Frugal Living: What Habits Help You Save Money?

**jut703** · January 11th, 2018 09:42 AM

Originally Posted by shadow

Hinde ba mahirap ganyan? Kada galaw mo kailangan compute?

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Been doing it since I was in college. Malaking tulong din siya to manage my meager income and get the most out of it.

Sanayan lang siguro, ngayon mas uneasy ako pag hindi fully accounted finances ko.

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**DenNix** · January 11th, 2018 09:52 AM

Another tip:

On good times/beer times/small celebrations/inuman, consider a house party instead of going to bars and resto. You could save a lot by doing so, with ofcourse a little sacrifice on the prep and post-cleaning task, but it's all worth it.

Me and my friends do it occasionally or more often than going to bar, we set up a date, invite all for a catch-up at my place. I cook some dishes for food trip and pulutan, grill some liempo and tuna over, and my friends usually bring over some drinks and chips too. So there, all the fun and booze for way less compared to bars and resto. But yeah, the prep and clean up are another challenge though.

**CVT** · January 11th, 2018 10:12 AM

Originally Posted by jut703

Been doing it since I was in college. Malaking tulong din siya to manage my meager income and get the most out of it.

Sanayan lang siguro, ngayon mas uneasy ako pag hindi fully accounted finances ko.

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Happy for you to be doing that early in life bro.,- financial acumen. Nothing beats that.

For me, I withdraw a predetermined amount of cash start of the month.

And then, the rest,- I charge on my credit card.

And then I make a summary of the expenses [cash flow] every "end of the month/period" in an excel file,- which links to the overall tracking of my/our financial status.

There will be adjustments, yes, based on actual and what were computed, but very minimal.

**jut703** · January 11th, 2018 10:35 AM

Originally Posted by CVT

Happy for you to be doing that early in life bro.,- financial acumen. Nothing beats that.

For me, I withdraw a predetermined amount of cash start of the month.

And then, the rest,- I charge on my credit card.

And then I make a summary of the expenses [cash flow] every "end of the month/period" in an excel file,- which links to the overall tracking of my/our financial status.

There will be adjustments, yes, based on actual and what were computed, but very minimal.

Thanks bro! It's reassuring to know that even for people of your stature, proper budgeting is still a deeply held value.

For 2017, I'm happy to have been able to stay below spending target for day to day expenses. All the one-off expenses were covered by my bonuses. So net, even if I didn't have a significant change in income over the past year, total savings more than doubled.

I expect 2018 and 2019 to have much higher expenditures with a lot of big life milestones coming up, but it's good to have saved for the rainy days.

Objective for this year is to have less one-off expenses and still maintain the low level of day to day spending, in order to minimize the hit on my savings. The key to achieve this is to just really live way below your means and find contentment with less.

Kumbaga sa kotse, less weight kaysa more horsepower to get good performance. The Miata Mantra. [emoji16]

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**AllenR** · January 11th, 2018 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by jut703

find contentment with less.

This is quite a nugget of wisdom, thank you.

**shadow** · January 11th, 2018 10:58 AM

Originally Posted by jut703

Been doing it since I was in college. Malaking tulong din siya to manage my meager income and get the most out of it.

Sanayan lang siguro, ngayon mas uneasy ako pag hindi fully accounted finances ko.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

What I mean is lahat talaga as in ng lumabas na pera kasama sa computation?

Kasi ako ang talagang compute ko lang is yun big expenses lang like kung meron bili sasakyan or out of the country trips I know na malaki magagastos and always yun alloys budget is kulang and end of year Lang ako total if net positive pa rin then tuloy ang ligaya.

Monthly expenses we don't compute that anymore nagiiba-iba naman eh so we don't allot budget for that.

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**therightone** · January 11th, 2018 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by shadow

What I mean is lahat talaga as in ng lumabas na pera kasama sa computation?

Kasi ako ang talagang compute ko lang is yun big expenses lang and end of year Lang ako total if net positive pa rin then tuloy ang ligaya.

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What we do to keep track of expenses (without manually recording everything) is to charge everything sa credit card (we have one dedicated card with a relatively low CL just for daily expenses or essentials like groceries, fuel, bills etc.).

Except for the odd chance na kailangan ng cash like parking, or napabili ng kung ano sa tabi... it works great for keeping track of most expenses.

Also the low CL helps us monitor expenses din, pag malapit na sa CL then hinay hinay na kasi may overlimit fee.

**jut703** · January 11th, 2018 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by shadow

What I mean is lahat talaga as in ng lumabas na pera kasama sa computation?

Kasi ako ang talagang compute ko lang is yun big expenses lang and end of year Lang ako total if net positive pa rin then tuloy ang ligaya.

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Yung sakin ganun. There's a concept I follow which is breaking things down into bite-sized pieces - I track expenses daily, then every 2 weeks I have a checkpoint to see if I'm overspending or not.

Pag sumobra gastos ng January, cut back konti ng Feb. And then tingnan kung saan sumosobra gastos - sa gimik ba, damit, etc. And then adjust accordingly.

All in all it takes about 1-2 hours a month to recon everything, pati na yung few seconds a day of tracking expenses. If you're not too keen on specifics, mukha siyang matrabaho. But since I'm fond of drilling into details, fun siya for me.

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**Archerfish** · January 11th, 2018 11:22 AM

Originally Posted by jut703

It's the best 129 pesos I've spent. [emoji106]

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It says that premium is 249. May I know where did you get that 129? Thank you.

**CVT** · January 11th, 2018 11:25 AM

Originally Posted by shadow

What I mean is lahat talaga as in ng lumabas na pera kasama sa computation?

Kasi ako ang talagang compute ko lang is yun big expenses lang like kung meron bili sasakyan or out of the country trips I know na malaki magagastos and always yun alloys budget is kulang and end of year Lang ako total if net positive pa rin then tuloy ang ligaya.

Monthly expenses we don't compute that anymore nagiiba-iba naman eh so we don't allot budget for that.

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Bro.,- remember that we are salaried individuals,- we sell our talents for money,- and this merry-go-round will grind to a halt at a certain point in our lives.... [And that is why I have profound respect for those who spin the money to make (more) money]

And so, Day1 - we need to live on a budget.....