When I first found out I was creating a life, I was actually saving up money for a leisure trip to Bali, right after losing all our money on my husband’s treatment. We have been married just a year by this time, and we were yet to settle down. We planned on enjoying a carefree life at least for one more year before we started acting like responsible adults who ‘saves’. The only times when we saved money were when we planned for vacations. And I just had one more planned before we started behaving like adults, saved our money, got an apartment, and headed the family way.

However, fate had some other plans for us. So when I saw those two lines, my only thought was how are we going to give a decent life to this little blessing? After my husband and I had that talk where we discussed how we are going to change the course of our lives now that we have to be more responsible, I opened my laptop and tried to work. I wanted to earn every penny that I can for the baby. But little did I know that my morning sickness wasn’t just regular morning sickness but I had the severe Hyperemesis Gravidarum that would eventually result in me being hospitalized. Unlike regular morning sickness, my HG didn’t go away after the first trimester and I was on bed rest pretty much my entire pregnancy.

But I tried to work as much as I could. Would you believe me if I say that I worked sitting in my hospital bed as soon as I was handed my phone after giving birth? Making up for the past carefree lifestyle I must say! To make matters worse, Seiji was born at the onset of the pandemic, the very month his dad’s office shut down because of it. He worked really, really hard throughout my entire pregnancy. He could not afford any rest after his surgery as we found out about the pregnancy while he was recovering from it.

He took the utmost care of me while trying to freelance on top of his full-time job. But the fact that our insurance covered nothing- not his treatment, not my treatment, neither my delivery nor the baby’s vaccination made a huge impact on our financial situation.

The year 2020 just went by. Together we earned enough to cover each month’s rents, bills, baby’s vaccinations, and food. But in 2021, I decided that enough is not just enough. It’s high time that we start saving money for a brighter future for the baby and for our own apartment as well. And since I am new to budgeting I did some research and started using Calculator.me for my financial planning. They have Loan Amortization, Mortgage Calculators, Auto Calculators, Credit cards, Savings Calculator and Financial Planning.

The Financial Planning Section has a Family Budget Planner where you can get suggested percentage guidelines based on your net income. Most people have a good idea of how much they are spending on their basic utilities like rent and bills, but most lose track of how much they are spending on clothing, health care, recreation, and charitable donations.

That’s where the calculator comes in; they have a solid breakdown planned for you to give an estimated recommended percentage.

I also got some major budgeting inspiration from Passionate Penny Pincher who shares great printables and deals on her blog.

So here I am, going overboard when shopping for the baby and being frugal when it comes to me. Trying to work as much as we can and trying to save as much as possible. From planning a Bali trip to wiping poppy butts, somewhere we grew up. Even though we still plan on going on that trip someday, but this time as a family. And we know what we need to do to make it happen- it’s budgeting!

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