What is this blog about?

A BIG hello from The Little Girl! This blog is about my tips on saving money. I'm one of the stingiest persons I've ever known. So if you feel that your piggy bank doesn't seem to stop losing weight, you're in the right place!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Separate Your Savings from the Rest of Your Money



You would see this advice from a lot of money saving articles. That is because it is very effective. Do not underestimate the power of setting aside your money. I used to put all my money in one bank account and would withdraw from it once I needed to buy something. I thought having all my money in one place would make it easier for me to monitor them.

Lately, my family decided to save money to buy our own house (we’ve been renting a condo unit since forever). We can afford a lot of houses but my parents want to provide the best home possible for their two daughters. They want it to be not too far from our workplace. They want us to live in a nice neighbourhood where crime rates are low (or non-existent if possible). But such homes are in the higher end neighbourhoods where affluent families live. We came up with a plan – to set aside our savings and deposit them in a different bank account. The rule is once we’ve deposited our money in that account, we can no longer withdraw them, so we have to make sure that whatever we deposit in there is the “excess” money that we have.

Weeks passed and I am so happy to see our money pile up. By having a different bank account for our savings, we can clearly see how much we already have and how much longer we have to wait before we can afford our dream home. We all feel more motivated to work hard and to save.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Stop Buying Bottled Water


Photo by stevendepolo on Flickr.com

In the Philippines, tap water is not safe for drinking. There are some people who might not get sick after drinking tap water; nevertheless, it is still advisable to drink distilled or boiled water, or better yet, to boil distilled water to remove dangerous contaminants from the water.

My family doesn’t boil drinking water except in the morning for my parents’ coffee or my sister and myself’s hot chocolate. At work, we used to regularly buy distilled water for everyone. We consume up to 25 gallons a month, which cost Php350 (approximately $8). In some months (especially during the hot summer months), we consume much more.

To save a bit of money, we decided to buy a water purifier, the type that is installed directly to the faucet.  The unit was expensive (more than Php1000 or $23), but we could save in the long run. Before this, we had been paying Php350 a month just for the distilled water plus another Php300 for the water bill, a total of Php650. Now, we’re only paying Php350 a month (sometimes, Php500). We are able to save Php150 to Php300 a month. I was happy with the results.

Stop buying bottled water (Read the effects of bottled wateron the environment). Doing so would not only save the earth. It would also save us some money.

save the earth





Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Unsuccessful Saving


Source: Robert Bejil Photography on Flickr.com

It’s forty-six days before Christmas. My family has started to buy gifts for our clients. Every Christmas, we’ve always bought brandy for our clients. This year, apart from brandies, we decided to buy cocktail juice for our female (or non-drinking) clients. We have already bought boxes of brandies last month. I accompanied my mom this afternoon to buy cocktail juice. I’ve heard that it costs only Php143 in Mandarin Supermarket (Ongpin) compared to S&R and Landmark (Trinoma), which cost Php154 and Php157, respectively.