Money Diaries: Night Shift

Since June this year, I have been consistently writing down how much I spend every day among other things. Seeing it written down on my daily journal makes me reconsider my spending habits and lets me see just where I spend so much money and how to cut back. If you guys remember, I made a personal finance blog months back but maintaining two blogs is so hard, so I’m incorporating that to my personal blog. I’ll be sharing my financial diaries occasionally – maybe when I have some events affecting my finances.

I have mentioned a few times on my Twitter that I got the night shift for this month. I used to not like it, but now I’m eating my words. I love this shift! Some of the benefits are my commute time is lessened by half and the added benefits of the shift financially – nightshift premium and taxi allowance. I swear, I also spend 50% less this month as well compared to when I’m taking the morning shift! I can bring in dinner if I want to and with my weekends spend working as well, I’m not tempted to eat out and shop just because.

For reference of my international friends, PHP50 = 1USD. Without further ado, here is my money diaries from my last week in the night shift:

Day 1 – Sunday

I wake up anywhere from 8 – 11 AM on this shift. Today’s one of those days that I wake up at 11 and still feel like I haven’t slept at all – even though I got eight full hours of it. Mom wasn’t feeling too well so we had my younger brother buy lunch from Jollibee. It’s a ten-fifteen minutes bike ride. I added PHP60 since I wanted the burger steak supreme and mom only gives us a PHP60 budget for lunch, lol. I somehow got duped into paying for nuts (PHP150) that we’ll be sending out to Papa when my aunt goes back to Singapore. By 3 PM, I was dressed and ready for work. I took a tricycle (PHP8) and air-conditioned bus (PHP35) to work. I dropped by Robinson’s to buy myself a mango-melon smoothie (PHP59) from Fruitas. Then it’s work as usual. During weekends, we get a budget for food. We ordered for some pancit lucban, longanissa, chicken, and rice from Buddy’s. We’re out of paper plates and plastic spoon and fork so we shared that expense (PHP30) between us. I took a Grab home which was around PHP350~ but my company will reimburse me for it.

Total: PHP 342

Day 2 – Monday

I blog hopped in the morning while having my brunch of rice and chicken. I finally got around to replying to comments before heading to work. I took the bus route (PHP43) to work and arrived at least 30 minutes earlier than my shift. I passed by KFC and I gave in to my cravings to Ala King (PHP122) while upgrading the drink to iced tea. Work was busier today and we had dinner around 10PM. I ordered lechon macau with rice (PHP95) from Big Belly. Unfortunately, when I checked it once we got back to the office, they gave me sisig! Ugh, but it’s another ten minutes to go back so I just ate it. I took a PHP400~ Grab ride home.

Total: PHP 260

Day 3 – Tuesday

I have three days off this week so you can bet I slept in! I spent a few minutes filling up SSS and LTO forms since I’m going to be processing some IDs next week. After having brunch, I was mostly cuddling with our pup and organizing and post-processing my old travel photos. I get things done when my brothers are at school and the internet is faster than usual, lol. Around 5PM, we head out to my Ninang’s condo that’s just a five-minute drive away. My brothers headed straight to the condo after their school things. Ninang was cooking up a feast so I had two servings of baked mac and a slice of cheesecake. All of those were homemade and so, so good! No regrets since I only get to have a taste of her cooking when she comes home to Manila.

Cost: PHP 0

Day 4 – Wednesday

This day is eventful. I woke up around 10AM today and I got the house all to myself. I microwaved myself some instant mac and cheese and watched some television. Around 11 AM, I was getting ready for a team building event aka pig-out. I head out by 12PM when it suddenly poured down. Safe to say, the traffic was horrible. I took the bus (PHP43) to Pioneer and decided to grab a taxi to The Podium (PHP100) since I don’t know where it is. It’s literally behind SM Megamall. I’m dumb. By 2PM, I was almost at Podium when my teammates told me the buffet is only at 2:15 PM unlike the 3PM end time they told me. Irked, I told the taxi driver to head to Megamall instead.

I was really aiming to just eat for an hour since I have a date with my girl later on. I dragged myself to the food court instead and ordered myself a half dozen cheesy bacon chicken wings from Frankies’, two rice, and two bottled water (PHP309). I was supposed to only get one but it was when I was getting my order that I realized the mistake. I spent more than three hours in the food court, leeching off SM’s fast Wi-Fi and people watching. I took a side trip to H&M on the way down and all the sized were all too small! Ugh, sayang yung sale. I just booked a GrabShare to Glorietta instead. I used a PHP100 rewards coupon so I only paid PHP52. On the ride over, I was able to reserve both my friend and I’s tickets to Kita Kita on Sureseats and got the last seats! My friend paid for the tickets and the popcorn since she lost this month’s biggest loser challenge – should I talk on another post about this? We got late dinner at Torch in Greenbelt and met up with another friend. We shared pasta and pizza and I ended up paying PHP350 for my share. Around 12AM, I took another GrabShare home using another PHP100 rewards coupon. I paid PHP149.

Total: PHP 1003

Day 5 – Thursday

I got home around 1AM from my night out so I slept in. I got rice and chicken for lunch that mom left before she scurries off to wherever she goes. Around 3PM, I asked my cousin to buy us two boxes of pizza (PHP150) – the cheap kind, lol, and we shared it with the other kiddos. I spent the rest of the day editing and finally publishing a new post after at least two months of blog inactivity.

Total: PHP 150

Day 6 – Friday

I got paid today, and some automatically went to my bills. I paid my Globe bills (PHP1200) – IDK why it’s always at least 300 pesos over my plan, have to call Globe, my BPI credit card bills, and my Sunlife plan (PH1100 per cut-off). These are all my monthly expenses so I’m not counting it for today’s total. I actually had breakfast today and I have three pan de sal with hotdogs in it. For lunch, I had pork chop and a petchay soup with rice. By 3PM, I was off to work as usual and took my bus route (PHP43). For dinner, my officemates and I bought something from a Korean/Japanese resto. I had beef omurice with chapcae and a glass of iced tea. It was only PHP135. As usual, around 2AM, I got a Grab home. It’s around PHP400~ today but it’ll be reimbursed by my company.

Total: PHP 178

Day 7 – Saturday

Today’s my weekly weigh-in with my friend. I gained two pounds, as I haven’t really exercised lately and ate a lot. I started an accountability thread on twitter so I can log my exercises and I spent 45 minutes on the elliptical trainer during the morning. I had rice with chicken nuggets and egg for a late brunch before heading to work. I took the usual bus route – PHP43. It’s another weekend so we have dinner allowance. We ate at Eduardo’s Peri Peri Chicken and I had, well, peri peri chicken and rice. It’s all covered with our dinner allowance so I don’t have to spent a cent. Around 2AM, I took another Grab ride home that is, as usual, reimbursable by the company

Total: PHP 43

Weekly Total: PHP 1976

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This is not one of my best weeks in this shift, financially speaking. On my first week in this shift, I spent less than PHP750! Haha. But it’s been since Taiwan that I hang out with my girls, so it’s worth it. I spent PHP526 for transportation and PHP1450 for food this week. Looking at this, I also realized that this is one of my best weeks this year. I didn’t go off buying food or other things that I don’t really use much. Since I’ll be back to the morning shift in two days, I already know that I’ll be spending more than I did this week, but hopefully not! Maybe I’ll make another money diary for that. I tend to have snacks and take complicated and desperate routes to get home during rush hour.

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Money Diaries is a blog series started by Refinery29. It’s my favorite series of them. I hope to send in a detailed money diary to their site soon.