Surviving Budget Cuts at Work

A few months ago, I have decided to quit my job, because I have enough. I felt unappreciated and it is already toxic at work, I am not feeling happy on what I am doing already. Those who know me, knew what I mean.

Anyway, quitting made me my niece caregiver which isn't a problem at all, but when I quit working, my father lost his carpentry job, his employer went to Manila for personal matters. With this, my younger sister work alone to support the family of five, it was not too burdensome  at first, but as the day goes by, our finances is going to the drain, whatever small savings we have is slowly detoriating. My mother started to show signs of stress, short patience and always nagging and angry at everything, maybe because of the problem of budgeting.

One of my immediate supervisor at work, encourages me to return to the office by applying through the boss, with the problem arising at home, I did and to cut the story short I am able to work in the office with a different responsibilities and a bit different environment.

Working was great, there are few overtimes, but it was good. Past forward, election came and a lot of changes happened, the office had a budget shortage for wages of job orders, don't ask me the reason and how the budgeting is done because I don't know either.

Being good at your job doesn't matter, all job orders were lay-off and only a few or handful were ask to return first, those who hold a special place errr job. Right now, we are still waiting if we will be called/hired again and for the meantime I am jobless, I found a time to write again.

Covid-19 Pandemic: Selling Facemask for a Profit

The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating. It  affected so many lives,  many mourned the loss of loved ones to COVID-19, lots of people struggled with the effect of the virus, some people developed depression and anxiety.

It was around mid-August when I already felt very toxic at work, I was so tired and it was really hard for me to start moving in the morning, I loss a little bit of weight due to anxiety and I became sickly and had aches everywhere.  I wasn't happy anymore, working became a burden and not anymore an enjoyment.  Then, one day I realized that enough is enough and I can't do it anymore so I left my job to baby sit my niece, one month after, our whole family was quarantined.

Some of my officemates went worried about me, quitting at work while there is a pandemic, but they knew my decision was for the better.  Maybe because I am a little survivor I started selling facemask online among my Facebook friends, I started with $20 capital which is I loaned from a coworker for my mother's medical certificate, from the rotating savings among the employees. Yep, instead of returning the money before the one moth deadline, I have used it as a capital.

Selling facemask was the only option I have to earn money at home while looking after my little niece, at first I felt so embarrassed posting my items on my personal Facebook account, because there are a lot of thoughts and what ifs, what would be my teachers, friends, classmates reaction if they found me selling online?  When, I started earning a little and some friends started buying, I lost all of my inhibition and posted my mask publicly instead of privately.

Well, with the pandemic almost ending I know that I have to sell other items soon, as wearing facemask will surely be not be mandatory anymore.

January is an Expensive Month of the Year for Business Owners

The month of January, is the most expensive month for me and maybe for many business owners.   It is the month where I have to renew my motorcycle license, business permit and license, pay the last quarter of percentage tax and pay the income tax.  My mother had told me not to renew the business license anymore, because it isn't doing well after all the dealers failed to pay their dues, my biggest dealer had lost it.   I told her I can't because it will be a lot of work to close it in the tax office.

My aunt and the other people who owned small stores in the neighborhood have been busy getting business permits these days, while the others are wondering how to get it since their business income isn't sufficient, it turns out the store owners were asked to get licenses, register at tax office and get business certificates after they were called in the barangay a few weeks ago for a meeting, my mother had not told me about the meeting, because she said I already have complete permits.

[Photo courtesy of jarmoluk/pixabay.com]

Today, even a small store needs a permit to do a business. Well,  I am not yet working with the renewals, maybe next week when I collected all my shackles, I have asked payment from a dealer the other day, but she just waved her hand, saying that she has no money to pay (epic). The other one had promised to pay before Christmas, but New Year had passed I am not seeing her shadow yet,  the other dealer I brought to barangay court didn't show up anymore after paying partially, with this problems, I stopped transacting with dealers and just let my mother accept orders from our neighbors, I will do business again when everything is settled.

