$385 a week: Gen Z Malaysian intern documents her weekly expenditure in CBD

Managing one's personal expenses is an aspect of adulting that can be a bit of a drag.

Some may choose to shy away from it, in the hope of not seeing how much they are truly spending.

However, YouTuber Zhishinn had no qualms with documenting her expenses.

The Malaysian is currently a National University of Singapore (NUS) student interning at accounting firm PwC, with the office located in the Central Business District (CBD).

On July 21, Zhishinn posted a YouTube video of how much she spends in a week to give her viewers a "rough idea" of the living expenses in Singapore. 

"Totalling up everything, my spending for this week is $385.03," she declared. 

Funnily enough, her Monday actually began in a prudent manner, with free bread and wafer sticks at the office.

That was her breakfast and snacks sorted.

Zhishinn also managed to keep her yong tau foo lunch to a reasonable $5.70. Taking into account the location of her office in the CBD, some might consider it a steal.

Dinner, though, was a different story all together. 

It was a meet-up with friends over Korean food, so think Korean pancake, BBQ meats and army stew.

This meal set her back $33.80, bringing her total expenses for Monday to $43.12.

Tuesday was a work-from-home day, so that kept her spending to just $13.87.

What drove her weekly expenses up was the sheer number of activities she did, from fitness classes ($38.60) to clubbing ($25). 

Zhishinn also experienced something of a revelation during the week - discovering that she's actually not a big fan of clubbing.

"Clubbing is [such a] waste of money. I don't want to go anymore. If there's no free entry on ladies' night, oh my god," she said.

On top of that, Zhishinn admitted that she's been "eating well" all week.

For instance, eating at food joints at The Daily Cut isn't exactly cheap. Even with a member's discount, the meal set her back $9.39.

For context, that's more than twice what she paid for her Thursday economy rice meal ($3.90). 

To be fair, Zhishinn did seem transparent in her sharings and even included fixed expenses such as her phone bill and rental.

In the comments section, she corrected an error made in the video.

"My weekly phone bill is $5 so need to deduct $15 from my total monthly expenses!" Zhishinn commented.

Netizens also asked her a range of questions from expected intern salary to where to get cheap toiletries in Singapore.

Zhishinn replied that an intern's salary is industry-dependent, but one can expect it to range from $800 to $1,500 a month.

As for toiletries and home essentials, she recommends ABC Mart and FairPrice. 

ALSO READ: This student completed 8 internships in under 5 years of uni, and this is how he did it

amierul@asiaone.com

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