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Monday, August 3, 2015

Hello August

Hi,

It's August already! Time flies so fast, we have only 4 months left before December.

Before August month hit, I was invited by Maam Caroline Suan, my past co-teacher of Tomas Cabili National High School -Annex as one of their judges for Mr. and Ms. Nutrition. Nutrition Month is being celebrated every month of July each year, so Maam Caroline quicky message me on FB chat, at first I want to decline the invitation but the offer of being handed a certificate after doing it is enough for me to say YES!Oh yeah I am YES to the certificate, hehe. Certificate means that another document will be added to my papers in applying again as a public high school teacher for next year, crossing my fingers that I will be hired next year. The event was fabulous and I did enjoy a lot judging who will be the best among the candidates :) the candidates are all beautiful, smart, handsome teenagers. They are very game to showcase their modeling skills in wearing the uniform, sports and casual attires. I was not able to take a picture with them but I have some 3 pictures only of the said event.


With Maam Caroline

With my co-teacher before (Maam Caroline and Maam Zen)

It was a unforgettable experience indeed!Thank you God for that experience. This month of August is a busy month again. This coming August 6, 2015 (Thursday) my NC II FBS class will start, 8 am to 12 noon from Monday-Friday. So this means that I need to wake up early to attend a class. I decided to enroll because this is one of the requirement for a public high school teacher to be hired. This year is the year that I working plus studying hard to reach my dream of becoming a full time public teacher. Even though I am working online for the past 5 years and turning 6 years this year, I still cannot forget my dream or passion of being a teacher. Hope all my hard work this year will be paid off next year. Please do pray for me that I can do this :) I am also keeping my faith and hope to 100%.

So you will expect that I can't update this blog again starting this month, but hope to write again if I have a free time. My workload online is less recently so that is a perfect timing also for me to do two things starting this month, work + study :)

Till my next post. Talk to you sooooooon.

Cheers,

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Budget Adjustment + Financial Update

Hi,

It's been a while I haven't posted about my finances. I have told you on my previous post that I was laid off from my first job and the result is that my income has been down to 50%, yes half of it, it was not easy at first but I have accepted it and moving on. Had accepted a replacement job right away after I was laid off but it does not work out. I am used to work flex, meaning I own my time, I will decide what time I will start and end my work everyday and it does not work for a night owl like me.

Ok here it goes, my finances has been down but that does not stop me from continue living within my means. This month is a breakthrough on my Emergency Fund, I was able to save 30k for it and right now I am very happy :) it is already 2 months of my salary that I was able to save. Yay! So I am excited to put more to it until I get to 6 months worth of emergency fund. It has been almost a year that I've been struggling to save for my emergency fund, I had lots of unexpected travel plus expenses last year that I was not able to hold up and my emergency fund was nearly getting to 0, oh yes at the end of last year my emergency fund went down to 2k, unbelievable and not desirable either. I don't want this to happen again to me this year.

My FAMI-SALEF is growing, I started with only 5k as an initial investment last March 2013 and continue adding up to it until now with a 1k amount every month, oh yeah small but small does still matters :) , and right now I have 30k+ total investment with a 2k+ gain, yay a lot to be thankful for!

Our St. Peter Life Plan, our because I am paying two every month, for me and for my mother, this sounds morbid but I am just securing the future. I have only 9 months left to pay the maximum 5 years contract. Another milestone on my finances :) After I finish paying for this, I can now add the amount to my FAMI-SALEF. I want to diversify my mutual fund investment this year, I would like to open an account to Sunlife and choose the balance fund, I want to try a balanced fund also, but still my priority this year is my emergency fund, maybe next year I can open another account at Sunlife.

So for this month and the rest of the year my budget will be adjusted, no more unnecessary expenses, like clothes, bags, shoes, etc. I should only purchase the needs. Sometimes I do splurge on some wants but hoping to still stick to my budget. I have a fun fund of 500 php on my budget this month, so I am hoping to stick hard to this.

