How I save on transportation costs?
With the price of oil shooting up, it has directly affected prices of our local fuel as well as prices of our public transport. I now bring my car two times a week to the office versus the usual five times a week. During the three days I do not bring my car, I just take public transport. To get to the office, I usually take two rides: (1) a tricycle from our house to the terminal of the shuttle service and (2) a shuttle service from terminal to a few blocks away from the office. Here are some ways I save on time or money, to reduce my transportation costs:
Car pooling. Whenever possible, my officemates and I schedule among ourselves who will bring a car and be the driver for that day. Things to consider when carpooling are the location and the schedule of the participants. Since we live about a kilometer of one another, we just set the place and the time for us to meet prior to proceeding to the office. Also, we have to be flexible with the office hours of each other. If for instance I am assigned today to bring the car and I have a meeting way past dinner time, I will just inform them that I may not bring my car today or if I will, they can only join me in the morning drive.
Walking to another terminal. When going to the office, the two rides I mentioned are fixed. But going home, I have several options. One option is to consider different shuttle service terminals. I usually walk to the farther terminal, which is about a kilometer farther from the first terminal. But the turnover of shuttle services in the farther terminal is faster hence my waiting time is cut dramatically and I can have some physical activity as well.
Walking to another train station. Another option I take when going home is to ride the mass transit system. But my office is near the busiest station of the system. Thus it is always a long line just to enter that station. What I do usually when taking the mass transit system is to walk one station back, a station that is five times less busy than the one nearer me. Then I get to enter the system first as there is usually no line in this station.
Saving money on your apartment
Renting an apartment can be a positive proposition for some who live in faraway places. It generally cuts back traveling time and at the same time offer a lot of conveniences for renters. For some, renting is a better option to owning a home that can easily drain one’s resources with mortgages, real estate taxes, registration fees, and maintenance fees among others.
Here are some tips on how you can further save when living in an apartment:
1. Lease an apartment appropriate for your needs. You can base it on the size of your family or on the set of activities you intend to do while renting the place. Rationalize if you have a small family, or if the apartment would basically just be a sleeping quarters.
2. Check whether your prospect apartments are near your usual destinations and are within walking distances. In addition, consider apartments near transport terminals that will make commuting pleasant.
3. Contemplate whether you would live in an apartment leased by private owners or in a condominium unit. An apartment leased by a private owner may only charge a rental fee, while condominium units may charge association dues on top of the rental fee. Association dues are fees for a variety of amenities offered by the condominium.
4. Consider various options when bargain hunting. Given the effects of a down housing sector, many people who have a lot of properties with no tenants are offering interesting proposals to lure tenants. Some schemes include no advance payments or no security bonds. Others provide a half month free to those who would avail longer contracts of say 24 months.
5. Verify if the property owner cares for the proper maintenance of his property. This will be good for you in the long run. A tenant should never spend a single centavo on maintenance or renovation for a rented property, that’s the responsibility of the owner. If the landlord does not live within the property or near it, and has no property manager, then avoid that property. You will find it hard to link with him when you need him most re repairs. While on it, on your first day consider walking with your landlord the length of your apartment including the outside. Both of you will have to agree on how the property looks prior to you occupying it, and then reconcile this with how it looks just before you leave it.
I am not Santa Clause!
I am getting frustrated this past few weeks for just a simple reason. There are people in here that they see me as a walking money or whatever! Everytime they saw me they kept on asking me some money nor some things, like “buy me a new shirt etc.” I am getting pissed off with them.
I know that they are in need now and so does I am. I may be able to give some but not always. I can share some but not all the time. Infact, they should be thankful if there are times that I can give a little to them but they shouldn’t expect that in just a snap of a finger I can give whatever they ask.
I too had my own family and I have a baby to feed. They should’ve realized that I no longer earn that much just for myself. I have to support my baby’s need.
Im trying to earn enough to pay all my debts and not to feed the entire community just like what they always saw me. I am not Santa Clause! They should know that!
Shopping Alone
I have written before that one way to save money is buy bring a To Buy list every time we go grocery shopping. This is because if we have a clear view of things that we truly need, there is not much time and energy spent deciding which things to buy. Also, this helps not to go over the budget.
I would like to add that when doing our grocery, it helps if this is done alone, without the kids in tow. I know this is a fun time to be with the kids so that they can take part in the activity too but if one is working on a budget, it might be difficult to say no to the items the kids will put on the grocery cart. Add to this that after grocery, the kids might be hungry and then there will extra expenses for food and other stuff. Sad to say, this will ruin the budget and it will be difficult to come up for money to cover for this.
While it is indeed a fun, bonding moment to do grocery with the kids, maybe this can be done once in a while or maybe if you or your husband just received your paycheck. Think if there is money to spare, if there is by all means, have the kids tag along. Otherwise, it is better to do this alone.
10 Things You Might Not Know About Credit Cards
Here’s some helpful information on credit cards… clears up some confusion about using unsigned cards, and extra charges for expected tips.
