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Mathew Pereira
Sports Editor
Cost cutting - every little bit counts
November 30, 2008 Sunday, 11:54 PM
Mathew Pereira looks at how just little things can save you a lot of money.
COST cutting is on the minds of everyone. Many are making adjustments. There have been regular letters and columns on how we can all shave our daily expenses sometimes just by making minor adjustments or just taking the trouble to act. For instance, after a few phone calls, I finally terminated my Singnet dial-up account which I have been keeping since I first signed up for it. I must have switched to cable about 10 years ago at the very least, But I was paying out a monthly fee for my dial-up account all this while even though I was not using it - all because I was too lazy to make the calls or send out the necessary email to terminate the account. Another couple of calls I made will save me a few dollars every month from next month. I switched my Singtel land line to a Starhub one. Sometimes it means giving up things we like. A friend of mine has cut his wine consumption from 6 bottles a month to one bottle. I know it is going to be tough for him this Christmas season. I used to leave my two computers running 24 hours a day but now I shut them down before I leave for work and also at night. I don't know how much it will save me but it would cut the number of hours the computers are kept running by at least 50 per cent. I also religiously take down the addresses of places where I can get fish, chicken and beef cheap. It has required me to make drives to Woodlands and Jurong East which are not exactly close to my home but I realise the savings can be huge. There is nothing to be shy about trying to get a good deal. Do you have some good suggestions on how costs can be cut? Post them here. Tags: money, singapore 
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Maybe there should be some adjustment from our daily expenses. Everything were pricing up since the last few years, due to inflation, etc .. blah blah blah. Eg. When the fuel price goes up, all cost starts to increase; and when this petrol prices dropped today, there are no lowering of them. (transport, buses, MRT, taxi fares, sugar, salt and coffee) Why?!
People are just so realistic. When there's a rise, they raise prices; when there's a drop, they remain. They earn. When the economy downturn hits, they seize the opportunity to cut down manpower, reduce pay, bonus. They earn again.
These businesses are just not helping in the bad times. How to cut cost?
i can assure you that the food across the strait can save you hell a lot, if you sell your HDB flat, you can easily pocket half the cash and live in luxurious in Johor. that is not wise in penny, but a real wise in pound too. all you need to do just to sacrify a bit of your sleep each working day and travel to your office in Singapore.
Yes Mr P..but what is is costing you in extra petrol and car park fees, in chasing these good deal in the far flung areas? Is it not a case of being penny wise, pound foolish, so to speak?
Governments around the world are trying their best to cough up stimulus packages and interest rate cuts.
But the whole idea behind these, at the end of the day, is to boost and ecnourage consumer spending, precisely due to expectations that consumers will go the other way during a crisis.
The best advise is already in front of our MRT doors - be contrarian like what Warren Buffet suggests.
There is definitely room for consumer cost cutting, but these must be done intelligently and on strategic areas rather than across the board.
To cut consumption on basic necessities is dumb, since the world's economy is largely driven by consumer's basic needs.
Instead, we as consumers should forget luxurious goods, and put the money on things like food, transporation, entertainment, electronics, IT, etc, and save the rest with the bank.
Wine and branded bags don't need the mass consumer market to survive. The rich is their bottom line, and they still spend with or without a crisis. What the middle class spend in their shops is a drop in the bucket.
But here lies the idiosynchrosies of the basic Singaporean - they will cut costs on cooking oil and bananas at NTUC, but still line up the queues of LV and Gucci afterwards.
Cutting costs is easy. Everyone can do it but to make money takes time. Now is the time, opportunities abound only if you are cash rich. Now is also the time, many, many are suffering. Lost in investments, lost in shares, lost in minibonds, lost in jobs. Average income earner has no means to survive if don't look into cutting costs. Every cent counts, count every cent. Do you know how many low income earner are suffering? No incentive, cut bonus, got family to feed, credit card bills are mounting, roll-over debts are increasing by the day. Don't be too insensitive to many others who cannot make ends meet. For now, cost cutting is the only solution. If you have extra, you are few of the lucky ones, provided you don't get a letter tomorrow to say "You are retrenched".
Just drink water, don't drink coke. Water is free, coke must pay. Many have no choice. veNot all are so fortunate. Do you know?.
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