People often get into the limelight for all the wrong reasons, but for 24-year-old Nurfateha Balqis, who’s a student at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Segamat, she can proudly credit her shot to fame to being smart and careful with her money.
A virtue that 40% of millennials in Malaysia apparently doesn’t have, according to the Malaysian Finance Minister, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
Looking for a Place to Rent
Nurfateha was due for a 6-month internship at a government-linked company (GLC) in Danga Bay, JB, back in September of 2020, so she started looking for a place to rent.
She managed to find a room to rent in a house in the city for just RM250 a month, but unfortunately, the rental doesn’t include utilities which would definitely increase the overall cost.
Not to mention, according to Nurfateha, she doesn’t have any personal vehicle that she could use to travel from the house to her workplace so she will then need to factor in her daily transportation costs.
“If I have to take Grab, it’s about RM8 per one-way trip. If it’s during peak hours, the rate for a two-way trip would cost up to RM20,” she added.
Only RM17.72 a Day for a Hotel Stay?!
Thankfully, during her “surveillance trip” with her dad, she spotted a Tune Hotel that’s near to her office and thought of asking if they offer long stays.
Spoiler alert – they do!
They even asked another hotel about their long stay prices – just as a comparison – and well, unsurprisingly, the AirAsia-linked budget hotel wins hands-down with a rock-bottom monthly price of just RM550!
Yes… I know my math and RM550 is more than twice the cost of the room she found earlier, but when you factor in all the other costs (or lack thereof), RM550 is pretty darn cheap.
Being a hotel, her room came with a host of basic hotel necessities like a water heater, television, WiFi connection, and housekeeping services. There’s the hotel receptionist to help accept any deliveries she may order too!
There are added bonuses, of course, such as the fact that the Tune Hotel is so close to her office, she could easily save hundreds from having to take a Grab car every day to work simply by sweating a little (for just 5 minutes) and walking to work instead.
By renting a hotel room, she probably has a lot less headache as well since she doesn’t have to deal with troublesome housemates either!
Going Viral for the Best Reasons – Being a Smart and Prudent Consumer
Like many Gen Zs of her age, Nurfateha documented her experience on her TikTok account, with many interested people bombarding her with questions about her stay, and she replied to some of the questions with new TikTok videos.
For instance, someone asked her where she washes her clothes and she posted a new TikTok video as a response, showing her laundry day at a nearby dry cleaner.
She jokingly added that to save even more, she could just bring all her laundry back home to Segamat during the weekends.
Even though Nurfateha does receive an allowance for her internship at the GLC, she prudently stated that as a student, she would naturally want to try to save as much money as she could.
This kind of “money matters” mentality is fairly rare among university students, especially those who are still being sponsored by their mummies and daddies, so kudos to her!
Featured Image: TikTok (@hahamonteha)
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