This is all for now, till next time.
Cheers,

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Up and Down Life Struggles

Hi,

My last post was about my travel adventures during the summer of 2015 and indeed it was a blast! Hope I could travel again by summer of 2016 :) crossing my fingers. I am looking for more travels to come.

When June 2015 came there are a lot that has happened to me. I officially enrolled my one last required subject for my Masters in Education Major in Educational Management which is Statistics in Education before proceeding to my proper Thesis 101 and 102 this second semester of the year or maybe next year. But when middle of June 2015 arrived, I was laid off from my 2nd Online work and has left me hanging on my finances. I thought I should drop the subject because my other job online is enough only to sustain my families basic needs plus other bills or insurances that I should pay every month. But when I take a good look at my finances I can still continue studying the subject I enrolled. One subject cost about PHP3000+ in one semester, so I decided to continue. All I need to do is to have a very tight budget and no more unnecessary expenses.

But a test of my faith and decision making strike me in the first week of July 2015. My boss who laid me off has referred me a job online again that I can possibly work with. Shocking as it may seem but the hiring process was very fast. My former boss contact me via skype because the person he referred me with wants to interview me immediately. The interview process was  very light and it took us only 2-3 hours to finish the interview and tadah I was hired! Yeah! really fast, I did not expect it but God does really move in mysterious ways even though I didn't ask for it. That day when I am officially hired, I started immediately with the task handed to me but they have rules to be followed. I should start work ing 8 am in the morning till 5:00 pm in the afternoon, a Time Doctor should be installed to monitor the time  being spent while working, no social media sites should be open while working, and lots more rules. I am kinda overwhelmed about this, and I said to myself  "Oh they are very strict!" but then I continue. The next working days was very torturing because I am used to sleep very late at night and wake up late in the morning. My body had a hard time coping up, getting up early to start working at 8:00 am is really hard. I've been stressed a lot trying to do a 40 hour work in a week, I am used to work flex, meaning I own my time, I choose what time of the day I will work and I usually preferred to work during early evening till midnight. I ask my close friends on what will I do and listen to each of their advises, most of them said I should continue and only one of them said that I should not. In times like this that I am really confused on what to do, I always go to Church to pray, I ask God for discernment on what to do.

This week I finally decided, I quit the job! I realized that I should choose the job that makes me happy. Money should not always be the solution for everything. I must choose my hearts decision over my head. And after I said that big decision I felt relieve and happy about it. Why do I stay on a job who does not make me happy, right? So from now on I will choose those that will make me truly happy.

SO CHOOSE HAPPINESS ALWAYS :)

Cheers,

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Life Update + Travel Adventures

Hi,

I have to apologized for not updating this blog and posting anything that had happened to me for the past 2 and a half months. My last post was on April 1 and after that this blog has been very quiet :( and the reason was because of "laziness", so I want to say sorry. But right now I realized I should go back to writing and posting some of it on this blog, hope you could bear with me with this very long post this time around.

I mentioned in my last post that I will be traveling on April til May this year and indeed I really did went to the places I have mentioned.

Last April 15- 17, 2015 I went to our Family Grand Reunion at Compound, Mahayag, Zamboange del Sur. This is the place where my mother was born, it was more than 5 years that I was not able to get back to this place since my Elementary years.




Overall, the place was lovely :) fresh air is free, no noises from the vehicles, no air pollution and the awesome part is that most of them sleeps at around 7 pm in the evening, very early than my usual routine of 12 midnight everyday when in am in the city, lol.  You can see lots of trees everywhere, trees that is not usually growing in the city. Like that tree I had a picture with above, that tree according to  my Aunt is over a 100 years old, awesome, right?  So that was the month of April for me. I hope I could go to this place again next year and enjoy the trees and more moment of solitude :)

