Beggar In The Suit

Leaving the Comfort Zone

Frugal Xpat — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:44:53 +0000

There is an intend promotion looming for me. I should be ecstatic about it, right? But I felt the other way around. Embracing this promotion means I will have less time to write and I know that five years from now all I wanted is to be a full-time freelance writer.

This unreceptive emotion I felt about my promotion leads me to a guilt feeling. Promotion is a blessing and I should be thankful for this opportunity. Right now also, I am financially drained, extremely drained. This is only my chief reason for accepting the promotion. The salary increase that comes along with the promotion is better than nothing. At this point of time, any additional income will help me a lot.

In the next few weeks, I will be embarking a new life and exploring the unknown horizon. Wish me luck!

Exhausted but Happy!

Frugal Xpat — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:40:58 +0000

Yesterday, I had only coins left in my wallet. I am expecting the salary only be end of the week. I was thinking where to get my fare for the following day. Then all of a sudden my colleague paid me for the purchased she made earlier from the multi-level marketing products I had. It saved me for my needs today.

I can’t help but reminisce my Dad’s mantra. When we faced financial crisis before, my Mum would start to worry. Then my Dad would assure her that ‘God will provide’.

Indeed He does. You may not be religious but I believe in the Man up there who looks after us.Have a great day!

Slaving Myself for LG

Frugal Xpat — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:21:28 +0000

It is public holiday here and I am off for three days in a row! Fantastic, right?

In a way yes and I envy some of my friends because for them, it is party and holiday time. Others flew to exotic resorts and some to other countries for short break. I know that I should not nurture this evil feeling of jealousy. Instead I should be content and thankful for the blessings that I have. Sometimes this thought flees from my sane mind. Not good actually as it always makes me feel better…

Anyway, I am thankful for the public holiday. I don’t have work three days in a row. For the last two days I never stepped out from my home. I am hibernating for two reasons.

First, I really have no money (literally) to go out or for taxi fare. I have coins only left in my wallet. I even wanted to go to drop by in the office for couple of hours during this holiday. I just want to check my emails because by the time I resume work on Sunday, my inbox will be swarmed with emails.

Unfortunately, I am extremely broke this month and there is two days more to go before salary time.

Secondly, I had been working hard in my new writing gig. Though they pay really less, I gave in because I need extra money by end of the month. The good about them is they pay on time (and I had proven that before) and they have continuous assignments. It is just a matter of how much time you can allocate to finish the writing assignments.

Anyway, last Wednesday I slept at 4am in order to meet my deadline for the writing gig. It was really a long day. I came home late from the office because I tried to wrap up things before the public holiday. After that, I started pounding my laptop to finish six articles. Whew!

Then, I woke up again at lunch time and continued for the next assignment. This time it was ten but shorter articles.

Believe me, I was so tired. My back was paining because I really don’t have an ideal desk with proper chair. So while writing, I moved around my bed.
After I submitted my last set of assignments I took a break.. Then later this afternoon, I took another assignment. I wanted to finish early but I have been procrastinating it.

I will definitely start my research after posting this post.

Honestly, every time I felt discourage and tired, I reminded myself about LG then it helped me to keep going. I know it seems senseless for I am slaving myself for LG who is not my kin at all but I made my promise and I want to keep that promise.

Financially Broke? Tips to Overcoming It

Frugal Xpat — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:55:17 +0000

Are you broke? Do you hardly meet your basic needs? Did you hit the rock-bottom of your financial health?

And so do I! There is nothing to be ashamed about it. The important thing is we learn the lessons though it is in a hard and painful way.

Click here to read more.

Beggar But Not At Heart

Frugal Xpat — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:30:51 +0000

I know that right now I am a beggar but not at heart!

Since I started working as an expat, I promised to share my blessings by sponsoring scholarships. Fortunately, I shared the same passion with my sister. She sponsored ‘LG’, a high school student while she was still in college. Then when LG graduated from high school, my sis asked me if I could continue supporting LG in college as she could not afford at that time.

And I took the challenge. LG is my first college scholar apart from my younger sister though I had couple of high school scholars too in the previous years.

Let me give you a brief background about LG. He lives in southern part of Philippines, in one of the most remote places where the people’s main source of income is farming. Endowed with an above average intellect, he longs to finish a college degree unfortunately his parents cannot afford to send him to school.

My sister met LG in one of her immersions with the Jesuit missionaries.
Anyway, recently I started to face challenges in supporting him. With my spiraling financial debts, I attempted to give up LG’s scholarship, not once but twice already. In a way, I felt bad because he is now in his junior year in college.

Because LG is in full scholarship, we told him about the financial issues. This year we can extend only up to 50-70% of the financial support compared to what he used to receive. So what he did, he offered to landlady to help in the household chores in his boarding house. In return, his monthly rental is waived.

I really thought that I could not send him to school this second semester. My Mum urged me to continue and she would help too because LG has three semester (including this sem) to go before he will graduate.

