“A vacation helps to relieve stress and boredom, gives us a change of scenery, provides us with adventure, and helps to bring us closer to the people in our lives.” – E. S. Woods

Finally!

After almost four years of not going on vacation, I finally have a time to arrange it this year. The thought of it actually started because of my eagerness to find another a job now that I’m about to reach two years in my current company. Since I feel that there’s no growth opportunity for me, I wanted to take another opportunity somewhere else. Because of this, I carefully thought of my current situation and then I realized that it will be a waste not to use my ticket benefit. Since I’m entitled for a round trip ticket after completing two years, I wanted to use it first before transferring in another company. In my past company, I only used this benefit two times and the rest were not transferred due to the change of employers. This time, I wanted to make use of all my benefits before moving again in another company. It will surely be a waste of money if I’ll just move without considering the benefits that I have on my current company. Now, I wanted to be very careful in everything I do, and should not base my decision on my emotions. I believe that after I go for vacation, I will have a clearer perspective on how I want my future will be. It will my time to relax, regain energy, shift my mind, and make more memories with my loved ones. I just hope that all of my plans and priorities during those 30 days will be accomplished so that I can restart my life without regretting every single day I spent there.

As you grow older, you learn a few things. One of them is to actually take the time you’ve allotted for vacation.” – John Battelle

This will be my third time to go on vacation. The first one was force due to the crisis in middle east before and the second one went well because I had my second investment. For this vacation, I wanted to address my priorities which I can only settle in the Philippines and also spend the rest of my days reconnecting with my family, relatives and friends. Unlike before wherein I took around 45 days and more, this time I wanted to make it short yet memorable. I only applied for 30 days which will start on September 1 until September 30.  At first, my vacation will be on October but due to the FIFA World Cup event, our company imposed a ban of vacation from October – December. Because of that I adjust everything from my plan, budget, schedule and many more. That is also the reason why I cut down my budget for the 2^nd house rental renovation. Nevertheless, I made an adjustment and I was able to set everything again before the end of July. Prior to this plan, some of my colleagues already went for vacation and one thing they told me is that they spent a lot of money there because of the high prices bought by the pandemic. Some said they spent more than P200,000.00 in just one and half months and some are saying that having a P100,000.00 budget will not be enough because of a lot of reason. As I hear them telling or more on bragging about the money that they spent there, I decided to prove them wrong by challenging myself to budget only P100,000.00 for 30 days. For me, that is more than enough since prior to my past vacation, I never reached an expense of P100,000.00. Because of their stories, I want to know it by myself if I can manage to do it or all of what they’d said are true. To give you a summary of my vacation details, here are the following:

1. Total Vacation Days:          30 Days
2. Start & End Date:               September 1 – 30
3. Total Budget:                     P100,000.00 Maximum
4. Top Priorities:                     Settle all local bank accounts/Insurance Payment

                                           Secure at least 1 government ID

5. Places to Visit:                    Davao

                                           Bacolod

                                           Rizal

                                           La Union

                                           Baguio

Think about it; how do you feel when you are planning a vacation? You feel excited and happy. Your stress level is diminished, and this also affects your work in a positive way.” – John Morgan

I started to prepare everything months prior to my plan. As I slowly plan all the things, I started to feel happy and excited from all the experiences waiting for me on that period. I really wanted to make most out of my 30 days, and for me, planning is the best way to achieve it. I wanted to manage it as much as possible so that I can make sure that I will do first my priorities and at the same time follow the intended budget for that month. Together with my sister, I learned to make an itinerary which I did for my Bacolod trip. Not only that, I also carefully review the expenses that I may incur during that period so I’ll be able to know how much will be the intended amount for it. It took me a lot of time to sum up everything and now I can finally share to you all the things that I prepared prior to my vacation. Since it will only be 30 days, I know that it is pretty short to spend with but I also believe that it is more than enough as long as I can manage my days ahead. I believe that the only challenging part will be is sticking to my budget knowing that there will be for sure unnecessary spendings I will experience. That’s why I made a buffer every week so there will be no problem if there’s adjustment that may happen.

