete house (they don't call it interest as it is a so called Islamic loan), insurance, telephone and credit card bills.

Having a baby has lowered some of our expenditures but at the same time included others. Our regular outings to Bangsar, KLCC, Mega Mall, One Utama and Sri Hartamas has been cut down considerable since Rahil joined us but she added other variables which are not exactly cheap, notable items include nappies and milk. We now make the occasional trips to Coffee Bean/ Starbucks/ San Francisco Coffee and rarely see movies if at all.

I knew that Credit Cards are bankruptcy traps but the allure of “buy now pay later” was too great and now we are still servicing the interest on some big purchases, which were absolutely necessary.

Then there are those unneccessary expenditures, such as Rm70 on the signal lights of my Wira, which recently popped out. MPPJ also slapped two parking tickets (RM50 each) both outside Subang Ria restaurant in Kelana Jaya. I also received a love letter (RM150) from the Kubang Pasu Police for overspeeding (102 Km/hr in a 90- Km/Hr zone).

Thank God! I don't smoke or drink (alcohol). I realise I save a load as compared to some of my friends.

That’s why we are really concerned whenever there is an increase of a few sen in the price of petrol, or sugar or toll rates. We haven’t seen a corresponding increase in our pay for ages. Anyway, that’s life I guess and the total amount we spend every month is like peanuts for some people. Some guys spend more than that in a single day. In fact there are people out there in Malaysia who can afford to buy a handbag costing more than RM50K and then use it only once or twice. There are also other people who give their kids a brand new Merc SLK on their 18th birthday.

I am just wondering how the clerks, driver and lower staff in our organization manage on their meager salaries while raising half a dozen kids when we can’t barely manage on our joint income with only one baby.