5) Merchants Cannot Charge A Surcharge For Using A Credit Card, However, They Can Offer A “Cash Discount”
You may have noticed that gas stations are starting to offer a different, higher price for credit cards. This isn’t technically allowed— unless it is marketed as a “cash discount.” In other words, if you fill up your car and find that you’ve been charged more than advertised because you paid with a credit card — that’s not allowed. If, however, you decide to pay with cash because you saw an advertised “cash discount” to the “regular price” — that’s ok. A subtle distinction, but an important one.(There is something called a “convenience fee” that some institutions are allowed to charge if they do not typically accept credit cards in their normal course of business. The example VISA gives is a utility company where the customary way is to pay by mail or in person. The rules for charging this fee are somewhat complicated and there are loopholes, etc.)
Via Credit Cards: 10 Things You Might Not Know About Your Credit Card
On Process of Fixing Finances
On the high prices of oil and the rice shortage crisis nowadays was definitely a hard time to fix your finances. I myself was on that process and I really find it difficult to do. I have done almost everything that I know just to cut on expenses and save even just a little.
Now I am also trying this very indemand in earning online money. I am now into different sites that promises to earn some money. I already gotten some of my payouts in other sites. I was also hoping that here I can also make it. I also have done doing some buy and sell though it was not online cause I don’t have knowledge on doing it but I still plan to learn about online selling.
Honestly, having an online jobs really helps me to fix my finances. Though it was not that high but it still helps me and my family. I also still have my regular work in here were I earn fixed amount monthly. I was just hoping that I can still look nor dicover some other sites or ways to earn money.
Now that Im the process of fixing my finances I must have double my effort to be more productive in anything I do in order to have enough amount of money on my pocket.
Another Way to Earn
In our present economic situation, it is helpful to the family’s budget if there is a steady source of income. In my case, I have a full-time work and my husband is in the process of getting one too. He resigned from work a month ago and I am hoping that he can find one soon.
In this scenario, it is a good thing that we have savings which we are using until he gets a new job. Otherwise, it would have been very difficult to keep up with the expenses.
For my part, I only earn enough so I surfed the internet for ways to earn money while at home. Since I have a blog, I submitted it to different paid blogging sites and fortunately, got approved by two sites. I started blogging for the other but I do not get many opportunities because of my blog’s low page rank. I plan to improve my site so that I can get a bigger chance of earning more. I’m just starting to do it so I still have a lot to learn. But definitely this is something new to explore to earn extra money. It is a viable opportunity for those who love to write and spend a lot of time online.
You want to know 2 ways to get out of debt? The first way is, promise yourself and your partner that you will only spend what you agreed on and the rest goes to all the other debts that you agreed on. Make a little game out of it; if one person spends when they are not supposed to spend as agreed then they have to, say, make supper for the whole week of next week or cannot spend anything for 2 weeks. It has worked for my husband and I, surprisingly, but since I hate to make supper I don’t spend unless we agreed on it…lol. This way also works as a stress reliever because it’s a fun game. I recommend this idea to others; it’s like budgeting but with a little twist;) The second way is, find a job at home that pays very nice. Why I say a “home” job is because they pay very nicely and you can make up your own hours; therefore giving you guaranteed access to any and all overtime. I am in the process of looking for a nice job to do at home and have not been 100% successful just yet but when I am I will share it with you all:) If you find a job at home that pays nice just imagine how much you could make with all the overtime! For example, you can get paid $5 per post to blog (some sites pay less, some more) and then post as many as you can (if the sites give you the option to post unlimited posts).
What to Do When in Debt
So you’re in debt? What do you? I suppose you could sit on your couch with your hands running through your hair worrying but really, what is that going to do for you? It’s actually going to make matters worse. I am speaking from experience. My husband and I have been married for almost a year now and have been dating for 3 1/2 years before we married and have been in debt pretty much since we started dating. You know how dating goes; spend and spend some more! Eventually that whole lot of spending will add up and pretty soon, before you know it you are in a little bit of debt. AND of course the old saying comes back to haunt us all “when it rains it pours!” Boy is that statement true! As soon as my husband and I were in a small amount of debt (I wouldn’t have even called that debt yet) his car decides to conk out for the next 3 years once every year therefore making our debt bill even bigger! So now we are up to our necks in car payment debts and his car is still on the fritz now and then! The way we are handling it is by trusting each other that we will pull through this be it sooner or later and when it’s over we will feel so good! Also…my husband and I threw out all means of Credit cards seeing how they just put you through you debt even more and made a spreadsheet telling us how to do our billing and payments. Believe it or not, after writing it down nice and organized things are finally falling into place. Lesson? Set a goal for yourself on paper and follow it through and through!
heather
managing your finances
The role of money in people’s lives has become very crucial over the past years due to oil price hikes. When the price of oil goes up, everything goes up as well. People become challenged to stretching their budget.
I never thought that it’s gonna be this tough. When I was still in school, I always thought that once you get a job, you will be worry-free, you will enjoy your single life and just do your thing. Now, after how many years of working, I’m still feeling some difficulties in handling my money, probably because the prices of commodities continues to go up, while your salary stays the same 
It really has become kind of a job actually–budgeting your money on hand vs. your daily expenses.