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WHAT IS
BELANJAWANKU?
An expenditure guide, providing estimated minimum
monthly expenses on various types of goods and
services for different households in Malaysia.
Belanjawanku can help Malaysians plan their
personal and family budgeting to achieve a
reasonable standard of living.

It is developed based on actual spending patterns

on common goods and services by urban households
in the Klang Valley.

A Reasonable
STANDARD of Living is...
Having enough money to meet basic needs

Being involved in community activities and

gatherings of families and friends

Living a purposeful and meaningful life

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How To Use
BELANJAWANKU?
Choose your household category.

Check the budget estimates for your household

category.

Use the budget estimate as a guide for your

monthly expenses and personal budgeting.

Refer to the budget estimates for other

households for future financial planning.

“theHaving adequate financial resources to afford not just

minimum basics but also the ability to participate in
“ 
society for a reasonable and dignified living
Source: Social Wellbeing Research Centre, 2018
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SINGLE
(PUBLIC TRANSPORT USER)

ELDERLY COUPLE SINGLE

(CAR OWNER)

THIS
IS WHO
I AM...
MARRIED COUPLE MARRIED COUPLE
(WITH TWO CHILDREN) (WITHOUT CHILDREN)

MARRIED COUPLE
(WITH ONE CHILD)
6 KLANG VALLEY • 2019

SINGLE
(PUBLIC TRANSPORT USER)
RM1,870

ELDERLY COUPLE SINGLE

(CAR OWNER)
RM3,090 RM2,490
THIS IS
HOW MUCH
I NEED A
MONTH...

MARRIED COUPLE MARRIED COUPLE

(WITH TWO CHILDREN) (WITHOUT CHILDREN)

RM6,620 RM4,420

MARRIED COUPLE
(WITH ONE CHILD)

RM5,730
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SOCIAL FOOD
PARTICIPATION

DISCRETIONARY HOUSING
EXPENSES

THINGS I
USUALLY
SPEND
CHILDCARE
BASKET
ON... TRANSPORT

ANNUAL HEALTHCARE
EXPENSES

UTILITIES PERSONAL CARE

8 KLANG VALLEY • 2019

What Is My
Estimated
Budget?
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SINGLE
(PUBLIC TRANSPORT USER)
Budget Estimate/month

RM1,870
Food Housing Healthcare Transport Utilities

RM550 RM300 RM30 RM200 RM100

Personal Annual Social Discretionary

Savings Care Expenses Participation Expenses

RM250 RM70 RM90 RM150 RM130

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SINGLE
(CAR OWNER)
Budget Estimate/month

RM2,490
Food Housing Healthcare Transport Utilities

RM550 RM300 RM30 RM770 RM100

Personal Annual Social Discretionary

Savings Care Expenses Participation Expenses

RM250 RM70 RM140 RM150 RM130

 KLANG VALLEY • 2019 11

MARRIED COUPLE
(WITHOUT CHILDREN)
Budget Estimate/month

RM4,420
Food Housing Healthcare Transport Utilities

RM870 RM870 RM70 RM1,020 RM290

Personal Annual Social Discretionary

Savings Care Expenses Participation Expenses

RM400 RM100 RM300 RM200 RM300

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MARRIED COUPLE
(WITH ONE CHILD)
Budget Estimate/month

RM5,730
Food Housing Healthcare Transport Utilities Childcare

RM1,300 RM870 RM100 RM1,030 RM300 RM650

Personal Annual Social Discretionary

Savings Care Expenses Participation Expenses

RM400 RM120 RM340 RM240 RM380

 KLANG VALLEY • 2019 13

MARRIED COUPLE
(WITH TWO CHILDREN)
Budget Estimate/month

RM6,620
Food Housing Healthcare Transport Utilities Childcare
RM1,550 RM870 RM120 RM1,040 RM310 RM1,150

Personal Annual Social Discretionary

Savings Care Expenses Participation Expenses
RM400 RM140 RM400 RM250 RM390
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ELDERLY COUPLE
Budget Estimate/month

RM3,090
Food Housing Healthcare Transport Utilities

RM850 RM700 RM130 RM500 RM290

Personal Annual Social Discretionary

Care Expenses Participation Expenses

RM90 RM230 RM170 RM130

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How Can I Use Belanjawanku?

