Fangirl dilemma: Shane Filan's Autobiography Book

 

 

 I was excited when I found out that Shane's going to release his life story in a book and I thought I can buy a copy this time since I missed Westlife's autobiography book last time, though I have read it on ebook.

 

I checked on Amazon.com , My Side of Life costs around £9 (Php conversion Php645). Wow, this is affordable than the ones Shane made with the band. And then I went estatic when National Bookstore announced that the book will be available in stores this month.

 

 

 

And this greeted me this morning while I was having my breakfast:

 

 

 

 

Come on, why this have to be so pricey here in the Philippines. Don't you know we're humans, too? Why you gotta be so rude.  Kidding aside, I can't afford this one. I have another option though and it's cheaper, I can pre order from a fan but I'm still thinking about it now that a money problem paid a visit last nightand it's more important than this... and I think it will stay until the 15th..

 

Money Management

I have read alot of financial books and blogs in the past few months. In the effect, I bought myself a VUL, learned to track my everyday expenses (although I am not that consistent doing it, but it helps me) and it made me more kuripot or penny pincher. I have learn to manage my money whenever it hits my payroll account, every peso has put into budget. Although sometimes, as I am a minimum wager, I do have some shortage. Like right now, I feel so vulnerable cos my savings is about an inch away from the minimum balance and I haven't deposit since May cos I prioritize my VUL. These past months, I had some money issues, I can't even save a hundred. I even borrowed money from my boyfriend by passing my shares to him for our utility expenses for two months. I needed some new clothes but I couldn't buy even in Tiangge cos my family needed my money more than I need it. I feel so unsecured. I haven't save money for long. My investment is one thing. I can't withdraw from it whenever I needed money. I felt broke. I had to break my Pi-Nik bank. Pik-Nik can I turned into a coinbank only saving 10 peso coins and new 20-peso bills. I planned to make the can full and deposit to my account but since I needed to survive, I had to use one of my remaining powers.

Many of my Pik-Nik empty cans are still in used. Like this one.

I managed to save Php2,700. I'm not sure for how long cos I don't remember when did I start, I think I did this for almost 3 months. Not bad, yeah? I added the saved money to my daily expenses. Thanks to this blog: Minimum Wager Journey, I copied her budget method. Kind of, and so far it works for me. I summed up all my work allowance from daily transpo to food. List down my bills, set aside money for tithes and contribution for my family. I only bring money enough for my food and transpo allowance. I don't even have emergency money. I started this since first day of September and still doing it. Slowly, I feel on my way back on track. Although I have to sacrifice some things like the cravings for fast food and sweets, but it's better to be safe. 

I also thankful with this book, that I have been eyeing to buy for weeks and finally was able to buy it when I got my holiday pay.

This is actually a 2-in-1 book. The other one is "I Wish They Taught Money In High School So I can Start my Business Right Away."

At first I thought, this book is kinda pricey, Php500 for this? Not even a hardbound. Well it should be worth every peso because it has been in the best selling books list for months. And I was right. This book made me realize, I wasn't losing my track after all. I was actually doing the right thing. Before, I follow Income - Savings = Expenses but Ms. Clarissa says, Income - Investment = Expenses is better, which I actually follow lately. She even says, we should invest our savings too but I am not going to do that. I still want to have money on my bank account. I have to have an emergency fund/ This book is actually good, I am not going to review it for you cos I'm not good at that but this book teaches us to manage money like how they promised on the cover. Things that we wish we had learn from high school so we may not have these money problems.

NOTE: I lost my 2 comments on this post. Disqus lost it :(

Mistress by James Patterson

This is my first read novel written by the famous James Patterson. I'm aware that he has alot of marv works. I think if you've written and publish lotsa novels, like more than a hundred, then you must be really, really good. James P has always been on my list but you know due to a lot of books to read, sometimes you don't know which one to start. If I can just read them all at once, like, one novel in the morning, another one by lunch, an e-book in the afternoon, one at night. Of course at this stage I can't do all that.

