For the month of December 2019, my challenge is to track my spending and expenses for 3 months using the Spendee app.

Ever since I was in middle school, I have always been good at tracking my expenses and spending. I would input my daily spending into an Excel spreadsheet and at the end of the month, my parents will look at my spreadsheet with me to help me “analyze” my spending.

I remember Dragon ball Z playing cards took up a big chunk of my spending and they would explain to me where I could save up in order to buy what I want in the coming future. Years of doing this eventually instill this “You can buy anything if you are willing to save” mentality.

When I reach college, I stop tracking my expenses because I was generally good at feeling out how much money I have spent that month and I was living very thrifty anyway.

Why I decide to start tracking my spendings again?

While I have always been good at estimating my financial condition and living below my means, in 2019 there were many months where I am cutting it too close in term of cash flow

1. My son started school in April
2. My wife no longer has a monthly income, thus home and her living expenses fell on to me
3. New home mortgage is based on floating interest rate
4. I had to pay a lot of my new home’s furniture on credit using my bank’s credit card (0% interest + admin fee for 12 months)
5. I made it a point to save money monthly to save and invest

I made the mistake of thinking school expenses are fixed when there will be times the school will tell you to buy a certain items for my kid to bring to school. While generally these items are cheap (certain colored shirts for a school events, or certain toy items), they do add up.

I also made the mistake that many first time home buyers do, that is buying a house that are too expensive. I was so worried of buying a house too small that will last me only for 1 child, that my current mortgage takes 45% of my income every month.

I took advantages of a lot of deals and promotions that furniture stores have with my bank, which allow me to pay off my furniture monthly through my credit card at 0% interest and 0 processing and admin fee. While not a mistake, I have to remember to set aside money to pay the monthly installments.

What I hope to achieve from this challenge

By no means am I in financial difficulty, but neither am I comfortable because these new variables hinder my capability to set aside money to invest every month.

What I hope to achieve by doing this challenge is to give me a better picture on my financial situation in the foreseeable future.

By setting aside a fixed amount based on the worst case scenario of each of these variable expenses, I will be able to decide the minimum of money set aside to save and invest.

Whatever is left over from these variable expenses (since they are based on worst case scenario, there will be money left over every month), will go into the save & invest account quarterly.

Method of tracking

To track my spendings, I will use the free app, Spendee which is available in iOS and Android because that is the beauty of technology. I no longer have to create an excel or google spreadsheet when there is an app that will do it for you and show you the result beautifully.

By the way, if you are interested in doing this challenge with me using the Spendee app, please click on the link below to use my code. By using the link, both you and I will be able to use the app’s premium version for 1 month for free. I will not make any money if you click on the link, but I am curious to see the premium version of the app since I enjoy using the app.

For this week, I have managed to de-clutter:

• Old gadgets’ empty boxes that was in a corner of my cabinet
• Bunch of cables (USB-A, Mini USB, etc)

I guess the timing for the end of this challenge is just right because I am running out of things to de-clutter. In fact, I had to actually look for stuffs to de-clutter.

The old gadgets’ empty boxes were in the corner of a cabinet that requires me to use a stool to reach and the cables were inside one of the boxes.

Sticking true to my promise from De-Cluttering Report #1 , I actually did not make any sale on my old stuffs so:

• I gave away the iPhone 5 and XiaoMi RedMi 2 to one of my employee because she wants to try to fix it.
• I threw away the KangerTech EVOD Vape Pen
• I gave away the VR Kit to my nephew

Honestly, at the end of this challenge, it did not feel like I am a true minimalist where you walk into my home office and everything is just empty and spacious. But now at least whatever stuffs are there, I know I need it and will use it soon.

That and some of my cabinets and it will actually be empty.

For this week, I de-cluttered

• 2 pairs of sandals that I usually just leave outside my house to wear when I am walking around the yard
• Some more pajamas and old clothes (2 pajamas and 2 old clothes to be exact)
• Some old notebooks that I kept in case I need scrap papers (never seem to run out of scrap papers, so I threw out the old notebooks and keep the new notebooks)

I know I am supposed to de-clutter 5 items per week, but this challenge is harder than I thought it would since it’s getting harder for me to find stuffs to throw/ donate/ sell. At the same time, I don’t want to de-clutter stuffs juts for the sake of de-cluttering when I still have use of the stuffs.

