While the Clunkers program was in effect, my husband and I analyzed our situation on whether to buy a bigger car and take advantage of the cash for Clunkers program. Unfortunately, our car did not qualify. And even if we did, we properly did not want to be part of the program as well. Reasons: (1) We are living on one income right now. (2) our car mileage is only 50k - 60k (3) even if our car qualify for the program, we would still have to spend money…that’s is adding debt...it’s not a good idea for a one income family at the moment.
We came to the conclusion, “just because something is on sale, it doesn’t mean you have to buy It”. I think I mentioned this as I was de-cluttering our apartment. I bought office supplies and clothing just because they were on sale. And now, I have tons of office supplies that take up space and a lot of new clothing that I haven’t worn.
As our family grows and as the economy gets better (hopefully within the next few years), when I return to work full-time and accumulate enough money to buy a bigger car, we’ll paid cash (if not all, it will be mostly cash) for it.
I feel the same way about Obama’s credit for first time buying a house. (1) we have one income, (2) just because something is on sale, it doesn’t mean you must buy it (3) I want to be able to sleep at night because I do not want to be in big debt. This type of debt we can not and will not be able to pay all cash but would definitely take advantage if we have 2 incomes. This isn’t the right time for us.
For that, I will be able to sleep at night because we are not in big debt and we are not spending simply because something is on sale.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Family dinner
We finally received our dinning table and eat as a family like how our parents always had it when we were young and had dinner together every night. Our daughter got so excited that she refused to take a nap. While we were eating dinner, she fell asleep on her high chair. It was hilarious.
I got a table cloth and realized it didn’t fit because what was inside the bag didn’t match the description of the box. It was too late to return it because it was just 2 days after the 30 days return policy. Thank goodness it wasn’t an expensive table cloth. I had to go back to the same store (Century 21 – Zagat rated #1 discount store) and look for another one. I got a vinyl table cloth instead of a regular cloth one. It fit nicely on the table but would look much better if we have a regular table cloth. With toddlers at home, even this loose vinyl table cloth isn’t going to work. Toddlers like to pull on tablecloths. So our final decision for later is to buy a elasticized vinyl table cloth from Improvements.
Our first dinner together as a family was wonderful. I can’t wait for many more to come. I just hope if we ever move, the new home that we’ll move to will be able to accommodate this dinning room table. Even though I can remove 1 leaf to have it as a smaller table, I love the space of a big table. I can do many things with flat surfaces…reading a paper, paying bills or simply a cup of tea.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
My passion test result
I finish reading the book “The Passion Test” many weeks ago. Ok, I didn’t read line by line the 2nd part of the book because I was busy and reading other books at the same time but I got the basic idea of it. One awaken moment for me was when the book mentioned about living your passion while you are home with your baby (children) and husband. It said my passion could be my family and then another one could be my interest so while I put my family as my priority/top passion, I can still work part-time on my other interest/passion. It never occurs to me that my family is my passion. I always thought of them as my family and they are important to me.
Well, that’s it. The book served its purpose for me. It woke me up and I found out what my passion is at the moment and I believe this passion will continue to be my first passion. I am aligned with my passion and value. My other part time passion – I am in the process of working on it or still figuring out if it is indeed my passion or is it just a hallucination.
Well, that’s it. The book served its purpose for me. It woke me up and I found out what my passion is at the moment and I believe this passion will continue to be my first passion. I am aligned with my passion and value. My other part time passion – I am in the process of working on it or still figuring out if it is indeed my passion or is it just a hallucination.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Our Vacation
After 2 ½ years, we finally took a vacation. We decided to go locally for 2 days and 1 night but at the last minute, we decided on 3 days and 2 nights instead. We went upstate NY, the Mohonk Preserve and Mohonk Mountain House for hiking and just relaxing. It’s a 2 hour drive. I’ve checked out the Mohonk Mountain Hotel. It’s $200 per person per night which included hotel and 3 meals. That would be $800 if we stay for 2 nights. That is way over our budget. So I decided we go to a motel about 20 miles away after reading all the reviews online. Our trip turns out to be less than half the cost if we were to stay in the Mohonk Mountain Resort.
