ENTREP S20
Mr. Jorge Saguinsin
NU 12 Week 2 – New Spending Habits/ Routine
Camille A. Dela Cruz
Looking over which NU topic to write
about, I was delighted that the next topic– New Spending Habits/ Routine was
the topic for week 2. I was
enthusiastic and excited because this was the topic that I greatly relate too. I’ve
been experiencing financial difficulty recently due to my undisciplined
spending habits, which is unacceptable and needed immediate improvement and
change.
In my family, I
was known to be the most “kuripot” person. I would rather save my money than
spend it on anything. One weekend in 2001, my mom was quite surprised to see
bundled money in a square rusty tin can (hehe.. apparently that was piggy bank
at that time). She confronted me when I got home and asked me where the money
came from; she was astonish to find out that I’ve been saving 100% of my
allowance and not spending a single cent. Growing up till college, I had that
strong discipline on spending, however, it all changed when I started to earn
my own money. I was spending lavishly to the point I was consuming beyond my
means. There were several reasons behind this irresponsible action: 1. I had no
control 2. I wasn’t aware of my priorities yet 3. I was enjoying too much. All
of these wrong perceptions led me to a path of destruction. I ended up having a
huge amount of debt on credit and no savings at all.
Before the year
2011 ended, I had to talk and push myself to fix the financial side of my life.
During the course of this self-reflection, I came up with a 2-year road map, a
vision on where I want to see my financial matters 2 years from now and what
strategies will I do to reach this objective. A part of the strategies is
identifying what my monthly expenses are. I realized that I wasn’t aware
anymore how much money I bring out. These expenditures are the essential things
I need to spend on, like medicines and personal toiletries, and exclude those
unnecessary like clothes, eating out, watching movies, etc. At first, I wrote
everything down and kept the receipts but it was so tedious and there were
several times I would lose the receipt or forget to log my expenses. Since
technology is sort of man’s best friend, I used the available apps that would
help me log all my expenses and see everything instantly. I know this isn’t new
for everybody but it was definitely new for me! I never knew that technology
could be of a big help to my dilemma. Every time I would spend, I would just
log it into the app and then it will automatically add up and instantly show
how much money I have left. So after using the app, I became more aware of my
monthly expenses. This awareness gave me the ability to know and control after.
Just the opportunity to know made me really happy.3
I believe the
importance of all of this, is that when the moment comes when an aspect of your
life is turning to be uncontrollable or in a bad light, one must STOP, be aware
that there is something wrong, find out the reasons behind it and take action
to address such before its too late. I always believe that people are
responsible for their own lives and they should not blame anybody but
themselves. In this experience, I learned to take things in my own hands and
change the course of my life and lead it to a better path.
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