5 ways on how to avoid overspending during the holidays

The holidays have arrived once again.  People are no doubt going to riot throught malls for their last-minute Christmas shopping.  It is easy to get swayed by the spirit of gratitude and you buy gifts and new anything this time of the year, but what about what happens afterwards?  Will you soak in depression once you realize that you're so broke?  Worry not, because here are the best five ways that you can avoid spending all of your money:

1) The naughty and Nice List

This isn't to determine who gets something (or nothing) from you - although that helps a bit too in terms of prioritizing the people who you really want to spend your money on - it works for actually making a list.  Whether you have a big budget or not, put it on the list and STICK TO IT. Mark your budget it in red so you'll alway be reminded that it's all you have.  Once your list is ready, keep it in your pocket, yout phone or your wallet.  Always look at it wheever you are about to buy something you know isn't  in your list.  Remind yourself that you're supposed to be a good gift giver, not really Santa.

2) Gifts from the Heart (and Hands)

Who says personalized gifts are irrelebant?  The best gifts are still the ones you made yourself. If you've got time a few days before a supposed Christmas party or reunion, try to whip up something artsy or homemade, something that will significantly lower your Christmas shopping costs.

3) Put your card in a sock

Not a Christmas card or a gift tag, but your credit card . The point is to keep it safely tucked away when you're shopping. People get drowned in debt because they use their credit cards when shopping.  If you use the little piece of plastic to buy all your Christmas needs, you might find yourself still paying for the debt even two to three Christmases in the future.

4) Everyone gets something

If you're the type who wants to make sure that everyone you know needs to have something from you this Christmas, then it's time to shy away from bargain deals - it's time to embrace them.  Especially when you are buying time and you have a small budget, you can try buying a bulk of less pricey giveaways rather than buying everyone in your list an individual gift.  Buy something that people will remember you by, like a bunch of pens or a batch of cookies or chocolates for everyone.

5) Resist your temptations

Even if you're got everything on a budget, you'll fall dangerously close to still overspending if you spot something that YOU want for yourself. You'll make silly excuses like "friendship accessories" or "bestie4life" as a reason to buy the same gift just for yourself.  Remember that this is the season for giving gifts to others, not yourself.

It's too late to start saving now, so a good piece of advice for next year is to save well before the Christmas rush begins.  Other than that, keep these things in mind and you'll definitely start the new year with a smile on your face and a not-so-empty pocket. 

Ang Chow chicken

Honestly I never tasted any ang chow cooked dishes till in my late 20s.  To me, those meats in red colour wine scared the hell out of me.  Look like blood!  Lol!

So I never tasted it till I met my Foochow husband and he introduced me to few Foochow dishes.  And ang chow pork belly is one of them.  It is a Foochow dish if I am not wrong!!  Because in Kuching, we could get ang chow dishes every where, and those who cook them are of other dialects!

Anyway, I learnt to cook this dish from my mother-in-law and slowly and bit by bit, I learn to eat and acquire the taste of ang chow. I ever tasted ang chow chicken, ang chow pork belly and ang chow pork ribs. Ang chow is the residue of the fermented red rice wine.  I understand that it is good to reduce triglycerides and cholesterol.

Ang Chow chicken recipe

Ingredients:

Half chicken chopped into smaller pieces

50g ginger, sliced

3 - 4 tbsp ang chow

150ml water (can substitute with red wine)

Salt to taste

Sesame oil

Method:

1. Heat up few tbsp of sesame oil in a wok.  Once it turns smoky, add in sliced ginger.  Fry till fragrant.

2. Add in the chicken meat.  Keep stirring and add in 3 - 4 tbsp ang chow, water and salt to taste.

Simple right?  Simple than preparing and cooking Hakka Kacangma!  *wink*

Collagen drinks to beautiful skin

Everyone knows the benefit of collagen to your skin. It reduces fine lines and wrinkles, improve elasticity and brighten up skin tone and pigmentation. Your hair and nails will grow thicker and more beautiful as well.

RM132 per pack of 10 bottles

For this Christmas, I am pampering myself to few sets of collagen drinks from Nn Premium White. This drink with breakthrough technology from France and Japan, is clinically tested with marine collagen, glutathione and ceramide. For first 2 weeks, I need to drink 1 bottle before sleep and thereafter take one bottle every alternate days. Very easy to take as it is in lychee flavour.

RM5.65 per bottle (average)

I started my first drink tonight. So let see to fairer and glowing skin for this festive season. :)

Quick food save kitchen times

It helps to heat up cooked food and lessen times in kitchen when you have young children at home.  With demanding baby and attention-crazed older kids, sometimes you feel like you have to divide your body and soul into few parts to entertain your kids.  And it is not enough.  You are down with stress and having back and shoulder aches and headaches and sometimes you just cannot rest for even a second.  So I have come up to a conclusion that I would have a off day on Sunday.  *wink*

But if I do cook on Sunday, I will whip up simple and quick meal to save times in the kitchen.  And I also love those frozen dishes that I stored in containers in the feezer.  Some day I can just thaw and heat them up when I running out of time to prepare and cook.

I learnt this keeping and freezing method from my MIL.  She used to cook and bring over some dishes such as taw yew bak, rendang and vinegar pork trotters when we stayed in Kuching. THese food will be kept in few food containers.  That time I did not cook much so it was a blessing to taste her homecooked food once a while. 

Now that I cook more and we are staying in Sibu, she still sent some frozen cooked food but not so frequent.  Just last week, she cooked some rendang and pansuh and brought few grams of black dabai for us.

