Palengke Time

         Five Hundred Pesos -"hanggang kelan kaya aabot to". I always hear those words from my mother and I understand her sentiments. "Hirap kayang mag-budget sa bahay lalo puro barako kasama namin". So I told her, let's go to "palengke" and let's see what we can buy there with five hundred pesos.

        So we went in a not so near wet market place in Pag-asa (medyo malayo po sya pero kayang lakarin) around 7am. They say that the price of vegetables & fruits is cheaper there and since its lenten season we planned on buying vegetables, fish and fruits only. After more than one hour of walking and roaming around, we were able to buy these:
Tomato - 1kg = P 20, Sweet Potato (kamote) - 1kg = P 35

Chinese Kangkong (2tie)- P 10, Kamote tops (2tie)- P10, Spinach (2tie) - P10, Saluyot (1tie)- P5
Pechay - P 10, Baguio Pechay - P10, Siling haba - P 5.00
Onions -P14, Garlic P11, Banana - P 15, Sitaw-P5, Star apple -P10
Galunggong 1/2kg=P60, Bilong Bilong 1/2kg= P65
Fresh Daing na Bangus =P50, Tambakol (3slices) - P70
                           Heres the breakdown and total expenses we had at our palengke trip. We still had a change of P85.00 from our P500 budget.
          We were tired when we got home. We rest a little while and told my mother that I felt like I did some exercise and jogging routine in morning. We then prepared and cleaned everything before finally putting them inside the fridge.
         So there you have it, our five hundred peso spending challenge in "palengke" at may sukli pa. We now have our meal until Wednesday or Thursday, "o di ba pinaabot hanggang Wednesday to Thursday ang P500".


Till next time.
God Bless!

Fulfilling my Pledge, Clearing my Debts & my Long Term Goal Status

         
         This is my Goal Board where my pledge, goals and debts are posted located in front of my bed so I can easily focus & be well aware of my progress. I made four balance transfer last year because of the delayed salary I experience and now that I am already unemployed, this is one of my primary goal this year and hope to finish it before the year ends.
         Yesterday, we attended the Palm Sunday mass and after the mass I decided to pay the remaining 3 months pledge of the twin project - a church project I pledge - 100/month for one year. I've been wanting to finish my pledge before I ran out of money, good thing I was able to pay for it yesterday.
        I also set aside P 1,900+++ for my balance transfer bills in eastwest and unpin the list on my goal board. Just 2 more credit dues left (1 balance transfer & laptop installment).
        It felt good that I have cleared some of my debts and fulfill my pledge. I will now concentrate on my long term goals:

        1. BTTE graduate - check - just working for clearance.
        2. CSC prof passer - I'll take it before the year ends.
        3. BEAUTIFUL HOUSE - I'm working on it now - hahah.
        4. 1 MILLION PESOS - I'm almost halfway there.

     So there goes the status of my goal board. Till then. Have a great day ahead. God Bless.

Home Improvement - DIY Part 4

Day 5 (April 8, Saturday)
       I'm back with my painting works. I was able to buy latex paint and 1 kilo of patching compound last friday after my patching works.
         What I did last Saturday was apply the mixture of latex & patching compound on the leftmost side of our front house near the area where I did some cementing & patching works.
          As you can see, the surface of our wall is really rough and I tried to even it but still the result is not really good. It may not really look good but what is important to me is that there is an improvement as days go by.

         So there goes my hardwork. My spirit is willing but my flesh is weak - my body especially my hands are getting tired already but I will continue to work on improving the appearance of our house.

Till then!
Have a great day & God Bless!

Home Improvement - DIY Part 3

         Construction time once again. My mother and our neighbor kept on teasing me for the past few days "ang bagal naman ng trabahador ko" or "ang pangit naman ng gawa mo" or "lugi na ko sayo, ilang araw na yan ginagawa mo", "ipagawa mo na yan sa marunong". Am I offended?.. of course not, I love what I am doing and do not care whatever they say about my work. You see, one of the reason, why I kept on saying that its the most beautiful house in the world is that it was done with labor of love. Most often, the construction of our house is "bitin" because we do not have enough money to continue it or too often we hired someone who is not so expert in that field and it always resulted to a not so good appearance. Well, what do you expect, I am a minimum wager. It would be so unrealistic if I own a beautiful house.

