Mommy Practicality: Money Matters

Sunday, July 05, 2020

Purchase Baking Ingredients Online With PayMaya + Recipe for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

You Can Do More with FWD Kanduu Insurance Plans

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Smart Women and Moms - Invest (A FAMI Financial and Investment Workshop)

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Manulife's GradMaker - The Easiest Investing Tool For Moms On-The-Go

Have you heard of the saying "Don't put all your eggs in one basket?” I have- a number of times actually. And if we are going to talk about budgeting, saving, and investing, I would tell you the same.

I am quite knowledgeable on how I manage my earnings from my bonuses, talent fees or my regular salaries. But, it took me a while to make the first step to make my earnings work harder for me.

I’ve invested in different financial products already but I’ve never encountered an investment plan that’s as easy and as user-friendly as Manulife’s GradMaker.

GradMaker is for everyone, especially...

For new parents
For moms or dads who are always on-the-go
For the seguristas who want to know where their money goes or how their investments perform

GradMaker is a mobile app launched January this year which is designed for parents like us who may be too busy to meet investment counselors or financial advisors.

Sometimes even if we have time, we feel awkward about discussing financial matters with someone else that is why GradMaker is a good companion for us.

As parents we have one common dream- to give our children a better and more secure future. This is the reason why we work hard in what we do. We do our best to save up for our dream house so we can live more comfortably. We save up for our dream car so we can travel more easily. And most importantly, we save up for our children’s education so we can get a sense of security that they will be alright when they grow older.

Saving can be tricky and one way to make it easier, simple, and fun is by investing in GradMaker.

I attended the launch of GradMaker recently and Bianca Gonzalez-Intal, its brand ambassador said, "My husband and I were looking at tuition fees and it's sort of crazy how high they will be by the time our daughter enters university.... It made us want to start saving and investing right away, so I'm happy Manulife launched GradMaker. It give parents like us a convenient way to prepare for our children's college education."

Nice seeing Bianca again! She's really beautiful inside and out! :)

Bianca Gonzalez-Intal w/ daughter Lucia - WELCOME TO MANULIFE! Bianca Gonzalez-Intal and daughter Lucia are the newest brand ambassadors of Manulife Philippines. They talked about GradMaker, a mobile application that offers flexible and convenient investing, among select members of the media.

Bianca Gonzalez-Intal, Manulife's brand ambassador asks Ryan Charland, President & CEO of Manulife Philippines and Melissa Henson (rightmost), SVP & Chief Marketing Officer more about GradMaker.

Manulife executives with Bianca Gonzalez-Intal w/ daughter Lucia - BE A GRADMAKER! Ryan Charland, President & CEO of Manulife Philippines, joins new brand ambassadors Bianca Gonzalez-Intal and daughter Lucia during the launch of mobile app GradMaker. They are joined by Melissa Henson (rightmost), SVP & Chief Marketing Officer, and Bim Gutierrez (leftmost), SAVP & Chief Innovations Officer.

When we think of investments, we think - "Naku, kailangan ng malaking pera o capital dyan." This is what bought me into GradMaker, for as low as Php10,000, you could already buy policies anytime and you are not bound to a monthly payment schedule! And because it's an investment app, you manage and pay with just a few clicks on your phone. You can also check the performance of your investment anytime you want without bothering a financial advisor.

What I personally like about GradMaker

In less than 15 minutes, you could already sign up and make an investment so you could start saving for your children's education.
The online policies may be paid using a credit card or a debit card.
There's a Tuition Fee Calculator - which allows you to have a university or college tuition fee savings goal for your investment. It helps you visualize how much money you would need to save up for your children’s future.
Your money will be invested in professionally managed funds for long-term growth.
Policy owner is insured for at least 125% of the amount invested. GradMaker is a Variable Life Product.
Your money can potentially grow more with GradMaker compared to banks. (Your money in a savings account currently can earn a guaranteed interest rate of 0.2% annually. You can contact your bank for the actual interest rate.)
Everything is done online - you manage your investment yourself, from signing up, investing, monitoring your account, to withdrawing.
YES! You can withdraw your investment anytime!

Are these features great or great? I am definitely sold into Manulife's GradMaker.

