5 Effortless Ways to Save Water

With the constant news feed of Selangor-KL water crisis, the short term strategy in alleviating the problem is perhaps by reducing the households consumption.

As responsible citizens, here are 5 effortless ways that could save water.

1. Take shorter bath

Instead of having 30 minutes water wasting bath, take a short shower. Reduce your "thinking time" in your shower room.

2. Off the tap while brushing teeth

A lot of people have the bad habit of letting the water to flow while they brush their teeth. Just a simple tap could stop the fresh water from flowing to drain.

3. Fix leaking pipes

Not only save you money, it could also put off one of the things in your to-do list.

4. Accumulate Laundry

Instead of washing your clothes everyday, accumulate laundry and wash it in one go every 3 days. Not only save you money, but detergents and time too.

5. Collect rain-water 

Put a bucket or two outside to collect rain-water. You could use it to wash the front yard or to water the plants. Free water which is effortless to do. But keep in mind not to let the still water be there for long to avoid mosquito breeding.

How to Use Waze App (With Step-by-Step Screenshots)

If you have no sense of direction, you will no longer get lost by friending Waze. Personally, I found Waze easy to use, free, updated and most importantly give 95% navigation accuracy.

To all directionally challenged readers, let's learn how to use Waze.

1. In case you have no idea how does it look like:) Download if you do not have one yet.

2. After you open this, it should show you the map where you are currently located at

3. You should notice the Waze logo on your bottom left. Click that logo to show the menu as follows:

4. Click the "Navigate" and you can start typing your destination, eg. Lowyat MSC Sdn Bhd.
5. You should then see the image below, click "Go" to start your journey or you can even click the "Add to Favorites" to save this location so that you can have access to this location more easily in the future.

5. You should then see the picture below showing you the expected arrival time and the distance. Click "Go" to start your journey.

6. As you can see, it shows you your "next action" at the top of the screen.

7. Say you would like to know how will it lead you to your destination, you can just simply click the "next action" at the top of the screen and you will see all turns as shown in the picture below. How convenient!

8. You can even choose the routes that you would like to go. To do this, click the Waze icon at the bottom left to pop out the image below. Click "Routes" and you should see all the available routes that you might want to take for your convenience, eg. to avoid toll.

You can also on/off the sound by clicking the sound icon.

[Tip 1] Waze does not consume a lot of internet data. Its internet usage is almost equivalent to using Whatsapp in your phone. So, no worry of draining your data.

[Tip 2] However, it will consume your phone battery. So, it is better for you to bring power bank or USB to charge your phone in the car.

[Tip 3] Waze will show you the name of the road if you press the road for more than 3 secs.

Lets get started, DRIVE SAFE! 

10 Ways to Earn Extra Money in University/College

Coming from middle class family, I totally understand the financial constraints that we met in our college time. With the increasing education costs and living expenses, we could not fully depend on our parents. If you are a 80s or early 90s, life will be slightly easier with the help of PTPTN. 

However, starting November 2014, only children of BR1M recipients able to apply for full loan.  This changes will see a reduction of 5% to public institutions students and reduction of 15% to private institutions. Click here to view the news.

Instead of constant lamenting, we ought to think ways to fill in the discrepancies.

Here are 10 ways to earn extra money in university/college.

1. Tutoring

If you have good academic performance, you can offer tutoring services to juniors in units that you excel. There is no costs involved and only some pre-reading required. Plus, it enhanced your communication skills and enlarge your network with junior.

Otherwise, you can opt to tutor primary/secondary schools children. If you have a passion in teaching, this might be a good time for you to gain experience. If you like children, it would be a double plus, as you are doing things you like.

2. Restaurants/Cafes

The most mainstream part time job is non other than being waiter/waitress in restaurants/cafes. No costs involved and only required your energy and time. Plus, it gives you working experience and the chance to serve other people. My own experience told me that you will meet various kinds of people and in the end, you will learn to treat other people well, which is so important to a well-being.

If you are passionate in coffees or baking, it is a good chance to learn a skill by working in a restaurant/cafe. I learnt different types of wine and restaurant management systems during my time.

3. Weekend promoters

In Kuala Lumpur, there are always exhibitions which required weekend promoters. The pay is usually per day and is highly flexible. It also trains your 'selling' skills which will be important in many careers. Of course, you will also have many contacts from different companies and networks. Most importantly, these jobs are flexible and will not affect your studies.