Actually, I still have a means which I can still add on my vacation budget. But upon considering the situation once I come back, I don’t want to experience having a zero balance like most of my colleague’s experience after they went for vacation. I will be for sure unease once I do that, so I just decided to secure an amount on my local bank account and settled with P100,000.00 budget. I actually experienced it before and I don’t want to be in that same situation anymore. It is more than enough to experience and I already learned from it. This time, I will make sure that all of the guidelines below that I did for myself will be followed:

1. Stick to P100,000.00 budget.
2. Buffer amount should be present every week. It will be intended for emergency expense.
3. Make sure that there will be a balance remaining once I come back.
4. Priorities should be settled first.
5.  I will not overspend!

So without further ado, let’s tackle everything from my schedule, budget, priorities and places to visit!

To start everything, here’s the illustration of how my vacation would look like. As you can see, it is all jampacked with different tasks which makes me busy for the whole month of September. You can see here my task, leisure activities, schedules for my physical needs and of course my budget for shopping! You know very well that I’m a thrifty person, and living in a country where most of the goods are expensive, you’ll have an idea on how my wardrobe looks like. From my six years living here, I can count from one hand all the items that I bought for myself. Take note also that I only buy if it’s sale that’s why most of my things are from my sister which she bought on a thrift shop! It may sound like a joke but it’s in fact true. So when I say shopping, I’m pertaining to a thrift shop where you can buy second hand clothes on a budget friendly price. My family has been doing it for so long due to the reason that we don’t have enough money to buy clothes from malls. So now that we are all grown up, even though we already have the means, we still sticked to what we are used to. Actually, even though it’s a thrift shop, there’s a lot of good items that you can buy. I only realized it upon shopping there every now and then when I was still in college. Just a little trivia, I bought my baccalaureate and graduation dress there!

Going back to this schedule, you can see how I only have few days to rest and most of it are intended for my leisure trips. The first week is intended for all my priorities which is more on bank/insurance settlement and applying for a government ID.  I decided to do it on the first week so that I will have a time to do adjustments just in case they may require additional things. To be able to ease the process, I will prepare all the things prior to my vacation so that it will only take one day for me to do everything. I put this also on the first week so I can first settle these main priorities before I can entirely enjoy the rest of the days without thinking of any pending task. Compare to my last vacation, I didn’t have a proper schedule so I only have limited leisure trips that I remember back then. That’s why, I decided to do this schedule so that I can always look back on things that I did for the whole month of my vacation. It will also serve as my reference for my next vacation so I can easily plan out things like how I did it.

For me to easily know the tasks I have for the whole month, I highlighted it based on its specification (leisure, priorities, grocery etc.). Here below are the details of each task:

1. Red highlight – Flight Dates
2. Green Highlight – Bank & ID priorities
3. Yellow Highlight – Physical Activities
4. Brown Highlight- Grocery/Shopping

As you can see in this calendar, my leisure activities are scattered on the 2^nd -4^th week of the month. This is for me not to feel tired and have time for another task that I need to do. In this 30 days’ vacation, the highlight of it which I really look forward is our Davao trip with my whole family and my Solo Bacolod trip to meet my partner’s family. Together with my sister, we carefully plan out everything so that we can prepare our ootd’s! As soon as we started planning, we also look forward on different outfits that we need to buy and also our over all look. That’s why we also decided to have our hair retouch which we both been wanting to do since before. I even allocate an amount for it so that we can really make that plan happened. I will be my treat for both my mom and sister because I know that they both deserve it. Just seeing this schedule makes me feel so excited. I know that this will be my best vacation ever because we all put effort to make all of this plan possible. It has been a challenging period for all of us during the pandemic and I know that we deserve a break after all of it. This time, I will really make most out of my days. I want to come back inspired, happy, beautiful and grateful of the experiences happened on my vacation.

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. “

For my budget, I first allocate an amount of P100,000.00 but due to the advance payment for our Davao trip and at the same time the vacation requirements payment, I just reduced it to P95,000.00. Based on this budget guide, my projected expense will be more or less P90,500.00. The balance amount will be intended for additional expenses which will not be included in this list. I decided to make a budget guideline so that I will know the amount intended for each task. By having this guide, it will help me not to overspend and live within the budget. This is the fist time that I’d done this guideline. For my previous vacation, I only did a list of expenses I incurred during my stay. Because of it, I failed to do some of the tasks and became pending due to the pandemic. Now that I will be going for vacation this September, I made a schedule and budget for everything so I can finally address all of my concerns. Some of my colleagues who went for vacation shared that this budget is less, that’s why I wanted to check it on my own and prepare the necessary things for me to manage the limited budget that I set for myself.

