I've always been somewhat uncertain of my role in the family. Family of 2, my wife and I.
You see, I'm only human, and like everyone else, I benchmark against other people. I try not to, but seriously, that's the only way to take some form of indication of how you are doing in life. 

So when I see other people progressing in their lives, it gets to me. Slightly.
I try to brush it away as everyone lives their own life and makes their own choices and at the end, you only answer to yourself when you die. But it still gets to me every once in a while. 
As I say, I'm only human, and in Singapore, everyone compares and since young we always compare so it's hard to get it out of my brain logic.

So I see people around my age who are doing well with their lives, good jobs, bigger houses, cars, trips, toys, etc. And I'm thinking, what is my contribution to my family, to my wife, cos she's working and contributing financially. I'm not living off her finances but nonetheless, I think of this as a total contribution kinda mentality. As in, each of us should be making the lives of each of us better by the things that we do. 

Example, even though I do not live off my wife's finances, her contribution to the total assets allow us to have more confidence of our financial state in future. 
So I've always wondered, have I contributed anything when I'm unemployed to our overall well being?

So once again I looked around for comparisons. Hey, that's the only way to benchmark right. And I observed our lifestyles against other folks who had both parties working and realized the differences. And I personally feel that it is a very big difference. 

We have a lot of together time to do stuff. 

So I look at other couples who both work, live away from their parents, they may or may not have kids, they may or may not have a vehicle, they are in a fair enough financial standing, not too rich or in any financial difficulties.
Which is basically any regular couple. 

So what did I notice. With some cost benefit analysis.

Well, I do most of the house work. The house is vacuumed, mopped, clothes are washed, hung, dried, ironed, toilets are washed, I buy the groceries, cook, etc.
Obviously, I make little financial contribution.
There is some financial contribution.
Savings from cooking at home, monitoring of deals, credit cards minimum spend, etc. Don't think it's worth nothing. It's worth something. Really. It may not be worth a lot, but there is SOME financial value

What we get in return, we feel, is that we have a lot of free time. 
When she gets home, there's no chores to do. She eats, we clean up and just laze around watching TV or whatever. On weekends we wake up and think of where to go for breakfast and spend the day out wandering and taking a walk and come back in a mid afternoon to rest and watch TV or surf some internet. We do not take afternoon naps on weekends. 

So when I asked around with other couples, I realized that they usually don't eat home cooked meals (duh), they go home and do some form of chores, laundry or what not, weekends, they usually have to run some errands or take an afternoon nap to recharge. 

Now naturally, there's no right or wrong with this. It's a trade off. I make little financial contribution as mentioned earlier. 

Another variant to this is a couple can both work and hire a helper with all the chores. Which essentially means, I'm taking up the role of the helper. Of course I could be working and earn more money and hire a helper and save the rest. Once again, there is a trade off here. Cos the problem has now been switched from having to do chores, to now having to manage a helper. And if you've ever managed anyone before, it's not particularly easy having someone live with you and do chores to your standard. 

So everything has a trade off. As I looked at our lifestyle, I realized that to compare apples to apples, we needed to look at how others could match our lifestyle of free time vs financial gain. 

So our situation is
Single income, one party unemployed who does the chores, lots of free time on evenings, weekends and public holidays. Sufficient finances for fair entertainment/savings/etc.

Other REGULAR scenarios which would be fair comparisons
1) Dual income, no helper, not much free time, a lot more finances.

2) Dual income, hire a full time helper, lots of free time, a lot more finances, probably some issues with handling the helper. 

3) Dual income, hire a part time helper on weekends, some free time, not much issues with handling the helper but need to stay in on weekends when the helper is around. 

Better scenarios 
Here are probably the better scenarios, but they are not the regular things that people do.

1) Single full time income, another party part time income half day work, half day chores,  lots of free time on evenings, weekends and public holidays. More finances for better entertainment/savings/etc.
(There's a high chance I'll try to move into this scenario.)

2) Dual part time income, lots more free time on everyday. Sufficient finances for fair entertainment/savings/etc.

Well as I always say, it's a trade off, there's no right or wrong, everyone has his own wants and desires in life, some want to reach a high career level some are ok with cruising along. Some want more some want less, it's all a trade off and about what makes you happier. Everyone has their own options and capabilities so to each their own.

Anyway to get back to the point of the post, am I contributing something to the family? I think, YES. The thing is there are many intangibles with being unemployed and that itself is my contribution to the family. 

