James Patterson ~ Suzanne's Diary to Nicholas (Lessons Learned)

James Patterson ~ Suzanne's Diary to Nicholas Review: This is supposed to be the title of this post. But I changed my mind.

To be very honest, my title is not really suitable since I am not good at reviewing any books. But hope I can give justice to it since I personally love the book. Until now it makes me critically think about its content and trying to unravel what it means and how it can help my current situation.

It is timely that I get to read this book because I am currently facing the same thing as what Suzanne and Katie were experiencing.

Just give me a little background why in the midst of all these super hectic schedule of mine, I still get to squeeze reading. I am an 80s child where technology is just a sight a way but I belong to those who had experienced playing tag, soccer, baseball, imitating pink 5 in BioMan, Annie in Shaider,  Pink Ranger in Power Rangers, and baseball bat in the field. I belong to the generation where at 6 o'clock in the evening I should already be home or else the belt was already waiting for me. In all these things I get to enjoy, as a child who had learned reading at an early years, I am more enthusiastic with reading. Be it  Comics which was very popular back then, magazines like Liwayway, pocketbooks both in Filipino (I love Martha Cecilia that I wanted to be like her before) and English, songbooks, and any reading material I can get a hold of. I had great time spending times reading that sometimes I forgot to cook rice. (It was tedious to cook back then by literally starting the fire from wood and paper). I can say I am in a mid-range reader.

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ctto: google photo

ctto: google photo

Back to the book in the title. This is a heartbreaking book I have first read this year. It is way too emotional and at the same time there are so many lessons learned.

1. Time is finite. We've known this so well. Even in savings and investing, the younger we start savings and investing, the sooner we are able to reap the rewards. It is fortunate if we all live long. But we can't be for sure know when we are going to breathe the last air in our lungs. It is good to treat every living moment with gratitude and love in as much as possible.

2. Work is a rubber ball in the five balls we juggle in life. If it falls, it will bounce back. Do not be afraid to let go when necessary and if it is already taking a toll on one's physical and mental health. We will be able to find a job that is not a work after all. Find the passion and develop it. At first, there are many hindrances and obstacles, but if we love it, we can surely beat it.

3. Health is wealth. This sounds like a cliche. I can always hear this from anyone anywhere. But in reality most of us neglect this part of our life. This is one of the five balls in our life. If we let it slide, there will be chances that it will break and there is no turning back. Lucky and blessed are those who are given second chances. But not everyone has the chance. And this we should not forget.

4. Family is everything. There maybe arguments. Times when we don't speak to one another. And even, fight over something. But at the end of the day, it will always be the same family who will catch you and be there for me when I needed them. There is no perfect relationship but we are the same family. This is one of the five balls of our lives. In the book, this is considered as made of glass. I know it can be a glass but it can also be rubber ball.

5. Friends are what keep us. A real glass for me. I don't know. I am not good at keeping friends. There were friends who come and go. What I know is that I treasure those who stay and accepts me as I am. Needless to say, I keep moving forward after a heartbreak with friends.

6. Integrity. This is ourselves. Our own self. What we do when no one is looking. When no one is appreciating us. When no one cares. It is being able to do the right thing in every situation. For every one. For our selves.

7. Bad stuffs happens sometimes and we need to keep moving forward. We always face a phase in our lives. If things go wrong, I have to remember that it will pass. I have to remind myself not to dwell on it and to pick up myself and look for the better out of it.

8. Always be grateful. Satisfaction comes from always being thankful each and every single moment of our lives. I will no longer look for something and somewhere just to feel contented. Because I know in my heart that what I have is enough. More than enough.

9. We is always so much better than I. Two heads are better than one. I know this from the very start. But being married to a loving husband, this makes it a lot more easier to make tough decisions. Decisions that we both agreed upon and face the consequences together. We do not have a perfect life choices but together I know we can make it through.

10. Live our lives. It is temporary. It is with a span. It has expiration. And sometimes that expiration is unexpected. We need to live and let others live the way they wanted to live their lives. I choose to live this way.

What do you think? For me I think, I'll hoard more of James Patterson's book. By the way, I preferred the hard bound copies best that e-books. I don't know but every time I turned a page and smelled the molded texture ignites a feeling of excitement.

I Stopped Tracking My Expenses!

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Yep, you read it right. I have stopped tracking my expenses altogether since I get out of debt in 2017. I get tired writing every centavos that I spent in a daily basis and tallying it at the end of the month. It was tedious and painstakingly hard doing the additional step of writing it down. And to be honest I am not consistent.  There were days when I was so tired that I don't even get the chance to write down what and where I had spent my last centavo in my wallet. Later on, I get frustrated with my graph because it is not tally.

Eventually, when I no longer had debts to pay, I quit tracking my day to day expenses. It no longer makes sense to me anymore. Not tracking my daily expenses has been working for me since then and until today. But mind you, I do not disregard the importance of tracking the expenses. It has been a vital part of myself when I was in debt and working my way to a debt-free life. It has helps me identify the unnecessary expenses I should have cut earlier so I would haven't had incurred any debts. It has established me a routine I followed nowadays so I became conscious with consumerism. It is now ingrained in my life that I can now easily determine what is and what not to spend my hard earned money. Talk about the habit I developed through the years.

