Budget living, eating and entertainment

Baskin Robbins - Pink Wednesdays

2010-03-26T23:12:00.000-07:00

OK,
So since I have some time on my hands:

after finishing my assignments
While waiting for TM to finish Kumon
Before going to church for Burn because Ryan needs to practice with Jared

I decided to post another something. I heard this over the radio, and I am pretty sure it is Legit.

Thats right. Read the banner. Wear pink on a Wednesday and a double Junior scoop for the price of One Single scoop. If you look carefully at the small print, the price states that a Single scoop costs RM7.50

Might be a good deal.. Unless you do not have anything pink to wear and end up buying a pink shirt for anything more than RM 5.--

-Bryan

Papa Johns All you can eat

2010-03-26T20:26:00.000-07:00

Thats right,
Papa Johns, the pizza place has an all you can eat offer at their IOI mall outlet. And, yes, I took the picture off another blog.

What and When?
They serve 3 or four different types of pizza for you to gulf down from 12pm -3pm every Tuesday.
The meal comes with some pretty cool sauces to dip you pizza in, and a bottomless drink, usually coke.

How much?
The Price: RM 9.90 + tax = RM 11+ or so.

Sounds like a dream come true? Well, not really.

The bad
First of all, unlike most all you can eat things, there is not buffet style eating where you can pile your plate up and eat as much as you can. You have to sit down at your place and wait for the waiter/waitress to come to your table and give you a small slice of pizza. With such a long waiting time before your next pizza, you tend to lose your appetite. You also tend to drink your coke, and fill your stomach with it.

As mentioned there are 3 or 4 different types of pizza. Unfortunately you do not get to choose what exactly goes on your plate. You see, there are many people all sitting down. If you turn down your chance to eat you small slice of pizza because you're picky, someone else is gonna eat it. You'll then have to wait till more stock comes in. =p

It takes quite a while before the next slice comes around. So suppose you're free and have all the time in the world to just sit there from 12pm - 3pm?

We still have a problems. Lets say you reach there at 12pm. You eat with everyone else till about 1pm. Then people start to leave, and more people come in, who have not eaten. Well, obviously all the waiters will serve the new people first. By the time, they finish serving the newcomers, the pizza is finished without you having your small slice! You then have to wait for the next round.

My advice.
Go there at 12pm. Sit somewhere near the kitchen so that you get to be the first served as soon as the pizza comes out.

Speaking from experience,
Bryan

We are Live again

2010-03-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen,
This site is live again after going through an economic crisis the past few months. This time we have two new authors here as well

Wise guy no. 2

And wise guy no. 3

Signing off,
Bryan, the first wise guy

Do look out for new updates..

Carl's Junior

2009-08-23T06:40:00.000-07:00

If you ever find yourself bored, really thirsty, tired of standing or walking around in a shopping centre, then Carl's Junior is the place to go.

Why do I say that?
Isn't it kinda expensive?

Well, yes, it is kinda expensive. BUT, I did not say you had to go there to eat anything.
Yesterday I found myself at 1utama ( again). There were no good movies, thus I was walking along the long stretches of 1utama, wearing my legs out.

I decided to go into Carl's Junior. And it was a very very good decision.

Reasons?

I was thirsty
I was tired
I wanted to sit

At Carl's Jr, much like McDonalds, they allow to refill you drinks.

One small cup cost about RM 3.00, before tax.

Is Rm 3.00 worth a drink?
NO! Do not waste your time buying a drink anywhere for Rm3 - unless its Carl's Jr.
I refilled my ice lemon tea drink 4 times yesterday! less than 1 ringgit a drink.

So... is Rm 1.00 worth a cup of iced lemon tea?
YES!!!

Another plus point was there the environment in Carl's Jr is pretty good. Clean, aircon, nice seats, and a pencil in the middle of the table

:)

Image from http://johanbakry.blogspot.com

A very cheap place to have a very simple lunch

2009-08-14T06:07:00.000-07:00

OKay guys,
For those of you who are following this blog. I was recently informed of a small shop over in Seapark, PJ. Unfortunately due to lack of details I do not have the address, but check this picture out and figure it out yourself.

Enjoy.

