Confessions of a Spree-aholic 20 October, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Baby, Dear2, Dollars & Cents, Shop till you drop.5 comments
OMG, I have turned into a spree-aholic in a matter of days!
It all started when Dear1 found a website where mtbs organise all sorts of sprees. And seeing how value-for-money shopping from such sprees can be, from the savings in (1) Shipping due to bulk purchases, and (2) These mtbs really can sniff out very good deals without you having to search for them yourself, haha. Dear2 spared no further delay in joining in the crowd. In a matter of seconds, Dear2 was fast on her way to opening a forum account all for the SPREE (haiz, Dear1 has been pestering the forum-idiot Dear2 to open an account, but Dear2 always feels that she will not participate in the all-nonsense forum for all-day-long crappy talk. Tell me about sprees and Dear2 can flip from NO to YES immediately… sigh.. wahahaha).
Yes, I want to buy this sweet pink 3-piece body suit pack from Old Navy. It’s just USD 10 for 3 pieces leh, a very cheap deal for sure!
Yes, this breast pump is surely worth it, normal retail price is over 1,000 and it’s going for less than half the price in the spree. Buy buy buy!!
Yes!! Birkenstock is having clearance sale now. I’ve always wanted a pair of Birkenstock shoes, but at $80 a pair, it’s always such a heartache. Now I can finally fulfill my dream at $42. Buy!
Oh my, this sweet pink dress is sooooooooooooo sweet. Even though I tell myself that I really have to quit this addiction, but…………… It’s soooooooo sweet! And it’s only slightly more than SGD 6! I want to buy!!
Within just 3 days, Dear2 was closely fixed to the computer screen, at home and in the office, all day long. The discounts were simply too irresistible – branded stuff at half the price (maybe), how to resist!? So day after day, Dear2 will check the bookmarked threads to see if her orders were confirmed, or if there’s new updates on the shipping status.
It has been exactly 1 week from the time since Dear2 started on spree-shopping, and also 1 week since Dear2 got addicted to this addiction. Fortunately for Dear2 (and Dear1 as well, haha), Dear2 finally stopped her addiction yesterday, when she saw that shipping costs may cost about the same, if not more than the actual price of the item. The SGD 14 capris pants may seem like a real bargain compared to the same pair from Marton Bell which cost $59 before the 20% closing down sale at the Vivocity branch, but there’s a likelihood that the shipping may cost an equivalent amount for its bulkiness and heaviness, and also that the shared box where all the other spreeists’ items were piled together was not optimised, then the total cost of SGD 30 may not seem such an attractive buy after all…
With that in mind, Dear2 is determine (almost) to stop spreeing until the ordered items are actually in my hands. But the lure of the spree forum is still so strong – I still constantly refresh the thread to see if there’s any new spree or discount coming along. It’s a every-minute-counts affair, cos usually when a new spree starts, it also closes almost immediately. The organiser may close the spree early if the required amount has been hit, or that she may only do 1 or 2 batch and if you happen to see the spree an afternoon too late, it just means that the boat is gone. And even if you do spot a good-deal spree, it’s every-minute-is-precious – gotto go to the website to browse through the discounted items, think about whether if the item really necessary, think about if that cost (not even factoring in shipping cost) is worth the buy, ask Dear1 if can buy or not, place orders with the organiser, transfer money to the organiser, seek confirmation on orders placed and money transferred, and then it’s finally checking the thread for latest updates to see if your order is placed successfully – all these have to be completed before the spree closes, or praying that the item is not out of stock…. The whole process is tenacious, even more exciting than stock-buying, cos when you buy stocks, you at least get to rest once markets close for lunch or for the day, but when it comes to spree-buying, every minute counts even until the wee hours at night, 24/7 all days.
Control.. Immune… Dear2 must really control herself and no more spreeing for now until the good(s) arrive…. But her hands are already itching to go check out new sprees now… Sob…
- Dear2
Singtel BreadTalk 10cent promo 17 September, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Food & Beverages, Shop till you drop.add a comment
SingTel Mo4U has been sending quite a lot of advertorial sms to us ever since we signed up our mobile plan with SingTel. The problem is, it is very very annoying to keep receiving unsolicited sms from SingTel all the time. It is very frequent, much more frequent than that from M1 previously. Of course, there’s an option to unsubscribe from the advertorial service, but the opportunity cost is that we may miss out on good promos if we do that. So, we didn’t unsubscribe. Little did we know that it would pay off so soon.
