Going to the market with NTUC Vouchers

Save! - About $130/yr if you spend about $50/week at NTUC.

The long and the short of it:

Buy NTUC vouchers at a discount and use said vouchers to shop at NTUC. Remember to use your card to get LinkPoints.

Only applicable if you are not spending over $500/month using the OCBC NTUC Visa Plus! card which is only available to NTUC Union members. Cos that combo gets you can even better rate.

Local tips!

Check out Gumtree, Carousell, HWZ and the usual forums for people trying to cash in their vouchers. Just be careful of deals that sound too good to be true. Don't get scammed.

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Now that you've whet your appetite doing some frugal groceries shopping, here's a more advance level challenge. Using vouchers at NTUC.

Not many people know this yet or don't bother with it, but you can still receive NTUC LinkPoints when you shop using NTUC vouchers. (I've checked with them on email and have tested this out so it works as of 4 April 2014)

So where's the extra savings? Well, there are usually people on forums such as Gumtree, HWZ and Carousell looking to cash in their vouchers. NTUC vouchers should go for at least a 5% discount on those forums. Sometimes, the vouchers may even go for 10% off. Just make sure collection is not out of the way otherwise your 5% savings will end up enriching SMRT or SBS!

A word of caution - Don't get scammed!

If the offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

An example would be a super good voucher offered at 40% discount but requires you to do payment via internet banking or Western Union and they will mail the vouchers over afterwards. There is a risk that the seller will run off with your money.

Cash On Delivery (COD) is the safest or paypal (Should be able to claw back payments).

If it's Yellow let it Mellow, if it's Brown Flush it Down

Save! $20 per year on flushes

The long and the short of it

If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.

Local tips!

Use outside toilets also can.

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The common adage - If it's Yellow let it Mellow, if it's Brown Flush it Down... Just how much can you save?


This is a bit unhygienic but if you do practice it, it can save you about 2-3 flushes a day but with today's water saving toilet bowls, you'll only end up saving about $20 a year. It's not a lot and honestly doesn't seem to be worth it considering that you run the risk of stinking up the home.

So here's a better way. Save your waste water to do manual rinses and flushes. Where to get the waste water you say?

1. From brushing your teeth and washing your face each morning. (I can fill close to half a bucket just with this.) Though you might think eeeewwwww water from my mouth?! Remember where that water is going... into the toilet bowl... Not exactly a clean place either.
2. From the washing machine (might be a little stinky with the soap smell but ok once it's been diluted with water from other sources)
3. From washing vegetables (not meat hor. The oil is not good for your toilet plumbing.)
4. From mopping the floor

And if I could, I would also save my shower waste water but alas, I think my family will freakout if I stopper the drains to pump out water after each shower!

I've been doing this for a few months now and there is little to no smell, the bowl water will look a bit cloudy but I can live with that.



What can I say, I hate waste and it's just sinful to use good drinkable water to wash down our crap. It's a sin I say!

This is quite advanced so do it only if you can stand it!

Bar the soap

Save! Maybe $50 per year? Cos shower gels are *&(%#! expensive as hell while bar soaps are cheaaaapppppp!!!

The long and the short of it

Go for the bar soap.

Local tips!

Don't drop it in camp next to an indian fella!
Heh heh heh just kidding...
(No offense ah my fella indian countrymen :p The cheena babi in me just couldn't resist this stereotypical toilet humour.)

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This is simple and probably more for males cos it's about daily no fuss maintenance and they usually heck care beauty labels etc one.

STOP USING LIQUID SHOWER GEL!

Just use the bar soap. It's more or less the same and it costs at least 10x cheaper. You'll save a tonnes of moolah just by making this switch.
They are also easy to store and you can buy in bulk too to save even more.

You just can't stack those bottles of liquid shower gels

AND to further minimize waste, just slap your new bar soap onto the last slivers of the old bar soap and they will merge into one. Totally zero wastage.

Shower gels you still need to open the cap and put your finger in to dig... if you know what I mean...

So happy together...

Same for the soaps you use to wash your hands. Get a bar soap. Bloody cheap.

Save more on groceries by not buying from supermarkets!

Save! $5-10 depending on what you buy for groceries and how much food you go through each month.

The long and the short of it

Go direct to suppliers or pseudo suppliers for certain groceries. Especially pantry items.

Local tips!

Look up Phoon Huat or Kwong Cheong Thye. These are the two I know. If you know more, please share!

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When you think about groceries shopping you think supermarkets such as NTUC, Giant, Mustafa, Sheng Siong or even the wet market. For most items yes, it will be cheaper to get at the supermarkets but there are some items that can be gotten cheaper at... the suppliers of course!

I've looked up and did a rough comparison and if you're buying the following, it's actually cheaper to get from... Phoon Huat!!!! (HUAT AH!)

Items that are definitely cheaper:
- Unsalted butter (if you bake)
- Sun dried tomatoes
- Cooked whole beans
- Nuts (raw or otherwise) *heard victoria market carries them at good prices too but haven't checked. Thing is, confirm cheaper than supermarkets can le.
- Vinegars
- Oils
- Frozen fruit meats
- CHEESE!!!! OMG GOD DAMN CHEAP! (Ok not cheap but cheaper. Soooo much cheaper)
(1kg Mozzarella is only $11.80! Eat till cheese come out of the ears!)

