Save up for vacation? Let me show you HOW!

Have you ever thought of leaving the place you used to work, stay, and survive in for the time being and go to a place for a short getaway or a relatively long vacation? Let's face it.... You did! But the first thing that came to our mind is MONEY! (Since we are so-called money minded)

please do not put yourself off from the nice vacation that you really deserve... Because everyone of us deserve a short break from work!

Well... When the income isn't going up while the economic is really bad.... there are still several ways to save up money. Online blogs and articles they provide with tons of solutions for you to save your money in a easy way, hard way, fun way etc... So I actually pin point out those I feel that is relevant and effective to share it here... and these advice can also apply to the people who simply wants to save more money for future plans!

1. Open up a separate account
Open up an account with no ATM card access so your savings will be so called "able to go in and unable to come out" until you really need it... Put all of your savings here and see it grow as you deposit the money in :) When you really need it, just pop by the bank and withdraw one lump sum that you needed!

2. Save your changes
I know... Most people hate to carry their coins around as they are very heavy... Well... since you hate to carry them around, one of the most suitable way to get rid of these coins is to throw them into a saving jar! Then you wonder, what can I do with these change??? You can exchange them into notes with coffee shop drink stalls (trust me, they need it all the time), mini marts, 7-Elevens and some supermarkets during non-peak hours.... I am sure you won't wanna get cursed and swear at when you are exchanging coin with the cashier at the front of the queue right? THEN, put them in bank, slowly build up your vacation funds... It may be small... but can at least cover up part of your vacation :) To speed up your process... you may choose to put in some notes occasionally!!

P.S. Do not deposit coins straight away as they will have some charges depends on which bank you deposit in... why waste the money while you can change the coins to notes at the shops?

3. Take up saving plans!
I personally taken up Prudential Prucash plan.... Every month they will deduct some amount from your bank account... By right, this plan is to help you save up for retirement funds... But! Every year you can take out part of your "savings" and use it for your own vacation etc... this is one of the solution for people who got no discipline to save.. If you need a agent, do drop me a comment :)

4. Making use of your last year bonuses!
If you working as a employee of a company, you will have bonuses every year... now that's the extra money you can utilised as a travel fund! Or you can combine it with your savings and go for a good holiday that you deserve after working hard on saving money :)

5. Limit your daily budget!
Limit your daily budget is also a way to save up more money.

Say, $10 per day, at the end of the day, throw in the extra balances into your saving jar, so when you have the urge to buy something not necessarily important, you will think twice before buying it, thus saves up the remaining balances at the end of the way.

6. Keep your cards at home!
Have you ever encounter this situation? When you were in the malls without intention to do any shopping for clothes, and you saw something nice in a shop, say... a beautiful dress that is on the racks... You were so attracted by it but you have no cash on hand.... You grabbed it to the cashier... and pay it with the invisible wallet (ATM card)... at the end of the day... you wonder where your money go to..

That's the problem with ATM card... you are spending your hard earned money without really knowing how much you spent.... same goes to the credit cards where you are spending future money... When the bill comes, it feels like the bomb just exploded in front of your eyes if you are unable to control your spending thru credit cards effectively...

Keep your all your cards at home and bring only cash! Like that you can control the urge to withdraw money out from your ATM or over spending thru credit cards more effectively.

7. Get your friends to join you!
To get your friends involve will also decrease the chances of you spending too much money as both of you will work hard together and will find a way to go for budget friendly gathering.

You know it's really hard to say "NO" when your friend came to invite you to go to a café and restaurants for lunch, so by making your friends involved helps to prevent that from happening... more over... you and your friends can make use of the money saved to travel together!

Set a target together, track each other's progress and point out what your friend can do better by reduce this and that... it's really fun and can improve your friendships with your friends!

8. Stop Smoking!
Let's face it smokers, what is the benefit of lighting up a cigarette?

I quote from someone I know (no offence) : "Smokers are very stupid, they spend money to buy cancer, but at the same time they are also very generous, they buy cancer and share it with everybody!!"

It is not a healthy habit, it might not necessarily make you get cancer, but it can depletes your health bit by bit and also affecting the people around you by taking in your second-hand smoke and have higher chances of getting cancer compared to you.... At the same time, you are also burning your money away!!! Especially when the tobacco and alcohol taxes are increasing... so why burn your money and health away by letting the government consume your hard earn money?? Instead, use your money saved from quitting smoking and use it to pamper yourself more :)

Hope you enjoyed reading my blog post... see you again!

DIY Recycled Coin Box!!!