The first day we got there, we hiked in the preserves which is not the same as the Mohonk Mountain House (it is privately own). It was a nice, quiet 5 miles hike round trip except at the end. We took the West Trapps Trail and started off with the Overcliff road. The trail was dry and easy but when we got to the Undercliff Road towards the last quarter of the trail, there were a lot of millipedes. I hate anything that crawls on the floor like snakes, worms etc.. The Millipedes were disgusting. I held my husband tight and screamed all the way till the end of the trail. There were a few people on the trail and they were wondering what I was screaming about. Sure, my husband was a little embarrassed by me. I couldn’t help it. I told him that I’ll never go back to this trail ever again.
On the 2nd day of our vacation, we had lunch first, and then drove to the Mohonk Mountain House. Admission was $18 per person. And if you want to park closer to the house, it’s an additional $10. There is a trail which we can hiked up to the house so we figure we would hike since this is the main purpose of our vacation. At the end of the day, I would say it was a mistake to hike the additional 2-3 miles just to get to the Mohonk Mountain house. When we got to the Mohonk Mountain House, I was amazed with the beauty of the resort. We had to hike some more toward the Sky Top Tower. In additional to that, we walked around one section of the garden outside the Mohonk Mountain House. At the end of the day, we still have to hike back to our car. Our shins were sore. We wished we had paid the extra $10 so that we parked closer to the hotel rather than hiking another 1.5 miles back.
On our 3rd day, we planned on doing more (going to the Storm King Art Center, Apple Picking or something else). We ended up driving across the bridge to Poughkeepsie and then drive around Newburgh and came home before rush hour.
I was glad to be back to see my baby. It was a nice get away with no cooking, cleaning or baby sitting for a couple of days. We won’t have another vacation for a while.
Friday, September 4, 2009
De-clutter update 3
I’ve read a few de-clutter books that I took out from the library. Many of them teach you to get rid of a lot of things at home. And when you need them, you buy them.
While I am cleaning/de-cluttering our apartment, I find it hard to get rid of stuff and then buy new ones when I need them. That is just simply wasteful. I come to the conclusion that I am not de-cluttering my apartment. I am simply organizing it in a way that it is very easy for me to locate anything and I make sure I don’t buy any that I already have in my inventory. I keep an inventory list (in every closet, in the refrigerator, in the cabinets, in my bankers’ boxes) of what I have inside. I keep it up to date and whenever I am looking for something, I look through the inventory list before I buy anything.
So far it works most of the time except once when I forget to check if we have more 13 gallon garbage bags in our inventory list (in the closet) at home before buying more in Costco. No, I did not return it. I kept it because we always need garbage bags. I’ll just make sure I’ll check my inventory before buying anything.
While I am cleaning/de-cluttering our apartment, I find it hard to get rid of stuff and then buy new ones when I need them. That is just simply wasteful. I come to the conclusion that I am not de-cluttering my apartment. I am simply organizing it in a way that it is very easy for me to locate anything and I make sure I don’t buy any that I already have in my inventory. I keep an inventory list (in every closet, in the refrigerator, in the cabinets, in my bankers’ boxes) of what I have inside. I keep it up to date and whenever I am looking for something, I look through the inventory list before I buy anything.
So far it works most of the time except once when I forget to check if we have more 13 gallon garbage bags in our inventory list (in the closet) at home before buying more in Costco. No, I did not return it. I kept it because we always need garbage bags. I’ll just make sure I’ll check my inventory before buying anything.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
To do list
I used to write down a to-do list on a little notebook and carry it with me. Actually I took a lot of notes on that little notebook because I am somewhat forgetful.
Today, I still carry a little notebook with me because I take notes when I see something interesting on the subway or I thought of something important while I am doing laundry. I write my thoughts down so I won’t forget. Sometimes, while I am doing something, I remember I have to do something else so I write it down in my little notebook. When I go grocery shopping, I write down the prices for certain items and compare with wholesale costs. This little notebook is becoming very handy and useful for me.
I no longer use this notebook to write down my to-do list. My to-do list is kept in a spreadsheet and I update/add more to it each day. Since I rather type than write, I type it up and arrange in any order I like on the spreadsheet and print it out for the day. When an item is done, I cross it off in the spreadsheet. Whatever is not done today will carry (cut and paste) on to the next day. I don’t delete the prior day’s activities off. I simply cross them off and leave the dates as well. I like to keep that for future reference. It’s sort of like my to-do-list diary.
Today, I still carry a little notebook with me because I take notes when I see something interesting on the subway or I thought of something important while I am doing laundry. I write my thoughts down so I won’t forget. Sometimes, while I am doing something, I remember I have to do something else so I write it down in my little notebook. When I go grocery shopping, I write down the prices for certain items and compare with wholesale costs. This little notebook is becoming very handy and useful for me.