My next travel was last May 12-16, 2015. It was only 1 week but hey I did so many things even in just a week! I have with me my two friends Irene and Juvy, the plan was we will go to Juvy's place to celebrate their fiesta and the other days will be spend together to see the beautiful spots of Siquijor! Yup Siquijor, when Juvy mentioned if I want to go with her, I didn't hesitate to say Yes! Who would have not like going to a place that most people are excited to go to for a summer vacation? Certainly I would like to go. So May 12 at 3 am in the morning we travel from Iligan City and we arrive at Siquijor on the 13th, we had a quiet delay at Plaridel, Misamic Occidental coz the ticket has been sold out. So we decided to take the route of Dapitan City to Dumaguete via boat and a ferry from Dumaguete to Siquijor. Travelling by land is quiet tricky especially during peak seasons and indeed we have survived! Thank God it is really a nice and forgettable experience.

Here are some of our pictures of our "Extreme Siquijor Escapade". 


*A church of Lazi, Siquijor. Forgive me if I wearing a short inside the church.*


*At Salagdoong, Beach Resort of Maria, Siquijor.*


*At Salagdoong, Beach Resort. The water is very clear and blue :) *


*This is the beautiful "beach" we are able to go to. The Kagusuan Beach, this beach was featured number 1 in www.rappler.com , cool! Right? :) *



*We have a foreigner companions!Lol :) The beach sand was really white and tiny. Oh how I'd love to swim in the water for the whole day. 


*We cannot go without doing some jump shots!Haha *


After Kagusuan Beach, we go to the "Foot Spa" where fish is making the foot spa...yeah you would not believe? Then try it at Siquijor only :) you only need to give any amount as donations and then you will have a foot spa in an instant by the fish themselves, hehe


That is the end of our 2nd day itinerary. Our 3rd day was spent visiting the St. Claire Monastery at Maria, Siquijor and the famous Infinity Heights of Siquijor, Siquijor.



*St. Claire Monastery*


*The Famous Infinity Pool of Infinity Heights!*





So that was it! I had posted a lot of pictures, lol :) Till next time! God Bless You Always!

Cheers,

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Summer 2015 Is Here!!!

Hi,

Today is April 1, 2015 and summer is really here na!!! So it is expected that I want to travel :)

Well for this month I am going to Zamboanga to attend a family reunion together with my mother and grandmother. We will go on April 15-17, quiet short trip but it's better than never to travel for this month. I decided to make it short because I want to travel longer on May about 1 week almost.

On May, me and friends plan to go to Siquijor and stay there for 1 week, yay I am excited already.  I really want to travel this year and this summer is perfect for that. I have been saving like crazy this past few months but still I am long way to go to achieve the target amount I want to have on my emergency fund this year. I have not also enrolled on my Master's this summer since I want to relax because of a hectic busy schedule I had with my master's for the past second semester of this year that I had finish last March 19, 2015. My thesis proposal has been approved and I am ready to step onto my Thesis 100 on June 2015. So before taking that next step again I have to relax this summer.

So that's all for now :) See you on my next post soon. I want to post some pictures of my next post about my coming travel this summer.

Cheers,

Monday, March 2, 2015

February Spending Crazynezzzzz

Hi,

How are you? Hope you are all doing fine, I've been very busy last month until the coming months to come. I am writing this post because I got shock on the total spending I did for the month of February. This is the first time when I started being frugal that my spending went overboard, way too much on my budget each month. When I got my own Belle De Jour Planner last month , there was a section on the planner in tracking your expenses and only month of February this year that I religiously track every centavo that I spent on anything either wants or needs.


Saturday which is February 28, 2015 that I add up all the expenses. And ohlala the total was 17k+ :( I got shock and cannot believe it! This is really my struggle right now, my investment is doing well but my emergency fund at ONB was not, so I have to make a solution for this, I will transfer some of this emergency fund on a separate account which is not on a bank but on a cooperative. I am a member of a cooperative and they have no ATM for your savings, you only have a passbook, so withdrawing your money will not be as convenient as the ATM. Having an ATM sometimes is a temptation especially since there are so many ATM's in the city that you can go to, just a click of the ATM's machines and voila the money is there. Plus add up the ATM's fees :(

This month of March, I have to do this solution for my spending struggle. Crossing my fingers for it.

