Ways to Stretch Your Dollar

I came across this useful article from "Simply Her Magazine" on ways to stretch your dollar and would share some of the more helpful tips here:

• Online forums, such as www.singaporeexpats.com is a good place to hunt for furniture and electronic goods-sold cheap by expats leaving the country. (this tip would be useful for young couples who just brought their flat and has limited budget for furnishings. No harm checking out the website)

• Time your shopping to coincide with store sales and mark these on your calendar. The Great Singapore Sale aside, there are post-Christmas and New Year Sales, as well as end of season sales where you can nab good buys. (i usually buy clothes from my favourite stores like FOX - up to 20% discount, Ebase- up to 50% discount, g2000-up to 40% discount with credit card promo, during their sales period)

• If a simple trim is all you need, give $10 hair salons a chance. Hairstylists at EC House (http://www.echouse.com.sg/) are trained in Japan, and their outlets are located in the heartlands. (i used to frequent Jean Yip Salon for my haircut but switched to $10 hair salon since last year as the hairstylist kept promoting and pestering me to buy the hair cut packages and products during my visit. It was extremely irritating hearing the same sales pitch throughout my 3-4 hours of hair rebonding session. There are occasions when i feel pressurised to buy and end up buying some products that i regretted. At least at the $10 hair salons i can enjoy peace and quiet and the hair stylists do not have any products to sell. I was also quite pleased with my haircut there :>)

• Shop for groceries online and save on transport. Meidi-ya (http://www.meidi-ya.com.sg/english/onlineshopping.asp) delivers free with at least a $20 purchase, but only to selected areas. Fairprice(http://www.fairprice.com.sg/) charges $8 for purchases of $80 and below, and $5 for $80 and above, while Cold Storage (http://www.coldstorage.com.sg/mall/ )charges $7.

• Learn to tango or salsa in eight lessons, and for under $100. Community Centres offer a wide variety of reasonably priced courses and activities, ranging from foreign languages courses to arts and crafts classes. Get more savings with the Passion card (sign up at your nearest community centre or at http://www.one.pa.gov.sg/). Passion card members also pay less to rent the centre's facilities and can earn linkpoints when making purchases at NTUC Fairprice. Accumulated points can be used to redeem shopping vouchers for eg 1500 linkpoints snag you a $10 Metro shopping voucher.

• If you are not particular about the condition of your books, get them from second hand bookstores for under $10. Best of all, you get money back when you return them within the load period; or sell your novels to them. (I have bought several nice and cheap romance novels from some second hand bookstores and the novels are still in good condition and comes with plastic book covers.)