I have always thought that paid subscriptions are just bad, bad and bad. It’s like Amazon Prime for example where the main perk is the free 2 day shipping (in the US, before it came to Sg) and I used to think that it was ridiculous people would pay for that. Why can’t they just order earlier? Manage your life better and save some money? I think of subscriptions generally and think lock in period, no flexibility, waste of money. All things negative.
Maybe this stems from the subscriptions we had growing up – Readers Digest, newspapers, cable TV. Everything that is unnecessary in this day and age. Readers Digest – go to the library. Newspapers and cable TV – the internet, my friend, the internet. Now I have new found appreciation that not all subscriptions are created equal! It’s not a rule that cuts across all subscriptions and that subscriptions are as good as what it gives you and the amount of value you place of what you receive. Let me elaborate within this post.
It should be no surprise that the SC household is not heavy on subscriptions. The only paid subscriptions in the past that I can think of is to Spotify that I have since given up. I like that you can opt in and out when you like. Good subscription, good subscription.
In comes LiveUp. Even though I shop on Redmart a whole lot, I didn’t want to look into LiveUp when it first came out thinking there was no way I could save money on this. I did not like subscribing to a paid membership and therefore made that decision entirely on emotions versus facts. Months after LiveUp came out, I decided to try the trial when I was on hospitalisation leave for 3 months so I had Netflix to keep me somewhat occupied 😀 Oh why did I not subscribe earlier?!
LiveUp membership cuts across a few of the big players in the market in Asia – Lazada, Redmart, Netflix and Uber. It costs $28.80 for the first year and it gives you the following perks:
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Now the SippingCoconuts household find a few of the offers appealing – namely Redmart and Netflix. A little bit of Lazada. The below screenshot is from my Redmart account.
That’s just on Redmart, the credits is what we have saved using LiveUp. Discounts can come from random codes that Redmart sends out when they are feeling particularly generous. We get everything we need to buy on Redmart except for the fresh food (meat, vegetables and most of the fruits) as we do prefer to pick those up ourselves. So our orders are mostly dry food (pasta, rice, flour, beverages) and the bulky household stuff like detergents, toilet paper, tissue paper etc. With LiveUp, we have free delivery for overs above $40 which is easy to meet. Non-members have free delivery only for orders above $100.
We have made some pretty sweet savings on Lazada as well, as you can see:
We do not have much that we buy on Lazada as we have almost everything we need in life already. Of the balance of $18.82, I know ~$14 of that sum came from my recent handphone purchase (there will be a post on this soon!). The rest were small purchases here and there that added up to ~$4, which is nice!
With both Redmart and Lazada, the credits that you earn need to be used within 30 days of earning it. This is a bit more challenging on Lazada as we do not make frequent purchases to keep rolling the credits into and frankly, that is fine with me. I just keep the credits at a low level that I’m happy to forgo. Redmart, on the other hand, I have no issues using the credit as I place a Redmart order almost every other week. A lot of times, my colleagues go – “Wahh, how often you buy? What you buy?? So much ah?” I don’t think they realise how things add up and it would be the same as what they would purchase too. In this spirit of show and tell, here’s an order I placed 2 weeks ago which amounted to $39.46 after all the discounts deducted.
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My colleagues would go: “ah you bought oil. How often you buy oil?” Well if not oil, then there’s a 5kg pack of rice. If not that, then there is detergent. If not that, there’s toilet paper and tissue paper. In short, there’s always consumables that add up to make the cart $40. Easy-peasy. Again, we don’t buy stuff we don’t use so while I hate how easy it is that we reach $40 of immediate consumables so often and so easily, I’m also glad as it allows me to use Redmart to the best way it serves me:
- No queues
- Easy price comparisons – on occasion, I run a quick check against the Fairprice online store
- No need to jostle with the crowd that is perennially at Fairprice
- No need to carry heavy items back from the store
- On occasion, a $1 delivery incentive from Redmart to maximise their logistics. Sure, I’ll take it!
- 5% credits to be rolled over in the next purchase
So I already have the cheapest of the prices based on my comparing with Fairprice online. Then I have all the savings of not physically making the purchase (time, energy and money to travel and the odd impulse purchase). Slap on the 5% incentive. Layers and layers of benefits, makes for a very happy Coconut 😉
Then in comes Netflix, the icing on the cake. The cheapest you can get Netflix on subscription is $11 a month, which we get 6 months free with the paid LiveUp membership. 6 months down the road, we are likely to cancel the subscription. Why? That’s a story for another post, today we will look purely at the financials and this lil perk here is worth $66.
All in all, LiveUp has given a quantifiable $148.96 in savings. Right back into our e-pockets. This is not inclusive of the fact that we get free delivery with Lazada with no minimum spend. Order a $2.40 cookie cutter and it gets delivered for free. Why, you shouldn’t have Lazada but thank you!
The SC household isn’t big on Uber. Almost always, Grab has better fares because of the weekly discount codes given out. We’re all about the numbers here, but if you are big on Uber then you would stand to save even more!
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So is the LiveUp membership worth it? Introductory price of $28.80, thereafter it is $49.90 per annum. Even without the Netflix perk, we almost definitely would make our money back and more. It is a resounding yes on our part!
* We have no affiliation to refer LiveUp other than the fact that we actually love it and it has paid for itself, many times over! You can sign up for LiveUp via Lazada and Redmart.
In response to the question of some of our reader’s minds, we’re most aptly labelled a lifestyle blog of a family of 4 aiming to retire early at the age of 35 with 2 kids in tow! How? Glad you asked 😉 Check us out and our plans out! Perhaps you’ll be inspired to have a similar journey! Right now, we’re on our Mini Retirement and travelling South America!
Have you taken into account the fact that online grocery pricing and real life grocery pricing are different?
That’s a great question and I think it’s wise to continuously compare. I have actually compared and continously compare for discounts. Interestingly some of the items I buy on Redmart are cheaper than from Fair price, which is great because I have it delivered to my doorstep and earn rebates.
Because our grocery buying strategy is such to prioritize freshness (meat, vegetables) by buying at Fairprice/wet market then to prioritize the convenience (non-consumables, similar priced fruits etc), we still do make Fairprice trips weekly. Items which are more expensive on Redmart such as lemons, we pick up at Fairprice.
How do you approach groceries in your household? 🙂
Great post.
If you use Shopback before you login to Redmart, you get some rebates around 8 percent via Shop back too.
If you use Citibank card for payment, you get more rebates back as well I think ( I do not currently have a Citibank credit card, so did not explore that for time being).
Thanks for popping by! Yes indeed, Redmart just got on Shopback and I’m loving it. Interesting timing for your comment as I noticed for my order last week (this was a big order!) there was an extra 3% LiveUp credit if I paid using a Citibank card. So I did. That gave me an extra ~$5 in LiveUp credits. Sure, I’ll take it!
Another benefit of shopping on RedMart, you don’t end up buying a ton of stuff not on your shopping list cause of strategically placed items near the checkout.
Heya Justina, thanks for popping by!
That is so so sooo true! Not just near the checkout, but throughout the entire store there are these booby-traps that you had no intention of buying however you find yourself putting it in the cart! (such a funny word, I love using it!)
Since Lazada took over Redmart every single of my orders’ rebate have been wrong; as in not the amount i was suppose to get.
Please check your rebates. I never had a problem with rebates from redmart UNTIL Lazada took over.
I am still having problems and they blocked the email address that I have been corresponding with to get this issue sorted out
That is a shame to hear! Will certainly keep an eye on the rebates amount, thanks for the heads-up. Hopefully the integration issues that you are experiencing smooths over soon!
Thanks for popping by!