Frugal Pinoy

It’s a new month again, which means that it’s a new opportunity for you to find other ways to save money. If you don’t know where you can get extra money for your savings, check out these five tips and see if they apply to you:

Have a daily quota for using cellphone credits. If you find yourself calling and texting often,  exercise a bit of discrimination when sending out messages. Avoid sending out forwarded messages the entire month. My cousin once asked me to be honest about how much I load my cellphone each week, expecting that I’d tell him a large amount. He was shocked to find out that I usually just spend P30 per month, and I almost never spend more than P90.

While I understand that there are some professionals that may find this difficult, at least try to cut back on using your cellphone for texting or calling friends and relatives. Opt for free ways to communicate instead, such as via instant messaging, landline-to-landline calls, Facebook, or email. (Of course, this isn’t applicable if you don’t have easy access to the internet, or if you need to call long distance.)

Don’t buy new clothes this month. Unless your house was accidentally set on fire or your clothes were stolen as you left them hanging out on the clothesline, don’t buy any new clothes this month. I know quite a few people whose monthly income is mostly spent on clothes shopping, and as they tell me they can’t find any money to save, I just want to slap my forehead in disappointment. Just eliminate shopping for clothes or shoes this month. It won’t kill you, I promise.

Discontinue newspaper and magazine subscriptions. I don’t subscribe to any newspapers, mostly because I just read them online. The Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star, and The Manila Times all have online editions. Apart from the subscription savings, you’ll also have access to breaking news, and you won’t have old newspapers cluttering up your house.

I also don’t subscribe to magazines, but this doesn’t mean I won’t buy the occasional magazine that catches my eye. I just happen to be very choosy and I make sure that the content and value that I get from the magazine won’t be found for free elsewhere.

Cut dining and drinking out by half. If you find yourself going out often, such as more than once a week, cut this by half. This includes going out for coffee or lunch during the regular workday. Brew your own coffee or pack your own lunch instead. If friends invite you out and you don’t want to let them down, try my suggestions for making a gimik more affordable.

Automatically send at least P500 to your savings account as soon as you receive your paycheck. It’s wise to keep a  separate account for your savings, apart from your payroll account (as I’ve mentioned in a previous post). By setting aside your savings as soon as you receive your income, you have a lower chance of spending it.

Do you have additional money saving tips? Please share them in the comments.

Image by asterisco from sxc.hu

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Instead of buying seed starter pots or seedling pots from the garden supply store, I just make my own out of old newspapers*. It only took me less than 30 minutes to make the entire batch you see below. Apart form newspapers, I also used old kraft paper.

*I don’t subscribe to any newspapers. I get all my news online. If you do the same, you can just do what I did and get old newspapers from your neighbors.

These homemade pots have the following advantages:

• You’re recycling old materials.
• It doesn’t cost anything to make.
• You don’t have to worry about root trauma when transplanting your seedlings. Just put these into the soil (or unwrap them gently) when you are ready to transplant, and the paper will eventually disintegrate.This comes in handy for plants that don’t transplant well, such as cilantro.

Here’s a video I found which shows how to make them:

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Hello everyone Happy job hunting!

Note: I try to list legitimate job opportunities as much as possible, but some illegitimate ones might fall through the cracks.  Please use your best judgment when communicating with prospective clients, and make sure you get a signed contract before doing any work.

Blogging and Online Writing:

• Copywriting expert
• Article writing
• Blogger for web design/development blog ($25 to $150 per article)
• Metal music blogger
• Health bloggers ($12 to $15 per post)
• Forex and MLM bloggers wanted
• Entertainment/modeling/photography/fashion blogger ($10 per post)
• Television/science blogger
• Wedding bloggers ($5 per post)
• Content writers needed - travel industry

Web Design & Development:

• vBulletin coder ($2000 to $2500)
• Design PSD template ($200)
• JavaScript freelancer needed
• Professional PHP programmer to screen existing code

Miscellaneous:

• WordPress Manager
  

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Hello everyone Happy job hunting!

Note: I try to list legitimate job opportunities as much as possible, but some illegitimate ones might fall through the cracks.  Please use your best judgment when communicating with prospective clients, and make sure you get a signed contract before doing any work.