Till next time.

Cheers,

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Things To Give Up For Lent

Hi,

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, so I go to church to attend the mass. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ's Resurrection on Easter Sunday, through which we attain redemption. During the mass, I lined up to be able to marked my forehead with ashes. Our foreheads are marked with ashes to humble our hearts and reminds us that life passes away on Earth. We remember this when we are told"Remember, Man is dust, and unto dust you shall return."

Today when I open my Facebook account, one of a mutual friend share this post on the wall. And I am curious and opened it. It does says about the "40 Things to Give Up For Lent". Below are the list:

  1. Fear of Failure – You don’t succeed without experiencing failure. Just make sure you fail forward.
  2. Your Comfort Zone – It’s outside our comfort zones where new discoveries are made.
  3. Feelings of Unworthiness – You are fearfully and wonderfully made by your creator. (see Psalm 139:14)
  4. Impatience – God’s timing is the perfect timing.
  5. Retirement – As long as you are still breathing, you are here for a reason. You have a purpose to influence others for Christ. Our work is not always tied to a paycheck.
  6. People Pleasing – I can’t please everyone anyways. There is only one I need to strive to please.
  7. Comparison – I have my own unique contribution to make and there is no one else like me.
  8. Blame – I am not going to pass the buck. I will take responsibility for my actions.
  9. Guilt – I am loved by Jesus and he has forgiven my sins. Today is a new day and the past is behind.
  10. Overcommitment – Do less better and accomplish more.
  11. Lack of Counsel – Wise decisions are rarely made in a vacuum.
  12. Impurity – Live lives pure and without blemish.
  13. Entitlement – The world does not owe me anything. God does not owe me anything. I live in humility and grace.
  14. Apathy – Life is too short not to care.
  15. Hatred – Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).
  16. Negativity – I will put the best construction on everything when it comes to other people. I will also minimize my contact with people who are negative and toxic.
  17. The Spirit of Poverty – Believe that with God there is always more than enough and never a lack.
  18. Going Through the Motions – The more you invest yourself, the more you will get back.
  19. Complaint – Instead of contributing to the problem, be the solution.
  20. The Pursuit of Happiness – God wants something greater and more lasting than happiness. It is called joy.
  21. Bitterness – The only person I am hurting by holding on to this is myself.
  22. Distraction – Life is filled with distractions that will take our eyes off the prize.
  23. Giving up – God never gives up on us.
  24. Mediocrity – If you are going to do something, then give it all you got.
  25. Destructive Speech – Encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching (see Hebrews 10:25).
  26. Busyness – It is a badge of honor to be busy. But that does not always translate to abundance.
  27. Loneliness – With Jesus I am never alone. He is with me wherever I go.
  28. Disunity – If two of you agree on earth about anything, it will be done for them by the Heavenly Father (see Matthew 18:19)
  29. The Quick Fix – Rarely does true transformation happen overnight.
  30. Worry – God is in control and worrying will not help.
  31. Idolizing – Don’t assign anyone a standard they cannot live up to.
  32. Resistance to Change – Change is certain. It is not if we will change, but how we will change.
  33. Pride – Blessed are the humble.
  34. Small View of God – Don’t tell God how big your problem is, tell your problem how big your God is.
  35. Envy – I am blessed. My value is not found in my possessions, but in my relationship with my Heavenly Father.
  36. Ungratefulness – You have been blessed in a way greater than you realize.
  37. Selfish Ambition – God has a mission for me that is bigger than me.
  38. Self-Sufficiency – Jesus is my strength. I can do all things through him (see Philippians 4:13)
  39. Sorrow – Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5b)
  40. My Life – Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life (John 12:25).
This list was credited to the writer of this blog: http://gs4nj.org/40-things-the-give-up-for-lent-the-list/

I do hope that I can give up this 40 things during the lent season.

