From This Home - home & finance hacks

Home Budgeting | How we don’t go over our grocery budget

Ever since my wife and I got married we made it a point to have a monthly budget for our living expenses as a family. We have been successful in staying within the budget for rent, electricity, water and internet, but we always failed with when it comes to our grocery expenses.

There are a lot of tips on how to budget your monthly grocery expenses on the internet: 1] Bring a list with you to the groceries, 2] Buy only the items that you need, 3] Bring exact amount of money you can only spend, and so on. And while these tips are also good, it does not always work for us.

Our monthly budget for groceries is ₱5,000 per month. Whenever we go to the grocery we usually go out with a receipt amounting from ₱8,000 to ₱10,000. Sometimes we even go to the grocery multiple times a month. Obviously, we were going way beyond our food budget.

We kept on saying that we are adults and we will do better next time but obviously we were failing and something really needs to be done.

The initial plan

One day we went through the list of items we bought from the grocery store, and we found out that we were spending our grocery budget not only on what we need but also on what we want. In fact, the bigger cost are in our wants. #FoodIsLife

Our needs usually include bread, milk, meat, canned goods and vegetables. And our wants are potato chips, chocolates, ice cream, and snacks in different forms, tastes and sizes.

We decided that in order for us to be in budget, we needed to charge the needs to our monthly family budget and the wants to our personal allowance.

Why we moved home? Financial move to increase monthly savings

Late this month we were reminded by the Property Agent who manages our unit that our Lease Contract was about to end in two months. According to our Lease Contract, we were to inform her and the unit owner if we have the intention to extend our rent. This reminded me of why we moved to our current apartment and why we left the first one we rented.

Why our Emergency Fund is based on Monthly Expenses, not Monthly Income

If you have searched the internet about Financial Freedom you have come across the concept of Emergency Funds. Ideally, this is around 3 to 6 months of your monthly income or expenses.

An Emergency Fund is an amount of money that you set aside in case you lost your income. It also acts as a buffer to avoid touching savings or investments during emergency expenses.

Most of the books and internet articles we read says that it should be based on monthly income, there are a few that says it should be based on Monthly Expenses.

Why having a Monthly Budget is Required for Financial Freedom

Everybody wants to achieve financial freedom – free from debt, financially secured, established a healthy relationship with finances and to live the life that you want. Do you want to achieve financial freedom but don’t know where to start? The answer actually lies with how you budget and set aside money for expected expenses or what we call Monthly Budget.

For this post Monthly Budget means Cost of Living per Month. This includes, food, rental, bills, insurance, transportation, etc. Does not include payment for debts or money you put in investments.

Bill Shock? How to check if your Electricity Consumption increased this Summer of 2020 (Covid-19)

The summer heat has just been unbearable these days. And while the rainy season has started with outpours, we have not totally gotten off the effects of summer. Such as the case of our upcoming electricity bill. For the last few days, we’ve been waiting anxiously to receive our bill to see the heavy truth of our increased electricity consumption. Since we are very mindful of what appliances we use and for how long we use these, it’s easy to assume that our bill will blow up than the usual. So how will you know and check if your electricity consumption has increased?

As an engineer, I tend to focus more on the numbers especially the ones in our Electricity Meter. See the step-by-step instructions on how to check if your electricity consumption increased this summer of 2020.

How to check if your Electricity Consumption really increased?

We need to get 2 meter readings, preferably 7 days apart but 3 days apart might also be good enough.

1. Get the 1st Meter Reading

If you have received your May 2020 bill, we can use this as your first meter reading.

Get the Pres Rdg at the back of your bill. We will refer to this as 1st Meter Reading Value.

Note also the Meter Reading Date in the front of your bill. We will refer to this as 1st Meter Reading Date.

Bill Shock? How to check if Meralco made an error on your May 2020 Bill (Covid-19)

Shocked by your current Meralco electricity bill? Us too.

With Covid-19 outbreak, the last two previous Meralco bills (March & April 2020) we were told that it was generated based 3 month’s electricity consumption average before that billing period. This meant that March & April bills did not reflect the increased consumption of the household with everyone at home 24/7 and the effects of summer heat as well. With Meralco staff now reading the electric meters for May 2020 bill, it is expected that it will reflect the actual electricity consumption for the month of May, as well as the consumptions that were not charged for the previous two months.

Find out how you can check and compute the electricity consumption of your household and see if you’re overcharged by Meralco.

Check for Meter Reading Error
Estimating how much your May 2020 Electricity Bill
Why is the kWh consumption so high in May 2020 Bill?
Other Scenarios
Notes

Check for Meter Reading Error

If you already have your May 2020 bill, go to the back page and search for the Pres Rdg (Present Reading) under Metering Information.

Note this number. We shall refer to this as May 2020 Bill Reading.

How To Maintain a Tidy & Clutter-Free Kitchen

Our humble little rental is a box open layout of living room, kitchen, and dining room in one. It does not have much storage and we have to make do with what we have being renters as we are.

We are not very strict about tidying up all the time but we do tidy as we go. But there will be times that both Husband & I will be too busy to tidy after cleaning so we kinda leave things around until it piles up. Here are some home hacks to make your kitchen always made up:

Emergency Fund: Why It’s Important & How To Save Up For It

We always hear about Emergency Fund (EF) when we start to manage our finances. Financial advisers advises it, family & friends with good finance practices encourages – but what is an emergency fund? This will serve a financial safety net for those unexpected expenses. It is money stash aside to cover the family’s monthly living expenses and basic needs when you are unable to work or earn.

How to Start Saving Money for the Family

While saving money is second nature to some people, not everyone is good at keeping their money in their pockets. However, not everyone who are good with managing their money started off smoothly. In fact most have struggled and failed multiple times before finally gotten the hang of handling their finances well. Here are ways to prepare yourself and to start saving your money: