Bring my widowed mum out for a good dinner as she had not seen her grandchildren for few weeks due to sickness and she really misses them so much. All 5 of us are vacinnated.

Bring my widowed mum out for a good dinner as she had not seen her grandchildren for few weeks due to sickness and she really misses them so much. All 5 of us are vacinnated.

I am so glad to share my WFH Saving Hacks with you all and when I start this, I cannot stop:

1. Instead of making multiple trips for grocery, I would make only 1 trip to buy 1 week worth’s of grocery that can last the family of 4 (2 adults and 2 children aged 10 and 14) for 3 meals namely, breakfast, lunch and dinner. You might ask, is that evening possible? My answer is yes, for breakfast, we have bread with milo or coffee. For lunch, we cook one pot dish for example, curry chicken for Monday, braised chicken wings for Tuesday, Fish Soup with Noodles on Wednesday and so on. For dinner, we shall have 3 dishes, namely vegetables, meat and soup. On the last day of the week, it is the happiest time for the children as they prepare the hotpot and cook anything that is left in the fridge to prevent food wastage for lunch and dinner. This being said, we have saved a good $300.00 to $400.00 dining out or tabao-ing of 3 meals for 4 people weekly.
2. We use a good thermal pot frequently which not only helps to continue to cook the food, it also keep the food hot for 10-12 hours. This means that we do not have to turn on the stove or rice cooker for hours to boil soup or cook a decent meal. Re-heating is also not necessary as the food is kept hot. Do a research and invest in a good one, my current one is as old as my 14 year old son (I bought it at $120.00 14 years ago) and it is still working like magic. I have also convinced many of my friends and colleagues to get 1 thermal pot of their choice from the open market and they are loving it.
3. Cook only enough for everyone, not extra for just in case. If someone is still feeling hungry, a cup of milk helps.
4. In the event that cooking is not possible, we will call the nearby food stores directly to place order and we will collect the food ourselves. This means that we do not have to order food via any food ordering platforms where the same food items are priced higher with delivery charges. If there is no contact number for the food stall that you wish to order from, there is one more saving tip for you. Bring your own reusable containers. Nowadays, each takeaway container will cost a minimum of 30cents. Please save your money and save the mother earth at the same time.
5. We would usually do the grocery on days when there are promotions and charging to my credit card that has the highest cash rebate and mall points. Instead of driving that incurs petrol and parking costs, we will bring our grocery trolley along and walk home within a good 15 mins.
6. If the family has the habit of eating their meals at different timings, this is a good opportunity to change! Eat together at the same time means more bonding time and lights at the dining room will be switched on for a much shorter time during dinner since everyone will be eating during the same period.
7. When washing the dishes, soak all the dirty plates, bowls and utensils in a pail filled with water with little dishwashing liquid. This helps to remove the grease during soaking so that the cleaning is made easier and quicker while saving water.
8. Look out for good promotions from the various open market electricity providers. They provide promotional rates and sometimes come with additional perks like shopping vouchers.
9. Instead of constantly charging of laptops and mobile phones, we switch off the power socket as soon as it is 100% charged.
10. We would turn off the wifi and Bluetooth on the mobile devices after 11pm to prevent the battery from draining out unnecessarily.
11. To keep the temperature further down at home, we have purchased the solar film online and pasted them on the windows at home ourselves. For 3 bedrooms and 1 living room, our total expenditure was $80.00.
12. In the afternoon, children would do their homework with me in the living room where my WFH desk is setup. This means that we only switch on 1 fan to cool everyone down instead of 3 individual fans.
13. On hot nights, the four of us will bond together in the master bedroom with aircon switched on economic mode instead of the living room. At times, the children will bunk in with us too.
14. Many times, we would add the items we need to purchase in the online shopping cart and wait for special promotions such as 7.7, 8.8 online sales that allow stacking of vouchers and utilise earned points to make online purchases such as fresh seafood like salmon, cod fish, prawns online, bulky products with free delivery.
15. Being truthful, WFH means that you may be browsing online more often that you used to be. Before you purchase that pretty dress, latest gadget or cooking pot at that tempting special price online, please browse away from it for 30 minutes, walk around your home and re-think if it is truly a need or it is just a want. My family and I have been using this method and trust me, the final outcome is that it is usually a want and you end up not buying it, thus saving money.

DBS logo was modelled after the caissons of the DBS Building foundation in 1972. It has also evolved through the years. I know about this because I was doing some information searching in DBS website just few days ago.

It is called A Bond.