Drink more milk 31 August, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Baby, Dear1, Food & Beverages.add a comment
“Drink 2 glasses of milk everyday.”
That was the simple instruction our gynae had for Dear2 and baby’s nutritional needs. So with that, we started buying lots of milk from the supermarket. Our favourite product is the Marigold Milk. It rather light and tasteless, making it easier to drink in bulk compared to say HL Milk which we found too flavour-ful.
Oh, but the gynae didn’t define the volume of a glass. “2 glasses of milk” can mean anything. Hmm… Forget it. Let’s just drink as much milk as we can every night.
Get 1 Tupperware box free with every 2 Marigold Milk. There are (at least) 4 colours. Collect them all!
As a result of buying lots of milk recently, we also receive many colourful Tupperware containers as part of a promotion from Marigold. For every 2 Marigold Milk purchase, we will receive 1 Tupperware box. :D We’ve already collected 4 different colours and 1 more pink duplicate. I wonder if they have more colours…
The Tupperware box itself is quite useful. It is square in shape and fits about 4 slices of bread nicely with a layer of kitchen towel or plastic sheet as the base. And I’m guessing it would also hold a good standard serving of fried rice with a couple slices of luncheon meat for lunch too. That is if Dear2 wants to prepare lunch boxes for us. *hint hint*
Blue and green for Dear1. Pink and yellow for Dear2 and baby. We share share lah. Gee…
-Dear1
Joint Account for saving purposes 26 July, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Dear1, Dollars & Cents.add a comment
Let me start with a bit of background information to motivate the need for a joint account dedicated to the purpose of savings.
Some time back, when we were just starting our family, we started to feel the extra burden of having to pay household bills. Yes, those invisible blood sucking creatures that drain ur finances without you even realizing. Read more here. We didn’t notice the impact of these monthly expenses when we were young becos we’re living under the protective wings of our doting parents. It’s a bit different now that we’re living on our own…
To make accounting more systematic and transparent, we started a joint account for the purpose of keeping track of all these expenses. This account is termed as a joint expense account. But therein lies the problem. It’s an expense account. Meaning that, we draw our food and grocery expenses from there, pay our household bills from there, pay our credit card bills from there, buy investments from there, service car loan, etc.
The big problem with this is, how much are we actually saving on a month to month basis? It is difficult to answer such a question using solely our expense account which has a constant cashflow.
The solution, we needed to open another joint account, dedicated to the purpose of saving. Saving money is both a good habit and also necessary, just read any personal financial guide.
There is actually another motivation for opening this new joint account. That is, with the recent economic turmoil and uncertainty, with big name companies such as Lehman Bros collapsing, we wanted to be on the cautious side of things. And knowing that it is under MAS policy that each deposit-type account in Singapore is insured for up to 20k per account (I think it’s called the Deposit Insurance Scheme), we decided that we needed to diversify our bank deposits and not keep everything in one basket. Yes, not just investments, bank deposits need diversification too.
And so, after a lazy effort of searching for the best yielding deposit account, we decided on the Citibank Step Up account. It’s the second bank we surveyed, the first being HSBC. The attractiveness of this deposit account is that it increases your interest rate for every month that your balance is higher than the previous month. Actually, it’s more complicated than that, please read more details from the Citibank website. So, the basic idea is, if your minimum account balance is consecutively highly than the previous month for 12 months, you will receive the maximum possible interest rate of 0.75% pa (as of 26 Jul 09). And once you have accumulated the maximum 12 ‘Step-ups’, you just need to maintain a minimum of 20k in that account to continue enjoying the maximum interest rate. For comparison, DBS Savings Plus account gives 0.25% pa for balance above 50k (as of 26 Jul 09).
This suits us perfectly. Since what we wanted was a joint account for the purpose of saving money, that meant that from our perspective, we will only deposit money in and will not withdraw any money out (except for really really rainy day situations). So, we’re all set to receive the maximum interest rate after 12 months if we make a disciplined monthly contribution to this account. Thereafter, we can top up the amount to 20k at the end of 12 months to continue enjoying the benefits. And since it is insured up to 20k, we’ll withdraw any excess (0.75% of 20k = 150 per annum) and put it into another deposit account with another bank. This way, no worries about bank failures.