Going back to what I said earlier regarding putting your eggs in different baskets, I will put some in GradMaker and watch my money grow as I save up for my children's future. Parents, I am sure that you will appreciate the full digital investment experience.

I definitely did!

Manulife's GradMaker is free for download on the Google Play Store

and Apple App Store for select Android and iOS devices.

For more information about GradMaker, visit Manulife's GradMaker website.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Husband-Wife 2017 Financial and Family Planning

As moms, we tend to do our planning at the beginning of the year all by ourselves, right? We jot down our daily or monthly things to accomplish for the household, for the kids, for the whole family. We sometimes leave out our husbands because we think it’s not their thing to do the planning activity. I’m guilty about this, and probably I may the only one among you reading this post, but good news! I put an end to this solo activity last January 2, before going back to work.

I involved my husband finally! But I conditioned him a week or 2 before our planning date night. Let me tell you as early as now before spilling the juicy details, that it was an awesome experience!
How I planned the planning date night.

After receiving our bonuses, spending for Christmas gifts shopping, and listing down other expenses and 2017 receivables, I told him that it would be a good idea to list down everything together and plan our expenses for the year. He would usually tell me, “Kaya mo na yan, you know my income, my expenses. Love you!” Ok naman ang rejection kasi may I love you sa dulo. But still, I had to find a way to make him cooperate, so I reminded him that Damien will turn 1 year old and Wes, 7 years old, milestones which we have to celebrate. Celebration means a lot to him and that became a bait. So ayun, he asked, “Sige, game, kelan?!”

2017 FAMILY PLANNING
Eto na! Wait, let me clarify, we’re not planning for another baby anytime soon (waah! I’m not ready!) Our planning date night was intended to meet the following objectives:

Financial:

To check our Financial Health
To plan how to make more money, save and invest

Marriage and Family:

To make efforts to spice up marriage
To be intentional in parenting our children
To improve in areas of spiritual, health, and fitness

Let me share with you how we started. First, order pizza and beer. As most of our loko-loko friends say “Pag may alak, may balak!” Yeah, may balak kami mag-planning talaga for 2017 and celebrate a milestone in our marriage because we’ve both matured to commit to our planning date night.

Second order of business, do the math. The goal is to know if we’re living within our means or not and what miracle is happening that we’ve managed to survive our 2016 expenses. Let me hare with you how to check your financial health. The result that we all want is to know that we’re not deficit in terms of income vs. spending. Thankfully, we’re okay.

FIRST STEP: LIST DOWN INCOME AND EXPENSES

Fixed Income less salary deductions (from SSS/Pag-Ibig/Philhealth/Withholding Tax)
Income from bonuses or sidelines
Fixed Monthly Expenses
Discretionary Expenses
Major Expenses

SECOND STEP: COMPUTE
Next step is to identify your combined monthly cash flow and see if you're financially in the pink of health or if you're deficit. Of course we want to see a healthy result and not otherwise.

Subtract your combined fixed monthly expenses and discretionary expenses from your fixed income. What's the result? Do you still have balance? Or is it negative? If it's negative and you're wondering where you got the money to pay off your major expenses (school tuition fees, summer activity fees, travel expense, etc), take a look at your combined income from sidelines and bonuses. Did they cover all these expenses?

STEP THREE: IDENTIFY IF YOU'RE LIVING WITHIN YOUR MEANS OR NOT
It's a good activity to see if you're living within your means, if you're spending less than you earn or otherwise, if you're spending too much on discretionary expenses, if you still have room for savings and investments, if you could still need to look for sidelines (should you happen to rely entirely on your fixed incomes) or if you're doing okay. The activity will reveal a lot about your spending and saving characteristics and how you could improve in this area by working together.

After computing, we high-fived each other for working together as a good tandem in keeping the family financially stable. We realized that where we spent too much and that we could have actually saved more, which we committed to do this year.

We also listed down our passions and talked about how we could monetize these (I'll talk about this on another post soon). We listed our dreams to put up a business, diversifying investments and other extra money plans. Our goal is to save and invest as much as we can, so it's really important to spend less than we earn.

PLANS FOR OURSELVES & THE FAMILY
Moving from the income and expense computation, the next steps in our date night were exciting. We talked about the spiritual aspect of our family, marriage/relationship, sex and date nights, parenting our kids, dream travel destinations, health and fitness goals, and individual goals.

