Our Growing Family

If you’ve made the choice to live in an environmentally “green” house, chances are your rent is going to be a little higher than most. There’s no doubt that a reduced environmental impact is well worth the cost, but it may be difficult to justify the extra expense every month. Worse yet, you may find yourself struggling to pay your rent on time.

Don’t panic: There are plenty of ways to have your environmental cake and eat it too. Here are the top four tips for paying your rent on time (or early).

Calculate Exactly What You Need To Save For Rent Each Month

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First answer two questions: how many paychecks do you get each month? How much is rent?

Divide your rent by your number of paychecks. For example, your rent is $1700 and you get four paychecks, you’ll need to put aside $425 each week.

Do Not Touch That Money

Put your weekly or biweekly amount into a savings account and do not touch that money. That’s your rent fund. If you take some money out thinking that you’ll just “catch up next paycheck,” you’ll just be setting yourself up to be short on rent at the end of the month.

The easiest way to pay your rent on time is to not let yourself get behind. You don’t want your last paycheck of the month to go entirely towards rent—what will you spend on food, gas, and other necessary life expenses?

Better Yet, Save Extra Money

Saving extra money is an easy way of guaranteeing you’ll be able to make rent on time (and saving you some money in the process). Let’s go back to the $1700/four paycheck example: though you need to put away $425 each week, put away $450. It’s only an extra $25 per week, and you’ll end the month with $100 saved. Again, do not touch that money. Save $100 every month for a year, and you’ll wind up with $1200 saved for emergencies or unexpected expenses (medical bills, veterinarian expenses, unexpected damage, car repairs etc.).

Consider Payday Installment Loans for Your Emergencies

If an emergency comes up, don’t take it out of your rent money: you’ll just be putting yourself deeper in a debt hole (and putting yourself on bad terms with your landlord). Consider getting payday installment loans that can help you solve an emergency or crisis without jeopardizing your rent.

Got Any Tips for Paying your Rent to Share?

Readers, we want to hear from you! How do you ensure you’ll have enough money for rent each month?

Now that the holidays are over, the credit card bills are rolling in. Maybe you’re wondering how to catch up on bills you neglected, so you could attend parties, make delicious dinners and buy gifts for your loved ones. When traditional lending avenues seem blocked, you may want to consider the online lending industry. To protect yourself and your hard-earned cash, follow these tips when shopping for an online loan.

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Check Your Credit Score

How is your credit score? Your credit score will have an impact on what types of loans you’ll be eligible for and what interest rates you may secure. Your credit score can decide if you need collateral to secure the loan.

Research

There are many types of loans available online. These can range from online installment loans to home-secured loans, cash advances to payday loans, and many more. Asking some questions can help you decide which loan is right for you.

How long do you have to repay the loan? If you need some quick cash for a minor emergency and need just a little time, consider a payday loan or cash advance. These types of loans were created for these types of circumstances, not for long-term lending.

Compare Lenders

Once you decide which type of loan you need, you must sift through the plethora of lenders. After finding potential lenders, you have to narrow down the list to one. Start by researching each lender through the Better Business Bureau or the Consumer Federation of America. If you find nothing at either, a search in your favorite search engine can yield a lot of information.

Remember that a few negative comments are possibly the result of a bad experience, but multiple complaints raise red flags. Ask around about companies your friends or family may have used; personal references give the best and most accurate information.

Income versus Output

Before signing the dotted line on any loan, you have to really consider a few key things. Is the money you’re borrowing for something you need or something you want. That Mexican vacation may seem necessary, but it’s not nearly as important as paying off delinquent medical bills.

If you’re using collateral, consider what may happen if you default on the loan. Not that you would intentionally default, but with unemployment near ten percent, you have to consider the worst-case scenario. Home- or auto-secured loans can have detrimental consequences if payment isn’t made. In this economy, you should consider job security, raises versus inflation, and benefit expenses into your decision.

Online lending has revolutionized the borrower’s market and opened many doors for people who need a little extra help. Using common sense along with these tips will help you make the best decision.

What other things should one consider when getting loans online? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

Since we are celebrating the Chinese New Year, it’s a long weekend for us since Monday is a holiday.  Too bad we were not able to plan anything special to do this long weekend.  But just the same, it’s nice to spend time with my family and just have a relaxing day with them.  I still haven’t bought any lucky charms for this year of the water dragon and I hope I’ll be able to buy something soon.  Anyway, Happy Chinese New Year to all my Fil-Chi friends! May we all have a prosperous year!