from google image

So yeah this one is my first from Mr. Patterson, finished it by 2 days. Started reading it last Monday after I've done my laundry until the next day morning at the office. I can say, I love it though it only gained 3 and ahalf stars in Goodreads which I dont know why. I really enjoyed reading it, couldn't put it down. One of the best book I've read judging how I excitedly want to flip page by page. I find it funny how the lead character run his thoughts and I think this is one of the reasons why they give this less than 5 stars cos it got them confuse which I don't get it. I mean, they are probably Patterson fans ever since or read hundred books in their life, whats the confusion. Sometimes, I get confuse in the middle of a Nicholas Sparks novel. The narrator enters presidential trivia all of a sudden, interesting ones and best part of the novel cos it's funny, too. This is the kind of book that you go pause reading and you'd say, daaammn... like you need to breath from the scenes you read and imagine. I pictured Bradley Cooper portraying the character. I dunno, I think he's perfect to cast if this going to be a movie.

This is 5 stars for me. I am going to read more James Patterson novels. Could you share your favorite novel from him? :)

Seriously... I'm kidding by Ellen Degeneres

It's fun to read.  It's full of life advice and hilarious jokes. I'm not done reading this though but its highly recommended. Okay, I'm out of words... not in the mood for blogging now.

Sorry for a lame post but I assure you this book is not lame to read. I promise. I have been reading this and I get chuckle every now and then. Ellen is really a cool person.

And sorry for stealing this photo. I just googled this, I don't have the book to take a photo cos I'm just reading it from my Kindle.

Ciao for now :)

Amazon Kindle

My sister just got back from her cruise ship job last month. Yeah... happy. She got me some shirts, perfumes and Swatch watch that I asked her prior to her arrival schedule. And an Amazon Kindle D00901. I never asked for this one but she told me that this was given to her by a 'friend' and she thought giving me this thing to me cos she doesnt read and she knew I have started buying and reading second hand book novels two years ago.

Cool stuff. I always thought book is always better than electronic version ones, that's my one of my philosophies before when I was reading Westlife ebook, I was reading it straight from my laptop.  It's one of the reason why I have 2.5 eyeglasses grade now. I thought e-book could destroy your eyesight. Well, it's still is... depends on the kind of device where you're reading ebook straight from. 

This one changed my perception though because honestly, I didn't know there is such thing as an ebook reader device. Of course. Electronic book. People have invented things that would make everything instant. Why this one never crossed my mind? Yes, I know ebook, all I know about it is you can read it from your pc or laptop and from your mobile phone or pc tablet. I didn't know e-book reader device.

One of things I like about this Kindle is the built-in WiFi. It connects me to the internet wherever there is a wifi connection. This one surprises me because even though the wifi connection is password protected, my browser still get to load internet. It's like it bypasses all the wireless internet connection's password. Sweet. 4gb memory, I could put thousands of books in my library. I could also store and play music from this device while reading books. Okay, with this unique screen that makes the content really look like a book because this isn't with a backlit lcd that would make your eyesight worsen, huge favor to me. This isn't like a computer screen just like what you think when you first see this tablet device. Drawback: I couldn't read this one in the dark.

Right now, I'm busy downloading ebooks. And oh, I always need this site to convert my downloaded .epub files to .mobi. At first, I had a hard time figuring out what's best fit to this reading device cos psd files is no good. 

Argh, where to find free Cecelia Ahern e-book?

Cecelia Ahern brought me to my dream country, Ireland!

Luckily, I found a preloved Cecelia Ahern book entitled The Gift in Booksale at SM Centerpoint last Sunday.

I got this for only 75php. Sweet, indeed.

I've known this Irish author of P.S. I Love You before as she's happened to be connected to Westlife. Related rather. She's the sister of Westlife's Nicky Byrne's wife named Georgina Ahern. I wasn't aware how great author she was, all I know is a book of her has adapted to a Hollywood movie.

I love how Cecelia takes me to the set of the story. Reading the novel describing the beauty of Ireland is like a free plane ride to the Irish country. I was reading a book one night at bed then I felt strange the next day. I feel as though I have been to another world, that I dreamed of being in another place that is related much to Westlife. Though the book never mentioned anything Westlife, but as far as Dublin and Ireland is concerned, you're talking about Westlife, baby. That's why I have finished the book in 4 days (my shortest so far, couldn't have more time for book as OJT and school works eats me)

The Gift has a lot of twists. I love it. Totally. I now adore Cecelia Ahern. I must start hunting her books-- the cheap ones. Hehe... kid, kid..

Nicky and his twins, Rocco and Jay as special mentions