Monday, November 9, 2009
Sacrifices to make
@10:28 PM
Thus far, I have yet to see another tour cyclist post his/her finances up and show the exact breakdown for each item. The following is the current estimate of my capital and costs.
CapitalCurrent savings: $3000
Total accumulated savings by February: $6500 (assuming I scrimp every cent)
CostsTentage: $300
Pannier bags: $260
Sleeping Bag: $140
Vaccination: $300
Racks and mudguard: $300
Insurance: $750
Plane ticket (Calcutta-Singapore): $450
Visa (China, Nepal, India, Laos): $250
General living expenses: $20 x 172 days = $3450
Total costs: $6200
(This does not include clothing, camping equipment, daily expenses from now till February and god knows what else. That’s why I am so determined to save every cent; it’s not for no reason whatsoever.)
These are the items already purchased:
Bicycle: $2150
Tubes and tyres: $200
This adds up to a total of about $8550, which is about the minimum capital required to build up an entire overseas bike tour from scratch. Remember, folks, I am living on $20 per day out there, and this means I will camp out, cook my own food whenever possible, generally scrimping like mad for the inevitable rainy days. European trips will cost at least five times as much as this per day.
How do I save up such that such cash is actually available? My pre-army savings is around $2,500. Between BMT and Commissioning, I have spent about $6,000 on books and a titanium bicycle. Army gives you a total allowance of $18,500 if you are an NSF army officer through enhanced BMT batch. This means that for the entire army period, I spent about $6,300, about 70% of these expenses going to my time in OCS (I have no idea how I spent so much). And during my time as an officer, I must have spent less than $1,200 for the entire seven month period so far. Moreover, for the past three months, I have certainly spent less than $350 in total. You can observe an exponential decline in my daily expenses. This month, I spent $50 on MRT concession card, $40 on laptop repairs, $20 on my social life, and $0.50 for MacDonalds’ Meal (it’s true). The previous month was limited only to transport.
Thriftiness is really a way of life that you must ease into, with an iron will and discipline to enforce. In the SAF, having a cookhouse obviously helps to drastically reduce the burden of food costs on the wallet. I have taken measures as extreme as walking from Tuas Naval Base to Joo Koon MRT simply to save the $1.05 required to take the bus to Boon Lay Interchange. I drink plain water, stay in late to eat at the cookhouse in order to avoid buying dinners, forcing myself away from the tempting fruit juice stall, and I would stare at breakfasts when my fellow colleagues munch on their food in the canteen. Thriftiness is painful, but I have a financial goal that must be fulfilled no matter the cost.
Ah, the things that I do for what I love...
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