Money Saving Techniques

Lancelot

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Good thread!
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I will sticky this thread for the benefit of many others.

If there are degenerative comments, then...
 

panzergrenadier

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dadadee said:
Indeed! Unfortunately, our natural tendencies are towards individual satisfaction and gratification. We aim to satisfy self (ego) before others. The concepts of sincere sharing and of others before self are usually learned/acquired rather than in-born.



Everything originates from a singularity and everything converges to the singularity. :)



Here is mine:

Drink at least eight glasses of water a day. Cut down on sugary and carbonated soft drinks. It's a short-term investment of discipline and willpower for long-term health and financial benefits.

Dear dadadee

You are indeed the master of chimology. Singularity concept reminds me of "Star Trek The Next Generation".. I like the series because they sometimes debate very philosophical issues in the series. :)

Human beings are born self-interested. To deny that is to deny our humanity. But it can be overcome if one has built up abundance in one's life and share out that abundance!

Yes, drinking water is also very slimming for those ladies out there. ;-) Sweet carbonated drinks are extremely fattening and even those "zero calories" have no nutritional value and costs you money!

#Money Tip for this Post:

Stop your email subscription to Singnet/Starhub/Pacific if you already have broadband because with broadband, you can tap on yahoo email, hotmail, google mail FREE.

Even for NSmen, you can get free email @ns.sg as it is YOUR ENTITLEMENT AS AN NSMAN!

Be well and prosper!
 

anthony.phua

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That's what I do too but I use MS Money to help me track my finances. I have been doing that for about 5 years.

Initially it's very tedious but after a while, it gets quite fast as the program is able to pre-determine some of the data entry items.

I love the way I can generate reports by month, day, range of dates etc and zoom in on my spending pattern.

Here's mine:

Exercise discipline in maintaining an Excel worksheet containing your historical and forecasted income, expenditure and net balances (cash, bank, assets, etc). This worksheet helps you keep track of and plan where your financial situation is concerned. Spend just 10 minutes a day to update your worksheet (daily spending) and your financial health will drastically improve! :)
 

djchris

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I myself use an excel spreadsheet to manage my finances.

For those who would like to try managing it online, I created a portal for those who are keen.
You can check it out at www.ourledger.net.
 

panzergrenadier

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Excellent! I am glad to have found some 知自 in this forum!

I too have an excel spreadsheet to tracks my networth. Although I have to admit I am less active in specific monitoring of expenses as I work on increasing networth every month! :)

Hmmm... I'll probably fine-tune it as I go along.

#Money Saving Tip of this Post:

Control your diet! Overeating and snacking is a leading cause of health problems such as obsesity, heart disease, high blood, high cholestrol etc. Eat to about 3/4 full and top up by having fruits or water. Your mind takes time to register that you are full so the natural tendency is to eat beyond what we need in terms of calories. So after your meal, you may feel you are not full, but just stop, take some drinks and your body will later reach the full feeling.
 

djchris

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I would think that once you have a system going, after some time, you don't really need to monitor your money very frequently because you've grown the habit and discipline to reduce spending.

I don't monitor my cashflow every month now because I know where my money is going. Probably just every 2-4 months.
 

panzergrenadier

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Yes, it becomes second nature not to over-spend when our financial objectives are clear.

My 5 year old Sony CRT 29" TV still works fine and I have no strong desire to upgrade it to a plasma/LCD. My fridge and washing machine too are still going strong. Only recent indulgence? Philips vacuum cleaner to make my house cleaning more efficient! ;-)

#Money Saving Tip for Today
Use credit cards as a payment mode and pay up within credit terms IN FULL!
Throw away most of the credit card offers for gadgets and products because usually you can get a similar or better deal at Sim Lim or other places.
 

Parka

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With the GST increase, and US currency at SGD$1.55...

It's now cheaper to buy books from amazon.com. But the catch is the books generally have to be more than $18 since the shipping price is SGD$18. The moment you buy the second book, you have already saved money. They are cheaper than Kino and Borders on their promotional coupon cut out days.

Of course, there's shipping time of 2 weeks.
 

Niaoson

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One good reason to take bus is because now can redeem free gifts. I can redeem two cups of soya milk liao. Those who always take public transport sure damn happy. Can redeem food, drinks and even movie tickets although the tickets a bit suck la
 

sAVaGEmP5

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Just here to share my ways of saving...

Coincidently, i love playng pool n singng k during army daze. Now my company have these facilities, with a gym. So i can like play pool, sing k, gym, then bath before going home. tats 1

2 is where i also maintain a system, where i record the no. of times i draw $$. I always draw $50 a time, then i record. At the end of the pay day month, i see how many $50 i've drawn. I usually maintain @ 6 (min) or 10 (max) so far. These dun include other bills n fees... at least i can monitor my own personal expenses.

Hope this helps.
 

panzergrenadier

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Yes, public transport service level is patchy but generally it works if you tolerate the lack of air con in the morning in the MRT trains, smelly old TIBS buses plying around and occasional 20 min+wait for buses.

Taxi if you need to make booking, weekends are cheaper at $2.50 booking fee.