So that’s our plan. And it was put into action since Oct 2008; that’s about 8 months ago. Yeah! Since we started, we have been very disciplined and contributing monthly to this account. In addition, we also deposit all our government gifts (Growth Dividend, GST Offset Package, etc) and our stock dividends into this account to make it grow faster.
Now, it is about time we start sourcing for another savings account. We’re currently quite keen on the OCBC Monthly Saving Account. The currently promotion is 1.08% pa with a monthly contribution of 800 for 24 months, which works out to be 19200 in principal amount, just shy of the 20k insured mark. Looks promising.
-Dear1
M1 to Singtel 26 June, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Dear1, Dollars & Cents.4 comments
It’s done! Dear1 and Dear2 have shifted from M1 to Singtel. And now, on with the story.
Disclaimer: I can’t remember some of the exact prices so I may get them wrong. Pls pardon me. :)
Many many years ago, Dear1 got his first mobile phone. Back then, Dear1 was too young to sign up for a line, so Dear1’s dad applied for the line under his name. Back then, M1 had this 1+1 plan where the first line is a prime plan @ $30 and the second line will also be a prime plan @ only $10. This meant that each plan was paying $20 per month. The prime plan comes with $20 worth of talktime and the charges are divided into 20cents per minute for peak hours, 10cents per minute for off peak hours and 5cents per minute for super off peak hours. Back then, there was no such thing as free incoming calls. The plan also comes with 300 free sms. Also, top up $5 for caller ID.
Some months after that, Dear2 also wanted to get a phone (Yes, Dear1 and Dear2 started dating in the era *without* mobile phones. That is so amazing…). And so the plan was to make full use of the 1+1 plan and that was why Dear1’s mum (who still did not have a mobile phone) applied for 2 more M1 lines, one for herself and one for Dear2. After many years, M1 awarded some loyalty discounts and the total bill of the 2 lines under the 1+1 plan became $28 per month. That meant $14 per line per month.
Fast forward. Free incoming calls became the norm and the prime plan was officially discontinued. But those who were already on the prime plan will retain the same billing structure of the prime plan until they opt out of it. At around the same time, Dear2 needed the free incoming call service as she was bursting her free talktime every month due to the nature of her job. So, Dear2 left the 1+1 plan (much to Dear1’s mum’s disappointment) and signed up for the sunsaver plan for $25. This came with 100 minutes free talktime, free incoming call and 500 sms. Later, Dear2 also added the mobile email value added service for $5 per month because she needed to be connected, again for work purposes.
There was one nagging problem with this arrangement over the years. The phone lines were under Dear1’s parents’ names. This meant that every time Dear1 and Dear2 wanted to upgrade their mobile phones, Dear1’s parents had to come along to sign the line upgrade contract. It takes quite a bit of coordination and also making parents wait in queue for 1 hour isn’t very nice. This was the same situation for even minor issues such as checking of contract status and applying for value added services. Quite inconvenient.
Most recently, another problem surfaced. That is, Dear1 and Dear2 moved out and into their own love nest. Yeah! However, that also meant that Dear1 and Dear2 needed to get their own house line and internet service in their new home. House line is a hidden cost of internet service if you are getting broadband from Singtel because the broadband requires the house line to operate. However, no such problems with Starhub. Who uses the house line these days anyway? In the end, Dear1 and Dear2 still decided on Singtel broadband as it was cheaper and so we had to get the house line as part of the deal. Broadband was $33 per month while house line was $25 for 3 months, let’s just take it as $8 per month.
At this point, let’s tally Dear1 and Dear2’s total telecommunications expenses monthly. House line $8 + 1Mbps broadband $33 + Dear1 mobile $14 + Dear1 caller ID $5 + Dear2 mobile $25 + Dear2 caller ID $5 + Dear2 mobile email $5 = $95. Wow. Nearly a hundred dollars gone every month!!
And that was why Dear1 had been hatching a plan for the past 2 years, to consolidate the mixture of M1 and Singtel services in order to save some money. It was a rather obvious decision for Dear1 consolidate everything under Singtel as Singtel broadband was the preferred choice. So Dear1 told his parents not to sign anymore contract for Dear1 and Dear2’s M1 number and to allow them to run out their existing contracts. Full number portability was also announced around this time and that made it all the more attractive.
