Christmas Finance Friday: Know your Needs from Wants!

Okay, to be honest, this is a wishlist disguised as a Finance Friday post. How sneaky of me! But let's get real, shall we? It's Christmas! Christmas is the time for spending, and it's so hard to think of saving up in the most wonderful time of the year.

Disclaimer: Only think about spending if you're spending within your means and if you have some emergency fund stocked up. 

Anyway, since spending is inevitable every December (at least for me it is!), instead of talking about saving and investing, let's talk about spending wisely instead! For starters, if you're planning of coming up with a wishlist, you can divide it into categories. A great post I found was this, and so I shamelessly copied imitated created an inspired copy. Here it is:

Here's a "special wishlist" I created for, who else, Yuri. I know I wanted to buy a lot of things for Yuri, but being the careful spender that I am (I kid, I kid), I wanted to prioritize Yuri's needs rather than my wants for him. Do you see the difference?

For example, let's begin with the WANTS category above. I want to create a mini-library for Yuri, which entails buying a front-facing bookshelf and a cozy lounging/reading chair.

However, aside from the fact that they cost a lot, it's not practical to buy them now for two reasons. First, Yuri is still a very young toddler with a very short attention span, and second, they would take up too much space in my parents' house.

= In other words, they are nice to have, but we can live without them.

On the other hand, for the NEEDS, I listed big, waterproof bibs, a potty-chair, and a straw cup. I need to buy Yuri large and waterproof bibs because he loves to play with his drinking water. All the time. 

I also need to buy Yuri a potty-chair because for now, toilet seats are out of the question.

Finally, Yuri's sippy-cup at home is already nearing its natural death; a straw-cup would be best for his toddler needs. The simpler the better. 

= The bottomline is we need them very soon. 

As for the next two categories, in my opinion, WEAR is considered WANT because unless Yuri has absolutely nothing to wear already, every piece of apparel I buy is unnecessary (as Job never fails to point out).

Easy-Peasy Breakfast Ideas (A Round-Up)

Good morning and happy Thursday! It is Thursday na, right? Oh Mommy Brain is real; I can't keep track of the days anymore, and I'm only 23!

Anyway, to offer you a measly excuse, it is still before 9 in the morning. Mornings are the most hectic part of my days. And when I say "hectic," just believe me that it is. I barely sit from 7-9, and the only times I get to sit are (one) while feeding Yuri (which is a hectic experience by itself) and (two) while working. Okay. Friends with no children: you'll never know what busy is until you have children!

That's not to say that I don't enjoy motherhood. I am! However, when mornings become too hectic, it's not difficult to become super stressed. Lalo na ngayon that we're having a new struggle. You see, I always let Yuri sleep in. It doesn't matter what time he gets up because I believe sleep is crucial to growth. So it's not rare that he sleeps until 7:30 in the morning - and even if I do get a bit stressed (I calculate the time left for me to prepare breakfast, etc.), I let him be.

However, recently, even after getting up and nursing a bit, he refuses to get up. As in he was like me when I was a child. He would go back to lying down and would say, "tuyog," even if he's not the least bit sleepy. So imagine how even more stressed I become!

 Of course, it is hard to stay stressed when I see this face.

The solution, for me, to lessen the hecticness of the hustle-and-bustle of my mornings is to create breakfast the night before. If I get busy in the evening, which is inevitable, I have "backup 5-minute" recipes to make. Here's a round-up of some of the breakfasts I have made for Yuri in the past:

1. Mango Frozen Yogurt

Preparation Time: 2 Minutes
Blending Time: 2 Minutes
Ingredients: 1 whole manggo, 1 cup yogurt, 2 tablespoons fresh milk, and 2 tablespoons honey

2. Banana-Peanut Butter "Ice Cream"

Prep time: 3 minutes
Blending time: 5 minutes or more (depending on your blender's power)
Ingredients: SEE HERE

3. 5-Minute Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Cake

Prep time: 3 minutes
"Baking" time: Around 5 minutes
Ingredients: SEE HERE

4. 5-Minute Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Prep time: 2 minutes
"Baking" time: N/A
Ingredients: SEE HERE

5. "Imbento" Brownies

What's in my Diaper Bag? (Toddler Edition)

More than a year ago, when Yuri was just 6 months old, I wrote my first-ever what's-in-my-diaper-bag post (you can read it here). I happened to be backreading when I stumbled upon that post. Ang dami ko palang dala noon! No wonder I got myself a huge diaper bag!