I love her rendang and I have to say my MIL's rendang is the best I ever tasted.  For someone who does not eat beef and not to say, rendang, my MIL has good cooking skill when it comes to rendang.

I never like chicken pansuh because mostly cooked with potato leaves but my MIL did not use those leaves for her pansuh.  She added bunga kantan and I love it.  Honestly I enjoyed her chicken pansuh very much.  The taste and smell were not so overwhelmingly.

Thank you mummy for the yummy dishes!

Food and fun on weekend

I love my weekends. Because everyone gets together and doing things together.  Usually hubby works on almost every Saturday but since this month, he has not been going to office on Saturday.  Already year end, he said.

We make it a point to have breakfast outside on weekend since I cook breakfast almost every weekday.

Last weekend is nothing exceptional.  Again we had of breakfast in Cafe-Cafe, two Saturdays in a row.  Lol!  Heard from my sis that they had opened their new outlet in Kuching too.

We tried something different last week.  Hubby and I shared its ikan bilis porridge and silky tofu with century eggs.  The porridge is very tasty with shredded chicken and I love its crispy fried anchovies.

The kids have their usual golden syrup pancake while I opt for its banana and peanut butter pancake.  Not bad but I still like the original golden syrup pancake.

On Sunday morning we had breakfast in Rejang Park and I ordered fried mihun and tapau some crispy vegetable fritters from a cafe (opposite Michael's Cottage).  I love the fried mihun as they added some sambal into the fried mihun. 

Last night we brought the kids to the UK Fun Fair at the bay next to Kolej Laila Taib.  It was the same as the one in MJC Kuching.  We wanted to go to the one opposite Wisma Sanyan but heard it was jammed and packed, so we decided to go to this UK Fun Fair instead.

When we reached there around 7pm, it was not packed so we have most of the rides for ourselves.  By the time we finished after an hour later, the crowds started to come.

 The last game that the kids played was this giant slide where they have to climb up and slide down.  At first the boy did not dare to climb up so the sister was at the top first and have to wait and cheer him up.  How thoughtful of the sister to wait and hold out her hand to the brother?

 And they slided down together.  They up and down few times till they were exhausted.



After the fun fair, hubby brought us to the town area to witness the outdoor Christmas trees.  Indeed it was very colourful and bright at night.  But again, the jam was there and we were stuck with the other cars who also slow down to catch glimpse of the trees.

 There were some more near to Wisma Sanyan but only able to see those near to the road.  Hope one evening we will be able to walk around the Sanyan park and enjoy those trees one by one.

School holiday activities: Go to the library

My girl has been a bookworm since the day she learnt to write and read. She can recognised alphabets at age of 1 and learn to read simple words before 2. I remember on her 3rd birthday, she asked for books when we asked her what present she wanted. Since then, I bought books for her. She read mostly English but slowly I added BM and Chinese for her but still, her interest is more on English. She enjoys books on nature, princesses fiction.

It is high time for my girl to visit the library over here.  Time to teach her to be responsible for her books and expose her to more genre of literature. Since the brother is recuperating from his injury in hometown, it was more relaxing to bring my girl.  I cannot imagine what would my boy do in the library.  She has been to library few times but never obtained her library card.  The grandma used to be a librarian in Kapit. I brought her to the Public Library on Wednesday morning.  Same time I wanted to check out on the books there. 

I remember when I were in my secondary school in Kuching, I used to went to the KMC Library in Jln P. Ramlee and Civic Centre Library to go through some references.  Everyone is very well-mannered even the young children.  No sound at all.  It freaked me a little that time because basically you cannot hear a single sound other than your breathing.  >_< 

As for Sibu library, it was not that quiet but I do not mind the children talking in their seats as long they are not too much.  Some more it is coincident that there were 2 reporters (I assume they are reporters) did some interview and took photos of the surrounding.  And guess what??  Me and my girl were the models because we coincidently registered ourselves and taking books out.  So the girl has to serve us while the reporters took some shots.  Hmm, I wonder which publication is it??  *wink*

Okay, before all that, we had our breakfast first in Aloha coffee shop.  I tried its mee suah for the first time.  The taste is okay.  RM6.50 per bowl.  I could get a nicer one from other place at RM6.00. 

The view from opposite side of the road. 

The registration fee is RM9.00 and every year renewable at RM3.00.  We can borrow up to 5 books at a time and must return within 2 weeks or penalty will be imposed.  We did not get our library cards as the printer was out of order so we had a manual receipts instead.  We did take our photos in the photography room.  Hmm, I do not remember I did that back in Kuching then. 

The children section is on ground floor, so I left my girl to check out the books while I went to 1st floor to check on the books.

The books are rather old there.  Not many books of my choice, but to encourage my girl and to set as a good example, I also registered for a card and borrowed 2 novels.  My girl borrowed 4 books herself. 

Okay, time to enjoy our books!!  Happy weekend, guys!

New look

Do you like my blog's new top banner??  What do you think?  And I also change my profile picture.  I am bored with those roses picture as I have it since the very first day I created this blog back in November 2007. Wow ! It has been 6 years now. I never changed my template colour, banner and profile picture throughout the years. As much as I love roses, I think my blogger friends and readers are bored by the old look and picture, if not then, it should be by now.  Lol!

Most blogger friends know how I look like so there is nothing to hide by showing my profile pic.*wink*

Just few days ago I change the template colour.  From green to light blue.  Some commented on the new colour, thanks for the positive comments. I like it, make my blog looks fresher.  Slowly I will add more features (I hope) to enhance my blog's attractiveness.  *wink*

New year is coming soon.  So it is just the right time for all those changes.