On 7 Sept, we received a mms saying that BreadTalk is having a promotion whereby we can buy a maximum of 2 buns per transaction at 10cents each when we flash our mms at the cashier. Wow, 10cents per bun from BreadTalk! This must be the best promotion yet. And it is valid until 20 Sept. So on that very first day, we decided to visit BreadTalk. We haven’t been to BreadTalk for a very long while (more than 1 year) becos we felt their bun was too tough, too hard, and overpriced. This promo brought us (unsatisfied customers) back to give BreadTalk buns a second chance. Kudos to the BreadTalk marketing team. Buy buy buy!
Purchasing the buns at the promo price was quite straightforward, just show the mms to the cashier. In addition, the cashier will request that we show them the sender of the mms to verify that we are indeed SingTel customers and we received the mms from the main server, as opposed to receiving this mms forwarded by our friends. Ok, this slowed down the paying process a little bit but it’s a just a small delay. That’s it, we left the shop and head for home. Hmm… This meant that we can reuse the mms over and over again to clean the entire BreadTalk of buns for 10cents each. All we need to do is to queue up again. Hehe…
Ok, let’s talk about the bread. We bought 2 of their signature buns, the normal floss bun and the spicy floss bun, since we haven’t had BreadTalk for such a long time. Hmm… Not bad, they have improved. The buns tasted quite decent, the dough isn’t that tough anymore and are probably worth eating again. Maybe the cost of the bun played a small role in altering our taste buds but we still thought the taste had definitely improved since we last tried it.
So for the next few days, we would always drop by BreadTalk on our way home to pick up 2 buns for 20cents since its just next to the MRT station. No, we didn’t abuse the system by queueing up over and over again. We wanted to… but were a bit paiseh. :P We ended trying a variety of buns from BreadTalk and we realized the choice of buns had changed since a year ago. There were some new buns to choose from and some of the digusting flavours (i.e. vege bun) were gone. :D And I found my new favourite, the Chocolate Croissant. We try our best to sample the expensive buns so as to make full use of the promo. Dear2 liked the most expensive of the lot, the usual price $1.60 Raisin Bun.
A few days later, the cashier started a new system. Everyone who uses the SingTel promo must write down their names, IC number and contact number on a sheet of paper. Are they starting to track their customers so that the person cannot reuse the promo mms? But it’ll be difficult to enforce since they didn’t request the writer to produce his/her IC, and difficult to cross check if there are repeat customers. Furthermore, it slowed down the payment process.
On 11 Sept, we received an sms telling us that the BreadTalk promo will end earlier on 11 Sept instead of the original 20 Sept due to overwhelming response. Yucks. How can they stop a promotion early due to good response? That’s so un-magnanimous. But the sms also mentioned that the promo will be available again from 14-18 Sept as an act of appreciation. Hmm… Let’s strip away all the sweet talk and focus on the facts. Original promo is, say 7-20 Sept. New promo is 7-11 Sept plus 14-18 Sept. In effect, they remove the promotion for the 2 weekends of 12-13 Sept and 19-20 Sept. Perhaps they have foreseen some problems during the first few days of implementation and decided that they do not wish to deal with such problems on weekends when sale volumes tend to be higher than on weekdays.
Since the BreadTalk management had some time to rethink their implementation procedures over the weekend, we expected some improvements at the cashier when the promo resumes on 14 Sept. Nope. Nothing has changed. We were still requested to write our names and contact numbers on blank sheets of paper upon payment and hence causing a jam at the cashier. And we’ve written numerous times on the sheet of paper that makes us wonder what use they actually have for the compiled list of names. First, the accuracy of the list is questionable as we were not asked to produce our IC for verification. Second, if they want to create a mailing list of customers, there is no need for us to repeat writing our names everyday.
The promotion is great and effective from the marketing perspective. We are happy to patronize BreadTalk and to hand a 20cents coin to the cashier everyday for the past 2 weeks. However, the implementation and execution of the promotion is far from perfect as discussed above. Hopefully, the planners can think through the process carefully before rolling out their next promotion. And perhaps also conduct some internal trial and staff training before the actual event.
2 more days to the end of the promotion. We’ll continue sampling new buns varieties from BreadTalk.