How about you? What will you give up?

Till next time.

Cheers,

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Valentines Day 2015!

Hi,

Many of the women yesterday celebrate their valentines day with their boyfriends and husband but I am not one of them!Rawr...haha...well I am a certified NBSB so I don't care not having a boyfriend to date with during Feb 14. I am single for 26 years already and I think God has the reason why :) , he haven't yet found the guy who deserves my love. I had some suitors before but it doesn't end up having a relationship with them. Well I don't want to elaborate more of why I am still single,hehe. Let's move up to what I did on Valentines Day.

I celebrated my Valentines Day with my Mother and Grandmother in the afternoon and with my friends in the evening. Yes it was a blast and a very happy V-Day! V-Day can be celebrated also with your loved ones and friends, it doesn't mean you will only celebrate it with a man or boyfriend. 

It was a busy day for me coz I brought my cat "Brix" to the vet because we noticed that he has a uncontrollable urination this past few days. He will urinate in different areas of the house and the odor is really bad, the whole house smells like urine. Brix has been with us for 6 years now and he's been my lovey dovey ;) well I do love cats a lot than dogs, but we do have two dogs in the house. Brix has been brought to a veterinarian thrice already in his 6 years with us, he's an indoor cat so I don't know why sometimes he easily got sick. I am glad the vet was kind and he attended to what Brix needs for him to get well, he was being injected with an antibiotic yesterday morning. The vet said that it is good for 2 days and it will fight the bacteria that has been causing his uncontrollable urination. But today the antibiotic show a side effect on Brix health, it affects his appetite, he didn't eat anything since this morning :( he only drink water the whole day but no solid food or anything, and when I search through online, the loss of appetite was one of the side effect of the antibiotic being injected to him. I do hope and pray that Brix will be ok soon and his normal appetite will come back in the next few days. Here is Brix, he's a big and handsome cat :)


After me and mom brought Brix to the vet, we then go to the city with my grandma to eat a delicious meal ;)




Then after I had a date with my mom and grandma, I met up with my friends , sisters and brothers in Singles for Christ community to have a group date :)




So over-all my Valentines Day was not sad, but it has a memorable day with my Mother and Grandma plus my friends,sisters and brothers in SFC :) I want to thank God for letting me feel that He does really loved me unconditionally more than I ever imagined, He is really an amazing God. 

Hope all of you had a blast Valentines Day also!

Till next tym.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

PROBLEM Again With FAMI

Hi,

It's been 10 days or almost 1 week and 3 days now that my FAMI - SALEF additional investment for January 21, 2015 has not been resolve.

This is what happened why this problem again happen to me. I invested at 12: 35 AM on January 21, 2015 via my Unionbank account and the process was successful, meaning the money was successfully  been deducted to my account, there was a Cyber Receipt that I kept for reference. I thought it is all good and I will just wait 2-4 days for them to send me the confirmation receipt that will be directly send to my house via the Air 21 as courier. I've been doing additional investment every month since i am using the cost averaging method and my target for this is 5 years, I've started on March 2013 until now, so I am doing it regularly. But last month of January I never thought their would be a problem on that added investment I made. So days passed I check my FAMI Portal account if it was credited but ohlala it is not! Even a single peso, there was none that is visible on my account. Then I decided to email their customer service plus their Facebook account to know about my problem.

I got no reply from them, even a single reply there was none, so days passed I got a reply and they are asking me some information for their verification purposes and I give it to them. They said thank you for the verification purposes and they will get back to me after their operation team solve it. Then I got an email and it is said that "Please provide complete details of investment including  time of deposit and branch code po. kasi hindi po nag rereflect sa bank statement po namin . " So I provided them again the time of deposit that is reflected on my cyber receipt plus the bank code yesterday, I even attach again the cyber receipt. But until now I got no reply.

