Frugal Expat

An expat's journey in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Archive for the category “Frugal Tips”

16 Aug 2010

Saga III: Paid Parking in Abu Dhabi

I had to rush for my meeting today at one o’clock in the afternoon. I parked my car and hurriedly searched for the nearest parking ticket machine. I looked at my right side and I could not find any sight of turquoise color (the machine’s color). Then on my left and it was the same, no visible shade of turquoise.  

The Turquoise parking ticket machine. It accepts coins and the Mawaqif prepaid card.

 

I was running late already for my meeting but honestly, it didn’t bother me because the weather drove me to the edge of madness. Imagine, I was standing in the open parking space at past noon and in a scorching summer heat (I think more than 45°C) while donned in a business suit.  

As I walked back and forth looking for the machine, I could feel the blaze in my feet. It seemed my feet were set on fire and my black shoes didn’t help at all! I simply wanted to leave my car without that parking ticket and run fast to the nearest air-conditioned building but the thought of paying a fine of AED 200 held me back.  

Parking ticket

 

Then that time, I realized that it is about time to opt for the m-Mawaqif wherein you can pay the parking fee through your mobile phone. Mawaqif is the government sector that does the parking management in Abu Dhabi. Its advantage came to light to me this afternoon after I wasted my time searching for the nearest parking ticket machine under the blazing summer heat.  

I haven’t tried this option yet because I just bought recently a Mawaqif prepaid card of AED 50. It works like a debit card where you can easily slip the card in the machine and get a parking ticket. The prepaid card has been a great help for me because from then on, I do not worry for coins anymore.  

Prepaid parking card

 

By the way, the Mawaqif prepaid cards are now available in supermarkets though it is more expensive. I bought one in the supermarket and they marked it up for AED 3 more. According to cashier in the supermarket, it would cost me more to buy directly a prepaid card from the Mawaqif office considering the taxi fare and parking fee involved. Good sales pitch but he was right.  

I believe choosing m-Mawaqif is more beneficial. You see, sometimes I do not know if my meeting will really take time or not. Right now, to be on the safer side, I typically pay 2 hours parking fee to keep my sanity. I cannot interrupt my meeting and leave the client’s office  just to pay for another hour of parking because the time limit in my parking ticket will expire soon.  

Just to let you know, the fine is AED 200 for parking without parking ticket and AED 100 for exceeding the time limit in your parking ticket.  

With m-Mawaqif, I can avoid paying more hours for parking ticket because I can simply send sms to extend the time limit of my parking.  

Here are summary of the parking fees in Abu Dhabi.  

Premium Parking (Turquoise & White) is AED 3 per hour and the maximum stay is 4 hours.  

Standard Parking (Turquoise & Black) is AED 2 per hour and for a maximum stay of 24 hours (AED 15 for the whole day).  

The parking fee for areas painted with turquoise & black is AED 2 per hour.

 

Premium parking spaces are painted in turquoise and white. Parking fee is AED 3 per hour.

 

For more details about paid parking in Abu Dhabi, click here.

Posted by Frugal Xpat in Driving, Frugal Tips, Life in Abu Dhabi, Weather | Leave a Comment
17 Apr 2010
6 Comments

REVIEW: IKEA – Marina Mall Abu Dhabi (UAE)

One of IKEA’s mock-up living room and kitchen area

 

I bet..  ;-)  You can track pieces of IKEA products in most of the households here in Abu Dhabi. Either you are renting only a room or being accommodated in a villa, some IKEA items are definitely visible everywhere from bathroom, kitchen, kids’ rooms, living room and even to car compartments.  

So, you may wonder why people here have such fondness to IKEA products. I’ll answer that with few questions.   

  1. Do you want to organize your cluttered room?
  2. Do you need more space in your kitchen area?
  3. Are you looking for reasonable and quality duvets or pillows?
  4. Are you scouting innovative ideas on how to maximize your small bedroom?

These are only few reasons that people flock in IKEA. Also, the prices of most of the items are reasonable. No wonder that people from all walks of life just simply storm IKEA for any household concerns.  

One of my closest friends is an IKEA girl too. She visited me here in Abu Dhabi last week after working for more than a year in Qatar. And guest what? She only asked me for one thing – to take here to IKEA in Marina Mall because she missed it as there is no IKEA shop in Qatar.  

So we walked around and she shopped for some items for her new room. Then as we headed to the counter, I couldn’t help but really admire the creativity and innovation of IKEA products. It seems that they invented solutions to whatever household concerns you may have.  

I would say also that the product displays are strategically planned and marketed.  You can spend time also in a corner where items are priced for AED 10 (USD 3) or less.    