At this point, Dear1’s mum was a little bit upset because she still thinks that *just* $10 for a mobile plan (under the 1+1 plan) was too good a deal to give up. There are 2 flaws with this argument. One, it should not be viewed as $10 for a mobile plan. Rather, it should be calculated as an average of $14 per plan under the 1+1 plan. Second, the billing structure for the prime plan is outdated and $20 worth talktime during peak hours is only equivalent to 100 mins for both outgoing and incoming calls. This may work for very light users but its a bit tight for an average working adult.
Another disadvantage of waiting for the two years contract to run out would mean that Dear1 and Dear2 cannot change their phones within this time. Not true! Gee… Since Dear1’s parents dun really keep up with the latest trends in mobile phones anyway, Dear1 and Dear2 upgraded Dear1’s parents’ lines to get new mobile phones. Another option would be to buy an expensive no-contract phone, which Dear1 eventually did.
Finally, the day came. Last week, Dear1 switched both Dear1 and Dear2’s M1 lines to Singtel mobile. Also, Dear1 signed up for the 3Mbps mio Home service which would provide the home line + broadband + mio TV at a discounted rate of around $40 (actual price $39.90), and get 20% off mobile plans for 2 nominated mobile numbers + free caller ID for one number. Yes, there exist an unadvertised 3Mbps mio Home plan. You must ask for it over the counter at the Hello! shop. Sounds great as far. Let’s do the sums again in a visual table form for easy reading.
Overall, Dear1 gets free incoming calls, lower peak hours talktime charges, 200 more sms and free caller ID; Dear2 gets exactly the same billing structure; and our home gets a 3 times increase in broadband bandwidth, and 3 extra TV channels (HD5, mio Home movies channel & Sony Entertainment Television); and we saved $5 on our monthly telecommunication bills. Not bad, not bad at all. And there’s no admin charges incurred during this whole migration process. New SIM cards are free, mobile phone delivery is free, mio TV installation is free, number portability is free, all other registration charges waived. :D
Of course, there may be better combinations of deals out there but Dear1 and Dear2 are comfortable with this arrangement for now. At least until the 2 yr contract is over. The key point here is, consolidation does help to save some money. And do not hold on to the past (M1 1+1 plan) blindly. Do your sums and you may get more for less.
-Dear1
Billy Bookcase 19 February, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Dear2, Reno & Furnishing.add a comment
Dear1 and Dear2 added a new book shelf to our house recently. There’s this small little section in our living room that we find too bare, so we thot of filling this space up with a covered book shelf. Minus away the floor skirting (side and back), curtains, and boxup from the ceiling, the ideal width of the shelf should be 58cm with height 205cm (this sentence is actually VERY important, cos we kind of forgot about the spacing needed for the skirting and peripherals when we first took measurement, cos one usually tends to measure the distance wall-to-furniture, and not wall-to-furniture-minus-skirting-and-peripherals. You can imagine the incompatibility if these provisions were not factored in!)
With such precise dimensions, Dear1 and Dear2 were quite convinced that Ikea should be able to offer some shelfing solutions. But alas, it seems that smaller cabinets come in pretty fixed width of 40 or at best 60cm. That 2 cm more is still 2 cm too much for us. Eventually we settled for a Billy 40 x 202 cm bookcase which cost $79 for black-brown.
Dear2 never does like exposed surfaces, so getting a door for the book case is essential. We got a compatible glass door at $78.
Next comes the transportation problem. You can pay a certain fee for Ikea delivery, but being thrifty Dear1Dear2, we’ve rather bring it back on our own. At more than 2m in length, you can try checking with the biggest maxicab if they can carry, but the safest bet will be to use your private lorry or bus. Haha. And dun forget to ask 2 strong people along, cos the glass door is surprisingly much much heavier than the book case alone.
Furniture assembly took up another one of our Saturdays. Plenty of space (remember again, it’s 2m in length), screwdriver and a hammer are essentials. (Dear1’s note: We didn’t have a hammer and had to buy 1 from downstairs for ~$7) And probably some handiplus to be readied cos the intensive usage of the screwdriver made Dear1’s palm peel. :(
Finally the brand new Billy bookcase is ready. But there’s another problem, which the IKEA staff did warn us about, that the shelf might topple forward becos the glass door is heavier than the 40 cm and 2m height body. Opps. The advice was to ‘tie’ the shelf to the back wall, but since we do not have a drill at home, it’ll just have to be made do with plenty of big books at the bottom shelves as well as much caution when opening the glass door.