Today I am going to show you how to make this "not very nice" and yet pretty practical Recycled coin box! It's actually pretty simple...

What do you need?
1. A Box (any size any shape)
2. Scissors
3. Scotch tapes

Yes! it's very simple and you only need these 3 things!

I chose Equal Sweetener box as my sample because it has a "slot" (this slot originally is for closing up the box) ready for me to insert money in... If your box got no ready-to-use slot, you can cut one using your penknife:)

Now, all I did is just cut of the additional parts that covers up the "slot" so I can slot in the money without any problem... Then, Use your scotch tape and tape them up! If you like, you can wrap up the box with wrapping paper to give it a nicer appearance :) It doesn't costs much and basically you are just recycling what you have on hand...

Saves money and saves the earth! why not right? :) Hope you enjoyed this post and see you!

Picking up a hobby helps you save money (Community Centres) !

Ok, don't get me wrong... not all hobbies are money-friendly... But! By picking up a hobby with a friend can help you save money as you can hang out at someone's house and indulge yourself with your favourite pastimes... Ok... Now I show you what do I mean by "picking up hobbies" and what hobbies can you take up :)

Community centres provide tons of activities without damaging your pocket.... And I just realised that besides those lessons with minimum 12 sessions per cycle... they also provide Express course that cost as low as $5 and is a 1 hour 30 min lesson like rubber stamp making, jewellery making etc...

Oh! did I forget to mention about Passion card? If you want to save up more money, do go register for one passion card! So you can save 10% or more for all the activities you signed up at community centres :)

Here's the things I've done during my express courses :)

 

Rubber stamp carving

 

 

Jewellery Making!

 

These courses might make you addicted and motivates you to buy the tools to create more handmade stuffs for own use or as a simple gift! But it is still way better than go out splurge on shopping!

 

Firstly, Handmade gifts are more meaningful than a "off-from-shelves" gift... it is more personalised!

 

Secondly, It occupies majority of your free tme so you do not have to spend your time outside spending money.

 

Thirdly, it is a healthy hobby!

 

Since I am addicted to it... I even created a few stamps for my personal use...

 

Tadah!!!!

 

 

My proud creations!!!

 

You can even sell your creations to make some money :)

 

If art and crafts isn't your cup of tea, there's also courses to learn a foreign language, sports and fitness and more! Do check out with them soon okie? :)

Saving up extra money? Getting started with just $1!

Just came across with a easy weekly saving plans that people were talking about online, "what is that all about?" you asked?

First, Let me show you this listing :)

Seems simple ya? All you need to do is to follow this listing and contribute to your account/piggy bank and at the end of 52 weeks you will have near $1400 extra spending money!

Afraid that you might just give up half way and decided to dig out every single dollar you have in your piggy bank? Then here's another solution for you!

I love Daiso ($2 Japanese Shop) and I always love to window shop there even if I'm not buying... It's just fun to see lots of Japanese goods and you will admire how smart can the Japanese be to have invented such inventions to make life easier!

Oh well... have you ever heard your parents or grandparents say that they use to have this "one time use" clay piggy bank that the only way to open it is to smash it?

Here you are!

This tin piggy bank is specially made for people who got no much discipline in saving money... it costs only $2 and it will make the money savers to fill it up before opening it so as not to waste the $2... You can use it to save it your 52 weeks challenge or you can simply throw in your bulky coins in! It says ¥300, 000 which equivalent to about SGD$3000.... most likely you might wanna fill it up with $1 to reach that amount...

Or IF you still have no discipline in building up your savings, you can open an account with no ATM cards issued so your money will be so called "able to go in but unable to come out"... Other than that, take up a saving plan from various insurance company is also another option and I personally taken up plans from Prudential :)

Hope these tips will help you to save more for your future plans!

Introduction of Miss Money Saver!

Hi! I am the owner of this blog and I believe most of the Singaporeans like you and me might be struggling with increase savings for future marriage, housing, children expenses, personal expenses and blah blah blah.... Unless you come from a well-to-do family..

So! I created this blog so as to share with people the 5 Ws (who, when, what, where and how) of saving up! This blog basically shares what I found online as well as my personal view and experiences... As I am a Singaporean, I speak Singlish most of the time... So! Bear with my languages with full of "lah, leh, loh"... lol...

First, a self introduction of myself, I am a Private Tutor, so saving up money is an essential as the income is not fixed every month. The only thing I can do to increase my saving is to limit my spending as well as to increase my assignment... So if I can increase my savings, You can do it too!!

Hope you enjoy my blog and I hope you will come back for more tips and tricks on how to save more money!