-Dear1
P.S. The original mms referred to SingTel Mo4U website for further details, but the website has never been online, not even once.
Our E66 and E71 16 August, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Consumer Electronics, Dear1, Shop till you drop.add a comment
When we signed up for mio Home, we also signed up for two mobile lines with Singtel. After all, it is the 20% off mobile lines with the mio Home plan that constitute most of the savings in our phone bills. And since we’re signing up for new mobile lines, it also meant that we’re eligible to get 2 new mobile phones at contract prices.
Dear1 had recently gotten a Window Mobile phone in the form of the HTC Touch 3G so there’s no real need to get yet another phone so soon. Dear2 was still using her Nokia 6288 which had began to give problems so it was a good opportunity to get a new phone for her.
After seeing how *useful* my HTC Touch 3G is, Dear2 decided that she also wanted a smartphone, with GPS and WiFi, capable calendar/organizer functions, and Microsoft office like functions so that she can write a post whenever she gets an inspiration (i.e. on the MRT). Of course there’s also the budget constrain, hopefully we can get something cheaper than my Touch 3G.
A small search finally settled us on two candidates. The sibling phones, Nokia E66 and E71. Their differences are quite minor. E66 is a smaller slider with standard mobile keypad and equipped with accelerometer. E71 is a candy bar with QWERTY keyboard and a larger battery capacity. Other features are nearly identical. So the decision boils down to the difference in appearance. We went down to the Singtel Hello shop to take a look at both models and to have some hands on. Dear2 still couldn’t decide. So we decided to buy both the phone and decide on one eventually at home.
Now, buying at Hello shop normally isn’t a good bargain because the Singtel Shop online almost always offers a better deal. So we went online that night and ordered the E71 at an online exclusive price of $148 (it would have cost $300 something from the Hello Shop). There wasn’t any exclusive for the E66 but we waited until after 9pm to place our order because there was a 9pm~9am online discount of $30. So our final price for the E66 was $338 after discount.
Delivery was swift and we received our phones within 1 week. For the next few days, Dear2 held both phones in her hands to judge which one she would prefer. I forbade Dear2 from turning any of the phones on for trial because a brand new unused phone would fetch a higher price should we wish to sell one later. Finally, Dear2 made a choice and picked the E71 (I would have picked E71 too). Yipee!
The next thing to do was to sell off the spare E66. I went to Mobile Square website to get an understanding of the current market price for a no contract E66. It was selling at around $540. This meant that $540 was the theoretical upper limit for the selling price of the E66 (the selling price of E71 was $550, just $10 more). I advertised our E66 around and before long, we had a buyer and agreed on a price of $450.
So, to sum up, we spent a total of $138 + $338 = $476 to buy two phones from Singtel at contract prices. Then we sold off the E66 at $450. This meant that in effect, the E71 that Dear2 is using now cost just ($476 – $450) $26! Great deal. *thumbs up*
Actually, if we dun try to keep up with phone-fashions, and our phones are still in good condition and we dun need to get a new one, we can always stand to gain a few hundred dollars profit by recontracting, getting a new phone and selling it off. With the mio Home plan, the main line gets to recontract every 12 months, so let’s try to make use of it.
-Dear1
The Old Chang Kee Sale 11 August, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Food & Beverages, Shop till you drop.2 comments
Old Chang Kee is crowded with people on an otherwise regular Tuesday night at West Mall basement 1.
An enlargement of the cause of crowd – everything at $1 National Day special! 10 to 12 August only.
Old Chang Kee is having a post National Day sale! And it seems that all the snack items are going at $1 each. At least that’s what Dear1 and Dear2 found out from the Old Chang Kee branch at West Mall Shopping centre while shopping at West Mall during the post National Day holiday yesterday. How we love National Day. Haha.
At the Old Chang Kee sale, your favourite Curry O and Sotong Head Sticks are all going at $1 each. At times like this, the $1.20 Curry O may not yield much savings, but the normally too-expensive-to-eat $1.60s are very good buys now, haha. Dear1 and Dear2 are surely going to buy more sticks today. Note that the promotion is from 10 to 12 Aug only.
Not only that Old Chang Kee is having a discount, Aussino too is having its ‘annual’ National Day sale. Remember how Dear1 and Dear2 bought our quilt at last year’s National Day sale at 43% off, this year, in celebration of the nation’s 44th birthday, Aussino is having a similar sale – selected items at 44% off discount! With 3 sets of quilt and bedsheets covers already, though very much tempted by the offer, we decided to just get an extra pair of pillow shams (UP $21.90, now $12.25) for changeability.