UNDERSTAND PLAN
My financial needs My spending budget
My general spending Money to put aside for
behaviour savings and emergencies
How much I can afford My short-term and long-
to spend term financial goals

BAS-

SO THAT I CAN...

Manage my spending prudently

Make better decisions for the
right purpose
Strengthen my financial position
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Want to Know
More About
Belanjawanku?
 KLANG VALLEY • 2019 17

BELANJAWANKU
A Reference Budget For Malaysians

Introduction
A reference budget is a basket, or collection of goods and services that are considered
necessary to achieve an acceptable standard of living. Reference budgets are usually
estimated for many different individual and family situations. Unlike poverty line income
calculations, a reference budget is not used to label whether an individual or a family is “poor”.
Aside from spending on just basic necessities, a reference budget also includes items that
allow individuals or families to lead dignified lives with active involvement in society. It is the
minimum expenditure required to not just survive, but to thrive in society.

Since a reference budget is a useful tool on many levels, the Social Wellbeing Research
Centre (SWRC), University of Malaya has started a research programme aimed at compiling
a “Reference Budget for Malaysians”, or Belanjawanku, the first results of which are laid out
in this publication. Belanjawanku is a compilation of detailed minimum monthly expenses
for different baskets of goods and services consumed by different households, to achieve
an acceptable standard of living. It is based on actual spending patterns of individuals and
families from urban households in the Klang Valley and can serve as a guide for monthly
expenses and personal budgeting.

What Goes Into Belanjawanku

To come up with Belanjawanku, the SWRC has put together common expenditures
on food, housing, utilities, transport, childcare, personal care, and health for different
categories of household. The budget estimates also include monthly average expenses
for social participation, involving festival celebrations or attending weddings & funerals;
annual expenses for vehicle maintenance, clothing, or instalment payments on furniture &
 18 KLANG VALLEY • 2019

appliances; discretionary expenses such as insurance, vacations, or contributions to parents;

and some savings.

To estimate how much each type of household needs to spend on these items, the SWRC
conducted a survey of household expenditures, and survey of prices of goods and services
through catalogues, the internet, and at actual business premises, between July 2017 and
July 2018. Prices from different sources were averaged, and where there was a wide range of
prices, a cut-off point at 25 per cent from the lowest price was used instead.

The SWRC also conducted focus group discussions with academicians, representatives from
the EPF, AKPK, the EPU, the National Wage Council, BNM, as well as NGOs, industry specialists,
experts from financial institutions, and reference persons from different households. These
discussions were added to data from the Department of Statistics’ Household Income
and Expenditure Surveys and BNM. Given this wide range of sources, and the addition of
expenditures that households commonly spend on, Belanjawanku provides an alternative
reference to the official Poverty Line Income (PLI), and is more in tune with the standard of
living that Malaysians aspire to.

A Summary of the Results

Unmarried Malaysians who use public transport, rent a room in the Klang Valley, and do not
save, need RM1,620 per month. This estimate includes the basic, social participation, and
discretionary expenses. Using a car instead of public transport, raises the required expenditure
by 38 per cent to RM2,240 per month. Assuming this individual also wants to save, it raises
the total by RM250 to RM2,490, which should provide some financial security for the future.
That amount is sufficient to provide a single Malaysian living in the Klang Valley the ability
to live decently, take part in society, and at the same time, have some savings for rainy days.

Not surprisingly, married couples need more to maintain an acceptable standard of living,
with the minimum expenditure required increasing to RM4,420, under the assumption that
couples are more likely to either rent or own a house rather than a room. Having children
raises the required expenditure level even more. Having just one child raises the required
expenditure by nearly 30 per cent to RM5,730, an increase of RM1,310. Having two children
 KLANG VALLEY • 2019 19
raises the required expenditure to RM6,620, an increase of RM2,200, or almost 50 per cent
higher than for couples without children. Belanjawanku includes spending for day care,
diapers, milk and baby food, tuition fees, and pocket money, as part of childcare expenses. On
top of these expenditures directly related to childcare, other existing expenditures especially
on food, increase noticeably when couples have children.

Belanjawanku also estimates the monthly expenditure for senior couples at RM3,090. Senior
couples were found to spend less than other families for most of the items in the expenditure
basket, with the exception of healthcare, and are also less likely to save.