Just be sure to call them before you head down so you don't make a wasted trip and plan your journey so your cost savings don't end up spent on petrol or the bloodsucking SMRT and SBS. I personally like the Aljunied MRT branch cos its super big and tends to have items in stock. Calling before hand is important.

Phoon Huat catalogue here but no price list. Sadz.

On the other hand, Kwong Cheong Thye is where you can get your chinese / asian cooking sauces and also other ingredients. However, they only have 1 retail outlet near Aljunied MRT.

My mum only goes there to buy the Yu Sheng veges and sauces for CNY (HUAT AH!!!)
I saw other nuts and assorted pantry items too.

Cooking saving hack Part 1 - Planning to eliminate waste

Save! Maybe about $0.50 on heating and water per cook, depending on how frequent you cook and the proportions. If you cook often, this adds up.

The long and the short of it

Plan your meals so you only need to cook once in awhile and have little to no waste. It's also more environmentally  friendly!

If you cook pasta, cook it with a stew to use the starch water.

Save any fat rendered out from crisping bacon or roasting chicken.

Local tips!

Use sturdy reusable plastic food containers to freeze your stews and meals for another day.

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I hate food wastage and I try my best to use up all and I mean all that I put in the pans. I just hate throwing out anything in the kitchen. The best way for processed food bits is to the compost heap (which I don't have and don't know how to start... yet) or into the stomach.

Fat Drippings
Starting off, I save all fat drippings and freeze them to use in mashed potatoes, bruschetta, salads or for simple stir-fries. Chicken fat, bacon fat whatever fat that's rendered off, I pour off and save. These drippings are flavor bombs and can and should be reused! There are entire forums dedicated to this (e.g. Chowhound, SeriousEats, CookingJunkies)
You might say the fat is unhealthy etc but you should just listen to common sense, which is to have everything in moderation.

As long as you're not drinking it by the gallon, you'll be fine...

Image taken from Butterbeliever, like many a home chef converted, also thinks like I do!

Pasta Water
For awhile now, I have been thinking of how to save my pasta water as I hate to pour them into the sink since:
1) it's a waste of about 2-3 litres of good clean food grade water (the horrors of waste!)
2) starch being starch, it might clog the drain

So I thought, since I love to do up big batches of stews and need water and starch from potatoes to thicken them, I might as well cook these two meal items together. Cooked pasta water becomes the water base for stews and the pasta starch will also help to thicken the stew! 
2-in-1 ah!
Just moderate the salt level accordingly i.e. use less salt in the pasta water.

So now, I try my best to plan pasta with a stew. Then I'll partition the stew into plastic food containers (reusable ones mind you) and freeze them for later consumption.

Frozen foods can last indefinitely but the tasty stews normally don't last more than 2 weeks. Just remember to thaw the stew first before you pop it in the microwave. No point wasting good energy heating up frozen food. Let Singapore's sunny weather do that for you.

So this is a simple cooking hack. Save energy, save your pockets and save the Earth.


What are some of your cooking hacks to save on gas and food waste?
Share them with me in the comments section!

Toothpaste - No need to be so excited and squirt too much

Save... Not sure but you should be able to cut down your toothpaste usage by at least half. Maybe around $3 a month?

The long and the short of it

Don't use that much toothpaste. Just a pea size amount will do.

Local tips!

Small ang moh pea hor. Not the ginormous edamame pea

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This ad just screams! "More toothpaste = better!" Why not just empty the whole tube in each brush!

Advertising is at the same time one of the best and worst things to happen.


Above is a typical toothpaste advertisement and oh it's so nice to brush with a whole toothbrush slathered with that minty fresh toothpaste. It's like the only way to keep your pearly whites... well... white.

Actually... no!


This is actually how much toothpaste you need!

That's still too big a pea but at least my toothpaste now lasts me longer than a week

Toothpaste is basically an abrasive (think very fine mobile sandpaper) and a small amount will be enough to do the job since abrasives don't dissolve. A small pea sized dollop will do!

Still not convinced? Here's an article by HowStuffWorks.

And lastly, do your teeth a favor. Cut back on the whiteners. They whiten your teeth by eroding your old coffee/tea/smoke stained enamel to reveal the fresh new shiny white layer beneath.
Use whitening toothpaste often enough and you'll erode your teeth away. So don't!
Whiteners are expensive too so that's a doubly good.

Eat less save more

Save! Potentially a lot. Maybe about half of your food spend

The long and the short of it

Cut down on your meal portions because we are all eating too much....

Local tips!

Order less side dishes. Don't order "value" meals.

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This is more philosophy and method than a good deal kind of post. 

We all eat way too much now in this modern, affluent society. That's why diabetes and gout are on the rise. Both are "rich man" diseases. Rich in the sense that we can fill our bellies and not have to go hungry. A very low bar.

So to combat health problems from eating too much and save our bellies and our wallets, we should all try to cut down on consumption. 

For e.g.

• When ordering Cai Fan 菜饭, aim for just 2 side dishes instead of the usual 3. 
• Always avoid taking the meal options in fast food outlets and just buy 1-2 individual items. 

These actions may just save you a few cents but you're treating your body and wallet so much better.

Try it. Start slow.
Do frugal Fridays!
Where you subtract one item off your lunch since you've the weekend to look forward to so a bit of "misery" in smaller food portions shouldn't hurt that much!

Work your way to a slimmer self and a fatter wallet!
Better for your heart and mind too :D