Nov 27, 2014

A home is a wonderful thing

By that I don't only mean owning a home is a wonderful thing (mortgage aside), but when life gets tough, I can't wait to dash home after work and wait for dinner. I'm very grateful for my parents who never fail to put food on the table. There's absolutely no place I want to be except home, after work. All the chaos and hustle bustle out there just don't compete. The older I grow, the less I appreciate crowds and noise. 

My colleague seems to be getting worse, and he IS still coughing frequently next to me. My symptoms are slowly improving, I will make another trip to the doctor's tomorrow to get rid of the bug completely. I gave up a free movie night yesterday because the show time was rather late and I don't want to lose any sleep. I've learned in recent years: nothing is worth losing sleep for!

Some highlight of this week: I bought a body pocket (lingerie-like) for traveling in June and the zipper broke when I busted it out to use in my weekend getaway early this month. I was kinda disappointed to be "stood up" during the morning when I'm about to leave the house! I used it to keep my travel documents, cards and money safe under my T-shirt. It was not cheap, but it wasn't expensive either, but it shouldn't break after my 2-week trip to the US! Now, imagine if it broke during the middle of the trip? It'll be a nightmare. Now, I wrote to the manufacturer (not the seller - I got it at some fancy grocery store that has a nice selection of travel accessories) last Saturday, someone called me yesterday and said even though the product is not bought via their retail store (vs some distributor where I bought from), they are fine with taking up this case. I sent them pictures of the broken zipper. And to follow-up, they asked if I'd like a replacement or a discount in future when shopping at their store. I think I will choose the latter as I'm quite sure the pocket will break the same way it did, and other "styles" available are not that discreet (the straps are not lingerie-like so it's obvious even after putting clothes on).

A little lesson learned here is ALWAYS, ALWAYS keep the receipt no matter where you bought at. Buying directly from the manufacturer/producer instead of some distributor store will probably give you better warranty and after-sale service. I don't know why it took me so long to realize that sometimes convenience does take away some intangible benefits.

[Edit: I told them I'd take the discount and it's a mere 10% off the next purchase, expiring end of this year *sad* I might go and take a look and perhaps contemplate on a travel multi-national adaptor/plug. Or something else, or maybe nothing at all. It all depends on when I will feel like heading to the crowded store...]

Now let's revisit the weekly goals:

- Return merchandise to 2 retailers, obtain proof of postage for reimbursement
- Visit to the doc tomorrow Done, but another visit to doc tomorrow is needed
- Call up the clinic where I had blood test last week to see if the results came yet The results said negative.
- Track recent purchases with cashback site (after these are done, this will be the end of the online madness)
- Track cash out amount from cashback site
- Donate purged clothing items during weekend
- Fix dinner dates with a school friend who lives nearby Next Monday, I talked her into trying a restaurant that has a BOGOF offer, looking forward to it! This place is near where we both live so I did my best to make dining-out frugal!
- Go for a walk at the park
- Fix brunch date with a uni friend, fix a tea session with a guy friend on the same day, possibly dinner same night with one close relative (Squeezed onto the same day as another activity, see below. I'm going to forgo the rest of the dinner thing)
- Check with a uni friend to see how her house moving is going
- Contact a childhood friend to see how her leg is healing
- Consolidate a group order (list of items with specifics) for friends and arrange the money transfer
- Fix a day out with friend to go clothes shopping (I will abstain from this) I managed to squeeze this in after the brunch date with uni friend! So I don't have to spend extra day out and extra commute costs! Win-win!
- Apply hand cream before bed every night -- I do this almost everyday but not quite there yet. My finger just had a knife cut yesterday (slicing lemons! in the morning! without glasses on! the knife slipped.) and a little inflammation going on with my pinky. Not the greatest time, but I'll do what I can do.
- Apply body lotion/oil after shower every night -- 50/50. Mainly because the weather gets warmer this week, but it'll get much cooler next!
- Top-up transport stored-value card for next month's commute

Nov 25, 2014

Catching the bug, making use of the downtime

So I caught the flu bug rather inevitably (many, many are sick in the office and spreading germs knowingly without any sort of masks), getting sick disrupts my routine. I've a free movie night on Wednesday and I might have to give my tickets away and skip it altogether, we'll have to see. Then I have my work meeting today and being sick wasn't the greatest feeling before a major meeting! There's of course the visit to doctor's and taking medication, drowsy or not it'll mean more time for rest. When you have a family member who constantly leaves the TV (and the lights) on, it isn't a desirable environment to rest at all.

