This is one of the major things that I have realized during this enhanced community quarantine and that is: cooking your food is a way to maximize your budget on food consumption. This was proven after a few sessions of cooking and learning the typical Filipino and Ilonggo dishes. Thus, I decided that this will be now my routine on weekdays when things go back to normal after this pandemic. Here are a few things of note: 

Ingredients are readily accessible and at a fair price – the Iloilo Terminal Market (Super) is just two blocks away from the boarding house and is within my route when going home from the office. Another option is at Robinsons Place City Proper and Iloilo Supermart. That means I always get the chance to drop by and buy ingredients for my menu for lunch and dinner. 

As for the prices, the last time I bought my ingredients for my Laswa recipe only cost me 80 pesos. Including the uling for fuel and the condiments, it would only total to P150 and would cover up to three meals (one lunch, two dinners for example). 

The dishes are reasonably easy to cook in a short amount of time – With my hectic schedule, it is still possible to insert at least 30 minutes to prepare and cook the dish. The usual Pinoy dishes are very basic to cook but is delicious. 

Lastly, planning the meals is also easy given the first two factors mentioned. I start by listing the menu and ingredients and checking its possible prices. I then estimate the total cost for one market day where I will purchase those ingredients.

I will probably start this coming Monday by having a menu for the week and then buying the ingredients and note the prices. Some of them might have slight changes as wet markets are usually prone to that. My big challenge here is to have at least a thousand pesos budget to comprise for the whole week.

Wish me good luck.