the extra challenge that is budgeting

i am inspired to write this because there were other misis who were curious on how our household was able to save when only one of us is working and yet we can afford little luxuries like traveling. according to them, it is so hard nowadays to budget their income and to see some money left for savings. the truth is, our household is not actually an exception. i am doing the envelopes system and logged our expenses diligently to track where our money is going but at the end of the day, i still get headaches over managing our budget. it doesn't help that the cost of grocery items we usually buy, the diesel, and the electricity keep on increasing that's why i have to cut corners in some of our expenses to afford them.

am not sure if these tricks would work for you but let me share them anyway...

1. we keep aside our savings first... then the expenses follow. had it been the other way around, it's definitely, surely zero savings for us. temptations are everywhere especially when you live in makati where restaurants surround you and malls are just a few kilometers away from the house. how do we do this? jude has two deductions from his monthly salary which goes to their company's cooperative and company's stocks. aside from this, we started to invest last year in a club share which is payable for three years thru post-dated checks. so definitely we have to allot for this.

2. we work on a budget most of the time, if not always. we always set a limit for our eat-outs, shopping, trips, parties, etc. i work on budget which is not only our household can afford but is also comfortable for us to spend (capacity is not the same as willingness). even for our monthly expenses I set a limit for our groceries and allowances. it's nice to have yogurt and expensive fruits everyday but that would mean more thousands of pesos to add in my budget. and oh... we also set limit on the financial support we give. this must be tough to some but we chose to limit it if we want to realize our financial goals for the family.

2. we go for the cheaper alternative if possible. it was three or four months ago when i started to observe that my monthly budget for food and groceries was already small. but instead of increasing its budget, which is not possible anyway since our disposable income is fixed until jude gets another raise, i downgraded to  cheaper brands for products like detergents, theo's diaper, cleaning products, etc... but that is, if quality isn't an issue.

there's also a wisdom in surf's lumen advertisement years ago... why buy oranges when you can get vitamin c from dalandan? and that's what we do now... :)

3. if applicable, we buy second-hand items. we realized the practicality of buying second-hand items for some of the things we want for ourselves. tour yourself around our house and you'll find some things which we bought as second-hands but still in good condition and at very affordable prices. the kids' slide, the narra chairs, and this desktop am using right now are just some of the few.

4. i raid sales and buy much as i can. i don't shop much at divisoria especially for our personal things... why? because the quality of most items there really suck. there may be good finds but i have to spend hours to scour the alleys--waste of time! what i do instead is raid warehouse sales of branded products during christmas season.  thanks to my network as am always updated. and as much as possible i hoard from these sales, usually for a year-long of use. this really saves as a lot of money since i seldom buy at regular prices.

5. we avoid unnecessary expenses. - other mommies were scrambling to have tickets for disney live but i did not not bother--i found its rates too expensive! and since my kids had already been to disneyland why would i bother to see them here in metro manila? i also cannot find the reason why i have to pay php 500 to run when i can jog or run in the park without touching my wallet. these things are really waste of money if you ask me.

and oh, by the way, i seldom check the groupon sites. if i want to purchase something at a promo price, i ask friends to alert me. such sites are full of temptations so avoid it if i must! hehehe.

6. we indulge, but there were trade-offs for this. our family loves to travel and we do this as long as budget and time permits. no, we don't feel guilty for doing this. because we do deprive ourselves too of some things we want like watching concerts or musical plays. cirque de soleil was here in manila last july and i was like, "oh, i need to watch them!" jude already gave me the approval to book a ticket for myself (plan was i will be just going out with a friend) but i backed out since it will still take php 3,000 from our savings and we just came from a trip.

we also teach the kids the same thing. we also let them splurge in some things they like but it's always that they must let go of another thing.

7. generosity doesn't have to be pricey for us - i cringe whenever people declare after christmas that they made their loved ones very happy with their gifts BUT rant about their outstanding balance in their credit card bill/s. this made me ask:. do we really have to put ourselves in a financial mess just to prove that we love our family and friends?

8. we try to be money-smart - hmm... how should i explain this? it's like when we have arrears in our dues but we're not in a rush to settle it since it doesn't earn any interest over time. so what we do instead is we use that money first for other things which can bring savings for us in the long run.

in a nutshell, it's analyzing first the pros and cons of spending, especially one which involves a big amount of money.

this ends my list of wise-spending tips. budgeting for me is all about setting priorities. we listed down what values to us most and it's where we bring our money.

hope i was able to help. :)

how financially healthy are we now?

the recent discussions in naw regarding investments and financial security made me remember the blog i did four years ago: http://8thoctoberweds.multiply.com/journal/item/18/how_financially_healthy_are_we

i left the items blank then but with hopes that i'll be able to fill them up within the next five years. now, after four years and another baby, our scorecard shows this...

