The rising cost of living is hurting our pockets, and it’s common to find Singaporeans looking for creative ways to stretch their money.
Sometimes though, these plans can backfire – especially if they actually raise our lifestyle expenses or if we have to dedicate too much time to them.
Here are 5 common ways that we try to save money, only for us to end up needlessly spending more.
#1 Driving To Malaysia To Buy Cheaper Goods
Those who frequently drive to Malaysia will know the SOP. Slip through the Causeway with as little fuel as possible, enjoy a sumptuous meal (or two), buy as much groceries as we can fit into our car, before heading back to Singapore with a full fuel tank.
The idea here is to save as much money as possible. The best way to achieve this is by spending as much as posible on cheaper goods in Malaysia, thanks to our favorable exchange rate.
The problem with this way of “saving” money is that it actually encourages us to spend more than we intend to. In our attempts to maximise our time and cost, we likely end up buying things that we don’t really need, just for the sake of extracting more value from our Singapore Dollars.
Read Also: How To Get The Foreign Currency Exchange Rate You Want Before You Travel Overseas
#2 Credit Card Deals At F&B Outlets
Credit cards companies love offering great F&B deals. It could be a one-for-one deal at a fancy restaurant, or a sizeable discount at your favorite café.
Whatever the deal may look like, the intention are clear. F&B outlets want us to wine and dine with them while credit card companies want us to spend using their credit cards. Nobody is actually rooting for us to save money.
For some reason though, we always think we’re saving money on such great deals. We are not.
The fact here is simple, each time we use our credit card to buy what we think is a great deal, we are spending, not saving.
#3 Home Cooked Meals
There is a perception that home cooked meals are cheaper and helps us save money. But that’s not always true.
In Singapore, affordable hawker meals are readily available in food centres or coffeeshops. Meals can be bought from as low as $3 or $4, depending on the meal we buy. If there were the two of us eating out, that would cost $6-$8.
In contrast, cooking for two at home isn’t going to be as cheap as we think. Anyone who’s ever tried cooking would know that buying one meat and a vegetable from the supermarket could easily cost more than $5. If we add in eggs, premade sauce, some garnish and rice, the cost of our home cooked meal would have exceeded $8.
Don’t get us wrong. Cooking at home is great. If we plan in advance and cook often, we may enjoy some cost savings. But the real value is eating healthier meals, rather than cheaper meals.
For those of who rarely cook, though, there is a good chance we end up spending more. We should also take into account buying ingredients that we’ll rarely use after that – which may create more wasted money.
#4 50% Discounts
If we are ever attracted to a deal because of the sizeable discount on offer, stop.
Think about the logic behind this. If we are buying something just because it is on a discount, that means we weren’t even thinking about spending any money on it in the first place.
By spending $50 on something that used to cost $100, we don’t save $50, it simply means we spent $50 more than what we originally intended to – which is $0.
#5 Buying Any Kind Of Package
Buying a package almost never helps you to save money.
Businesses are not stupid. The only time a package is offered is when a business thinks that by selling you the package, they will get you to spend more with them than you actually would.
This isn’t to say that packages never offer good deals. On a cost-per-visit basis, we may indeed be saving money (with a big IF we use up our package expiry). Overall though, the intention behind selling usba better-priced package is to get us to spending more overall, not less.
Read Also: 4 Types Of Prepaid Packages Singaporeans Should Never Buy On The Spot
What are some other ways that Singaporeans try to save money on only to end up spending more? Share your thoughts with us on Facebook.
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