Every dollar save is a dollar earn (Part 2)

            From my continuation of Part 1 Every dollar save is a dollar earn. I will share with you my personal experience of saving and I hope you will share my joy in saving too. 



Getting the best out of credit card

Credit card is a double edge sword, it can rip your wealth apart or it can help you save up with the benefits acquire from card privileges. It is a form of advance payment mechanism which provides you “invisible cash” to pay right on the spot. You just have to pay up the accumulated amount you spent monthly on time, if not you will incur late payment charges where penalty are extremely high (Honestly, you don’t want to get fine for that). So remember to always pay on time. Also there will be an annual subscription fee for the card but I guess waiver for the fee is possible. Other than that, I consider credit card to be important, handy, useful and practical in our today’s modern society. With many benefits, privileges (Dining discount, 1 for 1, petrol discount.etc) and cash rebate, it will be an added advantage as compared to those using cash to pay. 

Currently, I possess a few supplementary cards (Under my sister) and credit cards of my own. I prefer to use UOB one card (Supplementary) because of the attractive cash rebate they offer; 3.33% at different cap level ($300, $800, $1500) but must be able to clock ($300, 800, $1500) each month for 3 subsequent months. Sometimes, I do volunteer to pay using this card for meals with my friends so as to accumulate some cash rebate. Other than that, I hardly spend much using this card. The rest of the amount is usually amassed by my sister. 

Another card that I have is Citibank Dividend card (Supplementary). I use it only when there are dining privileges to it or discounts. Besides that, there is free entry to Zouk. So clubbers go grab this card. Hahaha, ohwell but as for me, I hardly ever go there. This card cash rebate is a little low; at 2% on dining, groceries and at pharmacies. As for other spending, it is 0.5% cash rebate, thus I’m not using it so often. 

Thirdly, I also have UOB JCB (Supplementary). The targeting audiences are probably more for the Japanese people or consumers of Japanese brands. This card offers 5% cash rebate to big Japanese brand name such as Uniqlo, Muji, Meidi-ya. Or 3% Cash Rebate at major departmental stores like Tangs, John Little, Isetan and BHG. For other spending, it offers 0.5% cash rebate. Hence, I will only use this card if I ever were to buy any stuffs from these names as above. 

The last 2 cards are my own credit cards which I sign up under POSB, Multitude and GO credit card. Both cards are the most basic cards for POSB and I don’t think there are any criteria to sign that card. Students are welcome too. Cash rebate offer is really peanuts as compared to UOB One card. It offers 0.3% cash rebate for a minimum of $500 spending per quarter. For a student to hit $500 per quarter, it a little difficult and if $500 is really met, you save $1.50. That is really little. I only use this card for Golden Village movie privileges. 

With all these cards in my hand, I get to enjoy some benefits and save some cash. My personal monthly expenditure charge on my cards is usually less than $120. Saving money is also an art, it is definitely not easy to overcome your emotions and stay discipline in saving. There are times when there is an urge to splurge and invest in yourself or “pay yourself first”. After all, it solely depends on moderation.

Sell away your unwanted stuffs

Another way that I save money or gain some cash is by selling away unwanted stuffs. I just feel disturbed to have white elephants around me, I will rather sell them away or if not a choice will give them away.  I do help my sisters sell away some of their lucky draw winnings too. For that, they reward me with some commission. Not bad huh? I will always try to get the best bargain for every deal and will try not to budge my selling price unless necessary. One fantastic deal that I made was my sales of my PS3. I bought it at $300 (2^nd-hand) and spent nothing more than that because of its “jailbreak” version. After 2 years, I found that I hardly ever have time to touch my PS3, so I sold it. And guess what, I sold it at $330. Amazing how I manage to earn $30 considering the fact the depreciation value of the PS3 and its age. Some good tips to sell away your barang barang will be website such as Hardwarezone Forum, VR-Zone Forum, Ebay or any other forum. Your unwanted stuff can be sold in these places ranging from clothes, electronics, vouchers, food products or rather anything under the sun.

Groupon/Vouchers

Please, I’m not an auntie but I feel if you really want to save up and get good deals, Groupon is a place for you. Indeed, they have all kinds of discounts. Ranging from (food, shopping, travelling, leisure etc), you get massive discount or even 1-for-1 deals. It is a smart way of spending less and a miss opportunity to save more. I don’t like the feeling of paying something more when I can get better deals.

Another intelligent way of spending less is to get vouchers such as this book called “The Entertainer” book. Heard before? Hmm, I got it free though, so I’m quite fortunate. This book contains all the 1-for-1 deals and if my family ever going to use them up, we probably can save thousands over dollar. My family made use of it for nearly every special occasion for dining. Imagine a $200 family meal can cost $100? We are paying value money for high-quality food. Awesome deal!

          Now who says saving is all literally about saving your hard earn money? Spending less is also a form of saving money. Every less a dollar spent, is a dollar earned. I will continue part 3 of how to save money. I hope you enjoyed reading and will one day share my joy of saving money too :)

(Disclaimer: I’m not a promoter of these companies; Maybe they should thank me for promoting for them instead. Haha!)

Cheers!

Little Boy