This week on our MyMoney series, Siddhartha Sundaram, who works at a consulting firm in Bangalore, talks about his spending habits and saving goals.
"After graduating as an engineer, I've been working at a consulting firm for a little more than 2 years now. I don't save anywhere close to how much I actually should. I try to save up at least 20 - 23k a month. I remember being very proud one month of hitting a 27k target in savings.
Occasionally I have saved with a particular goal in mind. A year ago I wanted to buy a desktop computer, and I started with some research on what I wanted versus what I could afford. When you are on a budget, the hunt is part of the fun. The PC I wanted was Dell's Alienware, which is pretty expensive. After reading up and exploring PC forums online, I finally found a way to build a computer with the same specifications as the Alienware model. That turned out much cheaper.
I'm far from frugal and tend to splurge on silly purchases. I notice that I drop a big sum of money when I'm traveling, not just in tickets to the place, but also activities and food. It's the rationalization of 'having a good experience' that helps deal with the guilt when I look at my bank balance at the end of the trip.
Demonetization has changed my spending behavior a bit. While it has stopped me from frivolous small-cash spends, it's also forcing me to swipe my card everywhere, which means I am choosing more expensive places. So instead of spending 60 rupees in cash at the road-side momo stand, I'm using my card to spend 180 rupees on an over-priced, mediocre corn and cheese sandwich at a chain cafe. I prefer cash because it's easier to know exactly how much you're spending when you're pulling notes out of your wallet. But when you're swiping your card everywhere, you end up losing track and spending more."
