Buy (or order) food in bulk, and freeze them for later consumption.

1. save on delivery fees or transport fees.
2. avoid having to leave home as much as possible.
3. avoid covid.
4. save your money, save your life.

#WFH has allowed us more time to prepare our own meals as compared to dining out. Planning for meals ahead help to consolidate grocery expenditure and saved us a significant amount as compared to constantly dining out. Preparing home cooked meals also let us become more conscious about the food that we eat, leading to healthier diet, which in turn less visits to the doctors and cost savings!

Since #WFH, our areas of spending has reduced, making it a good starting point to keep a habit of tracking our spending. Being aware of our spending also helps us plan our finances better, as it shows clearly which areas can be better budgeted, and how much we can set aside for investment/ future plans.

Another point to note is to pick and choose which credit card to use for our general spending, since most cards have a minimum spend to get the most rebates.

Since WFH, the main portion of our expenses usually goes towards food. I reduced this expenditure by reducing the number of times I dine out/takeaway or order delivery. Instead, my family does grocery shopping and we take turns to cook for the family during the week. This way we drastically reduce the amount spent on food, plus we get to eat healthier food and learn a new skill all at the same time.
But not gonna lie though, the first 2 weeks of this arrangement was real tough since only my mother was a good cook prior.

Of course, due to our schedules, sometimes no one is available to whip a meal up for the family. When this happens, we order delivery instead. By grouping up with neighbours at times, the order is eligible for more discounts saving us a ton. I usually order via Grab using paylater. This way at the end of the month, I can charge the amount to my DBS credit card, then use My Preferred Payment Plan to pay off the charge over 3 or 6 months which happens to have an ongoing promotion with no one-time processing fee and 0% effective interest. The cash “saved” then works harder for me in my investments or simply by earning interest in my bank account.

I am a healthcare worker and unfortunately, work from home is not a norm for me. However, my girlfriend is working from home.

This means that I’ll arrange to have dinner at her house every weekday before going home.
This helps us to save at least $15 in total every weekday!

$15x20=$300 per month, which is a lot of money to save for young couples aspiring to buy a house and build a future together.

Cheers

My favourite WFH money hack? I simply reduced all my nonessential expenditure and consolidated the extra savings from my WFH routine (vis work in office), and regularly buy or do regular savings plan in a variety of bond-focused unit trusts with monthly dividends, as well as equities.

Sharing more:
With DBS multiplier interests being cut, I simply moved the money I don't intend to touch out of the multiplier account to a mix of Digiportfolio, REITs and fairly OK credit-rated income-focused bond fund unit trusts. This way, I raise my monthly "interest" payout to compensate for the muted DBS multiplier interest rates.

While my payment of credit cards is always very stable and reliable, I choose pay by interest-free instalment for purchases above $100, so that I have more cash in hand at any point in time and can use that to RSP my income-generating unit trusts to pay off these mini instalments. Bills and expenditure are very easy to monitor when you don't spend a lot.

I don't sleep with air-con, so that my children can. Also eat their leftovers.

I never spend more than what I can afford, eat/take out only 1-2 times a week, and always try to save about 10-20% of my salary, which is near the national household median (I am the only earner). I'm a single dad of 2 kids and have a very litigious-minded and mad ex-wife, so I have also very unnecessarily spent a ton of money on lawyers to handle her madness. WFH made me work longer hours and on weekends. Further, I got no investment or finance background. So if I can still save and do money hacks and make my savings generate fair recurring income, so can most folks.

Other very lucky breaks - dumped a ton of CPF OA into the STI ETF during the 2020 market crash, so am now taking "accumulate" or DCA approach in that area. Emptied out most of life savings to buy bank shares during 2020 dip and exited at 20-35% profit less than a year later. Dumped the earnings into multiplier account, Digiportfolio, income funds unit trusts and large market cap REITs - and reinvest dividends.

Other hacks:

• Cut down on food delivery expenditure, or cut off completely.

• Reduce expenditure on beverages from food courts, coffeeshops; instead either live healthily by drinking water or getting your beverages from the supermarket.

• If you don't already have them, invest in a hot water pot/dispenser, a toaster oven and a rice cooker. These can be used to make simple drinks and meals. Get your food from the supermarket, and set a target of 5-8 home-cooked meals a week to reduce cost of buying takeouts or ordering deliveries.

• Spend less on new clothes given WFH is part of the new normal. If there are bulk discounts, buy some of the same presentable clothes because you are after all going to appear on Zoom anyway.

