facebookHow much do you spend during your poly & Uni years? - Seedly

Alcander Seow

Environmental Engineer Minor in Business at Nanyang Technological University

11 Jul 2020

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How much do you spend during your poly & Uni years?

Currently 19 Y/O, in Poly, soon to graduate. Noted that my expense is hovering around $400 ~ $750/mth. Is this normal? How can I reduce it? What are some of your spending habits? Personally, what are some common things that you would invest more on / buy more affordable?

Discussion (19)

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Gerald Ong

11 Jul 2020

Full-Time YouTube Educator at www.youtube.com/GeraldOngSL

Hey! I just graduated from Uni and your expenses seem normal so don't have to be too stressed about it! Everybody's situation is different after all so no point comparing.

I too spent about $600 in Uni and like 50% is dating related (happily getting married now) so no regrets that.

I like your frugal attitude and I made a video on why it's SO Important! https://youtu.be/kKDcGpAzwr8

I'm planning to start a playlist on how to keep expenses low so do let me know what you think so that I can better help you out!

How to reduce it

Lemme try and remember my numbers hahaha

Food - Breakfast homemade overnight oatmeal + milk. $1. My method is price shopping and loyalty I ALWAYS eat the same cai fan store, 2 veg1 meat $4+ (4 years in SMU i've never tried the mala), smile and build good rapport and you'll get lots of benefits, especially during the late night study sess, aka free food, extra big portions etc. dinner at home free, or nearby caifan, $2.70

Transportation - during sch term, monthly plan, cheapest. $110

House - parents (Free) Plan, househack flat when i buy it to rent out unused room to reduce rent.

Phone plan - $20ish

Dining out with friends/partner, $100+ (I'm quite cheap and my friends really understand sometimes when I hangout and don't eat and just drink my own bottled water cause I broke. :D

Gifts for frens, fam and partner(SO EXPENSIVE) $200+/month but I love them, and it makes them and me happy so it makes sense for me.

Unexpected expenses $100+$200/mth laptop spoilt, phone screen spoil, yearly trip etc etc and it really adds up...

Total, about $600.

But I also worked every weekend as a badminton coach though! I would advise learning how to invest passively like through index investing, and learn how to invest better. And hustle hard to earn more money!

If you found this helpful, please show some love on my YT Channel because my livelihood depends on it ;) JK! have fun and stay safe Alcander.​​​

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Hi Alcander, i think that everyone's financial situation is different and it's hard to determine whether your expenditure is considered "normal" or not.

Personally, i always track my spending (i use the seedly app but feel free to use any which you think suits your needs) so that I know where my money is going to. I don't like the idea of seeing the money in my account depleting without knowing what/where I spent it on. It also helps me to see which category i'm overspending on. I try to save money in some areas where i have control over. For example, i always bring a bottle of water out with me whenever I have my meals so that I won't be tempted to get my usual teh bing. This helps me to cut down on my expenses in the short term and also in the long term, it's better for my health :)

As for my spending habits, I tend to buy some of my clothes from Carousell or some Selling groupchats on telegram because you'll usually find clothes that are still BNWT at half the retail price! When it comes to online shopping, I try to make use of vouchers. Using Shopee as an example, sometimes they'll give you a voucher once you hit a min spending and on top of that, you could utilise certain bank promo codes on a certain day (e.g. $5 off promo code when you use DBS/POSB card) as well as your Shopee coins. So what i'll do is that i'll add things that I need to buy (e.g. my skincare items, supplements, etc.) into my cart and wait till it hits the min spending amount and cart out everything at one go.

Hope my tips help and happy graduation! :)​​​

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Back in Poly, I had an allowance of $40 per week and I usually spend within my allowance. An effecti...

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