I have been dreaming of opening up a small business of our own, and yesterday, that dream finally came true. My dad lent me and my hubby Php 10,000 as starting capital days ago, and we used portion of it to buy some cup noodles. And yesterday, my husband and my mom collaborated and cooked rice and 2 viands – Adobong Atay at Balunbalunan and Monggo. It was my first day taking in a 2-day training for the company’s newest service line (ooh… PIONEER!!!). Anyways, once I got home, the food were already cooked and there was already one order. So being excited of the launched, I hurriedly went home right after my last business review with my previous team captain (I’m really gonna miss her! ), and waited for upcoming orders.

My husband needed to buy additional plates so he left me with the service. And there was this order for Adobong Atay at Balunbalunan but was asking for only Atay (chicken liver, I’m not sure what the other one is in English). Honestly, I love cooking and all, but when it comes with Filipino foods, failure is my game. I didn’t know how to distinguish one from the other! LOL! But thanks to our helper, who brought the orders to the customers, he was able to teach me and differentiate them to me… How embarrasing! HAHAHA! But at least I learned something. Hehe… As a result, our first day was a blast! We sold them all before 4PM and had to tell customers that we already ran out of food.

Today, we are serving Nilagang Baka (Beef Soup), Pritong Isda (Fried Fish), and Adobong Sitaw (Stewed String Beans). We still have a couple of servings left, so we decided to serve them for dinner as well. Hopefully, we’ll be making a lot from this small business and would finally be stable in life with recurring income.

• 0 Comments

I’m not in the mood for almost a week now… I have been thinking on how to save up for our family’s future, specially my baby Julie’s education. I know it’s too early to be thinking about this, but saving up for school is tough, specially if you want good education for your kid. I know I do…

My dad told me that it almost cost him millions for my education. Now I’m not saying that we are rich or something, it just means that both my parents worked hard just to make sure that they give me the best education I can get. How did they do it? Here’s the story:

My dad was a farmer and my mom was a sales lady in a not-that-renowned stall in Zamboanga when they were both young. Courtship took place and marriage came, they were still both not that wealthy people, but were emotionally, and financially, ready for a baby. My mom had a miscarriage who was supposed to be my big brother. And it took them a while for them to conceive me. They both traveled to Manila and started a business. My dad and my uncle shared the business, but it was my dad who managed the business mostly. My mom on the other hand, took advantage of the lodging business and put up a small “eatery” so the customers would eat there. She would wake up 2am in the morning to clean the house, start preparing food, and cook them.

She was selling her food like hotcakes! Yep, my mom cooks great food, and she would make around 500 pesos a day… Now that’s good earnings! Where would you find a job that would pay you 500 pesos a day??? My parents made a lot during those years, I was a toddler back then, and never thought how important money was, all I cared about was my toys. But not long after, my dad decided to put up his own lodging business. They invested what they made on the new business and made more from it. They decided to open another one in a new location, and after almost 5 years, my dad decided to close the first one and focused on the second one. There were a lot of things that happened after that, and now, my parents have 4 lodging businesses, 1 of which is under my name (how lucky am I???) This goes to show that they really love me even though I married my husband for the wrong reason…

Now what pisses me off is that not only do we stay here with my parents, my husband does not even do anything to help out here in the house! He locks himself inside our room for the WHOLE day, and would only show up when he’s getting coffee or eat… (Ang bastos diba?) He does not even have a job… For crying out loud! Where’s the “father figure”??? I am a working mom, but it doesn’t mean that he should not be working then just because I’m working! C’mon, you are staying in my parent’s place! Don’t you feel any shame?!?!

I have spoken to him about this for God knows how many times, but all I get is a broken promise, whenever he gets a job, he never stayed for even a year! And it takes him, what, 3-4 months to get another one?! The best solution that I am looking at is for us to have a business of our own. But the thing is, where do I get our capital for the business if my salary is JUST ENOUGH for the family?!?!

I seriously am not in the mood, I have been thinking about this for a week now. I’m even thinking of looking for a place to stay, somewhere that will force him to work to pay off bills, since the food, electricity, water, even internet that he is using are all FREE (thanks to my parents!) ARRRRGH!!! My dad was asking me few days ago…. “How much money have you saved up for your baby’s future?” My answer…. SILENCE. Seriously, if you would ask the same question to me, my answer is… ZERO, NADA, WALA!!! Not even a single cent! I should secretly open a bank account for myself and deposit money every payday… What you guys think?

