Where to Shop for Cheaper Prices in Manila

Frugal or expense-conscious people are always on the lookout for "bagsakan" or cheaper sources of products. Buying from the source is usually cheaper, like if you buy from farmers or fishermen in case of fresh produce. For consumer goods, factory outlets are popular among buyers, like the Citygate mall in Hong Kong.

In Metro Manila and neighboring provinces, there are places known and becoming popular bargain havens. From my professional and personal buying experiences, I compiled below a list of such places per product category. Prices become a lot cheaper when buying in bulk, and when you've canvassed first before haggling for lowest or last price.

Different Tag Price vs. Bar Code Price

Last Sunday, I bought products from two stores that has different bar code prices against their respective tag/shelf prices. On the two cases below, I cannot allow myself to be cheated or taken advantage by a merchant, so I exercised my rights as a consumer by contesting their higher bar code prices. Why is it that if there is a discrepancy or system error, it usually works to the merchant's favor?

It started that morning in Handyman's Store at Waltermart Carmona, as I looked for a waterproofing compound for our roof, which is undergoing repair. The 4-liter waterproofing product I chose has a tag price of Php 1,645 per pail, but their bar code scan displayed a Php 1,730 price on the checkout counter. The cashier told me that the price had increased, and asked me to pay Php 1,730. 

SMS or Text Scam by Sam Mendoza

Last Friday, I received 2 SMS or text messages from a Philippine mobile number 0906-4314621. Introducing herself as Sam, this 22-year old lady from Bacolod City asked for help, to be able to apply for a job in Manila. She seems to be desperate for help, as she is willing to offer anything, with a website (www.livealife.tk) to support her cry for assistance.

Upon checking the given website, I was surprised to see a nice looking young lady in a graduation photo, complete with a shortened resume, transcript of records, diploma, etc on the sidebar. On the left side is a longer version of her sad story, and readers will surely take pity on her experiences and current condition. It ends with a note as follows:

Camiguin's Attractions and Lanzones Festival

Out of my 12 remaining "must visit" local places on my list, Camiguin is definitely on the top three. This small island province is blessed with many natural attractions, historical sites, good food, and warm people. Its a complete tourist destination by itself. So let me narrate in detail why I would love to visit Camiguin.

White Sand Beaches

I'm a sucker for white sand beaches. I could stay in a beach the whole day, just admiring the cyan blue water splashing gentle waves on the white sand shore, inviting me for a refreshing dip, or lulling me to sleep on a hammock shaded by a tree. A relaxing massage on the beach, a cold beer in hand with freshly-cooked seafoods, or just chatting with friends, are also good ideas to pass away the time on the beach. Camiguin has Mantigue and White islands to satisfy that beach bumming urge.

Car parts troubles that waste gas money

Here's a very helpful article lifted from Phil. Daily Inquirer's Motoring Section's issue yesterday, penned by Tessa Salazar.

So you’ve become a fuel-efficient driver, but is your car a fuel-efficient machine? Remember, one cannot work without the other.

Here’s a look at what could make or break your car’s fuel efficiency, as revealed by acknowledged motoring experts Ferman Lao of Speedlab, Quezon Avenue; Olson Camacho of West Avenue, Quezon City; Deanna Sclar (author of “Auto Repair for Dummies”); and Dan and Judy Ramsey (who wrote “Teach Yourself Visually: Car Care Maintenance”).

Needs vs. Wants

I know some relatives, friends, and co-workers who have faced or still experiencing financial difficulties. A few may be in debt because of being jobless, suffered a tragedy, or someone in the family got hospitalized or in continuous expensive medication. Some make more money but still heavily in debt, while some make less money but able to save minimal amount for future use.

Many of those in "debt status" has common denominators. They usually has personal outstanding loan(s) in a bank, credit card, from their employer, friends, and relatives. Those in desperate mode resort to borrowing from loan sharks and pawnshops. However, despite their negative financial status, I am amazed on how they can afford to have some luxuries in life. 

Hong Kong Bus, MTR, Shops & Streets

Hong Kong is a very modern and efficient city compared with Manila. Most buses have double decker design for bigger capacity. They accept coin payments (exact fare, no change) and their admirable Octopus card system here.

Climatic Disasters: Is It Just Beginning?

