As a practical mom, I can say that I always find ways to get value for my choices and make things work with what I have.  I guess growing up in a family back in the 80s with limited available resources taught me how to adapt to whatever situation we’re in. This experience had a lot to do with how I value practicality.

Fast forward to today, I live a certain lifestyle that stretches what I have without compromising comfort and quality.  

₱1,000 for groceries? Challenging but doable. 

Electricity bill higher than expected? I look for ways to adjust energy usage to keep it down the following month.

Gas prices go up? Adjust the budget and prioritize trips.

Then there’s the tuition, baon, groceries, transportation, and household bills all coming at once? Kaya ‘yan. Diskarte lang!

Because when you’re managing a family, being practical isn’t just a personality trait, I always say it’s a way of life.  

And honestly, we practice it every single day.

It’s deciding whether to do another load of laundry now or wait until tomorrow. It’s opening the curtains in the morning instead of turning on every light in the house. It’s reminding the kids to switch off lights when not in use. It's telling them to turn off the aircon at a certain hour and let the electric fan do its job in keeping the rooms cool.

It’s using the stove now instead of the electric rice cooker. It’s standing in front of the refrigerator, wondering who opened it and forgot to close it tightly.  It’s down to calling their attention about an empty water pitcher they still returned inside the ref.  

Then the electricity bill arrives—and suddenly all those small reminders make perfect sense.

Now, how can we save more?  Have you also asked that yourself?

This is where clean energy becomes something worth paying attention to. Why? With the rising cost of electricity month after month, I realize how much our family depends so much on it each day. It’s how I keep the house well-lit for family home activities, have a piping hot coffee in the morning, connect to wifi for work or other online stuff, and make sure the house is cool and comfortable to stay in.  

When gas prices increased during the first half of the year, we had to adjust from using three vehicles to just one, at most two.  My college student went back to using public transportation going to and from school. We also adjusted our grocery list and even our daily menu sticking to needs and just a few wants.

But the game changes when clean energy becomes part of the electricity we use and depend on every day.   

Clean Energy: Making The Shift

Shifting to cleaner and more reliable energy makes everyday life at home more sustainable and practical.  It’s a system of making things work without compromising too much on comfort. It’s having dependable electricity that can support our family’s everyday needs.   With clean and reliable energy, we can continue with our work-from-home routines, enjoy our family bonding through weekend movie nights, let the kids use their PCs or gadgets anytime they need them for school or leisure, and also let me bake cookies for my kids as their baon.

Reliable energy gives families and communities room to keep moving, to keep thriving, and to keep living a life that works for them, even a comfortable life.

Clean Energy as a Practical Choice

For every choice or purchase I make, I don't just ask, how much things cost, I also ask, is this value for money? Is it practical? Will it support the quality of life we choose to live each day?  It’s not merely getting the cheapest. It’s making sure we get our money’s worth and achieve quality results at better costs.

With clean energy, I realized that it truly can help make power more affordable and reliable, and may even lessen the “aray” each time I see fuel price hike advisories in the news.  I used to think that it’s just all about installing solar panels or shifting to purchasing solar powered appliances to save on monthly electric costs. But if clean energy becomes part of the electricity we use daily, then our family and many Filipino families could benefit from this and later result in a community that’s empowered and resilient.

Because being a practical Filipino mom isn't simply about finding the cheapest option or infinitely adjusting comfort and living just to stay within a certain budget.  It’s about making smarter choices with what we have, so our families can have more of what they need tomorrow.

I remember how our family had a terrible experience about an unscheduled power outage within our community which affected our productivity.  The kids had to study in the dark and were sweaty.  I had to make sure the meat in the freezer didn't get spoiled.  My husband had trouble with work due to his important online meeting because wifi was unavailable. The outage extended until the next morning which affected my quality of sleep as I had to make sure my kids were comfortable and somehow stay cool through the night. I had to exert muscle effort to keep the pamaypay moving the whole night.  It seemed like a punishment and my husband and I detested the inconvenience it brought.  This is why it’s important to be part of this clean energy conversation because my family, communities, and even businesses are affected.

Having reliable energy and making it part of how we consume it every day, can result in a system the whole family can naturally adapt to.  A reliable energy system means a lot to our family because I don’t always have to look over my shoulder and start to worry about rising electricity and fuel expenses or worry about the next power interruption. A reliable energy also means a better and more practical way of spending and managing household expenses.  This directly affects how I budget and save every peso that can be used for important expenses such as tuition, food, groceries, healthcare, and other priorities at home.  Making every peso work for our family through practical choices such as integrating clean energy into our daily living.

Clean energy is not just about conserving the environment and staying informed about technology, it is about making practical and informed choices to achieve quality of life for our family and not to sacrifice comfort. Having clean energy in our system results in a more sustainable, affordable, and resilient household which ripples to communities for a more secure and reliable way of life.   If this is the future our family and my kids’ future families aspire for, then this is a choice and a conversation we must openly talk about.