Just this afternoon, I finally finished another monthly task that I’ve been doing for more than half a year already – family expenses accounting. After learning how to do it from a personal financial planning training, I’ve never ignored a single receipt and have always tried my best to account each expense somewhere around the end of each month – some month’s result were shocking, some were fulfilling, while others (if not most) were challenging. July however was somewhat amusing.
As much as I now value more each penny we’ve got, I still believe that there are things that need to be discovered and that holding back from doing so might come as a regret later. And as much as I’d like to be as thrifty as possible, sometimes the call to experience things is just hard to hold back – like eating conveyorized sushi and buying the first ever balloon.
Last week, after months of eyeing this Japanese resto in the SM’s Mall of Asia, we arrived at the mall just in time for Sakae Sushi’s buffet meal – 2pm. The juice and biscuits we ate for lunch (somewhere nearby) were just enough to keep us full during the drive and well enough to keep us excited about the thought of chasing sushis as it pass by our table.
It is fast...
...but we're faster - our emptied plates : )
A couple of plates later, surprisingly or not, I mastered how to spot the perfect sushi caring less if it’s colored yellow, green or red – If it weren’t for the buffet time, each color has its corresponding prize and one has to be picky if he’s dining on a budget. Needless to say, I enjoyed each time even if my wife and I had to take turns between watching our little boy and “ambushing” the sushis. And it’s either we’re that fast or there’s just a few sushi variety available, but it must have just taken less than an hour for us to taste every sushi Sakae can offer. Well, how can I complain, it must be what’s Php 399/pax is worth. Not bad considering that I get to eat in a place where my familiarity with it was once just because of MTV videos or Hollywood movies.
Another first that day, was buying our little boy his balloon. After coming out of Sakae Sushi resto, my wife, having mother instinct was able to easily locate one stall that sells a dizzying selection of floating balloons that our kid was pointing aimlessly (and screaming like one crazy Beatles fan) until he steadied his tiny index finger to a recognizable square yellow figure that even I was suddenly attracted to its bucktooth-smile the moment I saw it. A few seconds of exchanging Php 105 with the seemingly irresistible Sponge Bob, I saw our kid beaming with satisfaction of having his first ever cartoon character balloon.
The selection, the pick, the moments.
Soon, he was running around in one part of the crowded mall as if he’s the only one who has it (but I’m quite sure that one kid somewhere nearby was feeling the same thing). Sponge Bob, though still smiling, got all the abuse from his tiny fan. It was pinched, pulled down, yanked, at one point trampled over and was blamed for a couple of stumbles. And just as his tiny fan decided to bring him home, he somehow was able to cut himself loose.
I was walking ahead of my wife and kid when I heard the desperate call. I knew I froze for a sec when I look back and saw Sponge Bob bobbing up and down the mall’s ceiling. I couldn’t believe smiling down on us is a hundred-peso balloon which immediately reminded of the Filipino nursery rhyme: Ako ay may lobo, lumipad sa langit…sayang ang pera ko, binili ng lobo. Kung pagkain sana, nabusog pa ako.(I had a balloon, it flew to the heavens…it was a waste of my money. If only I could’ve spent it for food…).
So even if I was surprised after diligently typing expense details and to see that we’re “in the greens” , next month, I hope to see improvements in our spending. In fact, I have already told my wife one clear instruction: no more balloons for Marcus. Hopefully, he won’t hate me for this. Ti abi.
ref: lobo lyrics
Mood: 3/10 Honks!