Anyway, my friend was indeed very happy when we parted ways that night.  

If you are planning to move here in UAE, IKEA is worth a visit for your household needs.

Posted by Frugal Xpat in Frugal Tips, Life in Abu Dhabi, Reviews, Shopping and tagged , ,
03 Apr 2010
4 Comments

How We Were Kicked Out Of The Park?

The beautiful park on Friday afternoon

 

It was a great sunny and windy Friday yesterday. So my friends and I decided to have a late BBQ lunch at the park.   

Close to my home is an open park which is generally packed with kids and families on weekends. To our delight, the park this time was not crowded as there was only handful of “park dwellers” who were mostly couples.   

Anyway, we simply bought this instant disposable grill pack because we are only an occasional “park dweller”. Also, it is very reasonable as it costs approximately US$3 only for the small pack and there is no cleaning required.   

Instant disposable BBQ grill

 

Twenty minutes later my friend started to grill the pork bellies which she marinated in her special BBQ sauce concoction. All of us were hungry so we drooled for every piece of cooked barbeque meat. Half way to our BBQ cooking process, our attention (and hunger) was distracted by the police car’s siren. Then I realized that the people on the other side of the park were actually staring on our area. There were us and two other couples only on our side.   

Yummy pork BBQ

 

 So I turned around to see what they were staring at. Then I saw one policeman in a luminous green vest approaching the second couple while the first couple started taking their steps already to leave.   

Well, at that point of time, I just thought that perhaps the policeman sensed that the second couple was into some inappropriate intimate behaviour hence they were approached. Then maybe the first couple left too because it terrified them.   

Before I even found the answer to my curiosity, I saw this young handsome policeman walking towards us also.   

At that instant, my mind was already soaring with thoughts of possible offense which perhaps we committed.   

Maybe barbequing was not allowed in park (though impossible because we saw people grilling and roasting meats in the park on many occasions).   

Or maybe because we were grilling a pork meat.   

Eventually the young policeman came closer and informed us to leave. He said “not allowed”. We asked for any reasons but he didn’t replied.   

After he left, I saw the other handful of “park dwellers” packing their things too. And so we did.   

Then minutes later the park was empty.   

We could not fathom any other reasons for being kicked out from the park except that on that day, it was still the mourning period. The government declared a 3-days mourning due to the tragic loss of Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president’s younger brother. (Click here for details).   

As we walked past the park, we saw the UAE flags still at half-mask.     

So our BBQ lunch ended a lunch at home. We finished grilling the remaining pork belly meat in our George Foreman indoor grilling stove (luckily we had this!)   

Our George Foreman indoor grilling stove

Posted by Frugal Xpat in Events, Frugal Tips, Life in Abu Dhabi, Outdoor Activities and tagged , , , ,
26 Mar 2010
5 Comments

Bangkok Sightseeing Vacation – Frugal Tips

My Mum in Bangkok's The Grand Palace

My Mum in The Grand Palace - Bangkok

As a birthday treat for my Mum last year, we travelled to Bangkok in April and I had written some practical frugal trips which hopefully help you also plan your sightseeing trips in Bangkok.

To read the “Bangkok Sightseeing Vacation – Frugal Tips”, click it here

Posted by Frugal Xpat in Frugal Tips, Sightseeings, Travel and tagged , , , , ,
25 Mar 2010

5 Secret Ways to Influence Frugal Living to Your Partner

Photo Credit: www.queercents.com

As the current economy weakens, people hold on to every dime that is kept in their wallet. They are now more conscious with their expenditures and efforts are made to trim down the lavish lifestyle they once used to have.

It was easy to cave in to their desires before. If a newlywed couple wants a nice house in a lovely neighborhood, the solution is a housing loan. If a sales executive is promoted and wishes to live up with his new status quo, he walks to the bank and applies for new car loan.

To read the entire article, click it here.

Posted by Frugal Xpat in Finances, Frugal Tips and tagged , , | Leave a Comment
13 Feb 2010
1 Comment

Mina Port Fish Market in Abu Dhabi

The Mina Port fish market in Abu Dhabi

We decided today to eat “real food” (Yeheey!!) in the next seven days so my friend and I went to the Mina Port fish market. People visit the fish market for two reasons. It is cheaper and has more variety.

By the way, real food for me means homemade dishes.

Selection of seafood

My friend has passion for cooking and her stay with me is a delight to my appetite (LOL!) because I will savor delish dinner meals for the entire week and escape the fast-food bingeing for the time being.

Our charcoal-grilled fish

Anyway, I do not know what she would cook in the next few days but we wanted to have grilled fish for today’s dinner as it was late already when we headed to Mina Port fish market. The left-wing of the building is an array of stalls which offer to fry, grill or bake your fish, prawns, crabs, etc.