Our nice Billy Bookcase. We wonder how long this shelf can last, cos a fren told us later that his 80cm shelf fell apart, literally fell apart, barely within one year. And that was a shelf that he didn’t load much things with. Hmm…….
- Dear2
Our CorningWare 12 October, 2008
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Several weeks back, OG had this redemption program for CorningWare. For every $30 (i think) spent, we can get a redemption stamp. For 2, 3 or 4 redemption stamps, we could purchase a CorningWare of increasing sizes at a discounted price. Both of us thought that it was a good idea and a CorningWare cooking set seems a necessity in every kitchen, so we decided to actively shop at OG to accumulate those stamps.
Fortunately, we didn’t have to delibrately splurge on items from OG. Incidently, it was the time before our wedding and we needed to get quite many things anyway. For example, Dear2 managed to accumulate 6 stamps just by buying evening gowns and shirts for her mum and dad. With our 6 stamps, we decided to redeem 4 stamps for the largest CorningWare pot available. This is the one.
It’s the largest available for redemption and the only one that comes with 2 ear handles, one on each side of the pot. It’s 2.25 litres and it looks big enough to cook a healthy soup or pasta for a standard family. We’ve used it for boiling vegetable soup for 2, and the portions turned out to be huge. Luckily, whenever we have vegetable soup for dinner, it will be the one and only dish of the night, that’s why both of us are able to finish everything.
We’ve tried cooking pasta for 6 people using this pot and it turned out good as well. The pasta was evenly cooked and it retained heat well so that people eating later still get to taste hot steaming pasta.
It wasn’t long before we decided that we should get a smaller pot as well, partly also for a smaller serving of our vegetable soup. The redemption period was still on and we were eyeing the medium sized 1.5 litre version. However, we were 1 stamp short. For that, we hunted around OG and bought some fondue chocolate for our never-used-before-house-warming-gift fondue set, and some underwears to stock up at home. With the additional stamp, we bought this next CorningWare are the redemption price.
The box on this one had the original price tag on, its $68 on a normal day, I think we paid $20 something for it, good deal! I had a worry about this pot at first becos of the long handle. I was afraid that it would snap if the soup was too heavy. But after using it for some time, I’m convinced of the sturdiness of the build and I also trust the made-in-France label too.
Now, to talk about its advantages. Firstly, it retains heat very well, making it very suitable for keeping the soup warm over long dinner chats. Secondly, it boils very evenly and rather quickly. For boiling potatoes, it worked very well, softening the potatoes much faster and deeply to the core compared to using steel pots. However, when we tried making potato porridge using the CorningWare, it didn’t turn out well. This is because the pot retains too much heat over the course of cooking such that the porridge charred very easily at the bottom even with constant stirring. I suppose CorningWare isn’t a 1 size fits all pot after all, so it is up to the cook to decide how to use his tools best. Potato porridge still tasted better using a normal steel pot. But for boiling a potato soup base for our vegetable, CorningWare is great, the potato literally crumbles and melts into the soup. Yum yum.
This pot is also useful for making pasta sauce. In our case, we boil standard Campbell soup and add our own potato cubes. The result is a soup that boils slowly and produces a consistent cream soup. But this is just the cookware. Good food comes from a good cook. So somehow, the pasta that Dear1 makes tasted bland, but the same pasta made by Dear2 tasted wonderful. Yum yum. Sob…
That my review of CorningWare. I think it is every kitchen’s need and every cook should get one, or two, or even three! :P
-Dear1
Limited Edition MacDonalds Coca Cola Glass 31 August, 2008
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There it is! A complete set of 5! :D
Remember that Dear1 had to eat a whole day of MacDonalds a few weeks back? Well, it all paid off now. Okay… I might be a little bit outdated. Actually, the collection was completed several weeks back, right before the start of the Beijing 2008 Olympics I recall. But! Writing a late review may not be a bad thing after all, becos Dear1 and Dear2 had plenty of chances to use the cups and to realize its pros and cons.