However, this is not the time to get irritated as it'll make things worse. This week will be all about resting, nursing back to health, and thinking about 2015.

I wrote about the credit card purchase "blips" last week. Those sort of stuff seemed to happen more and more, I recently ordered 5 items with the Single's Day discount but when they came, I liked none of it - what it meant was I had to pay for the return shipping to get my refund! These days shall STOP. I gave it a bit of thought the other day, after working for 3.5 years, my savings rate seems to be lacking far behind than my target (I don't think it's ambitious at all), and this is really a wake-up call. There's not much time to be wasted on dilly dally with flinging money injudiciously, I don't wan't to be "too late to do anything about retirement" (or anything at all, for the record). Simply put, I want a healthy relationship with money in 2015. This means reigning in every penny to be spent. I have added up the totals of foreseeable expenditures (not the everyday ones but annual ones), divided that by 12 and realized I have less than 50% left for savings, even without replacing personal stuff (clothes / beauty supplies). This is no good. 

In 2014 I've explored other ways of making money and it has been great for a while, but eventually put to a stop. I think I do need to give the company a call to check what's going on, I've done that before a few times, but don't want to be seen as pushy, but I really need that money. And I feel more productive during my free time when I'm working and earning money. (Edit: I sent them an email last week, hasn't heard back, now I'm popping in another message via text to see what happens)

In 2015 I doubt if I can find any new ideas of making money from side-hustle, so I am considering selling some of my possessions. It'll require a lot of prep work but at least I'll get some hard-earned cash back. This is all I can think of now. 

Goals for this week:

- Return merchandise to 2 retailers, obtain proof of postage for reimbursement
- Visit to the doc tomorrow
- Call up the clinic where I had blood test last week to see if the results came yet (called today: nothing)
- Track recent purchases with cashback site (after these are done, this will be the end of the online madness)
- Track cash out amount from cashback site
- Donate purged clothing items during weekend
- Fix dinner dates with a school friend who lives nearby (Monday/Tuesday)
- Go for a walk at the park
- Fix brunch date with a uni friend, fix a tea session with a guy friend on the same day, possibly dinner same night with one close relative
- Check with a uni friend to see how her house moving is going
- Contact a childhood friend to see how her leg is healing
- Consolidate a group order (list of items with specifics) for friends and arrange the money transfer
- Fix a day out with friend to go clothes shopping (I will abstain from this)
- Apply hand cream before bed every night
- Apply body lotion/oil after shower every night
- Top-up transport stored-value card for next month's commute

Nov 21, 2014

Slipping down the rabbit hole...

I made a trip to the doctor on Wednesday, asked for a blood test, it was expensive. I had to go private because my employer's clinic cannot do that test for me easily. Anyhow, it'll be worth it since I'll know whether the results aligned with the guess works. If the results doesn't match with what I had suspected, then it'll be tough work to look elsewhere, but that's a topic for another day.

On the same topic of doctor, I had a skin condition that seems to be slowly coming back and it's not a good thing. The past 2 years had been an ordeal for me until I found a dermatologist and went to a facialist. The facial lady could only offer temporary relief for me, while the dermatologist was able to diagnose my condition, put me on some antibiotics and topical gel, but the condition didn't really go away as I discovered lately. Hence I was reluctant to go back to the derm. as there's nothing much he can do except asking me to consider taking the last resort: use a higher grade medication that can have side-effects (and they can be huge or life-long, different for everyone). With that in mind, I visited the facial lady and put in a large sum of deposit, well, to me it's large. Previously I put about half the amount of the current sum and the package will give me 20% off every treatment. Now that I put double the amount in the deposit, the package will give me 30% off every treatment, I figured I would need more frequent visits to the facialist hence the deposit could last me an entire year and would stretch further my budget.