Luckily, I have a writing gig in October. It was quite a good pay and we managed paid LG’s tuition fee last semester. Great too, as the client decided to continue the writing gig for another month. I just finished the last batch of articles now and I am not sure if the client will still continue the project. The November payment will be for LG’s allowance in December.

Earlier this week, I remembered my previous writing gig last year. I tried applying again and luckily they remembered me. So, I escaped the trial writing test and now I can start grabbing assignments. Honestly, the pay is not that good but they pay on time.

In the meantime, this will be my bread and butter for LG’s allowance and tuition. I already calculated how many assignments I need to take every month to meet LG’s school needs.

Hopefully, things will work as planned. In tough times like this, I always remember my Dad’s mantra – God will provide.

Wish me tons of luck!

Tough Luck!

Frugal Xpat — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:44:41 +0000

I wanted to vent out my frustrations in the multi-level marketing that I joined.

Honestly, I invested a good amount of money on it but as time passes by, I noticed few discrepancies. I was really discouraged and I lost my faith in the system. True, the product is excellent but I felt that there are many hidden information which I think is vital and must be known at the early stage.

Generally in this kind of business, we invite first our immediate friends and family. Now that I lost my faith and the discrepancies I found, I felt guilty. In a way, I have this small voice that is haunting me for fooling my close friends. They too invested money.

And now, I cannot afford to recruit others to join us

I better lost the money for nothing than to fool my friends and family! I was hoping before that it would be my gateway from my current financial quagmire.

Tough luck for me, huh!

Changing My Life’s Formula: Venturing into my First Business

Frugal Xpat — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:10:35 +0000

What is the big difference between your life five years ago and now? Maybe you moved to a new flat, got a well deserved promotion and salary raised, and owned a brand new car.

Or it can be the other side of the coin (like mine). There are the spiraling credit card bills and increasing needs but the same salary. Okay, I might be exaggerating about the second one. I had salary increase but it was not enough to beat the rising cost of living here. In other words, I now slowly felt and understood how inflation affects my life. It didn’t make much sense to me when I was just learning about at school.

The same formula leads to the same result. While doing this comparison, I realized that of course, what else I can expect! I didn’t alter my strategy towards life. I kept the same formula that I have been using for years. The same trick means the same result.

Checking my life’s formula. I am very keen to flip my current financial situation to a better condition which means paying off my credit cards bills and other debts. This propelled me to think outside the box, to be out of my comfort zone of receiving my monthly paycheck.

I have to consider all the other options to augment my income.

Constant Eye on Long Term Goal. Another reason that drove me to the edge of fixing my financial mess is my long term goal.

My major plans are laid out already and I set a deadline of 2011 when I’ll turn 33. I will be a freelance writer by then and running my own web based business. However, grasping the reality of my financial situation now, I’ll never make in 2011. I am swarmed with bills and debts, and I cannot take the plunge of turning around my life from a corporate slave to a freelance journo without enough financial cushion to rely on for the next 6-12 months.

So, I have to clear my debts and to have enough savings, actually savings amounting to 6-12 months salary. That’s my aim!

Also, I cannot and I don’t want to delay further my plan to be a freelance writer. I have enough years of compromising my passion to more pragmatic decisions in life. I am now 31 and I felt that my time is not long enough. I wanted to at least do what I really want and love to do in life. Why spent the rest of my life in a job that doesn’t make me fulfilled and happy!

I want to live the rest of my life following my passion.

It is about time to change my life’s strategy. As I said earlier, I am now thinking out of the box and keeping an open mind for all possible options to clear my debts. So lately, I dip my hands in multi level marketing. Last July I invested my one month salary to it.

Well, it is not an overnight-get-rich-scheme however it opens an opportunity to earn more provided also that I do my part. The result of it will be tantamount to the effort I invested to this business.

It has been two months now and I didn’t see significant result yet. I am not losing hope because I haven’t invested the amount of time that I wanted to.

Hopefully I will finish all my ground works for this business and I can be fully equipped by October. By then, I want to dedicate my spare time and emotion to this business.

I am hanging on as there is nothing impossible in life if we want it badly.

I’ll keep you posted!

P.S. Maybe you want to join our business.

Finding My First Extra Income Gig

Frugal Xpat — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:07:54 +0000

After I decided to take full responsibility of my spiraling debts, I started to scour possibilities of earning extra income. I look around for opportunities that I can do during my spare time.

Well, honestly, house cleaners and baby-sittings are really out in my options for simple reason. I don’t have children yet and the thought of being responsible to one’s life though in a short period of time scares me to death.

What if the child will not wake up? Or swallow some inedible stuff? Or maybe a sudden seizure? Okay, perhaps these are just wild and exaggerated scenarios but really, I just renounce to take such big responsibility.

As for cleaning, well, I am not at all domesticated. Honestly, I envy those friends of mine who have a knack on polishing surfaces and removing dirt in all corners and other areas where dirt can possibly crept.

