Save water, Save Money

While Singapore is an island, water security has remained a huge concern for our existence. Late Mr Lee Kuan Yew recognised this and once said: "Water dominated every other policy. Every other policy had to bend at the knees for water survival." 

Water and electricity are the two main cost components of our monthly utility bill in Singapore. I will share tips on using water efficiently and more on electricity saving tips in another post. 

Our government has tried to build up our water supplies sources (currently four sources- Local catchment, imported water, NEWATER and Desalinated water) and also raise awareness of this vulnerability though its pricing (up up and up) of water. With the recent tariff increase in July 2018, the average household living in a public flat will pay roughly $9 to $15 more monthly.

Like many other government policies, while we are unable to change them, we can tweak our behaviour to adapt accordingly. I am what economists would call a rational entity (or i like to think so), so Singapore's government policies, which are often based on incentives (or sticks sometimes) to tweak behaviours, would work for people like me. 😋

So how do we save money when price of water is going up? We can try to use less. To see how we can use less, we should first consider our main water usage areas in a typical household. 

Credits to PUB who have done up excellent info graphics and tips on water saving.

The biggest "drinkers" in our homes are the shower, laundry, kitchen and flushing. In these areas, PUB has estimated we could possibly save ~140L a day if we took shorter showers, use a mug when brushing teeth, half flush, use containers when washing vegetables and buy a water efficient washing machine. 

So how much is 140L anyway? A typically bathtub can hold 80 litres of water, so 140L is about slightly more than 1.5 bathtubs of water, or if you could imagine, approx SEVEN cartons of 12*1.5L Ice Mountain Pure drinking water. I did a double take on the figure of 140L a day and checked again. 140L is based on the assumption you use the washing machine everyday which not many people do. Otherwise, the other activities are pretty much daily. 

Credits: Redmart

And if we really do save 140L water a day, how much money could we potentially save? 

Credits: PUB

Most typical households (perhaps excluding landed houses) should fall within the 0-40 cubic meter tier so it should should be $2.74 per 1000 litres (post July 2018). 

If we saved 140L a day, that is approx 140*28 days = 3920L saved a month. It will translate to about $10.70 saved monthly which is about $128 a year, which i think is pretty decent for simple tweaks to your lifestyle and buying habits. 

In addition to PUB tips, additional water saving tips include:

• Check for leaky taps/ pipes / toilet. While it may seem like a few drops to you when you see it, it is still constantly dripping when you are NOT seeing it. Little wastage like these will add up! If you do not know how to DIY repair, hire a plumber, it will be cheaper in the long run.
• Use water which you used to wash your vegetables to water your plants thereafter. 
• Defrost frozen items in large bowls of water and not run them under the tap. 
• For parents with babies, babies' bath tub water could be used as mop water thereafter since babies do not get that dirty after all. 👶
• Buy a front load washing machine rather than a top load. While front load washing machines are sometimes more expensive, they should pay off in the long run as they use less water for each wash.
• Use the washing machine only with full load.
• Get a lower capacity toilet bowl or one with dual flush.
• Choose Low-Flow Bathroom Fittings, cos low flow = low wastage
• Install water thimbles for your taps and shower heads (these are available free from PUB). They are really easy to install and are reported to reduce as much as 5% of your monthly water consumption.

Small changes everyday can and will significantly impact your water consumption. 

If you have additional water saving tips, do share them in the comments section. 

Save your water and money today! 


Frugal Singa

Book Review: Financial Planning Made Easy by Lorna Tan

I recently came across Retire Smart: Financial Planning Made Easy by Lorna Tan. While you might have already read a number of her articles in the Sunday Times, it is pretty neat to have them all compiled into a book. Personally, I find many tips proposed in the book to be realistic and achievable. 

Topics covered include (in order of usefulness to me):

• Various Central Provident Fund (CPF) schemes and enhancements (super useful tips here, i re-read it a couple of times)- HDB
• Insurance coverage (insurance can be so complicated, so this section was quite useful)
• Consumer protection (good for knowledge)
• Legacy planning (do not feel the need to do it now, yea i know the irony...)
• Scams (useful to know as well)
• Credit and debt planning (good to know there are ways for deep debtors to get out of those debts, if they try)

In some of my future posts, I will be sharing more on what I learnt from the book, especially on CPF chapters which i felt was already totally worth the price of the book. The other chapters are bonuses! 😃 

Stay tuned!

Frugal Singa

Why are Mooncakes priced to the moon?

We are less than two weeks away from celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival in Singapore (24 September) and many of us would have already made plans to get or already gotten some of our mooncakes. 

Maybe some of us are already used to paying rather high prices for these mooncakes, but i personally cannot quite rationalise buying them for my own consumption. One can expect to pay up to $80 for 4 exotic favored mooncakes. That is almost $20 for each mooncake! Sometimes i feel you are just paying for the fanciful packaging. 