In this digital age, I still believe in the classic and effective practice of writing it down and making things happen. Also to ensure that the date night planning didn't just happen like an event, we also wrote down our action plans, which we're both seriously committed to achieve

A WEEK AFTER...
After knowing the expense areas where we could save (food and gas), I've been bringing lunch and snacks baon to work. We also made some adjustments to our routes so we could also save on gas. We even started our daily expense sheet so we could monitor our expenses closely and know exactly where our hard-earned money goes to. So far, it's doing us both really good because not only we save money on food, we eat more healthily because it's "lutong bahay" and we avoid food wastes at home.

On marriage and family matters, we've been more intentional to each other and in pareting our kids. Quite surprisingly, he already asked me out on another date, watch a musical with him! Kinilig ako slight! :) So far so good and I hope we achieve all the goals we listed in the different areas of our lives. It makes me extremely happy.

I highly recommend a husband-wife tandem on financial and family planning. Two heads are better than one definitely.

~How about you? How do you do your new year planning? Do you do it alone or have been doing it with your husband? How's the experience? Could you share any tips below?~

Thursday, August 04, 2016

Financial Planning 101 by Avida Land's "My Path to Financial Freedom" Manual

Friday, January 09, 2015

A Practical, Doable, and Adjustable 24-Bi-Weekly Money Challenge

It's been more than 10 years since I started working. Like most of the young career women (and I admit to not being financially smart enough), a big chunk of my salary went to shopping and recreation. A part of it went to my parents, bills and some were saved but was touched impulsively when a new model of mobile phone or bag came out. I always said to myself a few years ago, had I known better, I would have saved at least Php 1,000.00 every pay day let's say for 10 years, I should now have Php 240,000.00 for emergency fund.

But as I always say, it's never too late to start saving (and investing, which I started doing a few years back.)! And the best time to start is NOW! Yes, yes, yes, NOW! I've been seeing on different websites and blogs a lot of money-challenge savings plan. They're all effective given your sheer determination and discipline to follow the amount to save week on week. But as much as I want to follow any one of those versions, as a full-time working mom who gets money every two weeks, I think I cannot follow the weekly schemes with the given amount to be saved.

So, I made my own practical, doable, adjustable and customize-able 24-Bi-Weekly Money Challenge for you to follow and be richer by around Php 6,000 up to Php 60,000 by the end of the year! This money-challenge scheme is also good for people who regularly get their salaries twice a month.

What's good about the schemes that I developed, inspired by other Money Challenge schemes, is that:

You could choose from Plan 20, Plan 50, Plan 100, Plan 150, and Plan 200
You have a summary of all these plans to choose from
Once you've chosen a plan, there's a plan schedule you could follow with a corresponding amount to save and running total.
A check box at the left side of the sheet for you to tick after you've tucked away to your money bank (make sure it's sealed tightly) the amount corresponding to that week.

I have another use for the check box at the left. Isn't it there are months in a year when we're richer (I meant bonuses, special projects, commissions, or cash gifts perhaps)? On these months, you could save the bigger amounts on the sheet and just exchange the schedule of saving on lean months. Make sure you tick the box and make a short note. It's really up to you how you'd want to use the sheets. Again as I've said earlier, it's adjustable, customize-able, and very practical.

Here are Mommy Practicality's 24-Bi-Weekly Money Challenge Savings Plan 20, Plan 50, Plan 100, Plan 150 and Plan 200.

24-Bi-Weekly Money Challenge Plans 20 to 200

24-Bi-Weekly Money Challenge Plan 20

24-Bi-Weekly Money Challenge Plan 50

24-Bi-Weekly Money Challenge Plan 100

24-Bi-Weekly Money Challenge Plan 150

24-Bi-Weekly Money Challenge Plan 200

So there you have it loves. Choose whichever plan that suits you. You may even create your own savings plan if you wish. The most important essence of this Money-Challenge is to- SAVE! SAVE! SAVE! Start the year right! Be financially smarter, pay yourself first. Good luck! :)

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Dear Mommy Practicality - Getting A Life Insurance

Monday, May 05, 2014

Life Lessons You Should Know In Your 30s

This post is inspired by an article I read online, carefully researched and compiled in one great post by Mark Manson entitled: 10 Life Lessons to Excel in Your 30s.

