Cheapskate

You would know about Starbucks planners every Christmas, noh? Well there was a year that I wanted to get one. Whenever I would go to Manila from Davao, I would ask J to take me to Starbucks so we can each have a coffee. It would be during these circumstances that he would ask me if I would like to split a tall or venti hot coffee. And I would tell him to have two short coffees instead because I wanted to get the planner.

I did get the planner. But I never got to use it. Like most other planners I owned which about lay untouched by mid-June.

It was one of those drinking coffees that I asked J why he keeps asking me if I want to share a Venti instead of us getting a short coffee each. He pointed how many ounces a venti was (20, thus venti) and a short cup (12 oz.). The price difference is about 40 pesos but the weight difference is already 8oz. If we get two short lattes, we'd pay P240 but if we get one venti, we pay P160. Genius! We average P80 for our coffee of 10 oz. Each ounce then has more value for money. It pays to have a frugal partner noh? :P

I eventually picked up this trend whenever we eat out. Since both of us are cheapskates... er, frugal, we prefer to save on food. Whenever we eat out, be it dessert, salad, pizza, steak or noodles, we would get the bigger order and share it between the two of us. This way we get to enjoy more food choices for a much lower cost. Not only that, we lessen the calorie intake compared to ordering one each of our meal. Even in fastfood chains, we would upsize the drink so we can just share one big glass than have two small ones. Sharing fries is often tricky because the way we eat it is different.

Call us cheap, but this is something we both enjoy doing. We present the image of being sweet to each other when in fact, we're really just stretching the budget. :P

Pictures of food we share

Apple pie and cherry pie from an organic market in The Hague.

Crepe with the works in Davao City. It looks better than it tastes though. One of those times splitting food is a great idea.

Apple and cinnamon pannenkoeken (pancake) in Schevinengen in the Hague. Eight euros for this beautiful piece of food. Expensive! But we were able to taste it though we still went home a bit hungry. :P

in sickness and in health

Damn.

J and i are both quarantined because of conjunctivitis, aka sore eyes. J just discovered that the American version of the disease is called pink eye. Anyway, there are five of us in the house which have it. The other half have thankfully been spared, and hopefully it stays that way.

The last two days, J has spent mostly sleeping and lying down. I'm not a great fan of sleeping especially when I am not tired, so most of my rest day has been spent playing facebook games, trying to catch up on scores and increasing my level.

Our joint activity has been watching movies. We've already seen Joey Gosengfiao's Temptation Island, Hot Fuzz and What's Eating Gilbert Grape. I also played catch up with "Magkaribal," the best bitcheserye in town. LOL.

Anyway... he deserves this break much more than I do. However, the upside to this itchy scratchy situation is we get to just hang out in our room. Watching him sleep, eyes puffy and all, I can not imagine being stuck in this uncomfortable situation other than him. :)