Business 101: Being One of the Top Sellers

Owning a business isn’t easy like one, two, three. It was been a year since I officially started my own business at home, registering it to the municipal hall and pay my due taxes. It started well, but there are really some people who are abusive and you couldn't trust when it comes to money.  I have more than 13  dealers and one by one they started becoming a headache, they don't return items on time, they didn't pay on time and much worst they didn't pay at all unless you complain them to barangay court.  I visited two different barangay court so I could get my money back, one settled her account after a few days, but one is still unsettled until today when she was given more than a month to pay and the others they are paying bit by bit.

My sister had told me to learn how to say no and just don't let them get items when they have past due accounts, but the dork me doesn't listen because I just can't say no and I just don't know how to be tough. In this regard, I stopped ordering and getting new products so I will not have  a problem saying no, or they don't have new items to get at my store.

Anyway, the outlet operator in town called for a meeting yesterday, but I wasn't able to go because I am expecting a dealer to pay that day as we agreed in the barangay court. So it was only my mother and sister attended the meeting for me, where they told me I was one of the top seller and in top 4. Maybe if, I didn't stop I can be in top 3 or 2 and I received more expensive gift than a stand fan. Aside from the fan, my name was picked randomly for the advance payments, I got a new blender and some small things.

Well the dealer came late in the afternoon, but she wasn't able to pay fully and requested if I can give her another month to pay, so I agreed.

Letting Go of My First Ever Blog and Migrating the Contents

Living in Korea through independent visa a few years back means I am not allowed to work and without source income it means I can’t send money home.  My family is my sole responsibility with the help of J’s laptop which I am allowed to use when he is at work I searched for ways to work and earn money at home. I found several blogs that teach me how to earn money online, I tried paid to click sites but the earning isn’t promising and then I found out that it is possible to earn money online by only writing about myself and my daily life and this thing was called blogging. I created my first blog at blogger.com, a free blogging platform and was able to buy my first domain a year after.

Mentioning about it, my very first domain will bid goodbye soon since I am not planning not to renew it anymore. It's very regretting because the blog I have to let go has traffic, ranking and thousands of its pages has been indexed by Google. It's very saddening too but I have to let go of it since maintaining a lot of blogs today isn't a great idea when I can't update them all. I have already planned to republished the article in my other blogs according to niche, I have already moved some personal post about living in Korea (2009-2014) over here, so if you'll notice my archives here there are old posts added in them. I have a lot of personal posts on that blog since it was my first ever domain and my first ever blog in the web, that's where I post everything about daily living in Korea before this blog came.

Attending Direct Selling Annual Convention

Attending event isn't really cup of my tea I preferred staying home to watch movie or read online but my mother and sister persisted that I should come with them when a direct selling group they were affiliated hosted an annual event. My father has prior engagement too at the same time so I ended up going with them then I won't be left alone at home doing nothing while everyone is enjoying and eating good food.

The annual event was held in beach resort but not everyone could just go there unannounced since you must buy a ticket before the event. The ticket cost ₱200 ($4.33) and it covers food stub for the catered food and the ticket too will give a participants a chance to win a Samsung smartphone in a raffle.

The event was divided in two parts, the first part was Personality Development with Ms. Odiongan Candidates, the candidates ramp one by one and they were included during makeup tutorial and demonstration hosted by Ever Bilena's representatives headed by Ms. Angelique Marañon the direct sales supervisor for South Luzon, the second part was the proper program, games, giving of gifts and freebies, raffles and announcing of the top sellers, I won a bag as consolation prize in the raffle and few make up freebies from games and answering a question that was asked.

Other than Ever Bilena's representatives, representatives from MSE were also present to introduce their new line of cosmetics which is San san makeup and one person also gives information how to use Maxi Peel properly, then afterwards they offered over 40% discount in San San's makeup with a chance to win prizes, the makeups can only be bought in cash. We bought one set and when my mother is already getting ready to left since there is only one prize left to be given and people are already leaving, her name was called for the last prize which is single burner stove.