Well, Incase you cant see. It says:
RM 2.00 lunch.
adios

Movie prices at GSC

2009-08-03T05:16:00.000-07:00

Everyone loves to go to the mall for one of three reasons.

shopping
waiting for someone else ( killing time)
movies

So, today Ill be talking about watching movies. Watching is like the ultimate pastime for me ( and i sure I;m not alone in that)

Ofcourse it can get a little over the necessary budget. RM10 on average per show.

That is why, whenever I can, I do try to go to the cheaper cinemas. With the high competition between the three leading cinemas ( gsc, tgv adn cineplex), there are loads of offers available. In my opinion tgv is ultimately the cheapest. But not necessarily the best.

Anyway, we are talking about GSC. Take a look at the GSC pricing at different locations. No consistency at all. Which means some places are CHEAPER than others :)

click here for real comparison

GSC Midvalley, weekend, normal seat = RM 11
GSC Pavillion KL, weekend, normal seat = RM12
GSC 1utama, weekend, normal seat = RM 11
GSC Alamanda putrajaya, weekend, normal seat = RM 10
GSC summit USJ, weekend, normal seat = RM 9
GSC ioi Puchong, weekend, normal seat = RM 9
GSC Sentral square, Sungai petani, weekend, normal seat = RM 7

I do suppose location and comfort play a large role. But for a guy like me, living in Puchong. I certainly prefer to go to ioi mall.

The cheapest deal is of course to watch a movie, on a weekday, before 6pm, with a student card. ps, the EON bank credit card deal with GSC seems pretty good.
-Priority ticketing lane
-50% off ticket purchase up to RM100
- etc
check it out here

Pizza Milano

2009-08-02T07:25:00.000-07:00

Ever feel like having some nice Italian food but find it just a little bit ( or quite a bit) over the budget? Good news for you! A few friends of mine introduced me to this great new place some months back - Pizza Milano

If you feel like having some Italian food, with a budget of no more than RM 10 + some 5% tax. Then Pizza Milano is the place to go. I am unsure if they have other branches elsewhere, but there is one located in 1utama.

Location: Right outside Secret Recipe or McDonalds at the 2nd Floor (Old Wing) of 1Utama Shopping Complex.

Price: Depending on what you order, you can get a decent meal w/o drink for RM10 or so. The small personal pizza is about Rm9.99, 7inch diameter. But I usually go for the cheaper and more filling pasta!

I never carry my camera, so i Googled pizza milano for some pics. Found some nice ones on this guys site. Check it out.

Baskin Robins 31

2009-07-31T01:10:00.000-07:00

Date: 31st of July,
Significance: none

Except that there is a 31% discount at all Baskin Robbins outlets.
Although Baskin Robbins does not really qualify as a "budget food," it is nice to have some quality desert once a month. Once again mark your calenders on the 31st of every month if you're into good ice cream at a CHEAPER ( although not exactly cheap) price.

Caution: DO not waste time going to the Baskin Robbins outlets in Pavillion KL, The Gardens mall and Midvalley Megamall as these places do not offer the 31st, 31% discount.

Cool things to do at 1 utama shopping mall

2009-07-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

Have you ever gone to a shopping mall, waiting for someone, waiting for a movie to start, or just waiting to kill time?

What is it you do?

Well for me and some people i know, we usually sit. That's right. Places like Starbucks and other free WI-FI zones are perfect for sitting down and killing time. Only one little problem: Its expensive to order a coffee or ice blended from Starbucks.

SO whats the solution?

Find a free place to sit and relax ( besides the benches provided by the mall in the middle of nowhere.)
Find a free place to sit with a Wi-Fi zone.

At current, 1utama is doing quite a good job of providing comfortable chairs and sofas within the mall for relaxing - so long as you do not sleep.

One of my favorite places to sit is at the MPH BookCross@1u. This is a rather new development, and will only be there till December this year. IN as short a sentence as possible it is:

" An area with nice comfortable chairs where anyone can sit and read books." These books are dust collectors in other people's homes. So MPH has created this lil designated spot where people can register to bring their old books and place them there, thus creating the word BookCross. make sense? Well, just check teh link above if you're not.

As far as I'm concerned, I can go there and sit. I mean I don't even like reading!

Location: Ground floor, new wing, High street, Near ZARA and PARKSON.

Free WI-Fi zone.
This really isn't a problem nowadays since every retailer has some form of wireles network hanging around. However, if you're looking at a spot to sit, place you laptop and enjoy free wireless do make your way to the Maybank2u internet banking lounge. Great place.