We first decided to start collecting this glasses becos they were a very good deal. A MacDonalds Extra Value with Upsize will get us 1 of these glasses free, no top up required. Couple this with the fact that Dear1 buy MacDonalds meals from NUS at a discounted student rate makes it a wonderful deal. Furthermore, these aren’t just any movie of the moment glasses, they were Olympic Coca Cola glasses, making them all the more collectable. We decided to collect 2 sets of these 5 glasses. 1 set for use and to entertain our guests with. And 1 set for collection and display, and possible to make a small profit by selling them off to some avid Coca Cola collector who missed this great collectors’ item. :D
At first glance, these glasses have a slender lower body which seemed to be rather unstable. But after much use, we realized that it is quite stable after all, good design on the part of the manufacturers. Also, these glasses are products of Luminarc which is decent brand name on its own. This definitely adds much consumer confidence. The next interesting and great design concept we noticed in these glasses is that they’re of 330ml capacity. Ring any bells? Yes, it’s the volume of a standard can of Coca Cola, and pretty much any other form of can drinks, including beer. So this meant that once you pop a can of drink, you can empty its entire contents into this glass and get rid of the empty can. There’s just a little extra volume in these glasses for ice, we’ve managed to add 3 standard ice cubes in without any spillage. We’ve also try drinking beer from these glasses and they looked great as beer glasses, tall, slender, sexy and contoured gold simmering through its body.
And now to the bad things about the glasses. First, becos they’re so tall and slender, there’s no way to stick your hand all the way in with wash its interior. For thorough washing, some form of washing stick is required. Also becos of its tall build, they don’t really fit in on the dish drying rack. The words and Olympic sport symbols on the body of the glass are actually concaved on the inside of the glass. These narrow trenches tend to trap drink fibres from soya bean drinks or fruit juices if not properly cleaned.
All in all, we’re very satisfied with our Coca Cola glasses, they are very presentable and excellent for entertaining guests, and they’re pretty well designed with some nice surprises being discovered along the way. Happy that we own the whole set. :D
-Dear1
The green bean sprout 23 July, 2008
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Dear1, Slice of Life.add a comment
Here is the bean sprout my dear! Very cute hor…
Let’s see, today is Wednesday evening and it’s the first time I noticed the bean sprout. But it looks quite too long to have suddenly developed over the course of 1 day at work. So the conclusion is, it had been growing for 3 days, just that I hadn’t noticed it until today. Let’s recap.
Dear2 cooked green bean soup for us last Sunday (3 days ago) becos the weather was hot and we need to ‘cool down’. After finishing the tasty green bean soup, Dear2 washed the pot and I did noticed some green beans being stucked at the outlet. At that time, I didn’t give it any thought becos I assume it would be washed down the drain very soon. Never would I have imagined that it would sprout. Come to think of it, cooked green beans should be denatured and it couldn’t possibly sprout. That meant, the seeds of green I saw on Sunday night was probably fresh seeds that had fallen out during the earlier food preparation phase.
When I discovered the bean sprouts this evening, it was even standing upright and reaching for the sun. Upon lifting the sink filter, I noticed that the roots of the bean sprout was very long, about twice the length of the bean sprout itself and somewhat entangled with the lower sink outlet structure. Nevertheless, it came off quite easily and after inspection, there was no more bean sprout within the outlet.
This episode taught us a few things:
- Bean sprouts grow very quickly, 1 more day and I think it can be eaten. Makes sense for people who enjoy eating bean sprouts to plant their own.
- Bean sprouts are strong, they can grow in unfavourable conditions with only moisture as their nutrients. There was no cotton wool and the sun was so far away. This is really something we can learn, 豆芽的精神.
- Never ignore an innocent looking green bean seed in the kitchen sink and so always clean up the sink and filter properly after every washing.
Haha… This really reminded me about our primary school experiments where our teachers will ask us to grow some bean sprouts at home. It’s really quite interesting dear, dun faint lah. Gee… We are building up so many memories in our home, bit by bit. Muck!
-Dear1
From ‘Chore’ to ‘Core’ 12 July, 2008
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Wash clothes. Tidy the coffee table. Sweep the floor. Bring out laundry to sun. Cook lunch. Bake cookies. What a relaxing Saturday.
Last week, as Dear1 and Dear2 were casually chatting over dinner (Dear1 and Dear2 like to talk, talk about many things – current affairs, little happenings which Dear1 read from the internet, about life, about what we’ve done and what we like to do, about fashion, politics, food, the latest movie we’ve watched – everything under the sun), Dear1 opinioned that household chores should be done leisurely. But in this fast paced society of ours, ‘the working mum does not have time to slowly cook the dinner’. Dear2 has too fallen prey to the trap – household chores are routine and just have to be done, so what talk about enjoying the task!?