I was doing a mental calculation of my current state, and if I have to move suddenly, the following applies

• 2 Large suitcases for all my clothes & shoes
• 1 box for my computer
• 1 bag for my electronics, laptop & work stuffs
• 1 box for my leathercrafting tools
• 1 box for all my books (I can’t seem to throw away books even if I have the kindle format)
• 2 big boxes (U-Haul Big size box) for all my other misc. stuffs

So I can say that all my stuffs will fit into the back of 2 SUVs. My goal is to reduce it to 1 SUV, if possible.

• More old pajamas and work clothes (Donate to church)
• KangerTech EVOD, an old never been used vape pen that I got for free from my friend when I told him I wanted to quit smoking. (Put up for sale online)
• Generic VR goggle kit. VR sounds cool, but when I actually use it, I just feel dizzy (Also put up for sale)
• A broken iPhone 5 (Put up for sale as spare parts)
• A broken XiaoMi RedNote 3 (Put up for sale as spare parts)

A lot of the stuffs I de-cluttered this week, I put up for sale online because it still has street values, but if I can’t sell it by the end of the challenge, I will just donate it or trash it.

Will report back next week with updates. Wish me luck on the sales!

For this month’s challenge, I decided to try something new. Previously, my challenges are usually new behaviors that I hoped I can sustain into a better habit for myself. But for this month, I want to try to minimize my belongings as much as I can

I know this is a late post for my monthly challenge, considering this is the middle of October. But, after my failure achieving my September’s challenge, I want to try something new, so that I can maintain my motivation in doing these challenges

Why De-Clutter?

Growing up, I do not have a lot of belongings as I do not believe in buying more than 1 item that does the same thing. So, why do I decide to de-clutter?

I have always been thrifty and frugal when it comes to buying and owning stuffs. I usually opt for bang-for-the-buck approach and do not care as much about brand when it comes to shopping. I would spend countless hours researching my purchase before finally pulling the trigger.

The first time I decided to buy a good headphone, I researched various brands for close to 3 months before deciding on one. At that time, I was in college and all I know about earphone was the white earphone that came with my iPod and I was using it everyday. I even wear it while I was working (I worked in the kitchen and my supervisor allowed me to use the right side). When the right bud eventually breaks, I cut it and continue using the left one until the left one dies too.

Now, the problem is throughout the year, I started accumulating stuffs (read: hoarding) because I almost never throw away stuffs unless they are absolutely destroyed. I still wear my over-sized high school T-Shirt as pajama, still use my cracked mugs as pencil holders, still use my hole-some (see what I did there) college bag pack when I go to work, you get the idea. Eventually, I start having more than 1 item that does the same thing, only in a different condition.

This is not a problem until few years ago, when I start being a lot more involved in my family business and I started having to meet more and more people, ranging from vendors to potential customers. First impressions speaks the loudest and people DO judge you by your possessions and how you look when you are approaching them from a business stand point. So, I started buying better clothes, better bag and leave my old stuffs at home and when my better clothes or bag get old, I leave them at home and buy more clothes and bag, the cycle continues. Now, I have suitcases of old clothes that I don’t wear anymore, a cabinet of bags that I do not use anymore and a shelf of cracked glass for pencils that I may come across in the future.

Being a Minimalist to Save Brainpower

Some people thrive in chaotic condition, but I have always work and function better when there are not a lot of items or things going on around me. My home office are filled with stuffs that are becoming part of the furniture and it is becoming a distraction when I am working from home. I would sit in front of my computer trying to think of a solution or whatever I am thinking at the moment and saw the cracked mug and now I am thinking “I really should glue the cracked part if just in case I decided to use it to hold something heavier”. Just like that, I lost my train of thought and I have to retrace my mental thoughts.

Another problem is, having a lot of stuffs means you have to keep a mental note of where everything is. By de-cluttering, I hope that now I only need to keep a mental note of where the essential things are.

