Thursday, August 26, 2010

Number 1!!!

First, I won 1 million coins:


Woohoo!!!!

And then, using the coins I won, I was able to climb to the number 1 spot on my leader board!!!


This is my highest score ever!!! :)

Denim-Dress Bag - A Cute Find

I found this cute little bag at the grocery store (yes, grocery store!) near my house last month:

It's a small bag in the shape of a denim dress. It's so cute! The storage space inside is only about 7x5 inches (in other words, practically useless). The stage-mother in me screamed that Andrea will look so adorable carrying this... only, you know... Andrea was only 9 months old at the time and the bag was a bit expensive for a non-essential bauble.

Stage mother won the argument though :)

I meant to post a picture after I bought it but things got a little busy and I only remembered I had it yesterday morning while I was digging through my bags before I left home for work. I took a quick photo using my phone (hence the quality! aarggh!).

Monday, August 23, 2010

Getting a Car Loan 101

For the first time in my life, I am applying for a loan from the bank.

After 14 years of service, our old car proved itself too inconvenient to maintain (i.e. it stalled on my husband one night on his way home... had to be towed and it cost us to get it running again). So number 4 on my list is about to come true!

My husband is mortally afraid of credit, for some reason. We can't even use our credit cards much without him getting all tied up in knots. We always end up paying for our credit card purchases within the week. Until last night, he was contemplating paying for the new car in cash, which will mean pulling out some of our savings that we put on investment plans which I strongly opposed because the market is doing well right now. After much discussion (and stress!), he finally agreed to the loan.

Here's one thing I learned about the entire process: You need money when you apply for a car loan.

Ironic isn't it? ;)

Here are a few things you will need to pay for in cash, which can not be part of the money you are borrowing from the bank:

1. Downpayment (or partipation fee or something). The bank won't give you the entire amount you need for your car. You need to shoulder part of the expense. This wasn't so bad in our case since we knew about this and we really planned to pay for at least 70% of the total cost in cash.

2. Registration fee. Sometimes you can get this for free if you are buying brand new.

3. TPL. Required for registration.

4. Comprehensive insurance.

5. Chattel mortgage. Ok this was the first time I heard about this. According to my mom, it's morgage you pay for a loan with movable collaterals. Movable collateral like cars. *sigh*

6. Add-ons. Leather seat cover (which I requested, surprise! surprise! It was just so pretty!), rain guard, sensors, undercoating... etc., etc... all foreign words to me but apparently, we need it and it's not part of the car price so we will pay additional for it.


*sigh*