National Days are nice, we get to sing familiar National Day songs, and retailers like to use this occasion to push out promotions and discounts too. The much long-awaited public holiday after 2 months of no holidays (remember the long long ago Vesak Day holiday in May? Urgh!), National Day is indeed a much desired break for many of us. Now we’re just praying that the next public holiday in Sep comes sooner!
- Dear2
Our Kia Forte 24 July, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Baby, Dear1, Shop till you drop, Vroom Vroom.5 comments
You may have seen this commercial on TV recently. It’s the new Kia Cerato Forte, launched in Feb 2009, in Singapore. Yes, we bought our first car! And this is the car we bought, the Kia Cerato Forte. :D
Pictures, pictures…
The front view of our handsome car. Yes, we bought a red plate Off Peak Car. The colour is ‘Sweet Orange’.
Here’s a look at the interior. Audio controls on the steering wheel and also factory fitted audio system. USB slot for music too, spot the thumbdrive in the lower left of the picture.
And the Cerato Forte logo at the rear. I would very much like to remove the word Cerato. Just Kia Forte would be cool.
We started sourcing for a car since last year. The basic idea is that we want to prepare to start a family soon. It would be more convenient if we have personal transport so that we can bring Dear2 around to visit the gynae, and next time we can bring baby around for various check ups. And secondly, it would improve our lifestyle, such as staying out late and not worrying about transport home, visiting hard to reach eating places, driving to our frequent running events early in the morning, etc. Yah, it’s a luxury and a depreciating asset, so let’s try to keep the cost down as much as possible.
The first trigger came when the Certificate Of Entitlement (COE) dropped to $2 in November 2008. Of course we knew that the opportunity was already missed as the $2 COE will not occur again in the subsequent months. But it was a sign that car prices are going down. Sure enough, COE remained under the 10k mark for about 6 months following that until the quota reduction in April 2009. We had to grab this opportunity to get a cheap car. After all, poor economy leads to lesser car buyers and cheaper cars. It makes sense to buy big items when the economy is down.
We also wanted an Off Peak Car (OPC) and that placed another constrain on our search. The 17k rebate must be deducted from first the COE and then Open Market Value (OMV) of the car. So the combined value of the COE and OMV must be at least 17k for us to take full advantage of the OPC scheme. But with rock bottom COE prices, we need a car with high OMV. But high OMV means expensive cars in general. But we just wanted a small and cheap car for our small family use. Our requirements were conflicting and the search was tough.
As for why OPC? Dear1 has a direct bus from home to work, so there’s no need to drive on a daily basis. Dear2 works in CBD area so it doesn’t make sense to drive to work. So, OPC seemed to suit our usage requirements rather well.
Long story short, we initially wanted a hatchback car becos it was younger and more trendy looking. We looked at Kia Picanto, Hyundai Getz, Hyundai Avante, Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit, Suzuki Swift and Daihatsu Sirion (and even the Chana Benni). But none of them was really able to convince us to commit…
It was around early March that we caught sight of the Kia Forte. It was a sedan, but every other feature about it was good. Stylish looking, modern, lots of safety features, enough head room for Dear1, spacious interior, 1.6L engine, and it was value for money. Its OMV was high enough (around 13k) and COE prices were hovering around 5k. The selling price of the car for the entry level EX (A) version was 44999, which was within our budget.
By late March, the price had dropped to 42999, making it an even more attractive buy. At that time, there was some change in the specifications of the EX. The newer batches had hydraulic power steering, 1 air bag and 2 disc brakes, 2 drum brakes. Whereas the older batches had electronic power steering, 2 air bags and 4 disc brakes. Both versions were selling at the same price during the transitional period. However, there was limited remaining stock for the older (better) version, and limited choice of colour (only Sweet Orange left). So there was a bit of urgency if we wanted to get more value for money from our car purchase.
After 2 sessions of discussions with our Sales Executive (SE) and a quick test drive, we decided to sign on the dotted line and place an order for the Sweet Orange Auto-transmission EX version with the better specs (4 disc brakes) at 42999. We put our lousy bargaining skills to the test and only managed to get reverse sensors, remote and alarm, Rikecool solar films and full leather seats for an extra 1000 dollar top up.
