My favourite WFH money (and time saving) hack is to use the self pick up function in Foodpanda/Grabfood! Most times, there are discounts for self pick up orders, allowing us to save money as some stores would be cheaper on such food ordering apps.

Additionally, we can order in advance and skip the queue, allowing us to maximise our wfh lunch break!

#WFH money hack. Cook lunch at home!! U can save money by buying your own groceries and having a warm meal from the comfort of your own home instead of ordering food delivery or heading out to dine in during #TimesOfNormalcy .

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My favourite #WFH money hack would be I get to save more money in my specially dedicated savings account from the so much which can be saved, from saving transport costs, having homemade meals, beverages such as 3-in-1 instant coffee and tea as perk-me-ups and more.

Lunch preparations in bulk instead of ordering deliveries~

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We were suddenly asked to work remotely from home during this pandemic. Luckily, we have this old dining set available for use. I manage to fit in two monitors on the table and I opted to use the dining chair. I chose not to splurge on the most comfortable chair on the market as it was rather expensive and I thought WFH will only be for a few months... but, no, it extended all the way up to this date.

I consider this a money hack because if we utilize what's available, we really don't have to spend a single penny.

Comfort comes with a price, they say. Luckily, DBS has this contest and now I have the chance to own an ergonomic chair.

Make coffee and lunch at home

• I have to drink coffee on a work day. So as a hack, i head off to supermarket to buy 3-in-1 coffee powder and make my own daily coffee! Compared to buying coffee outside, i can save a lot!
• prepare simple lunch with healthy ingredients using simple recipes found online! Beats buying outside food which may be more expensive and with seasoning that is unhealthy
  -in an event we purchase food from outside, we will bring our own container and own bag to save $ on takeaway charges and save the earth!

My favourite #WFH money hacks are:

1. Buying UV protection window films and installing them myself. Ever since I started working from home, I spend 9 hours daily sitting next to my window, which faces the West Sun. This makes my room very warm especially during the afternoons. I turn on the fan instead of the air conditioner as it consumes less electricity and is more affordable, and pair it with the UV protection window film which reduces a good amount of heat transmitted into my room, keeping my room cool. This helps me save on my electricity bills and is a more eco-friendly option for me.

2. I wear dri-fit clothes on days when I have no meetings, as I find dri-fit clothes easier to wash and dry. Hence I don’t have to use the clothes dryer at all, as my dri-fit clothes dry more quickly under the natural sunlight. I get to save on water and electricity costs, which is a win-win for me.

3. I no longer have the need to buy any new work clothes and shoes ever since I started working from home. Instead, I can get more use out of my current clothes and keep purchases to a minimum, using these cost savings to save up or invest instead

My favourite #WFH money hack is cancelling my monthly gym membership of $180 and creating my own workout plan using free workout videos on Youtube & Sunrise-in-the-city virtual workouts which cost me $0. I’m surprised to be able to find Les Milles body combat and body pump workouts online for free, these are fully booked classes at gyms - score! Its been 6 months and I’ve saved $1080 to date! The best part about #WFH is using my commute time for workouts

My favourite #WFH money hacks would be:

1. Staying at home as much as possible (#stayhomestaysafe) which cuts down on my transportation cost.

2. Staying at home also allows me to do what I enjoy most: cooking! This really helps save a ton of money not just for myself, but for my family members as well - minimising the need/want to dabao/order delivery.

3. Turning (newfound) hobbies into money saving strategies. For an instance, I used to spend a lot of money on store bought Kombucha but I now brew them my own from Scobys I got for free from friends and ingredients that are low cost!

I group buy / buy in bulk with my neighbours on meals (e.g. hawker food) and groceries to save on delivery cost, and traveling time.

I'd like to share that the best money hack is understanding my own spending habit.

During #WFH and given the pandemic situation, I become more aware that spending wisely is a must. So what I did is categorize first the items I'm planning to buy into needs and wants.

If it's a "want", I will look around the internet first for on-going promotions, or wait for 7.7, 8.8, 9.9 before purchasing. More often than not, when those days come, I already changed my mind and delete it to my cart already

If it's a need and requires immediate purchase, I would atleast check which payment method will give me a better deal. Is it DBS visa cashback, DBS paylah as I am on multiplier (salary+paylah), or is it using fave, gpay, etc.

The bulk of our spending goes to food. #WFH allows more time for me to prepare homecooked food. This limits our need to dine out and/or have our food delivered, which are relatively more expensive.

What I do is "meal prep". If you know the concept, it's like cooking food in bulk and storing in properly in the fridge. I cook food good for 2-3 days.

Calculating the cost, we are really saving so much. For example, aglio olio pasta typically costs $15-25/person in a mid-range restaurant. At home, even using premium ingredients, it only costs <5sgd. Isn't this a real hack?

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