Frugal Living

Springpad is a free set of online notebooks that will help you organize, share and tackle life’s tasks and events. I have been using Springpad for weeks now after I have read about it in Life Hacker. Springpad is like having an entire drawer of lists and notebooks where one can keep an entire list of lists, check lists including calendars.

I am currently using their Menu Planner, Emergency Contacts, Weekly Chore Planner, Grade Tracker, Receipt Tracker and Project Budget. Everything is nifty and though it is still in beta, the site is fast loading and you can easily print out your lists for those who wants to keep track with their lists without going online.

So sign up now and try Springpad. One of the wonderful things about it is that…. yes, its free.

I have two debit cards. One from BDO and one from BPI. As a long time consumer, I was quick to recognize the advantage of debit cards as oppose to credit cards. The advantages simply outweighs the usual headaches that credit cards brings.

Here are some of the advantages of having debit cards.

• In terms of Money Managment and Control. Debit transactions are deducted directly from your savings or checking account and recorded in one monthly statement. This allows cardholders to easily track their spending. Meaning, if you do not have the money to spend, obviously the use of debit card would be out. In my case, I only allocate the fund for groceries for the month into my debit card. Nothing more, nothing less .
• When it comes to Security, debit cards are more secured than credit cards since the cardholder is required to input their PIN for transaction to go through.
• Debit cards can be used worldwide, ATMs and can be used over the phone and on the internet.
• Rewards wise, debit cards are beginning to give rewards. Discounts and other promos are usually given to cardholders. Like in BDO, both debit and credit cardholders are given discounts in various stores in SM. And in BPI have their own discount and promos. Just check out their site for ongoing promos.

Do you have any debit card related story? Email them to me : frugal.pinoy@gmail.com or make a comment below.

The year is about to end, and I am determined to have a better year next year financially. Having started new accounts that will serve as my piggy banks for several funds, I am more than ready to begin a more productive 2009.

Here are a few pointers in determining your financial goals:

Set your goals

Like me, I have set more specific goals this year. Like for example, my main bread and butter is coming from the lease of our home in big Manila. But the lease contract is expiring on the middle of this year, hence there is a need for me to prepare for a few months of no income. I have created accounts wherein I have little by little set aside money to cover for future expenses like:

Short term goals

1. rental money for the house we are leasing now in rural Mindanao (good for 7 months)

2. money to pay electricity bills (good for 7 months)

3. money to cover phone bills (good for 7 months)

4. money to cover groceries (good for 5 months)

Long term goals

1. Continue to contribute P5,000 per month for my children’s ITF funds.

2. Start saving for retirement

3. Start saving for a lot in rural Mindanao

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It is so obvious that businesses thrives on consumerism. Consumerism is the attitude that values the acquisition of material goods. I did our last minute shopping today. As expected, the traffic was horrible and hair-raising. Consumerism is so alive today. Makro was full of people with overflowing carts. Recession seem to be out of the window right now. Makes me rethink my post about deflation… or perhaps we are not feeling the effects yet. And us Filipinos has to rethink our idea of huge noche buenas especially when times are harder.

I felt sorry for our neighbor but at the same time thankful for her. She is currently busy planning a “huge” noche buena for the neighborhood. Yes, you heard me, the party is for the entire neighborhood. She said it is her way of saying thanks to her neighbors for patronizing her sari-sari store– the biggest in our small village.

But while I am thankful, I felt sorry for her, since the pressure of giving a huge party is getting to her physically and emotionally. Since groceries and food is far more expensive now than last year, the expectation of the neighborhood is high and she did not want to disappoint everybody since she felt sorry for most of our neighbors are on the class D and E– just too many unemployed people and people living below poverty line. I surmised perhaps all of us owe her something in one time or another.

Anyway, that’s her way of celebrating and my way is another way. Salve at Money Smarts is offering a challenge for a budget handaan. Is there really a budget handaan? Is this possible? Actually my children and I are not going to have a noche buena but I intend to celebrate Christmas tomorrow by giving an extra-special lunch. The menu is simple and straight forward. Like I said, Christmas is about the celebration of family and not about how much gifts we gave nor received. Let us just get back to the real root and meaning of Christmas. Only the big businesses are profiting over the idea of Christmas. I think it is time for us to rethink our values and what we deem as important.

I can be tough customer. My sister I am a very demanding costumer and I am not denying that. I do not like it when sales ladies follows and breathes down on my neck as I am looking around any stores. Sometimes before entering the store, I like telling the sales lady to quit following me around of I am off their store.

I have read enough stories from Consumerist that made me raving envious about how posting their rants at their site help dissatisfied customers. Consider this story about Sam who got a new MacBook Pro after the Apple Customer Care erased his hard drive without his permission when this guy brought his Mac in and Apple found some ladybugs inside his laptop. Sam seeked the help of Consumerist and got a replacement in order for him to “restore faith in the company.” Or about J. Money who blogs at Budgets are Sexy thought he did everything to get the photographer who skipped town without handing out his wedding photos. He threatened to sue, without avail and when he finally thought to create a blog about the wedding fiasco. He named names and even included dates, and viola! Two days and 300 hits after, the photos were all emailed to him and two weeks after that, the photos were in his hands. According to J., “so for a measly $9.99 (for the domain name) and a few hours of hard work, Operation Wedding Pictures was a success!“

At any rate, it does pay to blog about bad customer services– in the US, I am afraid. I have read enough bitching in the local blogs here but there really isn’t any clue if Customer Service in our country is topnotch or at least has improved.

