Femme Power

Posts Tagged ‘savings’

It’s Christmas time but instead of Yuletide cheers, my childhood friend is grieving over the loss of his four-year old son. The poor child died from dengue, a potentially lethal complication transmitted by an Aedes mosquito. It’s very common in tropical countries like ours here in the Philippines.

If only the child was brought to the hospital much earlier, he could have had a better chance to survive.  However, rushing to the doctor means money and if you don’t have emergency savings, chances are that hospitals will deny you of immediate medication.  Sad but true.  It’s appalling but it’s happening here in the country. You can’t afford to get sick here if you don’t have savings accounts or a piggy bank to break open in times of emergency.  I cannot, in my wildest imagination, think of such a horrible thing to happen to my family - getting sick and having nothing to spend for proper medication.

Keeping a sound savings account for emergency expenses is sure to give a family peace of mind.   In our case, I most often prefer to put money in the bank rather than spend on things that are not very necessary (in fact, would only add up to the piles of clutters) at home.  I’d rather not have lots of home accessories if they’d only cost me a fortune.   I’d rather not have a wide flatscreen TV as long as we have emergency savings.   I don’t mind keeping my old Nokia cellphone either.  I’m happy having our basic necessities provided like decent food, comfortable dwelling, clothes, education, and some recreation.

I just realized, savings can save lives.   Nobody knows when you’re gonna need it.

Hi! Here’s one of the topics that I’ve been putting off for days due to blog hopping. These are not totally new, in fact these are no-brainers.   But the question is, how many of these so called no-brainer saving tips are we actually practicing to save us some hard-earned money?

Some may be applicable to you too so here’s to remind you of the basics.

Here’s how I saved about P3,000-P4,000 a month.

1.  Weekly monitoring of cash flow.  I initially did it daily but being a busy mom, I ran short of time  so I made it weekly by keeping all my receipts and keeping notes of other no-receipt transactions.

I made an excel format of the family income and expenses to see better how our money flows. Since I did a category listing, I was able to determine which expenses are the biggest we incur - house rental, groceries, transportation, recreation, dining out, home essentials, RTW, cellphone load, school supplies & fees, etc.

From here, I was able to point out which expenses can actually be slashed.

2.  Cutting down on load allowance.   I used to spend an average of P1,000/month on load but I was able to pull it down by 50% by maximizing my email and YM instead.  I’m always online anyway, so I opted to stay in touch with families and friends via the internet.  Monthly savings: P500.

3.  Walking in short distances.   I didn’t realize I could save much on transportation because I was seeing only P5-P10 per ride anyway.  Looks easily dispensable.  But I was surprised when I calculated the expenses in a month’s time.

When I’m off to the mall, to my daughter’s school, or to the wet market, I now refrain from riding a bike (P5-P10) or a tricycle (P7) whenever the weather is good.

Come to think of it, in 20 school days, my bike expenses amount to P200 and my trips to the mall cost another P140 back and forth in 10 days.

So now I only allot P20 for my kid’s transpo allowance.  After sending her to school on a bike, I walk back home and walk to school again to fetch her after classes.  My kid gets to ride all the time but mommy doesn’t.  It’s just a few meters away anyway. I could use a daily work out. Monthly savings: P340.

4.  Saving on power consumption.   We were able to trim down our electricity bill by about 40% by turning off of the fridge at night, weekly ironing of clothes, putting off unused lights, and refraining from using the electric stove and rice cooker.   But the things that we can’t limit use of are the TV and the PC.   We’re hooked on them.   Monthly savings:  P500.

5. Minimizing dining out. Dining out surprisingly takes about 10% of our total monthly budget.    So we decided to dine out only once a month instead of weekly.  Monthly savings: P2,500.

6. Doing away with canned goods and pre-packed grocery items.  The price of a can of meatloaf is about the same as to a quarter kilo of pork which can actually stretch farther when you cook it with veggies.   More mouths to feed and more nutrients to get.  Pre-packed items are really convenient and inviting but they’re actually costly.  A pack of veggies complete for Tinola, for example, costs P50 in SM but you can actually get it for less in wet markets.

Savings, however small, can take you by surprise when they accumulate.   Even P5 a day makes a difference over time.   No-brainer but you’ll see.