Comparing Belanjawanku with Actual Income

Since Belanjawanku indicates the minimum level of consumption required for people to live
comfortably, it also helps reveal the minimum level of income needed for different households.
At RM1,620, the minimum income required by a single Malaysian living in the Klang Valley is
higher than the current minimum wage of RM1,100. However, it is lower than the median wage
of RM2,580 in Selangor or RM2,650 in Kuala Lumpur. Similarly, Belanjawanku’s expenditure
estimates for families with children also remain below the median household income reported
in 2016, where Selangor’s urban household median income was reported to be RM7,443 and
Kuala Lumpur’s household median income was RM7,620. Since Belanjawanku serves as a
guide for minimum expenses required, any surplus in income is crucial for people to attain
better living conditions such as having more comfortable housing as families grow or invest in
their children’s education.

However, the minimum required expenses of RM3,090 for senior couples, which translates
to an average of RM1,545 per person, is far higher than the RM1,000 a month assumption
the EPF uses to calculate its basic savings requirement for every retiree. This suggests that
greater attention and focus needs to be given to whether households are saving enough for
retirement. This is especially true since even under the RM1,000 a month assumption, more
than half of EPF members near withdrawal age are not even meeting this minimum level.

One key insight arising from a detailed examination of Belanjawanku is that aside from
spending on food, an over-sized share of Malaysian household spending actually goes to
 20 KLANG VALLEY • 2019

transportation when using their own vehicles. For singles and couples without children, the
cost of owning a car or motorcycle actually exceeds spending on food. This suggests that
increasing the use and availability of public transport would go a long way towards tackling
the cost of living burden, and give households a better chance to meet their aspirations.

The Future of Belanjawanku

Belanjawanku can be many things to many people. For policymakers and researchers,
Belanjawanku can be used as a reference to measure the effectiveness of policy changes
(such as the minimum wage and social benefits), and assess the impact of outside events on
living standards. For the general public, Belanjawanku can be used as a guide for financial
planning and budgeting, and for companies, it can be used as a
salary benchmark. Given the variety of uses, Belanjawanku
is a valuable addition to the tools available to inform
policymakers, NGOs, companies, and Malaysians at
large, in making their financial and policy decisions. 50

40

With this in mind, under the Belanjawanku

programme, the SWRC will periodically publish
30

revised estimates to take into account changes 20

in prices and household expenditure choices. As 10

Malaysia continues on its journey of development,

we hope that Belanjawanku will form a common 03 04
reference point for the dreams and aspirations of
Malaysians in achieving a better future.

05
5
08
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SURVEY METHOD & DATA COLLECTION
Duration of study : July 2017 – July 2018
Location of study: Klang Valley

PRIMARY DATA

Questionnaire Focus Group Price

SURVEY DISCUSSION SURVEY
Structured Reference persons from In catalogues,
questionnaires different households internet, and at
actual business
Agency representatives - premises
EPF, AKPK, EPU, National
Wage Council, BNM, NGOs
Industry specialists and
experts from financial
institutions
Academicians
22 KLANG VALLEY • 2019

PUBLIC Couples own a CAR

HEALTHCARE and a MOTORCYCLE
services

PUBLIC Average travel

primary & secondary distance to work is
EDUCATION 30KM

Basic Assumptions For

BELANJAWANKU

Housing for singles People are generally

is based on HEALTHY
ROOM RENTAL

Housing for couples is based People are able to

on monthly MORTGAGE make INFORMED
REPAYMENT or RENTAL DECISIONS
VALUE (whichever is lower)
 KLANG VALLEY • 2019 23
SECONDARY DATA

Published
DOCUMENTS
Data from DOSM and BNM
PUBLISHED Household Expenditure and Income Survey
(HES and HIS)
Data on prices from KPDNHEP, LKIM, FAMA,
and relevant agencies

CONSTRUCTING THE BELANJAWANKU

Pricing
CRITERIA
Average price
Cut-off point at 25% from the lowest price,
where applicable
Special offers/discounts not considered
Prices applicable during the survey period
24 KLANG VALLEY • 2019

Message from

Vice Chancellor of UM
Financial literacy is a key determinant of
people’s overall wellbeing, which eventually
contributes to the nation’s financial stability
and an increased upward economic mobility.
In active collaboration with the EPF, University
of Malaya will continue to promote financial
education to enhance people’s ability to
handle financial matters.

