When I was a kid, I was my grandparents' favorite grandchild, and my grandpa was the one who was always fond of me, as he always gave me a pasalubong when he visited our house.
He was always proud of me every time I had some achievements in school, and he would buy me a royal soft drink and a biscuit of Rebisco strawberry flavor crackers as a reward.
If I am not mistaken, he became a barangay captain in our barangay in 2004. I was a kindergarten student back then, and that is the year I remember seeing on the back of our picture together in the schoolyard with my classmates, and he is carrying me (but that picture does not exist here anymore because it is one of the pictures that have been destroyed by the typhoon before).
During the time that I was his favorite grandchild, he thought of me for a lot of things back then especially about money! When I was a kid, imagine that at that time I was just 4 years old, turning 5 years old, but he was teaching me how to earn money already.
The business that I have learned from my grandfather.
There is this one memory that I still remember and have kept in my memory for a very long time now, even though I was just 4-5 years old at the time. One time, I saw him collecting some liquor bottles of Gin when I was visiting him here at their house. I asked him, "What are those for?" and he told me that it was his business.
Of course, I was still young back then and had a lot of curiosity about the things that adults do. And so I became interested and asked him why he was collecting those bottles that had been thrown away after some of their inuman-session-parties.
He just simply said that it was his business, and what business? He told me that he is collecting those because they can be sold to someone who is buying old cans, old iron sheets, old appliances that have been destroyed or broken, etc.
I still remember back then that the cost for 1 liquor bottle of gin was Php 0.50 centavos. So, for example, if you collect 20 liquor bottles, we already have 10 pesos, but what if we also have old iron sheets? For the iron sheets, they are buying them per kg, and take note that they fold them. And all the profit that he earned from selling those bottles and the old iron sheets, he gave it to me, and he told me that it was for my baon when I go to school.
He even told me that doing this kind of thing could help me have more baon, and so I started to collect gin bottles and cans in each house in our neighborhood because they don't care about those things and they were just being thrown away and burned in their backyards. And I'm also lucky when our neighbor has an event, and after the event, in the morning, I pick up those gin bottles that they used to drink.
If I remember correctly, I earned Php 150.00 pesos from selling gin bottles and kg of old cans to the junk shop man in 1 month of collecting them. I am already in grade 4, and the price per bottle that time is already 1 peso at that time.
My parents are supportive of what I am doing because I could use the money I have earned to buy school materials for my assignment or activity in school.
My grandpa challenged me to spend 5 pesos a day.
Then I also remembered that I don't really use my baon every day. My mom gives us Php 25.00 as our baon when we go to school, but I just use the 5 pesos and keep the 20 pesos, and when she asked us how much we spent and had left in our pockets, I told her that, "I have 20 pesos remaining from my baon yesterday, so just add 5 peso today.". I asked my grandpa before, when I was in the fourth grade, how much they spent when they went to school, and he said that a centavo was enough for them. However, a centavo is not enough at the generation where I belong now, so he told me a five peso will be enough for me. So I told him that my mom gives us 25 pesos every day. So he challenged me to experience 5 pesos per day only. Where I learned to spend the five pesos in one day. We have two recesses during that time, and I have a water bottle, so I don't need to buy water or other drinks. So I just need to spend the 2 pesos for a snack, but I don't like to eat Chichirya food, and so it's a very good thing that we had the Marie Time biscuit back then.
And the funny thing is, one time my older sister borrowed 5 pesos from me but has never paid it back since then, and I feel bad when my mom adds 10 pesos in the morning. But that just happened one day, and it didn't happen again.
Because of these lessons about money from him, I learned to be a "raketera" when I was a kid. You know, I didn't decline the offers of my uncles to be a massager using my both feet because I was just small and not that heavy back then. They told me that if I massage their backs, they will give me Php 20.00, and I also remember that before, my uncle, who has pimples on his back, wanted me to pinch them. Imagine that he has a lot of pimples on his back, and I told him I was too lazy to do it because it's boring work, but since he told me that I will earn Php 5.00 for each pimple, small or large, I didn't decline his offer. Because I have a lot of activities and projects in school and need manila papers, colored pencils, and other school materials for the activities and projects, I need money. Though, back then, while I was pinching, even if it wasn't a pimple, I would act as if I was really pinching his pimples so that I could only earn. Hahaha. My parents' previous jobs were as a maid and a tricycle driver in Valenzuela City. So... I think doing this kind of simple thing could help them too to save, and I don't use my allowance when they always send us some money.
Now, in the present time...
If you are wondering if I am still collecting gin bottles and cans, yes! Haha, since previous years too. I never stop collecting, and I am so very happy when there are some occasions here in our house so that I have more gin bottles to collect and I could sell them to the junk shop man, who is sometimes coming here to collect these things that we have collected for how many months.
Since last month, we have sold one sack of bottles and cans. I just have these now, and I have Php 25.00 now. Lol, I hope my uncle will celebrate more occasions so I can have more of these and sell them soon when the junk shop man comes again. HAHA
Anyway, doing these things in the past was so fun, and I am thankful to my grandpa because he taught me these things when I was young. Because of this, I was able to buy my school materials, and I am not jealous of my classmates already because we were low on budget back then and my school materials are not complete. But after learning these lessons from my grandpa, I am now able to make my assignments and projects in school more detailed and presentable, like how my classmates do.
And the most memorable thing too because of this was when I learned about poster-making contests and was able to buy my first ever oil pastels to use for my poster-making. If the other kids and their parents could afford to buy this, to me, I am shy to ask my parents to buy this and that because I am thinking their work is not easy. And I decided that I wanted to buy it with my own money.
And this is my entry for the @hiveph fourth week of November blogging contest. I am sorry if my entry is too long to read. I am very talkative when writing blogs. Hehe, but I hope you still enjoy reading this! Thanks for reading!
Published by: @xanreo | HIVE
Date: November 29, 2022