Frugal Pinoy

It’s Friday night and your officemates or friends want to go out. Although you love their company, either you don’t have enough gimik money or your friends tend to spend more money on gimiks than you’re comfortable with. So what do you do? Is it possible to hang out with them without breaking your budget?

Yup, and here are some ways to do it:

Make the suggestions. Before someone jumps in to say they want to go to the most expensive restaurant in Serendra, step in and make your own suggestion. It helps to know beforehand the more affordable places in your meeting area. Doing your research will make things less of a hassle.

Sometimes, friends appreciate going to a place that’s out of the ordinary. So if you know an affordable hole-in-the-wall restaurant that only few people know about, your friends are likely to be willing to go with your suggestion.

Order as a group. Getting a family sized serving and sharing it tends to be cheaper than individual orders. Plus, you can only get as much as you want rather than attempting to finish a big serving.

Meet after the meal. If you’re really short on funds, you can opt to meet your friends when they’re almost finished (or completely finished) with the meal. That way, you don’t have to order much (or anything). Besides, the after-meal conversation tends to be more interesting, and groups often move to a different place for dessert/drinks, which will be cheaper than a complete meal.

Opt for water. But only if it isn’t unfiltered tap water. Obviously, free water is cheaper (and healthier) than softdrinks or a P60.00 glass of iced tea.

Remember that you don’t always have to buy what your friends buy. Especially if you have different tastes. I’m not a big fan of coffee, but I always have friends who want to meet/stay at Starbucks. I’ve been to Starbucks countless times, but I’ve never bought anything - simply because I don’t like coffee (although someone bought me a coffee and dessert once - they were being insistent). If you like Starbucks coffee, then go ahead. The point is that if what your friends are buying isn’t worth it for you, or it’s something you don’t like, don’t force yourself to buy. Sayang lang. After all, if you’re going to spend money, you should do so with something you like.

You don’t have to do all these things every time you go out with friends. You’re supposed to be frugal, not cheap. However, using a combination of 2 or 3 of these things can make your next gimik more wallet-friendly.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Frugal Tips, Frugality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.