let's try store brands to save more!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of PBM Products. All opinions are 100% mine.

In spite of the great stride countries around the globe are doing, the economy is still slowly recovering. What's worse is that, I feel that life is a bit getting more challenging these days since the value of the dollar money continues to drop. In fact, surveys of 8 out of 10 supermarket shoppers nowadays have the same observation and felt that the economy has gone worse as well.

I used to buy branded items but now, I content myself in buying store brands. I think that they have the same quality as the national brands. I started with laundry powder~ and the result was awesome!

Taking for example this exclusive survey of shopping attitudes made by GfK Custom Research North America for the Private Label Manufacturers Association or PLMA. Below are some key findings on this ongoing consumer research based on a nationwide poll of nearly 800 grocery shoppers about Recession, Recovery & Store Brands:

• 62% of the respondents plan to buy more Store Brand products given the tough economy. I guess with the given economic crisis we still have now it is wiser to buy a certain product of same quality but at a lower price.


• Patrons of store brands are at all-time high with 57%. Consumers are patronizing Store Brand products more than national brands because they are getting the same but at a lower price.


• There are 43% of shoppers who are trying Store Brands for the first time who are also used to buy only national brands.


• Among those who switched to a Store Brand 97% of those are happy with their new choice.


• 49% shoppers who turned to Store Brands are satisfied with the price and quality comparing it to national brands.

I encouraged my friends to give the store brand a try. Based on my experience, they won’t notice a difference especially if it’s a dish washing liquid or laundry powder where they cannot taste the quality of the ingredients. This year I have started to become a frequent buyer of store brands. The majority of shoppers now say they purchase store brand products on a frequent basis.

So far, I save about more or less $50 a month by buying store brands. If Parent's Choice is available here, I would surely recommend that infant formula to my friends who have small children too ;)

sunshine award

tqsm to cik syahira for this beautiful (of course you are beautiful indeed, like the flower itself) award! so nice of you for thinking of me. i guess i have only met her at the gatsby street fair! all i could say is bloggers aren't that hard to be connected to each other... as bloggers will still be bloggers if you know what i mean.

and now i have to pass on this award to 12 bloggers... before that here are the rules:

1. nominate 12 bloggers.
   
2. put the logo onto your sidebar or within a post.
   
3. link the nominees within your post.
   
4. let the nominees know they’ve received this award by commenting on their blog.
   
5. share the love and link the sidebar logo to the person from whom you’ve received this award.

i am giving this award to (in no particular order) :

1. chech


2. ken wooi


3. byzura razali


4. atty


5. heather


6. lina


7. eyna


8. dnas


9. kruel74


10. wna


11. marcus


12. nila tanzil

my dream destination

watch more of project alpha's season 2 programme here

alright, i lurve talking about holidays~ its definitely the best thingy to do! and let me tell you people this... my dream destination is none other than wien, in austria, definitely. its actually the german name for vienna. and the names of the city in most languages, are thought to be derived from the celtic name of a settlement, but opinions vary on the precise origin. some claim that the name comes from "vedunia", meaning "forest stream", which subsequently became venia, wienne and wien. others claim that the name comes from the name of the roman settlement vindobona, probably meaning "white base/bottom", which became vindovina, vídeň (czech) and wien. source: wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia.

why wien? well, i have a major reason of why i need to visit the place someday. you will find out about it sooner or later here in my blog as the time goes...

basically, if you are seeking a "royal" city with a grand reputation, wien should be on your list of places to visit. not only is wien filled with must-see historical attractions, but its cultural and musical offerings are delightful. the city’s restaurants are excellent, while the shopping is ubiquitous and luxurious. live music, a theme for which wien is known so well, is available at many venues throughout the imperial city.

by the way, understanding wien's past will help you to appreciate why today’s city is so special.

project alpha season 2 is presented by adidas action 3 and supported by P1 and MAStraveller.com

up & running ye!...

remember the other day i was so emo, that make me wanted to listen to all those feeling² kinda thingy. i was so down. i looked so happy outside, but not inside me. well i am glad that its all over now, and everything seems to be fine and ok as usual.

to cut the story short, i was at mr z's place at amcorp apartment suite, over the weekend alone. i was chatting with "him" that saturday night, and was truly disappointed when i found out that "he" two-time me! and believe me or not, i was chatting with a wrong id people for god's sake! walaweiii... how on earth that could be happened(?).

we had a good chat-cum-discussion on skype yesterday. it was real funny though, when i bombarded him with harsh words for "the stupid thingy" that he has done for hours i tell you. while he was puzzled of what i was mumbling about LOL! i even asked him whether he chose "her" or me. he was obviously more stunned, and shocked; seeing me overreact. then finally when i mentioned about "the chat"... he was like huh?!! the chat?!! *glurp*

so people, here's some lessons that we could learn:

1. don't simply jump into conclusion before you find out the truth!


