Here Are 6 Tips for M’sians to Have a Memorable Ramadan Month Even as We #StayAtHome

Ramadan this year will be majorly different for all of us as we have to say goodbye yummy food from Ramadan bazaars as well as buka puasa events with friends and colleagues. This will be even harder for those who are living and working away from their families, seeing how Ramadan is usually a time of togetherness, where Malaysians of all races and religions would come together peacefully to be kind to each other.

If you are currently worried about how to celebrate this month while still staying in at home, read on to find out some tips to celebrate this Ramadan:

 

1. No bazaars? Learn how to make your own Ramadan or Raya dishes

There are many festive dishes that appear during Ramadan or Hari Raya. But now that Ramadan bazaars have been banned, it doesn’t mean that you can’t have them! Use this chance to finally learn how to make these special dishes such as Rendang, Lemang, Ketupat, and so forth, and it might even turn out better than expected as you can tweak the recipes to match your exact liking.

If you’re worried about not having the right ingredients, you’ll be surprised to find that you can order all sorts of ingredients–or even ready-made Ramadan foods–online so you never need to leave your house!

 

2. Remember the less fortunate and contribute to organisations

If there’s one thing that this MCO has taught us is that it opened our eyes to the plight of the less fortunate who are struggling to make ends meet. So why not spare what we have to lend them a hand this Ramadan? You won’t even have to leave your home to do so!

Nowadays, you can conveniently contribute through many online organisations. Here are a few of them:

1. KKM Established Fund: To ensure sufficient medical supplies for our frontliners
2. Covid Support Fund by 100% Project: To distribute protective suits, surgical masks and face masks to be distributed across hospitals
3. Free Meals for Frontliners: Aims to deliver fresh and healthy food for all frontliners around Hospital Sungai Buloh and Hospital Kuala Lumpur.
4. #KitaBantuKita: An initiative to help struggling families directly affected by the MCO (loss of income, suffered pay cuts, etc).
5. Caremongering Malaysia: A platform to help the local community, especially the elderly.
6.  Rumah Kita: To supply daily essentials to pregnant and single mothers during the MCO period.

 

3. Use this time to properly fast and reap the benefits of it

Even though fasting may sound daunting, it has been scientifically proven to be good for health in many ways, such as:

• It helps you lose weight and belly fat: It increases your metabolism rate and produces hormones that can speed up the fat-burning process (just don’t overeat when you berbuka!)
• It reduces your insulin resistance: This will result in lower blood sugar levels which can lower your risk of type 2 diabetes.
• It is beneficial for your heart: It reduces blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, blood sugar levels, and more.

And if you’re a non-muslim and have never tried fasting before, this would be the best time to try!

 

4. Spend time with friends by virtually playing Ramadan-related online games

We’d highly recommend playing Skribbl.io, an online game where you need to take turns drawing while others need to guess what it is – just like virtual Pictionary! It’s also super convenient as it’s a browser game so you don’t need to install anything and you can have up to 12 players!

And to make things more interesting, you can manually set the game to be Ramadan or Hari Raya themed so everyone can enjoy the festive mood!

 

5. Hold an e-buka puasa session with friends via video calls

One of the best parts about Ramadan is getting to buka puasa with all of your dearest family and friends, regardless of your race or religion. But since we can no longer eat out as freely as we used to, try to be a little more innovative by holding a virtual buka puasa session!

Just gather some of your loved ones, especially those who are living alone, and eat together as you chat via video calls. Simple yet meaningful, right?

(Also, this way, you definitely won’t argue over where or what to eat!)

 

6. Can’t go shopping at bazaars? Shop online instead

The Ramadan and Hari Raya periods are known for one other thing: shopping! Just like most festivities in Malaysia, you can look forward to various promotions and discounts everywhere. But one of our favourite places to shop for our festive essentials is definitely the bazaars where you can get literally everything, from head to toe, for cheap! But now that there will be no bazaars, it might get a bit challenging to shop. But worry not, you can always find great deals online!

 

And one deal that you definitely need to check out is the CIMB Pay Day campaign!

With the CIMB Pay Day campaign, there will be exclusive online deals from 25th – 29th of EVERY month until December 2020!

With this campaign, you can find almost everything you need from food for buka puasa, fashion & beauty items to make sure you’re OOTD-ready for Hari Raya, to even your daily groceries. This way, you can shop comfortably from home from a selection of over 20 favourite merchants, including:

Food & Beverage:

• foodpanda
• Fave
• eatcaketoday
• Cat & the Fiddle

Fashion, Health & Beauty:

• ZALORA
• HERMO
• Bata
• Samsonite
• Aurora Italia
• PTT Outdoor
• Reebonz
• Tanamera
• JD Sports (via RebateMango)
• Sephora (via RebateMango)
• Watsons (via RebateMango)

Shopping & Groceries:

• Lazada
• Shopee
• Taobao
• HappyFresh
• LamboPlace
• PrestoMall
• PGMall
• Motherhood.com.my
• Mr D.I.Y. (via RebateMango)
• Qoo10 (via RebateMango)

Offering a minimum of 10 deals that will change every month, you can anticipate various tempting promos that will be exclusively accessible by all CIMB Bank debit, credit, and prepaid cardholders.

And how do you get these deals? Easy! All you need to do is head on to deals.cimb.com every end of the month and find all the latest #PayDayDeals there. Most importantly, remember to check out your items using your CIMB Bank card!

Yes, it’s that easy to shop and save with CIMB Pay Day campaign!

These deals will definitely come in handy at a time where our movements have become limited. But chin up, everyone! We can still do all of our Ramadan & Hari Raya preparations at home, which will be even more convenient. Plus, with these #PayDayDeals, it will also help us save as we shop!

If you want to know more and get the terms & conditions of these deals, head on to the CIMB Deals website to get the latest updates on these jaw-dropping deals.

We hope everyone celebrating Ramadan this year will get to make the most out of this coming month.

Psst… don’t forget to stay tuned to CIMB Deals’ upcoming Raya deals in May too!

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