The Garlic Challenge

Remember the time when the garlic price shot up 300%? I was really devastated that time. I love cooking and I love putting lots of garlics and onions whenever I sauté so it was really upsetting when the price went up.

I challenged myself to plant some garlic starting with a few cloves. I planted last Sept 27, 2014 and waited patiently for sprouts.

It took the garlic two weeks before I saw something green protruding.

I was really happy when the shoot came out! 

This is how it looks now. (After 3 days.)

Happy planting! J

We were really into gardening lately...

I don’t usually complain about things but our backyard is really upsetting me lately. I told Paul about this few weeks ago and he agreed that we need to do something about it. So we scheduled a weekend to work on it.

Last weekend we bought some pole bamboos, some Bermuda grass and ornamental plants. We worked in the backyard all day just to finish the first phase. (Actually majority of the work was done by husband because I am not allowed to work much.)  Although we still have a long way to go, we are really pleased with what we see in our backyard today compared to how it was.

No Photo yet. Will update once backyard is okay.  J

My husband wants to have a zen inspired garden. And because of that I don’t have enough space to plant my herbs and vegetables. So the plan is to plant in containers/pots. I’ve read about container gardening in other blogs and I am really excited about the idea.

As of writing I have 2 pots of ginger, 1 pot of onions, 4 pots of onion leaves and 1 pot of dill (needs to be replanted). I also have pandan planted on the ground. I am looking forward to planting some pepper, potatoes, sweet potatoes and other vegetables.

Onions

Ginger

Onion Leaves

It is really a challenge having so little space for planting. But I am grateful because with the space that we have we are learning how to manage everything. We keep things simpler today and we try to learn about plants every day.

That’s it for today. We will share more about our progress on the next coming weeks. J

On Marriage, Being a Wife and Having a Child

More than a year ago I married my beloved man, my best friend my confidant and my everything. It was such a wonderful day attended by the most important people in our lives.

Together as one we started a life. We moved to a house far away from the city. Every day we commute to work.  As much as possible we don’t want to waste money on gas. Our commute from house to work is much more bearable than the ones taking MRT every day at the same time traffic is not very good for the health of the driver.

As much as possible I would want us to have packed foods not only because it is cheaper but they are healthier. During the weekdays I would wake up few hours earlier than my husband to prepare for the day’s food. In return my husband would prepare sumptuous meals during the weekends. Mind you my husband is way much better than me when it comes to cooking. So I guess I am lucky! J

Every day he had to endure the grueling hours I spend on work. Oh my work! But he never forced or imposed anything on me. He wants me to go on with my career and explore more in the corporate world. On the other hand I never objected on the decisions he made on his career either. We just supported each other.

My husband is a very simple man. We never splurged much on date nights or movie nights. Most of the times, movie night means watching TV together in our humble abode. We would go out to buy some snacks before turning the TV on and switching the lights off. We would go on a road trip from time to time to just get out of our usual routine.

We would always touch base with our friends. We know how important it is to have our own circle but we are no strangers to each other’s friends. Recently we’ve been spending much more time with his former officemates because the activities they want are simpler. Well I cannot hike with my condition right now so I am contenting myself with afternoon walks with our trusted “Tsa-tsa.”

And now we are blessed with our own child. We are so excited with the news at the same time scared. Questions like “Are we ready to become parents?”, “Can we really raise this child?”, “What does future hold?” and many more are turning in our heads. But what the heck! We’ve been praying for our child - our very own child. So I guess no matter what the future holds we can make it through especially because we have very supportive families and friends.

Now we are excited to arrange the house to become baby friendly! So help us God. J

A New Fund to Try - Soldivo

I’ve received a text message from my Mutual Fund broker about the opening of Soldivo Funds on October 8, 2014. At first I was just thinking “Okay another fund to try.” But then it gets serious when one of my friends is willing to try it also. So we decided to place a small amount of money for the initial investment. I also plan to put additional investments monthly to take advantage of the peso cost averaging.

Anyway the fund we are going to open an account with is the SOLDIVO Strategic Growth Fund. Before deciding to put our money in it, I talked to my broker and asked questions below:

Minimum Initial Amount = P5000.00

Minimum additional = P1000.00

How much is the Entry Fee? Not more than 3.36%

How much is the Exit Fee? 1.12%

How long is the holding period? 6 Months

Partner bank for deposits or bills payment? BPI

They don’t have the online payment facility yet but I am hoping and praying and I am positive about it that they will make this improvement since it is easier for investors to just transfer funds online.

For now I am going to issue post-dated checks for my succeeding deposits. It’s much easier that way and of course this method forces me to set aside money.

For more information you can download the Prospectus of SOLDIVO Strategic Growth Fund here.

Happy Investing! J

The Everyday Struggle

It is really a struggle to keep up with my personal budget especially because I’ve been craving for a lot of food lately. So I’ve been spending over the top of my personal budget. Even though we’ve been married for over a year now, we want to keep a personal budget. It’s what we call personal allowance.

Now, keeping a personal budget is similar to keeping a family budget. But family budgets are more tedious to do. They require more diligence and effort. I’ve been practicing family budget since January of this year and I must admit that there were months where I was not able to religiously list down everything. They were the months of January, April and May.

I simplified our family budget to only contain 7 items namely Electric Bill, Water Bill, Internet and Cable, Food and Groceries, Leisure, Car related expenses and Savings/Investments. I also set limits on everything except for the savings/investment part. Well I talked to my husband about the limits. Every end of month I send an email to him detailing about our month’s finances. I also include there if we’ve gone over budget, under budget or just break even.

I think this system works for us because I’ve been able to track down our family expenses (religiously I mean) since June. So we will keep on doing this until it is applicable. I hope it will not be an everyday struggle moving forward. J