So the final cost of our car was 42999 (original cost) + 1000 (top up) – 17000 (OPC rebate) = 26999. We paid up 3999 and loan 23000 (2.85% pa) from Maybank for 84 months which works out to be 329 per month. Still a manageable monthly amount.
Credits: Retrieved from www.sgcarmart.com on 24 July 2009.
On retrospect, it turned out that 42999 was the lowest ever selling price for EX (A) since launch, other than the even more ridiculously priced pre-launch special in Jan 09. The latest price for our model as of 24 Jul 09 is 49999. So we’ve really got quite a good deal for our big ticket purchase.
The entire process was rather smooth for us. We got our COE at our first bid and the car was already sitting in the Singapore warehouse ready for delivery. We ordered in late March, collected our car in late April (only 1 month waiting time) and have been driving around for the last 3 months. :D
Our favourite TV show for the past weeks was Driving Miss Foodie becos we can now drive to all the many inaccessible food places around Singapore. We also visited many parks around the island for mini picnics. Meanwhile, Dear2 had passed her driving test (2nd attempt) and is now pregnant, so things seem to be falling in place nicely for us.
Happy happy!
-Dear1
The Credit Card Trap 21 March, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Dollars & Cents, Shop till you drop, Slice of Life.1 comment so far
$120 installment for facial.
$260 installment for bridal package.
Hmm, $120 per month is affordable lah. Ok, $260 per month for 6 months can help to lighten our current load.
But…… that makes Dear1 and Dear’2 monthly installment bill to be $380 already!!!! And that’s just on installments bills. What about that pair of jeans, that 2 pairs of jeans, and that pair of of shoes, and that jacket, and that Watson’s, and that book, and that Cafe Cartel, and that Swensons, and that Secret Recipe, and that…………….
The list goes on. The fact of the matter is, signing on that credit card has become all so convenient today. It’s ok if i dun have $300 to buy that watch now, becos i have CREDIT CARD. It’s ok to buy that TV on sale, becos can pay by installment mah. We dun feel the pinch anymore, cos we dun actually see the cash being transacted, or even have to worry if my ATM account has enuff balance to pay for this item. Serious considerations only set in when we receive the credit card bill, and that is usually 1 month later.
Traps. Credit cards are really traps cos they make us sign without making serious considerations, make us spend unknowingly. Even prudent Dear2 was recently awakened when she receives a credit card bill of $600+. Nope, that was not unusual, but the unusual thing is, ‘How did this this this this this add up to $600!? This was already on discount, that was bought during a sale. All these can’t possibly add up to $600. Let me get the calculator.’
Be careful. That’s all I can warn u right now. Credit cards can offer many discounts and conveniences, but this may lead us to consume more unknowingly.
Dear2 will not cut up all my 6 credit cards, becos different cards really do get me different good deals (why pay more when there’s 15% discount for xxx credit card holders in this restuarant). But i’ll definitely give more thought everytime i going shopping (or window shopping). Always ask yourself this question first – do i really NEED this item?
- Dear2
Shop Till You Drop – In Ho Chi Minh City 9 November, 2008
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Shop till you drop, Travel & Discovery.2 comments
The Ho Chi Minh City trip was by far the most enjoyable trip that Dear1 and Dear2 have so far. Is it becos we had 3 other friends as companions, or is it becos it was a free and easy tour but becos we went on 2 full day trips with local guides who narrated freely about the culture and life tales of Vietnam, making the experience cheap yet rewarding? Hmm… Or was it the friendliness of the Vietnamese people, or even the fact that Dear2 finds the ‘just cross through the traffic’ exciting yet interesting? Hmm… I guess the cheap shopping and cheap yet not-stingy food in HCMC did play a big part as well. :p
Shopping, yes, let’s talk about shopping in HCMC. Shopping in HCMC can be very fulfilling, mainly becos of the exchange rates and that many big brands are actually manufactured in Vietnam so that u do not need to pay extra for import goods. Here I go…
Exchange Vietnam Dong (VND): Forget about exchanging any VND in Singapore at all. Even from the best money changers in The Arcade, best rate was 1 SGD = 10,000 VND. Not to mention that about half of the money changers here DO NOT have enuff VND to supply. Unlike the usual no-no of exchanging foreign currencies in the country that u visit or at the airport, PLEASE exchange your VND at the HCMC airport. The best rate on the day that we visited HCMC was 1 SGD = 11,433 VND. WOW!!
