I SAVED P1,495.00 FOR MY EYEGLASSES

I am the kind of person who admittedly is perfectly careless when it comes to eyewear care. I have lost my count on the number of contact lenses lost and eyeglasses lost. Just this year – and take note, there are five more months before the year is over, I have changed my eyeglasses for six times already. Ironically, I don’t lose much of my shades. My husband has been complaining about the frequent change of my glasses and so, he suggested that I should not be buying expensive ones. Yesterday, I went to five different optical shops to look for the cheapest eyeglasses and the cheapest eyeglasses frame was P1,300.00 and the cost of the lens was P400.00. It was a good thing that I didn’t immediately buy for I found a cheaper eyeglasses frame in a local department store – those sold in local Chinese stores are even cheaper - which was exactly the same with one the frames sold for P1,600.00 in one of the optical shops. I bought the frame for only P105.00 – I saved 1,495.00 for that. Then, I went to my Optometrist friend who gave me a P100.00 discount for the frame. In other words, the total cost of my new eyeglasses was only P405.00. From now on, I will just buy an eyeglasses frame from a department store and have it lensed in the optical shops to save more.

Fresh cucumber Salad

This fresh cucumber salad is what I have eaten today for dinner. I wasn’t in the mood to eat and cook meat or fish because my husband isn’t home yet for he attending a conference for a week and I got lazy preparing food for me. I bought chicken and rice for my little girl late this afternoon so I didn’t bother to cook at all. I personally prepared this salad which is very simple to make yet healthy, delicious and inexpensive. I simply put together the sliced cucumber (take note, no need to peel it), tomato, mangoes and a little cooked ham to add taste. Then I sprinkled a little iodized salt and squeezed some lemon juice. That’s it! Yummy . . . .

My Pizza Bread

Here's what I usually do with my days old bread. I make it as a pizza bread. Simply spread some catsup or pasta sauce on the bread, here I used sliced bread, and garnish it with hotdog, cooked ham, egg, onions, bell peppers, pineapples or whatever is available inside the refrigerator. Then put some cheese for some added taste. Then heat it in an oven toaster or a microwave oven. Alas, your leftover bread will be given a new look and taste. Try it.

Eco-Friendly gown of the President

Today the President of the Republic of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, delivered her 8th State of Nation Address (SONA) at the Batasang Pambansa. I watched the SONA and am writing about the President not because I am much interested in what she said. It was her gown – reddish pink made of Philipppine indigenous materials , silk from Misamis Oriental and pineapple fibers from Aklan - which was designed by the famous fashion designer, JC Buendia, that caught my attention. For the past years, I have appreciated the gowns she wore but it’s her gown now that I like the most especially that it is an eco-friendly gown.

Money from Trash

I am very happy today for I made P15 out of this week’s trash. The money may not be even enough to buy a kilo of rice, but it doesn’t matter to me. What is important is that I made money from selling something which was supposed to be collected by the garbage collector. These were empty milk cans, Coke 1.5L plastic bottles, Jollibee disposable cups, broken clothes hangers, tins cans and some other plastics. Start collecting your trash and earn money from it. Save our mother earth too!

Entrecard and SezWho

Getting the much needed traffic to one’s site and getting some comments on each post are some of the most common problems faced by a newbie bloggers and/or blogosphere alien, like me. It is fortunate for me, though, that I became an Entrecard member that many good and helpful ideas of increasing site visit are posted by the other members. With recent partnership of Entrecard and SezWho, I am more confident now that more and more visitors, Entrecard member or not, will be dropping by my site each day. Check it out at http://www.entrecard.com