4. Multi-Layer Marketing

You can join multi-layer marketing such as AmWay to increase your passive income. Besides teaching you selling skills, they have constant meet-up to enlarge your network and talks to keep you inspired (not only in selling, but in life too). Besides, this job can be continued even after you graduated. However, noted that there are annual membership fees involved.

5. Insurance/Property Agents

If you are serious, you can spend some time applying for insurance agents/property agents license in your uni time. Starting early, you are earning commissions by the time your peer friends graduate. Also, it helps you expanding network and your 'selling' skills not mentioning the lucrative commissions.

6. Partial Internship

If you are really passionate with what you are studying, I recommend you to find a part-time internship. It might be rare but I do think some small companies are willing to for cheap labour. For example, my friend who is studying Quantity Surveying works in a construction company. Besides gaining industrial experience earlier, you might be able to find a mentor to help you with career. You are already one step ahead than your peers.

7. Working in University ( Admin, Residential Advisor, Research Assistant)

If you have no luck with all of the above so far, try to work in your university compound. Are they looking for some admin staffs? Are you a suitable candidate for residential advisor? Keep your eyes and ears open, you might able to get some part-time jobs in the university. The best thing working in uni is you save your time and costs travelling.

8. Online Business

Online business has been a trend lately and with the advancements in the virtual world, doing online business is easier than ever. Sell some things that you are passionate about. For example, if you have high fashion sense, you could sell dresses/accessories or if you are gadget fans, you can sell phone accessories. It involves costs for getting inventories but will give you entrepreneur experiences.

9. Selling crafts

If you are arty enough, consider selling some crafts. It could be printed t-shirts, customized shoes, jewelry, customized notebooks, etc. The ideas have no end. Customized items are valuable and people willing to pay for it. If you aimed to be designers, it could be your first portfolio that will add extra colours in your resume. Again, you are already one step ahead than your peer friends.

10. Selling bento/baked goods

Do you like to cook or bake? Make good use of your talent by selling your products. Living far away from home, some of your classmates might dread to have a home-cooked meal. Fulfill their desires by selling bento or inviting them to have dinner at your house. Believe me, home-cooked meal is always better than outside food. Plus, you just have to cook more portions when you prepare your food.

If you are good in baking, you can sell cookies during Raya or Chinese New Years or some people just love cookies anytime in a year. 

Of course, the above only serve as ideas and there are a lot more. More importantly, you should think of what you like to do and what you are good in doing. Monies will always follow.

Beanieplex in TGV 1 Utama

Both of us have never tried watching movies in Beanieplex before and would like to give it a try. This is how we started our exploration with Beanie.

We searched for the TGV 1 Utama showtime to check what movies are available on Friday. There were only two, i.e. Interstellar and John Wick . Obviously, the first thing we did was to find their rating on Google and we chose Interstellar due to its 9.2/10 rating in IMDb and considering its length of movie of 2 hours and 49 minutes for us to enjoy our first movie sitting/laying at bean bags. How cool!

We then thought of buying the movie ticket online so that we get to book a nice seat. It should cost RM 46 per twin seat (so it should be RM23 per person). You can choose your seats online too and there is RM 1 booking fee. The Beanieplex can fit up to 20 twin seats as you may see in the photo below.

However, we ended up buying ticket at the TGV 1 Utama counter itself since we arrived earlier. Here was something surprising us happened. While we paid our movie tickets using American Express (AMEX) credit card at the counter, they gave us 2 regular popcorn set for FREE. Upon checking, it is because AMEX promotion from Maybank. Basically if you spend more than RM 20 at TGV using AMEX credit card from Maybank, you will get a free regular popcorn set (with drinks) for free. We had spent RM46 on TGV so we have got 2 regular sets! Note that this promotion is valid until 31 December 2014.

We chose a seat on the most right side and it is perfectly fine. The beanie seat are wide enough for 2 people to settle comfortably. The seats are designed to ensure privacy, so we won't see what others are doing from our seats (and vice versa!). Both of us sank into the beanie and took our most comfortable posture. You might want to adjust the beanie first (even them out) before you settle in so that it could captures your postures. Then, lay back, eat popcorn and enjoy the movie.

One side thing to note, if you are watching Interstellar, don't drink too much water to avoid multiple toilet trips.

The following show some photos for you to know how is the condition in the Beanieplex.

[Tip 1] It's OK to go with friends instead of couples. We saw many too.