After a decade of worst drought in Australia for hundreds of years, the rains started to arrive on second quarter of 2010, bringing back life to their parched lands like the one below. 

Unfortunately, the rains showed no signs of stopping, and continue to cause floods in some parts of the island country, their worst in 200 years. 

168 Shopping Mall in Divisoria

Last Sunday, while most Filipinos are glued on their homes to watch the Margarito-Pacquiao boxing fight, Wife and I chose to do our Christmas shopping to take advantage of less crowd and traffic at Divisoria. But upon arriving by 9 am at the mall, we were quite surprised with the huge number of people, realizing that its not only us who have thought about this timing strategy. :)

We did a walkthrough first, looking at the merchandise on offer by various stalls, then compared the prices.

Airlines' Promo Fares

Nowadays when my family and I travel by air in domestic routes, we normally spend less than Php 400 airfare per way, including aviation fee and value added tax (VAT). Thanks to low cost carriers like Air Philippines and Cebu Pacific, who put a few seats on sale on certain periods.

Air Philippines is the low cost carrier of Philippine Air Lines. Last month, I was able to book my industry colleagues on our planned Cebu seminar next year, for only Php 88/way or Php 214 round trip fare including aviation fee and VAT. Hehe, we jokingly refer to it as field trip for all 23 of us riding the same round trip flight next year.

Driver's License Renewal

My driver's license had just expired last Tuesday, my birthdate. So I arranged the renewal of my driving license yesterday at LTO Drivers License Renewal Center (DLRC) in Robinsons Galleria mall, at the park avenue in lower lobby near Ortigas Avenue entrance.

I arrived at about 12:15 pm when this DLRC Galleria branch was on lunch break. I noticed however that the drug testing facility beside it is entertaining clients inside as they have no lunch break. Since I don't feel like taking a leak that time, I decided to have lunch first so that I would have enough urine to discharge (pardon the details) for the drug test when I come back.

Asianic Computer Store at Park Square Makati

Last Friday, I went to Park Square in Makati City to buy a laptop and a printer.  After paying cash in my laptop purchase to avail a huge discount, I have no more cash to avail the  printer's cash price of Php 3,900 at PC Corner where I bought my laptop.

My target printer is Brother 195C priced almost the same at Php 3,950 in all stores where available. In Asianic Store, the tent card price indicates Php 3,950 and available for 6 monthly installments of Php 658.33/month. Its the same price even if I pay in cash or credit card. So I told the salesguy that I would like to buy one unit, and he started to unpack the printer box for a product demo. He volunteered to process the payment while doing the demo to make it faster, and I agreed. 

When I was about to give my credit card, I told him that I would like to avail the 6-month installment of Php 658.33/month, which will be Php 3,950 in total. But he advised me that the total price will be around Php 4,200 if I will be charged in installment basis, as there was a mistake in the price tag. He was even trying to show to me their pricing scheme in their Point-of-Sale computer system. I told him that its not acceptable as they are misleading their customers, so I told him to cancel the transaction. I could afford straight charge in my card, but I cannot tolerate such malpractice 'coz I felt being cheated!

Vehicle Registration in LTO

Two days after getting my motor vehicle clearance from Highway Patrol Group, I went to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) Manila East branch in Sampaloc, Manila where they keep the physical records of my second-hand bought vehicle. 

Luckily for me, the LTO's connection on insurance companies are offline nationwide. So there are very few cars for registration when I arrived, only those who were able to secure TPL insurance beforehand like myself, hehe.

In contrast with my bad experience at Highway Patrol Group when I secured my vehicle's clearance, the Manila East LTO personnel performed much better than my expectation. The Window 1 personnel checked and arranged my documents, then assigned somebody to stencil my vehicle's engine and chassis numbers. The LTO stencil guy did not asked nor hinted about money for snack or cigarette, which is common with other LTO branches.

Motor Vehicle Clearance from HPG

I personally arranged my ride's registration and transfer of ownership last week. The LTO fixer who handled my previous car's registration and ownership transfer, now has "processing fee" of Php 2,500 without need of bringing the car to HPG for clearance and to LTO for registration. To avoid such under-the-table processing fee, and to support Pres. Noynoy's call to eradicate graft and corruption practices in Philippine government, I decided to handle such tasks even if it entails  more effort and using my vacation leave balance at the office.

