I am a mom for nine years now and I can say that life is not easy. Going 7 years now that I decided to stay at home and be a full-time mother. I resigned from being an accounting staff which was our source of income. I only earned a minimum rate that can only provide for my daughter's needs, fare and some food to eat. We didn't have our own house, we stayed at our inlaws so I was grateful we're not obliged to pay for bills such as electricity, water, internet, and rent. But as time went by, I realized that it was not being practical. It was that we were not able to stand on our own. We should do something and keep doing our best to live the way we really want.
As I always said to my previous post, my husband decided to work abroad but only earned a minimum wage too. So to make the story short, I don't want to just stay at home and doing nothing, I want to help my husband. I started to look for something that I can have free items not for myself but for my kids. I joined giveaways and contest online - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Blogs. I, fortunately, won some that I can't imagine I was able to have. I called it being frugal. I did not spend money getting those items I won online. I also started blogging and found out that I can somehow make some money. Not that big but at least I can earn extra. So what I did, I saved that money I earned from blogging. Our expenses such as food to eat (grocery for my kids' supplies in school), fare for school service, tuition fee, government remittances ( SSS AND PAG-IBIG), and whenever we go out or we visited my parents - that's where my husband's remittances were spent.
I won a month's supply of diapers.
I am the kind of mom that I must think to "save" rather than "spend". I don't buy new clothes, shoes or whatever I want. What I always thought, I have to spend the money on what we really need. I considered my self lucky because I have sisters and inlaws that gave us presents especially my children. They gave us new clothes, shoes or food to eat. So I rather save money instead of buying everything that I already received from generous people around us, so that when the time comes like this Pandemic (Covid-19) or any emergency I have some money to keep us going. That's the power of budgeting and save a lot, we can go on with our lives even without the help of government or anyone during times of crisis.
I shared this because I want my co-mommies and daddies to be wise, let's start saving, budgeting, and be frugal when this pandemic ends. I really prayed a lot that the World comes back to normal. So that we can go back to usual, working, chatting with friends, reunion or gatherings, going to the beach, traveling and so on. If you have a lot of savings, yes you can do whatever you like but let us consider this "when you save money only in order to spend your money, you are not saving your way to success."
I found out that there's an online tool that can help us to calculate our savings and budgeting, their site Calculator.me is quite broad so there are many relevant opportunities. Calculator.me is all about saving, investing, and frugal living which will help you calculate interests in investments, loans, mortgage, and even tax and inflation. If you visit their site, you will learn a lot of topics more about finances.
In this photo, if you spend $5,150.00 on an unnecessary product or service, and you could otherwise invest that money for 10 years, then spending the $5,150.00 could cost you $1,139.18 in foregone interest earnings. This would bring the real price-tag of what you are spending your money on to $6,289.18. So the question you should ask yourself is: Is what I am spending my money on worth $6,289.18?
Saving money to buy an expensive item does not help you reach success. Once the expensive stereo, car, or fancy dress is bought, the money is gone. True saving is when you keep your money, become wealthier, increase your assets and net worth, and then become a financial success because of it.
Instead of buying your wants or unnecessary spending just to show off, why not invest it and see how much money you will gain in the long run.
In my part, I paid government remittances like Pag-big every month so that my money will gain the interest of 8% annually. The higher the amount, the higher the dividend that will be added to my savings every year.
In order to have money to save, don't just stick to one income as many people say. You may be working as a minimum wager, but if you have more time, you may start building your own small business. You can be an online seller if you don't have a physical store yet. Be a blogger or vlogger. There are so many things to do to be able to earn. You just have to be patient and have much effort.
Begin your plan to save correctly, to save more money, to maximize your savings, to change yourself from a "spender" to a "saver," to truly use saving to reach your financial success.
When the time comes you are financially stable, you can now start building your dream house, have a car and travel a lot.