The event was very successful and I learn proper makeup application from Ever Bilena representatives, I will  write about it in a separate post.

Applying for a Cooperative Loan

The other day someone came to our house for CI process, it was from a cooperative.  My mother loaned an amount so we could pay some bills, it wasn’t a great idea but that’s the only way to get emergency money. The CI person happened to be my father's batch mate in school and he asked how many children my parents has, then he mistaken me as the youngest daughter and was surprised when my mother told him I am already married so he blurted out why I married early and married first before my sister so I told him I am almost thirty and I am the eldest daughter which I think shocked him that he has to asked my age twice to confirm if I am not joking about my age. LOL

[Photo courtesy of Picsues/pixabay.com]

Anyway, my mother was an old member of the cooperative but it was been almost two years since the last time she loaned from them after I told her to stop borrowing and my father lost his job subsequently but just recently she applied for a new loan but the cooperative subtracted the debt that my mother made from their grocery store a few years back as well as the gallons that were used in retailing water so she only received half of the money she loaned.

The loan is payable in six months but you have to pay installments weekly. If you are an old member a CI process is still needed if it was been a long time since your last loan from the cooperative, they have to investigate if the member is able to pay the loan within allotted time. Their policy changes, since the cooperative is now asking for a collateral items maybe many of the members were not able to pay their loan on time.

My Payoneer Card is Blocked

If there is one email that will make you fell in your chair that is an email from your credit/debit card company that your account has been compromised and blocked. I was shocked today when I received an email from Payoneer Customer support that my card has been temporarily blocked because of an attempt to charge my card from large online supermarket in the UK. Maybe the hacker purchased a huge amount of items or groceries but since my card has only a measly one hundred dollars in it, it maybe alerted the system.

Payoneer is a financial services business that provides online money transfer and e-commerce payment services. Payoneer is a registered Member Service Provider (MSP) of MasterCard worldwide. The company is headquartered in New York City with R&D offices in Tel Aviv, Israel. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payoneer

Living in Korea in independent visa a few years ago I never had a chance to work nor open my own bank account, and since there's isn't a way for me to withdraw my online earnings in Paypal to a Korean bank account and it has been disturbing to J to send money to his paypal account and to his bank account, I have searched method how can I withdraw and used some of my earnings in Paypal. That's how I found out about Payoneer, and since then Payoneer became a big help to me, I was able to buy things and gadgets from my own money and I have never had a problem using Payoneer card abroad, I can use it to shop online or withdraw money in ATM machines worldwide with Mastercard logo in them.

Well, I have no idea how the hacker stole my card number and other details stored in it, the last time I have used it online was to renew domains in Godaddy last month. My Payoneer card is near on expiring in a few months and it should be renew soon but with my situation right now, financially and emotionally unstable I am .

Goodbye Blogging?

More of my blogs will bid goodbye before the year ends. It’s sad not to renew them since they have page ranks but I have no choice I can’t pay the renewal fee anymore, it is getting expensive to renew the domains and blog opportunities are getting scarce these days. I have only earned about $20 for the month of November and it isn’t even enough for my internet load expenses, how much more domains renewals?

Upon updating the site metrics I have found that most blogs and websites went down, the domain authority dropped tremendously which is not a good sign for bloggers since it is a very important measurement in websites popularity after updates on page ranking was stopped by Google.

Well, I don’t know what I should do now since I can’t design blog themes anymore, the internet speed isn’t good enough to constantly reload a website while designing it, it requires a strong internet connection to upload images repetitively, and there isn’t an order for new theme designs anyway since earning through blogging is very slow making the bloggers can’t afford to buy personalized theme for their blogs.  It’s true that a lot of my blogger friends quit blogging and look for regular job; I guess I must do the same but with the number of unemployed graduates in our town my chance of finding a work without a connection is slim. I guess I should start accepting laundry task from neighbors or learn carpentry skills huh?