With the leisure trips I planned in this month, nobody will think that I only have limited budget. I actually don’t have the idea about the usual price of goods in the Philippines because it has been almost four years since I went home, gladly all of us are capable already to pay for our own and that helped me to adjust my budget. During the time that I’m preparing all of this, it made me realized the changes that took place on our life. It has been six years when we all started working and a lot of things happened on each of our life. We were able to look for a decent job, three of us all get an insurance, we started our own investment, we purchase our first family car and last but not the least is we all found a partner in life. Within six years, God has proved His power to change one’s life. I know that we still have a long way to go and there will be more challenges waiting along the way, but looking back on our past selves, I really feel so proud on our progress. I never imagine that our life will turn out like this and that made me think of how time can change a person.

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone” – Neale Donald Walsch

I am now on my 6^th year working overseas and within that year, I made a progress which helped me to achieve all the things that I have right now. This vacation budget is the reminder of what I’d been through. I know that I deserve all of this and I will make sure that I will not regret spending money for me and my family’s happiness. This will only be a beginning of the life that I’d been wanting to have. I hope that next time I will plan my vacation, I will be in a place where I’d been dreaming to achieve. I pray that in that time, money will not be an issue anymore because I have the means to spend it. This will be a promise to myself and I will surely make it happen. I am looking forward to a new set of plans where I can provide more happiness to my family and love ones.

I will never stop until I get there. That’s a promise.

Even though some may say that I need to entirely enjoy my vacation, I wanted to use this opportunity to address the pending task that I am left to do due to the pandemic. These tasks will all be my top priority for my vacation so that I can start the next year with peace of mind. Like what I always mentioned on my blog, this year 2022 will be the busiest years of my life. So to put it in reality, I will make use of this period to push things that I can still do.

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” -Stephen Covey

INSURANCE AUTO DEBIT PAYMENT

It has been a challenge for me to pay my one insurance since it is still not enrolled in an auto debit arrangement unlike the first one. Because of this, there are some payments which has been credited as top us rather than the premium payment. This is my third-year payment and this time I wanted to fixed everything so that I can just easily pool my money in one account and let the payment be automatically deducted. Like in my 2^nd insurance, I will do the same arrangement on my 1^st insurance to ensure that I am paying on time and there’s no missed payment on my part. To be able to secure all the requirements needed for this, I already prepared all the things beforehand so that it will be easy for me to manage everything as soon as I reach home. I scheduled this task on September 1 together with the update of my local bank account atm, so that everything will be approved before I finished my vacation. Once I’m done with this, I can just easily send money on that account and let it auto debit. This will also help my family not to go on the branch every now and then just to pay my premiums. Together with my other long-term investments, I will use one account in all of it so that I can be at ease that all the payments are on time and I have sufficient fund for all of it.

As of now, these are the long-term investment that I started within six years working:

1. Insurance – Started last August 2019
2. Insurance + Investment – Started last 2020
3. SSS Insurance – Started last 2019

Now that I believe my future is secured, I will now start to invest on passive income streams which will help my current situation. Once I started it, I can have more means to invest and at the same time look for other cash flow opportunities. I believe that investing on my future will be a good start since I will have more time to let my money grow. Sooner or later, I will be able to experience its benefits as I grow older. For the meantime, I will look for other investment opportunities that I can start.

SECURE ATLEAST 2 GOVERNMENT ID

Within six years working overseas, I only have one issued government ID which is the passport. Because of this, it inhibits me to have transactions because they usually need one to two valid ID’s. Now that I have a time to do so, I decided to get an Id so that it will be easy for me specially I am planning to purchase a foreclosed properties in the near future. Given the situation that I’m working overseas, the only time that I can work on it is once I go for vacation. Now, I want to do the important things as much as I can because I know that it will take time again for me to go home. Together with my mother who’s a pro in this field, I will be with her so that she can guide me about the needed things specific for each Id’s. My target is to get an at least three valid Id before I end my vacation. It’s not necessarily that I need to wait for it since I have only 30 days, but what important is I already done with the needed processes to obtain it. My family can just receive it on my behalf so that I can take it once I’ll have my own vacation. My target ID’s to take are the following:

1. Tin ID
2. Philippine ID
3. OFW ID (E-card)
4. SSS ID

Any of the following mentioned above will be ok. As much as I can do more then it will be ideal for me in the future. I will prepare beforehand the needed things so that it will be easy for me to apply for it as soon as I arrive home.

