A post on online shopping, on a blog that advocates frugality and on a journey to FI? No way. Well yes way, as this is online shopping for necessities and cash savings along with preserving your sanity (this alone should have sold you). I am continuously astounded by the joys of online shopping, to my purse, my physical self as well as my mental well-being. At our household, we strive to be efficient in everything that we do to maximize the value of each day. It would be no surprise that we are big on online shopping especially when it is cheaper than going to an actual store!
I’ve written about this before in the context of how LiveUp gives us amazing value via our purchases on Lazada and Redmart and it’s only improving.
Why do people still head in to a store to make purchases? I am dumb-founded! I get it that some people need the touch and feel of the product before they can make the purchase however with the savings (immediate cash savings as well as not having to make the trip to the store and lug the items back), surely you can slowly inch towards a different buying strategy. Change can happen, uncomfortable at first perhaps, but soon you ease into it and reap the benefits.
My recent purchase was a Philips Blender + Food Processor that is now called “My Love” that I did all the required research online and decided to make the purchase. Did I need this fancy blender when a $30 blender would have been cheaper? Perhaps but I need a food processor to make fancy food stuff without breaking the usual blender (been there and done that!). It carried the 2 year warranty from Philips. Perfect. It’s the right price and everything I want. Purchase made on Friday, item delivered for *free* on Saturday.
Total immediate savings = $21.80 ($12 Lazada Discount from Citibank card tie up + $9.80 from LiveUp credits). That effectively made this gem about $100, not to mention it was delivered to my doorstep the very next day. Hello 750 watts of crushing blending power *heart eyes*
No hassle of bumping into other people, packaging the kids and entertaining them while trying to think with a clear mind, no need to negotiate with the kids on the 50 items that they want, yelling at them to not touch random stuff and yanking them out of the way of busy shoppers. No need to wait in queues to make payment and take a cab back with the heavy box. Quite easily done!
I’ve mentioned in my previous write-up as well that I have compared the prices of everything that I buy against Fairprice, our brick and mortar alternative, and it’s almost always cheaper for me to buy on Redmart and then to earn credits to off-set against my future purchases. I use Lazada primarily to purchase diapers for Coco#2 and the occasional miscellaneous items such as vacuum cleaner replacement bags and “My Love” above or a cover for my handphone when the old cover broke.
Look at the savings so far on both Redmart & Lazada below. I actually would have had more savings on Redmart however a few months ago, we shifted back to buying most items from Fairprice because we bought $4,000 worth of FairPrice vouchers on our Citibank card for the amazing 8 miles per dollar promotion using Apple Pay. (Note: Isn’t $4,000 too much? Well that’s just about 10 months worth of groceries in our household and less when we have family over, we could have gotten more but with the sabbatical plans we thought best not to have money tied up there. Was it worth it? Well we just got ourselves 32,000 Krisflyer miles without breaking a sweat. To showcase the worth of 32,000 miles, we booked 1 way tickets per person to London for 38,000 miles + $34)
How much did I pay for the membership again? $29.90 and it would be only $49.90 next year. It has paid for itself many, many times over. So do you want to find a new avenue to save money and energy? Sign up for some online shopping, give it a whirl and Bob’s your uncle!
Author: Ms.K
Ms.K is everything that Mr.C is, without the natural interest in investing and company financials! The activity planner for the family, the driver of random ideas and soon to be ‘retiring’ in to full time motherhood – Ms.K has no idea what she’s in for but remains super excited!
To add on, some products (especially grocery) are cross-listed on both redmart and lazada. Lazada is cheaper sometimes, with its own promo codes!
P/S – I like your $4k voucher miles strategy!
Oh hey that’s a good hack re checking between Lazada and Redmart especially with Lazada’s discount codes!
Re the vouchers, on hindsight I’m wishing we bought more! 8mpd was so amazing!
Thanks for popping by Kevin!