The Budget Challenge

I’ve read about Ma’am/Ate @smaeunabs blog about #thebudgetchallenge and gave me a relief that finally someone understands might also share my frugality.

Before I transferred to Cebu, I was an academic scholar at our previous university. The scholarship helped me alot especially on my tuition fees but it wasn’t a reason for me to stop my budgeting program. First, I’m gonna show you how I managed to budget my money/allowance in the previous school I attended.

My allowance during those days was P500 or 10USD per week, since my school was only three blocks away from our apartment then I don’t have to spend on my transportation. What I did to budget my allowance is I had to buy groceries and by groceries it’s kind of my emergency kit.

Budget for groceries: 100

• pancit canton/instant noodles
• can goods
• milk
  My mother provides other necessities like soap, shampoos, and 3kilos of rice

My remaining amount would be P400 or 8USD.
In seven days, I had to spend P57 per day. Food in Mindanao is fair price, I don’t really spend a lot for good food. Since, I cooked rice everday I don’t need to buy outside but there are times that I had to.

I only spend P30 for the whole meal. I usually just buy viands that only cost P10 pesos and most of the time I get a 50% discount that makes it P5 since the carenderia/food eatery gives a P5 serving. That leaves me with 27 pesos per day.

I AM NOT KIDDING/JOKING ABOUT IT. THIS IS THE REASON WHY I WAS SHOCKED OF HOW EXPENSIVE FOOD IS HERE IN CEBU.

Yes, I do take snacks but I only spend P5 for my snacks. I already can buy 1 stick of toron or ginanggang na saging from the P5 in my pocket. The remaining P2 will be saved for photocopies and the rest of the P20 will directly go to my savings.

When I strictly follow my budgeting program, I end up saving 140 pesos per week.

Note: Sometimes, my allowance for the next week would come late that is why I always have my savings for emergency purposes.

This was my budget program in my previous university.

I never thought that life would be harder. Days after I started living in this urban jungle, I had to take trials for my budgeting program. My allowance did increase to P1,500 per week but without the right budget you’ll probably be broke in a matter of days. Everything here is expensive and more like twice the price of my previous lifestyle!

I always fill up my emergency kit and added new items for it. I had no mother to provide for my soaps, shampoos, and 3kilos of rice. I had to be smart and independent for this budget program.
I didn’t want to be the “ALLOWANCE NOW, PULUBI LATER” kind of person. I did my best to follow this budget program.

Budget:

• P300- groceries/emergency kit containing: instant noodles, can goods, shampoo,soap, toothpaste, biscuits, and detergent
• P700- for food and transportation
• P500- for savings, school needs, and others

You might wonder why I only spend P700 per week for my food and transportation. I don’t eat much. I usually eat biscuits/bread for breakfast and I don’t eat dinner much often and for a person who loves to travel I am not the girl who likes going out of my room which is the very reason why needed to buy food in advance. I refrain myself from spending for snacks considering the prices are absolutely twice the price of my hometown in Mindanao and that meals are suffice for me to live a day.

I guess that’s all I could say about this budget challenge. Bye!