52 Financial Landscape Few MEs mentioned saving money in unusual objects. For instance, Htay (electrician, Nay Pyi Taw) did not save money every day and did not want to spend on a safe box and a lock so saved in between the pages of his books. Similarly, Angelina (fish net repairer, Mawlamyine) saved money in a bamboo stick when possible. 4.2.2 SOCIAL NETWORK BASED SAVINGS Apart from saving money with themselves, MEs also sent money at home through friends and relatives to save with their parents, they also saved with friends, with the Pagoda trustees and in peer groups. Many migrant MEs saved money by sending it home to their parents. Ramon (DVD seller, Yangon) sent money through some friends who were drivers with a private travel company. When these drivers had his hometown on their routes, they would meet the parents and hand the cash over. Ramon would make a note of the vehicle number and communicate the same to his parents to ensure a safe transaction. His was not an uncommon story, many others requested relatives/ friends/ acquaintances to deliver the money to family back home. Those who didn’t send it home to their parents devised other methods such as keeping some part of their income with a friend or in safe boxes at home. Myat (watch and spectacles seller, Mawlamyine) saved money with his friend as he feared he would spend it if he kept it with himself. Group savings and banks were generally not trusted by this demographic. Peer savings group was another popular informal financial tool in Myanmar. Each group operated independently of one another and was unregulated by the government. Instead, they were monitored by the community. There were 10-15 people in the group with a leader who was in charge of the group and took the responsibility if anything went wrong. The group leader was always entitled to receive the first pay out. For the rest of the group, a lottery system determined the order they would receive their pay out. If a group, for example, had 20 members and paid every 15 days. The group leader would receive payment on the 15th day. Lottery numbers, from 2 to 20, would be drawn on the 30th day. If a member received lottery number 2, he would receive money immediately after the lottery. If he received number 10, he had to wait for four more months. Similarly, number 20 would be the last person to avail of his savPhyu (behind) the peer group savings leader