Day 4 ( April 7, Friday)
        So much for the financial setbacks history of our house. I took some time off yesterday (last thursday) because I will be meeting a special friend in Moa and that's where I plan to buy another liter of latex paint. Sadly, it is not available there. So I decided to do other things the next day.

          I  A lot of imperfections can be seen inside and outside our house so  I decided to do some retouching and patching works. I bought 3 kilos of cement for this particular task and again the sand is free because my brother has it.
3 kilos of cement P9/kg --Total cost P 27.00
           
         There you have it, "my masterpiece", hahah. Now you know why they are teasing me with my construction work.
          

Have a great day!
God Bless.

Divisoria Trip

          We went to Divisoria last month to buy some token of appreciation for our students, critic and panel teachers for our final demo teaching. It was my first time to go there and I was really amazed with the price of the products and how easy to reach that place.
The items we first bought at Divi
       APRIL 1, SATURDAY
        I told my classmate that I am going back here and so I did. Last Saturday April 1, my mother & I went to Divisoria. Divi is just two rides away from our house ( I only knew it last march) - P9 tricycle fare to tenement and P15 fare (PNR) from FTI station to Tutuban Station and since mama is a senior citizen her fare costs only P12.
       I brought P1000 budget for that Divi trip so I wont exceed with the budget limit I set. I told my mother that my reason for going there is to buy plain white Tshirt for my uniform in TESDA but I actually want to explore the area and search for other streets that I was not able to reach during my first trip there.
       My first target was to buy a Tshirt and so my mother toured me to Ylaya St. and went back to Tabora and then proceeded to 168. From a canvass price of P130, down to P100 and then finally we saw P90/pc Tshirt. I bought 3pcs for P270 only.
Sandals - P 25.00 only
      While we were exploring around the area I saw a bulk of sandals & slippers with a price tag of  P25 only and so I picked one pair and glad I did because I really loved wearing it.

       My mother also saw this printed bedsheets for P100 and pillowcase for 5 for P100. She was able  to get 3pcs of pillowcase for the price of P50 only. I also bought these plastic leaves (sorry I have no picture of it)  for P100 as a decor and a condinents bottle for only P10/each.
        And since were a bit tired roaming around & our budget is a bit short already, we decided to have our lunch in Mang Inasal. I have an unli rice meal while mama took a solo piece chicken meal and then we share the one order of small halo halo for our dessert."
TOTAL EXPENSES
          It was my first shopping tour in divi (o di ba, bongga shopping tour pa ang term, hehe) and I want to get back right away but since I am already unemployed and my budget is a bit tight I will have to delay my plan of going back there.

  
Till my next trip in Divi!
Have a great day!

Home Improvement - DIY part 2

                                                   DAY 3 (April 5, Wednesday)

         Yesterday, while I was painting, one of our neighbor made a remark " Wow, ikaw na talaga ang nagpintura ha!...kunsabagay mahal na ang labor." I replied, "magkano na po ba ang bayad sa nagpi-finishing ngayon?...and he answered, "P700 na ang pinakamura at yung assistant or laborer P500, wala pa ang pang-meryenda at materyales dun." Grabe, malaki pa sa sahod ng minimum. I asked because my initial plan was to hire a laborer to apply finishing on the front side of our house only. Good thing I decided to do it on my own. You can just imagine the cost of labor and materials today. I'll just spend on the painting materials rather than hire a finisher & laborer to do it.

        Yesterday, I applied some base paint and since our house has a rough finishing texture, I wanted to smoothen it a little bit, "di po kasi maayos ang rough finish nung harapan namin, pahabol na trabaho kasi yun ." I bought 2 kilos of patching compound in a nearby hardware and another liter of flat latex paint in Ace hardware. I also bought another paint brush because I know I will be needing it later on.

Latex Paint and Paint Brush
mixture of patching compound & latex paint I used as "masilya"
result of my hardwork
         Here's the closer look of our house today. I'm not a pro, but I did my best here. I was able to apply the mixture on the two sides of the gate, top side is not included. I started around 6:30 am and finished by 12 pm.
 proof of my hardwork
Total expenses today
           I am not through with my home improvement project. I still need to buy another liter of latex paint tomorrow for some patching work and another quick dry enamel paint for the gate. I will be looking for other color and design that I will apply later on.


Have a great day guys!
God Bless!