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Since I have decided to skip gift giving this Christmas except for a more practical gifts to the children, I am shocked that even at the economic hoo-haas, SOME people are still giving away extravagant and obsence gifts according to the recent article by the Money Comparison Experts at Money.Co.UK,

Here goes the list: (if you are even interested anyway…)

1. The $1.6m Christmas tree: This 24 karat gold tree, encrusted with 240 jewels and weighing more than 21kg is on display in a jewellery shop in Japan.

2. Movida’s Christmas cocktail: The Movida Club, a favourite hangout for celebrities, footballers and the ‘born rich’, holds the record for the most expensively pointless Christmas Cocktail. The drink, which blends Cristal Rose champagne, Louis XII Cognac and edible gold leaf, costs $71,011 a shot and is ironically named Flawless.

3. The Krebs Glas Lauscha bauble: Not one for houses with children, this bauble is covered with intricately crafted gold and diamond detail, and it’s made of glass. At $31,000 each, they had better come wrapped in a bit more than tissue paper.

4. Ferrari go-cart: A must have for spoilt kids the world over, this faithful replica of the real thing will set doting parents back a mere $50,000

5. The his and hers chocolate portrait: No doubt designed with chocoholic art lovers with too much time on their hands, this photographic portrait rendered in chocolate goes for $110,000. At least the money goes to charity.

6. Diamond Barbie: ‘The world’s most expensive Barbie’ comes in a gown encrusted with 160 De Beers diamonds and costs $85,000. Presumably it’s not for kids, but who knows?

7. The M&S Christmas Hamper: Stuffed with the exclusive food and drink for all over the world, the Marks & Spencer hamper retailed for $1,500. It doesn’t seem to have hit the stores just yet this year…

8. Vertu mobile phone: If ‘gadget crime’ isn’t an issue, then the diamond encrusted Vertu mobile phone is just the job – that is if you have about $75,000 to spare.

9. Amour Amour Dog Collar: Not to leave out the least grasping member of the millionaire family, this diamond dog collar costs a cool $1.8m.

10. 3D Motion Simulator: The ultimate in big boys toys, this $300,000 simulator puts Nintendo and Sony in their place, allegedly.

Ofcourse all these gifts are nothing BUT frugal so, let’s heave a sigh of relief or envy perhaps and yes, move on…

After using Microsoft Money for perhaps 3 years, I have switched to Quicken after getting a Macbook years ago. Quicken is a nifty software from Intuit. It help me create my budget and at the same time, monitor my spending, and my various bank accounts including my debit cards.

From Quicken I can generate my monthly spending reports. I can also consolidate all my accounts in one report for ease in viewing. Not only that I can also make my own budget and generate reports accounting my budgets against actual spending.

One of the advantages of Quicken is that you can download your accounts directly to Quicken. I have tried this years ago, but found that there are technical difficulties with the process. I surmised there are system incompatibilities with our banking system with Quicken’s system. Due to this difficulty, I have to manually input bank transactions into my Quicken. This is the reason why I maintain a folder for my receipts, especially ATM receipts for easy reconciliation with my bank statements.

I bought my Quicken through Intuit years ago and it cost me little over $50, fortunately, you can now access Quicken Online for free. You can now manage your accounts online. Even more, you can link your credit card accounts in your Quicken account. To try out Quicken online, visit their site and sign up!

Just took this nice and funny frugality quiz from Blunt Money, and here is my result:

How Frugal Are You? Post your comments below.

How do you usually prepare for the celebration of any of your family members?

I know this is a hasty generalization, but most Pinoy tends to break the bank in order to celebrate their birthdays. But with this strained economic time, lavish birthday parties is simply out. So how does a frugal mom plan and celebrate their children’s birthdays?

Honestly, not counting my children, I do not celebrate my own birthday with food anymore. Since children are still enamored with birthdays and cakes, I plan and celebrate my children’s birthday to the tee and ofcourse, breaking the bank is not an option.

Plan ahead.

Like any event of the year, I allocate funds for birthday celebrations 3 or so months before it happens. Since my children are still young, their social circle is smaller and the number of guests are minimal. And since it is my children’s birthday, I do not control the invitation list. Meaning, the guest list only contains my children’s close friends. No extra acquaintances. This is your children’s birthday– not yours. You will save more this way because I promise, if you have your own set of friends and your husband’s set of friends in your children’s party, the number of mouths to feed will increase not to mention the booze. A children’s party should remain a children’s party.

Make a Realistic Spending Plan.

Create a menu and allocate for them, then base your future birthday plan on the menu.

Example: (DAUGHTER’s BDAY)- estimated guests- 20 children

Allocate Funds and Stick with It.

Since you have a spending budget for the birthdays, you can allocate funds for it 3 or so months prior. Since the budget is P2,670 or P3,000 for the food, you might want to allocate and save for P3,000 per birthday. In my case, I have 4 children, so I have to allocate for P12,000 a year for birthdays.

I have opened a savings account for celebrations like these. Since P12,000 is alot, I pledged and allocate P1,000 each month for the birthday funds. To make things easier also, I have automated my contributions, and I have authorized my bank to deduct P1,000 every 7th day of the month from my main account to the events fund. This makes everything hardly noticeable. You can make the same plan for Christmas noche buena celebration and other celebrations for the year. Darn, if I can do this, anyone can…

Do you have other spending and saving tips? Share them with me at frugal.pinoy@gmail.com

1

Bought LPG and compared to 3 months ago, the price has decreased 50 % from P860 to P480. At least this time the price did not cause me to go whacko.

2

My cellphone is hanging on to its seam. I went to the cellphone store and won against the urge to buy a cellphone– out of the budget. It seems that I needed to start saving one.

And I hope I get to save enough before it totally breaks.

Time to check the local ebay and Auction.ph.

Did you have any cellphone related story? How about times when you bought something which turned out useless and you ended up kicking yourself? Share them by making a comment here, or send me your thoughts to frugal.pinoy@gmail.com