The big oven

On weekends, it is common to see people in queue because this is a convenient and easy way to prepare for picnic on weekends. Just buy a big fish or prawns in the fish market, and then take it to any of the stall for grilling or frying. Their cooking time takes between 20-30 minutes and they charge AED 10 (USD 2.70) per kilo regardless of the method of cooking.

We tried before for baked squids and shrimps. It was really good even though they garnished it with certain sauce concoction. Then we tried grilled and fried fish too. We didn’t like it because they coated the fish with some spices. We prefer a plain grilled and fried method, no spices and flavorings except for salt. Simply rub it on to the fish skin, then that’s it! It’s ready for grilling and frying, no other cooking rituals needed. LOL!

For today’s dinner, my friend specifically gave instruction to grill our fish in charcoal and to use salt only, nothing else. Just make sure they understand your instructions because they have limited English though they understand the basic.

After dropping our fish for charcoal-grill, we shopped around for shrimps, more fish and the needed vegetables. I really didn’t know what she had in mind but we bought a lot.

Cleaning the fish

To lessen the kitchen process at home (I can’t hide that I detest loitering in the kitchen area in our house. LOL!), I asked one of those men in red overall jumpsuit to clean the fish. They charge AED 2 (USD 0.58) to clean every kilo of fish. It is  important to give the ‘fish cleaner’ specific instructions of the way you want the fish to be cleaned. Like today, my friend specifically asked to remove the gills and scales of it. Good that I urged her to pass by to the cleaner’s section before buying another item because the ‘fish cleaner’ didn’t remove the scales, only the gills. This is quite doomed to happen especially if your instructions are not that clear. Most of them understand basic English only so misunderstanding is quite prevalent.

Then the most important tip, always haggle! You can always bargain between AED 5 to AED 10 per kilo.

Fresh Coconut juice

Before we went home, my friend took delight in sipping a fresh coconut juice for AED 5 (USD 0.58). She shared me a tip when choosing for fresh coconut juice. Always ask for old coconut because the juice is sweeter.

Then after more than an hour, we headed back home. There is nothing to worry because there are many available taxis. Also, if you have a car, it is easy to find parking (based on my experience). It is not a nightmare at all!

Posted by Frugal Xpat in Dining, Frugal Tips, Life in Abu Dhabi and tagged , ,
24 Nov 2009
10 Comments

How am I Saving 70% of my Telephone Bill?

Photo Credit: www.freeclipartnow.com

It all started with the YM (Yahoo Messenger) offline messages from my mum in September this year. Through the help of her younger colleague, she learned to open her yahoo account and to send messages to us (I and my brother).

I was ecstatic because I knew Mum. At her age (mid 60s), we can’t expect her to be techie at all. A simple feature in her mobile phone can be extremely complicated for her.

Since she learned to send messages in YM, my brother and I received daily messages. To catch us online, she will rush to her faculty room every break time because by then, we are up already and at work. Then for few minutes we chat.

By the time we have our lunch break, my Mum is already at home where unfortunately she doesn’t have internet. She can only access her YM at her workplace hence it limits our time chat.

So, we decided to purchase her a desktop and also subscribed for internet connection. My sister, who stays and works four hours away from home, traveled and spent a weekend with Mum so she could teach her all the basics in computer from switching on to turning off the machine.

My brother and I were anticipating to chat with her the following week. To our dismay, YM had always a system glitch. Sometimes I was unable to log-in for days for whatever reasons. Then my brother introduced us to Oovoo, a web based free video conference facility.

Since then, we chat every night and weekend. Sometimes due to work demand, I need to stay late and I miss them joining in the video conference. We also demanded curfew for our Mum. With the time difference, we told Mum that she could only stay online until 11.30pm which is 7.30pm in our time. We don’t want her to suffer the next day because of lack of sleep.

On occasions where I miss the video conference with my brother, my Mum would send me a video message. Oovoo is really nice. Rather than leaving offline message at YM, Oovoo has a better option – video messages though it has also a chat facility.

With this, it slashes my phone budget by 70%. I no longer buy phone cards to call Mum and our communication nowadays is even more frequent.

Then yesterday, I discovered the 160by2.com, a website where you can send free sms in UAE, Saudi, Kuwait and few Asian countries like India, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore.

So now, I need only a phone card for emergency calls and when I don’t have internet access.

 

Update: I learned from a friend about smsteriod, a site for free sms. It’s actually better than the 160by2 because you can send sms anywhere in the world.

Posted by cyramilesvaldez in Bills, Frugal Tips and tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Post Navigation

Newer Entries →
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 57 other followers