Now that Yuri is already 20 months old, I discovered I've been bringing a lot less stuff with me. Actually, compared to when Yuri was a baby, I've been bringing less stuff when he turned 1. Now that he's starting to be an independent toddler, I've been bringing  far less stuff. In fact, I got myself a small diaper bag to fit our more active lifestyle. Charot, kung maka-active! Haha!

Anyway, if you're curious, or if you have an infant and still hoping for a more streamlined diaper packing assembly in the morning, I'll show you what I usually bring when I go out with Yuri. Disclaimer: I still usually bring an even smaller bag for my personal belongings - AKA the mom bag. Okay, here are the contents of our toddler-edition diaper bag:

The bag: Carter's diaper bag, which is less than half the size of my previous Baby Couture bag

 Solid feeding essentials: Avent sippy cup, Richell snack cup, and spoon and fork from a set given by Auntie Melissa

I love our Richell feeding cup because it contains its own spoon! I bought it early this year from Zalora but found that they don't sell baby stuff anymore. 

 Must have: Extra shirt and a pair of busha pants which don't take too much room in the bag. These are important because (1) Yuri is a very sweaty kid and (2) you just never know when an "accident" will happen.

 Optional: We still breastfeed, and while Yuri very rarely nurses in public for months now, I still carry with me a nursing cover. Just in case.

Essentials: I've had the same clear pouch for more than a year now; it's from the Baby Couture diaper bag.

I bring with me 1 or 2 diapers (depending on how long we'll be gone), regular wipes, hand-and-face wipes, and Boogie wipes. I realize I'm now bringing more wipes than when Yuri was a baby!

 Essentials: Baby powder, either Human ❤ Nature or GIGA Baby mosquito repellent, and any brand of hand sanitizer (will try Human Nature next time)

Yuri and the Attack of the Insects! (Review: GIGA Baby Balm)

I always let Yuri play outside whenever the weather permits it. First, Vitamin D is good for him. Second, it tires him out and he sleeps deeply in his afternoon naps. Third, well, I just want to see him a bit tanned than just white.

However, I had to stop him from going out for a while. This is because a few weeks ago, Yuri got a huge insect bite on his leg:

I didn't know what caused the bite. Is it a mosquito? Is it an ant? Within the day and in the next days, he got several new insect bites all over his body:

What caused those big angry bites? And those are just a few of his insect bites ha! There were more insect bites sprouting in the next days. There were a few mosquitoes in the house, but they never bite Yuri because I always see to it that he uses an insect repellent (we use GIGA and Human Nature). Those insect bites didn't look like mosquito bites, either. However, Yuri was visibly bothered by them. Kawawa. :-(

I hate you, but it's not your fault this time!

As first aid, I tried putting on his eczema ointment. I'm sure it doesn't do anything to the insect bites, but because I didn't have anything else at hand, I was hoping it would relieve the itch.

However, it did not. While it did not harm Yuri in any way, using that medicated cream only made him smell like medicine. So the next day, I did my research and found out that GIGA, a store I frequent, sells a baby balm that could be used for insect bites. That Sunday, I immediately bought one:

Like what I said in my November Fun and Frugal Finds post, I like how the balm has a pleasant smell. It's not overpowering unlike medicated creams and Citronella sprays. This means I could use it without irritating our noses (I am very sensitive to strong smells).

More importantly, after just one day, I immediately saw it taking effect. Take note ha, that was less than 24 hours. The big red angry bites immediately reduced into these:

Dinner at Vikings

Warning: Photo overload ahead :-)

After months of its opening, I finally get to try Viking's! It was my mom's birthday last Saturday, and we were supposed to have a Saturday night dinner. However, the place was already fully booked, so we moved our reservation to Sunday night.

It's Monday morning now and I'm still too pooped to write! At least, it was morning when I began writing this post. That was before we had a poop accident here (Yuri's, of course) and I had to take a bath and found out I had to re-upload all the photos. Grrsssk.

Anyway I was sooo tired last night! We didn't even stay late, but mothers of toddlers would know. Since I'm still so tired, I'll let the photos and the captions do the talking:

Yuri's OOTD.  He was supposed to wear his long-sleeved Elmo shirt from my preloved loot here, but the weather last Sunday evening turned out to be hot and humid! You can even see the sun in the photos at home.

 Choosing which books to bring

 I just realized I was still wearing pambahay slippers here. Oops!

 Seated and waiting

 I'm happy to say Vikings has a lot of divider plates for toddlers and children! I found their plates cute. I wonder where they got it!

Munching on some "appetizers" while waiting for the others to finish "looting"

Potato chips, garlic sauce, cheesy lasagna

 Not my plate :P