	target amount		status
1. emergency fund equivalent to	Php 300k		achieved
six months' expenses
2. life insurance for us which is	Php 600k		achieved
equivalent to a year's expenses (exc. sss pension)
3. retirement fund for us which	Php 3 million		still saving via stocks
can sustain us until we're 70, or
probably 75 years old! =)
4. college fund for iñigo and future	Php 1M for each kid		still saving via pension plan and MF
sibling/s.
5. extra savings for other emergencies	Php 100k		replenishing since my father died
including grave sickness of other loved
ones
6. extra savings for travels and other	variable		achieved
leisures (or plans like business)

aside from those, we also have to invest again in a property since we already disposed our house and lot in laguna and will use the proceeds to pay as equity or downpayment. that means we have to allot again for monthly amortization of the balance. *headaches*

so can i say that we are financially healthier now? probably. jude and i are diligent when it comes to savings. we may have the moolah to buy the latest gadgets, upgrade our car... or buy myself a signature bag (but it's still my wish... lol!) but our future has to be secured first.  but what we cannot deprive ourselves are the annual family trips as we consider them as our reward.

but we still have to work and save more to achieve 'financial freedom'. jude has plans of retiring early but since past experience taught him to secure first the kids' education and our retirement, we have to work and save double-time so we can sustain our retirement. he also has plans of getting us a retirement house, in tagaytay or caliraya, laguna perhaps, so the more we have to invest now to achieve this.

these are just some of our dreams... let's see in my next update of this scorecard if they are already achieved... wish us luck again!

how financially healthy are we?

i was hoping that i could blog about iñigo and his fascination with the jollibee character and the jollibee parties we're attending every month.... yes, it's as often as my monthly period. hahaha! but i need to delay it a little more because am still waiting for the pix of iñigo during his kuya charles' 7th birthday last sunday, the last jollibee party we've attended so far.

so let me blog a more important concern, which jude and i are taking seriously since we found out that we're already pregnant with iñigo--only 5 weeks after we got married. so soon noh? we had no savings to speak of then aside from the cash gifts we received in our wedding. jude was still paying for the lot and the car loaned thru his company and what's left in his salary was enough to augment my not-so-big income. of course we were thrilled that our union is already blessed with a baby but i would be dishonest if i tell you that anxieties and fears were not part of that "mixed feelings" of parenthood. we had no idea of raising a child and the more of the costs attached to it. fortunately for us, almost all of my monthly check-ups, lab exams, prenatal vitamins, and ultrasound procedures were shouldered by jude's company. and when i delivered iñigo, it was also jude's company who paid for the bills in makati medical center. hence, we were able to save a little money in the bank since we were financially unscathed.

fast forward to october 2007...

we still have some money left in our bank accounts, invested in some mutual funds and bought some stocks shares... yes, everything is "some" because it's really not that significant so i cannot claim that we are already financially stable.

it also doesn't help that we are in the midst of financing the construction of our house and my soon-to-open business. the next resort for us is to loan again from jude's company. well, it's better to have the money from them because their lending rate is the lowest and the terms they offer are shorter than the banks or other financial institutions.

so how good are we now in terms of financial health?

we're on a passing grade i guess because am confident that our net worth is still positive. but let me share you our financial health scorecard which i created after reading some very good books on financial matters. i'm not going to fill it out yet as we have just entered our third year of marriage but i hope after ten years or sooner, everything is checked with "achieved". =D

	target amount	status
1. emergency fund equivalent to
six months' expenses
2. life insurance for us which is
equivalent to a year's expenses
3. retirement fund for us which
can sustain us until we're 70, or
probably 75 years old! =)
4. college fund for iñigo and future
sibling/s.
5. extra savings for other emergencies
including grave sickness of other loved
ones
6. extra savings for travels and other
leisures

say good luck to us! =D

on trade exhibit and clearance sale

weekend found us in market! market! and world trade center in pasay city to visit trade exhibits which we either read in the dailies or just heard over the fm radio. since we're into a gamut of projects and interests right now, our whole family (jude, me, iñigo and his yaya) braved the heavy traffic of slex last saturday to see if there can be anything useful for us from these exhibits.

nego-skwela trade exhibit

i am actually unsure of the title of the exhibit but because it was organized by nego-skwela livelihood and technology center, let me have the title that way na lang.  it was i who prodded jude for us to visit this since am into business now. nego-skwela is the private counterpart of TLRC and the organizer alone is enough to occupy me in that fair as i read in their brochure that they are conducting seminars and training for aspiring entrepreneurs. lucky for me that one of the training i would like to take is in their list! the rate of their seminars are reasonable enough at 1.3k-2k per module. give me a reply if you want their contact details, okay?

and since we were already in the market! market! the mall rat in me was once again itching up so i asked jude for us to take a stroll for a few minutes. i guess he really know me very well because that few minutes is actually an hour or so but still he gladly obliged. hehe.

we chanced upon toytown, which is at the 3rd level of the mall, and to my delight they were selling some fisher price toys at 75% off! i was able to buy iñigo a battery-operated toy at only php 300. of course, i made sure first that the SKU isn't part of the product recall. other toys like disney's were also on sale and guess what we did... we made some early christmas shopping already! we bought a lot of toys which we intend to give as gifts for our inaanaks and pamangkins.