My colleague next to me had been coughing seriously for the whole week. This colleague called in sick on wednesday, the next day didn't see any improvement at all! Now my supervisor has noted that one by one we had fallen sick, I should be the next. It's annoying to be surrounded by sick people who should just stay home (but they don't!), my sick colleague told me that he had a party to go tonight. I rolled my eyes in my heart, he should at least wear a mask for the whole week instead of spreading germs. Completely inconsiderate. I feel glad it's Friday and I've been tolerating this since Monday.

With winter looming close and my determination to tweak my breakfast, I headed to the grocery store to stock up some stuff that I can have as easy meals, at home or the office, they would help me reduce my spending on food perhaps. I bought a few energy bars for just under US$0.5 each! Also got something slightly more fancy to drink (strawberry milk parfait powder sachet, I don't drink these every week so that's OK), instant noodles, some chocolates (those are delicious but I can exercise self-restraint so no problem with overdose), plain oat biscuits, soda crackers, a can of sardines. We'll see how it turns out with some instant pasta I got a while ago! If it works out, I know what I'll be stocking up next time :-) At the moment this pile should last for a while so we're set here.

The colleagues are talking about having a steak lunch with unlimited fries sometime next week, and honestly I don't care if the chef comes from France or Hell's Kitchen, I just don't. care. Guess what, the lunch could cost HK$230!! That amount of money will see you through in a lunch buffet at a hotel nearby our office, WTF?! Oh and last time I checked, fries are not really friends for our health. We'll see how this roll out next week.

My dad mentioned that he might not be able to go to the long-haul trip with us next year due to work, this needs further thinking, I certainly could go with mom but I really wanted all of us to be able to go! Granted the costs will be higher but I've come to realize that the time for all of us to go on a trip together isn't that much...and they are getting older, I want to bring them to places that they've never been and be amazed!

I had abandoned the pair of sneakers that I had my eyes on earlier, but I ended up with another 2 pairs of sneakers that look nice and versatile enough. If this works out, I might get the other 2 colors as well later on. 

I talked about putting funds for investment before end of 2014, but this plan has to wait. The bank I went to told me they had no new offers for the rest of this year so I might want to wait for 2015 if any new offers come out (some costs could be waived / rebated).

November has seen me slipping down the rabbit hole financially, but I still hold hopes for 2015 whereby unnecessary spending could be reduced to a minimum, given the tight wiggle room.

Nov 17, 2014

Quick link to an inspirational post

I stumbled upon this post last week and can't get it out of my head, it's HERE.

Christmas can look a bit sh*t, y'all.

If you're reading that post, make sure you go through the comments as well. 

In the past year or so I started to think that it's OK not to enjoy a particular festive day. Obviously I haven't told anyone about this. (You should look at their faces when I said "food is just food, sure, I enjoy eating nice food but I don't think more than that. I won't actively seek out the nicest places to have food", I should also mention that I like cooking more than eating.) My mom would say I'm a bit of a party-pooper (is that the word?) whenever I expressed ambivalence/distaste about doing what she thinks is traditionally -and-socially appropriate and expected of certain festivals. I refused to pay extra for an everyday meal at a restaurant chain that charges more just because it's "Christmas" or "Chinese New Year", I refuse to pay a hundred bucks more for a hotel buffet just because it's "festival season" and the hotels are charging more for the same thing. For the past few years I've gone the complete opposite way - to eat at places that people would never think of going during that time period. One, I get my peace of mind; second, anything to avoid the crowds and the madness; third, I don't have to feel coerced to paying more for the same thing.

Honestly, Christmas or other festive occasions is just another day in the year. To some, it may mean gifts and dinners; but to some, to the elderly / homeless it may mean loneliness and helpless, or to an average person it may mean too much kitchen prep work for zero appreciation, or don't-know-what-to-do with disagreeing relatives/cousins. This year, the last meaning is spot on.

This post resonated with me most in the part where it talks about feeling inadequate. Now that I don't come from a very well-off family, but I think we have more than enough to live by, and YET I still do feel incomplete/inadequate at times like these. I feel ashamed. There are the constant "wants" that disguises as "needs" under the bells and charms of the festive season. There are tons of other needy people out there to be thought of, even if we don't live under the same roof.  

