Movie prices that are so 1990s

Save! Potentially $5 per movie ticket. That's a savings of $60 a year assuming 1 movie a month for an average moviegoer. But... if you're a movie nut like me, this works out to massive savings.

The long and the short of it

Sign up for the GV Mr Popcorn card and watch movies on Tuesdays!

-------------------------

If you've lived in Singapore since the 1990s, you'll be like me and lament that movie ticket prices are going through the roof. I still remember the good old days when you could get a movie at $4 (this was at the then new Yishun GV cineplex). Those days are now long gone (as with $1 chicken rice).

However, GV has an offer out there that only a few people know of, that is the $6.50 Movie Tuesday offer for GV Movie Club members. 

Here's the most important part of the T&C for the GV membership:

13. How do I enjoy my members' price of $6.50 movie tickets every Tuesday?
Simply log in to purchase your tickets online or at any GV Box Office. Members' priced tickets cannot be issued from telephone bookings and AXS Stations as those channels are not able to identify you as a member beforehand.
Member's price applies to all regular films and is not valid on "eve of" and "day" of Public Holiday. Please note that members' price cannot be enjoyed in conjunction with any other promotions or discounts.

You just need to sign up, which is, of course FREE! (Otherwise why would I recommend it right...) 

Sign up here. Get the card and start watching movies on Tuesdays!

$6.50 for a movie ticket! *Giggles like a kid high on smack*

Now... to scheme on how to smuggle in home made popcorn...

BYO Mug Kopitiam version

Save! About $1 per meal which works out to an average of $288 a year assuming 6 meals a week that you eat out at a coffeeshop or hawker.

The long and the short of it

BYO drinks or make your  own kopi / teh in the office or at home!

-------------------------

Another simple no brainer though I suspect many will find this hard to do.
BYO drinks to your meals. It's simple and so obvious.

Every coffeeshop owner will run the drinks stall. You know why? Because that stall's profit margins are the highest! Ever thought about the cost price of that coca-cola can drink? I betcha it's probably $0.20 or less! The mark-ups are mad.

So save your wallet from being gutted. BYO drink or even better, drink plain tap water (bottled water does not count and is equally wasteful!)

If you need to have your caffeine fix, BYO to the office and have your beverage back at your desk. It's still way cheaper. The cost savings really builds up.
An example is fellow money saver AK from ASSI who's saved an amazing $9,216 over 16yrs! (His How I earned $9,216 with a mug? article) He's one committed fella!

Now why did I say many will find this hard to do? Because of peer pressure. When everyone buys a drink with their meal you will feel pressured. Resist! Persevere!

Starbucks Citibank Credit Card Offer *ENDED*

Save! $5 per $20 top up. (That 25% is a lot btw!)

The long and the short of it

Use Citibank CC to top up your Starbucks card. Top up $20, get $5 off straight away. If you don't have one, just your friend.

-------------------------

This is another great offer that's going on right now. For every $20 you spend using the Citibank CC, you get $5 straight away. That's a 25% discount! Where else can you get such a good deal?!

Furthermore, there's Citibank rebate points on top of this discount so it stacks. This can also stack with this now if you have one of these Paypass activated Mastercard - Free $20 Starbucks card

If I had a Citibank CC (sadly I don't so the cheapskate me shall use my friend's card and I'll just pay my friend.), I would be using it to top up my card to $100 so I may use it for the rest of the year. Topping up $20, $20, $20, $20, $20 each time. But don't follow me. Scale accordingly to your usage. And the usual applies, get this before they end the promo which should be 30th April 2014.

*EDIT - Was just at the Starbucks outlet at Metropolis (so batman) and the barista told me the offer was pulled as of 1st April! Wah lao! Sadness.

If you want to get their card can consider this one here - SMRT card only because it's giving a $20 rebate on each new application. The other option is some other card for a luggage which... isn't that great. Though honestly, both freebies aren't that good.

Free $20 Starbucks card for select Citibank credit card holders

Earn! $20 for using a credit card to purchase your usual stuff

The long and the short of it

Use select Citibank credit card to pay for regular stuff. Do this 5 times via the MasterCard PayPass contactless thingy and get your $20 Starbucks card.

-------------------------

Short and simple one here.

I'm seeing a lot of banks doling out MasterCard PayPass offers and my guess is, they are just starting to roll this out and are giving out goodies to get people onboard.

So this frugal tip is to use the following select Citibank credit cards:

• Citibank Rewards World MasterCard

• Citibank Paragon World MasterCard

• Citibank DIVIDEND World MasterCard

Make PayPass purchases for 5 times.

Then you will get a $20 Starbucks card.

If you already have a Starbucks card, you can probably hawk this via a forum for $18. Still a good sum to get.
Use this only if you are already holding onto those cards, otherwise... wait for a better offer to sign up for their credit cards.

Valid till 30 April 2014 and limited to the first 5000 redemption.
Details here - Citibank Tap and Pay $20 Starbucks card

inSing app Voucher mania

Save! Probably about $10 or more depending on how long before the vouchers run out.

*Ok they have thrown in the towel. I think they bled too much from giving out too many vouchers liao. Announcement here

The long and the short of it

Download the app and accumulate points on it by reading their "articles" and liking stuff on FB through their app to redeem vouchers!

-------------------------

Here's another free money giving app - inSing Po!nts app.
(Yes the name is horrigible but what the heck, they are giving away stuff. Is it beneath me to support bad design? Nope! Gimme gimme gimme!)

