Credits to a very close friend of mine who pointed this out to me. 

Look below... 
​What do you see?

Big Breakfast? Are you sure? Look again... closely...
Does a Big Breakfast have a slice of cheese in the muffin?

McDonald's Big Breakfast set is $7.20 
What you get is scrambled eggs, a sliced muffin, a piece of sausage patty, a hashbrown and a drink.

The above is a Sausage McMuffin set ($4.50) + a side order of scrambled eggs ($1.80)... = $6.30
After deconstructing, you get scrambled eggs, a sliced muffin with cheese, a piece of sausage patty, a hashbrown and a drink...

Are you getting the picture yet? 
Cheaper than Big Breakfast AND you get a free slice of cheese...

How about Sausage McMuffin with egg set ($5.40) + a side order of scrambled eggs ($1.80) = $7.20
You get scrambled eggs, a sliced muffin with cheese, a piece of sausage patty, a hashbrown and a drink PLUS A FRIED EGG...
For the same price as a Big Breakfast, you get an additional slice of cheese AND a fried egg...

Ok anyway... McDonald's have slight variations in pricing between different outlets. But... I'm sure you guys understand how to order next time. 

Share this post with your friends. It's a good thing to share... Cos... I think it's pretty underhanded for McDonald's to be doing this. 
The thing is... companies are charging consumers what they are willing to pay. And it doesn't really matter what the cost of the ingredients. Since customers are willing to pay $7.20 for a Big Breakfast, they will charge as such. Even though they can serve the same product for cheaper. 


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Recently on my Citibank Cashback card, they removed the Citi Dollar scheme. 
I didn't know about it. 
We hardly use the card, but somehow there was $14 on my wife's card and I don't know how much was on my card. 
The values expired worthless. Cos we didn't know about the end of the scheme and I don't check my credit card bill so I wasn't up to date with the information. 
Since I don't use this card often, I just pay off whatever I charge via AXS immediately after I charge. So I don't need to check the online bill at the end of the month. 

Also, for UOB One card, there is SMART$. It's a similar program. Except that the SMART$ expires every 6 months. I haven't been spending on petrol using the UOB One card. But I used to get 7% rebates in SMART$ when I used to pump at Shell...
Similarly, I think a bulk of my rebates expired worthless.

It was unfortunate. I was careless. 

There's a good chance between both my wife and I, we lost under $100 due to these programs. $100 is a high estimation. Is $100 a lot of money? Not really. But it's still annoying that I "lost" money. Cos I do calculate a lot on my rebates and make a decision on which petrol to pump by relying on the calculations. So when I lose some value on the cards it means I didn't make the right decision. Cos it means I pumped petrol at a higher price. Or I may have eaten at a restaurant at a higher price when I expected it to be cheaper. 

The thing is, depending on merchant, when the merchant asks me/us, "Keep or redeem?" we choose to keep if the rebate % is higher. And redeem when the rebate % is lower. 
So at Starbucks, my wife used to keep her Citi rebates cos Starbucks used to give 10% rebates. Problem was, we/she doesn't use the Citibank card anywhere else. So we ended up always keeping the Citi rebates. 
Similarly, for UOB SMART$, I used to pump at Shell, but I don't go to supermarkets much, so I don't get to spend the SMART$. 
Maybe this is just a unique problem for me due to my spending habits. Cos we really don't spend a lot at retail outlets. 

So anyway, the lesson I learnt here is... Just cos the credit card has a rebate scheme, doesn't mean I/you, get to fully utilize it. Cos if you forget to use the rebates, it's just as bad as no discount/rebates. 
This also made me think, MAYBE it's better to just focus on my UOB card and credit cards which give a straight out discount. 

For example, I thought I had 10% "rebate" on Starbucks, but just cos I wasted the rebates. Means I paid full price. If I'm going to pay full price, then I might as well charge on my UOB card anyway to clock my monthly spending. 
Cos I need to consciously remember to "spend" these rebates which is troublesome to remember.
Maybe I should just be using cards which give straight-out discount. Like 10% off when dining at Starbucks... So I don't need to remember to use the stored rebates.

Solutions?
So maybe next time, I don't take into consideration these rebates when calculating. Cos it's easy to forget to use the rebates.
OR
I can always "redeem" instead of keep. Even though I get a lower rebate rate this way, it's better than having the rebates expire worthless. 
OR 
Focus on my UOB One card and only use other cards ONLY IF the card gives an immediate discount on the spending. Like... 10% discount off total bill when dining at XYZ, or 10% discount of Lazada purchases. 

Comments? Did any of you also have your rebates expire worthless?


Anyway... I haven't been posting much these days. 
Mentally I've been having a hard time for my Paris trip and a lot of mental ideas have been changing and maybe I'll write about them when I have more time in Paris.
I've been going out a lot catching up with friends and trying to create as many memories as possible in SG before I move over. Truthfully, I haven't been taking the anticipated move over quite well. 
I'll probably write more again when I have more time after the move to Paris. 


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