Tips: Great pastries half the price

If you are looking for cheap and delicious bread and pastries, you can always rely on the panaderia next door. If you want to upgrade to great pastries at half the price and here are some tips for you.

1. Pastries at Cafe France after 6pm are half the price. Their pastries are great and one time we bought about 10 pieces for only less than 200 pesos together with drinks already. What a treat. The best about Cafe France, there is not much people during this time of half the price.



View Larger Map

2. Prices of certain pastries at The French Baker are at 50% off after 9pm. I think they have more selections however even before 9pm people are already starting to line up.



View Larger Map

If you know also any establishment who offers the same please share as well.
Happy eating!!!

Compact Fluorescent Lamps CFL

If you Google search save electricity and check the sites that Google recommends, they almost present the same tips. At the top of the tip list of course is to change your light bulbs to compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) as they consume a lot less electricity and lasts longer. There are also now CFLs which are brighter or has higher lumens at lower wattage. I am actually changing to mostly 5watts CFLs that are even brighter than 8-watt CFLs. I purchase Philips 5-watt Tornado Spiral CFLs and I recall Philips was first to market this in the  Philippines.

I have had several brands of CFLs installed in our home since we moved about 4 years ago. I had Chinese brands and Taiwanese brands, and of course Philips. Philips CFL is a bit pricey compared to the other brands, however the Philips CFL is brighter and lasted longer.  Now all of my CFLs are Philips despite being more expensive.

The next time you change your light bulbs at home, I highly recommend Philips CFL.
You can check their site: Philips

Of course there is the LED bulb which consumes a lot less power than the CFL but almost double/triple the price. We will have to wait till the prices are affordable.

And for additional reference on tips on saving electricity, I found this website very informative:Save Electricity.

Where to buy groceries

I have been taking the opportunity to shop our groceries in different stores to be able to determine the lowest prices. My general observation is that it seems these grocery stores are talking with each other. There are items which are cheaper and expensive in one store, but vice versa in another store. There are items which can only be found in certain stores. So where do we do our groceries..  it's the store near us with free parking. The following are our grocery store preferences:

1. Pioneer Center, Kapitolyo
     > generally cheaper for all grocery items ie oil, canned goods, distilled water, formula milk
     > free parking
     > exclusive item bought/usually available - drypers, ram beans
2. Robinson's Supermart
     > a bit pricy compared to Pioneer Center
     > free parking for receipts with more than 1,000Pesos
     > exclusive item bought/usually available - bundling of items, free taste
3. SM Store
     > generally same price with Robinson's ie cheapest tag price for the formula milk we are buying
     > no free parking, we only do our groceries if we need to go to the SM Malls

I have been also to Pure Gold and Cherry Fooderama which are also generally same price with Pioneer Centre. I will still have to do my groceries in Super8 which I heard maybe the cheapest.

Induction Stove and the old reliable Gas Stove

                           
Electricity is very expensive in the Philippines. In fact I recall a news saying it is even cheaper in Japan. That's why it is hard and expensive to operate a business here in the Philippines heavily relying on electric power.Several manufacturing companies already moved out of the country. As individual homeowners, electricity now is huge expense in the household. So we find ways on how we can save our money.

I came across a saving tip on radio and from the website of the local electric company...use induction stove instead of the gas stove. They claim you can save money if you use induction stove apart from the benefit it being more efficient and safer to use. Our household uses lpg gas stove and I crunch some numbers if you can really save from using this new technology.

Here are my findings:

1. Induction Stove costs more than the gas stove. (3000Php vs 600Php).

2. If you currently use your gas stove more than 1 hour per day, changing to an induction stove would cost you more in the long run. You will be paying more than the cost of the lgp tank (745Php) per month.

3. If you use your gas stove less than an hour per day, then you may opt to change to induction stove considering the safety, cleanliness and efficiency.

As for our household, I will still stick to our old dependable gas stove considering our usage. We refill our lpg every two months and we use the stove at least 3 hours a day. 

Credit Cards with Fuel Rebates

With soaring fuel prices, I am looking into ways of cutting down fuel expenses.  I have been light on the accelarator pedals, coasting on the roads and scheduling my trips and routes. I also looked into these credit cards with fuel rebates ie BPI Petron-Mastercard and Citibank Shell Visa. 
I prepared a sheet to see  whether one can  really have fuel savings using these cards.

Credit Card	BPI Petron Mastercard	Citi Shell Visa Card
Fuel Rebate	3%	5%
Annual Fee	1,550	1,800
Fuel per year in Peso to be charged to credit to be able to save on Fuel	51,667	36,000
Fuel per month in Peso to be charged to credit to be able to save on Fuel	4,306	3,000
Savings per month if fuel per month is at 5000pesos	21	100
Savings per month if fuel per month is at 6000pesos	51	150
Savings per month if fuel per month is at 10000pesos	171	350

Here are my findings:

1. You have higher rebates with Citibank Shell Visa however the annual fee is higher thank BPI Petron Mastercard
2. You have to pay annual fees which reduces your "fuel cost savings".
3. For you to be able to realize savings on fuel cost/rebates, your fuel expenses charged to your credit card should be more than 5,000pesos.  Also you should have full payment every month on your credit card to avoid charges.

If you are going to use these credit cards for the fuel rebates and your fuel expense is not above 5000pesos, you are better off using your regular credit card or cash payment.