February Update: Emergency Fund Edition

Emergency Pig is from the Economic Times of India. 

Despite my new year's resolution of posting more consistently, I haven't really written any updates for February and it's the last day! 

So here I am sliding into your feed on the last day of the month. I'm tempted to just post bullets of what happened to me since my last post. I might as well call this update the Emergency Fund Edition because I've had unexpected spendings of all sorts. 

1. I have managed to log my expenses for 2 straight months. Last January, I had to fund my mother's travel expenses. Although her friend shouldered most of it (ticket, hotel), I still had to shell out for spending money and other expenses. Add other day to day and regular expenses, this resulted in me using up to 95% of the month's pay overall. 
2. This month, regular expenses tallied up to 65% of my net pay. There's still some pending expenses coming up (like airfare and accommodations) for a professional opportunity that came up. The upcoming training's accommodations will be reimbursed up to a certain amount, so I really looked for places that fit the bill. At the moment, I'm hoping that some upcoming seat sales will allow me to buy tickets that won't break the bank. 
3. Earlier this month, I tried to update my laptop's operating system but something happened and it won't boot properly anymore. I tried to troubleshoot it on my own, but with a deadline and tons of work stuff coming up, I really had to have it fixed. There were places recommended but they were closed for the duration of the holidays--it was Chinese New Year--so I had to go to Greenhills. While the guys who fixed my laptop were okay, I still can't help but feel that I would have gotten the job done for lower if it wasn't an emergency and if the other places were open. Well, tough luck. The repair cost me ~13% of the month's expenses. 
4. Last week, I got bitten by a small animal and had to go to the emergency room to get anti-rabies and anti-tetanus shots. It's a good thing I have a health card. The shots were covered by the HMO. From the ER, I was instructed to go to the Company Billing Window, filled out some forms, waited around to have it approved. Once approved, they sent me to the Pharmacy where I got the meds. I didn't see the exact figure but it was a sliver shy of 3k pesos. Earlier this week, I had to return for the next set of shots. Same process, but this time instead of the ER, I had to go through the regular window. It took some time, but not that long. All in all it was a smooth process. Charge was still less than 3k. But still, I would have preferred not to have to go through it. 
5. I have qualified for substituted filing this year since I really only have one  main source of income now. It's really much simpler to just sign the papers and hand them over to the finance people and have them process it. That's one less errand that's taken care of. 
6. There's still some raket/freelancing money that I can round up. I'm sure the cheques have gone stale, so I will need to request them to reissue it. And it involves going to three different places to collect them. But it sure gives me comfort that there are still some hustle money floating around that can fund the next adventures. 

So I've had three things come up that were unscheduled: ER trip and shots, computer repair, travel expenses. They all cost serious money. It's not so bad. Things happen, and I am looking forward to the trip next month. 

2019 Financial Goals

Image from  InspireCast. 


Not gonna lie: 2018 was an annus horribilis for me. 

Recognized that things were bad and spent early 2018 asking for help, and the rest of the year trying to get better. Partly explains why I’ve been AWOL from blogging for the latter quarter of 2018. It’s been a very busy couple of months at work. I went away for a vacation in mid- to late- December. New work schedule started. Everyone’s complaining that they haven’t even finished work from the last term and yet here we are. 

On money matters: I usually list my expenses down. I even made a Google Sheets Template dedicated to this. When I opened it to tally how much I have spent for 2018, that’s when I realized that I have stopped updating the sheet in August. August! Yikes! That actually coincides with when I upped my medication. (Still haven’t posted about this. It’s an ordeal but I’m getting better. But also, health care is expensive and my meds are ~200 a pop per day. No joke). I think I got disheartened with the amount and subconsciously stopped updating my list. 

My investment portfolio briefly touched 7 digits. Then I didn't sell anything and it got wiped out by nearly 40%. Remember kids: Never leave money on the table. That's a hard lesson learned. But also: don't panic. The stock market is bound to go back up, you just have to be really patient. 

I'm still going to be on medication for ~5-6 more months. It takes a whole chunk of change that should be going on a retirement or investment account, but if smaller savings means that I'll get better, I'll take it. 

I don’t really want to do resolutions this year, mostly because I sucked at it. My goal this year mostly the same as last year’s: save for retirement and get a clear picture of expenses/where my money goes. 