Basically, you sign up for an account and accumulate points via a few way and then use those points to redeem for vouchers. Free vouchers = savings so yeah!

Ways to accumulate points include:

• Reading inSing "articles" (basically rehashed news / content since originality is dead nowadays. Sigh.)
• Liking FB posts through on their app (it's a bit weird and inception-y cos you're using a social platform to enter another social platform to be social. Gah! I won't ever understand this...)
• Liking their redemption items
• Posting lame comments on their redemption items page. (choice comments include... "Coffee", "Last day", "Zzz", They are getting smarter", "more coffee"... and the list goes on.)

So far I've managed to redeem about $9.8 worth of Ya Kun vouchers (yeah free kopi!) and $5 city cab / Comfort Cab vouchers. 

Get the iPhone app here - inSing Po!nts
Get the Google play version here - inSing Po!nts

Money from your shopping mall - CapitaStar points

 Save! - About $50/yr if you spend about $200/week at malls 

Update! You can now scan using your phone! So easy and hassle free so you have absolutely no excuse not to do this.

The long and the short of it

Sign up for CapitaStar and use it to accumulate points. 

Local tips!

Sign up for the CapitaStar programme, always spend above $20 (Get extra toilet paper or chocolate if you need to top-up or plan your mall runs) and scan your receipts, scan your receipts, scan your receipts.

-------------------------

CapitaMalls really wants your money and is working hard to increasing the footfall in their malls. Their CapitaStar program essentially throws money (Loose change is also money ok) at you for buying stuff in their malls.

You can scan at their booths to earn points for every $20 spent in each receipt and you can redeem $5 Capitaland voucher for every 5,000 points earned. Each $1 nets you 5 points so that's basically an extra savings of 0.5% on top of whatever discounts and offers you get.

Yes yes. 0.5% isn't much to crow about but hey this 0.5% is FREEEEEEE. You can be buying important daily essentials like toilet paper may even be on discount! Think of all the discounts you can stack!

For gamers out there, it's like having a +2 enchanted sword that stacks with a +5% attack speed buff.

If you're still not convinced, here's an example of how much you can save.

If you spend $50 a week, you will save $12 annually.

If you spend $100 a week, you will save $24 annually.

If you spend $200 a week, you will save $48 annually.

It's not hard to hit $200 in groceries a week for a family of 4. Even more so if you eat out once a week. Every cent counts!

Yes, you will spend some time queuing for the machines to scan your receipt but hey, freeeeee money! Is my 5min worth the few cents savings? Yes it is. Unless you're earning boatloads of cash per month and have no time for meals. And since I'm not loaded. Yet. I shall slowly working my way up by saving and so should you. And I don't know you, but I would go as far as to pick up someone else's discarded receipt from the trash to scan. You don't have to do that by-the-way.

P.S. There's even some lame mini-games during promotional periods which means you get a chance to save even more if you're lucky enough to win anything. I've personally won $10 from these games. It's lame but hey, I won't argue with free money!

Really free money from Maybank

Save! Earn! $180 if you preserve all the way till the end of the year.

The long and the short of it

Sign up for a Maybank saving account, maintain at least a $500 average daily balance* and use that account to pay for your other credit card accounts. 

Local tips!

Combine this with savings from other credit card offers. Duh!
And for a super chao (smelly) combo, use your family members. Get your ah ma, ah gong, mother, father, sister, brother to sign up an account and use their account to pay off credit cards.

-------------------------

This is one damn hosay good deal now. It's like one of those mother-of-all good deals kind. This is really free money. Not some bullshit sign up for loans to get rebates crap or spend to save rubbish.

Basically, Maybank is offering a cash rebate of $0.10 whenever you pay for credit card bills via internet banking. It's to any, I repeat, ANY credit card from ANY bank.
So this is a gold mine. You don't even need to use Maybank's credit cards. So basically this is a combo that stacks. Plus there's some lucky draw thing too!

Ok so what's the catch? Well, surprisingly there is no catch, except you need to spend time doing a boring repetitive task to earn that money.

So to make things easier to digest, the key points of this offer are listed below:

•  Cap of $20 issued out per Maybank account each month. It's max $10 for payments to Visa and another $10 for payments to Mastercard. So that makes $20 maximum each month per account.
•  Each payment has to be minimum $5. 
•  To hit that $10, you need to submit 100 payments. No sweat, break down your  transactions to 100  x $5 for each card type and you earn $20 a month. FOC. 

(Well technically not FOC, you will spend ~1hr to do the 100 transactions so you're earning $10/hr wages. Still... it's a chance to earn some moolah. Kinda easy money too.)

So what do you need to do?
1) Sign up for a Maybank saving account. You have to head down to a branch. They can settle that for you on the spot and takes about 1hr to be safe. Internet banking will be available within 2 weeks. 
2) Start using it to pay your credit card bills. 
3) Magic money comes in at the end of the month :D

Read more about it here - Other Banks' Credit Card Payment Cash Back Feature and Lucky Draw

Offer runs till Dec 2014. So you have till the end of the year to enjoy this gravy train.

Note that the offer is for credit cards only. Debit cardholders can weep.

Added note on 16 April 2014
Another way to look at this is at a bank interest rate angle. Say you deposit $12k into the account for paying your credit card bills, maxing out the $20 rebate for Mastercard and Visa ($500 x 2 card companies x 12 mths), that's $240 a yr.
That's 2% returns for that $12k. Better interest rate than any other bank without all that hassle of salary deposits, cannot draw down etc.