Maybe in a few months, or a year I’ll be gone in blogging world and the internet and I'll be just at home looking at the ceiling and counting lizards. Even so, all I pray is to have food in our table enable us to survive living.

Home-Based Business: Dealing with Copycats

Establishing a home-based business isn't easy because you need appropriate capital and you have to be careful with copycats. When people sees that you are doing well they tend to get inspired to copy your ideas and  source of income without thinking if it is either friendly or not. Well, this is a free country and there is no such law that two or three people isn't allowed to do the same business so it is normal to see one around.

My family is reselling filtered water from town, it works fine earning a dime per large gallon of water.  We can sold 2-3 containers a day with less than a dollar profit for all of them since the profit for one large gallon of water is $0.22 , most of the customers are just relatives and neighbors. Everything is well not until someone decided to build water station across our house, so what now? Business is dead, we are going to return the containers in town soon.

Beside from reselling filtered water we also used our fridge to sell ice packs for $0.07 per piece and then some of our neighbors at the back did the same it isn't a problem if nobody intercepted people going in, someone stays in the street to ask people coming in if they're buying ice packs.  So what now? Well, customers were just stolen in front of our house they didn't succeeded anyway they turn off their fridge when summer ended.  Same thing on ice candies, my family sold ice candies then someone copied and sell for lower price, when my family stop selling they stop too. Weird isn't it?

My mother is a dealer/re-seller of some beauty products and clothes line, and neighbors copied her as well so my mother decided not to focus on it anymore. She stopped less than a year ago but then she decided to do resell again because we are getting short of income but this time she only give credits to people who pays on time after a month. She earn 15%-20% on every items but she doesn't earn a lot since she has only 3-8 customers and they don't get items monthly too.

Well, we are not just the one being copied it is normal practice. My aunt has a store in front of us and then a neighbor across decided to build a store as well and the worst her store wasn't registered and I have heard she sold her items cheaper, so my aunt business became slow, she lost some customers.

There is really nothing to do with copycats because it isn't their fault that they have more capital than you and they can build more progressive business than you and this is a free country after all but if the copycats are your relatives it is a different story. LOL

Future Plans, Do I Have One?

Our father asked us what our plan is for the future. He is encouraging us to find work so we could support ourselves. He said he is not getting any younger so he cannot support us forever. He was out of job for almost a month and he just recently got a one week stint.  I would like to work but I can’t get a job in town, first nobody will hire me because they thought I am already rich, second the jobs that are only available in town is being a saleslady that has a minimal salary of ₱2,000.00 monthly ($44.44) which is just enough for everyday fare or maybe it is not even enough.  It is the same for my younger sister, she couldn’t find a decent job that will allow here to earn and save money, she tried to apply to a government office but in the end those applicant with strong backer or long experience were the one hired.  I’ve searched for jobs abroad and I found out there is an age limit of 29 or 30 years old to work in a factory and even if they hire exceeding the age limit the applicant should have an ample experience or already an ex-abroad or have already work abroad before so this option is crossed out in my lists.

Anyway, my sister can try to work abroad since she is younger but she needs ample money to do it since we live in the province and she must stay in Manila to find a good agency, and it doesn’t just end there because she has to pay huge placement fee that cost $$$$ -$$$$ before she can get the job and work abroad, medical fees and etc. are not included in that fee so it is really going to be hard for us to support her if she decided to work overseas. There are some agencies that offer no placement fee jobs but it will mean you will pay that amount every month and if you are only earning $$$-$$$ per month, you have to work like a slave so you could pay your agency in six months or one year. No wonder most of my relatives who work abroad were not able to save money or have their house finished, because their salary isn’t enough.

Here is my plan, to jump off the bridge when nobody is looking around.