(Fake) Branded Goods: Yes, like Thailand, there’s A LOT of fake Coach and LV and Gucci, Lacoste and Tommy H and Timberland. But if u just want to flaunt that ‘branded’ bag and ‘branded’ polo tee at your friends, no need to go Thailand and face the increasing unfriendly sales people. Yes, the Vietnamese are soooo friendly people. Like many markets, you HAVE TO bargain 40% of the quoted price. Keep the negotiation atmosphere friendly, cos every dollar savings to us may well be their cost to feed the family for a day, so as long as the price is about what u’re willing pay, ‘let’s all be happy happy’ and close the deal.
Branded Goods: As mentioned, Vietnam is home to production of many branded goods. Dear1 and Dear2 got a Northface 3-layer waterproof jacket at VND 600,000, and waterproof Nike shoes at VND 430,000. Since these are essential for our upcoming Japan trip, taking into consideration walking in the snow, we allocated a sum for these. Afterall, I’m pretty sure that we’ll not see these prices anywhere in Singapore again. And oh, did I mention about the shop that sells extremely cute cats-and-dogs practicals in bright pastel colors? Not too sure what’s the name of the brand, and it might even be imitation of the original, but Dear1 pampered Dear2 with 2 sweet pouches at VND 70,000 each. Thank u Dear1!
Vietnam Souvenirs: If u are those who feel obliged to buy souvenirs for friends and relatives everytime u go on tour, HCMC is a good place to sweep up cheap knick knacks. Embriodered purses, clothe bags, egg shell picture frames, shell mirrors, ornaments in every shape and size and price, surely there’s plenty for u to choose from. Just make sure that your souvenirs dun get stashed away at the back of your friends’ cabinets (again), so get something that they will like.
Food: Eating in HCMC is cheap. Even in places where tourists frequent, u can get a hearty meal at half the price u’ll pay in Singapore. And I’m talking about places where they serve tourists. If u are adventurous enuff, take up a stool along the alley and order whatever the locals are eating (dun ask me what they are eating, cos it’s always hard to ask ‘what’s in this’ when most of the locals [not selling in shops] can’t speak English), I’m pretty sure that the food will still gel with our Asian tongue. And dun worry about hygiene, in the week that Dear1 and Dear2 were there, we absolutely have no problem with the stomach, but of course, please get your 1L bottled water @ VND 8,000 each anywhere, even from roadside stalls.
Reccommendation to Shop: If u have read up enuff about HCMC, Ben Thanh market will not come as as unfamiliar to u. The Ben Thanh day market has a WIDE variety of goods in the sheltered building, and some of the more ‘tourist’ goods gets moved out into the night market when the day market closes at 6pm. A reccommendation will be to stay in District 1 where the Ben Thanh market is, cos almost everything worthwhile to see and do and buy in HCMC is located in District 1.
2 hours flight away, and possbily cheap air tickets cos many airlines fly HCMC now (we flew on Tiger Airways at SGD 200 for return tickets), HCMC may be a nice place to visit now. Do visit HCMC soon, cos Dear2 has a feeling that urbanization and influx of tourism may quickly turn the now friendly and cheap city into one of the familiar cities we’ve seen so often, faced with extreme bad traffic and pollution, of stressful lives and not-so-cheap bargains for tourists anymore.
- Dear2
New Wedding Quilt 24 August, 2008
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Shop till you drop, Wedding.1 comment so far
There are just so much information out there about weddings. And when information is so abundant and readily available, we start to wonder which is real and which is not. For instance, we’ve always heard about this term call 安床, but we dun really know what it is exactly or what are the customs to follow. Hearsay hearsay.
After consulting our parents, we realized that they are self proclaimed ‘modern’ chinese and some of these traditions need to be strictly adhered to, for the sake of convenience. It seems that the modern thinking about customary marriages prioritizes convenience for everyone and the happiness of the wedding couple.
With this, we will not be buying any bedside lamps, we will not visiting our house on the actual day so that a happily married senior relative will set our bed, etc. However, we still feel that having a new set of bedsheets for our wedding is an auspicious thing to do. And so we set out to source for a new set of bedware. The problem is, the full set, or just partially?