What Am I Doing Differently Now? On Budgeting

Yet, I would like to let you know that though I no longer track my expenses in every single day, I am still conscious with how I spend my money. This also does not mean that I completely ignore my finances. I BUDGET. There is the difference. I budget the income and allot every centavo to where it should be accounted for. Because I was able to determine the fix expenses such as the monthly rent, electricity, Internet connection, my parents' monthly stipend, office fare, and school fees, I have now a definite (sometimes it varies) amount on each expenditures. The technique is to allot a little over the amount especially for the electricity bill. During summer, we usually have a higher electricity bill due to frequent use of air conditioning unit. I have to anticipate that. Otherwise, these bills are fix every month and therefore is non negotiable.

I prioritize saving and investment too so I have included these two as part of our fix expenditure. I treat them as non negotiable too. (I'll try to come up with a blog for this and how much we are actually saving and investing). The rest of my salary goes to our food and entertainment. This is the biggest variable in our budget. We have grocery money, wet market money, and miscellaneous. Grocery money is pretty straight forward. We've allotted a wet market money because from time to time, we buy the fresh market produce from the wet market rather than in the grocery. It is way cheaper and fresher. The miscellaneous money is either the dining out money or if we suddenly crave for something at home or the entertainment portion to go outdoors or stroll around the nearby park. It works this way because at least it is a guilt-free money.

At the end of each payday, there is something usually left which mostly comes from the entertainment/miscellaneous part. There are weekends we choose to stay at home and just hang around the apartment, thus it saves us with dining out money.
If this happens, I usually put the excess amount in our savings and when there is an opportunity invest it at a higher interest rate. This is what we call the Zero-based budget and it works for us.

Ways to keep me away from too much consumerism

Know that before I have reached this stage, I was once writing my daily expenses in a notebook and had been graphing it on an excel sheet. From there, I had a clearer picture of those unmindful expenses. I cut a lot of shopping and buying. (This was not the easiest part) It took me years to finally be able to identify my wants and needs (easier said before but in reality this is the most difficult part). I could not be able to identify my wants vs my needs because my mindset that time was that I needed all this stuffs. I was focus on consuming goods that ended up in our storage room and never been used for a long time.

 I don't watch tv anymore because the commercial advertisement enticed me to buy more.

I am more aware with Instagram scrolling because I feel envious with the new stuffs and travel features of the celebrities and even some friends. Please, don't judge me here. I just don't want to take self pity because at the moment, I cannot afford all those things. I am happy my friends can travel and has new stuffs but I am still a work in progress with my emotions. At the same time, because I wanted to enjoy the things that I have without keeping up with the Joneses.

Lately, this zero waste management movement is also getting into me. I've been reading a lot about it. The only thing that I can contribute at this time is not filling in the garbage can in as much as possible. Thus, I have been conscious with buying food that were wrap in flashy plastics. Candies, bite size chocolates, biscuits and drinks, I stopped buying it for myself. But remember, I have a 5 year old I am also trying to teach on this so at this time it is not completely zero waste. Hoping that soon, my little family can do more about this zero waste management. So why am I talking about this? This is a guilt free getting rid of consumerism, saving the difference and at the same time contributing to save our dear planet.

Thoughts

One of the things that help me become better (not yet the best) with budget is the use of automation. The automation ensures that I get to save and invest at the same time. When my salary comes in, the money allotted for savings and investment is automatically deducted from it. No fuss.

I think it also helped when we moved to our own solo apartment. Because, back then I saw, I needed more space than stuffs untouched for the longest time. And I have been in the process of getting most of the things we own into selling and donating to free up more space.

My mindset now has also evolved from the old self set who consume goods to a mindful consuming of goods. There are many products out there that advertise improvement of our own selves but for me going back to basics is still the best. Drinking plenty of water. Having a healthy diet. Exercise. Enough sleep. A ray of sunshine and the morning breeze at the beach.

Right now, I am more comfortable with the way I spend my hard earned income. It has some portion which is difficult because we are still living in a single income household and that is my current salary, but fairly improved since the year I started writing in this blog. (The other side hustles goes directly to re-investment)

It is a nice feeling that we are no longer paying debts because the money that should be going there is now part of our savings portfolio. Plus now I can say that I am really in charge with my salary.

Hand Craft: Crochet Works In a Series 1

I sit today in front of the desktop with literally no idea coming in. Unlike the past days when my mind is circling with plenty of ideas to write to. Today, is suddenly quite. 

I feel really tired. I still don't know where this is coming from. For the past days I've been diverting it to writing so I am focus on something other then being tired. I've had all scheduled posts that even like I am not into writing (talking) there will be continuity to this blog.

These are the days. 

Last night, I was crying when during my regular walk to home, I noticed how thin my hair is. And it hit me those what ifs? But of course, let me tell you, I am healthy as far as my blood pressure and sugar level are concern. Just may be so stressed out and burnt?

Writing is an outlet. I get to express what I feel. I get to write those words which doesn't come out in my lips. This is what I love (even though I am not good at it and incoherent at most time) I jumped from one sentence to another sentence. This is just me. 

I wanted to be positive so I am changing my thoughts. I am trying to set another mind set. I personally don't want to deal with just being 'tired'. Because of that, let me share with you what had kept me busy in 2017 and 2018 that I am not actively writing.

Flooding you with pure labor of crochet hand crafted works.

Clutch Bag with Tassels in Red and Black

Clutch Bag with Tassels in Pink and Gray

Beanie in Pink and Gray

Infinity Scarf in Pink and Gray

These are my photos. I'd be sharing more of this in the future whenever, my mind is blank of thoughts or ideas or reasons to write. I also sell made to orders of this stuffs. A hobby I enjoy and at the same time a litte hustle on the side.

Wishing you a good Tuesday morning lovies.

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