Weekend Ramblings..

Weekend is when we un-ravel from a long week at work and all we ever wanted to do was stay at home. With the baby on its way, we have started socializing more. I am trying to get in touch with friends who have had babies! They give me a ton of advice that are mostly very educative! Until I conceived, my husband and I would hang out more with other single friends / married friends without kids... It suited our lifestyle.

It is funny how overnight our outlook changes! That too even before the baby is due. All of a sudden, I am browsing through baby blogs, spotting baby stuff in every mall I visit and even browsing through preschool section of Education.com (albeit the last one was taking it too far... but what can I say? )

It is indeed a blessing that a baby takes 9 months for it to grow from a fertilized egg to full form :) As parents we have ample time to prepare for the baby. In India, age-old traditions prevail and keeping with the tradition, we have not decided to buy any baby gear until the baby finally arrives! It is considered bad luck to buy baby gear before the baby is born and we do not want to screw with our luck! It is assumed that people who have already had babies will pass on their newborn baby stuff that their kid has outgrown to us .. But being the chronic planner that I am, I have already listed down several stuff that I anticipate that I will have to get once the baby gets here ( more on that on another email...) . I doubt the husband and I would be investing a lot though on baby gear. We strongly believe that babies do not need half the stuff that people advertise !

How was your weekend? Mine has been good so far. My parents had come to my locality yesterday. Dad had got a cataract operation done two weeks ago and this was his final post-op checkup to ensure that everything was fine and he could get back to work. I invited them over for lunch and mom (who rarely comes home empty-handed) brought her amazing Cabbage Vangibath and Pineapple Kesaribath. I ate my heart's fill. Today, I had my husband's friend and my cousin's family over for lunch and we had a nice lunch followed by icecream! Everyone came back for seconds both with the food and icecream! I love the fact that we can enjoy people's company at home and at the same time have a great time for hours together at home unlike a meal at a hotel that lasts 1 hour at the most!! These are more intimate and we can really relate much more! Plus of course eating at home costs lesser than eating outside - which is always a plus in my book!

That's it for now, wish you all a great weekend!

..Being frugal?

I work late nights and so does my husband. We have a cook. It is not considered a frugal option by most people. But the fact that we have a cook means that we have lovely, tasty, home cooked meals for us each night so inspite of our late hours at work (we both love our jobs, so the option of one of us happily staying at home is out of the question..), we end up eating at home each night - food prepared by our cook - that is healthier catering to our tastes rather than the options available for take out at different restaurants.

I personally consider this a frugal expense, because I spend less on groceries+cook's salary than what I would pay to eat unhealthy food picked up on the way back home each night. Definitely,  my mom making all her meals at home while we were young, she saved more more money than me. But this works for me and I believe I am being frugal considering my circumstances :) My mom gave up a florishing career to be a stay-at-home mom for my brother and I. I believe I had a more sheltered childhood due to the constant presence and attention that my mom served me. But in my circumstances, I believe earning my share of income for the household is how I am contributing to my family - and one of the best decisions that I am making for my baby is having a cook who would prepare meals at home and we all would eat together just like how it is done in a traditional Indian household!!