• If you don't already have it, invest in a fan to keep cool while WFH. Use your air-con for an hour and turn it off for 2 hours, versus using it for 3 consecutive hours, then use the fan instead.

• Cancel your gym memberships. Just go to the playground or fitness corner and bang out your dips, pull-ups, inclined rows, step-ups, burpees and mountain-climbers. Jog around your neighbourhood or cycle on the park connector. Most of us live in HDB, so walk up the stairs. Stay active and healthy without spending too much.

• Move your recurring payments (bills, season parking, utilities) to your POSB everyday credit card to get cashback, and also check the boxes of your DBS multiplier account.

• Use the above savings and do dollar cost averaging with your - based on risk profile and appetitie - Digiportfolio, bond fund unit trusts, equities unit trusts, or stock market equities.

All the best! Don't survive, but thrive!

My Tip : (Re) Budgeting....

Take the time to review how your cash flow has changed while working from home. Go over the past few months of bills to see how your spending has changed from before WFH. This will help you understand if you actually are saving more money or just redirecting your spending to other categories.

In short, budgeting means awareness !!!

You need to be aware of where your money is going and how much you are spending in light of now working from home. Factor in your rent, car payment, food expenses, subscription services, and entertainment costs. The math is simple. You cannot build wealth if you spend as much or more than you make.

My #WFH Money Hack includes:

• Dedicating more time to exercising since I do not have to commute to and from the office. This allows me to maintain a healthy lifestyle which can reduce my healthcare cost in the long run (indirectly saving money).

• If I'm gonna order food delivery at home, I will pool my order together with my family and neighbours to save on the delivery charge.

• Using different DBS cards for cash back. For example, if I'm ordering food delivery, I would use my DBS Visa Debit Card for cash back on food delivery.

• If I'm ordering takeaways at hawker centres, I will bring my own containers as some stalls do charge extra for their containers. Moreover, this also reduces the plastic used, which is beneficial for the environment.

• Using the money saved from telecommuting for investment. For example, I regularly top-up my DBS digiPortfolio to make my money work harder.

It's incredibly important to have a budget and a broader financial "roadmap".

I started using DBS' NAV Planner more actively this year and it has great features that everyone should be aware of.

NAV Planner does the following:

• tracks your monthly cash flow (and even automatically adds expenses you have made using your DBS accounts/cards)

• allows you to create and keep track of various budgets (e.g. dining, bills, transport, etc.)

• calculates your net worth which shows your assets and liabilities using SGFindex (so it connects all your other bank accounts too)

• Suggests insurance and investment products based on your existing levels of coverage and investment knowledge and risk-appetite

• Gives you a money "roadmap", where it forecasts your monthly cash flow/assets over the rest of your life. This enables you to plan to achieve your retirement goals and budget effectively for shorter-term goals (e.g. vacation, wedding, house downpayment, etc.)

On whole, these are killer features that give other free personal finance apps a run for their money. As part of this new "tech-savvy" generation, I appreciate the financial heavy lifting DBS' Nav Planner does for me. It is like a digital personal financial advisor and takes me a step closer towards that elusive financial freedom.

That's a real #WFH money hack to me

Working from home allowed me to save alot of money!

Control yourself from buying unnecessary things from shopping portals and remember to apply the 4321 rule!
40% - Expenses
30% - Loans
20% - Savings
10% - Investment

After going back to being a broke student facing the new environment of 'Zoom University', I thought back on the positive sides.

One being the luxury to choose my own meals. In the past, I would opt for any food that piqued my interest but also leave a dent in my wallet. Now, I am left with a very real choice to eat healthier while just putting a bit more effort into planning what to cook and shopping for groceries.

With my new lifestyle, I stay home most days to enjoy the fruits of my labor while also getting healthier and more creative with my food options. I do believe that a good diet is a key investment for your own life, as with any other beneficial choices you make. Having an Ergotune chair counts as well to safeguard my back from any further distress!

I ponder so much about this and finally, I am able to share my favorite WFH money hack.

Being confined at home most of the time, I have more time to use my phone for social media. I realized that there's so many contests going on around social media that's not actually a scam.

I won quite a lot of vouchers (and even a staycation) which I used to buy my needs and wants. This is a money hack because I did not spend anything but I end up gaining some. Well, 30% of the time.

Joining contests can be shameful at times.. but rather than just browsing the internet for nothing-- I thought why not use my time and mind for something useful (winnings are tax-free, btw). That said, I only need to invest my time for thoughtful entries. To be honest, most of the contests I've won was because of my thoughtful responses and creativity, and that I always read terms and conditions thoroughly.

