On Simple Living

Assalamualaikum wbt and peace be upon you,

Today I'd like to share with you the lifestyle in my household. As many of you already know, our domestic affairs is ruled by my mom :). She made almost all the decisions and form the way we live.
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My mom's idea on living is based on Prophet Muhammad's way of life: Above simple (mom says prophets live a simple life on this earth as an example to be followed by their ummah).  It is hard for us to follow exactly but we should try and have a niat that we are doing this besically because we are following the sunnah of the Rasul.
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Back to my home, because my mom wants to follow the sunnah, so basically everyday this is our lifestyle:

1. Food:
We have only one dish for our lunch and dinner. The dish is accompanied by raw vegetables and rice, and plain water.My mom would cook the dish in large portion and keep some of it in the fridge. It can be heated up tomorrow and mom saves time, energy and electricity and gas for cooking. If my mom prepares the spices or paste, or soup, it will also be extra and kept in the fridge to be used another time. So, whenever she needs it, it's all ready to be cooked.
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We have fruits which dad buys at the night market or Mydin. Mom would look for the cheapest. Example, she'd buy pineapples if it's the cheapest that day. Imported fruits are not on the list except oranges and apples.
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We have more meals based on vegetables rather than meat or fish. Like in a week, 5 days are vege-based meals and two days are non vege. That way, we save more coz veges are cheaper than meat or fish.(Actually we started practicing this since baby bro was alive because of his illness).
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Mom buys the cheapest type of fish and cook them into something delicious.
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We have tea everyday in the evening but we don't drink coffee but we do have a packet of coffee at home. Mom bought it to help the seller who needs the money.
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Breakfast consists of dates or bread or fried rice. We drink either water, milk or tea at breakfast.
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However, dad likes to buy processed drinks like 100 plus, or biscuits, ice-creams, etc when he goes shopping. Mom hardly buy  processed food except plain yogurt and ice-cream. Mom says Prophet Muhammad saw loved sweet and cold dish like ice-creams.
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Well, that's all I can think of right now on food, I'll update the list when I remember something.
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However, mom buys expensive cooking oil coz cheap cooking oil is bad for the cholesterol.

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2. Electricity and electronic items.
Only my dad and mom have handphones and those are cheap and old ones. But my mom says it's ok coz they are good quality ones (Nokia handphones). Mom says some brands would introduce new gadgets with supposedly new technology every two years and the consumers are actually being fooled this way. We used to have a handphone each but not any more coz we don't have any income yet to buy the top-ups. (telephone bills in Malaysia is high).
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We don't have line phone coz we don't need it.
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We don't have cable tv coz my mom says the seven free channels are more than enough.
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We don't have air conditioners at home coz the electricity bill will be high and we don't want to contribute to ozone depletion.
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We only use two carpets at home to save on vacuuming and electricity bill.
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We use less lighting at home nowadays.
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We don't iron our clothes so much nowadays. My mom never irons her clothes anymore coz she uses wrinkle free clothes.
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We don't have PSP and whatnot coz my mom says it's ridiculous to pay so much for a toy.
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Sorry, I need to go sleep now. It's raining hard right now and this is THE BEST TIME to doze off.

bye
Daniel Zaydi
p.s. I'll continue tomorrow :)