Eating Independently

Here’s one of the independent care skills I’ve been trying to impart on Imran – eating independently. Though he can, he doesn’t seem all that interested in it, preferring instead to be the manja boy that he is and letting others pamper him to the max. Though occasionally I get disheartened at the seemingly lack of progress, I try not to let it get to me and instead continue to persevere. I had the best chance of doing this whilst I was on leave for 2 weeks back in December. Some things I tried:-

1.    Finger feeding

Messy, but I bear with it. Basically, I made sure everything’s cut up into small, edible pieces and let him have his way with his plate.

2.    Drinking independently

Imran drinks his bottles on his own, so that works out well. He has yet to learn to drink from the straw and simply refuses the straw at every opportunity, though he is a master at drinking from cups and glasses, though we hold it for him. What I got him to do is try to hold his lil plastic cup on his own and drink from it which worked out okay. 

Next on my to-do list is to get him to independently use his own cutleries to feed himself.

Outsmart Credit Card Companies

Some tips and tricks to remind myself to clear off my debt in 2017:-

Never Carry A Balance

This is the holy grail of credit card use. As long as you pay your balance on time and in full every month, you will never pay a dime in interest or fees. Better yet, you will be earning interest on the cash you held onto from the time you make your purchase, to the time your statement becomes due. That's up to 50 days in interest gains.

Keep A Clean Card

Let's say that you are unable to pay your balance in full every month, but you are steadily reducing your total debt. You'd like to be able to take advantage of the perks credit cards have to offer, but you don't want to increase your debt load. 

If you only have one card to begin with, and are already in debt, you should focus on paying that card off before opening any new accounts. However, if you have more than one credit card, there is a way to continue to pay down your existing debt without incurring interest on new purchases.

The key is to keep one card "clean" by paying its balance in full every month. As stated above, when you pay a card off each billing cycle, you avoid paying any interest or fees. This is not so if you continue to charge new purchases to cards that are already carrying a balance. When you carry a balance on your card, you incur interest on all new charges to that card at the moment of purchase.

Thus, as long as you pay the balance of the "clean" card in full every month, you can use it without worrying about incurring interest on your purchases. Just make sure that you never spend more on the "clean" card than you can easily pay in full, while paying more than the minimum on your cards that carry a balance.

Know Your Statement Closing Date

If you pay your balance in full every month, you are getting a free loan from your bank from the time of purchase to the due date for that payment cycle. As a result, if you make a purchase a day before your cycle closing date, you will have 21 days to pay before incurring interest. Complete a transaction after the cycle closes and you will have an additional month until the next cycle closes, plus another 21 days to pay off your balance.

When you get towards the end of your cycle, it pays off to hold off on major purchases. By delaying your spending just a few days, you can gain an additional month of time until your payment is due.

2017 Resolutions

Hello 2017! I must say, I am all happy and refreshed for 2017, having recently taken a long 2 weeks break from work, spending quality time with my lil one and other family members. More about that in other posts, but, essentially, it has been blissful.

Looking back at 2016, whilst a large part of it was normal, normal, with ups and downs here and there, 2016 had been a reasonably good year for me. Whilst there weren’t any major exceptional milestones, I did travel a lot and had various life experiences which made 2016 all the more worthwhile and memorable.

So how far did I get with the 4 goals I had started with in Jan 2016?

a.    Read 30 books a year – wayyyyy off with this one. I have only managed to read all of….wait for it….9 books this year. Next time, I should be a little more realistic and probably aim for something achievable…like 10 books. haha.

b.    Exercise at least once a week – I’d say I’m about 70% on point with this one. I did do the exercise, I just didn’t lose the weight I wanted to lose. L

c.    Declutter at least on a semi-annual basis – Done and dusted, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

d.    Start the 52 Week Money Challenge and adopt better financial habits – Didn’t even start on this. I saved a little here and there, but didn’t do it to the tune of the 52 Week Money Challenge. But I can certainly do better for this point.

So what are my resolutions for 2017 then? Let’s be more realistic, shall we? J

a.    See at least 3 new places.

b.    Read 10 books this year.

c.    Start Imran on nursery school.

d.    Exercise at least once a week.

e.    Save all my RM1, save at least RM50 a month into ASB2, Imran’s ASB and Imran’s SSPN and clear credit card debt as much as possible.

f.     Clear qada puasa from pregnancy and pray on time.