Showing posts with label savings more than $500. Show all posts
Lifehacksg#23 - CarouSELL
[savings type - liquidating used stuff for
cash!]
Today's lifehack presents a very interesting
service available to you and I provided by the awesome folks from Carousell. The
simple idea of a traditional buy-and-sell marketplace has been revolutionized
to be accessible to the average man on the street, and did we mention - on the
go.
To explain Carousell... in a nutshell try to
think eBay or Craigslist, except much simpler and much quicker. According to
their tagline "Snap, list, sell. Create free listings to sell
items you once loved in 30 seconds". When they say 30 seconds,
they actually mean it. It is that simple.
Sure, there are many such platforms dedicated to accessible online shopping and selling. But we chose to mention Carousell in today's lifehack primarily to encourage our readers out there to embrace a "sell, sell, sell" mindset, which presents itself as the antithesis of a "buy, buy, buy" mentality.
When
keywords like "de-clutter", "simplicity", "less is
more" have become guiding principles of a modern 21st century
lifestyle, don’t you start to hate yourself a little when your
already-tiny Singaporean apartment is made even smaller by an ever-growing
pile of ‘things I don’t know where to put’? Yup, that’s the time, not
to relocate, but to rethink your goods. Start tagging excess, unnecessary
items for sale and you will soon realize how much you actually do not
need. experience liberation from a society driven by consumerism. Carousell
is one app that will help you de-clutter your life, and allow you to get some cash back at
the same time.
Today, the start-up announced a fresh injection of $800K funding which
will help them expand their services to countries in the region. An interesting statistic to note is that on average Carousell users open the
app 10 times and spend (cumulatively) 25 minutes on it daily, compared to 14
times and 30 minutes respectively for Facebook! Very impressive indeed.
Accolades aside, the Carousell app is great
because it embraces simplicity and allows you to put out pre-loved items into a
thriving marketplace within 30 seconds. At lifehacksg, we have been using the
app for 2 months now, and have successfully gotten rid of more than $1000 worth
of pre-loved items ranging from clothes to electronics.
Start selling and de-cluttering!
Lifehacksg#20 - Krisflyer... or not?
[Savings type - $$; >$500 when redeeming miles]
Most people are buzzing about cheap airfares and promotions provided by low-cost carriers these days. If you have not already jumped on that bandwagon, you should definitely check out Jetstar's unique booking features we covered in Lifehacksg#7.
But for today's lifehack, we will put you ahead of the crowd in being airfare-savvy. We decided to delve even deeper into what these airline 'promotions' and frequent flyer programs entail. Specifically, we will scrutinize the frequent flyer program which most people based in Singapore are part of – Singapore Airlines Krisflyer.
Most people are buzzing about cheap airfares and promotions provided by low-cost carriers these days. If you have not already jumped on that bandwagon, you should definitely check out Jetstar's unique booking features we covered in Lifehacksg#7.
But for today's lifehack, we will put you ahead of the crowd in being airfare-savvy. We decided to delve even deeper into what these airline 'promotions' and frequent flyer programs entail. Specifically, we will scrutinize the frequent flyer program which most people based in Singapore are part of – Singapore Airlines Krisflyer.
For most of us who grew up in this country, Singapore
airlines has been known to be the flagship carrier of this entire nation. Famous
for its excellent service and extremely posh premium-services, we can comfortably
assume that it is one national icon we are all pretty proud of. This sense of power and pride manifests itself in a little card
which sits in all our wallets – the Krisflyer frequent flier card. We hate to admit that we have fallen prey to this card for years, but a recent epiphany made us realize that it has
been a very big mistake.
This post is derived from well-grounded research by expert
analysis from the wonderful world wide web, based on a comparison between
Krisflyer (Singapore Airlines) and Mileage Plus (United Airlines). We figured
that since these folks have already done so much of the work, we will not
reinvent the wheel and will instead report the facts as they are.
According to a very comprehensive analysis here, one of the
biggest pain points of redeeming miles via Krisflyer is the amount of taxes/fees
involved, and the table below can speak for itself. While these numbers may be
from 2012, sources tell us that as recent as September 2013, a roundtrip San Francisco-Singapore flight on United miles merely costs an additional USD61.90 in
taxes/fees. The same route on Krisflyer miles today will set you back 10x the cost due to an exorbitant USD630.59 in taxes/fees.