2. be very careful of with whom you get in touch online i.e. to ensure that you chat with someone that you really know. in this case, i chatted with a stranger... hiks!

and now that everything seems to be ok, i shall blog about the saturday's event very soon! hehee...

foursquare.com

i was beginning to hear a lot about foursquare in the past few months, actually more after i saw most of my local twitter friends i know, tweeting their whereabouts via foursquare. and in the past few month i decided to explore and experience foursquare myself. i find that its a next big thing after twitter! while as per mashable, it maybe the next twitter!

to start with i have always been very impressed with the idea of using location based targeting with social networks (though i understand that people always may not want to reveal their locations and may be averse to this concept). however foursquare takes it to the next level intelligently by using the entire concept as if it were a video game.

the idea that strikes me about this is that it allows me to know if my friends are nearby, what are they doing, what are they recommending and if there is a possibility of collaborating and doing something together-without having to ask or trying hard to describe in 140 characters.

for an example: i brought kids to a local rest house last night to watch the 'panjut' show, updated my whereabouts via foursquare; voila! it appeared on both my facebook and twitter feeds. let's take twitter: if you click the word 'here', it will come out a small version of google map of my location (here's the latitude). aren't that kewl?...

take note that april is a busy month for perak people as its the sultan's birthday month. i will elaborate more on this on the next blog post.

by the way i have always believed that the idea of social networking is not so much about making friends out of strangers-but about sustaining and enriching our relationships with existing and real friends.

the N76 app of foursquare is awesome and convenient, though sometimes i am not able to use it fully i.e. the thing is i seems to be very forgetful to update it. take the gatsby street fair recently, i didn't update ler... LOL!

p/s even though i haven't blog about gatsby street fair, the pics already up on my flickr anyway...

so how does foursquare work?

foursquare allows users to ‘check-in’ whenever they visit a place. this place could be a local chai shop, a vegetable market, your gym, a café, a cinema hall, restaurant, a hospital and what have you.

when you ‘check-in’ you can ‘shout’ about the place to all your friends and maybe write something in your ‘to do’ and ‘tips’.

based on your location visits foursquare can recommend you about similar places to explore nearby, and as you explore and check-in you gather points. i guess that's good enough explanation about foursquare. find out more about it here.

don't forget to add me on foursquare here; hmm... i wonder who else in kuala kangsar is using this application ;)

FIN

i have just arrived home about an hour ago peeps... can't say much now, as i am in the "feeling" mood. so let's see whether you people can get what's in my mind; that's just no difference from this wonderful song by one of my all time favs brian mcknight. i could listen to this over, and over, and over again i tell you... woot! enjoy~

6 months, 8 days, 12 Hours by brian mcknight

this one first~

as you people could see, some of you may know that i was there at gatsby deodorant steet fair. i am still in the mid of uploading/editing the pics from my oly anyway. so the blog post should be up anytime soon.

at first i thought that i wanna gate-crashed a line dance party held at ttdi community hall, right after i finished with the above' event. unfortunately i was too tired for that. and since it was raining, i guess that its better if i go straight back home. and if i did also~ i will be charged more than usual by the taxi drivers. you know: kl! anyhow like i tweet earlier, i not just forgot to bring shoes for the gatsby street fair, but i also didn't bring any dancing shoes!

so once i reached kl sentral, i bought burger king take-out for dinner; before i continued my journey. relaxing at home is much more better... besides that, i so lovin' the fast internet speed here~ heaven! *peace*

al-fatihah to cikgu yuwan

pic taken on 11 november 2008, at the school's hari anugerah cemerlang. she was of course invited.

i just got back from visiting my late malay language teacher in primary school, cikgu yuwan; who died in alor star at ± 5.30 pm yesterday of ovarian cancer. they scheduled to bury her at the nearby cemetery at 10 am. i had to go back straight after the visit as i have my red flag now, and prohibited to go there *sigh*

i dunno why that i feel so down today. when i wanted to leave the house this morning with my mom, i thought that i wanna be kewl and stay strong. but i can't help it, really. i still had my tears running from my big eyes. luckily i had my sunglasses on. this sad news really 'touched' me.

i know, everyone from the school remember her as the one who always sang 'widuri' during teachers'/children's day and such. she was the school's headmistress for a few years before she left in 2002/03 if i am not mistaken for a primary school in lubuk merbau until present. her youngest daughter is same age with puteri. i will bring puteri to visit her later after school.

although we love cikgu yuwan so much, but Allah loves her more... RIP.

no strings attached

'no strings attached' by 'n sync

imagine a world of wireless electricity, where plugging in a power-cord to charge your mobile, mp3 player or laptop becomes obsolete. with growing electronic gadgets at our disposal, there is the need to develop a new means of power transmission. but how close are we to the practical replacement of the power cord, and what are the physical constraints that need to be circumvented before it becomes a daily household commodity?

the principle of electromagnetic induction is responsible for energy transmission between the transmitter and the receiver. energy can be transmitted and received over a large distance, but for maximum power transfer, the two inductors have to be placed close to each other. the system works on the phenomenon of resonance, i.e. when two objects of similar frequency are placed next to each other they exchange energy strongly without effecting the nearby objects.

take WiGGY – a revolutionary USB WiMAX modem that incorporates advanced technologies to deliver a new level of on-the-go broadband performance. its a breakthrough internet device in one compact package delivering speeds that completely redefines what users can do online. it was also designed specifically to meet the needs of demanding next generation internet users who want reliable high-speed upload and download speeds that are able to cater for an emerging trend where people are uploading as much content as they are downloading. and the most important thingy is: you do not need extra wires and such to be connected!

project alpha season 2 is presented by adidas action 3 and supported by P1 and MAS.

'Like' please...

hey peeps!...

i guess i have never ask for some favor, but this time yes... i am asking for it for you people to 'Like' my daughter's post on project alpha's fb page. all you have to do is just to become a project alpha's fan. then click 'Like' on puteri's post here. tqsm for all your great help!

alright, that's all for now... i will come back for more updates! ;)