For the Young and Beautiful

Good news for the young and beautiful! Interested to enter a beauty contest and try your luck to win a 10,000 USD price or get spotted by a modelling agency? Check out http://www.lookoftheyear.com. Send in your best pictures and keep your finger crossed that you will be the next model working in Paris, New York or Milan.

Good Bargain on Glasses

I don't know how cheap can a good pair of glasses can be but read this - Zenni Optical: Sell Rx Glasses $8 with case! Skeptical? Well, they sell the glasses online and the glasses are manufactured by their own factory thus no middlemen and advertising cost. Make sense. Actually the $8 package is for the complete single vision glasses and it is inclusive of the frame, lens, anti scratch coating, UV protection, lens edge polishing and beveling, hard casing, microfiber lens cleaning cloth and full guarantee. Not bad huh. This one looks good too.

My Marks of Triumph

Marks of Triumph - they are ugly and permanent. I'm one of the many unlucky mothers who get the so-called 'marks of triumph' or otherwise commonly known as stretch marks during pregnancy. I started applying cream to prevent stretch marks at an early stage of my pregnancy but too bad my skin was sensitive and red itchy patches started to appear on my tummy area soon after. I did not know why at first. The itchiness was so unbearable and I couldn't refrain myself from scratching it. Once I suspected that the culprit was the stretch mark cream, I have stopped using it immediately. Then some colleagues recommended olive oil and I applied it until I gave birth. No side effects but I don't think it helps anyway because the stretch marks started to appear during the last trimester and they are here to stay, forever.

When I did a little search on the net later, I found this - "Though cocoa butter is an effective moisturizer, no research studies have shown its ability to either prevent stretch marks, or improve their appearance once a stretch mark has already formed." How I wish I found out about this earlier. Perhaps the next round, I will try revitol stretch mark cream instead.

How To Do It?

If you want to be rich, start a business now. That's a pretty general statement. Like Chinese saying 'one will never be successful or rich by working for someone else'. To me, I think doing business is a huge risk because you need a lot of money to start one. But, things changed. With the advancement of technologies and the development of online business, I think starting a business now is not that difficult after all. The most important thing is to have reliable service providers like web-hosting and shopping cart software.

I have been thinking if I ever start an online business, what would I sell? Hmmm.....the answer is boys clothing. Why? Because boys clothing here, especially for babies, are extremely boring. Colour selection is also limited. You always see 'blue' stuff for boys. Not to mention designs. I see a lot of nice clothing for boys when surfing the net but the shipping fees are exorbitant. Unless you buy a lot, if not it's not going to worth it. Ok, I'm day dreaming again. Where am I going to get the stocks in the first place?

My Favourite TV Programme

Ever since I knew about the Discovery Home & Health channel on Astro, I will press on the number everytime I switch on the tv. My favourite programme is 'Till Debt Do Us Part'. Although money shouldn't be the reason for people to go/stay in a marriage, it certainly has tremendous effect on a couple's relationship. Most of the time, these couples went into financial difficulties because of credit card debt. It's not that they have health problems or business failure or unable to work, they just indulged on non-essential items and keep on applying credit cards. There was a couple who had 16 credit cards and chalked up a hefty total debt of $50,000. It's crazy. With this kind of problem, they can only get back on their feet financially with professional help or bad credit loans. It made me realise that 'No matter how much you earn, you will not have enough money to spend if you don't control your spending'.

Fun Online

There are so many things we can do online now. Online shopping, online games, online casino and the list goes on. No wonder children are so hooked to their PCs now. While the internet is an important communication and education tool, I think there are other unwanted elements it brings to our society nowadays. The worst is porn but there are many ways to block all this evil sites from our children. Even though there are pros and cons on the internet usage, I think the benefits should outweigh the risks if we guide our children properly. I don't mind if they play online games or chatting but they must know their limits.

For the adults, we should know what's good and what's bad. If you think getting a hand on betting is not a bad thing at all, then you would probably be interested to find out which online casino gives you the best deal. You can read the reviews of hundreds of online casinos, if you have the time.

Storage Solution

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It will be good to have more rooms or a garage at home especially when we have a lot of stuff. The longer we stay in a house, the more things we will have collected over time. I hate to see things scattered all around the house but that's what Ethan likes to do now. With his toys in the living hall and in the guest cum store room, I seriously think I need better storage solutions. We don't have a garage so, things have to be stored somewhere in the house. Arghhhh!

Where to Get the Best Deal?

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I always think it's better to invest in a house than a car. House always appreciates in value but for car, the moment you buy it, the value depreciates. Many people buy houses for investment and they will either rent it out or sell it. And when some home owners run into financial difficulties, they can take up home owner loan like Home Loans UK for some extra cash. For Magic Loan, they also offer home owner loans but with extra services. Many people do not know which secured home owner loan would be best suited to their particular needs. So, Magic Loan will help them to relieve that concern and to take on the entire responsibility for locating that ideal loan, big or small. They use their extensive network of financial resources to source the most suitable loan in the market. They will also take into account all of your personal circumstances, the amount you can afford to comfortably pay back and tailor-make the loan so that it perfectly suits both your requirements and your means.