I first saw it on Facebook when a colleague in her late 20s shared it. I got curious being in my mid-30s, so I hurriedly read it and boy, it made an impact on me and some of my friends as well. Why did I say it was it made impact? It was for the following reasons:

Talks About Life's Truths - an article created from a compilation of answers to a survey.
Talks About Process of Selection and Elimination - Getting rid of those who/that are bringing you down and keeping those that help you become a better person.
Talks About YOU. - Loving, Caring and Making You The BEST Person you could be.

I have been writing about women empowerment and how I dream of positively affecting others in my little way, which is through this blog. I also believe that one should practice what he preaches and thus, I want to share with you how I am in my 30s. I am first and foremost a very practical person, one who is goal-oriented and I love planning and implementing the plans. I am a dreamer, I cannot say ambitious, but I love dreaming for good things in life for myself and my kids. But it wasn't like that ten years ago. I learned the hard way, but the important thing is I LEARNED. I also took action after the learning. My life is not perfect and will never be. But what I do is I stopped comparing myself to others, stopped minding what others think of me and continuously try to improve myself little by little. So going back to the article, when I read it, it summarizes the life lessons I learned and what I wish to still achieve.

Now let's discuss what these are and I'll tell you what my thoughts are and if I have applied the principles in my own life.

1. Start Saving for Retirement Now, Not Later

When I was still single and in my 20s, I spent a lot on clothes, bags, shoes, expensive SPA treatments, and anything that would make me look good. I thought, I deserved that after all the hard work I did. I lived paycheck to paycheck. Now in my 30s and after having two kids, I realized how important saving is and setting up a financial goal for yourself.

source

I realized how important it is to save for retirement, to invest your money and to save, save, save. I've read in some self-help financial books how important is to pay yourself first before paying your bills. That is true. Paying yourself means setting aside a portion of your earnings to your savings, to an investment and to your retirement plan.

It's never too late to start. The important thing is to START. And that's what I did back in October, 2012 when I got myself a Variable Life Insurance with provisions for investment, accidents, health assistance and death. When I signed that insurance application and got my policy bible, I felt so much secured. I know I am not only doing this for myself, but for my children as well. I don't want to oblige them to spend for my medicines or personal needs when I retire. I also want to leave something behind in case something happens to me.

Early this year, I withdrew my bank savings and invested it in special savings that has higher interest yields compared to savings accounts and even Unit Investment Trust Fund. I also bought a place for rest (for short, libingan), if ever I RIP. Since it was bought pre-need, it could either be sold to those who require it asap at a higher cost. Also on investments, make sure you study it first, that it's something that you can track and it's something that interests you.

"Make it your top priority to pay down all of your debt as soon as possible." I am honestly still on my way to achieving this because I have credit card debts. I was able to successfully close two accounts already and currently maintaining just one. I plan to pay my debt as soon as I can and get rid of these plastic cards soon. In case of emergency has always been a convenient excuse.

Keep an “emergency fund” in case anyone gets sick in the family, you know you have somewhere to get money from in cases of emergencies. I was told by a manager where I work to save up for at least a six-months-worth your salary for your emergency fund.

Purchasing a Memorial Plan may sound morbid to some, but it's practical and a smart move. It's not only for you but for your family as well.

Have you pondered about investments or insurances already? I'll be glad to talk about this deeper in another dedicated post.

2. Start Taking Care of Your Health Now, Not Later

I couldn't agree to this more. There are times when my mind thinks I'm still fit to get into some activities, but physically, I can't anymore. It's either I get tired easily or I get injured. BUT, I realize that it has something to do with my weight and what I put in my body. It's true that you are what you eat. You are the result of your food intake. With this in mind, healthy eating is important.

Now that I'm in my 30s, I try to eat as much vegetables, fruits and white meats as possible. I try (with all my might) to stay away from:

- Fatty foods (aargh, like Lechon, Crispy Pata and the likes!)

- Foods that are too sweet (goodbye to unli-chocolates and gummy bears, though I still eat a little)

- Junk foods (lucky that I'm not a fan)

- Processed Foods

The point is to stay away from bad foods and take in a lot of healthy ones. Exercise should also be part of our lifestyle. I'm one with those seriously struggling to achieve this. Believe me or not, I have been dieting for the longest time and it seems like I'm not losing weight. I recognize this fact and I know that I should correct something about what I do.

