Well, it looks like I haven’t clearly set up the reason for this saving goal. It was vague when I said it would be used to improve our financial situation however for this 100 day challenge where my one goal is to save as much money as I can, I haven’t been really clear as to why I needed to save. Here it is. This just became clear by yesterday. The money we will be able to save will go to our Emergency Fund. We don’t have any Emergency Fund yet and so I need to start working on it. Ideally, in my own terms, I want this Emergency Fund to support us for a matter of 6 months even without any other source of financial income.  This is for emergency purposes. This is one of the things that financially wise people do before venturing into any kind of business endeavor or whatsoever.

As of now, both me and my husband work. Our wages are above the average, specially mine, very much above the average. But, it is very difficult to save up, for some reasons. It is just so difficult. I tell you, it is a very challenging thing to do specially because we live in the city. We live in the heart of the province of Cebu, in the main city itself where anything you do has a cost. Where anywhere you look, there’s something nice to buy. It is more of a challenge than you could ever think of. The cost of living in a city is way higher than in a province.

But I will not give up. If i have to sacrifice some things such as buying my favorite foods every now and then or getting to buy t shirts once in a while, then, let it be. I know I can achieve saving up for our Emergency Fund. I will. I can and I must……….

This is the 6th day of my 100 day challenge . This is a challenge where the next 100 days of my life will be devoted to one single goal: to save money. In my last entry regarding this challenge, I noted that I already had 9,500 in savings from my blogging earnings.  Now, at this point, I have an additonal 1500 from blogging ventures and additional 4,000 savings which is coming from my salary.  So, on my 6th day I have saved a total of 15,000. I still have to earn and save 35,000 to complete the 50,000 goal for the 100 day challenge. I think if I would really take this seriously, I can save 50,000 in less than 100 days. But, we’ll see. We’ll see how much I can save in a span of 100 days as well.

I went to SM yesterday and it so happened that it was my first time to buy something at CD-R king. It was my first time, yes! and I was super duper amazed with the variety of great products and new technology that they offer. I found the products I have been looking for and was planning to order internationally online. But, it looks like they’ve got it at cheaper rates without any shipping charges cause you just have to come to their shops.  I found the hidden camera or monitoring system that I have been looking for in USA sites. But, I was so surprised they have it at a cheaper rate. The palm monitor cost more than 3,000 pesos. There is a small palm monitor, big a bigger screen than that of cellular phones, and this is where you can see the live videos from the camera. It is great, but I still have to save up for this and I also want to learn how this really works. Second product which got me interested was this USB TV Dongle. Through this, you can watch live tv on your pc and you can even record your favorite tv shows so you have freedom of time. I’ve been looking for a tv recorder long time ago, and I am so amazed to find this. This tv Dongle only cost 1500 or something. Yeah! That cheap! I wanna buy this but I am not sure when I would be actually buying this.

In a snap, something can change in our lives even if we are not prepared for it. Our supervisor just declared that I’m gonna be transferred to another account. I am so relaxed and comfortable here in the current account I am handling and I’ve been here for around 3 months now and then suddenly he will blurt out that he needed to transfer me and he needed me to handle another account. I am not so comfortale with quick changes and honestly, I do not know what lies behind. But, I want to trust that God has a plan for me and this is just part of the plans He has for me.

I am a Christian and though I am vocal and open about it to anyone who would asked, I have not lived the life of a Christian fully. Growing up in a family who never valued faith and christianity, in fact i grow up in a catholic family, it is quiet difficult for me to integrate my daily life in God’s presence.

Even as of now, we are churchgoers and I feel focused when I am at church but I have not been reading my bible. I have not been regularly praying and connecting with Jesus. I didn’t have the desire to reach out to others to tell them of God’s message. I didn’t use the promises in the bible in my daily struggles and victories. I lived a life so much in tuned with the world, but not listening to God’s words. I loved him and I believe him and would say I am entrusting Him with my life, but I never made the effort to get to know him more and to live my life in His presence.

But God really loves me. He sends people and events to help me wake up and do something about my lack of purpose and lack of initiative in doing things for Him. I thereby, lack a personal relationship with Him. A real and loving relationship with my Father. Most of the times, I would find myself demanding that kind of love from my husband, when the truth is, only God can fill this emptiness which is in one side of my life.

I am very very passionate about my life. I lived my life full of dreams and ambitions and I cherish every moment, but I have forgotten about God. All my dreams are just for myself. I am too boastful to think that I can do things by myself. I feel like God is so far away from my life. Mainly because I did not do anything to draw him close to me. I have been lazy in my Christian life.

And I feel so sorry…………………… “Lord, I ask you to forgive me for the way I have lived my life. I have lived my life as if this is the only world that matters and I have forgotten about you. I have not done anything to bring you into my life. I ask you to forgive me Lord and from now, I ask you to help me remember that nothing else matters but my relationship with you.”

I believed God did something to wake me up from somber. Yesterday, before going to church, my husband opened the television in a channel where there was a foreign pastor preaching about God’s message. The message was very clear and was perfect to make me guilty.

He says there are kinds of relationhip to our father. First, all of us have a direct relationship with Him because he is our creator, whether we accept that or not, whether we lived that or not. The other kind of relationship is a distant relationship. It means one believes in God and profess that they are believers and they are Christians but they don’t have a personal relationship to God. They are not living a life in God’s presence. They are the ones who would only go to church on Sundays.

There were still a lot of adjectives to describe a distant relationship with God but the way I have lived my life surely fell into that category. This morning, before starting work, I decided to have a one hour devotional since we have so much freedom in our work and I can actually choose to do it if I want to. My excuse of why I don’t pray and read the bible at night is that I am very tired already from the days’ work. But then, those are lame excuses. If I really want to, i can always give time and make time to read God’s word and to learn more about Him.