Online Shopping

The shopping malls are mushrooming in our country lately. Whenever I flipped the pages on the newspaper, there are advertisements on openings of new malls. Sunway Pyramid new wing, KL Pavilion, the Gardens at Midvalley, to name a few. No matter what, I still think online shopping is the way forward. Many stores are offering online shopping now even though they still have retail outlets. Not to mention other online shops set up by individuals including stay-at-home-mums. Now, people can even buy merchandises online from pharmacies. I find shopping online is really hassle-free especially when we do not always have the luxury to go out and shop and get caught in the traffic jam. If you have a toddller in tow, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. I guess it's not difficult for one to start an online business now since there are so many companies out there providing services like web hosting, e-commerce software and hosted shopping cart software. All we need is a reliable and good service provider.

Settle Our Mortgages

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When we bought our house, we took a 30-year mortgage from the bank. Jeeesh! Too painful to think that we have to pay for the house for 30 years. But, we don't have a choice. That's the only way we can own a house and how many people can buy a house without mortgages from the bank? Luckily, we can withdraw money from our EPF and we calculated that we can pay off the mortgage, roughly, in the next 6 years. We were not so lucky because the interest rates at that time was quite high compared to last year. It's really important to get cheap mortgages with low interest rate. Unfortunately, we didn't know much about it at that time. And, it took me quite sometime to realise that a big portion of the monthly payment we made went to the interest. Only very minimal amount went to the principal. Some people go for remortgages to cut down on their mortgage repayment but there are other costs to consider also because I understand that new agreements have to be made with the bank. Also, if you have bad credit history, you need to look for banks that offer adverse credit remortgages.

Something to Stimulate Your Brain

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When you are free or down or lost and don't know what to do, I suggest you go to Quibblo and do some fun quizzes. It helps to build up our general knowledge too. I like doing quizzes and puzzles that are found in the newspapers or magazines. But, Quibblo offers a lot more choices for us and we can search for topics that are of special interest to us like for the young ones, they can do teen quizzes. Better still, if you are not happy or have comments about the topics, you can voice it out at their comment/discussion forum.

Visitng UK

UK is definitely one of the most popular countries for holiday makers. I've been there twice and visited London, Oxford and also a brief visit to High Wycombe. There are so many other places, which I like to visit as well but unfortunately did not have enough time. The first time I went to London, I stayed with my cousin and he also brought me around for sightseeing. Lucky me, I got a tour guide at no cost and I saved a lot on lodging. Everyone knows hotels in London are very expensive. My first stay there was quite short as I only had 3 days but I managed to visit quite a number of the tourist spots. Personally, I think that the cathedral and museums are worth visiting but the most wonderful experience was watching a performance at the theatre.


Oxford is also a very nice place to visit. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the place they filmed Harry Potter. It was closed. It was a one-day trip and we stopped at Bicester Village for some shopping. Things are cheaper there compared to down town but I still find them expensive compared to the prices in the U.S. especially for brands like Gap and Ralph Lauren.

If I have the chance to visit UK again, I want to visit other places like Birmingham and Manchester. But, I have to look for the hotels myself this time and I hope the hotels in Birmingham and the hotels in Manchester will be cheaper than those in London.

Toys for Ethan

Nowadays when we go out, we will consciously or unconsciously browsing through the toys section and the problem is, we (or Ethan) seldom left empty handed. I guess this is a common problem for parents. At his age, Ethan does not know how to demand for toys when we go out but we happily show him the toys, happily pay for it and happily watch him play. His favourite toys at the moment are balls including balloons. All sorts of sizes and colours. And 'ball ball' is his favourite word too.

The other day, I bought a set of Happy Meal and got a free robot for Ethan. He likes it so much and refused to let go of it even after playing with it for more than 1 hour. That's the first action figure toy Ethan got. I know what to buy for him next. More boys stuff like robots and super heroes figures. I found a lot of these from www.shopping.com and we can search for a suitable one by brand, type, size or price. I think the variety there is far more better than the toys stores.

Another thing I wanted to buy is puppet. He seems to be very interested with the puppets he saw in the Baby Einstein cd. I've been searching everywhere but couldn't find a decent one. I saw it once at a toy shop but it looks more like a glove than a puppet. I wonder now, do people still play with puppets nowadays?

Financial Planning: Part 2

Part 1 is about my spending habits in my younger days...ahem, although not so long ago. I know it's difficult to save with my spending habits. Putting money in savings accounts does not work and it ended up as a 'transit' account. Money comes money goes. In order to avoid myself from withdrawing money from the bank accounts, I opened another savings account without the ATM card and also deposited my money into fixed deposits. It worked quite well until now.