I did not invest in PERA last year, despite my January 2018 resolution. Most of what would have been my savings went to doctor fees and meds. Would love to remedy this soon, what with PERA investing via BDO is now apparently easier as an online banking option. 

Started updating my excel list of expenses as well. Will probably try to tally 1H2018 and approximate for the latter half given my half-assed list. 

The only new addition is probably this: be consistent. Not just with the money stuff but with all other kinds of behavior. I was talking with a friend who said she read somewhere that forming new habits take 21 to 28 days. It’s now January 20 and I have so far listed my day to day expenses. I know where I’m at—expenses are bigger than pay, boo! But that is due to a parent going on a trip and I had to fund the expenses. But I do plan to discuss it and ease up on other spending categories. Plus, it’s not all lost as I have some still uncashed paychecks coming my way. 

Perhaps an additional finance goal: Get busy with a side hustle opportunity that came my way last year. I haven’t maximized it yet and will hopefully get to do that this year. 

When you think about it, it wasn't really all *that* bad. Sure there were times I felt I was at an an all time low. But I spent most of 2018 trying to climb out of it. There were some successes: My strategy was to keep pitching things out into the universe. I managed to do a few things. Applied for and did not get in some other things. That's still a bummer but there will be other opportunities out there. 

That’s it. Hopefully will be more consistent with the blog posting this year. How was your financial 2018? 

Vitamins

On my way back to The Building, I ran into a more senior colleague, Madame Highlights. "How are you?" she asked. "You look tired." 

"I was running errands all afternoon," I said. She nodded her head and went on her way to the canteen. 

I've ran out of Vitamin C and the iron supplements, and have been making do with having a glass of calamansi juice twice a day.  I'm swamped with work. I was under the weather last weekend, and it was getting more and more difficult to get up in the morning. So aside from the errands, the general tiredness and sluggishness may be attributed to the lack of vitamins. 

But my bigger concern was that I didn't want to look like the girl in the Stresstabs* ad, the one who perenially looked older for her age, the one with the eyebags, the one dozing off while everyone was having fun singing karaoke. Sure, I want to have more energy so I can do more things. But really, nobody wants to look older than her age. Unless you're a teenager wanting to get into an R-18 show. Hehehe. 

So after work I dropped by the drug store and picked up a few things: Enervon HP power drink for adults, a few tablets of Iberet, and a full bottle of ascorbic acid. 

One thing I noticed is that the Enervon powdered drink now costs more. It used to be in the vicinity of Php150. The packaging has changed. It's now in a box. Maybe that explains why it now costs Php190. 

My usual 100 tablet bottle of ascorbic acid (Rhea; dosage of 500mg/tablet) is Php115. I've downgraded already. I used to take Potencee. But a box of 20 tablets will set me back around Php70+ or at least Php3.75 per tablet. Sure, Potencee tastes nicer because of the sugar coating on each tablet. I take 2 tablets or 1000mg/day.  A box will last me a little over a week. But hey, sugarcoating or not, I need my vitamin C and I need it to be affordable. So I switched. This particular bottle comes in a "super protection pack" and includes a small bottle of Rhea rubbing alcohol. "Get 2x more protection from diseases." Puwede na rin. 

The ferrous sulfate I need because I have trouble getting my 8 hrs of sleep. I usually buy the Rhea brand, and any kind of iron supplements make my intestines go wonky. A friend suggested United Home, which is nicer, but it was unavailable. I resorted to ordering what the doctor really prescribed to me originally, Iberet. I asked for only 5 tablets because I vaguely remember that it costs more than the generic ferrous sulfate. I was right. This set me back Php83.75. That's almost a bottle with 100 tablets. And when you drink it, you just know it's medicine. Oh well. 

I also picked up two small sachets of Bear Brand's Busog Lusog cereal drink, Php6 each. My cereal drink of choice is really Nesvita or Quaker Oats. But those are just way too expensive for me now. I didn't even realize that this BB drink is the one advertised on TV now. 

Total cost of my vitamin/energy boosting panic buying:  Php400.75. 

Granted that I do need these things to get me going, it just boggles me that a few things cost so much more than the bag of groceries I bought. Pero sabi nga nila, our health is more important than any budgeting targets. Plus this will last me a few weeks, I hope. 

*For the curious: I once tried Stresstabs, but it makes me break out horribly. I think it has something to do with the Vitamin B complex or something. So I don't like it.