Eco-Friendly Wedding Centerpiece

The wedding month is over but some prefer to be wed after the wedding month itself. Like my friend, Tin, who is scheduled to be married on the 28th of this month, never liked the idea of becoming a June bride although his groom wanted her to be one. Instead, she chose the 28th of July, which day coincides their 3rd year since they started dating, as her wedding date. I became part of their wedding preparations as Tin asked my opinion, suggestion and help on what theme and motif suits them, how not to spend so much on decorations and other things which will help them cut their wedding expenses. The couple being advocates of environmental preservation just like me, agreed on an eco-friendly wedding or “green” wedding, as sometimes it is called. With global warming as one of the major problems the world is facing today and the couple being overly concerned at how they can help save our mother earth, they made sure that every detail and aspect of their wedding, from wedding invitations to the centerpieces of the reception tables, is centered on using organic or natural materials. They used handmade paper for their wedding invitations and put it in an envelop made out of pandan leaves and the giveaway to be given to each guest is a weaved wallet made of buri leaves. They commissioned me to make their wedding centerpiece as they have seen one of the eco-friendly wedding centerpieces that I made. A wedding centerpiece adds attraction to the usual decorations in a wedding reception. In many weddings that I have attended, I noticed that most of the centerpieces are costly and imported flowers which I think is just a splurge. Those flowers are usually thrown after the wedding which tantamount to throwing of money. Here’s how to make a very inexpensive mother earth saver wedding centerpiece: Materials Needed: Water Lily stalks or Kangkong stalks – 20 pcs. String or recycled wire A combination of flowers in the backyard or in season String Beans Red, Orange and Yellow Bell Pepper or Siling Labuyo Ferns (choose those that do not wilt easily) Pandan Leaves Twigs, small branches or vines Directions: 1. Cut the water lily pulps or kangkong stalks to at least 6” inches long 2. Bind together the water lily pulps to make a bundle which will serve as the base 3. Insert the twigs or vines to both ends of the bundled water lily 4. Insert the ferns or pandan leaves or any other long or wide leaves 5. Insert the flowers at the center 6. Put the string beans under the flowers 7. Put the bell peppers as an adornment and to give a contrasting color Congratulations in advance to Bryan and Tin!!!!!

CLEAN UP YOUR CLOSET & EARN

Sell baby clothes in Ebay. Baby clothes are usually used for a short period of time, sometimes they are even used once or twice. We also sometimes buy lots of baby stuffs that end up not being used. These stuffs should not be kept forever in your closet for it will be out-moded in time and it is better if you sell it before the rats and cockroaches will eat it. Have a garage sale. I admire what Tessa Prieto Valdez did to her gowns. She sold her gowns in her own garage and the proceeds of that garage sale were all donated to a foundation. You can also have your own garage sale even if you will not donate the proceeds to a charitable institution. Sell your used clothes to ukay-ukay vendors. Vendors of used clothing do sell locally branded clothes. You may also sell to them the clothes which you do not use anymore. You may buy new clothes out of your proceeds.

STORING UP STORIES OF MY STORES

Since I was younger, I have sold many different stuff to many people - from classmates, friends, officemates, neighbors, acquaintances to whoever I meet. Whatever I offered for sale were usually bought. I used to sell T-shirts, pants, shoes, bags, beauty products, canned goods, chocolates, bath and laundry soap, imported products and many more. Then in 1996, I asked my father to help me finance in putting up a small retail store for my mother who at that time had retired from the government service as public elementary school teacher. When my father agreed, a store was constructed in front of our house. I bought all the items to be sold and everytime I had an out-of-town travel, I made sure that I bring home something which the other stores in our community didn’t have. I deviated from the traditional retail stores by offering items which were not usually sold by a retail store. My mother used to get furious everytime I bring in items to our store which she thought were not saleable. Once, I brought with me a bundle of used clothing, a box of apples, picture frames, plastic wares, gift items, hair accessories, compact discs and firecrackers – I was so glad that the port security was not that strict compared now- when I came home from Cebu. When my mother saw those items, she told me that I will never be bought at all and she was afraid that I will just lose my capital. But to her surprise, I had a return of my investment in a matter of week and I had two hundred percent profit. From then on, my mother believed that I got his father’s business acumen. I became not too involved with the store operations in January 2002 when I got married and moved out of the house. My mother continued to manage the store until it closed down two years ago when my mother died. In May 2006, I opened up my own store by converting our other residential house located in a town next to the place where we live. It’s approximately 10 kilometers away from my home. Since the house is located inside a subdivision, my customers were confined to the residents of that subdivision. In December 2006, I put a plant and clay pot store with a P5000 capital. I operated it for only three months as the location of my store had very poor foot traffic and was not appropriate. When I reached the break-even in terms of return of capital, I immediately decide to close it before incurring in further loses. The experiences I got in managing small businesses are my best teachers in my dream of making bigger businesses.

