Saving money is one aspect of life that we make extremely difficult for ourselves to pull off. It seems that every habit or purchase we make, whether regularly can be justified. Once you take a step back, you will see how much money you waste on a regular basis. You will soon realize that there are many different, wasteful things that you do not need. And that by saving money on those things, you do not have to resort to living like a monk.
Here are some of the things that you’re probably wasting money on, and how you can stop yourself from splurging.
1. Food
There is a seemingly endless stream of restaurants, gourmet froyo fads, and coffee stores lining almost every street in Singapore. With a little bit of societal pressure, it seems only natural to spend money on these rather useless things. But here are a few steps you can take to get much more bang for your buck.
Eat at home
Meals at restaurants starting off at around $10 minimum per person. For the same price, you can get plenty of ingredients to cook your own tasty meals at home. In addition to saving money you’d be learning a few valuable skills and recipes. These can come in handy when you want to impress your guests some time down the road.
If you’re worried about losing the social aspect of going out, cooking a particularly complex recipe or all chipping in to bring a specialty dish is just as much fun (if not more) as just sitting around a table gossiping.
I really cannot stress how much can be save by eating at home rather than going out. Some restaurants charge $3 for a single chicken drumstick. And that’s without counting fries or a drink! For only about double that, you can get a whole pound of chicken breast raw. Which you can bring home and cook to perfection!
Carry a Water Bottle
Singapore has free refillable water in many restaurants such as McDonalds, and some public places. The water is clean and safe. Trust me, it tastes exactly the same as the $2 bottles which are harvested from the Swiss Alps.
2. Credit
This advice is directed almost exclusively towards couples (although really, really close friends can use it too). A couple that pays together, stays together (okay, I made that one up), but it is kind of true. Many companies allow couples to combine both their accounts and use one card and by taking advantage of this, you can have multiple benefits for you both because you will be able to:
A) Monitor each other
Impulsive spending is much more difficult to keep under wraps when your partner can see that you spent $300 on Candy crush.
B) Access the Credit Card Bonuses More Easily
When both of you are using the same card, it becomes much easier to reach the amount at which CC companies start giving perks. Like the OCBC 365 Credit card which only gives rebates if your spending is over $600 per month.
3. Transport
It’s often thought that ride hailing apps such as Uber and Lyft always save you money, but that’s actually false. Using a bus or a MRT is better because you’re charged a fixed rate. It is based on your destination rather than using a number of algorithms that change the price depending on your location rather than increasing every time you hit a traffic jam or take or if you’re travelling during peak hours. Taking the Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) system is also a valid cost and time saving option for later or peak hours.
And finally, you can pay for the transport using a card that gives you rebates. When you get your EZ link card, which gives you unlimited travel on Singapore’s more basic transport systems, then you are able to travel almost anywhere at a fixed monthly fee. In a city as crowded as Singapore, there’s almost no advantage to using a car over other methods.
4. Fun
It is said that you should choose your friends wisely. This wisdom also applies to you when you’re trying to save on money. If your friends’ ideal method of spending time is to go out shopping or eat at a fancy restaurant, then that’s a major problem for you. Because resisting the urge to follow suit is especially hard, its only human nature.
One advantage of going out as a group is that many places give group discounts. Movie theaters is a great example. Some places have promotion where if you have a group of four people going to see a movie, then you only have to pay for three tickets. How about the fourth person? Well, the forth one gets in for free! It’s not crazy savings, but every cent counts.
5. Banking
Automate Your Savings
You can have your account automatically put aside a certain amount of money each month. This eliminates you and your habits from the saving equation.
Change Your Money to USD
If worst comes to worst and you’re really desperate to stop spending money, then you can choose to make money difficult to spend. One way to do this is to change all your currency to USD. This means that each time you want to spend money in places which don’t accept cards, then you’ll have to visit a forex bureau to get valid cash. That’s a lot of work just to splurge.
6. Internet Data
Data caps, one of the great calamities of the modern world. But though we may hate them that much, we need to have to save money by watching them like a hawk. Some companies charge $10 for going over your data cap, whether you go over the limit by 40MB, or by 0.00001MBs. Fines like this add up over time. And come to become a major drain on your wallet.
So, now you have a few good techniques to begin saving on your own. There are plenty of other ways that you can cut down on without losing out on too much. If you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments below.
We should always save money for rainy days. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to do so. This can be for various reasons like kids, medical bills, parents. When we do not set money aside for emergencies, we have no idea how to settle our problems when it does occur. If some thing like this is happening to you right now, there are a few options for you. Borrowing from your family, friends or colleagues. Another option is to get a loan from the bank. If all those options are not available for you, you can always approach a licensed money lender.
With so many legal money lenders in Singapore, we have help you shorten the searching process by finding out which money lenders are the better ones. If you like to be in on the secret list, get in touch with us at +65 6871 4268 or drop us a message to find out more.
