#YayaProblems on a Monday morning! Not a rant though.. just a reminder sa lahat ng amo on how to deal with Yaya with less stress on us!

OCD attack on a Monday morning is no good. Must unsee my kids’ closet! But it’s so haaaard! The hangers were hooked in different directions! #YayaProblems

I have told my helper, not just once, how my kids’ clothes should be hang. All clothes facing left, she did it right this time…uhhhm not that right actually. As I have said, hangers were hooked in different directions. WAIT! Before I turn into a boszilla.. have I told that her that all hangers should be hooked in one direction. I guess I didn’t! Oppps! My bad!

Now, how to tell the Yaya about this?!? Obviously, I must not say that it was her fault or that she’s wrong again this time. I guess I will just admit that I forgot to specify that all hangers should be hooked in the same directions.

Which leads me to ask you, how do you communicate with your Yaya/ helpers?

How do you tell your Yaya that she can’t use your utensils (specially the one used by kids)?

In my case, I tell them right away that I will buy their own utensils. Still awkward for me to that. I felt like I’m discriminating them but I realized, eh I have kids to protect no. But I don’t tell it that way. I just tell them na baka mahawa sila sa mga kids in case may sakit ang mga bata.

Next time, I know na what to do.. buy a set of utensils before hand and give it to the yaya as soon as she arrives.

How do you tell your Yaya to dress appropriately?

Buy her a uniform!

It didn’t work out for me that way. My stay out usually wears pambahay when working (pambahay like sando and shorts shorts). I told her not just once that she should change to something more decent.. she’d always complain about the weather (eh mainit daw). Finally, I told her that she can only continue to work for me if she will change the way she dress. And it worked!

I’d still go for uniform though..

How do you tell your Yaya that she can’t use your Pantene 3MinuteMiracle or anti acne soap?

This was a story told to me by a friend, her Yaya using her imported soaps! GASP!

My tactic is to ask the yaya what brands she uses and include it on our grocery list. Next time, I will also ask what’s her laundry soap brand and if she uses a fabric conditioner (#syalaproblems). The best thing to do is buy her a month’s supply and tell her it’s for one month na.

How do you tell your Yaya that the Joy you brought is for a month and not just a week of washing dishes.

My recent #YayaProblem (aside from the closet thingy LOL). I discovered that the 600ml Joy I bought one week ago is almost empty! Eh pang 1 month supply namin yun! I guess I need to re orient my helper about the supplies here in our house.

Lastly, how do you tell your Yaya that her day off is not an extended vacation?

Err I don’t have any advice on this one. I choose not to stress myself over the fact that my yaya usually go home on Saturday night and comes back Monday morning. Kaya ko naman ng wala sya kahit paano.. tambak na lang hugasin sa lababo hehehe

When it comes to helpers talaga, you really need to be very very specific no? Like you just don’t tell/ explain the step by steps of how things should be done. You need to elaaaaaboraaaate.. Step1.1.a  and then go to Step 1.1.b tapos tsaka pa lang sa Step 1.2.a

How about you?!? Any #YayaProblems and #HowToTellYaya recently?

During the Holidays, my freezer suffered a lot from my mom’s hands! Waahahahaha

The mister is complaining! How can he buy me a new ref daw eh ang gulo gulo ng freezer ko. Ah magulo ba? Sige ayusin natin yan!

Oh what do you think?!? Malapit na ba ako magkaroon ng bagong ref?!?

Actually, my freezer is not that organized most of the times. I usually use rectangular plastic wares for storage and expected, madalas hindi kasya sa freezer ang two weeks supply namin.

TWO WEEKS talaga? Yup! Di ba nga according sa 5 Financial tips ko, limit your palengke trips, that’s why we have ulam na for 2 weeks. Less palengke trips less gastos. Eh how about the veggies? I have a solution for that! We buy veggies in bulk too, and we store it by blanching it.

A few weeks ago, I received a package from Glad that contains some of their products (gulay not included of course!)

