Things I've Learned that help me stick to my budget

1. Being organized is a good thing. We used to be so unorganized about paying bills and ended up having to pay three or four times more than the original sum just because we were too disorganized.

2. Lists help. When I go grocery shopping, I list down everything I need including brand names and the number of items I use. This keeps my throwaway level to a minimum and helps me stick to my grocery budget.

3. Scrap the unecessary and the unhealthy. While I don't always stick to this rule, scrapping softdrinks and chips on a regular basis has kept us both from gaining too much weight and it also means instead of buying junk food, I have more room in my budget to buy healthy food like apples and bananas.

4. As much as possible, avoid buying on credit and avoid the buy now, pay later scheme.

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A Story about Debt or Why I dread the "D" word

I was nine years old when I went into debt for the first time. I was one of those kids who always wanted everyone to like them, and so in order to please everyone in my class, I decided to treat them all to some sweets. The problem was, I didn't have enough pocket money to buy sweets for the entire class. My classmates (who were selling the sweets) told me that they didn't mind if I paid them little by little, and being the daughter of a doctor, I felt it was my duty to treat the entire class. So, I agreed to buy now and pay later (little by little).

By the time the entire class had eaten as much as they wanted, I had a debt of over twenty pesos (or something like that). In those days, twenty pesos was a big deal. For a child whose weekly allowance is something like fifty cents, twenty pesos is a mountain of impossibility.

The kind classmates who'd sold me the sweets wanted their money and I didn't have any. Out of worry and pressure, I decided that I would stop going to school. I did this by pretending to be sick. I think I was sick for an entire week before my parents discovered the real reason behind my illness.

I will never forget the look on my father's face. They paid the bill, but that experience hounded me all through elementary school, and to this day, I have a horror of being unable to pay for whatever it is that I purchase.

Philippines being what it is, and Filipinos being Filipinos, there is this buy and sell method called "hulugan" (paying a bit of cash every portion of the month). This can become addictive and it's very easy to lose sight of how much you've really spent. This method of buying is usually applied to luxury items which we would normally not buy because we can't buy them on a cash basis. For instance, designer clothing, designer bags, watches, jewelry, electronics and even furniture are sold in this way.

With the breakdown of economy, this is a phenomenon that's blown over to the Netherlands. The idea of buying now and paying later, or buying on credit is catching on in electronics and furniture shops. It's very tempting to ask for a card from this or that company, but I think I'll adhere to my husband's wise method. This is the one where he says: If you can't afford to buy it now, what makes you think you can afford it later?