One of my favorite #WFH money hack is to select self pick-up whenever I order food online. Self pick-up allows me to save on the delivery cost, which can easily range from $5 to $20 depending on how far the food stall is.

My family is also working from home, and I usually order lunch for my family of 4 via Grab. There are plenty of discount codes offered by Grab to encourage users to order self pick-up. For example, there was a discount code of 15% off the bill with a minimum spending of $60.

Weighing the delivery cost versus the transportation cost of self pick-up, it’s definitely a cost saving.

When you need to go out for essential reasons (e.g. to go to the supermarket), take public transport. spend less than 45 minutes at each location, and your trip could be counted as a single journey rather than two-way (cheaper!)

for this hack to work, u need to make sure there is more than 1 way to get to/from your location, as you cannot take the same bus back. you cannot also exit and enter the same mrt station.

example
home --> bus 88 --> destination (max 45 min) --> mrt --> home. $1.22
home --> bus 88 --> destination --> bus 88 --> home. $1.84

I work with what’s available at home, and not spending more money.
E.g. I use my dining table chair as my work chair, and my wife's make-up table as my work table. After working, I just shift the chair back to the dining table, also saving space at the same time.

My favourite way to save money while WFH will definitely be thinking of ways how to maximise my savings when I am buying lunch (it's really good having to only think of what you want to eat/how much you want to save without the influence of your collegues):

Tip #1: Saving via Nestia app
One of the best way to save money when buying lunch is to use the Nestia app as it is $0.50 offset per transaction! It is a e-wallet which works like Grabpay, Favepay etc, and can be scanned at any Hawker QR code with a unionpay logo. Imagine buying a $3.60 cai-fan, that is 13.8% savings!
(Protip: You can top up to Nestia app via Google pay to get a new scratch card every week. More cashback! You can link your paylah to Google pay)

Illustration 1.1: Buying 2 veg + 1 meat from mixed-veg store (cash) = $3.60
Illustration 1.2: Buying 2 veg + 1 meat from mixed-veg store via Nestia pay = $3.60 - $0.50 = $3.10

Total Savings: $0.5/3.6 = 13.9%

Tip #2: Savings via delivery app pick-up
I will like to use Foodpanda/Grab pick-up. Stacking with Livefresh, DBS WWMC, and selecting shopback first will help me to save even more $. On special occassions (like 6.6.), DBS also gives 8% on top of their credit card points/miles/cashback for spending on Foodpanda/Grab (as it falls under the category). Now that's real savings $_$
(Pro tip: Milelion just announced that there is 8% cashback on food eateries on 8 August and 9 August for DBS credit card users. Woohoo! Just in time for National Day Celebration! )

Illustration 2.1: Buying chicken chop from a western hawker (cash) = $6.90
Illustration 2.2: Buying chicken chop from a western hawker via Foodpanda pick-up (15% off from Foodpanda pick-up) = $6.90 * (100-15)% = $5.87

• Savings using DBS Live Fresh card @ 5% cashback = $5.87 * 5% = $0.30
• Savings on 8 August or 9 August = $5.87 * 8% = $0.47
• Savings via Shopback (0.5% for existing customer) = $5.87 * 0.5% = $0.03
  Net cost = $5.87 - 0.3 - 0.47 - 0.03 = $5.07

Total savings = (6.9-5.07)/6.9 = 26.5%

Tip #3: Savings via Flash deals on online marketplace
Looking out for flash deals to save money on Online marketplace. By using Shopee Flash sales or Lazada Fri-yay sales, you- get a chance to buy lunch deals at a huge discount. For example, every Friday, you get the redeem 50% off (capped at $2) for Crave, which resulting in only $3.50 for a Crave meal. What's more, you get to stack with DBS credit cards and shopback to enjoy even more savings.

Illustration 3.1: Buying chicken-wing set from the physical store = $5.90
Illustration 3.2: Buying chicken-wing set from Lazada on Fri-yay = $5.50 - $2 = $3.50

• Savings from DBS Live Fresh= $3.50 * 5% = $0.18
• Savings from Lazada via Shopback (0.5% for existing customer) = $3.50 * 0.5% = $0.02
  Net cost: $3.50 - 0.02- 0.18 = $3.3

Total savings = (5.9-3.3)/5.9 = 44.1%

By savings a few dollars every meal, you get to save more and put your DBS muliplier generate more interest! Happy saving!

