Why Am I Still Broke?
2. Constantly overspending your budget for daily lunch/dinner
Do you have friends who complain that they do not have savings at the end of every month and yet always have been having good food all the time?
Maybe it is a time to relook at your own lunch and dinner budget.
(Note: this is for those who are constantly eating out. If you are lucky to have home cook dinners you can adjust the budget accordingly. Also I only factor in as Individual, not a family)
Cost of lunch / dinner:
Main meal (Chicken rice up to Japanese Bento set) - RM12-RM30
Drinks (Coffee or tea to Fruit Juice or a glass of wine???) - RM3-RM30
Dessert (Ice cream, fruits or cakes) - RM5-RM20
Now, multiply this by 30 days and twice for lunch and dinner. Now that's a big monthly food budget for you to evaluate.
RM100 daily budget adds up to RM3000 a month.
Or a RM25 lunch & RM50 dinner budget daily will add up to RM2250.
A RM15 budget for a meal everyday would add up to RM900.
What you can do:
Making your own dinner or sharing home cook food with a colleague would be one way of saving.
Moving a step down on your regular food price range. From daily bento sets costing RM25 each, maybe you can reduce down to food that cost RM12-15 range. Or your original budget of RM12-15, to be reduced to RM8-RM10 price range.
With the reduced budget plan, you are able to save up for a better meal once a week.
The few hundreds of Ringgit that you managed to saved up can be saved into some Unit trust or ASB/ASN/SSPN which has minimum entry investment of RM100.