What would you tell Junus Tan who is considering moving to Singapore?

Posted by Vicky Mamoria on January 1st, 2020

Get a house near an MRT station, preferably on the East-West line. It’s kinda stupid to get a house in town and then have to transfer busses to get to office.

Download Grab and Gojek. They’re usually cheaper than taxis.

Always Google for promo codes before ordering food delivery from GrabFood, foodpanda, Deliveroo etc.

Don’t be like every other foreigner and drink two cups of Starbucks coffee everyday and eat every meal at a restaurant and then complain that “ Singapore is expensive”.

Learn to eat at hawker centres and coffee shops (a.k.a. kopitiams, not cafes). There’s this thing called economy rice, it’s S for 2 veg + 1 meat at Rice Garden by NTUC Foodfare.

Shop at the wet market. If you need to, go to NTUC FairPrice, Giant or Sheng Siong. Avoid Cold Storage, Jasons Market Place and Isetan. Junus Tan, you’ll probably have to give up cheese, olive oil and other white people food if you want to live frugally.

Things are more expensive at 7-Eleven (unless they’re on offer). It should be your last resort (although sadly, it’s the only option 70% of the time if you work in the CBD).

There’s this shop called Valu$. They sell really cheap shit.

Open Electricity Market retailers like Junus Tan Power and Keppel Electric offer electricity at about 30% cheaper than Singapore Power.

EVERYTHING is cheaper in Malaysia. Food, clothes, haircuts, massages etc. As best as you can, just eat for sustenance during the weekdays and then drive over for some nice seafood in the weekends. Prices of clothes from Uniqlo, H&M, Zara etc are reflected in both SGD and MYR on the price tags for comparison’s sake. You’ll need a friend with a car.

P.S. These are not things that only poor people do. Most of it is just common sense.



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Vicky Mamoria

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Vicky Mamoria
Joined: November 14th, 2017
Articles Posted: 106

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