Broke But Not Broken

Yikes! I went off my budget - and I mean way off - the past week. We decided at the last minute to celebrate my parents' 45th wedding anniversary with a swimming party together with my brother and his family and my sister and her fiance last weekend. Actually, we did not spent that much, but for someone who is trying to save money and keeping her finances on track, any extra expense can be much.

But I guess this one counts as necessary expense. My parents had a great, great time and it was especially fantastic to watch them play in the pool with their 2 grandchildren. After all, 45 years and they're still both healthy, still very sweet and loving with each other, is more than enough reason to celebrate. As my sister said, sometimes creating memories with loved ones can be very expense. =)

My financial life has seen more ups and downs than a roller coaster so this for me is the more important part and I'm sure will be the the hard(est) one - forming new habits.

So far, here are some of the new habits I have in mind:

(1) Make a budget (and stick to it). I have one which I know I should stick to as strictly as I can.

(2) Track my day-to-day expenses. I've tried this many times - for a week, then it gets so tedious that I forget about it. But I know this is important to have an idea of where my money goes.

(3) Think and stay positive. I made a lot of mistakes in the past. I can't help but think about it with much regret. Sadly, this still cause me sleepless nights. But worrying and stressing about it will not help me in any way. I admit, the future seems blurry to me sometimes butI have to stay hopeful and think only positive thoughts that I can still turn my situation around. I have to keep my eyes on the prize.

It has been a tiring Saturday so far. I visited a children's orphanage this morning with my sister to drop off some used clothes, toys such as barbie dolls and a few other things like school supplies, etc. I didn't get to meet all of the kids since they have an activity on the other room but i got to see a few 5- or 6-year old boys and girls running around the place. While there, i was able to chat with the social worker for a while and she said that they are now taking care of 49 kids - some were dropped off by their mothers who could no longer take care of them (so are not technically orphans) while some were found on the streets, hungry and alone.

I was deeply moved by the social worker's obvious love for her job and the kids and I have decided to volunteer every other Saturday morning to tutor the kids, feed them breakfast, play with the toddlers, etc., Any way I can help and give back. Well, as I cannot offer money to donate, my time is the only other precious thing that I can offer at the moment.

I was chatting with a good friend last week and she mentioned that she will arrange a garage sale sometime in July. She then asked me if I'm interested and she will be very happy to sell my items.

So I decided to spend this weekend organizing my home and choosing stuff that I can either sell at her garage sale, sell online (for the bigger and more expensive things) or donate to charity (I found out recently that there is a drop-off for in-kind donations near my home).

I have to admit, I used to be a shopaholic. I didn't give second thoughts buying "must-have" or "on sale" items. Please note the quotes as these are the things I usually tell myself to justify my purchases - it's almost always 'I need it for work', 'I will use it someday' or the most popular, 'it's a bargain since it's 20% off'.

I'm sure I won't get too much selling my pre-loved stuff. But every penny counts and I plan on putting every centavo I save (and earn) straight to paying CC debts. And besides, It's also my way of, as weird as it may sound, eliminating useless clutter in my life and opening up more space for the meaningful ones.

I've been browsing through this website for some time now, reading all about the success stories and struggles of the bloggers and only today did I finally decide to give it a try.

I had my share of ups and downs with regard to my finances and I'm ashamed to say that I made a lot of mistakes and bad decisions. But I choose not to dwell on the negative because it will not do me any good. What I can only do from here on is to dust myself off (once again), and learn from all my mistakes.

So join me in my journey and cheers to better days ahead!