For a start, I'll be looking at Christmas (or other festivities for that matter) a bit differently this year.

Nov 14, 2014

Wanted: A healthy relationship with Money in 2015

I can't help but feeling "damn that's me!" when reading Pru's post here

I was searching for something else on Google yesterday and then I stumbled upon a good discount (20% off) and I made an order for something which is clearly a "want" instead of "need. Then, 3 minutes later, I discovered that I could have made a slightly different order which will come with a gift with purchase! I cancelled the order (awaiting confirmation whether it is successful or not), and made 2 different orders, one with the gift) and another without. They are technically the same stuff but I ordered it differently to get the gift. So, I placed 3 orders, cancelled 2, but the cancellations weren't successful! Which means that when they come, I'll have to pay for shipping to return it, and some of the stuff is heavy as well, I might end up paying half of the amount just to have the full refund, roarrrrrrrr.

All this has taught me a great lesson: Never buy out of impulse, especially if it's a time-limited discount (1% less discount count by each hour, starting with 20%), I might as well skip it because the (perceived) lack of time = lack of sufficient information for judgment = more prone to mistakes = regrets to come.

I've decided that in 2015, I want to establish a healthy relationship with money. No more love/hate relationship, I don't want any love/hate relationship with money, nor any purchase mistakes like the above. Every purchase I make must be well-thought of (need vs. want) and thoroughly considered (how often will I use it, purpose), researched (specifications), assessed (features, functions), evaluated (best deal out there or not). I would avoid buying anything full price, period. 

The 2015 budget definitely needs to be drawn out, followed by some tweaking. I'll be ticking away expenses for weekend getaway with friends...or slightly reduce it to 1 trip instead of 2, we'll see. 

Nov 13, 2014

Sitting, waiting, wishing

What a week.

We visited a staff sale at a sports chain and got 40% off for my gym bottoms (1 long, 1 short), so that's a good deal! I have enough long gym bottoms to last me for a good while, together with the ones I got from GAP last month. If I see something of the short variety with a serious discount later on, I might consider getting another pair. I skipped another warehouse sale yesterday because I didn't feel like queuing for half an hour just to go in and see/try what might look good on me, I already have my eyes set on a pair of sneakers elsewhere. That pair costs HK$800 and I'm refusing to buy it FP, lol. I've been asking around friends if anyone knows anyone who works for sports chain and is able to get at a nice discount (meaning anything more than 10% off). Normally I have 10% off on *some* stores but not every brand/item is eligible. I tried looking online and had no luck with finding that color which I'm after, which I believe is limited edition. Ideally, I want to pick a color that goes with pretty much a lot of the things I normally wear - flippy skirts, *some* one-piece dresses, jeans long or short, dark or light. The good news is, I *might* be able to get a staff coupon but it remains a mystery for now.

I also caved in and made an online order for clothes (a lot of it) for 30% off on Singles' Day (ok I'm not, but it's just an occasion to do serious shopping), I'm waiting for them to ship, here's to hoping they fit nicely so I don't have to pay for shipping to return anything! On the other hand, I returned some items I got from the store last week for refund. It was quick and a breeze, except for the checkout beeline. I also made a mental note that I should not step inside that store ever. The last time was about 6 months ago and I didn't buy anything, however the last time was a complete fail of coming to the senses! Willpower I'm calling thy name!

The side-hustle front has been really really quiet lately, and I'd like to spice it up a little even though none of it falls within my control. However I did send out an email today to check if they have anything new for me and that I made a point I am ready to take up any training from them if needed be. Once that cycle has been set up, it'll take up my time on the weekend mostly and I'd be happy having a steady flow of income from it...and happily working in front of the computer. It will just have to be started! I'll see what I need to do if it doesn't work out / they don't need an extra pair of hands anymore.

I treated my folks teppanyaki lunch yesterday and it went OK, I had better experience with the restaurant last time, oh well. This morning I was sitting and pondering the financial goals for 2015, waiting for some inspirations to dawn on, meanwhile tweaking other lifestyle goals for 2015. 