Blessed with Meager Income

It’s not easy to save money nowadays especially that the prices of all commodities - from the most basic ones to that of something which we simply want – are all skyrocketing. With the meager income that my husband receives each month less the withholding tax, GSIS contribution, PAG-Ibig contribution, health Insurance, loans and even death aids, almost nothing is left for our family and with that money we still have to pay for the electricity, water, house amortization, telephone, cable TV, tuition and other school fees for our child, car loan and necessities of my child – milk, diaper, food, and vitamins , whatever is left will be go to our food budget for the whole month. It may be difficult for me to budget the money but still I’m thankful that there is still money to be budgeted. I have no reason to complain about having small money for I am more blessed than the others who can hardly eat three times a day.

My P500 Food Budget For Five Days

Some say that P500 is not enough for a day’s food budget. It may be true if the number of people in the family is more than a dozen but if you only have four or less number of household members, then your P500 will suffice your week’s food budget. Our household is composed of three grown-ups - me, my husband and our helper, and one child. We all love to eat but since all of us have medium body built, we don’t consume so much food every meal and so, we cook food just enough for one meal. Besides, my husband does not like to eat leftovers.

When in tight budget, I buy in the wet market because the prices there are cheaper compared to those in the supermarkets and I make sure that the food supply will last for at least five days. I once challenged myself with a P500 food budget which should last for five days. By the way, the budget for the rice is not included. Here’s what I bought: Galungong (1 kilo or 13 pcs.) 60.00 Hasa-hasa (1 kilo or 20 pcs)) 65.00 Pork 100.00 Ground Pork or Shanghai Mix 125.00 Mongoes (1/2 kl.) 15.00 Eggs (6 pcs.) 28.00 Sardines 10.00 Lumpia Wrapper (10 pcs.) 9.00 All-Purpose Flour 13.00 Dried Fish (4 pcs.) 10.00 Cooking Oil 30.00 Malunggay 3.00 Pinakbet 10.00 Kangkong (2 bundles @P5) 10.00 Sayote (2 pcs.) 14.00 Pechay 5.00 Camote Tops (1 bundle) 3.00 Total P500.00 Day 1 Breakfast – Sardines Scrambled in Eggs 1 sardines 2 eggs Lunch - Tinolang Isda w/ Camote Tops 1/3 kl. Hasa-hasa 1 bundle camote tops Dinner – Sinugbang Isda & Sauted kangkong 1/3 kl. Galunggong 1 bundle kangkong Day 2 Breakfast – Scrambled eggs 3 pcs. eggs Lunch - Isdang Paksiw & Kangkong 1/3 kl. Hasa-hasa 1 bundle kangkong Dinner – Fried Fish & Pinakbet 1/3 kl. galunggong Pinakbet Day 3 Breakfast – Mongo Burger & dried fish 1/3 part Mongo 3 tbsp. Flour 1 pc. Egg 2 pcs. Dried fish Lunch - Fish Fillet & sauted pechay 1/3 kl. galunggong 1 bundle pechay Dinner – Nilagang Baboy w/malunggay Half of the Pork 1 bundle malunggay Day 4 Breakfast - Dried Fish & Fried Fish 1/3 kl. Hasa-hasa 2 pcs. Dried fish Lunch – Burger Patties & Mongo Vegetable One-third of the shanghai mix ¼ kl. mongo 3 tbsp. all-purpose flour Dinner - Meat Balls & Stir Fried Sayote One-third of the shanghai mix 3 tbsp. all-purpose flour 1 pc. sayote Day 5 Breakfast – Lumpiang Shanghai 10 pcs. Lumpia wrapper One-third of the shanghai mix Lunch – Pork Adobo & Sayote 1/3 part pork 1 pc. sayote Dinner – Mongo with pork 1/3 part mongo 1/3 part pork TIPS: Make sure that the fish and port will be stored in the freezer after cleaned washed. For easier budgeting, divide the galunggong, hasa-hasa, pork and shanghai mix into three parts each and put each part in separate cellophanes. To maintain the freshness of your leafy vegetables, do not refrigerate it, instead, simply put it in a container filled with water. Leafy vegetables should be cooked first before the other types of vegetables.