But hey, what Dear1 said made sense. You too can enjoy the chore. During the hanging out of laundry to dry, Dear1 applies Optimization Theory to determine the best permutation of sequencing which piece of clothe goes out on this tecko and that tecko. Oh boy. Dear1 is full of such This Theory and That Transform!
But seriously, if one can choose to handle the task with better enjoyment, the ‘chore’ can become a ‘core’ pleasure. Of course, when there is a deadline to meet, it’s about efficiency and time management. Other than that, why not take on these mundane tasks with ease and flair, and you too can have a relaxing Saturday.
Have a great weekend. Cheers.
- Dear2
Irritating lizards 18 May, 2008
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Dear1.7 comments
Recently, there’s an increased in the number of lizards wondering into our house. And how do we know this? From the trail of lizard shit and lizard urine they leave around the house, on the wall, on the floor… -_-*
As a precaution, we started throwing away all the rubbish bins every night even though they are not full. Personally, I feel very environmentally guilty after throwing out so many quarter-to-half used plastic rubbish bags on a daily basis, but anything to keep lizards away. Furthermore, we made sure that there are no exposed food on the table or anywhere else in the the house. Loaf of bread will be tightly bundled and packed into yet another plastic bag to make life difficult for those pesky lizards.
Not everyone dislikes lizards though. I suddenly remember Dear2 mentioning that one of her colleagues actually appreciates lizards roaming the house, “keeps the mosquito population in check” she says. Well, I respect her judgment but I won’t tolerate lizards in my house. Surely there are other methods for keep mosquitoes away, just heed all those dengue prevention ads.
So back to the story, despite the lack of leftovers or any form of exposed food, we still continue observing disgusting lizards trails. Taking a look around the house, we realized that it’s impossible to seal the house to keep the lizards out. For one, the toilet ventilation windows are fixed in place and there’s no way to seal them off, so lizards can always climb in through the windows. So now it’s time for plan C.
Every few days, we’ll spray insecticide all around the house, especially around windows and doors and sewer areas where they may possibly enter the house from. Things seems to be improving slightly, but the trail still continues. Maybe lizard aren’t that afraid of insecticides as cockroaches. After all, lizards aren’t classified as insects.
Whenever a lizard is spotted in the house, it is always hunted down. Dear1, armed with a bottle of insecticide and an opened tupperware will convert the devilish four legged beast. Although I just mentioned that they aren’t really afraid of insecticide doesn’t mean that they are immune to it, just like humans will also die from insecticide overdoes. Adopting the same theory, Dear1 will chase the lizard to the mountains and down the sea, waiting for the lizard to let its guard down. Seizing the opportunity, Dear1 sprays an overdose of insecticide on the unsuspecting lizard, covering it in a sea of toxic moist. While it struggles to get away from the scene, the poisonous fumes start to affect its movements, slowing it down to a crawl and Dear1 entraps it under the inverted plastic prison in one swift motion. Dear1 then places a shoe atop the tupperware to ensure the lizard doesn’t get away. Normally, everything will be left as it is overnight. The next day, Dear1 will quickly pick it up using paper towels and throw it away.
Some may think that this is quite an exaggerated method of catching a lizard but both Dear1 and Dear2 are not very comfortable with catching pest with our bare hands. Furthermore, it runs too fast to catch and hence the need to slow it down with insecticide.
The one thing I still don’t understand is, these simple minded animals, surely they only visit places where food is to be found. So if there’s no readily available food in my house, where are they still coming in? Grr… Sometimes I do notice lizards along the corridors and in the void decks, perhaps there are quite a lot of lizards in the neighbourhood? If so, should I call up the town council and get them to put a stop to such problems?
Temporary solution: Buy a lizard trap from NTUC and place it near potential entry points and keep all food out of reach.
-Dear1
A week of spendings 19 April, 2008
Posted by dear1dear2 in Around the House, Dear1, Shop till you drop.add a comment
Over the past week, we’ve bought quite a number of things and spent quite a bit. While I do feel some heartache that we appear to have spent impulsively, this is not the case. All the items we bought were essentials and none is actually a self pampering splurge. And for this very reason, I all the more feel that day to day living really aren’t cheap. I guess this is something that I would never have been able to appreciate if I was still living under the roof of my parents.
