Investing August 9, 2026 0 Comments

How I Mastered My July Spending at Just $1,068—And Why It’s a Game-Changer for Your Financial Freedom

Ever wondered what your spending says about you — beyond the obvious dollar signs? I’ve been tracking and sharing my personal expenditures for a while now, peeling back the layers to expose the real story behind the numbers. This month’s update continues that journey, laying out my spending habits in a way that’s less about keeping tabs and more about understanding the fine line between flexibility and necessity. Think of it as tuning into the spending blueprint of someone living solo, older, with a fully paid home—maybe it’ll make you question your own patterns: Why do I spend more? Or less? What does that even mean for my financial future?

I break down my expenses through a unique lens—flexible vs. inflexible, finite vs. ongoing, role vs. responsibility—all geared toward a sharp eye on financial independence. It’s not just numbers. It’s a mindset, a strategy to outsmart uncertainty and keep the hustle sustainable. Curious how this philosophy plays out in actual dollars? Stick around, and let’s dissect July’s budget together—right down to the groceries, insurance premiums, and yes, even the dumplings that stunk up the office. Welcome to the nitty gritty of real-world spending, stripped of fluff but packed with insight.

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I would periodically update everyone my personal spending. This is the update for this month.

You can review my past spending logs by going to the personal notes section of investment moats here in the future.

How I Group My Spending.

One of the reasons for publishing the spending is to show people just how spending should be. Some would wonder if it is consistent or erratic, high or low. If you are interested, you see it, and you form your own tale about it.

You will be able to tune in to a spending profile of someone who is single, older, a fully paid up home. If you spend more than this, then you can ponder why is that and what you think about it. If you spend less than this, then you can ponder why and what do you think about it.

I group my spending based around a few technical grouping:

Flexible or Inflexible: There are some spending that we can be more flexible with. The spending tends to fluctuate over time. There are some spending that is more inflexible. The impact of this is felt more if you are retrench from work, wish to take a hard pivot in your life or career, planning for financial security or future retirement. A more inflexible spending would require your planned income stream to be more conservative while you can take some more risk if you have flexibility in your spending.
Finite or Ongoing: There are some spending that will stop at some point but there are some spending that we don’t see it stopping objectively. Finite spending are insurance premiums, mortgage, allowance for kids, allowance for parents etc. Ongoing spending is a certain kind of transport spending.
Role or Responsibility: What am I currently? Am I a worker? A husband? Or a Son? Some of the spending are group this way so that we are able to see just how much we are spending on something. Some of these responsibility will go away. For example, you spend on some travels, clothes, pay income tax because you are a worker. But if you are planning for a non-working phase of life, would you wish to know how much that you spend today can be peeled away.

In a way, this works for me because I always have an eye from the Financial Independence planning perspective. You might not, and you have your own reasons.

I hope that your way of grouping have some sensibility to it and helps you in your own way.

This is the spending for the month of July. Illustrations can be found on my Instagram here.

This month’s spending is relatively low just like the past few months.

I will break how I spend in the subsequent sections.

The Essential Inflexible Spend

I wrote about my essential inflexible spend here in this note: What kind of lifestyle would I need to buy for myself?

I group and track this set of rather inflexible spending to be reflective about how realistic is the numbers as part of the notes written above. The income stream from my Daedalus Income Portfolio is meant to pay for this spending as well.

The food spending is mainly the groceries that I use in my meal prep. I would eat 1 meal mainly a day, but think 15 days in a month, I would usually eat 2 meals. So what you see is just that.

Groceries and food bill is at $124, which is much lower than the $190, $167 and $161 last three months. This is still lower than the 2023’s essential food planning of $360 per month. Transport stayed around $76.

Utilities include the town council fee, Zero1 and Giga mobile plans. We enjoy town council fee rebate this month hence a smaller sum.