Blogging and Online Writing:

• Blogger for Task.fm
• Travel writer for Flyhub ($10 per post)
• Archery articles wanted ($15 per article)
• MMA article writer wanted ($10 to $25 per article)
• Professional blogger wanted
• Write 50 funny lines ($10)

Web Design & Development:

• Web designer needed to fix site problems
• CSS Tweaks
• Microsite designer ($65 per site)
• Design flash header ($150)
• Design image based navigation bar ($50)
• Creative designer needed for urgent job

Miscellaneous:

• SEO/SEM Professional
• YouTube Account Creation
• Atomic SEO (looking to fill 3 different positions: account creators, blog commenters, and programmers)
• SEO/Forum service

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The picture from the left is a shot of the arugula sprouts from my garden project. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m starting off with spinach, arugula, cilantro, garlic, and bunching onions. So far, the spinach and the arugula are sprouting nicely. Especially the arugula, which seems to grow a few millimeters every hour.

I’m basically going to follow Mel Bartholomew’s square foot gardening method, which you can read about here. The idea is to plot your garden by the square foot for an efficient layout. This makes crop spacing easier, since you don’t have to do the math. Also, instead of using existing soil, you’ll be using a soil-less mix out of perlite, peat moss, and compost.

I’m not going to follow it to the letter, especially since I’m having a hard time finding the materials to make my own soil mix. They say that in tropical countries, you can replace the peat moss with coir or coconut dust. I wasn’t able to buy perlite, which is weird because the Philippines is one of the top importers of this mineral. Maybe I just don’t know where to look for it. Still, I’m definitely using soil-less potting mix bought from the store until I can make my own.

I’m going to start out with a 3ft by 2ft container, which I still have to build. But, as the picture above indicates, I’ve already started my seeds. In the 3×2 container, the square foot gardening method allows me to have 51 plants. 51! I say that’s not bad.

Read below the cut to get the nitty-gritty details. Read more »

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Hello everyone I’m starting the week with an announcement. I have a new project that I’m working on, and I’d like to share it with you.

The project is to turn this back yard…

… into a thriving, productive vegetable garden.

(And yes, that’s a rooster in a coop. I built that coop, by the way.)

This means that from time to time, I will be writing about my progress here. To keep things in the spirit of the blog’s theme (frugality), I’m also going to record the money and the hours that go into this project. This way, I’ll be able to tell if it’s cheaper to grow my own food or to buy from the market/grocery.

Why else am I doing this:

• I’d like to learn how to grow my own food. It’s a useful and practical skill to have. Also,I love the thought that even if I stop working and drain out my emergency fund, I’ll always have something to eat.
• I also want to learn first hand about food production. What does it take to keep the soil fertile and healthy? What nutritious native crops are often overlooked or thought of as weeds?
• I’d like to have a healthier diet. Although I’m already eating less meat (and almost no red meat at all), I’d like to improve my diet, as well as improve the quality of the food I’m eating. I’ll be growing all my plants the organic way to lessen the chances of me and my family ingesting harmful toxins from pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
• It’s “practice” for the time that I’ll be living on a farm in Pangasinan.
• I love gardening. Even if it turns out that harvesting my own vegetables is more expensive than buying from the market, I’d still do it because it’s fun, satisfying, and relaxing.

What will I grow?

•  I’m going to start with leafy vegetables and root crops. So far, I’ve planned and plotted a 3ft x 2ft container to hold some spinach, garlic, onions, arugula, and cilantro (wansoy). After that, I hope to grow “fruiting” crops like tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, etc.

As the months go by, I’m going to write about my progress here, so stay tuned. Don’t worry, though, I’ll still write about other money matters.

How about you, do you have a food garden at home?

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Hello everyone I know that I haven’t posted job ads in over two months. I’ve been developing a new product and keeping up with my freelance work. But the weekly job ads are coming back in schedule starting today.

Happy job hunting!

Note: I try to list legitimate job opportunities as much as possible, but some illegitimate ones might fall through the cracks.  Please use your best judgment when communicating with prospective clients, and make sure you get a signed contract before doing any work.

Blogging and Online Writing:

• New media blogger ($22/post)
• Career and productivity bloggers
• Internet marketing blogger ($15/post)
• One of the blogs I write for, Web Worker Daily, is looking for new writers

Web Design & Development:

• Convert flash website to HTML ($150)
• PSD to Wordpress coder
• Website designers/ SEO specialists
• CSS/ HTML menu designer ($50 to $200 per menu)

Miscellaneous:

• Photography tutorials video blogger ($100 per video)
• Search engine marketing expert
• SEO/Link builder ($350/month)

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If you visit online message boards for Filipinos, you’ve probably seen at least two threads about paid-to-click sites. They have titles like “Make money online just by clicking!” or “Get paid to click on ads!”.

Sounds enticing, right? Especially since clicking is so easy. But there are more to paid-to-click (PTC) sites than meets the eye.

What are PTC sites?

Basically, paid-to-click (or PTC) sites are membership sites. You sign up with them and you will get paid to click on ads. Usually, members are paid for each ad they click.

