Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Managing Finances

How do we manage finances in our family? My hubby works full time and I work part time. As a middle income family on a (almost) single income , managing the finances is a very important part in keeping the household happy and well run.

No Retail Therapy

Well, I'm not a fan of retail therapy, fortunately for our family, so usually when I shop, I think thrice (or more times) before I buy an item. I make a shopping list, then I buy only the necessary things. If a very pretty dress caught my eye and I would really love my daughter to have it, usually my first thoughts will be "So lovely! $29.90 is cheap!" But I will tell myself "No, think about it." After walking one round around the shopping mall, when the initial excitement wears off, the price tag does seem a bit steep for a simple dress. A few days later, if I do pass by and see the dress and I still like it, and it's on sale, maybe I'll buy it. Or maybe I'll find a cheaper and similar one elsewhere. That's how I shop. NEVER buy on impulse. And only buy what I NEED. 

Buy on iHerb

I'm a great supporter of household products that does not use animal ingredients, does not test on animals and are earth friendly. I also love to give my children organic snacks. So iHerb has a lot of such items! I basically accumulate my shopping list and buy all on one go, and sometimes Singpost has free delivery too. If you buy these items over the counter in Singapore, they are going to cost twice as much as they could have cost you on iHerb! I've bought laundry detergents, baby food, baby yogurt bites, baby biscuits, shampoos, body washes, sun blocks and diaper creams from iHerb. I read the reviews and decide on which items to get. Some are great, some not so, and I write the reviews to help other buyers too.

Buy online during Sales

I joined sprees and buy from websites like Carters during Black Friday and Christmas sales. Carters clothes cost almost half the price as they could have cost in shopping malls in Singapore. Hubby also buy things like running shoes and mobile phone covers from Amazon and Taobao. These save us a lot of money!

Buy during Sales at market stalls or hyper marts  like Giant (Tampines) and Fairprice Extra

I went Giant recently and bought boy's t shirts, pretty girl's blouses, woman's pants all at under $6 each! These places do have lots of cheap clothes with very nice designs.

Eat Home Cook

I'm a SAHM and working part time as a freelance writer so one benefit about this is I get to cook and eat home cooked food. Home cooked food is cheaper! Our family only eat organic food if we eat at home. If we were to buy organic meals outside, they will be very expensive. What comes out of this is healthier bodies for the children and for us adults, and less medical bills to pay.

Family Outing to Places with Free Entries

Places like botanical gardens have lovely sceneries, a large pond with black swans and ducks, and kid's playground, and don't change entry fees. Since we don't drive, we go by MRT or Taxi so the only cost incurred with will be transport fees. Botanical Gardens is very accessible by MRT now. Other kid friendly and free entry places are East Coast Park, Punggol WaterWay Park where there is a water play area and huge sand pit, Bishan Park where there is also water play and sand pit, and free playgrounds like the ones at NEX shopping mall and Marina Square shopping mall.

Don't save on Children's Education, Health, and Parents' welfare 

When we decided to have a family of our own, we already subconsciously gave up many of the luxuries we could enjoy when we were still single. Hubby's love of gadgets, photography and travels my love of violin, beautiful clothes and cafe hopping... all these will have to be second or third or fourth in priority. While we are stingy on ourselves, we don't save on several things. We gladly spend on children's education. As I embraced the Waldorf philosophy of no academic teachings before seven years old (or at least no pressure on children to perform in academic area before seven), we don't give in to marketing tactics of enrichment classes like Berries or I Can Read or Phonics classes etc. But we take Kieran to Yamaha's music lesson which he enjoys and which is blessed with a very engaging and passionate music teacher, and I buy many picture books and pre-writing books and colouring and painting materials for us to play with at home. Books are things we don't save on.

Health is important so we believe that if the children need to see TCM to get them back to good health, we will see a practitioner no matter how expensive it cost, and we must not save on good, whole food. Organic food is expensive and cooking at home can be tiring but it must never be replaced with unhealthy and easier alternatives, although we do eat out at times. In Singapore where eating out is so easily available, it can be a very attractive alternative. But we try to make eating at home at habit. We also cook healthy soup for the whole family. Soup therapy is very important for good health. One thing we are against in is supplementing. At least I am against it. If we eat healthily, there's no need for supplementing. I do take supplements when I am pregnant and breastfeeding for the first year, but now, I reduce supplementing to just calcium pills and vegetarian DHA, and I don't think I will buy them anymore after I'm done with the current bottles. I never buy into the pushy marketing tactics of expensive supplement companies, especially MLMs.