Since Highway Patrol Group's (HPG) Muntinlupa office is the nearest to my place, I decided to bring my car there to get the PNP Motor Vehicle Clearance. It is one of the requirements on registering second-hand vehicles before the Land Transportation Office (LTO) revise the owner's details on the car's registration. They are supposed to verify if the car is not stolen or carnapped, before it can be registered to the new owner. HPG is formerly known as Traffic Management Group (TMG).

Hitting the Food Markets

Wife and I left home before 6:00 am this morning to buy fresh produce at Binan Public Market. We were quite surprised to see that all parking space were full, as some restaurant operators and biyaheros (resellers) are still in the market. 

Hankering for other seafoods aside from usual milkfish and tilapia, I was able to buy talakitok (trevally), dulong (dwarf goby) for fishcake, and dalag (mudfish) which was turned into pesa dish for today's dinner.

Kids' School Books

Our 3 kids' total book cost for this year will be almost Php 14k if we get all of it from their school. Thats a lot of money, aside from their tuition fees, uniforms, and other school supplies.

Buying used books from Recto Avenue or their senior schoolmate counterparts could be an option, but only if the books' previous owners took good care of them and didn't leave any mark, which is almost impossible. If those books are less expensive on bookstore chains, it could be another option, but most of the time they don't sell those institutional books.

Managing Credit Cards

I have read an article about credit card frauds a few weeks ago, highlighting the one-sided condition that the credit card owner is liable for any fraudulent purchases on his/her card until the credit card theft/loss/scam was reported. For credit card owner, it would be easier to learn if the credit card was lost or stolen, but nearly impossible to know if it was duplicated (or “na-racha”) until he/she receives the billing statement.

On the predatory policy of local credit card issuers, the card owner is presumed to have used the credit card regardless of the amount, place and time used, unless proven otherwise which may take years to resolve. While investigation or resolution is ongoing and the credit card owner refuses to pay, the finance charges and late payment fees pile up, the card owner would neither be able to open a bank account nor get a new credit card due to bad credit standing.

Maximizing Your Gas Money

Second half of 2008 is the fourth time that the whole world was hit by oil crises since 1973, 1979, and 1990. When diesel and unleaded gasoline retails at close to Php 60/Lt, everybody became more conscious of transportation expenses. The only positive things from this spike in oil prices are (1) less depletion of this unrenewable resource; (2) less traffic and travel time; (3) less pollution; (4) encourages the use of more efficient technologies and energy sources.

Here are 10 tips from DOE to maximize your fuel consumption:

Conserving Water & Keeping It Healthy

Scientists say that life on Earth would not have been possible if there is no water. It covers 71% of Earth’s surface, 97% of which is saltwater, 2.40% in glaciers and ice caps mostly in Antarctica, and only 0.60% in lakes and rivers. Water in the seas also act as worldwide temperature regulator and being constantly monitored by meteorologists to predict El Nino and other climate patterns.

Humans are made up of 55% to 78% water, and we need at least a liter of this life-sustaining liquid a day to avoid dehydration. We are still lucky since most of us have easy access to potable water, unlike the rest of 1 billion in the world population. According to World Health Organization, 5 million people die every year from drinking polluted water, 1.4 million of which are child deaths from diarrhea.

You can cut you water bill by doing these tips, and assure the next generations to have clean freshwater supply at the same time.

Conserving Electricity at Home

Summertime! After the brief cold weather a few months ago, the summer heat is back with a vengeance. This time, cold drinks are heaven sent and our homes must be kept cool enough for rest and household chores. I’m sure that your electric fans, air conditioner, and refrigerator are working harder nowadays. Even your washing machine is not spared for more laundry, as you’re probably taking more baths now than usual.

Unfortunately, electricity costs are much higher during summer season. That is because of the bigger power demand to run those appliances, while the sources to generate cheap power supply can’t meet the demand. So aside from hydroelectric and geothermal power sources, Meralco has to get more power from IPPs that use the more expensive coal and fossil fuels to generate electricity. The high prices of coal and crude oil in the world market add more pressure on electricity cost.

To reduce your electricity expense at your homes, below are some tips that you might find helpful: