What Do You Do To Save Money?

[earthdome]

I like coffee and when out on the town in Baguio I sometimes would buy that 120 peso cappuccino. Shortly after moving to Baguio I bought a nice quality coffee grinder and quality coffee brewer which brews coffee into an insulated stainless steel carafe. Now I buy locally grown and roasted Benguet Province coffee beans at 112 pesos per half kilo and make great coffee at home which I sweeten a bit using raw organic muscovado cane sugar.

[lyno 47]

Man I am in deep do..do she who must be obeyed loves to shop :bash:

[i am bob]

Man I am in deep do..do she who must be obeyed loves to shop :bash:

You took your mom over with you??? :)

[johnb]

My wife is a lousy cook and crap with money even though she is a Bookkeeper by profesion, she's learnt over the years that shopping in the supermarket does have a budget, and to mentally keep track of what your putting in your trolly, of course we have prefererd brands but things such as toilet roll you can generally find a similar cheaper product if you wish, same goes for canned fish, we make our own food for our dogs so we can cut back there on cheaper cuts of meat, but any real savings come from services especially from VECO, our electricity provider the largest user of power is Aircon, Generally we dont run aircon during the daytime, but by putting it on a little later each evening or reducing the settings we seem to make a saving, i also endeavor to keep the filters clean and insulate the room as best as possible, with warped or twisted doors or windows that do not shut evenly against the door/window frame I have cleaned the frame and edge of the door, then added a silicone to the frame estimating the larger gaps where door window are a long way from the frame when closed, then applied vasoline along the shutting edge of the door/window before closing door/window and leaving the silicone to harden, [its not a bad idea to add a little silicone to a piece of wood as a test sample for when its dry] when your test piece is dry open your door /window the vasoline will have prevented the silicone from sticking to the door/window but on the door stop you'll have silicone following the exact contores of your warped door or window, also consider the gap beneath the door, this can allow your cool air to escape, you can easily place a blanket or similar at the bottom of the door each evening, or make a snake [ a long thin piece of material sewn together to make a tube, and filled with old cut up rags] to do the same thing.

 

Johnb

[Curley]

What have I done to save money? Moved to a country where I can buy a house and land cheaply, plenty of land to grow all the fruit and veg I need as well as rearing fish, and free range chickens. Maybe even a goat or two for milk and a pig or two for pork and bacon. No rent, no food costs, all I need to do is to find something to spend some money on.  :cheersty:

[Thomas]

Oh I forgot too to write about issolation here  :) We discussed it somewhere else, where we wrote how it can be made so windows let less heat in (and less cold out) e g by double/tripple glass, issolation film put on the glass or blinds, and/or add e g a Marquiz outside to stop the sunlight go direct in.

the gap beneath the door, this can allow your cool air to escape, you can easily place a blanket or similar at the bottom of the door each evening, or make a snake [ a long thin piece of material sewn together to make a tube, and filled with old cut up rags] to do the same thing.

Yes, I noticed even many of the stone houses don't have a threshold even on doors going out to the nature, making a 100 lines autobahn into the house for insects!!!  :hystery:     If the owner say ok, it's better to add a threshold. Such can be added rather easy by a carpenter. Or even by ourselves if doing a simplified threshold by two instead of one standard wood pieces. (=Just cut them in corect length and glue them together to get that angle =The biger part cover most of the hole under the door and the smaller part is higher than the hole. If needed adding a tightening strip at the side of the smaller part. Can need to add some foum or such in the ends of the threshold to close there too.)

[Americano]

Don't leave anything outside of your secure area or it will be gone soon so you will have to buy it again. My wife's sister's husband from America thought he could leave his new tennis shoes from America, his new hiking shoes from America and his flip flops outside the door of the house he was renting. Someone stole all of them leaving him barefoot. And, of course he will never get them back so he had to buy more which are of lesser quality.

 

Maybe no forum member has heard of this next tip and I haven't verified if its true yet.

 

In Mindanao my wife was a representative for the electric company. She had to attend their school and get a diploma upon graduation. Being a representative, families in her community had to go through her to apply for electric service. She was taught the regulations, all the does and don'ts. There's one thing she was told which the electric companies don't want you to know.  Have you noticed that at least once a month, usually right before time to read your meter, your electric goes off and then right back on? It may only be for a few seconds.  According to my wife the electric company does this to increase your electric bill. She says that if you are using anything that is drawing a lot of current like an aircond or electric stove that when the power is switched off and then back on it causes your electric meter to jump forward. I believe this is very possible since the meters here are not made the same as in America where we don't have that problem.

 

Our solution to this is to switch off the aircond circuit breaker which on the wall behind where I sit while on my computer, Usually I can flip off the breaker before the power comes back on but sometimes they flip the power off and on so fast that there's not enough time for me to hit the breaker. Is it saving us money?  I don't know yet but it could be and it sure isn't costing us more. If I knew when they were going to switch off the power and then right back on I could be outside watching the power meter but they are tricky devils so it can happen at any time day or night.

[Americano]

If you make a threshold for your door Filipinos will trip over it or stump their toes on it. Maybe that comment should have gone in the clean jokes forum because its funny but its not a joke.

 

Using silicone on doors and windows sounds like a good idea. I just used the wide clear tape on my windows. It doesn't insulate much but it keeps the hot air from coming in and the cold air from going out.

 

Some vegetable and fruits are cheaper and sometimes fresher at the local market than they are in the Gasaino super market. Other things like rope and cord are cheaper at our market. My wife even bought a battery for my watch there. Installation was free.

[Thomas]

Don't leave anything outside of your secure area or it will be gone soon so you will have to buy it again.

That remind me of a saving a foreigner have done. He lived where they have no fetching by the baranggay, and to save not having to transport it away himself, he just put out the garbage, and the day after it was stolen  :hystery:   Not just once, every time!!!

If you make a threshold for your door Filipinos will trip over it or stump their toes on it.

Will they do it more than once each?  :)

Perhaps paint it neon red, so they see it easier, or make it high, so I can walk over it, but they have to climb over it  :lol:

[Curley]

A good trick to keep the heat out of your house where the sun shines on the windows.......... put a sheet of polystyrene on the outside of the glass, it lets in some light but no heat.