Friday, May 13, 2016

Adapting our wallet

H and I got back for good last October. We lived a nomadic life until early March this year because I hadn't started working until mid March. So it was either Puchong or Ipoh or Penang (boleh kira dengan jari berapa kali balik Penang). Since most of the time we stayed with our parents, we didn't do much grocery shopping ourselves (in other words makan freeeee). Now that we've finally settled down in Penang, I have realised one thing (or two) about our spending, be it for food, housewares, babywares etc. If I were to put a positive tone to it, I'd say we are money savvy. But some might say we are just plain kedekut. Hahaha

Everytime we go on grocery shopping, we'll make sure nothing too expensive goes into the cart. We didn't buy seafood for two weeks in a row because we thought they were just too expensive. Udang XL (yang tak besar mana) is average RM 25-30 per kilo, one time we saw sotong for RM 29.90 per kilo. Sanggup tak beli walaupun dah berminggu tak makan seafood. Now, money-savvy or kedekut?

The thing is our brains have not properly adjusted to the RMs. We used to buy groceries for much less in the UK that we couldn't help but to compare the prices here and there. For example, 2 pint (1.14 L) milk in the UK cost 75p (75 sen) and here it costs almost RM 8. Now don't convert between GBP and RM because Britons earn the same amount of pay as we do here, on average. Let say engineers get a basic  of RM3000, diorang pun dapat GBP3000. Cuma bile bab makan, memang murah amat. Weekly groceries (half full trolley) there costed us around £15. Here, dalam RM 150. *cries* That's why sometimes our brains refrain us from buying sebab rasa it's not worth it, but seriously we need to tune our brains back to the 'Boleh Land'.

Our second problem is that we run a business on discounted items. So our brains are trained to look for/buy stuff only if they are on discounts. Most of the times, when we plan on buying something, we end up not buying it after we see the price tag. We'll go like, 'Takpelah tunggu die discount dulu'. And we never bought it.....either because the item is NEVER on sale or we simply forget that we need it. For example, we were so in need of an extra sofa/chair for the living room because the one we bought from UK, let's just say, nice to see, not so nice to sit on to watch TV haha. Plus it is just a 3-seater sofa, we need to have more! For months we put off buying new one because after once or twice we went to survey on them, we gave up. Nak yang cantik, selesa, tahan lama tapi nak yg murah. How lah? Eventually, we ended up buying another 3-seater sofa yang super comfy (so in love with it) just two days before we organised a small dinner party at our place. Kalau dah terpaksa tu, semua terus OK je lol. 

Now that a baby is on the way, we need adjust and adapt to family life in Malaysia pronto! Nanti kesian baby, semua benda kena catu sebab mom and dad asyik nak tunggu sale baru nak beli benda, ihiks. 

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Our 3rd anniversary

Scratch that 'nothing fancy planned this year' on my previous post. 

We had a nice time-out on our anniversary last week. At noon on 26 April, H booked a room at Holiday Inn Penang and off we checked in right after work. Perk of living on an island :) Since H said he never drove to Batu Feringghi via Balik Pulau, it was the perfect time to do it that day. OK that'll be the first and the last time, because the road was very challenging at times and obviously it took longer to reach because of the hilly road. The good thing was, H got to feast on a RM 60 durian (now I can't remember which one he bought). That hantu durian I tell you, he can't stand the sight of durian tepi jalan, mesti nak berhenti.

We made full use of the 14 hours we had there. Soon after we checked in, H took a dip in the sea then in the pool, while I made myself busy taking photos and observing people. We then went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner (first time for both of us). All this while we went to HRC just so H could add on his HRC t-shirt collection from the places we traveled (no he's not getting one from Penang, or even KL lol). Surprisingly, it was H who suggested we had dinner there, and boy was it a good choice. We loved the food and the waiter was so helpful in suggesting the menus. 

After dinner, H had a foot massage. It was 11.30 pm when he finished and I was supposed to have my manicure but too bad shops were closing and no one wanted to take last minute customer :( So I can say, this year's anniversary, H got treated the most :D 

But it was ever so easy to please me. Staying in a hotel for one night is already a treat for me. I have always loved hotels since I was a kid, following my dad around when he had outstation meetings. He once told me his staff was so nervous about booking his hotel room because they knew I could make a fuss if I didn't like it. 

H feasted on durians, I feasted on the breakfast buffet spread. Fair and square :) Then it was time to check out since I got doctor's appointment that morning and then off to work. 

Short and perfect anniversary celebration, it was. 




I recommend the HRC tangy chicken wings and Strawberry Basil mocktail. They are so good!