Apart from that, I also forced myself to save by buying insurance plan. There are many plans out there, but I chose the investment link plan so that I get medical coverage and savings at the same time. Although my company provides insurance package for employees, I still wanted to get one for myself because I might leave the company one day and left without any coverage. It's risky knowing that medical fees are very high nowadays. Furthermore, you pay lower insurance premiums when you start young and the savings generated will be higher. Hubby and Ethan also got their own insurance plan. My latest attempt in savings is Unit Trust. I read quite a lot of comments about it and also asked friends and colleagues on their own experience investing in Unit Trust, before deciding to venture into it. I hope all these will give us a more secured future.

No matter what investment plans are available out there, there are always pros and cons that come with it. So, I think it's best not to put all eggs in one basket.

Another Money Making Site

I don't know what got into me but I've registered my blog with a few blog advertising sites now and probably will do it again. The latest one is Blogsvertise. The rules and registration process are simple. Payment is also through PayPal, so it's easy. They also direct users to free blog resources for those who do not have a blog yet.

I think I'm doing it because I want to have more options and more offers but that doesn't mean I will grab everything lar. The main purpose of this blog is still about Ethan. I will try not to overflood the blog with paid post. With only one site, it's difficult to get what you want sometimes. Furthermore, if one service provider decides to stop all free blogs from doing paid post one day, I still have a back-up plan.

I Need a Break

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Since the trip to hubby's hometown during Christmas holiday is cancelled, I suggested that we go somewhere else. Main reason is I have some Enrich points that are going to expire end of this year. Talking about this Enrich thing, I find it not very user friendly. Anyway, since I got the points from my official travelling, not from my own pocket, no need to complain lar. Get free tickets still want to complain ar. I've checked with them and found out that I can get free tickets for 2 persons to Langkawi but not enough points for the hotel and flight packages. So, all I need to do now is look for a nice beach hotel. I really look forward to it because I love beach holidays. In fact, we had our honeymoon at an island. For a change, I would like to try some other places for holidays in the future. I wanted to bring Ethan to see snow and the nearest place would be either Japan or Korea. I don't think we have to travel to places like the US or Canada to see snow. If we do, we need to look super cheap flights to Canada or US.

Financial Planning

I think everyone should be taught financial planning in high schools because it's a very important lesson for one to learn regardless of their career path. The sooner the better. I'm not aware or should I say ignorant about the importance of it until I got married and have Ethan. Most people do, anyway. The first few years I worked, I never saved. Like what most of the youngsters do nowadays, I spent what I earned and with a credit card on hand, the spending became worst. Thank goodness the bad habit didn't last long. I do pamper myself with nice stuff once in a while now but I don't go to the mall and buy things for the sake of buying. I used to buy things which I don't need but bought it because it's discounted. I know there are people out there who survives on credit cards and when the debts get out of hand, they take payday loans or cash advance to settle their debts. I don't know if that really helps to lessen their burden but I'm glad I don't have to resort to that.

Ideas from VisionBedding.com

After visiting VisionBedding.com, it reminds me of one thing. A bed for Ethan. Actually, we have discussed about that and wanted to get an adult single bed for Ethan so that he can continue to use it when he grows up. Another thing is, we will get more space in the room since we are still sleeping in the same room and have not plan to train him to sleep alone. I still want to sleep next to him :-) But, at the same time I'm also worried of the prospects of him falling off the bed. Right now, he has no problem getting on and off the mattress safely. I don't know how he can get off the bed safely since it will be quite high.

We saw some extendable children's beds when we bought the high chair. They are lower than the normal adult bed but can be extended to fit a single size mattress (I think). Prices are reasonable and the designs are nice too. Maybe we should go round other furniture shops that sell childrens bedding first during this coming holiday. Then, we can buy some nice bed spreads, like the one below, to cheer up our little room.

Extra Side Income

I have been doing paid post (with you know who) for quite some time now but the money I made was pathetic, I would say. The main reason is I do not have much time to log on. Then, the good opportunities disappeared so quickly and even when we get to write what we want, we are only allowed to write a maximum of 2 posts per day? That's ridiculous. I was really motivated at first but after a while, the excitement just faded away. Sometimes, the advertisers want a minimum of 300 words for a meager $5. Then, I found out about Smorty last Friday (thanks to Sasha) and registered my blog on that day. I find it very efficient and blogger friendly. Unlike the other blog advertising service provider...ahem....you know who....everything seems to be slow including approval of blog, getting your post approved, getting paid, etc. With Smorty, our blog will be approved in just 72 hours and get paid in a week. Attractive, isn't it? And, the best thing is we can reserve a job for 3 days. That's what I call blogger friendly. Now, my motivation is back. For those who are interested to get paid to blog you may consider Smorty.

Changing Furniture

Sometimes, I feel so bored looking at my home furniture. Feel like changing it but I'm sure hubby will say I'm crazy. The dining set, which we are using now are around 5 years old and I got it cheap, rocking cheap, at a showroom closing down sale. Oh yeah, not forgetting the queen captain bed too. So, while browsing through the furniturefromhome website, I found that they have a good selection of dining room furniture and living room furniture. Detail information on the furniture is also given. It's very helpful and convenient too, as orders can be made online.