Notepad Corner

So you and your family just moved-in into a new home and your friends are all excited for a house warming party that is sure to come next. Although there are still lots of things to organize and most of your stuff is still packed up, you too can’t help but look forward to that date when your friends and loved ones will come and visit you in your new home. So while you struggle with your budget after slashing off move-in related expenses, here are some budget-saving tips that can help you prepare for a simple yet memorable house warming and future parti es in your new home. Set the Mood . Arrange your living room furniture to provide ample moving space and comfortable seating. You may also open up doors that lead to your patio so that your guest can move freely and enjoy fresh air if they want. You can also offer smoking guest with electronic cigarettes as great alternatives for their cigarette breaks. If in case you are planning to buy liquids or juice for  vaping needs, y

If you love entertaining and you are looking for some ideas for your next party then you have come to the right place. When we decorate and furnish our homes, the impression it makes on our friends and guests is foremost in our minds. We look in trendy magazines and websites for ideas. Everything from lighting, wallpaper, storage and flooring needs to be considered. There are times when we wish the clean up after a party wasn’t quite so devastating. The carpet always picks up a new stain, and the walls seem to have interesting spatter decorations in places we didn’t expect anyone to be! Undoubtedly something ornamental gets broken, and the glassware casualties are too numerous to count. Image courtesy of Fiberon on Flickr - https://flic.kr/p/6X1oKC Moving the party to the garden can help restrict some of these breakage occurrences in the house. The neighbors may need to be invited though to keep everyone happy with the additional noise from the yard. If you do have s

As a mother, I’m always after the welfare and safety of my children even if they are well along in years already. I’m just glad that I have gone past that stage where everything in the house needs to be childproofed to ensure utmost safety for young kids. Nevertheless, if you’re barely starting to raise a family or if you have young kids running around the house, you might want to read on to find out how you can make your kitchen, particularly your kitchen cabinets, child-friendly. The first thing you need to consider is safety. Make sure that you choose cabinet doors and drawers that can easily accommodate childproof latches. As much as possible, you should choose cabinets that can be locked so there won’t be any way your kids can open these. You might also want to make cabinet corners rounded to prevent any head injuries. Next, consider the materials that will be used for the cabinets. This is appropriate in cases where you would call in to have your cabinets cus

Although a fireplace is more an aesthetic structure in modern homes with central heating, it can still be a common necessity for homeowners living in places with cold weather. More often, it’s used as the focal point in the home where families and friends sit around during a cold day. Many home owners opt for a marble fireplace as its elegance easily blends with most settings. But for homes with small children, fireplaces pose many potential dangers. a marble fireplace Help safeguard your children around a fireplace by considering these safety tips. Educate your children that the fireplace is not a toy. Inform them that they can get hurt, injured or burned by playing with it. As much as possible make the fireplace area a child-free room. Install safety barriers around the fireplace, use a metal mesh screen if your fireplace doesn’t have a glass door. Fireplace tools should be kept out of children’s reach. If you have a traditional fireplace, don’t let your chil

Do you know that we can save on groceries and still eat well?  A complete supermarket is a haven for culinary ideas, however I cannot spend luxuriously for I must follow a budget.  Over many years of strolling through mall supermarkets, I’ve learned a few tricks that help me find the right ingredients, cook our family favorites and still control expenses. Tapa and tocino are always requested to be included in our menu at home, due to steep prices of meat, what I do is I ask the butcher to cut meat thinly so a kilo goes a long way, dividing it into 3 or 4 servings and pack it separately for easy and orderly stacking in the freezer. I opt to buy fruits and vegetables in season, then planning my menu around it.  Fresh fruits and vegetables are cheaper when they’re in season.   If fresh produce is not in season, prices skyrocket, so If it’s not in season, I buy canned or dried.   Fresh mushrooms, for example are delicious used in soups and pasta dishes, but dried shiitake mushrooms ar

Are you also looking for ways to save energy and money at home?  Well, I nearly fainted seeing my monthly bills ballooning in the past year, So, I started to implement the austerity program in my household. I keep on looking for ways and learn ideas on how I can decrease or at least regulate my monthly water and electricity billing statements . Here are some money saving ideas and tips that I’ve learned and religiously applying in my household. Home Saving Tip 1: Distinguish between Wants and Needs.  Once inside the supermarket/grocery store, I keep on reminding myself to focus on buying first the high priority items and what is really needed. So, in order for me not to splurge on anything, am only bringing enough cash for my needed things to buy and in order to stay within the budget too.

Being the light of the house, a mother is always expected to do most of the house chores for her family. Cooking, washing the dishes marketing/grocery shopping, house cleaning, tending the children, doing the laundry, ironing clothes, etc., are exhausting tasks for a mother to do alone. Here are some tips to make the daily chores done with ease, making the house a home, a perfect world to live in: Plan house chores ahead, make a list and schedule of the things need to be done on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Delegate and assign tasks to your children according to the age and kind of work he/she would be doing. In my home, we call it “duty”. Simple bed-making after waking up in the morning is already a big help. A clean house makes it pleasant and beautiful, no matter how small it is. You can turn on your radio and listen to your favorite music station while doing the house chores. Marketing and grocery shopping can be done once or twice a week, in my case we do it twic