Peso pinching tips

FOR THOSE of you who made it your New Year’s resolution to spend less and save more, how are you in the compliance department? I know it’s not easy to do so, but really, as simple as it sounds, that’s how you can have more money left at the end of the month or year.

I’ve shared my own peso pinching tips to friends:

1. Look for a beauty salon that charges less. I’ve decided to give up some perks (free iced tea or coffee and a quiet ambiance) and go for a salon that gives the same service (without the perks) at half the cost.

2. Plan trips. Save gas, time, parking fees, transport fare, and energy by scheduling all your trips to one area at one time.

3. Eat more at home. Not only will you hone your cooking skills, you will be healthier physically and financially too.

4. Use up freebies. Those ketchup, sugar and cream sachets you get from fast-food outlets can be put to good use.

5. Try cheaper alternatives. Need your caffeine fix? Avoid the daily trip to the chic coffee shop and settle for the vending machine or bring your own coffee to work.

6. Pay attention to items on sale. Something you really need might just be on sale, so look at the sale items first. Also, check out secondhand bookstores for books that cost a fraction of the cost of new ones.

7. Go local. Help the economy and save your money as well; oftentimes, locally produced goods are cheaper than imported ones.

My friend Migs Cruz, a doctor, shared that he has become more frugal now that he has two kids. Here are some specific steps he has taken to stretch that peso a bit more:

1. Use freebies as gifts. Med reps give tons of gifts to doctors, from pens and notepads to bags, clocks, and so much more. Migs gives these away to his staff and other personnel in his place of work and this saves him the cost of buying new gifts for Christmas.

2. Get a hand-me-down. Migs’ bike was stolen from his garage, so he asked around in the hospital if anyone had a spare mountain bike he could buy. One of the residents did, and sold it to Migs for P1,000 and a secondhand DVD player. He had it repaired for P500 and now it runs like new. A new bike would have cost him P4,000 to P5,000.

3. Recycle old clothes. Those old long pants are cut off just above the knee for P30 and still look great as pambahay.

4. Avoid the casa for car repairs and maintenance. Migs says, “My car aircon compressor got broken and the casa was charging me P40k for replacement to be done in 2-3 days. I went to Banaue Street in Quezon City and got the compressor replaced brand new at P17k. The service took only 6 hours.” Also, a 60-km checkup at the casa would have cost him about P10k, but he had it done at another auto shop at just P2,500 after the mechanic determined no additional repairs were needed.

5. Reuse stuff. Migs’ old Rayban sunglasses were already falling apart although the lenses were still OK. So he just bought a new pair of eyeglass frames and paid only P500 to transfer the old lenses to the new frame. A brand new pair of the same brand would have cost him P5K and up.

Little steps like these count in stretching your pesos. (Karen Galarpe)

Share This