Overall, the essential inflexible spend is lower than the $933 monthly plan for Daedalus Income portfolio. The base annual inflexible essential spending budget was $854 in Nov 2022 and $933 is adjusted for 3 years of US inflation.

Here is the US CPI for the past few years while we are on this:

Year	CPI
2023	4.13%
2024	2.95%
2025	2.73%

The Basic Inflexible Spending

The difference between the basic and the essential is that.. basic inflexible are less essential. You can probably think of something that you can at least be slightly more flexible… but actually not too flexible about that would make life more sane.

You want to renovate your place every 10 years or replace something right? You want to try and make life easier on an ongoing basis right? You want to take better care of your health right? Some of you will have strong opinions about some areas, more than others. To you the spending can be rather inflexible, but if you touch your heart, you know you can cut if the conditions are really bad.

If it fits those it ends up here.

This is also eventually what Daedalus Income Portfolio also need to provide.

I describe this spending in this note: Aside from my most essential spending needs, I need $5,160 yearly for my basic needs. I would set aside $174,000 to provide income for it.

I gotten some stuff to maintain the home:

2 Stainless Steel Food Steaming Tray. One at home one at office $21

The Flexible Spends

I would group most of my spending that are flexible into one big pot. Realistically, this is the spending that make life interesting.

Realistically, we can be more flexible with these spends as well.

I find this spending to be less important for long term retirement planning but you might hold a different opinion. I do think that if you wish to enjoy something, maybe you would also want to work for it. But there are some sub-accounts that allow me to tune in to them.

I bought another second hand Dell Latitude 7480. The second digit tells the display size. The third digit tells us when the laptop came out. Comes with 32GB Ram and 512 GB hard disk. Total damage is $230.

As you can see it is wrapped in those vinyl tap which means it is not in the best of condition. The white flakes are not defects (that is my skin!). I decided to install CachyOS, a Linux based operating system on it. Pretty good experience so far.

I decide to buy 38 Kim Choo Dumpling. This is after Duan Wu festival.

4 of them is for Mom and Dad. It is weird to pray after the festival but I thought getting them something nice is always better than meeting the timing and getting something normal.

I think I stunk up the whole office with Nonya Dumpling smell. $185 in total.

I spent $60 on coffee and tea this month.

This month’s treat for colleagues at Providend:

Coffee and Tea: $91

Spending Funded from Other Sources

These are spending that comes from sinking fund/saving groups that we capitalized.

This would be mainly for my real insurance protection needs. You can read more about them here: Cutting My F.I. Capital Needs for Insurance Premiums from $131,366 to $58,132 by Prepaying for It.

If I capitalized this spending, I take it out from my recurring spend. A few line items of my insurance are really finite. Term insurance is. My $50,000 Limited Whole Life is. My health insurance is in my inflexible essential spend above, which I have plan as part of my expenses even if I am not spending it today (so as to shore it up for the later years).

The insurance is not too different from last month.

Spending on Work

I don’t have a lot of responsibilities like a lot of other people. Spending on work is a way to track those spending that is directly attributed to work. If I stop working this goes away.

Not much spending at work this month.

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Kyith is the Owner and Sole Writer behind Investment Moats. Readers tune in to Investment Moats to learn and build stronger, firmer wealth foundations, how to have a Passive investment strategy, know more about investing in REITs and the nuts and bolts of Active Investing.

Readers also follow Kyith to learn how to plan well for Financial Security and Financial Independence.

Kyith worked as an IT operations engineer from 2004 to 2019. Currently, he works as a Senior Solutions Specialist in Fee-only Wealth Advisory Firm Providend. All opinions on Investment Moats are his own and does not represent the views of Providend.

You can view Kyith’s current portfolio here, which uses his Free Google Stock Portfolio Tracker.

His investment broker of choice is Interactive Brokers, which allows him to invest in securities from different exchanges all over the world, at very low commission rates, without custodian fees, near spot currency rates.

You can read more about Kyith here.