On Offer: Get paid to be organized!
“Hunny, could you get a $200 gift card please”? Something I hear almost every week from my other half. No, we are not attending a party or gifting $200. That’s us purchasing a supermarket gift card for $190 but getting a value of $200. Yes $10 worth of extra value just for purchasing a gift card in advance or basically, being organized.
Cashback Apps
So, we live in a country where the supermarket has a partnership with a fuel company and other retail stores selling appliances, alcohol (we don’t drink, but that’s a story for another time) and some other knick-knacks. We use a certain cashback app that has a gift card offer of 5% off for this supermarket chain. We’ve been doing this every week for the past 2 years and by my calculations we’ve saved spending upwards of $750 a year. Isn’t that amazing? That’s about 180 cupcakes worth 🧁.
So, what do we do to save all this coin? Be more organized. All we do is to ensure that we purchase these gift cards a day or 2 in advance before we do an actual shop. They are digital gift cards so they are always handy and there’s an app that tells us what the balance is. At any time, we would have about $60-$70 balance in there. There is always a chance that we might have to pick up something up so it’s good to have that balance in there.
Cashback apps and websites are now everywhere and present in many countries. If you aren’t using them, it’s literally your loss. Please refer to my explanation of how every cent matters here.
On this cashback app, we’ve even found a cashback promotion on our local chemist/pharmacy for 1%. All we have to do is purchase it via click & collect. Yes, we get 1% back for shopping online 🤯. Now, whenever we need to purchase something, appliances, clothing, household items, we check the app first and more often than not, we find a store listed that offers some form of cashback. In the past 2 months we’ve accumulated about $60 in the cashback app. Not bad for basically doing the same thing I would always do just a couple of clicks more.
Food Delivery Fees
Now, I know there are lots of you out there that actually require the delivery for reasons like injuries, urgency, safety, etc. But there’s also a whole lot of you out there that are simply too lazy to go collect it yourself. Or use the, “but it’s raining” excuse. Honestly? Unless you’re in Hong Kong and experience category 5 typhoons, you have no excuse.
I lived in a share-house where my housemate ordered 2-3 meals a week. That’s more than $10 a week in simply “laziness costs”, or over $500 a year. Whilst I’m a huge advocate for cooking your own food, I understand there are lots of times and reasons for us to purchase food, and that’s fine. Just don’t waste it with delivery fees. Also, for those who do not know, there are lots of apps that may not have a delivery fee but have different (higher obviously) prices online. This is so that they can cover the costs to pay to the ordering app company. So if you’re doing pick-up, be sure to check the price online and in store. You could be secretly paying $2-$3 more per dish.
I can hear some of you saying, “I don’t pay anything because I always meet the minimum for free delivery”. Well if you’re meeting it by getting a Pepsi or a dessert or even an entree which you normally wouldn’t get, that’s the waste.
Card Surcharges
This is one that I used to be guilty of and then realised how dumb I was. In this digital age we live in, it’s so much more convenient to just do things digitally. That includes paying with your card instead of using cash. I used to have a very thin wallet because I never carried cash around. And there I was thinking “I’m so cool”. Yeah nah. You no cool, you stupid. Whatever the additional cost, even if it’s 1%, I will refuse to pay it now. It’s ridiculous. What service am I getting? Sometimes it’s an amount like 50¢ which is a HUGE percentage of the bill.
Let’s look at it this way. I’m at a restaurant and we get a bill for 4 of us for $120. There’s a 1% surcharge for it. That’s $1.20. Yes you don’t have so many meals like that a year so saving $1.20 isn’t going to save you $500 a year. But, could have saved that by withdrawing cash before the meal? Or should I say, being organized. The average wage as a server in Singapore is ~$7. $1.20 is 10 mins of work on thy wage. And the principle of paying more to be lazy, I don’t think it’s worthwhile at all.
So, what should you do right now? Look up a cashback app where you live. Download and browse through their offers. Withdraw some cash and have that with you at all times. I think $100-$200 for singles/couples is a good sum. Families probably $300. And next time you see a fee or charge added on to your bill just pause and think, “how many 🍩 is this costing me”?
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Author: Akash Devasar & Co. | We speak numbers | https://www.adevasar.com