Hmmm... another way to look at it is that I AM already EMPLOYED as a full time helper. 

Cos I know of a couple with the following situation.
-Single income, one party unemployed who does nothing, hire a full time helper, lots of free time, not much finances, probably some issues with handling the helper. 

So if you're in my shoes, or thinking of being semi retired, don't think you're not contributing. Cos you are, as long as you are contributing to the family in other ways it's still a contribution in the total well being of the family. As long as overall, the family isn't financially strained by your decision. 



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So for all those who don't already know that I use this awesome plan for my communication purposes.
Where I average SGD4 per month of phone bills. 

So a quick recap. In my old post, I had an M1 Home plan of 1GBPS and this came with a 1GB data sim card. So I got to use 1GB worth of data every month just for signing up for the M1 Home plan.
Then I used a prepaid sim card for my calls. Which costs around SGD18 for 6 months validity, but sometimes I use it faster and I top it up sooner. So it averages around SGD4 per month or so.
I buy a Xiaomi Dual Sim phone and stick both of the sim cards in and my communication plan both data and calls are now set for the month.

It's been around 2 years and time for me to renew my M1 home plan. I felt that I didn't need the 1GBPS speed for home and decided to downgrade to 300MBPS. I don't use my computer for games and such so it should work out. The monthly subscription should be cheaper by SGD10 per month. So it's good savings for me. Even after a SGD30 downgrade admin fee. Anyway that's not the point about this post.

When I went to renew my contract for another 2 years. The service staff broke the news to me... The data sim will be changed to 500MB per month. It's not cos of me downgrading my plan. It's just across the board for all plans, new contracts would come with only a 500MB data sim. 
Now, typically, I suppose, no one would bother about this issue, cos I think I'm probably the only one or maybe a handful of people who use the data sim. Most other folks have their own data plan of at least 3GB per month. And the data sim which comes with any home plan would just be stashed in a drawer somewhere so most people wouldn't be affected.

But this is some big news for me. Like seriously!!! A downgrade from 1GB to 500MB per month is a drastic change. And there's no way to prevent this cos once I renew my contract the downgrade would happen, regardless of whether I continued with the more expensive home plan or not. 

Previously, I could use 1GB for Whatsapp and basic surfing. Obviously no, Facebook or streaming shows. 
But now, with 500MB, that's like 15MB per day. Basically, I can only use Whatsapp. It's kinda tough. 
The only way I can get 1GB is to switch to other telcos, cos they are still giving away 1GB data sims. 
But, M1 has the cheapest plan for Home data so I'm kinda stuck there. 

Yes it has affected my life somewhat. Cos I can't surf any time I want.
But hey... This gives me the opportunity to put down my phone. 
​Which is what I find is more important. To stop looking at the screen and look at the real world around me.



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So I'm sure readers all have credit cards to optimise returns on spending.
Like if you use the UOB One card, you will need to hit a minimum of SGD500 per month to get the increased bonus on the UOB One account and also get the SGD50 every 3 months. Or if you can hit SGD1000 you will get SGD100 every 3 months.

Or you may want to use the Citibank Cashback card with a minimum spend of SGD888 and  you can get 8% cashback on some spending categories. It's actually quite a good card if you use it stand alone.

But you know, if you're on this blog or any other financial blog for that matter, it probably means you're not spending as much as your peers or any regular person on this Earth. 
I know a friend who easily clocks SGD4000 every month total on EACH of her and her husband's account. And she wonders how I can keep my spending low. 

How low? You may wonder? Well, my wife and I keep our spending at SGD500 each on our UOB One card. With a bit of other miscellaneous spending on other cards which may provide a better rebate in small amounts. Like using the POSB Card when buying stuff at Sheng Siong cos that gives 5% rebate, or using the Amex Platinum Card cos that gives us 50% off on food at some restaurants, etc. Which end up to be around SGD200-300 in total added across various cards. 

Every once in a while we have this really BIG problem. We can't hit the minimum spend of SGD500 on our UOB cards. Now this might sound really ridiculous, but it's a real issue with us. Cos it happens maybe 2-3 times a year when there's really nothing happening in the month. No birthdays, no big ticket items to buy, nothing to replace, etc. And at the end of the month, we'd have spent maybe SGD300 on each of our UOB cards, and may a little on the miscellaneous cards (I'm not gonna use my UOB card and miss out on 50% off right...) and have a headache on how to push our spending up another SGD200 each. That's SGD400 in maybe 1 weeks' time frame!!!