I love using the cling wrap! I used it for fruits like Pakwan:

Later on I discovered how useful the Glad Storage Zipper Bags. It’s now my most favorite Glad products ever! The quart zipper bag is the perfect sized zipper bag for our daily meals.

I love putting green peas on almost any dish possible.. fried rice, caldereta, chicken curry.. kung pwede lang pati sa sinigang! Sobrang perfect nung zipper lock for my green peas. Kukuha lang ako ng kaunti and I can put it back on my fridge without worrying na baka magkalat sila.

My buffalo wings and katsu are all safe inside the zipper bag. Most of these are for my kids’ baon.

Di ba I told you about blanching vegetables? This time, aside from blanching, I mixed my veggies na. Now I can have chopsuey anytime!

And my most favorite part: BACON! One pack of bacon is too much naman sa amin.. I divided two packs into three and store it using the zipper bag. Isang bag, isang lutuan!

Other than food storage, the zipper bag can also be used for marinating (no mess!), for packing lunch or snack packs and for small items that needs to be stored (check how Mommy Levy used Glad Storage Zipper Bags for Ren’s lego). I think I’ll be using the bigger zipper bags for the arrival of Marius (will be placing his 1st clothes).

Aside from the zipper bag (that comes in 2 sizes) and cling wrap, here are the other Food Storage Solutions from Glad:

• Glad Cling Wrap
• Glad Press ‘n Seal
• Glad Freezer Zipper
• Gladware
• Glad OvenWare

The zipper bag can be recycled too! It won’t hurt the budget that much. Initial worry ko yan eh, do I need to buy Glad Storage zipper bags every payday?!? Hindi naman pala since I can recycle it. Space saver pa! I never imagined na mapapagkasya ko ang 2 week supply sa ref! Now I don’t think I need a bigger ref! OPS!

As most of you all know, we’ve been renting an apartment since we started our family. It was only in 2013 that we decided to purchase our own house. We moved to our house just last year, imagine we’ve been renting an apartment for 10 years! It’s not that easy to buy a house here in the Philippines. And it’s not easy to look for the perfect place/ community to grow a family. We even considered going abroad and see if we can start anew.

Out of all the places, we fell in love in Australia. Melbourne is ranked as most liveable city! The city is filled with parks, perfect for big family like ours. It’s also considered as UNESCO City of Literature, so many books to fill my kids’ curious minds! And of course, the houses!

We both wanted a house and not a condominium. It’s a big factor that we’re both raised in rural communities and not urban communities. The houses are lovely! Even the house and land for sale in Victoria, Australia were lovely and we can also imagine living in that area.
If only we can have a house there! But our house search though was limited to the places near us. We started our search in communities near the place we were renting. And while looking for house, we’ve learned that there are different types of houses and each one is priced differently. There’s duplex, single attached, and detached.

Duplex type of house are the kind of houses that shares a common wall usually on both side of the property. Its facade sometimes can be confused as one house but it’s actually 2 houses built but shares the same wall. Based from the houses we’ve seen, most duplex have their own parking area. We found this kind of house not suitable for us.

Single attached type of houses are the kind of houses that also shares a common wall but only on one side of the property. This was the kind of house that was offered to us. It seems very ideal for our family since it has parking space and a small space for kids to run.

We decided on buying a detached house as what we always prefer since we’ve seen those fabulous detached houses for sale in Melbourne. As the name implies, this kind of house is a stand-alone. It does not share a common wall in any side of the property, in fact it has its own fence. It also has its own parking and an ample space for gardening or whatever suits the house owner.

The house that we bought is not RFO or ready for occupancy. We paid the equity first and they started building the house when we’re done with the half of the equity. If you’re planning to have your own house, you’ll face the same question as we had before, RFO or build your own house?

From our experience, RFO (or like our arrangement) can be more expensive than building your own house but it is less stressful. We just need to take care of the payments as the house is done and ready to be occupied. The only disadvantage we’ve experienced so far is that we have no say on the style of the house or where things should be. It was minor in our case. I think, it would have been more difficult for us to build our house from scratch.

If buying a house for the first time, knowing the type of houses as your first step is very important. This will give you a glimpse of what kind of house is best for you and your family.