Bills, Gas, and Dishes in the Sink

There are same principle that I applied when it comes to bills, gas, and dishes in the sink. I do it right away. I do it while they still "small". I don't wait until it all pile up.

For my bills, I do it right away when they come. I don't pile all the bills until it got into an unmanageable level. I don't wait until due date, ho ho ho, not me!

For gas, if I see the tank is between a quarter or half empty, I fill it right away. I don't even wait until half actually. A principle I inherited from my dad. Papa always said, when your gas reach a quarter empty, fill it out. You never know what happen in life that may make you not have a chance to fill it up. And before you know it, you'll reach the E line (aka Empty).

For dishes in the sink, I wash it right away. While it's only 1 or 2 plates. Do it NOW. That way my sink is always empty and free from dirty dishes. I love the emptiness of my sink. Feel so zen.

I feel so organized living this way. Everything is in order. And I love order in my life. Feel so peaceful, calm, and content with finishing things that I need to working on. I feel accomplished! Try out this principle. You may benefit on having less stress when it comes to pay bills, fill up gas, and washing dishes in the sink.

This principle I applied too to managing my email in my inbox. Once email come, I "work" on it. I either reply, work on the task of it, or file it in it's respected folders. Both my personal email and my work emails have some folders. This really helps me to organize emails. I could be really stress when I see 1000++ email on someone's inbox. It feels so cluttered and organized. And how you can find something on those gigantic massive piles of emails?

Do something while it small helps to make our life more efficient. That way we will gain more time too. Instead of spending 1 hour tackling bills, now you only spend 10 minutes max. Sometimes even less if you just paying 1 bill online. Click, click, and done!

Hope you can apply this tips and find this useful! After all, we all can live more peaceful with some organization and de-cluttered lives. Less stress this way.

Buy a house vs Rent an apartment?

When one can afford, of course the choice is to buy a house.

But buying a house is not just buying a house. From my experience as a homeowner for 9 years, buying a house is a responsibility.

In your apartment, if something breaks down, you can just call the maintenance and they fix it for you for free, without you have to worry calling your own plumber when the toilet doesn't work. But when you're a homeowner, well, you better have the directory of jack of all trades. Since when things broken, you gotta either fix it yourself, or be ready to shell out a shocking amount of money to fix whatever need to be fixed.

Also eventually things need to be replaced. Roof eventually need to be replaced and they are not cheap. When you want to become a homeowner, are you ready for this? Do you already set aside some house sinking funds to pay for all the maintenance at your property?

So now that I'm being back to single life again, it's just so simple me of me to just rent an apartment. I can save a lot of money so one day I can buy a house again, hopefully with my future husband! Whoever that is! :)

There's another choice - manufactured home. Aka mobile home. But I just don't feel like it. Buying a mobile home is kinda a cross between buying a real home and renting an apartment, because you don't own the land. You have to pay the rent for the land. And you know with renting, is always going up. Unless if you buy a manufacture home and buy the land together.

I am content living in my apartment now. I'm going to give it 2 years. It's not wasting money, actually it's saving money. Why? Because the cost is really make a difference. Owning a home is not just mortgage. It's utilities. It's fixing the stuff. It's setting aside money to fix fence, roof, future broken things. It's things so of course it will be broken.

Beside that, I don't feel I want to own a home when I'm single and never home. I work 40 hours a week minimum (and I work Saturday too occasionally, so there you go, about 43 hours/week). And on Sunday, I ran errands and like to do out and about. I rarely home. Possibly just enjoying my single life now. Hehehe. I feel that I want to own a home with my future new family. So we'll see.

So in the meantime, I'm saving money now by living in apartment. I only pay rent for the place for me to sleep, and the place for my car to sleep aka garage, hehehehe. It's cost effective. So now I can save, save, save!

I love my apartment. The management are so good. They also have great amenities like clubhouse, gym (yay free membership), pool, hot tub, and trash valet, plus security guards at night. How awesome!!! I'm just enjoying my life now! :) Enjoy it as long as I can before I buy my next house!