PAY FOR SSS INSURANCE

For this year, I decided to continue my SSS payment after stopping it for two years. Thankfully, there’s an SSS mobile online now which features your previous payments and amount which you can choose to pay. After I explored all its features, it helped me to decide the amount suitable for me and generate a one-time payment for the whole year of 2022. After I successfully earned a passive income this year, it became my source of payment for this fund and at the same time my first insurance. By the halfway of this year, I successfully reached the amount I need to pay for this year and all I’m left to do is to finally pay for it. The amount that I chose is P1950.00 monthly or P23400.00 yearly. As of now, I have a total of 24 months paid and I have left with 96 more months or 8 years to consistently pay for this. I believe that this is the right time for me to invest as much as I can so I can also reach the targets as early as possible. Other than that, SSS insurance fund has been one of the best government subsidies which I can use once I retire.

Once I have more means to invest, I planned to increased it and pay consistently even though I already reached the required months of savings. By doing this, I believe that it will be a great help once I retire because I will have a consistent cash flow which I can also use to invest in the future. Given the passive income that I have right now, I am confident that I can pay on time and consistently. I will make use of this situation to increase my payments in the future so I can expect high returns upon retiring.

BANK ATM UPDATE/CONTACT NUMBER CHANGE

Now that every year there’s a sudden change due to risk of digital scams, a lot of banks implemented an OTP feature which serves as an added security for our savings. Because of this, they’re sending an OTP message on my registered number there which has been inactive for almost four years. This task will be my main concern as well because I planned to use this account solely for all of my long-term investments. I need to update it so that I can pay for those investment which can’t be enrolled in an auto debit set-up. After this, I will also take this opportunity to update all of my online access so that I can check my accounts every now and then. Like what I planned to on my insurance, I will do this task at the same time so I can just focus on enjoying the rest of my vacation doing leisure trips. It will be very busy doing all of these in just few days but I need to push myself so that I will not have anything to think of and just my leisure trips.

EYE CHECK-UP/ TEETH CLEANING CHECK-UP

In terms of my physical needs, I need to take this opportunity to address all of my concerns given the fact that it’s cheaper to do it in Philippines than in Qatar. I also made a schedule specifically for it so that I can make sure that I will have time to do this. Other than that, I allocate a budget for it which will help me to stick to my plans and not overspend. The eye checkup will be easy because there’s a doctor available in every eye glass stores in the Philippines. For my teeth, I need to check one of it due to the hole that I saw last two months ago. I still don’t have any idea about this but for me prevention will always be better than cure. These two things will also be my top priority for my whole vacation.

Now that we’re done with all the tasks that I need to do on my vacation, let’s now tackle all my planned leisure trips which is the ultimate highlight of this year. Compare to my previous vacation, this one will be full of adventures and trips. Together with my sister, we both planned every single thing to make sure that we will have a great experience. I will spend each trip with people that I’m close with so that I can ensure that I’ll be able to spend time with all of them. In the schedule that I did, you can see the lavender color highlights which stands for all my leisure trips in the whole month of September.

 “Travel opens your heart, broadens your mind, and fills your life with stories to tell.”

DAVAO

Since last 2020, we’d been planning to have a local trip together with our whole family. We already book it actually but due to the pandemic, all flights were cancelled. The amount that we paid for it went to our travel wallet online and then we rebook it again last October 2022. Everything was all set until our company issued a memo that no one is allowed to go on vacation starting from October – December. I literally lose hope already and I really felt bad about it at first. In the end we rebooked it again on the third time and finally all settled on September. At first, I was thinking to just cancel my vacation. But the one who pushed me to go for it is my partner. Both of us was stuck here in Qatar for almost four years already due to the pandemic. That’s why, we both badly want to go home so that we can at least visit our loved ones and spend time with them. In planning this trip it took us some time to think of the place that we wanted to visit. It was my sister who first suggest it and she convinced us by sharing to us some Davao trip experiences of some travelers. We all unanimously convince with it and by then we started to plan our itinerary.

