Monthly Spending Strategy for August 2022

 

Spending optimization for my family of 4 +helper. Bulk of my spending goes through Citi Cashback Mastercard. A really useful card because of its generous cashback and no cashback cap on its subcategories:

Petrol 8%

Groceries 8%

Dinning 6%

For this statement month I spent S$1,020.14 on it and gotten a total cash back of $71.97. That's around 7.05%

There are further optimization for these three categories. 

For petrol, pump at Sinopec Bukit Timah and get 23% upfront + 8%. This should be the highest rebate for non PHCD. Do note that any spending at Sinopec's kiosk mart will also qualify for the 8% rebate.

For groceries, I stop using RedMart or Fairprice online app now because of the mandatory service fee and delivery fee. Instead, I do it at NTUC physically and pay using their app linked with the free linkpoint card. Paying using the app enables you to use digital vouchers in their physical stores.

For dinning, use shopback/fave to buy the specific restaurant credits that you wish to go. Pay for it using Citi cash back will still qualify as dinning.

For the rest of the spending, like utility bills, Foodpanda self pickup and telco etc. I use UOB Absolute + Grab Mastercard. I have spent a total of S$806.81 so far.

The combined cashback for this is close to 3%. Only spend the reward points during their point back promotion event and redeem Capitastar and Q10 vouchers only. Capitastar voucher because you get further discount via SP service plant rank. Capitastar vouchers can be used on dinning and ntuc for further cost defrayment. Q10 because you can accumulate it without any expiry date. Q10 also sells essentials in bulk with further discount via inhouse vouchers. 

So my strategy now is to use these cards to get the cash rebate and use shopback, capitastar and q10 to defray the cost further. 

My total spending for August month to date: S$1,826.95.

My goal now is to keep my monthly spending below $2k. Will try to do a more accurate spending post next month.