Tag: happy family

A Character in Wild-pants!

When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When we were five, we were mostly dreamers. A dreamer with eyes wide open. A dreamer deep asleep.

I was too young to think of what I would become as I was told a lot of stories about animals and characters in cartoons. I lived purely in an imaginary world. A fairy tale life, to be precise.

I enjoyed listening to those stories and I imagined I would one day go meet them really and want to spend time with them.

Some stories wouldn’t end well as characters were chased and put to death. That gave me nightmares.

I remember I asked my parents one day if I could stop people killing animals. My parents told me that I should then become a forest officer, wear a uniform, carry a gun and travel in an open jeep. All day and night. A life in the wilderness. 

That’s when I imagined I would be an officer who was out and about helping save the animals.

That gave me pleasure. I thought I would bring those animals home, live with them in the comfort of my parents, brothers and sister.

A happy cartoon family was what I wanted.

 

Penny Wise is How I Budget.

Write about your approach to budgeting.

Budgeting for me revolves mostly around how to cut costs.

I usually place orders through Swiggy, a food delivery chain in India. The delivery most of the time takes time.

If I find the delivery is going to take more than 25 minutes and the restaurant I choose is located close by, I will cancel placing the order and go myself to pick it up. That helps save money on costs.

I ride to work by scooter, as a two-wheeler is easy to drive through busy traffic and a huge saving on gas.

I drive only during weekends. Less traffic, faster roads.

I’ve recently decided to furnish my kitchen with a state-of-art chimney as smoke stays in and that cause embarrassment when guests visit my home.

I called a couple of agencies and asked how much that would cost me. Many said quotes that sounded too unrealistic. The budget ran into two lakh (₹225K) rupees. 

I quickly hired an electrician, took him to a store close by, bought a wall-mounted fan costing about ₹1400 and asked him to fix it in the kitchen.

It’s a breeze. Fan on oscillation. No smoke. Positioned in such a vantage place, the flame on the stove is not disturbed at all.

Saving costs, therefore, is budgeting for me.

How to keep the hospital bills down? Eat healthy. Every day.