by The Happy WAHM
16/365Challenge: Stress is what I’ve been trying to avoid. And today, I came across something that says going through stress has benefits, too. So how can stress be good?
I have not written much about health in this space, although it’s actually one of the four major categories that I love to write (or talk) about. The other three are education, livelihood, and parenting.
I was editing a book earlier, and I came across this word… hormesis.
According to Google, hormesis is a biological phenomenon whereby a beneficial effect (improved health, stress tolerance, growth or longevity) results from exposure to low doses of an agent that is otherwise toxic or lethal when given at higher doses. (gettingstronger.org)
In other words, hormesis is a term used to describe favorable biological responses to low exposures to stressors by exposing yourself to discomfort.
So we complain about traffic. We complain about the heat. We complain that we have so many things going on at our respective workstations that we have breakfast for dinner.
Well, guess what? Experiencing these discomforts, which lead to stress for some, if not most, of us, is actually good! They make us stronger.
Think how long our ancestors have lived. They did not have the luxury of cars, so they walked (or run) to get from point A to point B, which help build strong bones, strengthen muscles, improve cardiovascular fitness, and burn plenty of kilojoules. They did not have the luxury of electric fans or air condition. So they sweat it out, which purges the body of toxins that can clog pores and plague the skin with pimples and blemishes. They did not have refrigerators to store food, so they would sometimes go hungry, until the next successful hunt or harvest. And yet, they lived healthy and strong.
In more layman’s terms, hormesis is like what they do in allergen immunotherapy, where they introduce very low doses of an allergen, then gradually increase the dosage to build up tolerance.
So, experiencing stress in small doses can be beneficial. I know that when I’m stressing, I get to accomplish more, because my stress motivates me to focus on my work and my goals. According to research, stress produces a fight-or-flight response. This response is designed to help us react when something potentially threatening happens, to help us deal with it and learn from it. Further research shows that short-lived stress can improve alertness and performance and boost memory.
So there! Next time you’re stressing, just think back to this post. For as long as you don’t allow yourself to wallow in your stress, then you’ll be good.
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by The Happy WAHM
15/365Challenge: Thrilled to the bones that a yarn mix has been named after my baby, Crafted Crafts. So today, I’m sharing with you Crafted Crafts Cottonberry.
Remember my post where I first introduced my Crafted Crafts logo?
Well, the logo has been edited, and now comes in two variations. Thanks to Lique of Artique whose hands were responsible for these beauties. Her original design is still up at the site, but last December, I asked her to make the colors brighter, as I find the original teal shade kinda sad. 🙂
But who am I kidding? The reason that I actually had the color changed a bit was that I could not make the teal at the site match the shade of the teal on the logo. Ergo, I sent Lique the hex code of the teal I used at the site and asked her, nicely, to please make the colors match. 🙂
Then last week, while I was looking for a green cotton yarn for a poncho project, Jherae, one of the fantastic duo responsible for the unique Sugar Free yarn mixes that you’ll only find at their cave, showed me the teal that she was still winding. I was so excited that it was exactly the shade of teal of my logo! So I went ahead and asked if she could put a little bit of pink in it, sent her my logo, and in no time, she came up with the Crafted Crafts Cottonberry mix. 🙂
Nice, yeah?
Now I’m busy looking for a project that I can use this for. Or I can just keep it as part of my hoard.
If you are a crocheter looking for one-of-a kind yarn mixes, try Sugar Free! I love all their mixes, and I love the story behind the brand more. Will be talking about them in more detail soon!
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by The Happy WAHM
14/365Challenge: Laughter Is The Best Medicine. That section alone of the Reader’s Digest is worth every cent we’re paying for the subscription.
Good humor is very inexpensive. It is one of the pleasures in life that is relatively free. Fortunately for my family, we are practically rolling with it.
My husband is funny without trying to be. And laughter, like yawning, is contagious.
But get this. According to Dr. Robert Provine (Laughter: A Scientific Investigation, Penguin Books, 2001), laughter is not about humor. It’s about social relationships. Laughter establishes–or restores–a positive emotional climate and a sense of connection between two people, who literally take pleasure in the company of each other. Dr. Provine found that speakers laugh even more than their listeners.
And while it is good to laugh together from jokes that we read on social media, or comedy shows on TV, it is far better to laugh from homegrown conversations.
I remember this old post, where I shared one of the countless conversations with my husband that ended with laughter. And it’s like that almost everyday.
And it’s not to say that my husband and I never had any problems. We do, like any normal couple. Every day, we go through life meeting challenges. And our attitude towards life, and the way we react to these challenges, depends on the quality of relationships we decided to have. We’ve chosen to to keep our relationship rewarding, fresh, happy. We believe that the degree of happiness that we experience has more to do with the way we think, than it has to do with the circumstances and events of our lives. We simply choose to react to our circumstances positively.
So go ahead and laugh. It won’t make problems go away. But it can set the stage for you for tackling them with positivity.
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by The Happy WAHM
My day in comics, as illustrated by my middlechild. 🙂
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by The Happy WAHM
From being a double income family, can you really survive with just one income? To succeed in staying afloat, it’s most helpful to calculate, if not actually compute, the costs involved in having a second income.
I’m back to writing about our one-income household lifestyle. And today, I’m going to talk about how we came to be confident that we could survive with just one income. We worked on our numbers, and the first set of numbers we worked on was the cost of having a second income.
Of course, at the center of our planning and strategizing was my dear friend, Excel.
The Cost of a Second Income
Back in 2011, I wrote about cost to work briefly. But today, I’m sharing with you a more detailed version of the process we went through.
