Bending The Expenses Of The Family

photo by: Rainbow Colorz

There are two options to get extra money. [1] Get it more by part-time jobs or businesses and [2] Bending the expenses of the family. Considering taking part-time job might consume our valued time and part-time business needs initial capital to setup. So we struck off the number [1] and we went for number [2]. All we had to do was to reduce our monthly expenses. It sounded simple. But when it came to implementation, it really got on our nerves.

First of all, we set a financial goal to save money, RM12000 in 18 month. As calculated, we had to save RM666.67 for 18 months and stopped doing unnecessary activities.Yes,  I'd really hate to make a sudden halt to our holier-than-thou Macdonald enthusiasm, our movie DVDs cravings, and cheap-and-take-it-for-granted items of Pasar malam. 

We had to make several sacrifices. No more weekend breakfast at On The Run. No more wasting RM10 on washing car at Car Auto Restoration. Don't even think about buying your favorite Coca-Cola Canvas Poster at Bazaar Shah Alam. Say goodbye to your wishlist for 18 months.

During 18 month, we faced a lot of obstacles. Most of the weeks, we had budget blown out and unexpected expenses occurred all of a sudden. Our dapur broke, we need buy the new one. Our rooftop leaking, we have to wage someone to fix this. The sliding door which is our main entrance right now had a problem, we need replace the rail as well as the roller. 

To cover the expenses, we were forced to use our own budgeted office allowance.(We set our own office allowance, portioned by every week. It felt like schoolboy who got pocket money from his parent, where he received RM10 every week and went to school every day. Apparently, this concept works well with us). 

The most challenging part was when Amirul felt sick and his illness was quite serious. Well, meeting with doctor became more frequent and the illness still didn't relieved. Eventually, we turned to child expert, which cost us dearly. Consequently, our planned budget had blown out and our employee medical benefit had reached the limit, it left us with no choice but to withdraw our savings that month. So we determined ourselves to save extra for the next month. 

Most of the readers knew the concept of pay yourself first. We implemented the theory into practice. What we did was doing immediate transfer to our ASB account as soon we got our monthly salary credited so that we couldn't even get to smell the money. That's the priority step we've taken.

As a conclusion, we managed to reach our goal, the arrow hit the bull's eye. Hence, it was difficult to swim across the river of daily temptations without getting caught by the strong flow. In a period of 18 months, it's a little heartbreak just to watch things we want behind glass of boutique and not to buy it.  


Read further of WikiHow: How to Save Money 

Thanks for the Support

Alhamdulillah ,for this pass few weeks, our visitors, uniques, comments were increasing. Tapi xder la hebat mner pun kalu nk compare to other bloggers. Tapi at least xder la berblog dan syok sdn kan.. huhuh. Its really encourage us to write more and share more on parenting matters.

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Breastfeeding Lesson : Kempen Penyusuan Susu Ibu "Bonding You and Baby"

Remember that I'd attended breastfeeding campaign last 2 weeks at AU3, Ulu Klang. After sharing all the photos taken during the event, now i would like to share what I'd gained during the event. Besides meeting with Wardina Safiyyah, the talks content really gave me inspiration to breastfeed for my 2nd baby.

# 1 Talk - Penyusuan Susu Ibu serta demonstrasi latihan Antenatal by Pn Ros Samad

During this session, Pn Ros emphasis on the benefits of breastfeeding in general. It countless as she claimed and the researcher still doing R&D about the benefits of breast milk. The ingredients inside the formula milk are not comparable to breast milk. Milk production company keep imitating the compositions of the breast milk and put in their products. However how its work within baby's body is still cannot be confirmed.

She explained all the benefits of breast milk to baby and the benefits of breastfeeding to mother which we can find in www or articles or blogs or books. She explained all those points in details and full on confident. She has long experienced in lactation counseling and you can contact her if you have breastfeeding problem.

After the talk, she demonstrate antenatal exercises. There were 8 exercises including stretching and breathing technique.

Hand Stretching

Stretching upper body

Luper aper nama exercise ni.. huhuh

Leg stretching

#2 Talk - Kepentingan Susu Ibu dan Kaitannya dari Perspecktif Psikologi by Pn Jamilah Hanum

Pn Jamilah stressed on relationship between the benefit of breastfeeding with children psychology. Among the important points she focused here were the natural bonding that created between mom and baby, cognitive development of the baby when they drink breast milk, mental health of the baby and the benefit of breastfeeding vs suckling of formula milk.

Natural Bonding between Mom & Baby

• Prolactin hormone which secreted from the body give calming effect to the mother. While Oxytocin hormone known as hormone of love strengthen mom and baby bonding.
• Skin-to-skin contact

Cognitive development when baby drink breast milk

• Enhance cognitive development of the children
• If they exclusive breastfeed, their IQ much better than formula feeding children

Mental Health

• Good mental health
• Behave and not hyperactive sangat.

Breastfeeding Vs Suckling

• Mengurangkan stress
• Increase milk production
• Comforting baby

#1 Dialogue Session - Mirwana

Mirwana

This dialogue is about father's role and thought on breastfeeding. They are new father and both wife's breastfeed their children. One thing that they really really agreed and support about breastfeeding was - can save a lot of MONEY. Husband always counting every cent that need to spend. Calculative poker.. uhuksss.

#2 Dialogue Session - Wardina Safiyyah

Saya jatuh cinta sama Wardina Safiyyah. When she talked about breastfeeding, no questions needed as she will explain everything. Eventho, she is not lactation counsellor, yet she managed to give a good infos and talk with confident about breastfeeding. She really do research and breastfeeding is one of her passion. She is a breastfeeding mom icon to me. She managed to breastfeed her children for 2 years.

The conclusion from Wardina

Me & Wardina Safiyyah - She told me that I'm looked young. uhukss.. Bangga jap

Note : If there is Breastfeeding Awareness among the mummies - Practice would be much easier - Breastfeeding would be Malaysian Culture

My pregnancy diary : 29 weeks pregnant

How my life's changing at 29 weeks pregnant

• I got new hobby. New addiction to Wii Fit. Deep breathing, tree position, and half moon position in yoga, steps for light aerobic, short distant in basic running, balancing my posture, stretching.. I like !!!
• Leg cramp surge. After no leg cramp nightmare for past few weeks, suddenly they strike me again few times this week. To overcome this, I add my calcium intake by taking 1 tablet of calcium.
• Back pain. How much i hate this. I need to put hot ointment to relief my pain. Guna la pati mustajab pasti mujarab.. huhuhuh
• No more scrubbing on my stretch mark area. Its a relief.. Alhamdulillah
• My hair looked shinier and healthier.
• Baby moving a lot. Geli la sometimes.. huhu
• I'd started unpacked Amirul's things for coming soon baby and I found unused and brand new clothes. Napkin clothes, towel, blanket and handmade swaddle clothes which I had pre-washed it and if not mistaken used only once. Yuhuuuu. Save more money for breast pump gadgets
• Already bought few of breast pump gadgets - Bumble Bee bottles
• Asked my colleague to sew nursing cover and baby sling. Can't wait to have them. Its custom made and cheap.. I like !!!!
  
• Hubby wifey relationship still ok and smooth.. uhuksss

Read about your pregnancy week calender via BabyCenter and Parenting.com

If you want to read about your baby development, click here

If you want to start your exercise regime, read here