Being a Minimalist to Save Time & Money

When you have more items, you will spend more time maintaining your belongings. Considering that I hoard stuffs that are bordeline broken, I do spend considerable time fixing and maintaining them (regluing shoe soles, re-threading old watch straps, etc). This will make sense if you own a shoe that is in the upward of $1,000, but re-gluing an old Nike soles for $15 when the shoes cost $50 7 years ago is just not economical.

Feeling of Freedom

I did throw away a lot of stuffs before I moved into my house 4 months ago and I remembered I felt so free when suddenly half of my stuffs are not there anymore. I still have a lot of stuffs currently despite what I threw away and I hope that by doing this challenge, I will feel free. It should be a nice feeling to know that whatever you see in the room or house is all you really need and when you need to move, you can fit all of it in the trunk of my SUV and be done.

What I Throw Away This Week

Today, I sorted out my office and room and this was the result:

• A tube filled with glowsticks that do not glow anymore (Trash)
• A cheap plastic rubik cube that I won from the fair 6 years ago and never played with (Give to nephew)
• 2 boxes of old clothes that I never wear anymore (Donate to church)
• A length of leftover fiber optic cable that I salvaged when my ISP installed my internet (Trash)
• 2 miniature Iron-Man action figure I got from China 4 years ago that have been collecting dust. (Give to nephew)

Will report back in a week or so and see how much more I can minimize

1. I will be able to get rid of the morning brain fog by having adequate sleep.
2. I will have more time to spend with my son after I get home from work.
3. This challenge will force me to finish all my work during my work hours in the office, so I don’t have to work when I get home

Due to time and situation constraint, I gave myself the 2 Days Rule by Matt D’Avella.

I am here to report that I HAVE FAILED at this challenge. Instead, what I gained is a learning experience.

What Happened?

The first half of the month started well enough and I had hope that I will be able to pass this challenge. At the end of the month though, there are days where I go 5 days without doing this challenge and I slept even later than my usual time.

After some introspection, I realize there are actually a few reasons why I failed this challenge.

Unrealistic Challenge to my Work Schedule

In order for me to shape the habits of sleeping early and not working at home, unknowingly, I created 2 challenges who combined together is harder to pass than if I were to do the challenges separately (Sum of the whole part and all that).

In my original post, I discussed why I used the 2 Days; I realize now, I was thinking too linear, as in if I don’t work on Night 1, I’ll just make it up on the second night, hence the 2 Days trick. However, what I forgot to consider is that, I am not actually making up the work on Night 2, rather on the second morning, hence swamping me with even more work during my work time. When Night 2 comes, I am actually more behind on my work load, and I end up going to sleep even later than usual trying to catch up, which snowballs into having more brain fog the next day, which means less work done, and the snowball grows bigger.

Combined with the work travel and the family travel that I had planned for September, I can say that September was a very tiring month for me, an exact opposite of result that I had hoped.

Unrealistic Challenge to my Work Situation

I mentioned in my original challenge post that I am in the process of growing my company and I want to distance myself from doing routine secretarial or administrative work in the company. I wanted to free myself from these tasks so I can focus more on long term tasks (marketing strategy, Standard Operating Procedure development, and such)

Around the end of August, I hired 2 more employees that I tasked to help me with administration. New employees equal to time spent training and time spent doing some of the administrative work myself.

What I usually do is once I trained my employees or taught them my S.O.P, I let them do the tasks themselves without me interrupting or even checking up on them.

After a few days, in what I call “Fixing Mode”, I will go through their works and note where they have problems with the tasks or the S.O.P and start fixing whatever needs to be fixed. This way, I hope that I can continuously improve my training method and my S.O.P which will allow me greater degree of freedom when running the company.

This has worked out for me so far because my employees learn faster and at the same time I am forced to develop my S.O.P. The drawback is, sometimes they will mess up really bad and I have to fix it for them before I let them try again

So, during September, as I was going through these challenges, I was also training the 2 new admins, while also creating and maintaining new administrative files for my developing S.O.P.

What’s Next?