I think the best WFH money hack is to select self pickup when ordering food instead of delivery. There are so many discounts for those who opt to collect food by themselves and this definitely helps to save money

Just started my first job during this WFH period. Opened a Multiplier account after much research and reading the comprehensive information available on DBS website! Also enrolled in the regular savings plan which unlocked a higher tier of interest for a year! The articles in the NAV uni were really helpful in my personal financial planning journey. Hope to make my money work for me!

Best wfh money hack is 3 bags of tea, 1/4 water and 3/4 milk . Perfect hack for my milk tea thirst 🧋and wallet !

We always have a jug of water in the fridge which we will add in a lemon for cool crisp vitamin c filled iced lemon water, which keeps us fresh and hydrated yet without those sugar present in bbt! Plus it’s cheap!

We usually order essentials online using dbs cards as prices of many items online are actually cheaper than physical retail stores. Plus we make use of dbs card promos to get even more discounts! Plus there’s free home delivery!

We have a dbs multiplier account and in order to be eligible for more transaction categories to get higher interest, we invest $100 monthly on Posb invest saver. In this way, the monthly Interest we earn in our savings can use to buy etf for us, which is a better use of our cash in bank!!!

We like to make use of our slow cooker. Just throw in all the ingredients and cook a simple soup for meals. Just need to cook rice and our whole family can eat them! Cheap easy and healthy!

My #WFH Money Saving Tip will be:
WFH can be mentally draining, easy to get into the food ordering mode.

Take a morning walk to nearby super market/wet market to get your groceries. Cook out simple to your favourite dishes at home.

It will be a good break away from your work and saves your money from ordering in food!

My favourite WFH hack would be to dump 80% of my salary into my multiplier account and not touch it. only buy whats necessary and eat home-cooked meals

My favourite #WFH money hack is to bring my own container when I dabao from my nearby hawker centre or kopitiam. Not only is it environmentally friendly, I save the extra 20 cent takeaway container charge!

My fav #WFH money hack is to prepare your own meal! I realized that ordering take out is a huge temptation especially when you’re tired from work. However, time saved from traveling can now be spent on cooking dinner! You can also meal prep in advance and prepare for next day’s lunch. Not only do you save more money, you also save time from having to go out and buy food. You can now have 10-20mins more to squeeze in a short exercise during lunch to be even healthier!

$ tips: I also use DBS PayLah! with FavePay integration to pay at places which have FavePay, because it automatically credits the cashback into my FavePay! So convenient.

Furthermore I love using the DBS Green LiveFresh! credit card for cashback on my online snack purchases at eco-friendly places - there's 5+5= 10% cashback, what a win-win for you and the planet!

I also frequently check the card promotions page https://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/cards/promotions/default.page to see if there's a good deal with my card. I got $35 off on Klook once, was very happy with that!

My other 2 favorite WFH money hacks are...growing my own edible plants to save on grocery trips (what a great view while working) and exercising while cleaning the house to save on gym fees!

I got a hydroponics kit last year and although I was nervous, the plants starting shooting up! I'm about to eat a thai basil tofu dish with my own thai basil (pictured) right after this, have also made pesto from my sweet basil leaves and stir-fried my sweet potato leaves. Saves me a few bucks at the grocery store but gives me lots of freshness.

The second one is exercising while cleaning the house - since the gyms are closed, now is a good time to save on the gym fees by incorporating some home workouts. Sweeping and wiping become a lot more fun with some music on!

My money hack is... procrastinating buying snacks.

I'm a huge fan of dark chocolate and will often look for snacks out of boredom. WFH means being close to supermarkets (for me) so instead of getting snacks on my usual grocery shopping run, I'll tell myself that I'll get it only when I want to. Since it's kind of troublesome going out, I tend to not buy the snack after all!

My money hack is WATER!!
Every time I'm tempted to reward myself with bubble tea or Starbucks, I remind myself that the reason why those are rewards are because they're cold, and not for the coffee nor the sugar. So I then walk myself to the fridge and get a whole mug of water with many, many ice cubes instead!! Saves me at least $8 of Starbucks money, twice a week, since WFH started 3 months ago!!

The temptation is strong to order food delivery everyday for lunch while WFH. Ordering food delivery just for one person normally do not make economic sense. However, it does not take much effort to actually do food-prep that you just need to warm up with a microwave for lunch. In fact, most of my colleagues even started to bring their own food for lunch after they started doing so while WFH. And it really saves one a lot when you look at how much u can save everyday just by doing food preparation instead of food delivery. It is really no small change!

But of course, once a while can eat snake and order delivery la LOL!

My favourite money hack would be to choose to drink plain water at home instead of ordering bubble tea or sweet drinks from outside.