Simple Budget, Simple Life

It's the time of the month...the ladies would understand. Every month, I'd get bad cramps which makes me breathless, giddy and helpless. It's during such periods of sickness that I have morbid thoughts - what if I drop dead and die? How can I avoid such pains? Why do I have to suffer like this? Can I just remove my womb? It's also during such times that I pause to think about my health. I start to think I need to exercise more, eat better, treat myself better, and take care of my health. When I'm my usual self, I don't bother much with such thoughts. Anyway, for the first time in my 30+ years of life, I've started acupuncture...in a bid to get pregnant. I wonder how long and how much more I have to spend. Getting pregnant is not an easy task for me. After the TCM consultation, I know I've a lot of issues to tackle. I've poor sleep, poor appetite, frequent back aches, frequent cramps, cold feet and arms, poor blood circulation, poor digestion. All the

Look what came in my mailbox today! Presenting 2 versions of Trust card - one for NTUC Union member and the blue trust card for non-member Honestly, I could do without the cards as we've stored the digital card in our apple wallets. What we've redeemed Anyway, we've redeemed our FREE 1kg rice - which was tough to find btw. Take note that this voucher expires first and you need to click "Coupon" at self-check out counter and scan barcode to redeem . Also, our FREE kopitiam breakfast set. The auntie was very kind and allowed me to  top up 20 cents for milo. All you need to do is to go to your coupon, click "Redeem", key in the code that the staff tells you and show it to them. Take note the voucher expires 31 Oct 2022 and the set is only available before 11am #fortheearlybirds I've also redeemed my sign-up reward of $10 fairprice e-voucher for my grocery shopping! At the self checkout counter, click “All Other Payments” and scan your voucher's barc

It's been long since I saw so much hype in the blogosphere given the sour macro environment. After reading a few articles and realising the perks without doing much, I decided to sign up for a Trust account. Read on for more about the perks! PS: easy, $35 fairprice e-vouchers combined, 1kg rice, free breakfast set at kopitiam, chance to win Tesla and more! Registration steps Sign-up was fuss free. Here're the steps: Download the Trust Bank app - you can head to this link to scan the QR code  or scan from the above image Click "Use referral code" to get $10 Fairprice e-voucher. You can use your friends or mine i.e  AP1PJBRK   if you don't have a code. 😊  Upon entering the referral code, you will see this page 3. Click "Apply for savings account"  4. Sign up using "myinfo" and it will extract info from your Singpass. 5. Some of the information you need to key in are Employment Type, Name of Employer, Nature of business, Job Title , whether you a

Work 1 year into my role and I'm jaded. I guess I'll never find a job I'm happy with. But the consolation is that this job is relatively easier than the previous, so I'm just cruising along...until I get fired.  I resonated with the quiet quitting term that's been all over the news recently. I guess I've been quiet quitting all these while. People said it's a term for cruising, doing the minimum, or performing at your payscale. I've always been the type who knock off on time, though I am more enthusiastic in my first few work years. Somehow, my bosses acknowledge my efforts and I don't have to wayang. As I grow older in my career, things change. Because of how "quiet" I am, I may not get into the good books of bosses. I don't talk to bosses nor bother talking to colleagues to showcase what I'm doing. I don't bother  to wayang. I don't bother suggesting ideas to improve work - I did try recently, but it backfired. I'm bet

Another month down and I still have not achieved much. I havent been feeling great. Is it the macro conditions or am I just getting old and cranky? Work I'm getting jaded at work, again.  While work is manageable, I lack bootlicking and show-off skills. I feel my bosses don't quite see the value I'm bringing. I'm not sure if they are too "smart" to understand operations and I feel we are on different frequencies. That would make it tough for me to get a good end year bonus.  Because of that I'm on the lookout for jobs. However, it seems like a "wrong" timing due to the impending recession and hiring freezes across the globe. I don't want to join a new firm and be laid off like what crypto.com did to their new staff.  Crypto.com Speaking of cro, it's unfortunate to note their downwards revision to netflix and spotify rebates . I'm currently on their ruby steel member, and have been enjoying spotify rebates. Just this month, I received

I wished I had good news to relay, but there's nothing exciting to talk about.  Work It's all over the news that layoffs are happening, even in Singapore. While my company has yet to be affected, I can't help but be worried.  I'd be hitting my one year mark in the company soon. It seems like I will never be happy working anywhere. Firstly, we are forced to return to office - as a social hermit, I dread this. Secondly, I feel that my work is getting monotonous and I'm not learning much. While I can pass time, the issue is I'm shortchanging myself in career growth. I'm not looking for upward movement or climb the career ladder, but I want to be skilled enough to move laterally. It is sad that I'm only in my early 30s and feel uncompetitive in todays' market; I am already starting to feel that I could be expensive to hire and getting too old for some companies.  Yet, while I could be expensive compared to younger folks, my pay has not risen.  I would be

I blame the green tea from koi for my insomnia. I woke up at 3 plus am and tried to get back to sleep but my mind was wandering off to unimportant stuff - like tasks to assign my staff while I'm away, to a sudden realisation that I've changed, quite a lot. Or maybe it's age. So, I started this blog as a way to post my reflections and for me to look back at my financial journey. I'm happy I post my thoughts on and off because I seem to feel like I'm reading someone else's blog. The things I worried about then like not having a home, seem so recent yet far away - and here I am, sitting cozily in my home typing this. Getting old and no longer low maintenance I don't want to look down on myself/ladies - but I'm starting to understand the adage shared by ex-male colleagues when I was in my earlier 20s, that women crossed 30 age like milk, whereas men age like wine. Back then, when I heard it, I was pissed - these colleagues were men in their 30s, talking abou