A penny a day.. could turn into RM 252.61 in 3 months :-)

Hehe.. I'm smiling!!

This month has been quite a hard month for me. Eventhough I managed to get my travel claims and was given my 'upah' for site searching, it seems like I haven't gotten the chance to save even a cent.

Ok.. ok.. it might be my fault. I mean, because of a book fair held at Kompleks Masyarakat Penyayang in Penang and because I was running outta my Clinique supplies, I DID spend a large portion for these two things. Hey, I only buy my supplies almost once a year, bukan selalu but as for books, I have to admit my weakness here (I bought about 10 books, including the ones I bought at Popular)

But then, I also have my dear Atos which suddenly thinks it's hilarious to play tricks on me by pretending to be sick. For the service I do every 5000km, I had to fork up RM 200 compared to the usual RM 105. Then after my good intention of making it feel like brand new, it HAD to cough up some smoke, exhausting all the water+coolant in the radiator. I dunno, maybe it just wanted the attention since I've been to busy to REALLY take care of it so just to make it feel better, I went to service the radiator which thankfully (at that time je la) cost only RM 70 BUT now its back to its spoilt pouty self and starting to buat perangai lagi.. aaaaarrrgghhh! Kak Shima said, I might have to pay RM 400 if I want to change to a new radiator, but the mechanic had earlier said that nothing was wrong so I just don't understand my Atos here!! Whatever it is, for safety measures, I'm going to Penang to see what the problem really is.. iskk.. isk.. babai 400 inggit.. waaaaa..

Anyway, just this afternoon, while waiting for kak Shima to come back home, I took out my 3 coin boxes that were already full. I was thinking of going to Tabung Haji tomorrow to deposit all those coins and just for the fun of it, I counted every cent there was in thos coin boxes (except a few 1 and 5 cent coins which are in another container).

Imagine my suprise and delight when I found out that I had a total of RM 252.61 in coins. Yippee, looks like I'm saving some money this month, alright!

To tell you the truth, I never was such a coin box person. When we were small, Abah bought me, Iwan and Adi a coin box each in the shape of 'chest of drawers' but the coin box just served as decorations for our book shelves. We never felt the need to save our allowances. We didn't even have a savings account except for my Bank simpanan Nasional account Mama opened for me when I was a baby but that account too, was left dusty in the bank.

The first serious account I had was my ASN account where I'd sometime save money relatives gave me but still, I only did it when I wanted to.

The person who taught me to save was really Kak Sue, a kakak at our office. I went with her one day when she wanted to find a coin box so I helped her choose the biggest one there is. She kept the coin box on her desk in the office and everyday, without fail, she saved some loose change in it. At first I wasn't interested. I mean, baik guna duit tu beli chocolate kat KM ke hehe.. but one day, kak Sue opened her coin box and started stacking the money in RM 1 stacks. How suprised I was to see the total was more than a hundred ringgit. Suddenly, I wanted to do the same.

The next day, we went to Pacific and presto! I bought my first REAL coin box. At first, the coin that went inside everyday was not much but as the coin box grew heavier, so did my excitement in filling the box up. I even competed with kak Sue on who would save the most and by the time my coin box was full, I had saved up to a total of more than a hundred ringgit.. yeay!

After that, there was no stopping me. I'm proud to say that my coinbox now has never been empty within 24 hours. Everyday, I put in some loose change in it, sometimes just a bit but sometime a handful. To date, I think I've save nearly RM 1000 in coins (though the truth is, I've used most of it for my masters fee and my car's insurance and road tax) But still, I enjoy saving money now. The satisfaction of seeing the fruit of your labour (though in small change) is just pure bliss.

Thank you kak Sue sebab ajar saya simpan duit syiling.. jom lawan lagi nak??