DURING a restaurant dinner with a friend, I noticed him looking at his right palm. I wondered why, knowing he is no believer in palmistry. I guessed he was just curious about his palm’s “triangle holes” that characterize the spendthrift.
“I always run short of cash,” he lamented.
“Yes, you do,” I agreed. “It’s partly because you are generous to the less fortunate. But it’s more so because you invest heavily in business and real estate where you expect return on investment.”
In turn, he complimented me for being “thrifty.”
“I can’t afford to splurge as I used to do eh,” I quipped matter-of-factly.
He would not have believed me had I told him I had lost heavily to Jai-Alai gambling in Manila way back in the 1970s.
Anyway, I am telling this story now for whatever it is worth to today’s readers.
It’s not worth bragging about. I look back to that vice as a learning experience from which to redirect my path. Experience, everybody knows, is the best teacher.
There was a time when I checked my bank account and discovered an almost zero balance. So I hammered my Buddha “bank” for coins to buy my maintenance medicine.
On the way to the pharmacy, I stopped by a shoe store. The pair of leather shoes I had hoped to buy was still there but it only aggravated my sense of loss, realizing I had already buried myself in a mountain of debt.
I took stock of my situation, thinking of ways and means to recover my respectable financial shape.
In the next few months, I kept an expense diary to know exactly how much and for what I had spent. It surprised me to find out that I had splurged on restaurant meals, beer and coffee – not just for myself but for the barkada.
Having traced the root of my financial problem – overspending — I started spending more for dinners with family at home than with the gang elsewhere. I promised to myself to eat outside only whenever I had extra income from a sideline.
Having determined my shopping patterns, I steered clear of temptations.
To this day, even if I frequent the malls, I prefer bargain-hunting and shun impulse buying. Instead of buying a pair of branded denims, I buy ten pairs at the ukay-ukay stalls. Buying more items at the least cost now gives me the satisfaction of having beaten monetary inflation.
It’s the opposite of what I used to do when a splurge on credit-card purchases made me “high” – until payment was long overdue and I was receiving “love letters” from the card company threatening to see me in court.
Am I glad that I have paid up. I am free again from stressful debts. Whenever I feel like wanting to buy something I can live without, I distract myself with a priceless alternative – say, playing a computer game on my laptop, or watching a movie on YouTube.
At the end of every month, I go over my receipts to determine which bought items I can live without. That way, no matter how small, I manage to stash away any amount which could pile up and buy me a dream come true in due time.
My brother Jesse also does it. Out of his monthly savings, he recently bought a slightly-used car that looks and runs as good as new.
So please, my friends, stop pestering me for financial help; I am saving for a brand-new one. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
