Credit Control

My wife and I were having a meal yesterday and had a lil chat about our finances. We're both controlling our spending in wake of the wedding dinner coming up soon. It's gonna be a major drain on our piggy banks and we figured it's better to get a head start.

Guess what? We both have totally different approaches to managing our expenditure. I usually try to carry as little cash around as possible. If I need to make a "big" purchase, it involves a trip to the ATM machine or using the dreaded credit card. My wifey commented, that my bank charges for ATM withdrawals after a certain limit. Well...that is another "motivating" factor for me to spend less actually. Why give your hard-earned cash to a financial institution, who is making millions already right?

Her approach, reminds me of my secondary days. She prefers to withdraw the estimated sum of cash, which should see her through the month in one transaction. However, she doesn't carry that much around of course. For me, the temptation of having it still lying around somewhere can be a bad thing. Which explains why I stopped her version of financial planning when I started working. Also, money in the bank still "works" for you by generating some form of interest. Money in your wallet does not "grow" and has this tendency to disappear unfortunately (X_X)

You will be surprised how well, a close to empty wallet, has on spending. I've walked into a shop a couple of times and picked an item wanting to purchase it. Suddenly, it dawned on me that I don't have enough in my wallet and placed it back on the shelf etc. Talk about potong stim right, but hey it works!

I would say my main financial woe (and many other Malaysians) are transportation costs. Petrol and toll fees are a killer. I'm seriously considering a diesel pickup truck like a Tata Telcoline Euro II now. Cheap Indian parts and diesel powered. I still can't escape the death grip of tolls though. It wouldn't be so bad if the roads are actually well maintained with the profits they are racking in, but I guess a pocket has developed a hole somewhere.

Sigh...for once I wish I could strike the lottery and have some breather. Anyone of you dreamt of 4D lately? Care to share?