So, I look for gigs that I know I can handle and have the ability to do it well. Though not 100% sure, I know that part time jobs are not really considered legal in this country. So it makes more difficult to hunt opportunities for extra income.

Then one day, I chatted with an old friend who happened to be in a financial turmoil too. Her family has been a victim of the economic crisis. Her husband lost his job and needed to go back to his country due to visa related issue. She has no option but to take her children back to her country because she cannot afford to raise them here. It was just really complicated.

Anyway, my friend introduced me to this part time job as a mystery shopper. After registering, I obtained my log-in details wherein I can look around for available jobs. Once you completed the mystery shopping, you have to write and submit an online your feedback as per the questionnaires they provided.

Working in the hospitality industry, mystery shopper is not a totally new thing for me. So it is quite an easy job for me to carry out. So far, I completed five jobs as mystery shopper but I didn’t take additional jobs lately.

Hindrance. You see, the mystery shopper company has quite varied clients ranging from banks, telecommunication companies, government offices and so on. Their office timings are generally similar to my full time job. This limits my opportunity to earn more as I only rely on assignments that have flexible office hours like a mobile phone shop located in the malls.

Writing the report. The report is quite lengthy and it is recommended that you review the guidelines prior to doing the mystery shopping.

There are specific instructions like obtaining certain information about the product though obtaining the name of the shop attendant is a must. If you are unable to provide the specific information they require, you will be asked to do it again or you will not be paid.

Payment. Honestly I was slightly discouraged by their payment method. As the information provided in the site was brief, I asked my friend. She said that they send the money through Western Union and deduct around US$ 3.50 for the fee. That’s fine with me.

So when I was desperate for extra money, I requested in the site to issue my payment. I was under assumption that it would take a week or two to process the payment. Two weeks gone and I didn’t receive any payment notification from them.

I sent them an email inquiring for the payment policy. To my dismay, I came to know that they process it only every first week of the month. I was disheartened. Payment can be requested only one month after you completed the job. Since three of my jobs were carried out in first week of August, I managed to request my payment only beginning this month. Since the payment process is every first of the month only, I have to wait until first week of October to receive my payment.

I find it really quite long to wait for a small amount. At least, you have to wait two months before you get paid.

The mystery shopper company pays me US$ 13.50 for every completed job. Unfortunately, I had to consider also my taxi fares. It was not really worth the effort.

So far, I am still waiting for my first payment and I didn’t decide yet if I will continue this part time job or look for something else better.

Why beggar in the suit?

Frugal Xpat — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:54:44 +0000

Are you a beggar that is disguised in a power black suit? Well, that makes the two of us.

I am working in hotel industry where employees are expected to be well groomed, hair neatly tied up, make-up is a must, polished shoes and presentable dress, and in our case – a business suit.

In the past few weeks, I feel like a fool. Every morning I walk to our office don in one of my few power black suits but penniless and can hardly sustain my basic needs in life. Outside, my suit looks perfect but its interior, it is already torn and the inner thin silky linen is shabby especially the armpit section.

It is sign of a worn out suits that I manage to keep for the last three years. But still, I need to look pleasant in my job.

Last month, I survived my needs through credit card. One instance drove me to the verge of self-pity. In the counter with my goods, my credit cards were not working. There was quite a long queue and none of my cards had sufficient amount. All were already max out.

And there I was, standing in the counter, rummaging my bag and hoping to find any money or another credit card that hopefully was not yet swiped.

Yesterday I have only coins in my purse, not even enough to commute and to buy water.

I am literally penniless with mounting debts and paycheck that can hardly pay my monthly bills. I don’t want to borrow money also from friends because I am trying to contain my current debt and my friends seem to be all in financial crisis too.

Don’t take me wrong! I am definitely not happy with my situation but dwelling on it doesn’t help as well. I honestly don’t blame anyone, not even myself (though I am the culprit of my recent financial quagmire).

You see, you have to understand a bit of my past to somehow vindicate me from my current state of ‘brokenness’. Yes, it is a sort of self vindication.

With two siblings, we grew up only an inch above poverty. The great thing was that my parents knew the value of good education so they struggled hard to send us to college. Then years later in my corporate life, I started to be financially better.

Since somehow I could already afford to buy things like cellphone and laptop, I slowly developed an addiction to the feeling of being able to buy something that I wanted. So I became an impulsive buyer both for my necessities and wants.

It was like devouring the things that I was deprived in my growing years.

Anyway, now I am paying the consequences of my reckless expenditures. I am caught up in spiraling debts though in a way I am grateful it happened because I learned my lesson well but in a hard way.

So here I am now – broke but not hopeless.

Lately I have been considering all the possibilities (that are in accordance with my moral beliefs) to earn extra income and to contain my debts, and I will be journaling it here.

Hopefully this blog will serve its purpose of helping others who share the same situation with me or enlightening others who have the tendency to lead the kind of life that I have now.

Wishing you a better life,

Beggar in the Suit