This is the inspiring story of a man who sold scrap metals and recyclables, earning around RM500–RM1,000 a month in order to afford his wedding.
When I first met my now-wife, I was just 24 years old and she was 25. We met at our previous place of employment on the first day of my job. Ever since I laid eyes on her, I knew I wanted to marry her. She was, and always will be, the most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes on.
I can safely say it took her some time to warm up to me. We first became friends and only started dating about a year later. She knew she was looking to get married, and after a year of dating, we were engaged with our parents’ blessing.
When I first met her family, I knew they were in a better place financially compared to my family.
I was slightly insecure that her parents would find me unsuitable for her. Thankfully, they accepted me with open arms, but it was clear that they expected me to be a provider for her and our future family—a responsibility I am happy to take on.
When we got engaged and started planning our wedding, that’s when I started to panic. When I heard my fiancée and her sisters talking about venues, they were mentioning places for the reception dinner—hotels like Shangri-La and Westin. My heart dropped. My parents are not wealthy, and they live in a little kampung in Kelantan. They have enough to take care of their day-to-day needs, but definitely not to contribute to a lavish wedding.
We were just starting out our careers, and I was earning around RM4,500 at that time. It was nowhere near enough for the type of wedding she was planning to have. After stressing about it, I knew I needed to talk to her if we wanted to build a life together.
Alhamdulillah, she was very understanding of where I was coming from, and after a long discussion, we agreed to scale down the wedding.
She told me her parents would be able to cover the wedding expenses, but I insisted that as a man, I couldn’t let her dad pay for everything. We agreed on a 50/50 split. Her parents and her would cover half, and I would cover the other half.
We decided to do an outdoor wedding in Janda Baik, at a locally owned venue with caterers that were suggested to us by some friends. We set a budget of RM45,000–RM50,000. This would mean my share was around RM25,000.
This sounded like a huge amount of money to me as my savings at that time were around RM2,000. We set the date of the wedding two years in advance so we would have enough time to save up. I love my wife and would do anything to make her happy. Luckily for me, she’s the most understanding person I have ever met.
Scrap Metal Found Me
I knew I had to get to work right away, and I started brainstorming ideas left, right, and center. I was open to doing anything and everything as I had a goal I wanted to achieve. At first, I started selling insurance, then I did e-hailing, and then I finally found scrap metal selling. Well, I guess it found me.
Around this time, I was decluttering my rented shared house, and the old tenants had left a bunch of old, broken bicycles. The tires were gone, the seat was missing, and it was dirty.
I thought to myself—what if I could sell it instead of just throwing it away, and add the money to my wedding fund?
When I brought it to the besi buruk, to my surprise, I got RM350 for one of the bikes. That’s when the lightbulb went on in my head. I thought, hey—this could be a great way to make extra income.
It took some trial and error to figure out where the best places were to sell besi buruk and what types of metals were given a good price. As it turns out, copper is bought at the highest rate at RM35/kg. Turns out I had a 10kg copper bike on my hands that first time, which is why I got such a good price. Other metals go for around RM6/kg to RM10/kg—it all really depends on the type of metal and the reseller.
My Plan in Action
When I knew the potential of this avenue, I set out to make a plan. I first had to find where I could collect all the scrap metals. I set up an Instagram account and started advertising there. I sent it to a few friends and posted it on some Facebook groups. At first it was slow, and I only had time to collect items on weekends.
I had a friend who owns a van, so I would borrow or rent it from time to time to collect the bigger items that couldn’t fit in my car. I also started collecting old electronics, used cooking oil, and plastic bottles.
Over time, I was earning around RM500–RM1,000 a month.
At first, I didn’t tell my wife as I was ashamed that this was the job I was doing to earn money. However, she became suspicious as I was busy every weekend. I finally came clean and told her what I’d been up to. Her reaction melted my heart—she said she was proud of me for finding different ways to make her dream come true, and that she loved me even more for it.
I feel really blessed to have my wife, and it made me want to work harder to be successful for her. In the first year, I earned around RM9,000, and in the second year, I managed to earn an additional RM10,000. Together with savings from my day job, I had saved up about RM30,000.
A Happy Ending
We even had money left over from the wedding, and I could take her on a nice honeymoon vacation to Langkawi. I feel very proud of myself for the hard work that paid off, and that I could contribute equally to our wedding, despite it being a source of stress in the beginning. I also got a promotion at my day job, which came with a salary increase.
As for the scrap metal business, it’s still going strong. I now have one employee who does the driving and collecting, which means we can even operate on weekdays.
I am averaging around RM2,000 profit each month as we have been doing well by partnering with local businesses.
It may not be much to earn RM2,000, but having it as a side income is really helpful, especially if there are any emergencies. As we plan to buy a house in a few years, this money could also go toward a down payment. I am glad that all my hard work paid off, my wife is happy, and I can face my in-laws with dignity!
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