As I listened to online site given by my devoted Christian sister who is in New York right now, I learned so many good things that I have never learned before. I realized there is still so much to know and so much to learn that will help me in my faith. When I was baptized as a Christian on my 23rd birthday, that was the beginning of my infancy in my Christian life and I would say until now I am still on the childhood stage. I never matured and I never really grew up. But stil, God is good.

Truly, there is nothing more important than living a life according to God’s purpose. And I am determined to live that out starting today..

This project means that the next 100 days of my life will be devoted to only one goal. And that goal is to save money. Specifically, I want to save around 50,000 by the end of 100 days. Each day I will be patiently working on this goal. How? By finding ways of how to save money each day and of course by regularly setting aside savings from the money we both earn.

So, tomorrow will be the very first day. To start with, I now have 9,500 in my savings and these money comes from my blogging ventures. This is the money I earned in this month of January. Probably, the highest money that I’ve earned in just a month. This goes all to our savings.
So, I only need around 40,500 more to complete this goal. Tomorrow will be another day and let’s see what we’ve got.

When my tooth ache returned after taking Gardan, I decided it must be a tooth ache issue nevertheless. So, I called the dentist and good thing they scheduled me on that day right away. I wasn’t able to attend our monthly birthday bash celebration, where I asked someone to replace me as a host because of my situation. I went straight to the dentist after my work. I would say it was quick and efficient indeed. I liked the dentist. She was nice and precise. She found out that my 3rd molar on the upper right jaw needs to be extracted. It was in a very bad condition. So, I am scheduled for extraction hopefully tomorrow. I want all of this to be finished as soon as possible. Right now, I am taking antibiotic and I need to be reminded to take it religiously because you know how it works. Once you forget once, you have to start all over again. I am a bit scared because my last extraction was really more than a torture, it was like hell. And I don’t want to experience it again.

Today, is our BONUS day. Yipee! I don’t want to expect much but I hope it will be good enough. This is supposed to be our XMAS bonus which was delayed. So, everyone is awaiting for it later today. Tomorrow is supposed to be my day for being with baby but it looks like tomorrow will be my extraction, so today, I want to be with her. After work, I’m planning to take her to the park. At least, I won’t have to spend. I need to bring her a yaya along, so I won’t have a hard time chasing after her. She’s so malikot. So, that’s my one single task for today. Just be with her and spend quality time with her. We don’t necessarily have to be metal buildings like in malls or play centers but we could be in places near to nature such as in parks.

It has been 6 hours since I took Gardan and I am still pain free. I am observing if the pain will come back and I am really hoping hard that it won’t. It is a killer pain and I really cannot bear more of it. I really hope and pray that Ate Joy is right. That Gardan will take care of this pain and that this is not a toothache but a result of BUGHAT. Will be updating you more later today or perhaps tomorrow.

I was able to fullfill my single task yesterday of submitting my payslip. You know, I’m starting to like this single tasking for a day thing. It means that I will be prioritizing or focusing only one task for a day. Though, it doesn’t mean that this is the only thing I will  be doing. Honestly, I get more done with this, because my mind is free and relaxed and I only do things I want to do. Thus, I get more done in a day instead with my mind still feeling clean and relaxed. I only have to assure I get the single task for the day done before anything else. This is quiet relaxing for me and I feel less pressued and stressed out.

Today, my only goal is to heal my tooth ache. Ate Joy, the yaya of my baby advised that this is not just a simple tooth ache but this is related to BUGHAT or PASMO because I do not eat at the right time and sometimes I skip meals. Honestly, most of the time. It’s not only one tooth which is aching but the entire jaw area upper and lower on the right side. I couldn’t sleep at night. Good thing I told her this morning and she advised me to take Gardan. I had my breakfast early and then I took Gardan. The pain was almost killing me. My face is already swollen on the right side and it hurts badly. The pain is going through my ears and my right head. I wanna die because of the pain. I have never felt this so much pain before. I slept in the sleeping room while still on duty for two hours. When I woke up, the killer pain was no longer there, though it still hurts a little and its still a little swollen. I feel so much better now but I am still observing myself and making sure it will not return anymore. If it does, perhaps i need to take one more Gardan. I’ll observe myself for this day and night and if there’s no improvement, I gotta see a dentist already.

I wasn’t able to fulfill my task of making a card for my hubby yesterday. Why? I suffered a serious head ache and tooth ache at the same time yesterday. The tooth ache started the night before then it stopped in the morning and after I ate a small chocolate it ached nonstop until the following day, which is today. I already took Mefenamic pain reliever twice yesterday.  The ache is almost unbearable. It is killing me. The pain goes to my head as well and my body temperature rises. Even the pain killers can’t stop the pain. It is just so strong. I even could not figure out which tooth was causing the pain. I figured there were around 3 of them alternating. Just today, a coworker suggested it might be “pasmo” because I don’t eat at the right time every day. Sometimes I do not eat lunch, and sometimes I eat lunch but its very late, like around 2-3 pm already. This pain makes me swear that I would be really strict on my meals now. I need to eat at the right time. I need to listen to my body. I also need to take something to heal this “PASMO”.
And of course, I need to be strict with my meal and with taking care of my teeth.
Because of this, I am backing out in being the host/emcee for our upcoming pre valentine celebration. I’m relieved but quiet sad of the opportunity as well. Anyway, there will surely be a lot more celebrations to come where I can be an emcee.
Today, my single task is to submit a copy of my payslip so I can process my loan application as quickly as possible. I have to go to their main office which is in Magallanes Colon. I have committed to working only on one single task per day to avoid being too exhausted and stressed out. But, it doesn’t mean this will be the only thing I will do. It only means this is the only thing I will think about and prioritize for the day.