Another major drawers' purge is expected this weekend (I worked on the closet two weeks ago), the goal was to free up space for the new pieces that are on their way, some are sitting on my chair since the closet cannot accommodate. Once this is done, some of the clutter shall be gone! An IMAX movie on sunday, brunch with a former colleague before the movie , that's the plan! Oh and check out the sneakers while I'm in that area! I doubt if they will sell below full retail price though. A department store sales week is starting on Friday and I'm not even winking at it this year, nothing caught my eye. Made a mental note to avoid that store and its nearby area for the next 3 weeks and it'd be jam packed with people! 

Tonight I'll be making noodles for dinner, time to pull out the festive candle from the deep end of the cupboard and I shall light it on Saturday!

Nov 10, 2014

Revelations

I returned from a weekend getaway yesterday night, exhausted. In short, I didn't have much time to think about my financial goals for 2015 (too much distractions, too much nonsense with my friends on the trip). There were a few things that I'd like to mention though: 

Last Friday when I was out for lunch (I do that 2-3 times per month) and I heard a loud noise when I'm walking on the pavement. A shop that has a ground floor and a first floor was under renovation. They put scaffolding (google it) with canvas and nets so the things don't fall onto the pavement as they renovate. Back to the noise. I instinctly knew something is falling, and for that split second I hesitated whether to move a step forward (which would be under the scaffolding-canvas-net cover) or backwards (without anything over head, a la normal pavement). My hesitation was due to the fact that even with the scaffolding-canvas-net something could still fall and break the layer and fall onto me. (Hindsight: I should consider dashing into the nearest shop) Then I gathered myself to sprint for a step or two, what I saw was a tile that landed next to my right foot. NEXT TO!!! It broke into pieces, of course. WTF, that was SO CLOSE! I was so close to having an object fallen from height and a big head injury! 

A few other pedestrians saw that and shouted to the first floor that something has fallen onto the pedestrian road. I of course was in shock and hurried away to meet my friend at another restaurant. My friend then asked if I had called the Police, I was unaware that whether I should / can call the Police. I felt extremely lucky that I survived and I'm like, wow, luckily I bought an accident insurance literally at the start of November!!!!!!!! Imagine if I was hurt and being without any insurance coverage. Of course I'd still be treated at the public hospital but it was just not a good feeling. Funny the other day I was just wondering if I need to spend another HK$800 on an insurance like this and I probably won't do reimbursements at all from it. It was a just-in-case decision really. Now I know why I need it. Phew.

Another revelation came in the trip, I went with a bunch of friends (10 of us), and I felt like I'm taking on too much risk, stress and damaging my health / mental well-being this time. They were a restless bunch, although we all grew older and would eventually lost that "energy", but for now, they are still a bit too much to handle. Let me put it shortly, I woke at 5:15 to catch the bus and train, then we started the trip following a tour guide in a coach, the night should end at 9 something. But our pack decided to go out for karaoke, of course the city we went to isn't a top-tier or second-tier level city, hence it wasn't that safe when you heard the tour guide saying something about thieves and mugging. The 10 of us took 2 cabs to went to the karaoke place, we asked for a big room (only the 10 of us) and they started singing away. Then what got me was someone started to smoke IN THE ROOM. I freaking hate that. This lasted until 12 something in the night and I went bonkers and yelled that it's time to head back to the hotel. I mean, I woke at 515, and they woke at 5 or 6 (similar)! Aren't they tired? Breakfast is at 8am the next morning! I'm not even counting the washing up before bed!

All in all, I felt I was taking up too much risk when going out with them traveling, they don't seem to know what 'danger' in a foreign place means...we know all the words, but it was not our land. As a pack, we don't have any significant advantage anyway...Then there was the late-night sleeping and reveling, and second-hand smoking that irritated me. I told myself I will not go next time. It just doesn't worth shortening my life by hours with the smoke just to be able to laugh silly with them and to be honest, I'm growing a bit tired (with the world, and most of its people) lately and I found this pack not as funny as before. We took lots of photos and surely they were great, I'm still debating. I just don't want to compromise about the smoke and late-night sleep thing. We'll see next time when a trip like this come around, for now I'd very much like to curl up in my PJs and snuggle the duvet, but I'm sitting in a bright-light office typing away...and it's a Monday today.

