Food Friday: Sisig

I love Sisig! Whenever we go to Gerry’s Grill or Dencio’s, expect a sizzling plate of sisig to be ordered. According to Wikipedia…

Sisig is a Kapampangan term which means “to snack on something sour”. Sisig as is popularly known today is actually sizzling sisig, a Philippine dish made from parts of pig’s head, liver and usually seasoned with kalamansi and chili peppers.

I actually didn’t know that Sisig is a Kapampangan term. Well, figures anyway. Kapampangans are the best when it comes to food.

Happy Friday everyone and have a great weekend!

Providing for the family

I worry a lot. It may be the paranoid in me but there are days when I worry I will not be able to provide for my family. You see, I work at home. And you know how it is when your income depends on how hard you work. There are times when even working hard could result to lower income. I know there are payday loans that I can avail of should my budget fall short. Still, I cannot help but worry at times. Anyway, I know that no matter how worried I get, I will still do everything I can in my power to work hard and bring food to the table.

The risk of lending money

There are times when the person you least expect to betray you happens to be the very person who will do it to you. Get my drift? Well, a friend of mine did that to me. It was almost a year ago when he talked to me, asking to borrow money. I normally don’t allow this but since he was a very close friend of mine, I lent him some. Well, I should have just told him to go and apply for a cash advance rather than lend him the money myself. It will be a year by end-June and I haven’t heard from him since. I was hurt, to say the least. But well, I took the risk and I just have to suffer the consequence.

I suggest that instead of borrowing money from family or friends, there is a cash advance facility available for a person. Impersonal yet very helpful. Try that first before anything else.

Affordable healthcare insurance

These days, getting sick would mean shelling out a lot of money. I should know. With two deaths in the family caused by sickness, financing a hospitalization is something that I never wanted to go into again. That’s why a health insurance is a must now for us. My brother and my mom had none so we really shouldered everything. I am sure you know how costly cancer treatments are.

So if you want to be prepared just in case you suffer from a sickness, I suggest you get Health Insurance Quotes right away and choose the healthcare insurance for you. At BlindCntr.org, you will be asked to enter your zip code and from there, you will be connected to healthcare insurance agents in your area. Study and compare multiple offers. Know what would be the best coverage for you. Let BlindCntr.org help you prepare for the future.

For an Affordable Health Insurance, just go to BlindCntr.org and let them help you get the best healthcare insurance coverage at the cost that fits your budget.

Great tax news!

For all my Filipino blogger-friends who are working as a corporate rat here in the Philippines, well, I have some good news for you. Ready?

There will be no more tax deductions for minimum wage earners! Let us thank Mar Roxas for authoring Republic Act 9504. Yey!!!

The law was signed today declaring that for every minimum wage earner here in the Philippines, there will be no more tax deduction in your salaries. Now that is a big help for so many Filipinos earning minimum wage right now. Remember, when a tax law, ruling, regulation is changed within the year, it will become effective for the whole year. It means that for those people who are deducted with tax from their January to June 15th salaries, you can get a refund come December. For minimum wage earners only, okay?

Now, for those who are earning more than the minimum wage, there is a good news for you as well. The personal tax exemptions for single (Php20,000), head of the family (Php25,000) and married individuals (Php32,000) are now fixed to Php50,000! And an additional exemption for qualified dependents has been increased to Php25,000 per dependent from the previous Php8,000 per dependent.

To top it off, the senator added that all holiday, night differential, hazard, and overtime pay would also be tax-exempt.

Sweet!

That will reduce tax deductions by a significant amount. Expect tax refunds or lower tax deductions come November and December of this year people!

When I was still working as a corporate rat, my tax deduction could pay two assistants already. It was that painful to look at when I get my payslip. With this change in the tax table, I might be lured back to work as a corporate rat… Might is the operative word there hehe… If I will not go to work on Mondays, well, that will be a greater pull

*More information on the new tax bill here.

Republic Act 9504

Rumors are everywhere about the tax bill GMA will be signing into law It is the Republic Act 9504 or the tax bill that will exempt minimum wage earners from being taxed. This will be a big help for us Filipinos. There are so many minimum wage earners here in the country. The factory workers for one. You know how big in number they are. This bill, authored by Senator Mar Roxas, will save some money for the minimum wage earners. That money that would have been deducted as tax can now go to food and other basic necessities of a family. Let’s wait and see if it will really be signed into law today.

It's extremely humid!

It is extremely humid here in Manila. It irritates me and makes me wish I am in one of those Caribbean villa rentals that I saw at Wimco.com a while ago. It would be a perfect day lounging at the deck with a glass of cold mango juice and a riveting novel. After you take a bath, you will notice beads of perspiration inching down your back. It’s that hot! When you go take a nap, you will find yourself soaked in sweat. It doesn’t matter that it’s hot, I just don’t like that it is also extremely humid. While typing this entry, I am perspiring a lot even though the electric fan is in full blast and facing me alone.

Glad to be of help

I was contacted by a friend of mine to ask for help with regards to the mortgage application of his parents. I am quite close to his family, his parents in particular. Whenever they need help, mostly accounting-wise, I go give them a visit or vice versa so we can discuss it. Three weeks ago, I went to their house to help my friend’s dad with his income tax return. They used it with their visa application and I am glad to be of help. Last night, his mom gave me a call asking me about a mortgage quotes online that they saw. We discussed it for almost an hour and again, I am glad to be of help to them. I learned that they will be getting a rest house somewhere south and I am invited to use it once they had it renovated. Wow.

Replacing the old monitor

We now have a laptop and a desktop here at home. The laptop is naturally for me while the desktop is being shared by my siblings. I just bought a big desk where we can put both gadgets and so that two persons can work side by side always. But I need to replace the old CRT monitor with an lcd monitor to make the desk more spacious. The old monitor is eating up a lot of desk space and it just feels crowded with it on top of it. I will sell it or trade it in because it is still new, about a month old. The keyboard will also have to go, to be replaced by this cute jelly-like keyboard that I found at the mall the other week.

Our joy

Hazel already has birthday invitations for her upcoming 3rd birthday party. We just love the little girl so much even though she’s nobody’s daughter here at home, we still lavish her with so many things. She brings so much joy to the family, I tell you. Just last night, because all my siblings went to bed earlier than usual for the first day of school, she accompanied me in finishing some emails. She wouldn’t go to bed until she saw me close my laptop. Such an adorable kid!

Cause for alarm?

I was looking in the mirror this morning and I noticed premature wrinkles around my eyes. It might be caused by too much lack of sleep, I am not really sure. It may warrant a trip to the dermatologist to buy wrinkle cream or it could be as simple as a full night’s sleep and some good old facial. We’ll see. For now, I am not overly concerned about it. Yet. If I see this after a week and after a full night’s sleep, well, I might be alarmed already. Who knows.~

Business trip

My sister will be going out of the country by next week. She will be going on a business trip and will be meeting her boss in person for the first time. They have been talking on the phone for a few weeks now. Her boss is French and she was interviewed via video phone. My sister is hoping that she will stay in this condo hotel that her co-workers are telling her about. A few of her co-workers went abroad to meet executives at one point in their tenure so they know the best places to stay at. For now, my sister has to follow her boss with regards to accommodation so she is really praying she’ll get to stay at the condo hotel rather than at the corporate house.