Next month is the love month and I’m sure most couples are already looking for a perfect date to celebrate with their loved ones. May it be a concert or a candle light dinner or an out of town trip. I’m sure that girls are also starting to look for perfect gifts for boyfriends to show them their love and vice versa. For sure, malls next month will have red decors composed mostly of hearts, and cupids, and so on.

We still don’t have a camera until now.  Our camera got broken last Christmas when Hannah dropped it while the camera is on.  Now the lens doesn’t retract anymore and when I brought it to the Canon service center, we were informed that we need to pay around 7K for the repair which includes labor and materials.  Since we find the charge expensive, we decided not to have it repaired and just buy a new one.  Now we don’t know what to buy.  I have a camera in mind but it’s a bit expensive that if the kids use it and broke it, I might cry. Lol! So now, we are still thinking and weighing the features and prices of the cameras we have in mind.  Hopefully we will be able to buy one soon!

Since we will be having two students by next school year, Paul and I were thinking of buying a printer with scanner software because we know the kids will need it for school. It’s good to know that there are printers with those kinds of features or even more since there are those 3-in-1 printers which means it can print, scan and photo copy. Now we just need to check the different brands and see which one has the best feature and still affordable.

I posted this in facebook this morning and even if I was at work na, I still can’t think about it.  Here’s what happened last night (copied from my fb):

While I was putting Lance to sleep last night, I heard him sob so I asked why. When he looked at me, he was really crying and told me he miss me because I’m always in the office. So I explained to him why I need to work until he’s ok na and isn’t crying anymore. I know he understood what I said pero grabe! Ang sakit sa dibdib!

I held back my tears while I was talking to Lance on the reasons why I need to work.  Of course I need to use words that he can relate to so he’ll be able to understand; and like I said in my fb post, I saw in him naman that he understood what I said.

I knew what he meant with me always in the office.  My daily schedule starts when I wake up at 5am and I leave the house at 6:30.  I stay in the office till 5:30pm and gets home around 8pm.  Sometimes I can’t get to play with them anymore when I get home because I’m too tired from my travel from office to work.  Travel time from Marikina to Makati in the morning takes about 1hr- 1 ½ hrs and in the afternoon it takes about 2 hrs from Makati to Marikina.  If you’re lucky, travel can be as short as 1hr 15 mins but if you’re unlucky and got stuck in traffic like what I experienced the other day, it will take you 3 hours!

I guess that’s what Lance noticed when I transferred to my new job.  In my previous work, I leave the house at 8:30am and can still make it to the ofc at 9am.  Since I get to leave the house late, I often give him bath and waits for the school service to pick him up before I leave for work and normally I’m home between 6:30-7pm.

It really breaks my heart whenever I see them sad because I’m leaving for work but there’s really nothing I can do for I want them to have a good future.  I know they don’t understand much yet my reasons; but on my part, I just have to make sure that I spend time with them whenever I’m at home.  If I can, I’ll try to spend time with each child alone so we can have our own bonding moments.

Lance had his second field trip for this school year yesterday in Tagaytay.  Since I haven’t earned leave credits yet being new in the company, and Paul is busy with work that he can’t take a leave also, my sister volunteered to go with him since she still has 12 days leave to use until end of March.  We asked Lance if it’s ok if his Tita will go with him and thankfully he said yes.

They went to Paradizoo where the kids were taught about the life cycle of the butterfly and also about the bees.  Lance also rode the horse and had fun riding on it.  Lunch time they went to Picnic Grove.  They stayed there till 2pm and then rode the bus to go back to Manila.

It was just a short day but I’m glad Lance had a great time.  It was also nice to know that my sister had a great time bonding with Lance.  Hopefully I’ll be able to go with him on his next field trip.

It just dawned on me that the prescription glasses I use are already three years old. Since I started using titanium frames, gone were the need to change frames every year as titanium is relatively corrosion-resistant. You should see my non-titanium glasses, the stems were ready to break because of the corrosion from sweat. That’s why when it comes to jewelry, precious metals would be my only choices. Plus of course with titanium’s corrosion-resistant properties, titanium rings would be up there with the jewelleries I’d buy for myself.

I blogged before that we watched the movie with the kids last weekend.  As expected, we ate at McDonalds after the movie to get their happy meal toys.  We were only able to get 2 toys at that time because it’s the only one they have.  The kids want to complete the toys so Paul and I took turns in eating at McDonalds just to get the toys and finally they were complete.  In fairness they look cute haha and I enjoyed seeing the kids play with them.  Simple joys