There's lots of unexpected shopping opportunity lately and I abhorred myself for not able to withstand the temptations. Though to be honest, we don't have Thanksgiving sales over here and prices are high after the bi-annual reductions, which is nothing compared to the Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals the US folks have! My SO told me to get a pair of sneakers (which I don't have) which can benefit my feet more than wearing flats, he has a major score point in this. I'm going to look at it after work tonight with my cousin since she has a 40% off coupon. Then there's another 35% off coupon for another sports store. I'll see if I can find the right color of sneakers tonight, if not I'll head to another store with the coupon on Wednesday. 

Later today I'll also be picking up a windproof and waterproof (Gore Tex!) outer shell as well, normally anything with that patented technology will cost HK$1-2k easily, but let's just say I'll get mine in a three-digit figure ;) With a bit of defects of course but they are nothing to worry about, some are fixed and some can't, and certainly I don't mind.

Come Wednesday I will also treat my folks for a nice lunch somewhere near my office (teppanyaki), I didn't expect this to come in November but well, it has to be done anyway in December so why not get it off my list when the time is right! On the food note, I received a HK$50 voucher from a survey I filled in earlier on, yay!

Nov 5, 2014

2015 Goals in the making

Is it early to think about what I'd like to achieve in 2015? I read January's post yesterday and it has got me thinking about 2015. I've drawn up some goals, which I'll add to and tweak it before I post them here. 

I'm pretty bad in doing reflections. One being I'm a forgetful person (don't ask me what I had for dinner last night), two being the lack of reflective ability/insight (it's always been sadly). I'll take the time during the weekend getaway to think and analyze on 2014.

Today was no good, my trench coat was spoiled with stains from commute. Let's just say that I should never squeeze myself into the tiniest gap available on the public transport vehicles. Either the clothes (light-colored obviously) or the bag/purse (or the bum) will suffer. The transit doors are dirty and yikes, stains! I have been mourning for my coat all morning. For now I've been using a Tide pen to rub it, some parts are doing better and some parts are just obvious. Time will tell if the stains can be got rid of when I'm home. *crosses fingers*

It seems that the commute has been shit ever since the protests started, people run out of options to commute and buses are often late, etc. It had me starting to think of not bringing my lunch to avoid the stress when squeezing and being sardine-packed with other commuters, while worrying about stains and my bag. I even thought about walking to work, just to avoid the pack and the stress. I walked home from work on Monday, doing grocery shopping here and there along the way, it took me about 1.5-1.75 hours, hah...not so bad if you have a dinner waiting for you, (thanks mom!). If I take out the shopping it'll take 45 mins to reach home, which is not so bad given now is winter. Anyway, a one-way trip cost is so minute hence I'll not over-think about it and making myself walk on foot every single day. 

I've been thinking about my breakfasts in the office lately, while generally I'm not picky about food (give me anything cheap like noodles and I'll eat it), I'm VERY PICKY about what I have for breakfast. Consider yourself warned, lol. I need :

- variety
- hot/warm food (not junk!) is preferred, so yogurt is out
- my stomach can't tolerate milk very well lately (it was fine before!), if not I'd quickly pick cereals and muesli as they are cheap and fills the stomach
- something that fills the stomach but without being full / fatty (I typically feel hungry at 1130 if I have a cup of oatmeal and nothing else (no milk), please tell me I'm not alone)
- something easy to manage since I eat after I reached the office, there aren't many options, say cook at home/office. If I eat at home before commute I'd be hungry by 10! Lunch is at 1
- recurrent cost is low. There are many eateries below where I work, they are cheap but most are junk + the costs can add up quickly over the week

I've considered making sandwiches at home, but I'll need to wake earlier / prepare the night before. I also prefer food not to be put in the fridge so...maybe a quick sandwich with jam or peanut butter in the morning before I leave for work? Hard-boiled eggs with some nuts and dried fruits, maybe. 

Thoughts? What do you eat for the start of the day?