I no longer use this notebook to write down my to-do list. My to-do list is kept in a spreadsheet and I update/add more to it each day. Since I rather type than write, I type it up and arrange in any order I like on the spreadsheet and print it out for the day. When an item is done, I cross it off in the spreadsheet. Whatever is not done today will carry (cut and paste) on to the next day. I don’t delete the prior day’s activities off. I simply cross them off and leave the dates as well. I like to keep that for future reference. It’s sort of like my to-do-list diary.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Women and shoes
It took me a few hours to take an inventory and organized all my shoes in the closet (and some from my parents’ place). Living in a small (well not that small) apartment in NYC, I have to store 95% of my shoes in the closet.
First I took them down from the shelf in the closet. Then I took 1-2 pictures of them. I downloaded the pictures onto my hard drive and create different folders for different season shoes. I was totally shocked I have over 40 pairs of shoes (boots, casual shoes, working shoes, formal shoes, sandals etc…all included). I know I have a lot of shoes but over 40 pairs was just not what I thought I have. I asked my husband how many pairs of shoes did he thinks I have. His answer was around 20. I told him, how about double that.
It is mostly summer sandals that I have accumulated. I have a totally good reason for this shoes madness when I was younger. I have small feet (I am a petite woman). I wear size 5 shoes. It is extremely hard to find size 5 shoes and it’s especially hard to find size 5 shoes that fit me and I that I like. I complain to my friends and family that sometimes even if I am willing to pay a higher price for a pair of shoes, there is none in the market for me to buy. So when I find a pair of shoes that I love, I would buy 2 (sometimes). Thus, my craziness of accumulating this many pairs of shoes. Did I mention that some of the shoes I have are still new (haven’t worn yet).
After separating my shoes by season, I assigned each pair of shoes a number on the downloaded pictures. I put them back into the shoe box and have the numbers label on the shoe box as well. I do not have all 40 shoes boxes but I do have more than half of them. For the rest of the shoes without a shoe box, I put them in a bigger box or a big plastic bag and label them with the shoe’s numbers. I put the out-of- the-season shoes (winter boots and shoes) all the way in the back/inside of the shelf in the closet. I have the summer and more casual shoes in the front which I can easily reach when I needed. When the seasons change, I will rotate.
My goal is to check which shoes I want to wear by the computer picture before going to the closet and look for that number in the shoes box. This way I don’t have to waste a lot of time opening each shoe box to what is inside and then have to put everything back. This project took me a few hours but I felt relief when it was done.
First I took them down from the shelf in the closet. Then I took 1-2 pictures of them. I downloaded the pictures onto my hard drive and create different folders for different season shoes. I was totally shocked I have over 40 pairs of shoes (boots, casual shoes, working shoes, formal shoes, sandals etc…all included). I know I have a lot of shoes but over 40 pairs was just not what I thought I have. I asked my husband how many pairs of shoes did he thinks I have. His answer was around 20. I told him, how about double that.
It is mostly summer sandals that I have accumulated. I have a totally good reason for this shoes madness when I was younger. I have small feet (I am a petite woman). I wear size 5 shoes. It is extremely hard to find size 5 shoes and it’s especially hard to find size 5 shoes that fit me and I that I like. I complain to my friends and family that sometimes even if I am willing to pay a higher price for a pair of shoes, there is none in the market for me to buy. So when I find a pair of shoes that I love, I would buy 2 (sometimes). Thus, my craziness of accumulating this many pairs of shoes. Did I mention that some of the shoes I have are still new (haven’t worn yet).
After separating my shoes by season, I assigned each pair of shoes a number on the downloaded pictures. I put them back into the shoe box and have the numbers label on the shoe box as well. I do not have all 40 shoes boxes but I do have more than half of them. For the rest of the shoes without a shoe box, I put them in a bigger box or a big plastic bag and label them with the shoe’s numbers. I put the out-of- the-season shoes (winter boots and shoes) all the way in the back/inside of the shelf in the closet. I have the summer and more casual shoes in the front which I can easily reach when I needed. When the seasons change, I will rotate.
My goal is to check which shoes I want to wear by the computer picture before going to the closet and look for that number in the shoes box. This way I don’t have to waste a lot of time opening each shoe box to what is inside and then have to put everything back. This project took me a few hours but I felt relief when it was done.
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