Wordpress vs. Smorty

My first blogging site with Wordpress earned $30 from Smorty – a paid blogging site which pays $6 for every approved article. Smorty gave me five projects which were all approved and that’s how I earned $30 in just three weeks. Earning with Smorty was however short lived for that Wordpress account was deleted. Before it was deleted or suspended though, I posted articles about how I earned money through paid blogging with Mylot - another paid blogging site- and put several links from Mylot to Wordpress. With this links, my site visitors increased and when I checked where did they come from or where they were linked, I found out that most of them come from mylot. Then after a while, the administrator of Wordpress warned me to first remove the link in one of my articles to a paid blogging site, I know he was referring to my Smorty article. So I removed the link and bought even a domain name from using the money which I earned from Smorty. After that I asked the administrator to take away the warning for I have removed the link anyway. But instead, he demanded me to delete the article itself. But since it is prohibited under the Smorty rules to delete any approved articles after being paid, I did not delete my Smorty article. It was then that my Wordpress account was deleted. Had I known that my account would be deleted, I would have not wasted my money buying a domain name with Wordpress. I should have made a thorough research before I decided to buy that domain name. Anyway, it’s one of the treasured lessons I learned in this whole blogging stuffs. The experience may be depressing but that will never stop me from blogging.

Wrong Money Management

I have a friend whose husband is a seaman who is indebted to almost all the persons close to her and the bad thing about her is she doesn’t care to pay even if she often bumps the person or persons she is indebted to. When her husband came home in July last year, he found out that she had not paid some debts which he thought had all been paid when he received demand letters. It made him very furious that he was triggered to send her out of their house. When this friend of mine was temporarily kicked out of their house, she sought comfort in me and it was then that she confessed how she managed their finances. I bluntly told her that without a doubt, she was to be blamed for all their financial trouble. Compared to how much I receive each month, her net monthly allotment from her husband which is in dollars is much more than what I receive in pesos from my husband. Yet she is indebted to many – including to me! She asked me to help her budget her money but before I agreed to do so, I first asked her what and how much are her monthly bills. Again, I compared it with how much I pay and I found out that I am shelling out twice as hers. Then I asked her, “what do you do with your money?” and she replied, “I don’t know”. After our day-long conversation, I came up with a conclusion and frankly told her that she has some financial management problem. Here are the reasons why: 1. She spends money before she receives her allotment. 2. She goes shopping first before paying her monthly bills. 3. She spends so much on pampering herself, that is, she pays weekly for her manicure and pedicure, monthly haircut and regular hair rebonding. 4. She doesn’t cook, she buys ready-to-eat foods and often dine out in fastfoods. 5. She is an impulsive buyer and a great spender on clothing for her and her two children. After that conversation, she promised to change her buying and spending habits. After a week, she came again to me and this time to borrow money. I did lend her money but I made her sign a promissory note thinking that it was the start of her thriftiness. Unfortunately, I learned from my other friends, after a couple of weeks, that she did borrow money from them again. Three months after she borrowed money from me, I demanded payment from her. At first she refused to pay but after telling her that I will collect the money through court, she finally paid. People whose spending habits resembles with that of my friend will really be forever debt-trapped.