• 3 Comments

I promised pictures of my new hobby, and as promised here they are:

I made 4 different designs (3 of them for my hubby, the glistening one is mine), although I already made a beaded one as well, however it’s a bit flimsy, and “popped out” few hours after I wore it, so I decided to not take a picture of it. I’ll recreate one when I have the time. Maybe I’ll make the beaded one later, but right now, I’m finishing a cross-stitch pattern (Baby Tazmanian Devil of Looney Toons). Yeah, I missed cross-stitching… I’m about to go and continue it right now! ^_^

• 0 Comments

It’s been almost 3 weeks since I was able to use my K800i cellphone. I just got it fixed yesterday right after work at St. Francis Square (there are a lot of stalls that offers cellphone repairs, you won’t miss it). I had my cellphone checked up weeks ago before we went to Baguio but it broke down and won’t turn on at all, so I had it re-examined when we came back, and the technicians told me that it will cost me Php500 for the repair, because it’s already the Flash IC that went kaput… So it took me like 3 weeks to get that money — I had to wait for my salary, and had to ask permission from my husband since we needed to budget our money well, and at last, we agreed to have the cellphone fixed.

It took almost 3 hours for a job well done, but after, the tech guys are charging me Php800 for the repair, I disagreed and told that them we already came to a Php500 deal for the repair, so the tech guy did not have any choice but to say yes with the Php 500 price (hey they priced that for me at first, so they can’t just charge me higher amount after!), and also, I told them I already had Php 500 with me. LOL!

So now, I got my cellphone fixed for Php 500, hopefully, this will last long, they gave me 1 week warranty for the repair, which, honestly I feel like it’s not enough… Oh well. I guess I have to live with it since I bought this on second hand. Now off to taking pictures! YAY!!!

• 0 Comments

It’s been almost two weeks since my last blog post, why? Here are the latest happenings:

Last week’s day off, March 21 and 22, our team went to Baguio, that was for 2 days and 2 nights. As mentioned in my previous post – Upcoming Team Building, I brought my hubby and baby Julie along. It was almost an 8 hour travel,so most of the time, my baby was enjoying the view, and there was this one time when she fell asleep staring at the wide greenery that we were passing by, I actually didn’t realize that she was already sleeping, hadn’t my hubby told me. Anyways, when we arrived Baguio, we all went to sleep in a transient house that our team captain had reserved, by the way, here is a picture of the house, it’s actually really cozy and neat, we were at room 2 right bed:

(Picture from http://baguiocity.olx.com.ph/nice-baguio-transient-house-iid-15983554)

The next day, we went to different sites like Mine’s View (bought Strawberry Wine, Pineapple Jam, and some Strawberry Jam), Burnham Park, and SM Baguio, me and my hubby was even up for “slide and rappel” adventure, at first I thought it was just rappel which I was excited about, but when I saw the “slide” part, I nearly cried my eyes out, I was not prepared for the slide!!!! I wanted to quit but I guess I still wanted the adventure. I did cry and my body trembled in fear while I was hung feets above the ground and while sliding to the rappel station… When I arrived *safely* on to the rappel part, I was at ease and full of confidence that I could do it, and true enough, I did. But! The awful thing about this and the whole trip was that my cellphone failed me yet again! I felt so frustrated the whole trip since I was not able to take a single picture of this one of the most memorable events in my life… I was so tempted to buy a disposable camera just to be able to take pictures of my baby Julie Rayne in Baguio. Oh well, I guess there will always be 2nd time. That night, I was assigned to cook dinner using the ingredients that were bought during our “Amazing Race”, yes, our team captain arranged a little game for us, we were paired up and were tasked to buy some ingredients, and then after the pair got all the items, they were to take a picture of a stranger in Burnham Park holding the items. Cool right? Price at stake was Php 1,000 gift certificate for Havaianas EACH! Well, the result? Me and my partner were LAST! LOL! Why? We got lost. Hehe… Anyways, it was fun.

The following day, we went to Strawberry Farm, and I bought a lot of stawberries (ooh I love strawberries!!!) and additional strawberry jam as well. Hmm… then , I guess that’s about it.  We went straight back to Manila, and then off to work. Whew! We were all sleepy and groggy, but we all had fun.

So now, I’m blogging since it’s my day off, but I’m having a split off so I’m about to go to work later… OOOOHH!!!! I hate split-off! I’m wishing that I’ll get 2 straight off next week, so that I’ll have time to do some sponsored posts as well.

By the way, thanks to all who left me messages in my previous posts, I miss you all! I’ll update as often as I can.

• 4 Comments

You all know that I love arts and crafts, though I’m not good in drawing, but I love crafts so much. I did cross stitching when I was in high school / college, and I did a little scrapbooking as well. I made a little bear for my hubby before with some DIY sushi too, now I’m into braiding and beading… I made 2 braided bracelets for my hubby (picture to come — cellphone’s broken), and I’m planning to make one for myself later (beaded this time). I have spare beads from previous projects, and I’m about to create a beaded bracelet on a cardboard box loom. Just click on the link for the instructions. I found this while doing some research. You may want to try it.

• 6 Comments