Happy Ramadan, everyone!! I am asking forgiveness from you for all my mistakes. Wish that Allah blesses and answers all our prayers on Ramadan, Amiiin. It’s my third Ramadan during long and hot summer days, but it’s officially my first time doing full fasting almost 1 month (except the period time), Insha Allah. I didn't do my full fasting for the last 2 years because of my pregnancy and exclusive breastfeeding for 3 months baby Attar (he is 15 months now). In Ireland, Fasting is longer than in Indonesia, Germany and Canada. It starts at 3 am and ends at nearly 10 pm in the night. Bismillah, I just can pray to Allah hopefully I can past my Ramadan successfully this year, Amiin. How about your Ramadan?? I Hope you all enjoy your Ramadan and get more and more value/lesson from this holy month.
Btw, I would like to continue my summary about home budgeting, Hopefully the 1st part is useful for you..
So, let's continue the second part :)
Before I start the summary for week 4. I will write down some important information that left behind.
It’s about Energy Efficiency, Saving energy will help us to save money as well as helping to save the environment
10 simple measures we can start with:
1. Heat: Keep heat in by closing the curtain, close the door, window to keep heat in winter. If you turn down the heating by one degree you can cut your heating bill by 10%
2. Lights: Turn off the light when you leave. Change the bulbs with less of energy :)
3. Phone charger: Do not leave your phone on charge unnecessarily. Unplug as soon as charging finish.
4. Appliances: Don`t leave appliances (TV, DVD player, etc) on standby. Switch off will save your money up to 5%
5. Boiling water: only boil what you need. You don`t need a kettle full of boiling water if you are making just one or two cups of tea.
6. Walk or cycle for short journey
7. A pressure cooker is efficient
8. Use ovens for two dishes at a time
9. Defrost fridges and freezer regularly
10. It’s better to wait until you have full load of dishwasher or washing machine
If you have other suggestions feel free to add it in comment, so we can share our experiences here :)
Based on our experience and my Indonesian friend`s suggestion. It’s better to set our electricity with half price which starts at 12 am (midnight) - 9 am (morning) So, I usually use washing machine, ironing, sometimes cooking and heating for water before 9 am. It can save more money. It's one of the sample of home budget (not mine) hehehe..
Week 4
Paying the bills and record-keeping
You have planned your budget and decided how much you need to pay your living costs. The next step is to think about the best way to pay your bills or debts.
The key to staying in control is to find the cheapest and handiest way to pay your bills. Even some services charge for free. Shop around some methods that handy for you.
The next is keep all receipt of payment or some other proof for all bills that you pay. For me, this is a new thing to do. I do have so many tips from this course to record all the payments and feel so excited to try it at home.
Record-keeping
1. Record-keeping will help you to keep close tabs on where the money goes, manage your daily, weekly, monthly responsibilities, and find record easily when needed.
2. Decide
a. Where you are going to put your files. This could be in a bedroom or in the kitchen
b. Who is going to responsible for the record keeping
c. When, a time each week to update your records. A half hour will probably enough
3. Organise
a. Set up a filling system
b. Label different sections of the file, each family member may have different names or label
1.b Bills to be paid
2.b Receipts of payment
3.b Guarantees or warrantees
4.b Keep an index to tell where everything is
c. Labels for the more lasting records
1.c Bank Record
2.c Housing
3.c Insurance policies
4.c Tax records
d. Keep a temporary or everyday section: This is a safe way to keep your `paper work` until you have time to file it.
e. Household budget plan should be kept in your file as well.
Clear out : at least once a year do a clear out. January might be a good time when we starting a new year and making resolution :) Remember when clearing out paperwork that anything of personal identity there. It should be ideally burned or shredded and never put into bin.
These are some of record keeping that you can make by your own self and don't forget to label it!
Week 5
The concept of Savings
There are two definition of saving money. Each definition is important and each can make a big difference to get more out the money available to you.
1. Spending less: Finding ways to get the same or similar service or product but for less money.
You can achieve this by shopping around-where do you buy groceries, petrol, phone credit? Can you get better deal somewhere else?
Having money saved for these big events mean that we are in control. We know what we can afford to spend so we know what we need to do. If we don't save it, the only to cover is to borrow. Paying back the loan is going to cost a lot more. You may find it hard to enjoy the event, because worrying how to pay it back. So saving before is a smart thing to do!!
2. The Big Crisis: broken washing machine, car repair, sickness, Funeral. When something like this happens, dealing with the event itself is hard. If we have some saving it will help a lot.
3. The Track Record: Being a regular saver brings other advantages -Its Habit forming-. Having a saving record in a Bank also shows your consistency. It can be a factor if you need to borrow some money from Bank.
Where do we start, like all the journeys. The start is one small step. The loose coins left in your pocket, the change in your purse. Every cent helps. Ideally, after you've worked out a budget, decide on an amount you're going to save. It can be as much or as little you like. $1, $5, $10 or more each week. You'll feel better for it :)
Cutting Back
Cutting back means putting a little thought into how and where we spend our money, and making sure we're getting the best value for our money.
Some of the obvious areas to look to save money are easy to identify:
1. Shopping
Where to shop- some of Supermarket compete the price, they offer great value for money-check out their prices.
When to shop- Never shop on an empty stomach, you'll buy more than you need. Leave small children at home, they usually asking more than what you need hehehe.
Bring a list to make you focus in what you need!!!
2. Telephone
Who is your telephone provider? Is that the best one for you? Check if your current provider or any other provider has a package more suited to your usage.
3. Petrol
Try to avoid using the cars for short trips- walk will be better!! Look around at your local filling station, where is the cheapest option?
Do you have another idea about the area to save money?
Week 6
We learned how to cook in a small budget with a nutritious food as the result! We see how the chef cooks in efficiency budget that the facilitator gave. The Chef checks the cheaper price in some supermarket before he bought all ingredients. After that we taste some delicious and healthy food together.
Some Tips form cooking class are:
1. Change the chicken soup instead of breast chicken with leg by separating the meat and the bone first.
2. You can use tuna flakes in a can to make a fish cake. Just add egg, 2 slices of bread, green onion, salt, pepper.
3. Baking Homemade Irish brown bread instead of buying. It’s cheaper and healthier.
That's all the information that I can share to you all. Hopefully you enjoy this note and take some useful tips. So we can have some ideas to make our own home budget and to save some value of our money. Don't forget to give sadaqa/charity to thanks to Allah for the rizk in our life, especially in this holy Ramadan.
If I have another knowledge/information from my course, Insha Allah I will share it too. Happy Fasting!!
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