It's important to get in tune with your body, know its needs to achieve a healthier state. Let us (in 30s) be more conscious of what we take in. Can you promise me that?

source

3. Don’t Spend Time with People Who Don’t Treat You Well

This is the selection and elimination process of the people in your life. You don't need to keep some people who make it a habit to hurt you, criticize you, make fun of you in public or drag you down in misery. You don't need to keep people who don't support you with your dreams and ambitions, those whom you are needing just because of their status in life or money but have the power to belittle you. Don't tolerate people who treat you wrongly.

Life is not about the quantity of people who come and usually go (especially when you have nothing) out of your life. It's about the quality of people who become happy for your own happiness and success. They are the people you know you can count on in times when you are down. Don't be afraid to eliminate them or end any relationship especially when it's not helping you grow. Believe me, there's a gracious way of doing it. PM me if you want to know how. :)

source

4. Be Good to the People You Care About

Now that you've selected the people who you plan to keep, most of them are family and best friends, BE GOOD TO THEM. Be there for them. Don't take them for granted. Appreciate them. Look after them. For when will you CARE enough for these special people, when they're already gone? We don't want that to happen, don't we?

5. You can’t have everything; Focus On Doing a Few Things Really Well

Back in my 20s, I was always rushing. I was rushing to climb up the corporate ladder. I was doing everything I can to reach this dream. I was aggressive, I wore my mad hat all the time. I was very ambitious. I dreamed to achieve a lot.

Until I got pregnant with my first child in my mid-20s, resigned from a good job, didn't have money, failed at my marriage. My life was suddenly on reset. I rebuilt a career slowly and started at the bottom just to get by. I learned how to prioritize. I learned how to focus on what mattered that time which were: to do good at and build a steady career in my chosen field, be the best solo parent to my son, and be a good provider. I didn't want anything and I wasn't rushing anymore. Because I realized after the hits in my life that I cannot have everything. I just needed to focus and prioritize and perform well.

6. Don’t Be Afraid of Taking Risks, You Can Still Change

If you're in your 30s and you feel that you're not in the right job or you think your heart still desires to pursue that dream of yours when you were still younger, this is the best time to still DO IT! This is still a good time to TAKE THE RISK and GO FOR IT! :) Being in your 30s is considered mature but definitely NOT old. You don't want to wake up in your 40s or 50s and ask "What If?" right?

I started blogging in 2012. I studied communication arts in college and I've always wanted to pursue a career in media but I never got to that path in my life. I have a natural passionate artiste in me. So blogging became that passion or that road I took without really knowing where it will lead me to. But I'm definitely glad I took the risk. A BLOG in this digital age is considered a digital communication medium for almost all successful companies. So being a blogger makes me a media person (which I've wanted since I was a teenager) and I'm happy I took the leap!

It's never too late.

source

7. You Must Continue to Grow and Develop Yourself

Like a computer, human brains need upgrading, otherwise it will be obsolete. You may be a subject matter expert of one topic now, but if you're stuck with what you know and not keep up with the new developments on your field, then what you know may be useless.

Educating yourself by attending seminars in fields you are interested in or learning a new skill that you've always wanted to do will add knowledge to your mental bank and therefore yield self-improvement in your 30s. It's never too late to pursue higher education as well. Now this is one thing that I have been eyeing on for the past three years. I hope to be able to enroll myself in school again next year. I am a sucker for new learning and educating myself.

It's also taking care of your health, mentally and physically. You have to learn and re-learn and never stop doing so. Spiritually, you may develop your relationship with God.

This also goes to say that we must strive to continue growing as better individuals, better parents to our children, better wives or partners to our loves, better friend or better colleague.

8. Nobody (Still) Knows What They’re Doing, Get Used to It

My take on this is that even if we think we've matured a lot in our 30s and we're more learned than those in 20s, think again. We in our 30s, should accept the fact that we don't really know everything. Some who are experiencing something new like a milestone in their 30s are novice to the experience. They still sometimes don't know if what they are doing is right or wrong. Let's take for example having your first baby in your 30s. Isn't it that no matter how you researched or read books on how-tos, it's different when it's actual application right?