In a worksheet, I created two major columns:
Under each column, I added two more columns:
- I stay employed
- I stay home
Then we listed down everything. Under income, we included the benefits, like the sack of rice that we regularly received from the company.
Managing Expenses
The exciting part was working on the expenses. From Expenses => I stay employed column, we had househelps’ salaries (we had two), and 13th month pay. Those items were no longer to be seen under the Expenses => I stay home column, and because I had set up my file to autocompute, it was fun seeing the expense numbers really go down. From two househelps to zero, we also adjusted our monthly budget for electricity, water, food and other miscellaneous items like toiletries, snacks, lunch out, groceries, and phone. Then we further deducted my meals purchased at the office, wardrobe and other miscellaneous items an office girl spends on, like shoes, bags and accessories. In my case, I had a service vehicle from the company, so I had no transportation expense to take into account, but for the others who are thinking of giving up employment and are public commuters, you’ll find that your transportation expense will make a big difference on your budget.
Personally managing our home proved to be more cost-efficient, too. You won’t believe how I used to buy a liter of dishwashing liquid, fabric softener and laundry detergent weekly. But when I started to personally do our laundry, I only had to replenish our laundry supply every three weeks, same thing with the dishwashing liquid. Aside from the expected reduction of cost on food and utilities, personally managing our house meant further savings because we are more conscious about our spending.
Effectively managing your expenses and having a game plan in bolstering your income are crucial in surviving a one-income lifestyle. After you have all your ducks in a row, all your numbers computed, the difference you will end up with may not be sufficient to warrant holding on to the second income. Your reasons for holding on to a corporate career like job satisfaction, independence, career progression, and the like, may be overshadowed by being able to stay home with the children, having the time to learn a new skill, or becoming your own boss.
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by The Happy WAHM
First of all, thank you to the ladies who submitted their questions yesterday! Wow! Really appreciate your participation!
So here’s the first of the questions I received. She asked to be kept anonymous, and I respect that.
I need help in paying taxes. How do you do it? Do I need to do it? I do freelance work, too, and I also have a small online store. I just don’t know how to go about it.
Okay. I’m not sure if I can really be of help, because I’m far from being a voice of authority in this field, but I will share with you what I have done for my own business.
I started my virtual assistance service back in 2006. But it was only in 2009 that I registered as a business. Reason? I sought the advice of a lawyer who told me to wait until I’m very stable before I register as a business. Meaning, I had to wait until my income was steady at a certain amount.
When in 2009, I felt that I was ready, I registered as a sole proprietor, under “services” as the industry category. My first stop: DTI. I registered VASupportPro Services. VASupportPro stands for Virtual Administrative Support Professional. It’s the result of a month-long study on how I would rank on searches. I added “services” to make it flexible in terms of service offering. I wanted to have that elbow room to grow the business, offering services other than virtual assistance.
Then I secured a business permit, registered with BIR and had my official receipts printed.
I won’t go deep into the process that I went through, because I don’t want to turn this post into a rant. Having to transact with (some) government offices in this country can really discourage you to be a responsible citizen. Suffice it to say that I’m holding on to the belief that the change is in me, in all of us, and it is up to me, to us, to do our share and contribute to the change, for the better. So however hard it is to be good, let’s still be good. 🙂
To help you out with the process, I’m sharing here an article which lists down the types of taxes for self-employed people like us: What Taxes Should I Pay in the Philippines (Self-Employed)
I’m paying the 3% percentage tax, based on gross earnings. To help me stay organized in monitoring my earnings, I use this free invoicing platform, so that at the end of each month, I just copy everything to the eBIRform. I always make it a point that I file my monthly return on the first week to avoid the rush, but due date is always on or before the 20th of the month following the taxable month. I use the 2551M form.
For my quarterly filing, I opted for the 40% optional standard deduction, instead of the itemized deduction, so it’s less hassle for me. After all, my operating expense is pretty much the same month after month, so going for the straight deduction makes sense for me. But if your operation incurs lots of representation expenses, the itemized deduction may be a better option. I use the 1701Q form.
Putting the horrors of registration aside, paying your taxes is pretty much routine and really easy. It’s even made easier by the electronic filing that we have now. Just download the eBIRform package, set it up with your valid email address, and each month, you only need to input your gross earnings and it will automatically compute the tax payable for you. After filling in the necessary form, you will need to save it, then click on submit. That form will then travel through cyber going to the central BIR database, or whatever they call it. Wait a few minutes, and watch out for an acknowledgement of your submission from BIR via your email. While waiting for the BIR confirmation to reach your inbox, go ahead and print three copies of the form you submitted. Then, when that confirmation finally reaches your inbox, print it also at the back of the form that you already printed. After that, go your merry way to the nearest BIR office and make the payment. I opt to pay at our local BIR office. Transactions are faster. But you can also opt to pay at accredited banks. I may be doing that soon. 🙂
There may be certain months that you have no transaction to declare, like if your family went for a vacation and you opted not to work. You are still required to file. Just submit your form electronically, print the form, and print the confirmation email at the back of the form.
To wrap up, do you need to do it? I would say, yes, you do. That is, if you already have a steady flow of income, please go ahead and do it. Being able to issue an official receipt has advantages for the business. Some clients actually ask for a receipt, so being able to say, yes, you can provide it, already puts you a step ahead of competition. Being able to show an Income Tax Return also has advantages. Visa applications require that you have one. 🙂
And best of all, you sleep better at night knowing that you are part of what’s good in this country. 🙂
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