[Tip 2] You can't have more than 2 people buying only 1 twin seat although the bean bag seat is more than enough to fit 4 people. This is because they will only issue 2 movie tickets per twin seat.

[Tip 3] Beanieplex is available at

1. TGV 1 Utama (Petaling Jaya, Selangor) 
2. TGV Sunway Pyramid (Petaling Jaya, Selangor) 
3. TGV AEON Bukit Tinggi Shopping Centre (Klang, Selangor)
4. TGV Setiawalk Mall (Puchong, Selangor)
5. TGV AEON Tebrau City Shopping Centre (Johor Bahru, Johor)
6. TGV 1st Avenue (Georgetown, Penang)

7 Simple Tips to Save You Money on Transportations

Recent news from the Star SPAD Seeks to Increase Public Transoprt Fares will give many gloomy face. With the fuel price and public transport fees hiking, it is not easy to survive in the city. Not mentioning the withdrawal petrol subsidy next year and GST implementation, it certainly adds burden to middle income class group especially those fresh graduates who have minimal income but incur similar hike in expenses like others without any "give out" from government.

Here are 7 simple tips for you to save some cents on transportation costs.

Budgeting

You could start by thinking of how much you spend regularly on transportation. Personally, I drive to LRT station and take LRT to my workplace on weekdays. The parking fees at the LRT station is RM 4 per day and the return trip of LRT is RM4.20 per day. Also, I will need to refill RM30 petrol weekly. This sums up to RM 284, roughly 10% of my salary on transportation per month! 

Here's the tip, if you are using LRT for almost RM 100 per month, you might as well using unlimited pass which cap your usage at RM100.

Think of how much you spend will give you a rough idea on how much you use. Thus, you will make more careful driving plan to prevent unnecessary trips. For example, run multiple errands on one go instead of several different trips.

Planning

I have make it a habit to refill my petrol tank on weekends every week to enjoy 5% cashback from Maybank Amex. If I know what is ahead, then I could fill my tank as necessary on prior.

It also helps me to keep track my fuel usage. 

Avoid driving in rush hour

If your working time is flexible, you might as well choose not to come to office during rush hour. Perhaps come into office 30 minutes later or earlier.

Car pool

On weekends outing, take turns to offer rides between friends, so that only one car is used each time. Once, two friends and I drove 3 cars to meet up which is a huge waste. Make it a habit to car pool.

Send your car to regular maintenance 

An efficient engine could use fuel more efficiently. Also, it promotes road safety and avoids towing your car if it breaks down in the middle of the road.

Avoid putting heavy things in the bonnet

Heavy things such as golf equipment and children pram should not be kept long term in your bonnet. You will have to step harder on your accelerator if your car is heavy.

Maintain your tyres pressure

Flat tyres consume more fuel and make your car feels draggy. Check pressure table on the right of the driver seat to find out the optimum pressure.

U Mobile Non-Stop Streaming on YouTube and Tonton

Santa Mobile is coming to town, guess what? Another great news from U Mobile!

If you are currently a U Mobile user, you might be entitled to FOC non-stop streaming on YouTube and Tonton without doing anything!

Eligibility:

-ALL Postpaid plan users

-UMI or MB Prepaid plan users who constantly top up their credits

When can I enjoy this free streaming?

2am-10am daily including weekends from now till 31st December 2014.

How much to pay for this streaming?

Free! No sms subscription or registration is needed either.

Say I am eligible for this free streaming, how do I know whether U Mobile registers me under this free service?

If you are eligible for it, you will automatically been signed up to be able to use this free streaming. Usually a message will be sent to your phone upon activation of this service. But I did not receive any. To be secure, you can call U Mobile service to confirm this at 0183881318 (which is what I did)

What happens after 31st December 2014?

You will automatically remove from the list and subscription, i.e you don't have to call or sms to terminate this service. 

Is there any quota for the free streaming?

During 2am-10am, you will have 500MB high speed for streaming. After that usage , you can still enjoy free streaming but with speed of 512kbps provided it is still between 2am -10 am.

[Tip 1] Basically, the best way for you to enjoy this is by calling U Mobile at 0183881318 to confirm your entitlement and then start enjoy it! There is no more asymmetric terms and condition that you should be worrying at.

[Tip 2] Even sub-line user can enjoy this free streaming. 

For more information, you can have a look at UMobile FAQ