Home Improvement - DIY part 1

         Now that I am unemployed, I will be posting more blogs than the usual. After the stressful week of our demo teaching and completion of the records of the students, I let myself rest for a while without thinking of my current situation of being unemployed. But I only let myself be that way for two weeks and now I am back to reality. Last Saturday, while I was breathing some fresh air outside our house, my eyes were pinned on the front view of our house, that's the time I decided why not make a little improvement on it.
 DAY 1 (April 3, Monday)
          This is our house and I always say that " it may not look beautiful but for me it is the most beautiful house in the world, "dugo't pawis ang puhunan namin nung ginawa yan." I know how expensive it is to build or improve a house and with my current financial situation today I know that its not possible. But since I really wanted improve the appearance of our house I decided to do it myself.


        So last saturday, we went to market market mall and I bought a flat latex paint as a primer and a paint brush. I looked for some of my old tool stuffs and found some roller & tray that can be use in applying the latex paint. I also found latex paint remains with approx 1 liter content while searching for other old stuffs beside our house. And because latex paint is water based I was able to use its remaining content.


        So that's the outcome of my labor, I started around 7am and finish at 1pm so it only took 6 hours to apply that primer latex finish. I only spent a total of P 129.75 for latex paint & paintbrush since I still have these leftover latex paint.

DAY 2 (April 4, Tuesday)
        I also patch the area near our water meter with a mixture of cement and sand and would you believe that it took me 3 hours to do that. "Nakakapagod pa lang mag-misla ng semento kahit konti lang." I spent P27 for 3 kilos of cement and sand is free since my brother still has some stock of sand left.
         Yes, I did that  but just the half area only, o di ba - pede na akong laborer sa construction kaso di ko mapantay, e :).
          I spent a total of P 156.75 for two days for materials and of course the labor is free. 
Breakdown of expenses for two days
       I still got lots of plans improving our house but for now I only want to paint the front area of our house and I'll do it one task at a time. Hope it will have a beautiful outcome.


Till then!
God Bless & Have a great day ahead!

Simple Dinner at Home



         I'm starting to get bored and tired these past few days. The feeling of being unproductive is starting to sink deeper in my thoughts, "ramdam ko na ang nakakapanibagong buhay ng walang trabaho." But still I want to rest for few months and spend quality time at home. I want to experience again the joy of living even if we have very little resources today. I've been telling my mother the advantage of having peace of mind by being contented with whatever we have at home and not the luxury of this modern day era. Malls are everywhere and I admit that we're one of those people who enjoys going there and eating out in fastfood chains becomes part of our weekly routine.

          Last week, after my orientation in TESDA, I went to "palengke" (wet market) and bought some veggies not thinking of what our dinner will be.
7pcs siling haba-P5, 17pcs onions-P10, 2pcs eggplant-P12, 8pcs tomatoes-P12

est. price per piece
          I spent a total of P39 ($0.78) on those veggies and while I was heading home, our neighbor gave me these indian mangoes, freshly picked in their mango trees.

         When I arrived at home, my mother thanked me for buying these veggies but with a slight comment of "gusto ko sanang pumunta ng mall at ayoko ng mag-isip ng uulamin na naman". So I told her that I am a bit tired and doesn't want to go out but I told her not to worry because I will prepare for our dinner that will look like dining in a restaurant.
#mybest effort in preparing dinner
          Yes that's our dinner last thursday. The total cost for that meal is only - P11.80 ($0.24) and that's for four of us - Mama, Dade, Kuya and Me, sobrang mura, di ba? Here's the breakdown for that meal:

          The pesang tilapia at the center is a leftover food from our lunch meal. Rice is not included in the computation since I do not know its price equivalent. Would you believe that the meal I prepared that night is a winner, "simot sarap, taob lahat, & no food wasted"  which for me is important in practicing frugality at home. As much as possible I do not want any leftover foods at night. I often see my Kuya placing some leftover foods in kanin baboy in the morning which I really hate, nakakapanghinayang di ba?

        Aside from the money saved, we really enjoyed that dinner together -"sarap kayang kumain ng nakakamay at nakapatong ang isang paa sa upuan." I told my mother "o di ba, di pede sa mall yan ha", hahah. :)

        Now that I am unemployed my goal at home is to bring back the simple and happy lifestyle that we had before. My reason is simple - Simple living means less expenses but more quality time with our loved ones.

        How about you? What are your ways to simplify your lifestyle?

Just sharing my experiences again!
God Bless and Have a great week ahead!