Investing June 8, 2026 0 Comments

How I Mastered My May 2026 Spending at Just $1,167—And Why It Could Change Your Financial Game Forever

Ever wonder what it really looks like when someone peels back the curtain on their personal spending? Well, buckle up — because this isn’t your everyday budget breakdown. I’m about to walk you through how I slice and dice my expenses each month, revealing not just the numbers but the mindset behind them. You’ll see how spending isn’t just about dollars and cents; it’s about choices, priorities, and a relentless eye toward financial independence. Whether you’re spending more or less than me, this peek into the life of a single, older chap with a fully paid home might just nudge you to rethink your own money moves. Curious how I juggle flexible and inflexible costs, plan for the long haul, and deal with those quirky little splurges (yes, coffee lovers, you’re in for a treat)? Let’s dive right in and make some sense of the madness.…

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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 October. Illustrations can be found on my Instagram here.

After the tax season, my spending goes back to normal.

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 $167, which is pretty similar to $161 last month. This is still lower than the 2023’s essential food planning of $360 per month. Transport moderated to $75 from $95 last month.

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:

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.

My Amazfit spoil, so I bought a Fitbit Charge 6 to replace it. More expensive than the Amazfit and to be honest Fitbit Charge 6 was pretty old (perhaps 3 years old?) but after 2 weeks I think its not bad. $168.

I bought some miscellaneous stuff that’s all:

Flower adjustable drip irrigation: $4.60
USB-C to DC Adapter: $2.80

The adapter is another wasted purchase because it seems the voltage is different.

I had meals with:

Coffee and lunch with Amelia, Shiyun and Jiamin: $16
Had lunch with my reader Cookie Monster: $2.2

I drink a fair bit of coffee and they came up to: $33.50.

Bought some drip coffee for home: $17.85. So you can say I spend like $51 on coffee, which is like 30% what I spend on food!

This month’s treat for colleagues at Providend:

Matcha and Kopi: $40
Kopi for Investment Team: $14
Laminating for Amelia: $12
Tiong Bahru Bao: $90

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.

After filing my taxes, I paid for the taxes in one 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.