To Nursery or Not To Nursery

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Asyik-asyik fikir pasal duit. Sekarang isu rumahtangga adalah; nak hantar sofeah ke nursery ataupun tidak. Bukanlah tak mampu, tapi sekarang punya arrangement jauh lebih jimat. Mak datang rumah pagi, sign-in, salin baju nanny dia, jaga fea and then pukul 6 petang saya dan isteri balik dan mak boleh salin pakaian dia and sign-out.

Banyak benda boleh buat dengan duit lebihan yang diguna untuk bayar nursery. But then, nursery ni elok, facilities memang top notch, fee memang jauh lebih murah berbanding standard yang diberi.

Lepas tu, diorang ni ada limited space untuk baby and setelah meletakkan nama fea dalam waiting list untuk 3 bulan, diorang dah ada ruang untuk fea. Also, mengikut kata owner tu, sekarang ni ada one batch of 6 months old babies - isteri suka sebab dia kata nanti diorang ni grow up together lepas tu akan ada adventure together macam rugrats. Merepek.


Owh itulah dia hakikat kehidupan. Terlalu banyak pilihan terlalu kurang sumber.

Money and...How Did We End Up Here?

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Me and wife used to have no money and no income. We learned to cope with it by, you know, mooching off my in-laws, living with them and what not. But, we weren't comfortable.

We had to make do with whatever money we have. But since I st
arted working (given that the pay was pretty good) we saved here and there so that we can live on our own without needing to mooch off no one. But still we had to borrow from my little sister (who is still studying) just to make ends meet for a couple of month. Sad!!!

Of course, some things we just can't let go. We had to "borrow" my in-laws' car for awhile till we get enough money to actually buy our own. Which by the way, took a lot of maintaining so even though we borrowed t
he car, it wasn't cheap. We also had to "borrow" my father in-law's cheque book so that we could buy a refrigerator (I pay him back monthly, don't worry).

Since our monthly rent payment is quite steep for people who
does not have a lot of income, we really had to save a lot - and subsequently ignore of a lot of our desires (suppress is more like it...I would cry inside).

The worst of our worries were for our baby. Back then we planned and planned but it seems that everything is off budget. I thought dealing with money in life would be easy. I was mistaken. Money is cruel and life won't make things easy for you. Huh.
But! Thanks to the internet and all its glory...we saved quite a lot - especially on baby stuff. Okay buying furniture and all wasn't easy. We had to travel near and far (around Klang Valley) to get the right product at the appropriate price. My wife was pregnant but she braved through every furniture store (sitting on comfortable pricey couches along the way) just so she can accompany me (or else she would have to do nothing at home that has no furniture - nor do we have TV back then).

So anyway, back to that internet thingy. Since we wanted the best for our baby, but our income would only buy her crap, we had to turn to the internet to get the best...but cheaper. Sure some stuff are second hand, but, if you search thoroughly enough, you can get the best second item money can buy
. Plus, our child wouldn't know if it's second hand or not anyway.

But seriously, people know how to take care of their stuff.
So if we really find a good one at a cheap price why not right? I would say, thanks to my wife's persistent blog hopping and forum threading efforts, we saved quite a lot. For a new family, saving money is probably the best thing to do.
A sterilizer that would normally cost RM400 was purchased at RM150 plus a bottle warmer! A play gym that would usually cost around RM359, costs RM100!! Her storage bottl
es which market price would be priced at around RM60 a box, we got for RM25!!! But best of all, a Quinny Zapp stroller that would cost around RM1200 at mothercare (standard price) we got for RM800 in Germany! And it's brand new! (thanks eBay and your majestic ability to lower prices for low income earners like me and my wife).

Those are just some of our fortunate purchases which all and all kept our budget pretty clean which leaves room for our dream item. Yes, finally after months of waiting and countless hours planning, searching and picking the perfect one, we have been able to purchase (oh by the way this thing moves people places and makes things easier for me and my wife)...









A walker! Look at her. So
happy in her walker. Did i say people? I meant babies. It moves babies around. We don't need to carry her all the time when she's bored of just laying on the ground.


Oh and yeah we also bought a car for us...





Since Hyundai have this offer for their cars we thought, why not? Getz is bigger than a Kelisa. The 2008 model looks nice. It did win tons of awards. Its performance is said to be top notched (by car reviewers including top gear). Its safety receives 4 Star rating and it has a 3 deck compartment at the back! (which influenced our decision a lot more than those other stuff ever could). Oh and there was a RM9,000 discount. Cool.


Yes this is my car on display. That lady back there is my personal assistant. We didn't get a proper license plate because Hyundai said we had to pay more for it (RM7000). If you don't know that I'm kidding then you'd better go for a check up. But the color is the same.