NEWBIE IN LIVING BY YOUR OWN?

I want to share my experience about the time i confused with my budget when I still newbie in living by my own and how I manage it. Now, I’m 23^rd years old. My job is a tax consultant and sometimes to fill the free time, I write a story, so you can call me an novel author. Previously, because I live apart from my parents, I stayed in my university’s dorm. But because now I already graduated, of course I must move. With my savings for four years and my salary, finally I could ‘check’ one of my ‘checklist’ of my life goals, there was financial goal. My financial goal is buy an apartment, or at least rent an apartment.

My problems of living in an apartment is now I have to pay bigger for my rent, food, utilities, and my household items. To manage it, I searched some ways, and then I found a easy way, there is I must write and watch out my income and my expenses. My income each month is from my salaries. My salary from my job each month, tax consultant, is 8 million rupiahs. From the sidejob as an novel author is 5 million rupiahs. So my total income each month is 13 million rupiahs.

The expenses is divided into fixed and flexible expenses. First, fixed expenses, there are rent, car insurance, and car payment. My rent each month is 4 million rupiahs. My car insurance is 500 thousand rupiahs and the payment is 2 million rupiahs. So, my total fixed expenses is 6,5 million rupiahs. My first flexible expenses is savings, there is 1,5 million rupiahs. My food is same with my savings. My utilities, such as gas, electric, water, is 1 million rupiahs. For my car, of course I must spend for the gas and oil is 500  thousand rupiahs, parking and tools is 100 thousand rupiahs, and the repairs is 200 thousand rupiahs. The clothing and the entertainment are 200 thousand rupiahs. The last is for the house, i spend for household items, 200 thousand rupiahs, and my personal items (such as shampoo, soap, and powder), 500 thousand rupiahs. So, my total flexible expenses is 5,9 million rupiahs. The total of my monthly expenses is 12,4 million.

After the end of the month, I have to watch out my budget, whether it minus or plus. Minus or plus is obtained from income minus expenses. My income is 13 million rupiahs, and my expenses is 12,4 million rupiahs. So, the result is plus 0,6 million rupiahs or 600 thousand rupiahs. As the reflection, his budget is already good I think, because it isn’t minus from my income. But, I think I must decrease my expenses. The reason is 600 thousand rupiahs is measly, my target is at least 2 million rupiahs, so I can give it to my parents. Reflection is a must each month, with reflection you can manage your budget better for the next month. The reflection is the closing of my story. I hope my story can help you for manage your budget, especially for a newbie in living for your own.