Walk more, you'd be surprised how far you can cover if you invest in a pair of good shoes and a street directory.

Be well and prosper.
 

anthony.phua

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That is a good idea but you will need to make sure you don't cheat the system by being lax with yourself after a few months. For example, I'll give myself a treat by eating at a restaurant this month. Soon you will realise your expenses have creep up without you realising it.

Again, if you do the tracking of expenses in the month you "behave yourself" by not overspending on "luxuries", then you may think that your spending pattern is consistent when it's not.

djchris said:
I would think that once you have a system going, after some time, you don't really need to monitor your money very frequently because you've grown the habit and discipline to reduce spending.

I don't monitor my cashflow every month now because I know where my money is going. Probably just every 2-4 months.
 

anthony.phua

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Since we're on the topic of buses, here is a tip for those who travel on SBS Transit buses (Sorry, SMRT/TIBS bus don't have this privilage).

You can take a maximum of 4 SBS Buses within 2 hours and only pay a maximum of $1.90 with your EZLink card. Good for running short errands.

The rules are as follows :
1. All buses taken must be SBS normal routes (ie not express, fast-forward, Chinatown Express etc)
2. All buses taken must be SBS Buses (ie no SMRT/TIBS Bus, no transfer to MRT Line at all)
3. Each bus transfer must be done within 45 minutes (ie from exit from previous bus to entry into next bus)
4. You cannot take the same service number consectively (eg you cannot take bus 65, then take bus 65 again. You can take bus 65, then take bus 66, then bus 65 again)
5. Maximum time allowed for the whole journey is 2 hrs (although SBS Transit says you can go to any Transitlink office to file a claim if the journey is > 2 hrs or involves > 4 buses).

This works very well if you have buses plying expressway routes.
 

panzergrenadier

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To add to Anthony's good suggestions on transport savers, I would like to also add:

#Money Saving Tip for Transport#
Keep your Ezlink card balance low, i.e. for me, I top up when my balance is between $5-$10. If you keep a high $50+ balance in your Ezlink, you are losing interest that can be better earned through savings e.g. Maybank iSavvy at 1.68% for balances > $5,000 or Stanchart eSaver at 1.5% or even Fairprice Plus at 1%.

Nowadays, with the easy availability of General Ticketing Machines and opening up of Transitlink counters after office hours, topping up is a breeze. Also, if you lose your Ezlink card, less money is wasted.

Be well and prosper
 

anthony.phua

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For myself, I use the Citibank SMRT Visa Card. I top up $50 at a time. After deducting the convenience fee of $0.25, I still "earn" about $0.60 (in terms of rebate).

The trick is to stretch your interest free period as long as possible. For Citibank, it's up to a maximum of 52 days. Make that $50.25 work harder in the bank account earning you interest ;-)

If I report lose of my card, EZLink will block the card and refund me back the balance in the card. This is not possible for a non-GIRO/Credit linked EZlink card. For such "normal" cards, once you lose the card, it's as good as losing cash.

panzergrenadier said:
To add to Anthony's good suggestions on transport savers, I would like to also add:

#Money Saving Tip for Transport#
Keep your Ezlink card balance low, i.e. for me, I top up when my balance is between $5-$10. If you keep a high $50+ balance in your Ezlink, you are losing interest that can be better earned through savings e.g. Maybank iSavvy at 1.68% for balances > $5,000 or Stanchart eSaver at 1.5% or even Fairprice Plus at 1%.

Nowadays, with the easy availability of General Ticketing Machines and opening up of Transitlink counters after office hours, topping up is a breeze. Also, if you lose your Ezlink card, less money is wasted.

Be well and prosper
 

OldGeorge

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Eat 2 meals a day. Possible at all. Morning try to eat full. Afternoon moderate meal. Dinner eat loti or any fruit snack in very small quantity. Let me tell you. sure save $
 

panzergrenadier

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I would say, eat nutritious meals. Quality and not quantity is important for health reasons.

I eat quaker oats (koksong with only hot water and NO milk or sugar) Mondays to Fridays for breakfast. Cheap and nutritious.

Lunch is normal economical rice or sometimes noodles. Dinner either I cook a simple dish of noodle/beehoon with 1 stir-fry veggie/tofu/meat dish or steamed fish. Healthier although may be more expensive than the $2.50/$3.00 economical rice but more nutritious.
 

henrylbh

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OldGeorge said:
Eat 2 meals a day. Possible at all. Morning try to eat full. Afternoon moderate meal. Dinner eat loti or any fruit snack in very small quantity. Let me tell you. sure save $


Another way to save is to earn more money. Use your spare time to make money. That will also leave you less time for spending money. But dont end up spending on medical bills :s13: :s13: :s13:
 

panzergrenadier

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Hahah.. Agree with Henry.

I realised that now that I blog more conscientiously, I make more use of my PC and broadband which I already pay so that cuts down on movies, going out for meals etc... Also today weather is so cooling...stay at home with a nice cup of 3-in-1 coffee is sweet!

Be well and prosper.

#Money Saving Tip#
Treat yourself to that occasional starbucks/coffee bean but buy the 3-in-1 and drink that at home to satisfy your caffeine shot. ;-)
 
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