This kind of issue with FAMI is what I don't like. When you invest there was a delay or sort of this kind of problem that your investment could not be credited to your account. How come this is happening? My bank has no problem deducting the amount I invested since it was successfully been transferred to FAMI. I have high hopes on Mutual Funds like FAMI but this kind of problem is not really funny. I've been working hard almost 8-12 hours a day and investing on them is my retirement plan but they again fail my expectation :(

I do hope and pray this problem or issue will be resolve soon. I will not invest on them again this month if this issue will not be solve.

Till my next post.

Cheers,

Friday, January 23, 2015

Belle De Jour Power Planner 2015 Has Arrived!

Hi,

I should have written this post yesterday but I was too busy with work, I have sleepless nights this week :( .

I have received the Belle De Jour Power Planner 2015 yesterday at 9:00 am in the morning. The mail man buzz our doorbell and he handed me the package, yay the smile on my face was very wide when I received it. :) I consider this planner as a gift to myself this year since I really need to be organized. I've been very disorganized last year and this planner would be the answer for this attitude this year 2015.

When I open the package I was impress on the cover of the planner, it was hardbound, girly and classy, my type of planner. I've been eyeing on this planner for about a 2 or 3 year already and been wanting to have this very badly but i am not financially capable at those times, so this year is a blessing because I had it finally on my hand. I've also join the contest of Kristine on her Real Asian Beauty blog but I was not pick as the winner, so I've been a bit sad about that. But the hope I had to have this planner has not  banish so I did order on the I Love BDJ website via paypal payment. Actually I had joined the contest of Kristine for me not to be able to buy this anymore, the frugal lady attitude of mine strike me that is why I joined, hehe. But for this planner, I am willing to spent PHP 598 just to have it. I also want to reward myself this time around. I actually loved to write and read, I have my notebook which is given by a friend to me where I usually wrote my feelings if I am sad, happy or anything but that notebook has few pages left for me to write on so I decided to buy this planner.

At first glance on the pages, I am quiet confused on the pages, haha. I don't understand the MIT section of the planner at first but when I browse their FB Page, it was meant to be a "Most Important Task" haha now I know what it is. The planner has a section where you can write your goals for 2015, a Happiness List, the Dream Board, 2015 BDJ Checklist, and many more. For a PHP 598 Planner, this is really worth it :) and I love it very much!Yay I am soo happy :) I take some photos of it, see below:


The cover


First page



I started 4th week of Jan, I started Jan 22.


Then put my schedule for this month, this is not yet complete.


Thank you God for letting me having this power planner this year 2015 :) I am looking for a better Angelie this year. My motto this year is "Worry less = Happy Angelie" :)


Till my next post.

Cheers,

Friday, January 16, 2015

Late Christmas 2014 Update

Hi,

How are you? It is now January 2015 and this post was very late for me to do but I think it's better late than never, right? :)

My 2014 Christmas celebration was a blast!!!I cannot compare it to the other Christmas celebration I had because this Christmas was being spent with my entire Dag-uman family, my mother's maiden family name is Dag-uman so it was very rare for us to  be together especially during Christmas. Most of my cousins and aunt are already living far from us so it is very impossible that we can be together often but this time it became possible. I am very blessed and happy it happened last year. God is so amazing! :)

My mom's sister's and brother came into our house to celebrate Christmas with us, it was not actually planned but it happened, it does not only surprise me but it does surprised my mom a lot, seeing her happy make me a happy daughter too. I then immediately went to the city to buy gifts for them and I don't care how much I spent but as long as I can share to them the blessings I have in this precious moment of the year. We had a little games played during the evening and it was very fun. My Auncle, Cousins and Aunt's danced in our very small living room area. Below are some of the photo's I got during the Christmas evening.


Happy to receive their gifts :)


Dag-Uman Family (Sister and Bro of my Mom+Cousins)


The Gifts


My Mother and Grandma


Mother and Me

It was a very happy Christmas indeed! Jesus made it possible for my family to be together on his birthday. I love you Jesus :)

My next post is about my Christmas vacation, so watch out for it! Till my next post.

Cheers,