Belanjawanku is useful as an
indication of the cost of living as
well as a guide for Malaysians to
improve their personal financial
management in order to lead a
happy and meaningful life.

Datuk Ir. (Dr.) Abdul Rahim Hj. Hashim

Vice Chancellor, University of Malaya
 KLANG VALLEY • 2019 25
Message from

Chief Executive Officer of EPF

Even though money is and should not be everything (it definitely cannot
buy lasting happiness and health), it is nonetheless a vital component
in addressing a person’s quality of life. Money must be used in the
right way and for the right purposes and this can certainly be
achieved with proper understanding and being knowledgeable
in financial matters.

Belanjawanku is the result of many detailed studies

and surveys conducted by both the EPF and the
SWRC, and is a powerful tool in helping you to
make the right choices in your spending.
Belanjawanku provides a comprehensive guideline
on the allocation of your income towards
different expenditures such as basic necessities
(housing, transportation, food and utilities) and
entertainment as well as uniquely Malaysian
expenses such as balik kampung and ang
pow. In addition, Belanjawanku also gives
recommendations on how much you should
provide for savings and loan repayments as well as
putting aside some cash for emergency spending.

We hope the information provided in Belanjawanku

is practicable and realistic in helping you manage
your expenses as we believe a well planned and
executed budget will empower you and your
family towards financial independence. Keep a
look out as the EPF will be introducing more tools
and services to assist you in achieving a life that is
filled with meaning and purpose.

Tunku Alizakri Alias

CEO, the Employees Provident Fund
26 KLANG VALLEY • 2019

Glossary
 KLANG VALLEY • 2019 27
AKPK Agensi Kaunseling dan Pengurusan Kredit

Annual expenses Includes clothing & footwear, furniture & household appliances,
school/kindergarten registration fees, and vehicle maintenance,
road tax & insurance. These items are allocated on a monthly
average

Basic needs Includes food, housing, transport, utilities, healthcare, personal

care, childcare, and annual expenses

Belanjawanku A standard monthly estimated spending guide on basic

necessities, social activities, and optional items in order for an
individual or a family to live a reasonable and meaningful life

BNM Bank Negara Malaysia

Budget Estimate Amount estimated based on focus group discussions and price
surveys

Childcare Includes clothing, footwear, babysitting, diapers, milk & baby

food, pocket money, and tuition fees (extra classes or religious
classes)

Discretionary expenses Includes life, health, accident, & property insurance, sports &
games, vacations, membership fees, and donations to religious
or charitable institutions

DOSM Department of Statistics Malaysia

Elderly couple Couples with at least one spouse aged 60 years or older

EPF Employees Provident Fund

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EPU Economic Planning Unit

FAMA Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority

Food Expenditure on food is based on the recommended nutrient

intake from the Malaysian Dietary Guideline (2010) set by the
Ministry of Health, Malaysia

Healthcare Includes care for common illnesses & small injuries, contraception,
oral/dental care, and basic family medical chest (first aid kit)

Housing Rental rates for singles are obtained for several districts and
based on prices in www.mudah.my, www.ibilik.com, and the
Research Structure Plan for Selangor 2035 Report (2010).
Owned property prices for couples and families refer to low -
medium cost PR1MA and RUMAW1P properties that are below
RM200,000

KPDNHEP Kementerian Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal

Pengguna

LKIM Lembaga Kemajuan Ikan Malaysia

NGOs Non-Governmental Organisations

Personal care Includes hand, oral, & body hygiene, sanitary pads, shaving
items, hair & skin care, and basic bathroom equipment

Private Transport Ownership of a 1000cc engine car and a 110cc motorcycle as

well as petrol, toll, and parking fees

PRS Private Retirement Scheme

 KLANG VALLEY • 2019 29
Public Transport Includes bus, LRT, MRT, and Komuter fares

Savings Average amount as reported by Focus Group Discussion

participants in addition to EPF/PRS contributions

Social participation Includes festive celebrations (Hari Raya, Chinese New Year,
Deepavali, and Christmas), attending weddings, doa selamat,
funerals, or other religious ceremonies/rituals, celebrating
newborns, wedding anniversaries, and birthdays

SWRC Social Wellbeing Research Centre

Utilities Includes mobile phone, cable TV, internet, water, and electricity
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