As a New Year's resolution, Epril and I are keeping pad and pen with us wherever we go, and whatever we spend we make note, down to the last centavo. At first I feared Epril would find the undertaking a bit tedious, but she seems to be really enjoying it. I used to do that when I was living in Manhattan... along with a list of what I ate. It's not a bad practice to engage in, especially when you are spending $500 per week and barely anything you buy costs more than a dollar... like we have here.
I took Tyson out for a walk today earlier than usual, as Epril and I had plans in the evening. The town's children were all getting out of school at the same time, and all ran screaming from Tyson as we walked down the street.
Now really. Look at this dog. This is the same doofy look he has when he walks down the street (when his nose isn't buried in some redolent roadside refuse). Who in their right mind would be scared of this face? Well: Filipinos. I give up.
In the evening, it was off to Michael and Marissa Turner's house to celebrate their son' Horace's second birthday party. We rode in a jeepney to Cagayan De Oro. From the highway, we rode back through the Turner's subdivision to their house on a traysikad... the 3-wheeled bicycle taxis. I've never ridden in one before. If you ever want to feel fat and lazy, no matter your size or condition, listen to some poor filipino guy wheezing while pedaling your ass up a hill to your friend's house. But, it was only when some folks walking along the side of the road pushed us along to get us the last 50 yards, that I swore never to plant my butt in another traysikad again.
Anyway, we had a nice visit with the Turners. I also met an interesting American fellow named Woody, who is in the business of mining and exporting minerals from The Philippines to China. Young guy too... set up the entire business himself, and is making a pretty penny. One of those fantastic jobs where you spend 2 hours per day on the phone setting up shipments, 30 minutes at the bank transferring funds, make $1,000, and then spend the rest of the day enjoying paradise. Jea-hell-ous.After the party, it was a taxi to Megarama, and then a jeepney back to Jasaan... 30 kilometers for $1 for two people. So a bit cramped, but cheap. And, it is right to our door too. We can take a taxi if we want, for $12, but it really isn't much faster and I've been in Asia long enough to not even notice the daily discomforts of something like uncomfortable bench seats anymore.
9 comments:
How old is Tyson?
He is 10 months old, give or take a week.
Jil
Your doing the right thing as far as the money situation goes. I would like to recommend to you the Quicken product. It takes a lot of time to set it up, enter your budget and actual expenses but when your done you can really see where all your money is going (graphs) and more importantly can help you plan for future savings. No one ever planned to fail...they failed to plan. I've been following you for years and quite frankly expected to read another story about what you spent your refund on. Glad to see it's going in a different direction this year. Good Luck
Anon,
Thanks for the encouraging words. Fiscal responsibility has always been like my diet: "It starts tomorrow." It has only been recently that my tomorrows have started looking grim enough to make them my todays. (Oooh... that's zen-like, isn't it?)
The refund this year is going to 2 things: To eliminate my debt (another New Year's Resolution: No more debt), and to open up a pizza place in the next city.
If there is money left over, I'm going to buy a couple of plane tickets to Stan's 60th birthday party in Thailand: I need to leave the country to reset my visa and get a balikbayan (1-year) visa and that seems like the best time to do it. Probably will have to save money for it instead though. We'll see.
My Wife keeps track of the money we spend. She's good at it. We spend less than 1200 peso a week on food. Yes we eat Philippino food almost exclusively. I will buy some mt dew or other soda once in a while and we travel to Butuan once a week or so and eat out while there which is nice But even including the food we eat in Butuan we still dont spend 1500 a week on food. It does help alot to keep track of where the money is going. Having a business of any kind helps the money come back in some too. I sell ice to fishermen and ice juice to mostly the neighborhood kids. That money pays for the electric bill and pays for the juice and celophane bags. Though we dont pay ourselves a wage for doing the filling of the bags etc... still causes traffic and word of mouth for when we open other business's .. like a internet cafe here in the next month or two.. whenever i can get some computers sent to me from a friend.
I find that we are spending about 500 pisos ($11) per day on non-bill/debt-related expenses... but that is 9 people... and a good portion of that is money that I spend on myself. ($1 for coffee and iced tea for the day, $1 for a big bottle of San Miguel beer at night, $2 for food.)
Gee I hope you get to visit Stan. I love his blog. I found it through yours. Did you see that the Pataya Days blog recently wrote about Stans blog. I didn't really know how to take it. P.D. can be snobby at times.
Speaking of Stans blog do you know whatever happened to Jeff the American that was living in the nice condo overlooking the water. He just wasn't there suddenly. No mention of why.
Jeff the American was employed as the manager of a factory in the Pattaya area. With the economic downturn, the company made the decision to lay a bunch of people off. Those people who were laid off took it as a personal insult, and threatened Jeff's life. He left the country shortly thereafter. I have not heard from or of him since.
Good to hear the comments from your blog friends, Jil. Lots of good advice. We used to have a little book to write where the money went. It's amazing when you write it down where it all goes.
Keep it up.
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