I can put a whole new meaning to being frugal, sometimes. And I’m proud of it. Unfortunately, the golden dust of stinginess can wear off so quickly because the next minute, I can be the worst spendthrift on the planet. Have you ever been bitten by these financial mood swings?

Here’s an example. I love my more than 10-year old Esprit wristwatch. I bought it with money I earned from my first award as a journalist back in 1997 (and I mention that here only to explain its sentimental value). In a moment of extreme klutzness, it fell from a super-high tower rack and it stopped working. The face was a mess of broken glass.

In a normal situation, I would have loved shopping for a replacement. This time, however, I was moping about in the mall, not excited to buy a new one. I kept telling myself that it’s more than 10 years old, for heaven’s sake. I deserve to buy one with a spiffy new design or a classic Omega-like look, you know?

[Read the rest of this entry »]

UPDATE: Editor’s note: Added video of Abby Sarmiento taken by INQUIRER.net business editor Ma. Salve Duplito.

Filipinos spend too much on staying connected. When you don’t text, you’re not a good friend. When you don’t call, you’re a bad daughter. Husbands know full well the wrath of a woman untexted.

These days, cutting costs will have to include taking a second look at alternatives to the high cost of getting connected. In our household, only my 7-year old and the toddler don’t incur costs. There are six mobile phones in our household (two for the hubby), a landline and a DSL service.

This should be interesting for financial voyeurs . On a monthly basis, this is what we pay telcos :
[Read the rest of this entry »]

My half-finished survey of mommies in the Metro are coping with the rising food and oil prices by buying more goodies at the wet market instead of at the grocery. They swear that they get hundreds off their market-day budget. My previous post on Wet market versus grocery showed that wet market won hands down among MoneySmart readers.

I go to both and compare prices when I have the time. However, I have also been known to be in so much frenzy that I can get seven bags of grocery items chosen and paid for in 30 minutes. Nope, no comparison shopping there! If I did, the last time, though, I would have missed this steal.

Freshly squeezed kalamansi juice is a staple in the Duplito household. I usually buy five kilos of the little green stuff every week. Its price at the wet market last Saturday: P80 per kilo. That would have been P400. In SM Supermarket: P60 per kilo. Total price: P300. Better quality, too.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

We answered this question in our personal finance feature today:

Question: I am one of the thousands of people who live in Quezon City but work in Makati City. That means I drive some 20 kilometers to work every day, and that’s just one way. I tried commuting but it’s impossible during rush hour. With the price of gasoline going up, travel to and from work makes a huge dent in my budget. Is there any relief in sight for us? – Josephine P.

We all will have to deal with the rising cost of gas, whether or not we are from Quezon City, Bulacan, Cavite, Cebu or Davao. The most terrible forecast I have heard so far is for a full tank to cost P30,000. That’s almost the take-home pay of senior call center agents.
[Read the rest of this entry »]

(This piece is written by Bianca, one of the readers of MoneySmarts who has been chosen for the one-year Money Makeover challenge by INQUIRER.net. Bianca’s real identity is confidential, so that MoneySmarts can share her family’s financials and the lessons she has learned with the rest of the world. Read more about Money Makeover here.)

A financial planner (not Joe Ferreria) told us: sell your timeshare. My husband and I communicated silently the way old lovers do – with a look (or a glare, but that is another story) – and made a decision.

We will not.
[Read the rest of this entry »]

a. SM/Hypermarket
b. Landmark
c. Rustan’s
d. Puregold
e. Shopwise
f. Ever Gotesco
g. Cherry Foodarama
h. Metro Gaisano
i. Robinson’s
j. Metro Stop
k. Santis
l. Waltermart
m. Makro
n. PriceSmart

1. Too busy to check the lowest or highest shelves.

Heinz Bulos, editor-in-chief of MoneySense magazine, says the most expensive items in the grocery are mostly at eye level. If you want to find bargains, you have to stoop down or look up. “This may not be true all the time, but I did find that it was true in some of the grocery stores I went to,” Heinz says.

We had a good laugh at the fact that I’m only all of 4 feet and 9 inches.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

I bought my Canon G6 in SM’s Cyberzone in 2005. Since I was drooling over the EOS 350D at that time, I thought the G6 for P45,000 was already a money-smart compromise. It has video capability too, the rationalizing part of me said. When we took our new digital baby home, we took pictures of even the most ordinary things like doorknobs, light fixtures and fingernails ☺. My 10-year old kid, especially. It felt like a really good buy.

Boy, was I dead wrong. I learned last week that this camera shop called 24K on Hidalgo sold the little rugrat for P17,000 that same year! Original. With warranties and all. I wanted to weep! Rod, the friendly attendant who was referred to me by Edwin Redrino, a really talented professional photographer, was actually concerned for me.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

(Photo from Agence France-Presse)

No self-flagellation here in MoneySmarts this Holy Week break! Let’s list down all our favorite painless ways to increase savings. I’ll go first:

1. Take advantage of SM Advantage (and other store cards). They hardly cost any money and carrying them in your wallet won’t give you even a slight kink in your shoulder. The other week, I bought several grocery items and replacement parts for toilet flush and paid for them with my SM Advantage card. Not bad at all.
2. Don’t forget your rebates and freebies. I learned this the hard way. I forgot all about my expiring Mabuhay Miles and found out I was eligible for a free trip to a Visayas destination only when it was too late. Be careful, though. Rebates, rewards and freebies need to be managed carefully. For example, if Casa Armas is giving you 20% discount on a meal, don’t go just for the discount but go because you would have eaten out anyway. If you went out because “hey, we have a discount, cool!” you wouldn’t have enjoyed 20%, you would have spent 80% of the cost of the meal. [Read the rest of this entry »]

Guys, we have a Frugal Week hangover =). Here is another post on more frugal living tips, courtesy of our editorial partner MoneySense, the first and only personal finance magazine in the country.

As I said in a previous post, there are expensive things that help save money in the long-term. A good education, books, health care, vacations (even simple ones when money is tight) should be in our budget even if they are expensive.

Our article from MoneySense this week written by Ruth Floresca adds some more to the list:

[Read the rest of this entry »]