Budgeting for tougher times ahead. What's yours?

[rinsider]

There’s a trickle down effect from the current war, so prices of groceries and essentials and electricity/utility bills won’t necessarily spike now, but are likely to gradually increase within the next few months. Most immediately felt is gas… An LPG cylinder has increased by $3, from $35 to $38, which I ordered last week.

What are some measures your household has undertaken to prepare for these inflated costs?

We’ve switched mostly from fresh to frozen meat.
Buy house brands instead of “branded” ones at supermarkets.
Shop at value stores with parallel imported goods or unknown brands that are way cheaper.
Cut down on food delivery or order during off peak periods or opt for pick up if it’s nearby.
Just use fans (but I don’t have air-conditioning either). Some days though, the fan is rotating stagnant hot air. So the call to switch to fans may not work for everyone.
Cutting off “vampire power”, ie. Switching off the mains for charging ports and electronic devices when not in use.
Bathing my poodle once every 3 weeks (she hates baths anyway).
Having showers with the heater on low especially when it’s really hot.
Sweeping instead of vaccuming.
Bundling our laundry into larger loads to decrease the weekly washing frequency (but I’m not sure if this helps).
Trying to cut down on uhm, vices…

Personally, I’m not sure if these tiny adjustments will help as I suspect all of us will feel the pinch eventually. But if you don’t try, you won’t know I guess!

[thebottomsupblog]

Our family already does two things that buffer us from the spikes:

• We don’t drive/no car (not sure if this is trending but my millennial cousins have given up their cars, although some switched to bikes)
• No aircon (husband and son have allergies and in fact we removed aircons from our home in 2011 and gave them to our real estate agent)

We’re not really having conversations about cutting down yet. Our biggest spend right now is food delivery, so we do discuss and switch to pick-up instead, use coupons whenever possible, and choose places where the final bill is below $40 for three people or $30 for two. I guess that’s still not “economical” but balancing time needed for work etc vs $$$.

(My husband cooks so I tend to order whenever he’s not around to eat!)

I used to hire Helpling monthly, but due to laziness/busyness, that’s significantly reduced and I call them before special occasions where people might visit our home.

There’s always room for improvement, but I think if one already lives quite modestly, they might not feel the heat that much during tougher times. And if someone in the family has a secure job (eg civil servants) then that’s one less thing to worry about.

I did check on my own health insurance policies lately, to make sure they are active! Also, where possible, to claim stuff like the SkillsFuture training allowance. Even if not used for their intended purpose, the funds can help to offset other expenses.

Edited to add: I’ve been spending quite a bit at our nearby laundromat, again just because it’s so convenient! I guess I could run the wash at home first, and then dry at the laundromat.

Final thing: my 19yo was considering doing her uni abroad. But she was very specific about choosing only places that offered full tuition scholarships. We’re saying “no” to a partial overseas scholarship offer, so the final decision will be NUS instead, which is probably the more financially prudent decision for these times.

[thebottomsupblog]

On a separate note, we have an Ask Mr Money guest columnist on KiasuParents, and he’s someone that currently works closely with us, so you can read his advice, or drop questions for him here on the forum:

https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/search?q=ask+mr+money#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=ask mr money&gsc.page=1

For now, members of our KiasuParents community can enjoy access to his Financial Parenting Masterclass (worth S$199) at the special price of S$29, with the discount code KSPHUDDLE2604.

https://jopezacademyasia.com/product/financial-parenting-workshop/

I guess it may seem counter-intuitive to care about financial planning, especially when you’re dealing with limited funds. I also feel that it’s one thing to save and spend carefully — there are many other important considerations for managing our money, such as investing, and we/our kids may want to start businesses as well. We’ve been putting funds in ETFs quite regularly now… it’s my husband that got this going, so full credit to him.

I tended to not really want to think that much about financial matters in the past, despite living independently from my folks since 21! Maybe creative folks are afflicted with this haha

[Wonder-ful]

My family of 5 have actually cut down on our expenses quite a bit with the following adjustment -

Family Cost-Saving Adjustments
• Dining: Restaurant outings only for birthdays and special occasions.
• Drinks: No more soft drinks — healthier and cheaper.
• Travel: One year-end trip, usually to nearby countries.
• Household Help: No maid only cleaner every alternate week (4 hours).
• Shopping: Buy online whenever possible for deals and convenience.
• Transport: Walk to nearby places instead of using the car.
Use 95 petrol instead of 98 octane. Car self wash
• Groceries: Switch from Cold Storage to Sheng Siong or NTUC.
• Utilities: Aircon not allowed during the day.
Hope all can share any other cost saving ideas

[sharonkhoo]

@rinsider We have been fairly moderate in our living all these years! We already practise most of what I see listed in this thread, so we probably aren’t going to make many changes. The only ones I think we may look into:

“Vampire power” - I think we only have our fridge and wifi on, and TV on standby - will look around and see if there’s anything else that we could reduce.

Travel - we are in the “semi-retired” phase, and so already planned and booked 2 trips this year. We just got back from a week in China (fairly inexpensive), and will be going to the UK for a couple of weeks next month. Again, we’re already fairly moderate in what we’ve booked. One thing we are considering is not renting a car and using trains instead for travelling between cities. Within cities, we had already planned on using public transport anyway, and most of this trip is centred on various cities. I plan to do some research and comparisons this afternoon! Thankfully, we have free cancellation on the car and accommodation, so as long as we can find reasonable alternatives, it’s possible to tweak. My husband was talking about another trip later in the year - will see how things go.

Suggestion for cooler sleeping - use bamboo mats on top of the mattress! We started using them when living in China during the hot summers (we didn’t have aircon), and we’ve continued the practice in Singapore. We just use fans. I don’t know what our electricity bill is, but my husband says it’s lower than the average 4-room flat (we are in a 5-room).

[sharonkhoo]

Travel - we will be going to the UK for a couple of weeks next month. Again, we’re already fairly moderate in what we’ve booked. One thing we are considering is not renting a car and using trains instead for travelling between cities. Within cities, we had already planned on using public transport anyway, and most of this trip is centred on various cities. I plan to do some research and comparisons this afternoon! Thankfully, we have free cancellation on the car and accommodation, so as long as we can find reasonable alternatives, it’s possible to tweak. My husband was talking about another trip later in the year - will see how things go.

In case anyone thinks that switching from self-drive to using trains (this is for UK travel), think again! We found that we don’t really save money as we also rebooked some hotels to prioritise being near public transport and city centres. I also decided that I would like to have a washing machine and kitchen at a couple of the places, which also increases the costs. We made the changes anyway as my husband is concerned that the middle east war may affect petrol supply. So we’re going to backpack like students again!