So don't be surprised, not knowing what to do is okay. Just relax, this is to be expected when you're in your 40s, 50's and even 60s and above.

9. Invest in Your Family; It’s Worth It

I couldn't agree more to this. Always put your FAMILY first. Invest TIME with your family. Our children grow up really fast. My memory of my toddler as a baby is still very fresh to me. Whenever I would look at him now, I wonder why time flies so fast.

Being in your 30s also means, you've matured a lot already. Forgiveness of a family member who had caused you emotional trauma or had wronged you would require that maturity you've managed to develop. Now is that time to forgive and let go of the emotional baggage that's limping you down. Let it go. Especially if we're talking about our parents, who may be at this time already a Senior Citizen and who may or may not be sick, now is the time to repair the relationship.

To those like me in 30s and still want to have a baby, but admittedly are afraid because of the financial implications attached to it, I want to tell you what the article I read told me, just GO AND HAVE A BABY!! We sometimes worry too much for monetary reasons or health reasons (that's why we need to take care of our health!) and what have yous. Children are beautiful. They are God's gift to us. They make us strive more to be better persons and they push us to our limits. They also teach us lessons. They put our lives in order as well. So if you're in your 30s, go and PUSH! PAK! Have babies this time! :) It's worth it!

10. Be kind to yourself, respect yourself
When I was younger, honestly, I cared too much what others' opinions are of me. I used to just say YES to them and NO to my own needs and wants. It mattered to me to be accepted and to be liked.

I realized now how STUPID that thinking was. Now I CHOOSE MYSELF. I RESPECT and LOVE myself more, all my flaws, my skin, my skills, my talents. And by being kinder to myself, I developed and used my skills and talents to pursue my dreams, my passion and my desire to make a difference in this world in my own little way, without thinking anymore of what other people will think or say.

Blogging has helped me in the past two years to become more attuned to my inner core. It has helped me realize that I should love myself all the more. It has also helped me realized that by doing so, it's giving my life more focus. I'm glad I took this road.

Respecting yourself means being good to your soul and your body. It's saying NO to people who or things that's going to drag you down or make life difficult than it already is or even to opportunities that may take you away from your family and may oppose your values and principles. Respecting yourself is saying YES to everything good.

Remember to always know and respect your self-worth. By knowing that, you will take in only what you truly DESERVE in life.

source

Happy week ahead loves!

~Are there any more life lessons you'd want to add to the list?~

Friday, September 20, 2013

Vacationing On A Budget? Travel Tipid Tips Here!

Who loves travelling? I do! Who loves budgeting? I do too! Having a family of my own means, I now do more of the latter, than the former. But since I have the burning desire (lalim ng desire!) to conquer the Philippines and hopefully the rest of the world, I still do travel once in awhile, but this time, I travel on a budget. I used to search on travel tipid tips online from moms like myself and I find just a few. So I want to share with you my Mommy-Budget-Travel-Tips because I know that most moms want to have a family vacation but are worried about its price right?

As I write this, I'm still having a wonderful hangover from our recent family vacation to the island of Boracay where there were more Koreans than Filipinos at the time. Not that I have anything against Koreans please, but it just felt awkward to be surrounded by more tourists than your kababayans. It felt like we were the foreigners. There was even a time when we ate at a restaurant, we were the only Filipino customers, all the rest were Koreans.

Anyway, going back to the subject, my Travel Tipid Tips, alam niyo po ba that apart from my slashie-roles, I also love travelling?! Isa po akong Lakwatsera. Layas. Kaladkarin. Hihihi! I love experiencing new places and meeting new people. I love learning about different cultures from other cities or provinces. I love the beach. I get an overwhelming feeling whenever I step on a new town or a new country. I love it more when I get to travel without spending too much!

Yes Muthers! You can travel with your family and actually enjoy even when you have a right purse.
You just need a perfectly planned itinerary and the discipline to stick to your set budget. To be more concrete on this, here are my travel tipid tips for you.