Let’s do a short recap, we have a king size bed, with 2 head pillows, 2 hug pillows, 1 bolster and 1 quilt. Incidently, nearly all our bedlinen so far was bought from Aussino, with the exception of 1 bedsheet from Hallmark bought from Robinson’s. To date, we have 2 complete sets of bedlinen.
So on National Day, we decided to go out for walk, and so happens to stroll into our favourite stall, Aussino at Westmall, haha… And there happens to be a one day only National Day sale, 43% off selected items! :D We initially wanted to buy this set of quilt cover with a cute cartoonish wedding couple on it. But Dear1 wasn’t very keen on the idea. Sure, several months ago when this quilt set first came out, it was very novel and very desirable, but it was expensive. However, in recent month, Dear1 had seen more and more ppl having the same set of quilt cover. Not wanting to be yet-another-couple to own that quilt cover set, we decided to give it a miss despite the 43% discount.
Eventually, we chose this quilt cover set, a sweet pink selling for $99.90 on a usual day but at 43% discount this time, so it’s $56.943 now. Here’s what it looked like.
340 threadcount, not bad. And remembering how much our last Aussino quilt cover cost, at a bargain price too! This quilt cover will be kept and only to start using from our wedding day. We decided to cut down on our expenses so we’ll only be buying a new quilt cover and not the entire bedsheet set. After all, quilt cover is the one on the outside and hence the one that will be visible all the time.
That’s not the end of our shopping trip. We browsed around Aussino and managed to spot pillows selling at 43% off too. Haha… We already have 5 pillows and bolsters on the bed and with us 2 adults, it was already quite crowded. But Dear1 liked pillows. Gee… With some persuasion, Dear1 managed to convince Dear2 to buy 2 more pillows for our crowded king size bed. :D They are called 7-hole fibre pillows and we bought the medium softness ones at a usual price of $22.90, now $13.053, not a bad deal ya. But now we have a really crowded but comfy bed with 7 pillows and bolster and 2 adults. Haha…
We seem to be spending a lot on our bedroom and in particular our bed. But I think it is all worth it. Why? Becos we spend nearly a third of our lives on the bed so it is worth spending money on. Besides sleeping, we also play DS, listen to music, read books, play cards, chit chat on the bed, just to name a few, so that’s really a large part of our lives. So there’s no point buying expensive beds but to top it off with cheapo bedsheets or quilts. And that’s why we spend quite a bit on quality bed, quilt, covers, pillows and bolsters, to enhance the quality of our sleep.
Alright, new quilt cover, checked! Onwards with our wedding preparations!
-Dear1
Expensive Stuff – Gems 10 August, 2008
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Shop till you drop, Wedding.add a comment
It’s 1.5 months away to our wedding, and Dear1 and Dear2 are slowly getting ready the things that we need to get done for the Big Day.
Yesterday, Dear1 and Dear2 collected the altered bangle that Dear2 Mum got for Dear2. Finally, the jewellery set is complete. Since beginning of the year, Dear1’s parents have been hinting that Dear2 should go and select the 四点金 that she wants from local stores, and the parents will go to JB to purchase it since MYR is more cost effective than SGD. That didn’t sound like a good idea to Dear2 at all, cos Dear2 firmly believes that the 四点金 should be a ‘gift’ from the parents-in-laws, and not ‘a gift that I want’. Ding dong ding dong for half a year, now comes just 2 months to the wedding. Time is really running out now, so the final conclusion that Dear2 gave is that ‘anything that the parents buy/ give will do’.
2 weeks later, Dear2 received a cute tortoise pendant from Dear1’s parents. OMG. Dear2 was speechless upon receiving this. Up till today, Dear2 still cannot comprehend the meaning to this gift. Am I thinking too much, or I should really view it as a harmless gesture? I really dun want to dwell on this further.
As the last straw, and Dear2 decided to just buy the jewellery on her own. Dear1 and Dear2 selected a necklace and a ring to go with the bangle which Dear2 Mum has bought for her earlier. To cut down on cost, Dear2 decided to get the normal gems from Citigems instead of the classier gems of the stores (believe me, the Celestials and Destinees really are more brilliant and sparkling). And believe me, the price difference between Lee Hwa and Citigems are really substantial – Go for Lee Hwa if you want pretty stones but be prepared to spend a lot more; go for Citigems if you just want a big normal looking diamond at affordable prices. Btw, in case you dunno, these 2 stores are sister companies.