I won't spend on many things like dining at Yakun Kaya if I'm alone, and I won't buy certain things for myself but if they are for my parents or parents in law, I will buy them. Parents' welfare some times mean their mental wellbeing and its good for them to know their children are willing to spend a bit more for them.

Left handed?


Kieran has been showing preference for left hands. Here's a picture of him tracing straight lines. I've got him a few books from Popular Bookstore that he can practise tracing, reading etc.

I'm amazed by this boy's intellectual development. At just 3 years old, he can recite several Tang poems (唐诗), recites 满江红 and first few verses of 弟子规, talks and reasons like an adult, understands Mandarin mostly but also understands and speaks some English, recognise several Chinese words like (人,外,小,一,多), and can already trace lines well enough. I'm not starting on the writing because I don't want him to learn how to read and write so quickly but I think if I do, he'll be able to write well already.

And my mom came to teach me how to make tasty soft bread today!

Before baking

After baking.

Easy to guess which shape is for Kieran and which is for Caitlin! Car shape bread for Kieran and bear shape one for Caitlin :)

The children shaped the dough and played with the flour. Delicious and healthy wholemeal bread for the family!


Kieran is obsessed with Transformers and any vehicles that can transform into robots lately. He's a fan of Robocar Poli and Tobot! Here's daddy teaching Kieran how to transform an Autobot Hound, and Mei mei Caitlin is watching closely beside them. A family bonding time before bed.

Caitlin's First Step!

As of today, Caitlin is 15 months and 24 days old. Today, she just took her first step! She has been trying to stand and walk by herself since last month and today, she has finally done it! Hurray! Baby steps but our guess is that before the end of the week, she'll be toddling around the house!


We went to Changi Airport Terminal 3 to see the Disney installations. Here's Caitlin at the T3 Kopitiam (where there's vegetarian food stall! Yeah!) drinking from her sippy cup by herself.


Caitlin looking cute!


Kieran looking cute!


Enjoying home cooked kway teow and mee, cooked with love by daddy. Even when going out, we make sure the children have healthy home cooked meals. We bought a good tumbler (保温壶) to keep the food warm.


Little Caitlin is also developing well speech wise. 

Here's some of the milestones reached.

Motor skills:
  • Great hand eye coordination. She picks up tiny objects from the ground with great expertise. We just have to make sure she don't put them into her mouth.
  • Can cruise around the house.
  • Crawls well and now learning to walk. Can take a few steps unaided!


Speech skills:
  • Calls mama, ah mah, papa, gor gor (calls him da da)
  • Tries to vocalise "ah gong" but can't say out.
  • Recognise and says bear as "Bah"
  • Recognise many objects like apple (she makes a eating gesture), rabbit (she jumps), lion (she roars), cow (she moos), goat (she says baa!), fish and bird (she makes kiss gesture to shows she loves them), flowers (she says "hua"), stars (makes twinkle twinkle gestures with hands), sun (sings ah ah ah because I sing 太阳公公 whenever I point to the sun), moon (she tries to say "moon").

Although Caitlin's speech development isn't as fast as her gor gor's, she's quite on par with children at her age. Jia you, Caitlin! It's such a joy to hug this little angel close to me everyday, smell her pleasant scent, kiss her soft cheek and feel her soft hair everyday! And she's so loving. She will kiss my cheek and daddy's cheek. She's not as milk milk addict as Kieran was before but she definitely loves her milk milk. She still nurses a few times a day and every time to sleep. She wakes up several times at night to nurse. But I'm not complaining. Co-sleeping helps very much in getting enough sleep for me, and she soothes back to sleep easily with nursing. Her favourite person is mummy! Who else can provide food (milk), comfort, fun all in one?

One thing I notice about play in Caitlin that is very different from Kieran, is that when she is given an object like a ring, she will put it over her arm and wear it like a bangle. Kieran will never attempt that! It's a girl thing, I guess? Haha. Children never cease to amaze me :)

Sister's Wedding!

