Expensive Life and Abba
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I spent the whole afternoon fixing my files. Bills, receipts, magazines, clippings. Gosh, I think I need a secretary. But I'm too much of a control freak. So I have to do everything myself.
At the Ayala Land Premier launch of Nuvali on Earth Day (which I hosted), I recall the president of ALI saying that the first step to reducing your carbon monoxide emissions is to measure it. And apparently there's a gadget that can do that for your monthly energy consumption in your home. Then when you take steps to conserve energy and limit your emissions, you'll see the difference from the measurement index.
Well, as most of you know (if you read my flickr) we have been undergoing major renovations in our late-60's wooden house. The effect, I hope, should not just be pretty (it is, I'm so excited to show it soon) but also energy efficient and environmentally sustainable. I'm doing LED lights and sealing holes in our wooden walls and floors. More on that later because now I'm totally off tangent.
Anyway as I was filing away ALL my receipts I was astonished with how much I spent and continue to spend on:
1. Parking in Rockwell
2. Starbucks double lattes
3. Eating lunch here and there.
Going back to the ALI president's message. The first step to reducing "whatever" is to measure your consumption first. This is certainly an eye opener. I have a driver. I should ask him to standby somewhere outside Rockwell instead of park while waiting for me. Thing is, I'm scared he'd keep the motor running and run up my gas bill. What's worse: gas bill or 40 peso parking tickets? Good thing parking in Rockwell is flat rate. If you have ideas on how to reduce parking bills, please share with me....
Those who also know about my Nanny Dramas, the good news is I've found a lovely cook/maid. I don't want to praise too much. "Baka mausog." I have no way of translating that in English. Anyway this means more meals at home and less of those random 200-300 peso lunches. They add up.
I saw a bill for gas from June and gas was just P50 per litre. Gosh. Now its what, P61?
I did the groceries today and purposely bought smaller packs of everything. Instead of 1 kilo of this, I bought half kilo packs. Instead of a large ketchup bottle, I bought a medium bottle (not good for the environmental waste situation). And still, I spent P4,500. That used to fill up my grocery cart! Today it was just half. My gulay. And I wanted to buy local produce... to support our farmers... WALA! It was all imported everything, from tomatoes, beans, to onions.
I don't understand what's happening to this world.
Then I got sad and afraid and I started to panic. How can we afford to make our dreams come true? I guess not next year. How does the rest of the Philippines cope with all these rising prices? Sad.
So to lift up my spirits, I surfed the Mamma Mia Movie website here and had some fun. Sent my mom some e-cards. She's a huge ABBA fan. And that's one of the reasons why I loved the movie so much. It really made me feel so close to home. I grew up with ABBA and Boney M songs blaring out of my dad's cassette component (the precursor to the 80's boom box).
ABBA made me happy. My husband thinks I'm exagge. But I'm watching it again tomorrow.
I'm in awe of Amanda Seyfried's voice. It's so clear and crisp. And she looks so wonderfully youthful, she sparkles. I kept playing "I Had a Dream" over and over.
Hard to believe she was that girl in Mean Girls.
She'll be bigger than Rachel McAdams for sure. Heck, she'll be bigger than Linday Lohan. LOL.
She's made for life. Vanity Fair cover and all.
Back to my reality. Soph, Lily and I danced like crazy to Dancing Queen.
Thank God for ABBA.
I'll deal with the house budget tomorrow.
.
I spent the whole afternoon fixing my files. Bills, receipts, magazines, clippings. Gosh, I think I need a secretary. But I'm too much of a control freak. So I have to do everything myself.
At the Ayala Land Premier launch of Nuvali on Earth Day (which I hosted), I recall the president of ALI saying that the first step to reducing your carbon monoxide emissions is to measure it. And apparently there's a gadget that can do that for your monthly energy consumption in your home. Then when you take steps to conserve energy and limit your emissions, you'll see the difference from the measurement index.
Well, as most of you know (if you read my flickr) we have been undergoing major renovations in our late-60's wooden house. The effect, I hope, should not just be pretty (it is, I'm so excited to show it soon) but also energy efficient and environmentally sustainable. I'm doing LED lights and sealing holes in our wooden walls and floors. More on that later because now I'm totally off tangent.
Anyway as I was filing away ALL my receipts I was astonished with how much I spent and continue to spend on:
1. Parking in Rockwell
2. Starbucks double lattes
3. Eating lunch here and there.
Going back to the ALI president's message. The first step to reducing "whatever" is to measure your consumption first. This is certainly an eye opener. I have a driver. I should ask him to standby somewhere outside Rockwell instead of park while waiting for me. Thing is, I'm scared he'd keep the motor running and run up my gas bill. What's worse: gas bill or 40 peso parking tickets? Good thing parking in Rockwell is flat rate. If you have ideas on how to reduce parking bills, please share with me....
Those who also know about my Nanny Dramas, the good news is I've found a lovely cook/maid. I don't want to praise too much. "Baka mausog." I have no way of translating that in English. Anyway this means more meals at home and less of those random 200-300 peso lunches. They add up.
I saw a bill for gas from June and gas was just P50 per litre. Gosh. Now its what, P61?
I did the groceries today and purposely bought smaller packs of everything. Instead of 1 kilo of this, I bought half kilo packs. Instead of a large ketchup bottle, I bought a medium bottle (not good for the environmental waste situation). And still, I spent P4,500. That used to fill up my grocery cart! Today it was just half. My gulay. And I wanted to buy local produce... to support our farmers... WALA! It was all imported everything, from tomatoes, beans, to onions.
I don't understand what's happening to this world.
Then I got sad and afraid and I started to panic. How can we afford to make our dreams come true? I guess not next year. How does the rest of the Philippines cope with all these rising prices? Sad.
So to lift up my spirits, I surfed the Mamma Mia Movie website here and had some fun. Sent my mom some e-cards. She's a huge ABBA fan. And that's one of the reasons why I loved the movie so much. It really made me feel so close to home. I grew up with ABBA and Boney M songs blaring out of my dad's cassette component (the precursor to the 80's boom box).
ABBA made me happy. My husband thinks I'm exagge. But I'm watching it again tomorrow.
I'm in awe of Amanda Seyfried's voice. It's so clear and crisp. And she looks so wonderfully youthful, she sparkles. I kept playing "I Had a Dream" over and over.
Hard to believe she was that girl in Mean Girls.
She'll be bigger than Rachel McAdams for sure. Heck, she'll be bigger than Linday Lohan. LOL.
She's made for life. Vanity Fair cover and all.
Back to my reality. Soph, Lily and I danced like crazy to Dancing Queen.
Thank God for ABBA.
I'll deal with the house budget tomorrow.
.