yet another pointless blog…

Yep, inflation is on the rise again. Well, for a particular segment of students it is. The segment of not-quite-Singaporeans under the purview of MOE Singapore - the Foreign Scholars.

Every month, the allowance we get is SG$200.00. Sounds a lot, doesnt it? But its not enough. Lets see a breakdown of costs:-

School’s Misc. Fees*         $22.00
Aircon Fees*                    $20.00
Lecture Notes est.*          $20.00
Bus to School                   $25.00
Internet Fees(20 hours)    $20.00
Phone Bill(minimum)        $25.00
Newspaper est.(shared)    $14.00
Transport Fees -
Weekdays(22 days x $.50) $11.00
Weekends(8 days x $1.00) $ 8.00
Subtotal - no food             $165.00

*compulsary

Leaving $35 for the rest of it - meaning lunches and snacks.
Considering 22 school days a month, at $2.00 per lunch - $44.00

Congratulations! You are now IN THE RED, and its not like the costs are extravagent. In fact, all of them are essential to life as a student.

Ways to cut cost:
i ) Have the cheapest lunch possible: at $1.50 instead of $2 (no drinks), saving $11.

ii) Dont take the bus to school, take the normal MRT. [$25 - (22 X $.50) = saving $14] However, this is a bit risky, as two days of waking up late = 2 days of taxi fair = your $14 gone.

iii) Don’t Subscribe to a phone line - oh yea, and have every teacher and friend after you for being so darned hard to contact - ever tried calling a hostel? often? - ok. not possible.

iv) Don’t Go Online - mmmm, yes, possible - if not for the emails - which normally require us to check at least 1x per week. well.. oklar u can check 1 hr per week, meaning saving $16.00.

YAY! we are back in the green! Total Savings = $(11 +  14 + 16) =  $41

Total cost - total  savings =  $209 - $41 = $ 168

Balance = $32

Oh wait. did anyone say Class Outing? Or CCA Fees? *groan*

So what does this mean?

It IS theoretically possible to survive on $200 per month, but if and ONLY IF you are totally frugal. and nothing else crops up. but there is a easy way out.

CALL 1800-PARENTS and ASK FOR MORE MONEY.

You have been warned.

Eve.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 7th, 2007 at 4:11 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.