16 November 2014 was an extremely exciting but tiring day for me! On this day, my younger sister got married to my very dashing and nice brother in law. The day before the wedding, my children and I stayed over at my parents' home because Kieran had to be up early and dressed to open the car door for Yi Zhang (姨丈). It is a traditional custom for Chinese weddings to have a boy relative from the bride's family to open the bridal car door for the groom.


Kieran opening the car door.

During the tea ceremony at my parents' home, poor Caitlin couldn't stop crying because she's so scared of strangers, and on that day, the house was brimming with a lot of people she hadn't seen before!

Finally, after the tea ceremony was over, my parents and the bride and groom went to the hotel to get ready for the banquet, while hubby and I washed up the place a bit, got the children home, got them to nap for a while and then prepared their dress and shirt for the night.

                             

Family photo at Zhi Ying and Sulin's wedding banquet.


Exhausted, the children fell asleep the moment we reached home. Caitlin actually fell asleep in the taxi and I had to gently take off her dress and put on her pyjamas while she snoozed on the bed.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Lots of Pictures!




Mummy and Daddy took pictures with the lovely kids on a lazy Saturday afternoon.


The children painting together! This is Caitlin's first time playing with brushes.


We visited my friend's new house and here is Kieran with his friend Jodi who is only a few months younger than him.


Hubby and I go for USS trip without the kids. We had super good fun! It's good to take a break away from parenting and enjoy ourselves as a couple. This is a very very rare chance for us! All thanks to my parents for agreeing to help take care of our kids.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Heart Angina - A huge warning to us!

My mother in law suffers from heart angina ever since she has several blocked arteries and malfunctioning heart valves about 3 years ago. Few nights ago, she suddenly experienced extreme pain in the chest that does not go away with rest. She was admitted to hospital and had to undergo surgery tomorrow.

It is really a combined issue of bad lifestyle, bad diet and stubbornness! I vow that I shall never ever follow such footsteps. Like all of us, she likes fried, salty yummy food, but after the diagnosis of blocked arteries and malfunctioning valves, she abstained from these food for a period of time and then return to this unhealthy diet again! All because of the stupid MLM health products! Friends and people she trusts introduced her to expensive MLM (multi-level marketing, also known as direct selling and in some cases, pyramid schemes) health products like Rain, Bamboo salt, Electric health chair, and that stupid piece of glass Bio Glass. She trusts these so much and these have such strong psychological effects on her that she would rather spend her money on these expensive products than heed the doctor's and dietician's advices to go for healthy diet and exercise! To her, these supplements and health products are enough, and are miracles, and because these works, it is not so necessary to eat healthy ALL the time. So occasionally a bit of oily food is ok, occasionally a bit of fried food is ok, she doesn't exercise but it's ok... Maybe it's ok for normal people but NOT OK for a person with four and more blocked arteries at a range of 60-80% and malfunctioning heart valves, and constant chest pains! She couldn't even enjoy a normal life for three long years, refraining from travels, longer journeys than a trip to the nearby market causes chest pains, couldn't come to visit grandkids, and yet, she still tells herself that it's ok. Even when family members encouraged her to live healthily, even when my father in law talked to her about living healthy lifestyle, she does not listen! My mother in law is a very generous and kind and trusting lady. This trust is a double edged sword. Who to blame in this case? The MLM sellers or the MLM buyers?

I remember the whole family got into a very unhappy situation when my parents in law requested for us to buy her a SGD900 Bio Glass! $900! This piece of crap does not have filtering properties. You just put it into your water jar and it will miraculously change the water molecules to positive ones, creating positive water and you get healthier and healthier and eventually all your illness will go away! God will deal with who ever create, sell and promote this crap and all other MLM craps! I shall not go into it. There are many evidences against this Bio Glass thing and you can easily search for it online. Type "Bio Glass Scam" and you have it.

Every time people talk about these MLM stuff I may look calm but I'm burning angry inside. I wish this bad business scheme will stop! I once wrote to MOH but they say they cannot do anything to these sellers. If I suspected a scam, then I can write in to police for investigation. The thing is the government has to educate the public about these things. Tell our elderly what is MLM, what is direct selling, what are its disadvantages and how these cannot overwrite doctor's advices. The claims made by the sellers are horrific, giving personal evidences of miracles, and praising their products to the Heavens. The harm done to individuals can be dire. And how do we make police reports against friends and relatives because the sellers are usually friends and relatives since it's a direct selling scheme?!