Debt-free is possible?

Salam,

Yesterday I talked about living in debts. I hate to live in debts but it's just so inevitable in this modern days. So.........is it possible to live debt-free? People who have simple life will say that it's not a myth and can be done. REALLY?

Here are some good suggestions that I found from one website. We might be able to practice at least some of . the ideas:

1. Budget – Living without debt means that you must stay within the limits of your budget. It’s important to get this right. Otherwise you may end up short at the end of the month, which will send you back to the lenders.

-my comment: we've tried to stay within our budget every month and it seems to help a lot.


2. Plan – Once you have your budget, you can use it to plan in advance for major purchases. Say you’re planning to buy a new car. Normally, you would take out a loan to buy the car and spend the next five years paying it off. You cannot do that if you’re going to live debt-free. Before you buy the car, you will have to save up the money. This is why you must plan in advance.

-my comment: buying a bigger is in fact in our list this year. I've been saving some money to at least pay huge amount of money for the car but I guess with the price of the cars in Malaysia, we still need to take a loan. Maybe we just have to choose wisely.

3. Emergency fund – Even the best planning cannot predict emergency expenses. If your boiler breaks in January, you cannot spend the next three months saving up to buy a new one. Your family will freeze. It’s vital to have some money set aside for emergencies. Don’t be tempted to dip into the fund unless it’s a true emergency.

-my comment: we do have an emergency fund but somehow we need to use the money and then we are back to square one where we have to start saving again.

4. Sacrifice – Living without debt means having to make some sacrifices. The first thing that will have to go is instant gratification. Thanks to cheap credit, people are used to getting what they want, when they want it. It’s easy to hand over a credit card and worry about the bill later. If you’re going to live without borrowing, you will have to wait to make that purchase.

-my comment: it's not easy but we feel so happy if we can sacrifice our desire first to avoid from having more debts.

5. Focus – Everywhere you look, people are buying the latest gadgets, the trendiest clothes, the newest cars. Creditors are eager to lend you the money to buy these things. It will take a lot of will-power and self-control to resist the temptation to buy now and pay later. You have to stay focused on your goal of being debt-free.

-my comment: this is so true. It's not easy to close one eye or actually both eyes on the things like the latest gadgets and the trendiest things other people have that we don't have. It's not that we don't have the money but we don't see the importance of having those gadgets unless they are important in our jobs.

Source: FROM HERE

6- Lead a simple life and smile to those people who like to brag about their life but the truth is they are living with tons of debts. (this is my own point)


So, what do you think? Is it possible to live debt-free? Do you want to keep paying for debts even after you retired? What about the thought of burdening your children with your debts? Why should they pay for our debts when we are the ones who chose to have the debts?

In debts.

Salam,

You want to have comfortable life so you apply for a loan; housing ,car and sometimes personal loan. The problem is to pay back what you have taken. Sometimes all the loans get out of hand. What do you do? Borrow somewhere else? Or sell whatever you can sell? Some people borrow from the loan shark and put their family's life in danger. Some borrow from family members and pretend to forget to pay it back.

How I wish to live freely without any debts. I don't want to be so rich but just to have the freedom in using my money without worrying about paying any debts to a bank or to others.

To All FTWM: Let's find time to cook.

Salam,

Do you normally buy food from outside for dinner? Do you always find that you don't have time to prepare or cook for dinner? Do you always say that you are too tired to cook?WELL............................I don't want to be hypocrite to say that I don't do those things too. There are sometimes when I feel too tired after a long day at work and choose to buy food from outside. BUT after some time, I feel bored of the food as I realize that the price is increasing and the quality of the food is not getting better.

So, I try to do certain things to ensure that I can prepare some simple food at least for dinner during the week days. These simple things help to save some time in the kitchen and you don't really have to like a "Masterchef" just to prepare a nice and delicious dish for your family.

HOW TO PREPARE/COOK FOOD AFTER YOU COME BACK FROM WORK:

1- Plan ahead the menu for a- 5- days. 
    Make sure  you have to diversify the food to encourage your kids to eat. For example, Monday: Chicken Curry, Tuesday: Omellette and Fried Veges, Wednesday: Beef Soup etc.