Interestingly, couple of years back, the China government's campaign against corruption cited mooncakes as one of the lavish gifts which was used to curry favor with officials and pave the way for future dealings. Mooncakes was subsequently banned as gifts, together with many other expensive gifts as well. 

Credits: Goodwood Park Hotel

Credits: Yan Ting | The St. Regis Singapore

Credits: Intercontinental

No doubt, there have been much innovation (and hence expenses) in the area of mooncakes flavours as well e.g. more hip ingredients such as Lychee Martini Truffle, Champagne Truffle, Chocolate Truffle, Chia Seeds and all different sorts of ice cream flavours, but i am just not too sure if its worth all the hype (and calories). 

So if you really do like mooncakes and buy them each mid-authum festival, perhaps as gift for the future-in-laws 😜, how can you save yourself from paying top dollars for decent quality mooncakes? 

• Order / buy it early- there are usually early bird discounts available.
• Buy discount vouchers from discount websites like Fave

  

  Credits: myfave.com

• Use your credit cards to get discounts! POSB, Standard Chartered, Citibank and many more, just check out your preferred credit card's website for more details (most banks should have).

Credits: Standard Chartered

• Or you are hardworking enough, make your own mooncakes! I am sure your mooncake recipient would be more than touched to know you made it with your own two hands. 😀

Are there other ways you know to save on buying mooncakes? Happy to hear your comments below!

Frugal Singa

Wake up earlier, save some money!

Credits: SMRT

Unless you drive, you would probably be like me who have to squeeze in the MRT (or bus) every morning to get to work and squeezing in trains ain't too fun. 😒

This is an old article, but the 50 cents discount for pre-peak weekday for MRT travel is still valid, until the end of 2018 at least. 

The government had previously also tried other schemes, i.e. Free Pre-Peak Travel scheme, which allows those who reach any of 18 MRT stations in the city area before 7.45am to have free rides. However, it was rather localised within the city area and tapping out before 7.45am is no easy feat. Therefore, i believe the new (ok not so new now) scheme should work better, considering it is applicable to all 157 MRT and LRT stations and you just need to tap in before 7.45am.

Assuming you tap in before 7.45am each morning for Mon-Fri, you will save $2.50 a week which means you could save about $130 for 52 weeks. Not a terribly big sum but if the government gives you $130 in 50 cents installments for a year, do you not take it?

If you are already travelling at around 8am, why not try setting out 15 mins earlier and get a 50 cents discount? It is like if you set off 15 mins earlier, you will definitely find 50 cents lying on the ground for your taking. 😜 Ok, besides the 50 cents, there are also many benefits of getting to work early e.g. leaving work earlier (hopefully you are not those who only can leave after your boss leaves), already cleared your inbox before your colleagues even walk into office, have a quick breakfast in office. But all that aside, it makes for a better travelling experience because the trains are considerably less crowded before 7.45am. Don't take my word for it, go see check it out yourself. 

Sometimes we don't see it, we don't feel it. Wonder it will work even more effectively if we had MRT staff standing at the gantry giving out 50 cents to everyone entering before 7.45am, though that that would go against our push towards a cashless society and push up cost cos we need extra MRT staff. haha...  

Not this 50 cents...

Hopefully the government see enough benefits of de-congestion that it outweighs the cost and the scheme will be extended, cos i think it is not a bad scheme actually, though Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said it was not sustainable for taxpayers to subsidise the increasing costs of the public transport system and I believe many of you would have seen a more recent article sharing that bus and train fares may rise by up to 4.3% next year. 🤑

While we cannot do anything about the proposed increase in fares next year, we can go get our 50 cents each morning still at least for the next couple of months till Dec 2018.

Gotta catch'em when they last!

Frugal Singa

Today is the day....

Finally... today is the day i got down to creating my blog, something which i have procrastinated for too long... 

Having been a keen reader of many financial blogs, I am inspired by many of them, taking the time and effort to share their thoughts, tips and financial hacks. :)

I hope to create a useful blog on personal finance related issues and also other issues close to my heart and am happy to hear the diverse views out there, we can always agree to disagree. :)

A short introduction about myself:

- an average Singapore 30ish joe, married with a lovely wife with a super cute baby girl who is almost one (they grow up too fast!)
- salaried worker
- enjoy reading and learning more about personal finance
- been through the rigors of SG education system
- enjoy travelling and realising how small we actually are when in awe of mother nature
- hopes to achieve financial independence by 55
- harboured thoughts (from time to time) of emigrating to New Zealand and becoming a bee farmer :P

I hope to write about finance related topics, it could be the nitty gritty like money savings hacks to possibly life changing large purchases like buying your first house in housing using CPF in Singapore.

I welcome you to come along with me on this journey. 



Signing off for now...
Frugal Singa