CNY is coming! Hide!

*Enters panic and crisis mode*

2014 Christmas had seen me indifferent, and I'm no feeling Chinese New Year either :( it's just 10 days away and I'm starting to panic a few days ago. It has largely to do with food.

While days off from work is always, always good, I can't stomach the thought of having the same food (puddings and turnip cakes and etc) for more than 2 days. The holiday coincided with weekend so that's a great 5 day long thing this year. More shops open on New Year than before but - you guessed it - people will flock there and they'll charge more than usual - pretty much the type of food you have on V Day when you dine out - much more pricey and quality had gone downhill.

After some thought I decided to tell my family the biggest source of panic is food. Supermarkets hardly gets a restock on the first two days...it's no surprise. And I'm super, duper panic if we run out of fresh food / food of variety. With that in mind, I've decided to keep a few things in the house to keep things interesting...I'd have instant oatmeal for a change, just to have a switch in palate, if things get desperate. I'd eat tinned food or granola bars, or plain boiled eggs with bread (if there is) if I need to. There will need to be a few things around the house to spice things up - atm I'm thinking more along the lines of dumplings with soup, instant noodles (there's enough stock for 3 persons...but 5 days? hmmm), frozen processed food (how sad), lots of greens and fruits.

Ideally I want to have lots of different food in the freezer but our small freezer just doesn't cut it, there's no way to get a bigger one giving the size of the house vs the size of most folks' house in this city. When I have my freezer one day (instead of mom being in charge...), I'd do a deep clean of that and toss out every unused thing. Now everything's in there and you just can't "see" the potential space that can be freed up to do lots of other things, yet she kept telling me there's no space for more food when I try to bring in some!

If you're reading this, I'd like to know how do you cope with the fear of not having enough food?

10 NSDs and financial goals update

Achieved 10 NSDs as of today. Could have been 2 more days but mom was sick so I had to buy dinner for her and lunch myself since she didn't feel well enough to cook anything. I'll have a couple more NSDs before the end of month so looks like I would be able to achieve my monthly financial goal.

One of my financial goals (HERE) was to make extra income (2-3k) per month and with a little luck, I made it this month! Could have made more than that but I had been sitting on a side-hustle forever and not starting it. Must get that one started this week! If I added in the gifts I received this month from a side-hustle event, the total amount would double the said figure. But, gifts are gifts (can't be cashed in unless I sell them).

I talked about putting away funds to an investment account a while ago, well I popped by the bank last week and they were having an offer (no money rebate, though, just waiving *some* of the transaction fees) but I decided to wait for the next round of offer, probably later in this year. The market is not at its lowest moment right now and the banks are fully saturated with money from everyone...it's not like a once-in-a-century kind of deal so this can wait...although the earlier I invest, the better it will be.

Each penny has been tracked this month and so far the numbers looked OK. I broke the clothing ban - because I had a gift card to spend...I tried looking for something that can be topped up with the least amount of cash as possible but the brands (that site kind of suck to be honest, but I was gifted with the card so no choice) they stock there hardly fit the "quality" or "durability" bill, so I ended up shelving out extra money to get something that should last twice as long as the cheapo stuff. It fits OK but I felt kind of "cheated" by the thought of a gift card, you know...

As of today (22/01/2015), I've spent 52.23% of my monthly budget (excluding shopping for personal care items), or 64.4% if it's also factored in (I didn't set a budget for those this month). A few things to note though, since DB is working on weekends this month so we've been meeting less and less meals out; no great movies on lately so I haven't spent a dime on entertainment budget. I also put in "networking or work related expenses" in my monthly budget but IRL I'd like to leave them untouched and so it is this month! However, next month the spending on work related matters would be different as Chinese New Year kicks in...

Next week we will see a medical expense coming up, so other than that my wallet should have continuous moment of peace. Stay tuned.

2015 Family/Friends goals; Career goals

Family & Friends goals:

1. Take parents to travel and experience more
2. Continue being good to those family members who are good (aka get over the black sheeps)
3. Reconnect with friends by texting more and meet up occasionally

Goal (1) will be accomplished, depending on the time that my dad can walk away from the office, be it long or short, we are definitely going on a trip. If we're going on a long trip then I'll have to do more planning work; if it's short trip then I'll just sign everyone up on a decent tour so I don't need to worry about anything, and my parents would feel more comfy sitting on a coach as well.

Basically I've come to terms with goal (2) that there's always some black blood in the family and that nothing can be done to mend these fragile and broken relationships, plus it isn't like I'm the only grown-up to think about this, every other person has their responsibility in this too. 

Goal (3): o be honest I quite enjoy having weekend off and I try not to schedule many meetups with friends over the past year, instead I chose to spend more time with my parents. However there will always a few friends that I'd meet from time to time, I just need to remember to text them more.

Career goals:

1. Limit occasions of official lunches/farewells unless attendance is an absolute must, and when needed be, socialize and be present
2. Remain cordial, maintain a cordial, purposed and respectful distance with others. Avoid being too friendly with anyone, and stay away from gossip-mongers at work
3. Have outfit planned out for the week every Sunday
4. Consider taking a masters degree

Not much to say about these, just to keep working quietly and get through each day with some sanity (hence I bring my brown bag and eat alone).