holding on to my hard-earned barya

UNLIKE A growing number of obedient and dutiful Pinoy husbands, I still carry my ATM card around with me; I like the feel of carrying money around, and this day and age, carrying your automatic teller machine card is the equivalent of lugging around your worldly goods with you, the sum total of your honest toil and the wages paid after the day’s work. There are however a few exceptions as to when I reluctantly surrender my card in favor of expediency and practicality whenever esposa hermosa needs instant access to the family jewels especially to purchase provisions needed for our sustenance, comfort and convenience : Payday, when everything that’s been waiting for the cash to come can now be paid.  This is a motley group of things like utility bills, a small petty cash fund to be replenished, something that’s been waiting to be bought but had to wait cuz of the cash-flow situation, top-up of the petrol (gas at home) tank, this and that.  I can’t object to this, giving up the card because either the missus has advanced the coin needed for the commodity required, or is in the better position of acquiring the same immediately, remember she works at the mall and also uses the car?  So that’s that, just zip it Noel. Day before payday, or what we call in the Philippines mga alanganing araw.  These are the twilight days during which all resources must be marshalled as funds are lowest, and when as you feared, supply cannot keep up with demand.  There must be something to sustain us just before the pantry is restocked, and Mahal has no hesitation about scraping the bottom of the barrel so to speak, and any dollars and cents resting on the bottom of my payroll account are fair game for the resourceful eye of my maybahay. Early days after payday, when things we might have forgotten during the first grocery day come to mind and need to be acquired, like supplies that are important but aren’t urgent, long term provisions that are updated albeit less regularly, rainy-day and piggy bank funds that hardly get noticed unless you find unexpected sources of funds like the Lotto (yeah right) or winning in bingo or paluwagan (dream on). Unexpected events like emergencies in the province, maintenance surprises, upkeep of household stuff and whiteware repair, yup, those can be unpleasant but they have to be done, so out goes the ATM and into the general fund, meaning Mahal’s wallet, since she has the skill to swiftly scrutinize every expense necessary for fund disbursal, yup, the loose change remaining in my proverbial worn pocket. All of which leaves me a grand total of one or two days the ATM card is actually in my pocket, not that I miss it much anyway; the wifey advances so much that I’m in debt to her till the next Olympics (and maybe after); and by the time the card returns to me it doesn’t have much except for those lonely figures after the decimal point. So, the unspoken deal is I get to say that I keep the card in my wallet, while the love of my life gets to keep everything else inside.  Just like the saying she loves to use, what is yours is mine and what is mine is mine. 🙂 Such is love! thanks for reading!  

Related articles

• Protect Your Bank Info From ATM Skimming (sthcw.com)
• generation gap, clash of civilizations, pinoy orig vs malansang isda (ylbnoel.wordpress.com)
• bansot, potot & boy liit : celebrating pinoy height (ylbnoel.wordpress.com)
• Global Pinoy Center launched at SM City San Lazaro (juanmanilaexpress.wordpress.com)