Re-Organization

I re-organized spiritual corner of my house. It's my most favorite corner of the house. Now it has my personal touch and I live it much more then before I used to do.

This is how it looks from front after re-organizing:









And some of the photos that hang just above this look like this:










And, finally how it looks from the side, from where I enter.












I hope this gives you as much peace as it gives me.

P.S. This is my personal space and I would not like any comment on objects there.

My Garden's Photo for 2009

I started gardening in Aug 2008, after my marriage.
In 2009 I tried growing lots of vegatables, flowers. Here is collections of few of the close to heart photographs from my garden. You can click at the photographs to see them enlarged.


First one is a flower which blossoms all the summers, I love its Pink Flowers.






Second is one of the Lady Finger or Okra from my vegetable garden.






This is bitter gourd, very healthy and one of favourite dishes for my Dad and DH.







It's a collage of some of the other plants from garden, including my Chinese Lemon plant, Chilli plant and EggPlant's plant and my cherry plant at extreme right corner.







It's one more collage of some lovely flowers and my tomatoes.




I miss you all, and waiting for summers to plant some of back. :)

What have I received from my parents

Stacking Pennies brings up a post discussing "what you have received from your parents". So, I couldn't stop and ponder over this question my self.

I guess being Indian this question is a sin to ask. Here parents only give to their kids and never expect anything in return, of course except love and respect. Kids are very spoiled here, and most of kids are very alien to idea of paying for their own education, forget about rent and food. Here people stay with parents even after marriage, to save on rent. Please don’t get me wrong, this is the culture for us. We look down at those people who move out after marriage. We are still a country of joint family, though I know this trend is diminishing now.

Well for my parents, my ma is a house wife and my pa was a government servant, but now is a retired man, still working with some private contractor. All food, lodging and education is fully paid by them not only for me but also for my other two siblings. Well infact, when I took a break in my studies and worked for one year to save money for my further educations, my parents were surprised and proud of me.

Given my dad was the only earning member of our family, and he used to earn quite less, meeting ends used to be a challenge for ma. But she never compromised on our studies. We were never spoiled though. Gifts are a big no in my family, I still remember how I once bought a birthday gift for my dad from my monthly allowance and he slapped me back, teaching me not to waste money on no-use things. We always used to get new clothes to wear, even though not frequently. We never used used books, and never sold back my books, ma used to say “books should never be sold, its education, it should be passed.” I must say I still abide by those words.

My parents got us married too, I mean my elder sibling and me. My younger sibling is still studying. They still give us gifts on all the festivals, but never a no-use thing. Even if I’ll offer some money in return, they will not accept it. In India, its not considered good to take money from your girl child. I know that sounds very different in today’s time, but that’s how they are. They only love to give us, expect nothing back in return, other then a call every day. Love both of you ma and pa.

Septembers Final Update and October Goal

September is gone and my marriage is 5 months old. :) wow.

Neways, this blog is not about my life, only finacial part of it.
September was not my month, DH managed it and blown it off.

1) We needed more money then actually allocated, we went over budget. :)
2) CC bill is blown. Quite predictable but not all his fault. He only added some to it, rest were few bad things that just happened along the way.

But yes we really splurged, ate loads of Pizzas, watched 2 movies but not much of shopping. I also had two get together in last month, so all OK.

October, is again to me. Lets see how I fair, I hope of doing good. :)
My goal:

1) simple as always, limit my home budget with Rs. 15000, and lets see how I fair.
2) Have 10 no spend days in october. I am doing this for the first time but lets see how i fair. :)

And yes, I was checking on the contingency cash that I have accumulated through money that I saved while managing house. In just three months, I managed to save around Rs 6000, out of which we already took 1000 last month to meet the ends. So, now I am left with Rs 5000 and thinking of putting it in some saving account. Lets see how this goes! Will update you all, but thought of sharing this with you all.

Me seems to be back.. atleast for now

I missed this, reading and writing.
I almost read all that you all wrote in the meantime, even though not commented much.
First of all some updates from my side:
1) I recently changed my team I work for. It was tough, I was working on last product for almost 3 years and was completely in my confort zone, but thats exactly what I hate. I love everyday to be tough and challenging. Initial 15 days in this new project were very very tough. I don't know linux, I dread it. Now that will be main platform for my development, so things are going to be tough for another 6 months. But I am sure I'll learn a great deal in return.

2) Last month, DH managed home finances(or shall I say blown them up :)), but I guess he has tasted what I wanted him to know. This I'll be able to comment more only in coming days. Exactly about my finances later, but it was fun. I mean yuu just sitting and he managing the numbers, fun. :) We should do this every 6 months.

3) I finally recovered completely from my illness. My throat and mouth seems to be doing perfectly fine for now. Fingers are crossed.

I think put lots of things on track last month, so I call it a success month. :)

Teak Wood

I love buying things for my home and furniture is just one of those things. I prefer teak wood furniture over anything else, and here I list few of the reasons for same:

1) Teak wood is highly resistant to termites.
2) Teak has huge structural strength and durability
3) Due to its high oil content, teak wood is water repellent which also makes it resistant to insect infestation.
4) Teak furniture is known for its rich warm color and satiny smooth surface.
5) The application of teak oil extends the life of teak furniture, which is easy to do.
6) If you do decide to oil your teak furniture, remember to apply the oil before the color begins to fade - and always apply the oil on clean surfaces or else the trapped dirt may cause your teak furniture to turn black.
7) If you are in the market for teak furniture, you may be surprised to find out that teak furniture is quite expensive. But, if you are tired of replacing your patio furniture every year or so, the purchase of teak furniture may actually save you money over the years.