Actually, the whole itinerary was arranged by my sister. Since this is not the first trip that she experienced, it is easy for her to coordinate things and plan out our itinerary by considering also the budget. The whole trip cost P9,010.00 excluding the ticket and the personal expense. I can say that it is worth of the price since we’ll be staying for four days there and that amount already includes the accommodation, food, tours and transportation. We will be visiting different spots around Davao City, Davao Oriental and one of the famous beach islands which is Samal. We set the trip on September 14 and will end on 17 because that’s what we think the ideal time to get there. We will also be spending it together with my Aunt Beth which was sponsored by our cousin May Ann. I just hope that my Dad will be allowed to go with us now that their acting hotel manager imposed a vacation ban starting from September to December.

Here’s a glimpse of our itinerary in Davao:

BACOLOD

“Travel. Your money will return. Your time won’t.”

Finally! After being together with almost four years, this will be the first time that I’ll meet my partner’s family. We both decided to let me visit them so that I can somehow see them personally. I believe that this is a good thing to do now that we both planning to settle down in the near future. I scheduled my visit there on September 21 and we’ll be both back together on September 24 to also meet my relatives. For me to make most out of my time there, I also made an itinerary which I shared to my partner. For three days, I will be visiting a total of three cities namely Bacolod, Silay and Talisay. My whole budget of that trip is P10,000.00 which already includes all of the things I need from food, transpo, treats and ticket. I’m planning to cut it down so I can still save money for my other task once we’ll be back in Cavite. This trip will be followed by our La Union and Baguio trip which will be the last tour before our flight. Within these three days, I will make it sure that I have time to spend with their family and also know more about about the place.

When I planned my itinerary, I took my research first and checked all the famous spots within their provinces. I made a list like how my sister did it and see to it that I will have time to check out all of those places written there. We will be doing it together with his sister which made the whole trip more meaningful. I’m quite nervous to do meet them because this will be the first time. I just hope and pray that everything will go well and all of us can spend those days happily.

LA UNION & BAGUIO

“Work, Travel, Save, Repeat.”

After my Bacolod trip, it will be followed by a trip to our province few days prior to our flight. This will be the last yet a memorable period since this will also be the first time that my relatives will meet my partner. I prepared a treat for them which really makes me feel so excited about it. For sure there will be a feast every single day and the whole experience will be fun for all of us. God knows how I’d been missing our province because every time my parents visit there, I always feel so jealous of it. Unlike me who can’t visit my grandparents any time they wany, the thought makes me feel sad always. That’s why I want to take this opportunity to really spend time with them and let them feel my presence. Some of my relatives especially grandparents may forget about me since they’re now old, but just seeing them is more than enough for me. I will keep every moment that I spent there happily and I’ll make it sure that it will be another memorable experience for me

For us to showcase the place to my partner, we are planning to go in the following places:

1. La Union – San Juan Beach, Halo Halo de Iloko, Tangadan Falls, Grape Farm, Ma Cho Temple, Paraoir Manmade Forest, Agoo Eco Fun World
2. Baguio – Mirador Hill and Eco Park, Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Burnham Park, Camp John Hay, Mines View Park, Igorot Stone Kingdom, Colors of StoBoSa, La Trinidad & Baguio Botanical Garden

This will all take time to visit so we just made a list of reference so that we’ll know where to go once we are there.

RIZAL

Another place that we are planning to visit is Tanay Rizal. We got this idea, when I saw one of my friends who went there. The place was astonishing and that made me want to visit also. This plan is will still depends on the budget that I have and the availability of my family. I already allocate a budget for it but it still may change if there’s any sudden payments that may happen. As of now, it will be included on my budget and just check it out once I’m there.

“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes.” – Andrew Carnegie

Working overseas, having a vacation back in our home country feels like surreal. Just the thought of it makes us feel emotional and excited even there’s still more months prior to it. Now that I have an opportunity to do it this coming month, I want to make it very memorable for me and the people that I will spent with.

After almost four years, I finally make an ideal vacation which is full of adventures and travels. Given the limited budget that I have, I still wanted to maximized the budget by spending it more on travel. I’m glad that my sister is a pro on that side because she’s been travelling for so long and everyone knows how many places she already visited.

  In this short period of time, I will make sure that I will comeback inspired and motivated to continue what I started. I will take that time to replenish myself, set new goals, and spend it with the people I love the most. Few more days and I will finally see all of them.

I hope and pray that this will be a one-of-a-kind vacation that I will surely remember.

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”