So what is my plan? I don’t know I have nowhere else to go, if I was only a man I could maybe do carpentry jobs or work as a driver then drink all night to drown myself with liquor. I really have no plan for my future because I am tired of living, I'll just maybe excitedly wait for the day I have to go and leave this cruel word. Well with the blogging industry going down, I am earning less than or a little more than $100 a month on my work online and but it isn’t enough to save since sometimes there is no earnings and then I have a motorcycle loan and I have to buy internet load that cost $34 per month. So I guess I will just live with that amount until I grow old, until earning online is possible. My father is pushing us because he is anxiously thinking what would be our life when he can’t work anymore, nobody is going to help us (his children) unlike if we have a stable job or already have our own family we are not going to be alone to overcome life and its trials, and he will not be scared for us.

Well, I’ve planned to return to school this second semester to take up education units but I don't think I am ready to see my old instructors and professors, they're just going to ask me how am I doing and where's J. I have thought too, what is it for? Why I have to take education units when I know I won't going to need it, when I don't have a plan for the future.

Broke and Blogging

Do you know the feeling of having nothing? When I saw beggars in the street I surely gave something even it is small amount not because I have extra money but because I know the feeling of having nothing. I also believed that you will only touch someone's life once, you'll not going to see that person again especially if you meet him/her in the street you are not familiar with.

It is end of the month and it is time to pay bills so we have empty pockets. Well, today I have to feel that nothing feeling again, it was been almost three weeks since my father lost his job, our rice container was already empty literally empty so we had to eat piece of bread and just drink a cup of coffee tonight. If you will ask my sister, it was great because it will mean she will not to eat rice and she will lose weight. Anyway, I have to get some coins from my wine bank so I can buy piece of bread, gladly there is small rice for my father to eat and to feed our pets. I am working online but my earning is not regular, there are times I can earn from my blog and there are times I can't especially these days where blogging is slow. I had just cleaned the list of blogs I worked with and guess how many blogs or bloggers had stop blogging? I have found 454 dropped domains, those are the domains that has been abandoned and not renewed, which mean the blogs that were attached to that domain were gone because the owner stop writing/blogging that's how poor blogging these days.  Yeah, I know I should find a regular job in our island, but the bad news I can't find one and I guess people will not believed me even if I applied to a job because of this perception that if you are married to a power ranger you are rich. Seriously, I hate that way of thinking because it is not always true.

Applying Payoneer Card Online

Living abroad is sometimes complicated, in order to withdraw money from my online earnings I decided to open Payoneer account. I applied online and after three days I received a reply about my application. It was not approved immediately because my shipping and billing address were not the same, I address the other one to my home country and the other one to my current location. After sending required documents and using my current location as the main address I waited for about a week until my application was approved.

In about two weeks I received my card and I was able to activate it and load money into it. It requires a lot of verification before I can connect my account to Paypal and load money into my card but on my third withdrawal after everything was verified I am able to withdraw to my card through UPS safely and freely.

One of the good thing about Payoneer is it works like major credit cards though it won't work unless there's money on the card as it is a prepaid card. I can used it online and even abroad, I was able to use my card in Russia when we took two week vacation a week ago. I was so happy because I was able to buy a souvenir dolls without bothering my husband to buy it for me or asking money from him.

As the website says Payoneer enables easy & safe global payments, using prepaid Mastercard®, as well as money transfer services worldwide. Payoneer indeed is your World Pay Partner, get your card now!

Originally published @ herzfinance.com

Apartment Rental and Maintenance Fees

Many renters lose money by making mistakes of not reading their apartment contract before signing, on our part we have no contract with the property owner but my husband's employer has. It was only lately that they found out that we have to pay maintenance fee every month, so we started paying two months after we moved to our apartment and few days after we are informed. It turns out we should also pay the maintenance fee from the first month we move in so when my husband received that memo I went to the bank to pay the two months balance, the next month we already pay on time which is every second of the month. But after few weeks my husband received a memo again about paying the maintenance fee, he was asked if he wants it salary deduction if paying monthly is such a burden. My husband was a little furious because we already pay maintenance fee good for 4 months, so he told his co-teacher about it.

My husband brought his bank book to show the proof of money transfers, and guess what it turns out the property owner doesn't update his bankbook or didn't look at it carefully.