Oh, I should mention about some info that I acquired from this shopping experience.
1) Dear2 Mum traded in some of her gold (yellow gold) to net off the price of the (white) gold bangle. The old yellow gold were sold at 25% (or was it 20%?) less of the current gold price. So considering that Mum’s gold were bought a long long time ago, and that gold prices are high in these days, it was really an appreciated asset to have and keep. Take note that there’s different prices for better gold and poorer gold ( can’t remember the exact terms used), and that the identity of the gold item have to be emborsed on the item itself, otherwise the shop will not be able to identify the grade, and hence take in this piece. Mum wanted to trade on this 1 section of a bracelet that was cut off from a longer chain, but becos the ‘identity’ is not printed on this separate section, this becomes worthless. :(
2) White gold does have a value (like yellow gold), except that this value will not appreciate (if ever) with time. For example, if the yellow gold was bought at $10/g @ 20 years, ago, and the price has went up to $20/g today, you earn the appreciation (less off the depreciation value and remember, the ‘identity’ has to be there). But for white gold, the resale value 20 years later will be based on the original purchase price, which has to be verified via the ‘Certificate’ or Invoice. So, the point to remember is, KEEP YOUR WHITE GOLD RECEIPT! AT least there’s still a resale value if you ever wants to sell it.
That’s all for today. Dear2 shall continue to admire her bangle. Thanks Mum and Bro for the gift.
- Dear2
Silver Wedding Shoes 18 June, 2008
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Shop till you drop, Wedding.add a comment
Without further-a-do, here is Dear2’s wedding shoes!
Hunting for wedding shoes is not an easy task. Sometime I wonder, why is there such a big fuss over wedding shoes? Why is it that in every video montage about wedding, one of the scene will be dedicated to the wedding shoes? And why is it that wedding packages doesn’t come with shoes? -_-
After some time, I realized that one of the possible reasons may be, that wedding shoes just isn’t customizable, or alterable. Wedding dresses are always design with some leeway or at least some ingenious hidden secret that allows the designer to alter the dress to suit a variety of bride shapes. Shoes on the other hand, are more or less fixed to their design so nothing can be changed, so that’s why it has fallen upon the bride to seek her own pair of perfect shoes.
Then, why must it be silver? After asking our wedding make up artist/stylist, he replied that silver is the easier colour to match a gown, be it wedding gown or night gown. Quite true. And according to him, the added advantage of silver shoes is that it can be reused easily to match other types of clothes on a day to day basis so that it would be a one-time-use waste of money. Icic.
The last point that I can think of is something that I realized myself while shopping for wedding shoes with Dear2. That is, everybody’s feet shape is different, and that calls for different shoe shape design. Very interesting fact that I noticed is that ‘pointed toes’ shoes is more suitable for Dear2’s feet rather than the ’square toes’ shoes. Nvm if u dun understand, the important thing is that I understand.
With that, we went hopping from shopping centre to shopping centre along Orchard Rd looking for that perfect pair of wedding shoes. But as always, things are not smooth sailing. First, we can’t find silver shoes at all! Hmm… Then somehow, the silver shoes started appearing, but Dear2 didn’t like them, one of our criteria was that the shoe must have back straps, Dear2 liked back strap shoes. As we walked along, we finally walked into OG at Orchard Point where there was suddenly a whole rack of silver shoes. Yeah!
But lady luck wasn’t on our side. The first few pairs of shoes that Dear2 had her eyes on doesn’t have her size in stock. Grr… After the 3rd or 4th pair that had no size, we were both visibly irritated. We even got the salesgirl to help us make a call to their other branches, namely Chinatown and Bugis, to check if they have stock there, but there wasn’t. Where didn’t all the shoes go to? Was so many people getting married at the same time?!
Just before leaving, Dear2 manage to spot a pair that looked alright. After asking for the size, we had a long anxious wait while the salesgirl went to check for the stock. They have it, Yes! Finally. This pair was not bad, not the first choice though, but still quite elegant. And so we decided to buy it. The price was $30 something, I can’t really remember, Dear2 u remember? *Update: The receipt shows $39.90.
Now, the more I look at this pair of shoes, the more I liked it, especially how it looked on Dear2’s slender feet. This may be my favourite pair of shoes out of Dear2’s entire shoe collection yet. Gee…
-Dear1