oh, i was really happy!

but there's more that made me happy this past weekend...

sunday after lunch, jude drove us to world trade center to check the philhouse 2007 which gathered some of the country's house developers and constructors, interior designers, home furnishing companies, and even financing companies such as banks and pag-ibig.

and since we're in the process of having our own house built, we scoured the booths of participating companies to see the latest trends these days, which we can probably copy (oops...) or compare products and prices with those in home depots.

i was smitten by this booth which features country-style home furnishings. i even asked jude to take a picture (left of this page) of me and iñigo just to have a remembrance. sayang, the swing wasn't captured in this photo because it's really cute! =D

one of the first booths we visited was that of imarflex's. i've been longing to have a juice extractor for such a long time now and when i saw the imarflex electronic juice extractor i immediately bought it since aside from the brand reputation (tested it yesterday and i love it!), it was on sale at 15% off! and that's not all... i was given a membership card which entitles me for a 20% discount everytime i buy their products from the head office, which is in buendia, makati.

then we passed by the booth of hanbee trading (they are featured regularly at magandang umaga pilipinas) and to our delight, the modular kitchens on exhibit that day were selling at 50% off the original price! of course we bought one as we really think that's a good buy! actually jude just paid the 30% d/p and the balance is payable upon delivery which is on december. the modular kitchen has everything--gas range, stainless sink and drainer, cabinets with stainless racks, etc. good buy, isn't it?

we ended up last sunday evening really so tired but we weren't complaining because we know all the trips we made were all worth it. =D

 

 

 

life is hard: how do you cope?

jude and i had an extra time last night to map out our plans/projects in the pipeline, to do's and to have's, and the corresponding expenses for the rest of the year. i ended up with a heavy heart because of the latter as it will eat a chunk of our savings. unforeseen expenses also came along and adding it up with the gamut will really force us to withdraw part of our savings as our incomes and extra cash are not enough. this lead me to think: what if we didn't oblige ourselves before to save part of our earnings? it's gratifying to know that inspite of the increasing demands of our family (with the coming of iñigo) and increasing prices of the goods nowadays, jude and i managed to save.

life can be really hard these days and for a lot of people, us included, living is all about surviving. hence, we already taught ourselves to live within our means and forego things we cannot really afford or dispense at the moment. wittingly or unwittingly, we learned to be stringent in terms of spending.

- shopping means raiding the malls during mallwide sale/inventory sale only. this is the only time i splurge a little and buy the things and items my family and i would like to have. if the things we need or want can wait until there's an off-the-price promo, then we wait. the same practice goes for our travels. we schedule them as early as possible so we have more time to avail those discounted tickets being offered by some airline companies.

- we buy from divisoria or second-hand shops if possible. when i need new pots or towels for the house i schedule a visit to divisoria as i know i can have them at almost half the price compared to those at the mall. i also intend to buy the things i'll be needing for my store from mk kitchen equipment in reliance, mandaluyong. the stainless trays and bins there are way cheaper than the brand-new.

- we de-list activities that bring no value for us. i hate going to some places or on gimmicks, which are usually unplanned, where we went home as if nothing happened and it was actually better if we just stayed home. i would be more willing to spend 2k for a night of fun and bonding than having spent 500 but thrown in humdrum.

- we cut our subscription expenses at the minimum. we do not have cable for our tv and unlimited internet connection for our computer yet. there's no need as of now. all i think about these two is they will just add up to our monthly bills. we still enjoy life anyway without them.

- we don't buy or spend on credit. we are virtually debt-free since we only have less than 10k in our credit card bill and we can easily pay it off. what we do when we want something badly is we save up for it, and that should be over and above the savings we keep for the rainy days. of course, there's an itch sometimes to buy impulsively and you know very well that nagging voice that tells you "buy now or regret later". jude and i experienced this when we went malling in megamall last december and there's a yearend promo for a plasma tv/dvd/component set, all selling for only 60k! we were already planning to get it on an installment basis since our cash then was alloted to something else but thank goodness we dropped off the plan.

- we delineate the wants from the needs. the truth is there's a thousand and one ways for us to afford upgrading our computer and digital camera, getting a brand new car, or constructing a bigger and nicer house. but we opted to keep our life simple and our financial status in balance by being contented with what we have right now. fyi, jude's is using an old model of motorola for a celfone and even if he has the moolah to buy a newer one, he chose to put his money somewhere else.

we know some people who bask in luxuries and bought luxury cars, grand house, laptops, ipods, condo units, which are beyond their means actually, and now found themselves in deep shit. honestly, we were wowed by their extravagances and their capacity to afford it but still, we'd rather not be like them. these same people are working like dogs now just to keep up with the lifestyle they made.

jude said that if there's one thing we can do with our extra money is to invest in assets, assets as defined by the book of robert kiyosaki... and i must agree with him.

how about you... how do you cope? share it with us please as we may learn something from you.