2- Prepare the ingredients ahead.
    It's easier  if you already blend, chop or at least have the raw ingredients like garlic, ginger and onion ready in your fridge. Another thing is to put enough portion of chicken in a tray or beef that you want to cook for a dish in your freezer. 

3- Keep some sauces, herbs, spices and other condiments handy in your kitchen.
    In Asian kitchen, it's a must to have soy sauce, chilli sauce, tomato sauce, fish sauce and others to add the flavour to our dish. Adding some of those can enhance your cooking too.

4- Keep pasta ready in your cupboard.
    It's very easy to prepare a quick pasta dish for children especially when you use ready made sauce or the canned mushroom soup. You just need 2 pieces of chicken or the frozen chicken balls (I love chicken balls from Ayamas), some vegetables, garlic, water and some pepper. 

5-Marinate the chicken, fish or beef at night and keep them in the fridge in the morning.
   When you come back from work, you don't need to thaw them and the cooking process can be cut into half.

6- Buy the ready made paste.
    I love to use the ready made Tom Yam paste or Tandoori powder. They come in so handy because I only need 30 minutes to prepare a quick tomyam and 45 minutes to prepare Chicken Tandoori.

I guess those are some the tips that I can share here. Hopefully they can help to inspire all mommies to cook even though they are busy with their career. The satisfaction of preparing the food for your family on your own is so priceless and it can help us to stay within our monthly budget. As doctors always suggest healthy eating, we can ensure that our family members will eat healthy food by preparing the food. Let's start NOW!

p/s: arwah mak saya ada berpesan yg air tangan isteri dan ibu itu lebih baik untuk menambat hati ahli keluarga dan mengeratkan kasih sayang.

Taekwondo or Swimming lesson?

Salam,

My elder daughter is interested to join the Taekwondo class in her school. My hubby and I don't have any objection as both of us were actively involved in Taekwondo when we were in school and in university. However, I also want her to learn swimming as well. So, we haven't really decided which is the extra activity for her. We can't afford to send her to take both lessons as we are expecting our third child by June. Letting her to join Taekwondo means extra expenses for that. But we want her to be tougher physically as she is too feminine. As for other lesson like learning how to recite Iqra', I'm teaching both my daughters at home after Maghrib prayer and we think it's okay for now. Maybe when I can't find time to teach them maybe we have to send them somewhere.

Which lesson is better?

Ombak Rindu versi taubat. (BM entry)

Salam,

Secret Garden.

Salam,

As promised, I'll share a little bit about what we just discovered in One Utama, Bandar Utama. Maybe other people know about this, but not us. At first we discovered the Rainforest in the middle of the building. Then, we discovered the Secret Garden on the rooftop and the admission is FREE! (yup, this is very since normally we have to pay when we want to get in a garden except for public garden).

My initial plan just to bring out kids for walk in a shopping mall. We didn't expect to see something different. It was nice to see the twist because we are tired of seeing only the shops in a shopping mall. We had nice photo shoots with our not-DSLR-camera. hehe. I enjoyed being the photographer using my hubby and my kids as my subjects. Of course when we walked around the garden, we had some ideas for our dream garden for our house.

Now, I'll let the photos to tell the rest of the stories. So, enjoy the scenery............

The Rainforest.

On the bridge (the top floor)

Can you read the rules?

Nice?

2 models; 2 different personalities

Can you identify some of the plants?

Notice the pink pineapple?

After the tour in the secret garden, we had lunch and we headed home as we we were already tired of walking. BUT, before we could find our car in the car park, we were lost in OU as it's quite big and we couldn't remember exactly the exact place of where we parked our car! So, we ended up went in a circle before we could relocate our car. Finally, after much fuss from the kids who were tired, my hubby became the HERO of the day. He was somehow mad with me for not remembering the shops where we first came up from the car park. I guess the next time, I ask him out to OU, he will reject the suggestion. huhu.

Teaser: Rainforest and Secret Garden in a shopping mall.

Do you know that you don't have to go so far away to see a rainforest and a secret garden even when you live in the heart of a city? 

Where is it? Is it real?

I'll give the answers in tomorrow's entry and also let you see some photos of the places.