Hello, it's me, Mhownai, your millennial nanay!

Just like you, I'm also stressed, pressured and slowly losing my sanity with this COVID-19. It's normal but we cannot surpass this challenge if we will let stress consume us. Haven't you noticed when you are stressed, you cannot think straight and worse, you tend to feel tedious, irritated and lose connection with our family.

So take it easy, calm yourself down and know that we will all surpass this together.

Be cautious, be alert, prepare for the worse

This may not sound healthy but know this if you have already set a plan for your family, then you don't have to think about what you need to do if the worst-case scenario occurs- if enhance community quarantine will be prolonged if the government won't be giving any relief regardless where you live if your employers of clients won't pay you on time. It's better to know what to do in times like this.


I know moms, we are really good when it comes to advance thinking, we are so cautious; this skill will be beneficial in times like this.

Prepare your family's budget

For me, the best thing we can do is be wise when buying basic needs. It's very important to also have a budget plan in order to make ends meet. In my personal experience, as a freelancer, to be honest, my clients haven't paid me yet. I'm fortunate enough to still live with my parents so we tend to combine all our salaries and savings in order to suffice our food supply good for at least a month.


Here's my personal thing when it comes to budgeting at this point of time: 

I separate my budget into 6 different envelopes. Half of the entire salary will go to the daily needs and the remaining 50 percent will be divided into 10% and will be placed on 5 envelopes. Each envelope corresponds to a specific need for our family:

• Everyday needs: Daily food, Load Allowance for every day, snacks and all. At this point in time, we spend the 'everyday envelope' every other week since we limit ourselves going outside so weekly market visits became every other week- this is in terms of meat and vegetables which is very important since we need to be healthier as ever.
• Emergency funds: This is one of the things I tend to do regardless if there's a pandemic virus or not, this is for unforeseen circumstances in our lives such as house and car repairs, accidents and sudden death. Since panic buying happened before the community quarantine, I spent some of it in order to supply our needs for the entire month (I bought tons of diapers, milk, canned goods, and cleaning supplies). This envelope will be consumed once the everyday needs run out or if my clients haven't paid me yet and we need to do restocking.
• Celebration: Think of this, what you will do after the COVID-19 will be eliminated? Of course, it's better to celebrate. My partner, Jerico and I planned that when the government declared that the Philippines is COVID-19 free our first agenda is to have a staycation. So despite our financial struggles now, we tend to keep a part of our budget in our future staycation. It also keeps me going and it gives me hope that all of this will soon end.
• For the Business: Little did you know that my partner and I have 3 micro businesses on IG and I am an owner of a digital marketing agency. Now that most of the businesses are affected, I tend to keep a part of my salary for my upcoming marketing campaigns as soon as this pandemic virus is over. We business owners need to prepare and tune up our game and turn things around for our business.
• For Payments: This will be allotted for my employees and for the bills payment which tends to be used every month. Before the community quarantine, I manage to pay all my employees their salary and half of their 13th month. It was an amazing feeling- helping other people despite your own struggle and this will make them feel that they're special. Now that we are on enhanced community quarantine, I am forecasting that some of my employees will be asking for a cash advance and although they haven't asked one yet, it's better to be prepared right?
• For my Personal Savings: What's working when you don't have any savings, right? Although everyone is stressed right now when it comes to their income, it's better to have your own personal savings so that when you want to buy something luxurious for yourself, you won't go on a guilt trip for buying it for you- and that is the purpose of this envelope for me. I tend to disregard myself after working so hard and providing for my son and helping in the household which is definitely wrong, this pandemic virus made me realize that it's also beneficial to treat yourself every once in a while because you definitely need it! Although this purpose can also go for the Celebration envelope, it's no harm to save one for yourself, right?