This happened this month (July) and will probably happen in August as well. Previously, I would clock the additional spending with NTUC vouchers. Just go up to the counter and buy X dollars of NTUC vouchers. Easy enough solution. But these days I don't do my grocery shopping at NTUC, I find Cold Storage, Giant and Sheng Shiong a better choice for different aspects of my shopping. I find NTUC kinda in the middle of nowhere. Convenient but the stuff isn't really cheap or of great quality. It's not bad or anything, just doesn't suit my purposes. 

So I was really reading up last month on what to push my spending on cos this was the first time this issue happened this year. Last year I bought NTUC vouchers, but I realized that I had difficulty finding stuff at NTUC to buy so this round, I would prefer not to get NTUC vouchers cos I took sometime using up the vouchers last time. 

I'm probably kinda slow in finding this out cos the solution was quite readily available in the forums. It also solved my problem of having to find something to buy at NTUC or any supermarket for that matter.

The grand solution???
Prepay your bills...
It's really simple. I could just prepay my telco bills and utility bills. 
All the 3 telcos will accept this. You can just go up to the retail outlets and request to repay your account. Or you can also download the app and prepay your account electronically. It's quite an awesome solution.

For your utility bills, you can only prepay up to 2 months of your average monthly usage. You MUST go down to the customer service counters at their office to do this.
All other methods to pay utility bills are only available via DBS/POSB cards. Meaning if you want to pay using AXS or using the app, you must use DBS/POSB card to pay.
You can swipe other cards at the customer service at Toa Payoh HDB Hub, Shenton Way PWC Building, Woodlands Civic Centre.
https://www.spgroup.com.sg/contact-us
So I dropped by PWC Building and went to swipe my UOB card.
And the cashier looked and me and said, "You're trying to hit some minimum spend on your card?"
I smiled and responded, "Yea, a lot of people come here to do this as well?" 

Well anyway, I found that this was the best way for me to clock any additional spending required on my credit card. Cos I wouldn't need to think of what to buy if I had bought vouchers. 
This issue with this is that basically it's just kicking the can down the road. Cos the next few month's of bills would now be prepaid and I would probably have difficulty in hitting the minimum spending next month as well. But I know my spending will average out to SGD500 a month so I'm pretty confident my spending will even itself out eventually.



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I drive so I tend to look for the cheapest alternative to pump. 
I tend to forget which is the best price and card to use so I've created a picture so that I can save on my phone.
Below is the table so that you can use it as well.

Please take note some of the promos are only valid with minimum gross spend.

The table has a few permutations. 
Eg, with/without voucher, or with/without the Cashback/Rebate if you don't hit min spend.

Some rebates kick in only when there is a minimum spend.
Citi 8% Cashback kicks in only when $888 is spent in a month.
UOB One card needs $500 or $1000 to be spent for 3 mths consecutively to get 3.33% rebate
If you can spend $2000 per mth for 3 mths, you can get 5% rebate but that's pretty impossible for readers of this blog.

Fuel vouchers are typically available from stations which are going to undergo renovations. You can collect a voucher booklet from them. The stations are basically telling you to keep pumping with them and not switch to other brands. ​The booklet usually has enough vouchers to last for a few months. Sometimes the vouchers are only to be used at stations near the station under reno.

When the station reopens after renovation, the station will again give out vouchers to induce people to return to that station. The booklet has enough vouchers to last a few months. Typically the vouchers will only be accepted at the reopened station.

I only pump 95RON fuel. Reason explained here. 98RON is a con job.
I don't pump Caltex. They don't have good discounts and they don't give out vouchers. 

There's no solid conclusion which is the cheapest fuel to pump. It all depends on your total plan.
Some people use the Citi Cashback card so it's really the best if you can get the 8% and top it off with a voucher at Esso.
​But I typically use my UOB One card to combo with the UOB One account to get the bonus interest by spending $500 every month. So I pump Shell in the early parts of the month.
If I have already hit my $500 for the month, then I will use my DBS Esso card and get a straight off discount cos I won't be able to hit the min spend for any other card.

I try to always keep vouchers on hand. So I tend to stock up and research which stations are going to undergo reno. 

If I have made any mistakes in the calculation or if there is a better discount that I have missed out please comment below and I will update it. 



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