Those little seats in the picture above are free seating. You can bring your laptop and just sit for hours :)

Tips when eating at MCdonalds

2009-07-28T04:45:00.001-07:00

So, this is now my second post.
Yesterday my tip of the day was to mark your calenders for the hottest offer available at 1901 outlets. Well, this post ( as the title suggests is going to be about how to eat at MCd's.

Mcdonalds is one of my favorite and most visited fast food restaurants. Compared to other fast food outlets like KFC, A&W, Pizza hut, Wendy's, and the whole lot of them. MCdonalds has one of the best marketing strategies for their food...Their Promotions.

As a consumer i think their promotions are becoming more and more alluring over the past couple of years. Last year they had the Big Mac challenge. And i will not mention how many times I claimed my free burger. Thank goodness the promo is over, else I'd be in the hospital by now. Unfortunately, McD's is not the healthiest option. But anyway, back to my topic.

Current promotions include their lunch hour promo. RM 5.95 a meal from 12pm to 3pm everyday. So whats the great tip? Everybody knows about it. Why am I advertising this?

Answer: simple. I'm first proving my point that MCd's is a great place. But it gets better.

Essentially this is my
Tip number 1 : Never order a large meal when eating at MCD's.

Why?: Because the only difference between a large meal and a regular one is the size of the drink and fries.

Now to me, a couple extra fries does not compare to the price I'm paying. As for the drinks... They're refillable! Now since we're here in Malaysia we have this privilege of refilling drinks. ( MCD's in Singapore allow no such thing.. Kiasu)

Tip number 2: Now this dirty trick Ive learnt from a certain someone else. Keep your cup.
Now I dunnno how many of you are that cheap. But I do know someone who keeps a MCD's cup everywhere he goes. This way you can save some money by ordering alarcarte and refilling a drink!

Tip 3: Now this is for real cheapos who wasn't to indirectly ride on others, - order alarcarte and borrow your friends cup. Guilt would not lie on you for being stingy if you're going with a whole lot of friends who agree to all order alarcarte and chip a few cents in for one drink to share and refill :)

And finally Tip number 4: Apply tip number 1 - 3 to any fast food outlet that allows for free refills such as: Burger king, Carl's Jr and etc.

First post!

2009-07-26T18:17:00.000-07:00

OKay, here we go. Post number 1.

Just a little word of advice. When you're going out ( maybe to the mall or something), do try, to the best of your ability to go after lunch. Reason being, you can save money on lunch by eating at home. I mean, why do you wanna go out and spend a minimum of RM10 at a mall for lunch when you can dig something up at home. That's what I do at least. Worst case scenario, i just have my lunch somewhere at a mamak store or a coffeeshop before going. Of course this doesn't work so well if you going out with you girlfriend. :S

Anyway, I dint publish this post to tell you about this common sense advice. Im here to bring an awareness of good deals around so today we're looking at 1901!

This has to be the best common people hotdog outlet in Malaysia. UNfortunately, this common people food is not so commonly affordable for students like us eh? SO what do we do.

Problem: 1901 is good, but a lil expensive for those nt so rich.

Answer: Mark your calenders for the 19th of every month! Its a once a month chance to get super hotdogs at RM 1.99 :) which is pretty much RM2, just another dumb marketing scheme to make it seem cheaper than it is.

For anybody who knows anything about 1901, their hotdogs are about RM5 at minimum on a normal day. Well i dont really know coz i NVR go there on any other date besides the 19th. But you can pretty much get 2 hotdogs at a price you'd normally pay for 1. You can also get a drink for RM1! what i usually do is just bring my own water. and buy 4 hotdogs.

Problem 2: Lotsa people already know about this promo, so theres tons of people always lining up. I once had to take a number to get my meal!! kinda like the immigration, yeuch!

Solution: If you can, get down to the 1901 outlet in Midvalley. From my experience you don't have to wait too long, so long as you order chicago beef. New york chicken always seems to run out there.

okey doke, im out.

Introduction

2009-07-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

Damn,
Blogging is a lot like talking to yourself eh?

As every new lecturer always says when he or she enters the room..

"Before I start the class, let break the ice"

My brief introduction is this:
I don't like reading too much, so I'm gonna make my posts as short as possible while making my point clear because I know how frustrating looking at so many words on the computer is.

This blog is about the journeys of a few cheapskates I know (myself included) and how we somehow manage to find the cheapest ways to get around town.