The thought started while I was on my way home (and had nothing to do since we started to ride our motorcycle again).  The thought that popped was about the value of money.  I realized that it is not true that you’ll know the value of money once you start earning money.  The time you’ll REALLY know the value of money is when you start earning for somebody else.  I remember, I didn’t treat money like the way I’m treating it now when I was still single (as in civil status).  I save (because I love saving money).  It is nice that you can have extra when there is a sudden gastos on your way.  And I thank my parents for teaching me how to save and inculcating the importance of saving money.

Then I realized, responsible parents do not say “I’ll spend now because when my kid starts to go to school, I cannot buy all the things that I want”.  Rather, responsible parents say “I know this is just a luxury and I know saving for my kid’s future is more important than this”.  It is sad, though, that there are parents who put their interests first (directly or indirectly) rather than their kids’.

Being a mother for 1 year and 8 months and responsible for budgeting our monthly income for more than two years now, I realized some tips on how to properly budget our money.  I am not an expert but I think my system is (so far) effective.

We are not earning that much every month, our salaries can only suffice for our month-long survival.  So what I do, I made a default budget every payday.  I have my notebook solely for budget (and I’ll freak out pag nawala yun).  For big expenditures, I make hulugan for them like 500 for this payday, 500 next, until we complete the whole amount.  So it is important for me to know the big gastos ahead of time.  I am sort of an OC when it comes to planning; as much as possible, I want everything to go with the plan.  Same thing for the gastos.  So whenever Dann will have a deduction because he didn’t review his timesheet before the deadline, syempre nagagalit ako.

I remember, Dann wanted to have another child.  I told him it’s not possible yet (or in the near future).  When we were talking about our bonuses, I told him, all of them are budgeted for baby’s tuition fee.  Then he said, “siguro ok muna na si baby muna anak natin.”  I told him, “yun nga sabi ko diba, ngayon mo lang narealize?” hehe

I also remember one time, when I asked Dann to get money from the envelope, he didn’t read the labels (I label the money kung para saan sila).  Nainis ako nung sinabi niyang basta kinuha lang niya.  So I looked inside the envelope to see where he got the money.  Then I never asked him to get money from that envelope again.  That’s how OC I am when it comes to money.  He said, “pare parehas lang namang pera yan”.  I answered, “kaya nga may labels eh para maayos”.

That’s how I budget.  We are now starting to save for Ria’s tuition fee for nursery.  Good luck naman sa mga susunod.

My system is the reason why taas-kilay ako sa mga taong chaka nalang iisipin yung gastos pag anjan niya (especially sa schooling ng anak).  For me, that’s irresponsible.  You can say you are responsible if you know you don’t have to save (or you have a lot of extra money) for your child.