Originally published @ herzfinance.com

Buying Farmland as Investment

My mother informed me that one of our distant neighbor is selling 370 square meter of farmland, it was offered to them for a certain amount. Buying farmland is a good investment but the problem is we have no funds for it, business is slow and we already spend money in the construction of our house.

The farmland was not on rush sale so we are hoping that we could save the amount needed so we could buy it before other interested buyers could get it. We are informed that they are selling the small portion of land so they could fix or rebuild their church.

Originally published @ herzfinance.com

Motorcycle Loan

Motorcycle loan is somehow popular in the Philippines, most home owners has either one or two motorcycle at home. Motorcycle is a convenient ride rather than using public transportation every day. If you are dreaming of owning a brand new motorcycle but you have no cash for it you can easily get it from motorcycle companies or marketing company with the help of guarantor, down payment and complete papers that you are capable of paying monthly.

Finally my family's motorcycle loan was fully paid already after paying three years every month. They took Fury 125 product of Kawasaki with P10,000 down payment and P2,530 monthly which is payable in three years.

Originally published @ herzfinance.com

Paying Bills at the Bank

My husband asked me to pay the maintenance fee for our apartment in the bank, I was on hesitation because it is going to be my first time to transfer funds from his bank account to another account. I am bit afraid that I might made a mistake and sent more money than what I should send.

[Photo courtesy of WerbeFabrik/pixabay.com]

Anyway  my husband says I can make it so I did and it was really easy, my  negative thoughts was the only thing that making it difficult. We already pay the maintenance fee this month but my husband received a note that he needs to pay for the first two months as well and that's what I paid today.

Originally published @ herzfinance.com

Paypal Withdrawal and Savings

Without money left to travel to Suwon I decided to withdraw few dollars from my paypal account, it was made possible through my husband's paypal account. I sent him the money and he withdrawn it to his bank account and then he gave me the money. He has no choice because he wouldn't shoulder my fare on claiming my new passport and reporting it to the immigration.

My husband open a paypal account because of it was needed when I want to buy a new laptop and he doesn't agree of giving my allowance in few months advance last year.Well as I have savings from earning online I told him my plan and the rest is history when I needed money I just send him the amount I need which is seldom to happen because I am sending all my earnings home and if I keep withdrawing money from paypal account I am sure my husband will not give me any allowance anymore. Lol

Originally published @ herzfinance.com

Hidden Fees on Apartment Rental

Free housing/apartment is included in my husband's contract, it was shouldered by the school. So we are not expecting any miscellaneous fee and everything but when we moved out from our old apartment we are surprised to know that we have to pay something. Yeah right, we have to pay a certain amount of money for the sensor light. The sensor light is installed in front of the building which is used by all of the people living in the building so who will thought there's a fee for that when we are not informed when we moved in.

[Image from worldpropertychannel.com]

Same thing happened when moved in to our new apartment, we have been living one month already when we are informed that we have to pay maintenance fee monthly that includes the used of elevator, garbage disposal, sky life and water. Now we know why we are not receiving water bill as it was bill in the whole building. As we are not using television the landlord eventually deducted the bill for sky life, with this hidden fees our budget was affected. Instead of saving the extra $$$ we have to use it for maintenance fee every month.

Originally published @ herzfinance.com

Saving Money for House Plans

It was early this year when we started the construction of our house but within more than one month we need to stop the construction because we have no enough funds to continue the construction. The first floor was already built, the beams were made this week, what is left is adding slab or roof to the first floor that will also served as floor for the second floor.

[Image not Mine]

My mother told me that we need about $1, 705 for constructing the slabs because we need to buy lumbers, ply woods, lot of cements, steel bars, pay laborers and other materials. So I am trying my best to save that amount of money so we are able to add slabs to our house before rainy days came, and might cause problem to our things and stuff because our old house is open.

Saving money is not easy when you have no stable job and you are just relying on your blogging earning which is sometimes good and sometimes it was not.

Originally published @ herzfinance.com