The Budget Challenge – How I Spend My Money Daily

As a response to Ms. @smaeunabs "Budget Challenge", I would like to share with you on how I budget my daily expenses way back when I still had a stable job.

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I spend a total of 59 pesos a day and I would always try to stick to that budget.

Fare – P 14.00 (24%)
Snacks – P 20.00 (34%)
Fitness – P 25.00 (42%)

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I'm living few kilometers away from the company that I was working. My fare is only P7 in going to work. And since the company is giving us free meals during lunch, I don't have to spend even a single peso for my lunch. Our free lunch includes 1 main dish, 1 side dish, 1 cup of rice, and 1 cup of water. There are variety of main and side dishes to choose from and that’s one of our advantages working in the company. There’s also a special dish wherein we’ll pay an additional of P6 to have it as our main dish. But since I am not picky in foods, I still have nothing to pay for my lunch.

During break time, my workmates would always invite me to go to the canteen to have some snacks. But I always refuse because of two things: 1) I'm sticking to my daily budget plan, and 2) I'm on a diet. Haha!

After working, I would eat my snacks first before I go to my Zumba session. I’ll eat one boiled egg which costs P10 each, bihon/bread for only P5 each, and I’ll refill my tumbler with water from Automatic Tubig Machine and spend P5 for that.

Another P7 is spent as my fare in going to the venue for our Zumba Session. I decided to join Zumba sessions when my weight reached 65 kilos. I just realized that I should not just take care of my finances, but I have to take care of my health, too. I pay P125 per week for our Zumba session. I attended the session every weekday so I divided P125 by 5 days, so that's P25 per day.

And when I go home, I would just walk because that’s still a part of my fitness routine which means that I don’t have to spend another P7 for my fare.

So that's my daily budget plan. Hopefully, you've learned something from me. :)

I'd also like to share my inspiration for doing such budget plan. This isn't a part of the budget plan contest, but I still would like to share this.

I've been budgeting my money when I was still studying in High School until I got my first stable job. At the age of 15, I started being a working student to support myself as well as my family. That's when I started to hold and budget my daily expenses. I wasn't good in that task before since I only got few pesos in my hands to budget. But as the time goes by, I could say that I became efficient in handling my money.

And when I got my first stable job, I continued budgeting my finances. But it’s really true that “once your salary increases, your expenses will also increase” for most employees because of their changed lifestyle. I was one of those employees whose expenses suddenly increased when a high salary is received. For me, as long as I have my job, I can buy what I want. That belief lasted for few months until my workmate introduced Bo Sanchez to us.

Every day, she would send Daily Reflections written by different writers including Bo Sanchez in our emails. At first, my workmate was only sending articles written by Bo, until she told me to read one of Bro. Bo's books. And that was the start of something great that eventually changed my life into better. I read Bo’s “My Maid Invests in the Stock Market...and Why You Should, Too!”
I was so amazed after reading the whole book. I don’t know what Stock Market is, but I started to become interested in it. Then my workmate recommended Bo’s other book entitled “8 Secrets of the Truly Rich". That book inspired me so much to create my goals and reach it. That was when I started to establish my budget plan.

In fact, I'd been writing a timeline of my goals in a notebook. That was Bro. Bo's suggestion to keep us on visualizing our dreams.

This is the summary of my goals and dreams. :)

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This form is found in Bro. Bo's "8 Secrets of the Truly Rich" and I filled it up. :)

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I also believe that one way to achieve those goals is to have financial literacy which is a way to achieve financial freedom.

Thanks for reading! If you have some questions, just drop it in the comment box. :)