During this serious time of hardship because of the rice shortage and soaring gasoline prices, it seems out of place to talk about wasteful consumption. You might react saying that what you earn is not even enough to pay for food, rent, utilities, and transportation to and from work. How can you even think of wasteful consumption? Some of you might say that it is easy for me to tell you to limit your expenses because I don’t know what it is to be in your situation.
Unfortunately, I am also affected by all these price increases. For those who have read my books or my articles in other publications, remember what I said before that each one has a chosen lifestyle. I am not filthy rich. I have enough for my chosen lifestyle. Except for the filthy rich, no matter what your chosen lifestyle is, any increase in price will affect your financial plan and it will hurt you because that is not what you want for your lifestyle. The main difference is that I will not go hungry like what is happening to so many of our countrymen. I can adjust my lifestyle by simply reducing my wants.
Many times, a lot of families do not even know where their money is going. They just say they are unable to save. Many people think they are poor but in reality, they are not poor. They just can’t buy everything that they think they want. There are many ways of saving a little more each day.
Our CFE Team shared with us some of their practices in their families and stories of other families to help cope with the difficult times and continue saving. I’d like to share some with you.
All family members are involved in discussions about money and its management (spending, saving, investing, etc). Parents try their best to be good role models to their children.
The biggest help in saving and managing family finances are the children. Parents have to carry a "positive" attitude during money matters discussion and try not to “lecture”. They have to sound confident, honest and open ask a lot of questions to find out where the children are coming from.
A big rule is “NOT TO TALK DOWN to the kids and NOT TO BRING UP OLD money disagreements. It is good to talk to the kids about money matters.
They feel trusted that they are mature and responsible enough to be allowed involvement and with some independence.
All members of the family who are old enough to write try very hard to always carry a small notebook for our expenses. It helps each member at least in identifying, labeling and categorizing his expenses so that we can really understand where our money went.
Samples of expenses and savings that can be discussed as a family are electricity, water, gasoline, food, entertainment, vacation, and tuition. Some interesting practices are quoted and shared below.
“We don’t have house help. Each member has a responsibility area in the house. The kids have agreed and accepted that YES they may eat to their hearts’ content but no eating out – my kids cook! Our kids go with us to the grocery holding the grocery list that ALL OF US agreed on with a very strict rule – if not on the list; HINDI bibilhin!”(not buying!!)
“We have a vacation fund not just a vacation envelope. We agree on our targeted vacation fund. We regularly set aside savings for the vacation and invest it regularly in a mutual fund. The cost of the vacation we finally get will depend on what our vacation fund earns. We know that for this year, we may have to postpone our vacation because of the low mutual fund prices. However, we look forward to a better vacation when prices improve.”
“We understand that there should be no such thing as an emergency loan for tuition fees. Tuition fees are not an emergency. We all know that the period May to June are school fees time so we have a separate envelope for this. From the start of the school year, we have the motto – Save Now to Enroll for Next School Year”.
“Recreation/Family Bonding Moments need NOT be costly or pricey all the time.
One weekend we had quality and good quantity of bonding time of 5 hours with the kids – chit chatting, laughing and a lot of horsing around at the cost of PhP45.00 – a deck of cards! We learned/re-learned and played various card games from 10pm to past 3am!”
Other inexpensive bonding activities told to us are:
– freesbie playing in the park
– playing a sport together (an inexpensive one)
– movie watching at home not in the malls
Finally, one practice that is clearly effective is making sure that every family member knows the true financial condition of the family. Everyone knows that if we don’t save, we will all suffer the consequence. Posted around the house is the sign: “IF YOU DON’T WANT TO AGONIZE… ECONOMIZE.”