Cab Fare

How to save money? Simple, do not take cab. But not easy right?

Temptations Temptations ;)

Let me do a simple breakdown of how a journey (starting time at 10pm) used to cost and would now cost. Hopefully this cost analysis of a short-distance travel would wake you up enough not to take cab :)

From somewhere in Pasir Ris to somewhere in Tampines, this journey that I always take used to cost at most $5.20. At most $5.20, meaning to say, $5 would most often return me some change..

Yesterday, after the price hike in ComfortDelGro Cab on 12 Dec 2011, I took a cab under that company. By the way, City Cab is under ComfortDelGro bcoz they are actually ComfortCityCab though not heavily publized with the word Comfort in front. This mean no escape from the price hike for me.

When I first board. $3.20 ;)

is a history.. it's $3.20 plus the 25% peak-period (from 6pm to 11.59pm) surcharge of $0.80.

This means that without moving an inch, you've incurred a cost of $4.00.

Then every increment is no longer $0.20. and it's not just an increment of $0.22. it's $0.22 plus the 25% surcharge of $0.05. So every jump is $0.27. Not so fun nor friendly anymore.

The total cost summed up to an amount of $6.48.

To think that uncle asked if i've got $0.50 when I passed him a $50 bill. What? Uncle wanna eat my $0.02 cents after the company revised the rates izzit? I think that there'd be lots of opportunities for them to eat those loose $0.0something cents of change.

Thankfully I do not have $0.50. I had $0.35 and the uncle accepted that. A slight discount but I think he'd earned enough.

A short distance travel generated an additional income of nearly $1 for him. How about some longer distance ones?

How to save money? Try your best not to take cab, unless you're sharing with a couple others or if you intend to switch job - be part of the taxi-driver crew!

Take bus, walk, save the enviornment, save your pockets, wallets and save yourself :)

Hope this post deters you enough to try not to take cab. Well, again, unless really necessary :)

Vampire Power

Adapted from the Public Service Publication, Challenge, as well:

"Vampire Power" refers to electricity consumed by appliances that are plugged in, but switched off. Some devices keep trying to recharge themselves despite being fully charged - a major culprit is that cordless phone. These four tips can reduce energy wastage:

- Unplug devices when not in use.
- Use the on/off switch on the power outlet, not just the device.
- Unplug mobile phone/laptop chargers when not in use. Invest in "smart" power strips that automatically turn off when devices have finished charging.
- Invest in Energy Star qualified devices when buying new electronics"

For more information, visit http://www.vampirepowersucks.com/ or click on the link to be directed there.

Now that you know more about saving electricity, the environment and the limited resources that we have, do remember to unplug your iPhones and laptops when they have finished charging. Help your pockets and help save gaia! :)

Eco-Friendly Fonts

Don't you agree that the printer, its toner and ink cartridge are expensive? All the more we should put in effort to save ink.

According to the Public Service Publication, Challenge, "Century Gothic is actually the most "economical" font when it comes to saving ink, followed by Times New Roman. Garamond saves ink, too.

Ecofont is a new software add-on that saves up to 25% of toner by perforating your typeface with tiny holes. You can still use whatever font you like - it'll just be a lot easier on your ink supplies"

For more information, visit www.ecofont.com or click on the link to be directed there.

Hei Sushi

HEY! it's Hei Sushi. 10% discount off ala-carte items exclusive for NTUC and Nebo Card Members! The others just dont get it :)

They are marketed as the first Halal Sushi Belt Restaurant so that even our Muslim friends can indulge themselves! Do click here for their ala-carte menu :)

We had our Salmon Sushi and California Handroll (unfortunately not the best handroll in town) each at $2.18. Our main course consists of Yakiniku & Hotate Mentaiyaki and Chicken Sukiyaki completed with a bottle of coke!

This is the Yakiniku & Hotate Mentaiyaki going at $13.88. It comes with Miso soup, Rice, some strips of Yakiniku Beef and 2 Hotate topped with Mentai. Their sauce differs from that of other Japanese Restaurants like Nihon Mura. This tastes more of Mayonaise than anything of the norm. But it doesn't taste bad, to each its own, right? :)


My Chicken Sukiyaki with special order - without leek! Cant really stand the taste of leek personally.. If you are a heavy eater, complete this with a bowl of rice. Otherwise, try finishing this yourself. You'd probably find it too much to handle. Veg-lovers only. For the soup is sweetened with cabbage, mushroom, carrots, tofu, chicken and an optional egg. It is a fun dish to have, considering the fact that you choose how and how well you want your egg to be done.


Ice/Hot water is free. Therefore the final bill of 1x Salmon Sushi, 1x California Handroll, 1x Yakiniku & Hotate Mentaiyaki, 1x Chicken Sukiyaki and 1x Coke sumed up to $33.99 with taxes included. Without the promotion of 10% discount off ala-carte items, the bill would cough up to an amount of $37.78. A savings of $3.79 (a discount of about 10.0%).

I had this on a happy weekend. Try yours now! :)

DIY Gift Wrapper

Now, it sometimes is cumbersome if you have a small little gift for a friend and need to head out to get a big piece of gift wrapper that cost a few tens of cent. And not just that, you find yourself with a large portion of the wrapper remaining and have to decipher whether to give or throw it away, chuck it aside and let it go out of shape or collect dust. At the end of the day, either you - the owner of the wrapper remaining or the receiver of the gift eventually return the wrapper to the rubbish bin. What a waste!

So let me introduce to you a cheap and environmentally-friendly method to save cost and the environment.

First, get a piece of recycled paper used only on one side. The size may be in A4 or any size suitable for your gift (consider the surface area and provide some leeway for wrapping, not just the area from any pane of view).

Think of some phrases or wishes you want your wrapper to show. Choose a short one that is ideal for the wrapper or you will have a hard time repeating them. The idea is to be neat and presentable. The pictures below show 2 simple examples - the left one with Happy Birthday =) and the right one with Chocolate <3

Click for larger images



After writing so, you are ready to wrap your gift!

As you can see, there is no restriction or rules that you need to abide to. I am not the only one aware of this idea and different people create different wrappers that look all good anyway! You can choose a multi-color wrapper or a twin-color wrapper. It's all in your hands, your call :)

If you decide to get materials such as the newspaper or magazines, you can choose whether or not to write words on them additionally for they are already filled with fonts and words. For newspaper, I recommend that you use some silver or gold pens/markers to write the words out.

Hope you have fun saving money and the environment. Share this with your friends :)

NTUC Tissue

I promise you this is cool dude. Fairprice tissue going at $5.35 for two.. The quality is not bad and very justifiable based on the cost per ply if you need to calculate it that way..


And the best thing is - Mum is a NTUC Linkpoint card holder and she enjoys a $0.30 reduction. Furthermore, her purchase was offset with a $5 NTUC voucher received as a offer of goodwill after helping a young lady complete a door-to-door survey.

Kindness begets kindness. This whole chuck of tissue only cost us $0.05! Can you even believe it?

No wonder they say - Savings, savings, savings. Mum knows best!

Popular

A Stationery-Fanatic? A Popular Member? Well, then good news! Popular is now having a 20% store-wide discount exclusive only for Popular Members. Valid only over the weekend from 24 June to 26 June (Friday to Sunday)!

Why so cool? Because they are popular because of you. I'm going down for some stationery purchases and restocks before school starts. Do take note of the terms and conditions that apply.

Here the link for the actual poster and here for the TnC! :)

Happy Tips: visit the popular outlets near some good food chains and/or entertainment avenues to make your weekend a fulfilling one!

I'm going down to some of their outlets and so should you. See you there and then, dear stationery lovers!