Let’s do a short recap of the things that we’ve bought. First, I’ve been lacking a pair of decent looking sandals. The only open toe footwear I’ve been living with for the past 1 year or so is a pair of bright orange coloured flip flops that costs $4 from the local market. Now this pair of flip flops isn’t really appropriate for wearing anywhere further than the local marketplace. So finally, I bought a pair of sandals that was on discount at World of Sport for $15.
More shoes purchases to come. Dear2 has been wearing a pair of New Balance army shoes that her colleague bought for her some years back. Now, this pair of shoe isn’t really suitable for Dear2 as it is an army shoe, designed mainly for male. Furthermore, the heel sole of both shoes have already fallen off, but somehow Dear2 still managed to complete our marathon last year with this pair of lob-sided running shoes. In preparation for our upcoming Sundown Night Marathon, Dear2 really needed a new pair of shoes. As Dear2 has quite normal feet, she chose a comfortable pair of running shoes from New Balance from Bata for $79.
Next is my shoes. I’ve a case of flat foot (according to Dear2’s claims), so I need a better pair of shoes for our running efforts. My previous (and one and only) pair of running shoes is more than 3 years old, worn, broken, toe poking out, cushion exposed, water seeps through the bottom, sole eroded. But I’m reluctant to buy a new pair because of the price, running shoes just isn’t cheap. After much (heated) discussions, I finally decided to set aside a $150 budget to buy a good pair of shoes that will offer me the support suitable for my feet type. After much testing and trying, I finally decided on a pair of Mizuno Wave Inspire 4 for $179. Overbudget. =( At least I know this pair of shoes is going to last me another 3 to 4 years or so.
In buying the Mizuno shoes, we decided to sign up for a World of Sports membership over the counter so that we can immediately enjoy a 20% off the shoe. The membership fee is $38 for 1 year. This meant that our total spendings is $179 * 0.8 + $38 = $181.20. In effect, we paid $2.20 on top of the regular price of the shoe for a 1 year World of Sport membership and also received 1 soccer ball, 1 sports water bottle and 3 pairs of socks. Haha… I know I know, it’s just some cheap free gifts, but the card itself entitles to other discounts for sportwear as well as some restaurants. I believe it’ll be worth it since we have this running thingy going.
Next, our kettle is spoilt. The switch didn’t turn off automatically when the water is boiling. Luckily, I was around to realize the problem and quickly manually switch off the power supply before anything dangerous happens. Such as, Dear2 has decided to boycott the Sona brand for producing a lousy electric kettle that barely lasted for 1 year. As a replacement, we bought a more well known and maybe more reliable brand in the form of a Kenwood electric kettle for $62. It’s more expensive, but also of a better build and design. Once we started using it, it became obvious that the Kenwood kettle boils faster, works quieter, has a better fitting between the kettle and the charging unit, has better lid and hinges, better design muzzle where the water flows out, smoother water flow when pouring, lesser likelihood of spills. 一分钱一分货。Now, I just hope this kettle lasts more than 1 year.
Now what else did we buy… A new King size fitted sheet from Aussino! As first glance, it looks like a luxury good, but it is actually not. Because we have a $50 Aussino voucher from buying our Samsung washing machine 1 year ago. It’s expiring soon and we need to spend it. But the (stupid) problem with these vouchers is that it isn’t cash vouchers. We cannot use it to pay for anything we buy like Taka vouchers. Instead, these vouchers can only be used to pay for non-promotional items. So, finally, after much searching, we decided on a set of $89.90 (usual price) fitted sheet. After paying with the vouchers we still need to pay $39.90 in cash. Not too bad, considering its 370 threadcount. This new fitted sheet will become the 3 set of fitted sheet we have, the first one is a necessity, the second one is a house warming gift. And the reason why we didn’t choose anything cheaper is that, everything else cheaper is on promotion and we can’t pay for it using the vouchers, grr… Why dun these businessman make all their vouchers without expiry and without restrictions to make their customers happier and more likely to shop at their outlet again? Now I really have a bad impression of Aussino.
Luckily all these items have quite a long usage life time and we won’t have to spend on these items again in the short term. But again, having to fork out so much cash over a week still feels like a firm pinch. And we still need to buy vacuum cleaner this week.
-Dear1
