Saving Money in this Crisis Situation

Gasoline prices ballooned for the past months and prices of commodities followed along. In this crisis situation, what are the things that you do to save money? It is really difficult if only one in the family is working. In this generation, the parents should be both working or their children who are of age should be helping their families in order to sustain the daily expenses. If kids go to school, their parents would also be shouldering their daily fare and food budget. About electricity bills, well this summer will be expected to be more expensive because you will be using electric fans or air condition more. But we can do something to save money so that we can still buy what is important or needed.

Here are a few tips on how to save money in this crisis situation:

1.Saving for Electricity – You can unplug appliances that are not in use, in this way you can save money because even if you turn that appliances off, the meter will still move. Don’t use all the appliances all together. If you’re using the washing machine, you can turn off your fridge or your television for the mean time. Using the computer to watch is cheaper than to use your colored television. Another thing that you can conserve electricity is to schedule your daily chores like washing, ironing and cleaning for the week. Keep all the dirty clothes in the laundry bin and just wash clothes when in bulk so that it will be in just one go, that is also applicable in ironing clothes. Keep the door of the fridge close.

2.Saving for Food- You can save money by buying fresh veggies and fish in the local market without going too far where you will spend gas or fare for traveling. It is okay to buy and eat red meat once a week but this depends on your budget. Skip on buying frozen foods or cured foods, it is not safe for your health. Get only what you can eat, if that is rice then start from half a cup to one cup so that no one in the family would be thrashing off left overs. According to the latest survey almost 4B pesos of foods particularly rice are wasted because of left overs. If you want to go for the second round, make sure you keep your plate ample enough so that you won’t waste anything, don’t be a PG (Patay-gutom) Dead hungry for more, it’s really unethical.

3.Saving Gas/ Gasoline- Walk if it’s just near anyway it will be beneficial for your health. In this way you can save fare or gasoline if you have a car. You can also save a lot on your gas tank (cylinder) if you don’t boil water for taking a bath. You better take a bath in the morning of afternoon where water is good. Avoid cooking foods that needs a lot of time for boiling or preparations. Always turn off the knob of your cylinder tank so that it won’t leak any. If you wanted to travel with your family and you want to use your car, just go to nearer places so that you can still save a mile for fueling your tank.

to be continued...