I did fail these challenges but that does not mean that I will stop trying completely. During these challenges, when I actually did not work at home,

• I get to run around my kitchen table with my son pretending I am on a horse while he was on a Zoo-Zoo Tain.
• I get to sit on the couch with my wife eating an ice cream bar talking about random stuffs.
• I get to have a really boring night where my son and wife was already asleep by 8:30 pm

Whether I had a boring night or a nice talk with my wife or a play session with my son, I know it’s healthier than if I were consumed with my work all the time. So, the challenges may have ended, but I will still try to complete it in the coming months, maybe this time one challenge at a time.

In my original August Challenge post, I said that I started this challenge instead of forcefully change my habits because I will get to pace myself by setting myself up with challenges. So, I started a OneNote Notebook filled with draft posts. My plan was to start on a post by Thursday, finalize it on Sunday or Monday and post it by Tuesday. This was working out in the first month, but then I traveled quite a few times these past months (mostly for work) and during these travels, I usually get back to my hotel (or rental apartment) late at night. So now I am left with many drafts but I haven’t gotten around to polishing it as a final post.

So, I failed on my August challenge which is to create a new blog post every week for 3 months because I went on a cruise with my family to Scandinavia and Russia since 23rd August to September 8. Internet was scarce on the cruise and honestly, I just chose to spend time with my family as much as I can. However, I promise myself that I will catch up to the quota by posting more often.

September Challenge

For my September Challenges, I decided to go with 2 challenges and a cheat code* since they relate to each other

I. Go to Sleep by 11 PM

I have always been a night person and I am more active at night, but recently as I grow older, I found waking up getting harder to do and my brain gets foggier in the day time when I do not get enough sleep. Gone were the days when I could maintain the almost same level of optimal work on 4 hours sleep. So I decided for this month I will try to sleep by 11 pm every weekdays night*

II. No More Working when I am at Home after 8:30 PM

This challenge works in conjunction with my first challenge because now that I have to try to go to sleep by 11 pm, I want to be done with my work by 8:30 pm so I have more time to spend with my son, Mason.

He is at that age where he knows I am the source of play and entertainment and when he hasn’t seen me for the whole day, he gets really excited when I come out of my home office. This excitement in turns actually makes him harder to fall asleep.

My plan is to eventually stop working altogether when I am at home.

*Cheat Code: Implement 2 Days Rule

I learnt about the 2 days rule from watching Matt D’Avella’s Video (Great YouTuber with Great Contents).

Essentially, the 2 days rule is that when you want to create a habit for yourself, the hardest thing is not in doing the habit itself, but rather the maintenance of the habit.

The 2 days rule simply means that when you want to start doing something, you do not go 2 days without doing whatever it is you want to make your habit, and so you guarantee that you will at least do the action every other day in a week.

But, Am I Cheating if I Use the 2 Days Rule?

In the beginning of September when I found out about the 2 Days Rule, I was contemplating whether I am cheating myself by creating challenges for myself but allowing myself a crutch at the same time.

I decided that in giving myself challenges, I am hoping these will become sustainable habits and there is no point in forcing myself to do these challenges cold turkey if in the end I relapsed to my old habits.

I. Going to Sleep at 11 PM is not always Feasible for my Work and Family Life

There are days when I actually have to stay up past 11 pm because I am waiting for phone calls from overseas and there is no way for me to change the time of the calls

At the same time, the city where I live is congested almost throughout the day (sometimes up to midnight). I like to try to take my family out at least once a week and usually that falls on Friday or Saturday. Since I don’t live close to the city, sometimes this means that I will reach home by 11 pm (my son would be asleep in the car by then).

II. My Company is still a Long Way from Automation, which means Working Past 8:30 PM is a Must

I have a dream for my company where I do not have to be there for it to run (or even thrive). But until then, there will be days where I just have to work past 8:30 pm, like the beginning of the month (Payroll), middle of the month (Inventory checking) and end of the month (Closing the book), not to mention other various projects that we are handling.

If you decide you want to challenge yourselves like me, I will be very interested in hearing what your challenges are and how you are approaching it; feel free to shoot me an email.