Bitter Sweet Life

A collection of my life (mis) adventures on being a wife, mom, daughter, friend, and anything in between.

9 Tips On Saving Your Money

It's been half a month now after we welcomed 2015. Most of the people tend to put on their new year resolution the goal of saving money. It always a cycle yearly - save money, invest, live within our means, etc. But honestly, how many of us turned this goal into reality? Anyway, below is the list of simple tips on how to save some money.


1. Record your expenses. So grab a notebook and jot down all your day-to-day expenses since the first step in saving money is to know how much you are spending.

2. Plan on saving money. Actually, our savings should be deducted first once we got your salary. It's like paying our self first. Standard formula for us to save is Income - Savings = Expenses not the other way around which is Income - Expenses = Saving.

3. Set savings goals. Be sure to know, why you are saving. Is it for your child education, retirement or anything? This would really help you achieve your goal.

4. Make a budget and do stick with it. Do create budget for your grocery, your daily work expense, etc.

5. Decide on your priorities.

6. Live within your means. Always!

7. Make saving money easier with automatic transfers.  This can be tied - up into your payroll account so you'll have an automatic and force savings. - Wasn't able to do it since the company's bank branch is from ParaƱaque while our office location is here in Taguig.

8. Different savings and investment strategies  for different goals. Do create different account for your saving purposes. I actually have an ATM account for emergency needs, then another bank account for short term saving goal & and I have a VUL - a mutual fund and life insurance at the same time for long term saving goals. I am also planning to venture into Mutual Funds and other investment products. I hope budget will allow me. =)

9. Last, watch your savings grow.



Also, be sure to have discipline and continue doing the tips above so your savings will double up. Hope this might help you! How about you, what saving tips you can share to us?

On Being Lucky!

My friends often told me that I am very lucky on raffle and even giveaway since the day that I received the iPad mini from last year company's Christmas party raffle. To tell you a short description of mine, I love joining blog giveaways/raffles and luckily, I won some of the blog giveaways that I participated in.

Here's the picture of awesome things I receive this year:

collection of giveaways/raffle items that I receive




I am very thankful for this year because of these awesome things I received unexpectedly. Also, thankful for the bloggers who hosted those giveaways. This actually help me save some money. I hope God will not get tired of giving me some of these favors.
Don't think of the things you didn't get after praying. Think of the countless blessing God gave you without asking.
How about you guys? Have you receive any items that you haven't shed any amount?

January: On Being Healthy

If you're actually gonna ask me how was our January. It is actually a rough road. The whole entire family got sick - I was included on the list. Maybe, it was because of the humid & cold weather. So cold that almost all the Filipino got flu and colds. Anyway, My baby boy was the one who got sick the most . He's fever was on & off plus the cough, colds & diarrhea. We already went to his Pedia but unfortunately looks like he doesn't get well. Last January 15 (during papal visit), we rushed to the nearby hospital because he has a high fever with lots of red spots on his skin. We actually thought that it might be dengue since the symptoms are relative to it. But after the health specialist examined his blood and stool, thank God that it wasn't caused by dengue nor his diarrhea wasn't caused by amoebiasis. So how was that incident related to money? Do you know the saying that "Health is wealth" right? It's very very true! Health really ensembles our wealth. If you're super duper rich yet your health suffer, for sure your money will be gone to soon. Yet when you are happy and healthy, you could acquire much more wealth and spend it on the things you've ever wanted. Anyway, that incident actually cause us almost 5k - prescribed milk & medicines only. It's one big "uh" to our family budget - you already know the reason why. So what measure do we do to prevent this things to happen again? Below is the list of things of staying healthy and happy:
  1. Always making sure that the 2 kiddos drink their vitamins including us, adults.
  2. Eat healthy food always. We almost eat vegetables, fish and fruits everyday.
  3. Lots of lots of water to drink since it helps us to wash away the toxin in our body.
  4. Have an enough sleep - so we are making sure that they get 8 - 10 hours a day of sleep plus a nap time in the afternoon.
  5. Make them play outside. This will serve their exercise.
It is really hard when someone in the family is sick. So let's should be wary of the things we do to our body. As the saying says, "Health is wealth". I hope this February will be very good to us.So how about you guys, what have you experienced last month?

I'm frustated with PLDT!!

Last March 01, 2014, I applied for a pldt homebro since I want to have internet connection at home again. After they created an account and approved my application. The agent went at our home last Thursday (March 06, 2014) to install the device. I was at the office by then. My mom and my father assisted them at home. Yet after several tries, still they don't install it since they found out that we don't have signal at our area. My mom was advised by the agent to get a refund at the center where I issued the payment. So I went to the smart center where I paid the installation fee last night. One of the agents there told me that I should go to any PLDT branch instead since they were forwarding every homebro application, details and money to PLDT. 

This afternoon, I went to the PLDT branch which is near to our office together with my officemate. After the representative tried to search for my account. He asked his fellow pldt representative then got back to me and told me that they don't cater to that kind of issue. They only cater exclusive pldt concerns and I should go to the PLDT/Smart center at the Makati instead. 


I'm frustated with the information they told me.  I told them that it was advised to me to go to any pldt branch, so I guess that branch was included on the list. Yet, they repeated the reason they said to me earlier. Actually, I don't like how they responded to me with a high pitched voice (sounds iritable  at mataray ba!?!! Nakakainis!). So there how my day goes, I went out on that branch being annoyed.

After the fail attempt to that branch, I called pldt customer service hotline. There, the representative ask for an apology for what happened. He told me that he doesn't know why it is like that. Anyway, good thing he give me another pldt branch option and created a report for my concern. 


So there, will try my luck on other PLDT branch next week. I hope they stop beating around the bush and point me exactly where should I get assistance.