Life-hacks for the money-conscious.

We had to send our kids to the hospital due to both getting high fever over the weekend. Things have only settled down today, so the weekend post has been slightly delayed.

Here are three life-hacks for the money conscious.

a) Roti Banjir Arbitrage 

I read about a variant method to eat roti prata the other day, so I tried ordering two roti kosongs and then poured the curry all over it. I then bought two soft boiled eggs from the drinks seller and place it over my new creation. The result is light years better than any egg prata in Singapore.

However, the creation costs about $3.20 instead of the $3.00 cost of egg prata. So it would seem more expensive.

Fortunately, my wife reminded me that folks normally order soft-boiled eggs as a breakfast set meal so it may be actually cheaper if I ordered kopi, kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs along with my roti kosong instead.

b) Hacking Sheng Siong payment kiosks

One problem I've been facing is that I have always been  collecting the spare change that I have accumulated over the day in a bowl in my living room but I was not very conscientious in spending these coins I have accumulated in the past. POSB coin deposits systems actually levy a fee when you use them which does not give anyone an incentive to deposit their coins in their bank account.

For the past few days, I have been putting coins in this pouch I bought from Action City at City Square Malaysia. Every time I visit Sheng Siong, I would take this pouch with me and make sure that I pay for my groceries at the self-service kiosks which allows me to deposit my coins as payment.

The Sheng Siong machine is so amazing, I can scoop a handful of coins, drop it into the machine and the machine will count the coins precisely and will even provide me change in notes if I had paid excessively in coins. The machine was even able to spit out Malaysian coins which I have mixed in by accident.

This way I can systematically reduce my coin hoard which has reached hundreds of dollars over a years of accumulation and I now try to shop at Sheng Siong as much as possible.

It's no wonder that the Sheng Siong stock price has rocketed over the months.

c) Designer style from Little India

The last hack is simply my latest designer bag purchase which resembles a Balenciaga bag:

Ok, it's not an exact match.

But I paid $3.50 from a pasar malam stall in Little India.

The difference in prices, I am farming back into the stock markets which is currently at the lowest PE value compared to all major markets worldwide.

Things are going to get worse before they better, so its best to be economise before shit really hits the fan.