What PTC users do to earn more money is join several paid-to-click services at the same time, as well as recruit others to the service. See, when PTC users refer new members, they get a percentage of what their referrals earn.

Do the math. Usually you get paid $0.01 per ad you click, and you have to stay on the web site you land on for 10 to 30 seconds, depending on what the program requires. There’s also a limit on the number of ads you can click each day. Let’s say the limit is 10 ads (but I’ve seen some sites that only have 4!). This means that you’ll earn $0.10 per day(Php 4.70) or $0.70 per week (Php 32.00), if you do it everyday. That’s around $2.8 per month (Php 131.60) for one program.

BUT - remember that you’ll have to accept your payment via PayPal or a similar service. After that, you have to send this money to your bank account. There are fees associated with these transactions, which you’ll have to deduct from your earnings. You may not notice it, but you’ll have to deduct the electricity and internet bills associated with your participation with PTC sites as well.

Are they scams?

Well, I’d guess around 95% of paid-to-click companies are scams. If they are not scams, many of them are ticking time bombs that are ready to explode or cease operations any minute - leaving your hard-earned dollars unclaimed.

There are many ways that PTC sites earn money. They could be using just one method below, just two, or a combination of all three.

• Actual profit. This means that the company gets paid more per click, and you just get a small fee. For example, they could be paid $0.02, while you are paid $0.01. This means that they too earn $0.01 each time you click. Actual profit only goes so far because the PTC sites have to pay referral fees and larger rates to premium members.
• Premium memberships and referral packages. Many PTC sites sell premium accounts where you can get paid more per click. They also sell referral packages, which allow you to purchase unreferred accounts and receive a percentage of the profits made by the referrals you bought.
• Deserters. Not everyone who joins a PTC site stays active. Many of them, after getting frustrated with the low pay, will quit before cashing out. Their unclaimed cash stays with the PTC company.
• The Ponzi Effect. Some people who join PTC sites are encouraged by the payment proofs from premium members. But down the road, they wonder why two or three months have passed and they still haven’t gotten their payout. In these cases, they aren’t scamming you - they just can’t afford to pay you.

The risk. 

Remember when I said ticking time bombs? That’s because PTC sites are a goldmine for hackers and attackers. It’s fairly easy to do this, even YouTube tutorial videos on how to do it. Trying to improve and maintain their security and keep up with the attacks can be costly for PTC sites, forcing many of them to close.

Also, there are very few reliable advertisers who buy ads from PTC sites. This is because they know that the people clicking on their ads are getting paid to do so - they’re not really interested in the product or the ad they are looking at.

What are you doing with your time?

Think about this for a few minutes: are paid-to-click services really the best use of both your time and your skills? While many people say that PTC sites only take a few minutes of your time, that’s still time you can never get back. If, say, you spend 5 minutes a day on PTC sites (more diligent clickers will spend more time because they join many sites), you’ll be spending 2.5 hours each month on them, earning less than a $3 total for those hours. That is, if you even get paid at all.

It’s okay to try PTC sites if you’re curious, but don’t depend on them for your income. There are more profitable and more rewarding ways out there to earn money online. Even if you’re a freelance writer who charges $5.00 per hour (lower than industry standards), or a beginning designer who can churn out a $100 logo (lower than industry standards) in three hours, you’ll still come out ahead. Plus, you’ve created something meaningful, something you can be proud of.

Sources:

PTC Sites, The Dreaded “Ponzi Effect”

The Sad Truth About PTC Sites

Paid to Click (Wikipedia Entry)

Image by hberends from sxc.hu

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Several readers email me asking questions about blogging.They want to know how to make money blogging, what makes a good blog, and how to build traffic. Since many of my answers are repetitive, I decided to launch a new page here at Frugal Pinoy:

“The Personal Blogging Degree” is a compilation of articles, podcasts, and other resources that can give beginners a good overview about professional blogging. I was inspired by The Personal MBA and The Personal Web Design Degree.

If you’re just new to blogging, head to the Personal Blogging Degree page to learn more. You can also access the page from the sidebar on the right.

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Just letting everyone know that I’ll be taking a break from Frugal Pinoy - in case you haven’t noticed it already. I’m just so busy with my freelance work and other projects, that I have to invest more time in them for a while.

I hope to be back with fresh new posts mid-May. Still, I might post a few times when I find the chance - I just won’t be posting as often. If you want to be automatically updated when I have a new post, then feel free to sign up to receive Frugal Pinoy posts via email.

Thanks for the patience If you want to contribute a guest post while I’m on a break, feel free to reach me via the contact form.

Thanks again,

Celine

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