Photo by leahish.
Cooking is an under-rated skill in Singapore. If you believe in the concept of specialisation of labour, then you would think that it's more efficient for working professionals to concentrate on working and earning money and buy cooked food for our meals.
Well...yes and no.
While Singapore hawker fare is relatively plentiful and inexpensive, the true cost of not cooking is reflected in our health. In general, eating out can be more costly in the long-term because of the health implications.
Hawker food (and even restaurant standard) usually is:
* Not fresh
* High in sodium, oil, sauces
* High in saturated fats
* Bad bad bad for your health
So what's the alternative?
Learn to cook.
I used to be those who didn't know how to cook. Then I slowly picked up the hobby of cooking over weekends by learning to buy the ingredients such as meat (chicken, fish, pork) , vegetables, spices and sauces etc. Learning how to steam, stir-fry, boil simple dishes and soups.
Hey, isn't this a personal finance blog rather than a cooking blog? You're right, this topic is relevant to our personal finance because cooking can save you money as compared to restaurant meals. Recently I bought a whole chicken (1.1kg) for only $2.90! (Ed: sometime in mid 2007, now is $4.50) Wow... That's enough to feed me for 3-4 meals as I can chop the chicken into 3-4 portions, freeze most of it and cook each portion for a meal. Coupled with quick stir fry of spinach + shitake + dash of seasame oil, light and dark soy sauce, chopped garlic and onions and we have a simple nice meal all whipped up in less than 40 minutes.
The one thing that I realised from cooking my own meals is that it's very much healthier as you can control how much of salt, fats and oils you add to your dishes. In addition, the fresh onion and garlic are natural anti-bacterial agents which help to kill nasty germs in your body helping to boost your immunity.
Cooking is also a survival skill as you learn how to choose what you want to put into your mouth instead of relying on someone to cook leftovers and charge you $3-4 for that.
Be well and save money by cooking your own healthy meals!
How to gain health and save money by cooking
Our Public Libraries - Unlimited DVDs Rentals for $21 per year
It is a open secret that our public libraries are a economical source of knowledge, entertainment and resources. Reading can be both a pleasurable activity as well as financially rewarding as one learns new information, skills and hobbies that can turn into a future career. Since public libaries are funded by taxpayers and provided free-of-charge to residents, why not take advantage of this public resource to save money on entertainment.
Magazines and Periodicals
The library stocks many of the periodicals that one finds on the newstand. Instead of paying that $5.00 or $6.00 for that FHM or HERWORLD magazine, why not borrow these from the library using your NRIC (if you are already a registered library member)? Granted, the latest magazines would likely be borrowed but you can get hold of the last couple of months. Periodicals such as Fortune, Time, Newsweek are all available from NLB libraries.
CDs, DVDs and Movies
The library@Esplanade provides DVDs that we can borrow relating to drama serials, movies and science-fiction series. Boxed set of Star Trek, Cheers, Seinfeld and even Space 1999 can be found at this library. There is a catch of course! The borrowing period is 1 week and you need to be a Premier library member and pay an additional $21 per year, or only $0.06 cents a day to enjoy this privilege. Compared to paying $3-5 per rental for 2-3 days from VideoEZY or your neighbourhood video rental shop, this is a bargain. I particularly enjoyed following the first 2 seasons of Deep Space Nine (Star Trek spin-off) which was not shown on Singapore TV and hence it was good to be able to watch such series.
Novels
The fiction section of the library stocks most of the popular fiction e.g. Tom Clancy, David Eddings, Nadine Godimer, James Michener, Charles Dickens, JK Rowling etc. If you are really desperate to reserve one of the popular fiction books that were just released, you can pay $1.55 to make a reservation online through NLB's website and request to collect the book from the public library nearest your home. Talk about convenience!
Avoid library fines
We understand that Singapore is a "fine" city. If you are late in returning your library books, the NLB will levy a fine of $0.15 per book a day or $0.50 per AV item per day. You can register for sms or email reminder notification of your due date of books here so that you won't forget to return your library materials on time!
So for those who like me love to read and watch DVDs, make use of our public resource -- The Library and save your hard earned money for investments that will advance your goal of achieving financial freedom!
Fight inflation with Singapore Money Savers!