Travel Tipid Tips:

Book flights from Airfare Seat Sales. - Heard of the tagline Now Every-Juan Can Fly from Cebu Pacific? They made budget airfares possible so we could be tour of our own country. There's so much to explore in the Philippines my dears! This was followed by PAL, Air Asia (formerly Zest Air), and SEAir too. Watch for PISO or ZERO seat sales during holidays like Independence Day, Araw ng Kagitingan, etc. From let's say P7,000.00 one way ticket price down to P1,000.00 per person, I guess that's a great deal right?
Travel Off-Season - Best time to travel when going to the beach like Boracay is during off-peak season. You could save a lot on your hotel accommodation. Most of the hotels there charge almost half their peak season's rates.
Travel light - Avoid paying for excess baggages. Make sure you pack smartly and of course lightly. Remember on your way home, you will still be bringing more baggages due to your pasalubongs. If you can just handcarry your luggage or backpack, the better. Saves time in waiting for your baggages to come out from the airplane too.
Scout for best hotel packages/compare prices - Since most of the budget fares become available few months before your actual travel, you still have more than enough time to search for the best hotel packages. I suggest if bringing children with you, choose a hotel with swimming pool so they have something else to do in case they don't want to hit the beach. Remember to compare prices of hotels. You could get great deals if you're patient enough to do your research. Go by the per night charging rather than per person charging. Read rates carefully. When booking, better to call their reservation office for clarifications.
Read and abide by hotel rules and regulations. Almost all hotels charge for stained mattresses, pillows, towels and broken or lost items. Take note of the check-in and check-out times. You might pay additional if you checked-out late.
Plan activities ahead of time. - Research on what activities you could do in your travel destination. Is it island hopping? City tour? Zip line, banana boat, Zorb, Paraw-sailing or anything? Decide what you want to do or not want to do. Know their approximate rates. Ask yourself as well, are they worth it? Will you or your kids enjoy them? Are they safe to do? Do you have extra budget to do them? If most of your answers to those are NO, then better not pay for these extras. Sometimes it's also nice to take a quiet stroll on the beach, sit and read a book or just simply enjoy the water and commune with nature.
List down daily expenses to monitor your budget - Ever since I started travelling, I always bring a small notepad and a pen with me. I list down ALL, as in to the very minute spending, expenses for the day. This way, I would be conscious of my spending, how well I do in managing my budget, how much budget left, if there will be an extra, and in which expense type should I tame my spending. I know OC noh? But it really helps to track your expenses.
Learn to haggle/negotiate - For item #6, should you opt to try any activities and talk to boat owners for island hopping or other agencies for the other activities, you should learn to haggle to get the best deal. Sometimes they overprice their rates. If you show them that you ask others for their rates, they compete with each other and so could get the best rate among them. Just make sure, there are no hidden charges anymore. When buying pasalubong from a local store, you can always haggle. Pababaan na ng presyo to! Tip, when they say P100 for a piece of shirt, haggle up to half its price! OA lang diba? They will still be able to give you a price lower than P100. Nakatipid ka pa rin.
Learn to commute around - If you really want to save, ride the tricycle or jeepney rather than a private multi-cab or van. The former transpo modes are a lot cheaper. Don't negotiate for airport transfers through a middleman, ask around, know how to get where you want to, so you don't have to pay for extra service or for convenience. Pambili na rin ng 1 - 2 meals yun! :)
Research on inexpensive restaurants - In Boracay, I planned a day or two to eat at inexpensive restaurants such as Andok's, Mang Inasal's, McDonalds and nearby carinderia. A special day or two (depending on your length of stay) at D'Talipapa where we market the meat and have it cooked by the "paluto" restaurant. This way, you could stretch your budget wisely.
Refill your Water Bottle with hotel's supply. - It's important to hydrate yourself and your kids throughout the day. Buying bottled water may be quite expensive in some stores, so why not bring a water container and refill it with the hotel's drinking water supply. You save a lot of money just by doing that.
Ask friends for tips about your destination.- When in doubt, it's also best to ask friends for tips on where to go and what to do and also how to save on your trip. Of course ask a reliable budget traveler friend, so you not only save on money but also on time.

Having these tried and tested Travel Tipid Tips make travelling fun yet friendly on the budget. It takes a some planning, researching and strokes of discipline. You don't need to be very rich to see the world or at least see how beautiful our country is. Travelling actually makes one richer. Richer in experience, life perspective, geographical knowledge and also in friends. So start planning your next travel destination with these easy to do travel tipid tips! Safe travels loves!