I love contests that are not based on pure luck, not those "randomly selected" kind of thing.

Used to spend at least $200/month on meals at work in the CBD!! Now that it's WFH, I follow my family out to buy groceries on weekends and home-cook my lunches instead. It's saved me at least $100 per month :)) preparing meals during the weekend, ahead of the work week, also prevents the temptation to Grab food, saving yet another $20-25 per WEEK! No more excuses for myself like "it's faster", or "it's more convenient"!

To qualify as a #WFH money hack, I feel it has to be one was possible as a result of wfh, so I commend and kudos to those who shared abt ur home cooking journeys and the associated savings w DIYing while I feel that money hacks cannot be at the expense of others like how some are suggesting, eg hawkers and f&b establishments who are surviving on thin margins, food deliver riders making an earning, when we think we save more by certain actions, these groups of people will earn less so consider again if what we are doing is a thoughtful money hack

As for my #WFH money hack, I have started to order tingkat catering for my family for fixed days of the week, it offers healthy options, free delivery to your doorstep, less food and transport wastage being orders are consolidated and prepared in a central location, and help my family save time and cost on travelling and reduce exposure for my elderly parents as they no longer need to leave the house as frequently to buy grocery or do takeways. Moreover, you can save even more if u opt for longer term subscriptions. Do look up Fresher Diners.

Wfh has also given me opportunities to support more home based businesses in the areas of food and fashion. There's a lot of variety and personalisation offered and also a chance for me to speak to them and learn abt their stories, and hear how some are supporting worthy causes. It is a money hack bcos I get to buy items at higher quality and last longer than mass produced items and food wise I know Im getting more quality and fresher ingredients as they are prepared when there is demand. I also see this as a way of supporting them in their #WFH money hack since they wld have pivoted to a Wfh setting - a win win scenario for all. Checkout Project Cookoh!

Finally, with wfh, I do my grocery shopping online and here are few tips:

• find out the min spend for free delivery (can choose 'eco-friendlier' time slots if u r always home) and consolidate or pooling your orders for your family and maybe your eldery neighbors
• look out for bundled deals on the site and certain brand, credit card or partner (Safra, Passion Card) promo codes, you can use app like Price Kaki to compare or get an idea of prices for individual items
• use services like Shopback to get a couple of % extra savings
• if no hurry, make your orders on sales dates like 8.8, 9.9, DBS has a 8.8 special for online spend and with certain online retailers
• look out for the banner and notification where they either give free samples or PwP items per order

Anyway, all the best, take care and stay safe everyone! Happy discovering new money hacks, and if possible think of them in a more thoughtful and holistic way, benefiting more than just yourself!

My go-to #WFH hack is to pool food delivery with neighbours. It helps save delivery fees (it almost becomes negligible) and helps qualify for minimum spending promotions!

We order meals together in one order and split the delivery costs while enjoying more promotions

Making my own drinks at home instead of buying from outside! Tbh reducing bbt spends is also healthier for my body #lesssugar

1. My sister drips her own coffee at home now, instead of buying from kopitiams/Starbucks - $5-12 saved per week!
2. I stock up on tea during sales which last me for at least a year! each drink is probably less than $1 vs $4-5 dollars outside
3. Recently got a blender and I can make my own "boost" juice! fresh fruits with no added sugar is a much better choice~ ps it makes soya milk too so I love how it's multifunctional!

Since #WFH, I have started using 3 different money hacks (all which are somehow related to food) to help me save up on money!!

1. Use of Self-Pickup services on Foodpanda/Grab! Ordering in lunch/dinner seems so easy when you are working. But you get to save some money (and also exercise) when you walk out to dabao all your own food!

2. If you are visiting the hawker centre/food courts, bring your own containers and cups when you take away food and drinks. Save up on that 20cents when you bring your own container and save the earth!

3. Cook at home, and meal prep in the morning, before work, for your lunch! I'll use my POSB Everyday card to get that 5% cash rebates from Sheng Shiong store (or Redmart, when I'm really too lazy to travel out to buy my grocery!)

#WFH money hack for me is to never order any food delivery. I always try to cook my own food or eat hawker centre food. Very fast and cheap if you get into the routine of doing it. You never realise just how much money you spend when you order in 3 times a day!

Working from home means travelling less! With the money saved from eating our and traveling fare, I have invested it using robo advisor! Another #WFH money saving tip is to order your food deliveries for everyone! Avoid ordering for yourself only, further more larger purchases are eligible for more discount codes! Lots of money saved that way!!!