L♥ve is a Mutt

Hey, there! I haven't realized it for a long time, but my boyfriend and I are actively taking control of our finances and that makes me happy. I've never understood my financial behavior until now. I mean, I have drafted a lot of excel sheets for our personal finance trackers! Yes, and I haven't missed a day since. I THOUGHT IT WAS CRAZY BEFORE! I've heard, read and see people doing this. My co-worker who happened to be neighbor was soooo thrifty that he records his expenses up to the last cent. When we hang out before, he would do his excel spreadsheet before starting our Big Bang Theory series marathon. I thought he was crazy for doing so. Turned out he is planning on marrying his girlfriend. Well, they did a month ago. I read a lot of Suze Orman too. Bought a copy of Suze Orman's Financial Guidebook on a book sale last year and on the first few chapters, she encouraged people to actually track their finances and I thought I couldn't make it.  But, h...

You are now reading a book. Do you like my new layout? I think I am going to stick with this for quite a while. I wanted a simple, text-focused, clean layout for this blog. I stayed up late just to revamp this blog. I used to like having a layout which emphasizes pictures, but I guess I am creating a new photoblog this year. Will start it as soon as I can get my hands on Nikon D5200. Yay! I just can't concentrate enough if my layout is bugging me. Finding the perfect font Oh yeah. Guilty. Anyway, I have been enjoying sleep and lazy afternoons here that I have forgot all about writing and I eat and surf the internet all the time. I have lagged on blogging again, but I'll be back because the layout is seducing me to write more. ;) I should really be writing more. To fulfill that promise, I have joined a challenge, a 500 words challenge. Groins, the writer made this. He has an fb page put up for the interaction of this challenge. I have writed for 3 days...

They always tell me that I'm a happy person. If you start reading my earliest journal entries here, you would be thinking the author got replaced. I used to be gloomy and helpless. Now, I am just this bouncing ball, bringing smiles on the faces of people around me. via I find joy in the ordinary. I perk up when someone mentioned that he saw a quote on Pinterest -- was surprised he would know Pinterest. I look forward to grocery days on Fridays. I don't panic when deadline comes because I know I can deliver for as long as He stays with me. I enjoy cuddling in my bed with my two laptops. I don't mind buying the 2-L oil for our house -- when they say that I shouldn't be doing it that my housemates should do that. Now, I just couldn't give out something negative. Well, on most days, probably because I don't hold on to the negatives inside me. I may be peachy and all, but I can inject happiness to people and maybe just maybe help them to screen out the sad,...

It’s our habit to reward ourselves of something after being able to save a significant amount of money. We always think we deserve a little treat for a deed accomplished or after a week’s hard work. At the end of the day, we suddenly realize that we spent too much, and we don’t have enough until the next payday.  Back to zero! Need to start saving again. Do you have this type of mindset? It’s like a never-ending cycle most especially if you don’t change your spending habits. Stop fooling yourself into spending more money. At first, rewarding yourself feels good, but in the end, your wallet will suffer the consequences. It is better to fool yourself into saving. Here are 5 things you can deliberately do to strategically and effectively save money: Put Sentimental Bills on Your Wallet Most Pinoys are extremely sentimental. We keep things that remind us of something or someone. Even tiny things like candy wrappers or a bus fare ticket provides a sentiment to somebo...

Anyone who cares about quality needs to take great care when buying leather accessories. Shoddy stitching, poor quality materials and lousy workmanship can make even genuine leather products look cheap and ugly. Here are three things to look out for when you’re contemplating a genuine leather purchase, whether it’s a wallet, a handbag or a belt you’re after. via Observe the stitching Stitching is one of the most difficult aspects of leathercraft to get right, and good hand-stitching is often what sets a quality product apart from mass-produced junk. Check that stitching is even and straight, that there are no frayed threads or unraveled stitches and that the thread is strong enough to keep the product together at the seams. Smell and feel the leather If a product claims to be made of genuine leather , it should smell and feel like it. Spend some time observing genuine leather luxury goods to get a feel for how genuine leather should feel and smell. Leather sh...

On my first weekend here in Limerick, we went to Dromoland. Dromoland used to be a castle, but it's now a 5-star hotel  near  Newmarket-on-Fergus  in  County Clare , Ireland.  It was Sunday and I was kind of eager to go out and explore Ireland.  That's the castle, obviously.  Here I am with them. They're my officemates, but we only got to talk to each other here. We're from different groups and we really don't handle the same products. That's why.  I love this spot. I always loved trees. Here, trees are lovely. (Lovely, I finally get to use the word here a lot. In conversations.) The detail that I like most about them is the red and wilted parts on the top of those little twigs and branches. They form this pale-ish old rose-y bush when seen from afar.  Our epic fail jump shot. There were four shots, each shot, one of us was jumping. I picked to post this one so I get to be labelled as the Master Jumper a...

Hey, hey! Somebody sweet tagged me on this Liebster Award! And this made my day. :) Well, aside from the Nutella-covered banana which I ate earlier when I got home, hungry, from work. All right. The girl whom I am grateful for this award is called Jean. She owns Irrational Sense of Optimism , a personal blog which has an awesome layout, rocking minimalist touch of fonts and great content. She does crafts! And I am jealous. I seem not to have time for everything I want to do in life!  Anyhow, let's get our thinking back to this Liebster Award. If you head on to Jean's blog , you would read a little history about the award and I wouldn't repeat it here because I'm lazy like that! I'll just proceed to the rules and the do's and blah's. So, yeah. Read on.  THE LIEBSTER RULES With a fabulous blog comes many awards, so this is one of the consequences of having an awesome blog -- I have to give out the awesomeness to the blogosphere. With that pow...