Roundtrip
|
Program
|
Miles
|
Fees (USD)
|
Singapore – New York
|
Krisflyer
|
63,750
|
688.35
|
Mileage Plus
|
65,000
|
42.10
|
|
Auckland – Colombo
|
Krisflyer
|
59,500
|
546.94
|
Mileage Plus
|
60,000
|
65.50
|
|
New York – Dubai
|
Krisflyer
|
75,000
|
740.47
|
Mileage Plus
|
80,000
|
74.40
|
There are plenty of other benefits to compare, including free
upgrades, bonus mileage, award booking discount etc., but for the purposes of
this Lifehacksg post, we simply want to focus on the exorbitant Krisflyer
taxes/fees compared to United, which really make the Krisflyer program look a
lot less attractive. The >$500 you will
save can definitely go into additional shopping/food budget on your travels.
Here's the scoop to have your cake and eat it too: If you want to redeem miles with low taxes and fly in the comfort of Singapore Airlines, the Mileage Plus program will still work for you. Not only can you accrue Mileage Plus miles while flying Singapore Airlines as both are members
of the Star Alliance, you will also be able to redeem your Mileage Plus miles on SQ flights (under "Partner Flights") if they are available.
P.S. This is a
comparison only between KRISFLYER and MILEAGE PLUS.
Lifehacksg#19 - Park & Ride
[savings type - $$; Annual - $2000]
To put things in perspective, for your additional efforts required to adopt the Park and Ride scheme, you will be compensated with a reward equivalent to a round-trip ticket to the US. Talk about a free holiday.
Think about it.
The excruciating pain of travelling to work every morning is
something we can all identify with. Today’s Lifehack discusses one of the main
woes in Singapore - Transportation. Specifically, this targets readers who own
a car/drive to work. Yes, driving to work can be a pain. We know this because Singapore has one of the highest ratios of vehicles per kilometer of road at 281, significantly higher than the UK (77), Japan (63), and the US (38). We actually think it is
hilarious that radio stations report on traffic conditions every morning because
well, all they do is take the expressway abbreviations in Singapore and add “congested”
after it. If you drive to work, you will know what we mean.
Unknown to many people, the Singapore LTA has a Park and Ride Scheme which was created with the intention to reduce traffic flow in and
out of the city area during rush hours. In fact, the scheme was first
introduced more than 20 years ago back in 1990! Under the scheme, motorists are
allowed to park their vehicles at designated car parks on route to work, and
make the rest of the journey into the city on a public bus or train. Now before
you start doubting the availability of designated car parks, there are actually
more than 40 islandwide.
There are two options for the scheme - a monthly fee or
ad-hoc parking. The former is represented by a $70 Park and Ride set which consists
of a $30 season parking ticket and a $40 Park and Ride EZ link card, while the
latter is a flat $3/day (7am-9pm) parking fee. The math works in your favor with the season pass option.
Now, let’s take a look at potential savings through
Lifehacksg’s lenses.
Intangibles:
- Avoiding the frustration from the remaining distance between
the designated car park and your office
-
Saving on time stuck in congestion for the remaining
distance between the designated car park and your office
Tangibles:
Assuming that parking in the city costs you $250/month (this
may be conservative for some of you), the net savings to you from adopting the
Park and Ride scheme works out to be more than $2000 per year! Yes, there is additional effort required to turn into a designated parking lot, park
your car, walk back out towards the closest train station and additional
time involved, but if you successfully do this together with Lifehacksg#4 , we
are looking at sizable annual savings.
Lifehacksg#2 - Getting your gym membership at HALF PRICE
[Savings type - $$; Annual - $840]
ah... gym memberships.
Personally, I don't own a gym membership because well, I don't go to the gym. My daily dose of exercise is obtained from my bicycle ride to and from work. However, this deal is a great idea for you gym buddies out there.
A gym membership with Fitness First in Singapore costs you approximately $140/month. You also probably chose Fitness First over the other gyms because of the global access nature of their membership.
In Lifehacksg#2, we reveal that you can obtain a half price membership simply by signing up for a membership at any of the locations in Malaysia (now we choose Malaysia because you can easily do a day-trip to Klang). You effectively pay almost the same amount, except in a different currency denomination. When you convert that payment back to Singapore dollars, you save nearly half of your monthly membership fee!
Let's do the math - we're looking at annual savings of $840.
Now as you tone up those muscles of yours, don't forget how Lifehacksg toned up that wallet of yours too. You're welcome.
Contributor: Roy Goh
ah... gym memberships.
Personally, I don't own a gym membership because well, I don't go to the gym. My daily dose of exercise is obtained from my bicycle ride to and from work. However, this deal is a great idea for you gym buddies out there.
A gym membership with Fitness First in Singapore costs you approximately $140/month. You also probably chose Fitness First over the other gyms because of the global access nature of their membership.
Let's do the math - we're looking at annual savings of $840.
Now as you tone up those muscles of yours, don't forget how Lifehacksg toned up that wallet of yours too. You're welcome.
Contributor: Roy Goh
