Monthly Expense: 2021 February

Another month, another tracking.. 1/6 there to annual budget report. Exciting to fill up my tracker up tbh.. hope I'm not the only weird one.  

Expense 2021 ~Feb

This month was marginally higher than Jan 2021 despite a shorter month.

While food/groceries fell lower; main contribution was due to Birthday month, so I am paying less for food this month and also shorter month. However, I can see my groceries fee coming up much higher compared to Jan.. mainly due to the fact that I've used up my groceries voucher (was diligently portioning them out). We can expect this category to rise sharply next month due to higher food and groceries costs.. reckon close to SGD1,000. 

The rest under Basic remains relatively stable for now, and I also don't foresee any bump coming up for the coming months. 

The excess also maintains relatively stable less the entertainment as I had some nights out drinking which explains the higher cost here. 

On another note, I've paid to get premium features on my tracking app using money I earned from Google Rewards. I just want to pay back to the service that I've used for more than 4 years. Support what you like before they go under. 

Cheers

Birthday Perks

Thought of compiling some birthday perks for the month as it is mine this month.. and hopefully will help you uncover some gem that you might have missed. 

On second note.. it is quite sad for people to have birthday in February, the shortest month of the year.. meaning you get at least 1~3 days less to enjoy such perks. 

Anyway, jumping ahead.. I've split these to a few categories so feel free to jump if the category doesn't interest you. 

Personal/Finance

Tiger Broker (Gold Member) - 5 general commission-free trades within 30 days (birthday perks are the same across Silver/Gold/Ace, you just have to graduate from "Uncertified" trader)

Food

Paradise Group (Gourmet Rewards) - 2x rebate throughout the month, meaning a whooping 20% on the subtotal spent

Genki Sushi (Genki Club) - Birthday 20% off nett spend

Shopping

Shopee (Gold Member) - SGD5 voucher on min. SGD10 spending (I think Gold Tier is the only tier with this voucher)

Uniqlo (App Member) - in-store SGD5 off on a min. SGD60 purchase.

BHG (Member) - 20% Birthday Voucher (off regular price items) to redeem at the customer's service counter

Don Don Donki (Bronze Member) - SGD5 off on next purchase (no min. and only during birthday month)

Honestly there aren't much other noteworthy ones such as small promo from qoo10 etc.

Cheers

New Credit Card - Citi Cash Back+

Saw the following promotion and definitely not passing out on free cash; 

    "Apple AirPods Pro or $350 cash (Citibank credit cards)"

And of course the catch is that you have to be a new-to-bank customer. I had a student clear visa card with Citi ages ago where I canceled last December since student card has limited perks and I wanted a new-to-bank perk. Seeing that it hit SGD350 cash bonus, I jump on it immediately. 

Rationale

The Card that I picked is Citi Cash Back+ which is a no frill, no cap 1.6% cashback card. Initially, I wanted to go after the Citi Cash Back card which gives 8% cashback on groceries/petrol and 6% on dining. However, such good cards usually come with frills such as minimum monthly spend of SGD800 and also cap of cashback at SGD80. This is a little troublesome for me to keep track tbh, thus I went for the no frill. 

Current Cards

My main card is still UOB One card, but I've been spending >SGD1k - <SGD2k which makes me give up quite a bit of cashback since UOB One card is by tier. Now I am keeping track to make sure I spend only around SGD1k on my UOB One card and the rest to the no frills card. 

Consideration

Another factor I considered was my monthly expense.. I projected and plan to spend less this year, ideally charging only <SGD2k monthly is an easily achievable goal but stretching it to <SGD1.5k charges to card. I had a good start with my UOB One card at around < SGD1.2k for Jan.. so another SGD800 on top of my UOB One card of SGD1k easily sustainable at least for now. I can always come back and reapply the cash back card when I see increment of my expenses. 

Cashback Versus Miles

Seeing that I no longer talk about miles.. can see that I am currently in the cashback camp against the miles although I started out in the miles camp. I just see that accumulation of such miles a bit of tedious work.. but I still maintain my DBS Altitude card where I will probably charge large cost items to. Cashback tbh is a quicker relief especially on daily expense.. and also I do think that I am happy flying normal economy class so let's see how it goes eventually. 

Rewards

Of course I picked the cash, hard cold SGD350 by just charging SGD200 to the card (easy-peasy), will post an update once I get the card and get the bonus! I am happy with my cheap Xiaomi wireless earphones for SGD20.. and for expensive ones I still have my over-ear Sony noise-cancelling one. 

I plan to cancel my Standard Chartered card soon to return as a new-to-bank customer in the future as well. 

What's your take on rinsing the new-to-bank bonuses on your non-main cards? I feel that it is still free money, so why not leverage on it. On that note, HSBC has one of the worst service ever, they denied my application without proper reasoning despite my credit score being the highest. #highlynotrecommended. 

New Credit Card - Maybank Platinum Visa Card

I am always on the hunt for a new credit card deal; satisfy the condition and get free cash.

Maybank Platinum Visa

Apply Now & Get S$100 Cash Credit

Terms as per their website, as long as you're a new to bank customer; register for a new Maybank Credit Card & CreditAble. You just have to charge SGD250 to your cards for 2 consecutive months and get SGD100 back. 

Why I picked this over other Maybank card? 

This supplements my UOB One card which I plan to spend SGD1,000 on it monthly, and my monthly credit card bills hover around SGD1,300~SGD2,200. Instead of the inconsistency of whether I can hit SGD2,000 on my UOB One, I rather just allocate SGD1,000 to it and charge the rest to my back-up cards. 

Maybank Platinum has upto 3.33% cash rebate as long as you charge a minimum of SGD300 every month for each quarter (3 months), and you'll get SGD30 back. For bigger spender, you can spend SGD1,000 every month for the whole quarter to get SGD100 back.. which doesn't really incentivize you to spend more with Maybank. 

However, concerns I have over this card is mainly if I can get the SGD100 if I don't use the CreditAble account which isn't stated very clearly in the terms and also when will I get the cash credit after 2 consecutive month spend. 

In addition, this card doesn't seem to work with my GPay even though you can use Paywave. 

Honestly, I'm only hopping around credit card deals to get the bonus and will cancel them eventually to return as a "new customer" again. On another note, HSBC rejected my credit application without quoting any valid reason, you can say good-bye to my pathetic business (but still business). 

What's your take on credit card deals? And I still believe best deals come from sites such as SingSaver/SingPromo where you get money/items above the bank promotions. Will be looking forward to hop back into Citi credit card and get some big cash or a new earphones for myself. 

Btw, if anyone is interested in the Maybank card mentioned, do check it out here (not a sponsored post).