ANZ promotion: S$10 Watson Voucher for every S$50 spent

ANZ credit card is having a card offer for purchases at 20 selected Watson outlets. You can get a S$10 Watson Voucher for every S$50 spent. That is like a 20% rebate. The promotion period is from 23 Sep to 15 Nov 2010 at selected Watson outlets.

https://sg.anz.com/GSSRewards/daily-essentials.html

There is a cap of maximum 3 vouchers allowed for redemption per transaction. Guess one can go around this by spilting the purchases.

笨mummy is going to stock up health supplements for herself and her mother. =D

笨mummy's theory on shares and rearing chickens

笨mummy invests in the shares market too. She does not see herself as a savvy investor. She does not read up a lot on financial books, even she wants to read, she has doubts whether she would understand what are written in the books. She also knows nothing about TA, etc.

But she does have her own theory in her investment. She treated her shares like rearing chickens. She believes that all chickens (shares) in her farm should lay eggs (i.e. dividend) on a regular basis. The eggs can then be sold to pay for the cost of buying the chickens, as time goes by, the revenue from the selling of the eggs would eventually pay for the purchase of the chickens and the result is free chickens.

The selection of the chicken is very important to ensure that the chicken purchased can generate regular flow of output of eggs. One needs to ensure that the chicken is healthy and able to lay eggs. Following the same principle, before buying a share, 笨mummy read the financial statement of the company she interested to buy the shares in and also to understand the prospect of the business the company is in. She also need to decide whether the dividend payout policy of the company is sound and what are the factors that may affect the dividend given to shareholders.

After the chickens are bought, one needs to continue to moniter the growth of the chickens to ensure that they are growing healthly. If one of the chickens starting to fall sick (i.e. a share price dip) or the eggs laid are lesser (drop in dividend yield), then it is time to review that chicken to find out the reason why it is sick or why the eggs laid are reducing. And lastly the decision has to be made whether one should keep the chicken (hold) or sell the chicken (i.e. cut loss).

So far 笨mummy's chickens are giving her a satisfactory output that allows her that little extra cash to fund her hobby. 

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Late dinner at Pie Kia

Late dinner at Pie Kia

笨mummy went for a late dinner at Pie Kia. The name of the shop is what that attracts 笨mummy to notice this shop that is located just outside Tiong Bahru MRT, next to the taxi stand and 7-11. Finally she decided to give it a try. She ordered a mushroom pie and black pepper chicken pie. But seeing how small the size of the pies is, she decided to add a veg pizza to her order.

The pies filling are evenly mixed. The crust is flaky, just the way 笨mummy likes her pie to be.

The veg pizza is a surprise to 笨mummy. Unlike the normal pizza, the crust of the veg pizza is crunchy and the texture is similar to biscuit. It was not as dry as expected too.A nice combination of pineapples, cheese, mushrooms and peppers.

The concept of Pie Kia is more for takeaway, as 笨mummy observed that the shop only has a few tables and chairs and there is only one staff manning the counter. It was not much of dining experience to speak of, but 笨mummy still come back for Pie Kia's pies again when she is in the vicinity.

笨mummy's daily rant - 27 Sep 2010

笨mummy having monday blue. She dragged herself to work this morning with hope that she can get a solution to her problem at work as her boss agreed to discuss with her on that today. Though she has a gut feel that her boss may be missing in action today by either taking medical leave or take urgent leave.

After working for 5 years in the same organsation, she no longer has that passion and "fire" in her work. She remembers fondly how she used to love her work and looked forward to work every morning. Work was simple and colleagues were nice. As she moves from department to department, the passion and "fire" diminished bit by bit and she wonders whether there is any left in her to continue working.

Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What makes 笨mummy continues is money. Money to pay her bills. Money to provide the little enjoyment in life. Till the day where 笨mummy can realise her dream of a $2,000 a month of passive income, she will continue to work despite being "cold and passionless".

Lunch at Nihon Mura

Instead of going to the cafeteria located at level two of their office, 笨mummy and 闲人 decided to have Japanese food today. This is because 闲人 had a bad morning dealing his LCB and needed a treat to make him feel better. So 笨mummy gave him a treat at Nihon Mura. 

There is a Nihon Mura outlet in Novena, which is located at level two of Revenue House. In case you do not know Revenue House, it is the building where the Singapore tax authority (i.e. IRAS) is located. Nihon Mura may not serve the best Japanese food in term of quality, it is definitely the one of the value for money dinning place for Japanese food during lunch. for non-fussy eater What more, it is now having a lunch set promotion at S$7.99 (**price quoted does not include service charge and GST ) from 12noon to 3 pm on weekday. 

Under the lunch set promotion, you can choose one dish from each of category A, B and C, and the set comes with a cup of green tea.

Both 笨mummy and 闲人 ordered the Chicken Teriyaki Don from Category A, Salmon Sashimi from Category B and a Chawamushi from Category C. The serving of the don is generous, the salmon sashimi is only 3 pieces and this is also stated in fine print at the bottom for the promotion leaflet. Our total damage for the two lunch set promotion and one plate of sushi after the service charge and tax is S$21.15



After lunch, it is time for 闲人 to go back to battle with LCB. May the Force be with you!

Why pay by credit card?

笨mummy has a habit of paying every single purchase by credit card as long as the store allows her to pay by credit card. She had once use credit card to pay for a S$2 purchase in Cold Storage. This is how extensively she been using her credit card as payment mode.


笨mummy, of course, has her own reasons for doing so:

1) Paying less for the same things for using credit card
There are a lot of dinning privileges associated with credit cards. And one may end up paying less for a meal using credit card instead a NET or cash when paying. 笨mummy always make it a point to throw this question when paying at the cashier: “Any card with discount?”

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

2) Earning points or rebates
Even without discount on purchases, there are still points and rebates to get when paying by credit cards. The amount may not be a lot, but笨mummy believes that she could at least 集少成多 and in the end, she can at least exchange voucher or item using her points or rebates.

3) Convenient way to track spending
笨mummy does not have the habit of tracking her spending. Hence to her, credit card statement is a good way to track spending for the month. By looking at her statement, she knows what she been spending the previous month and whether she is overspending on food, clothing or entertainment. Of course, the information would help笨mummy to plan for next month. If spend too much this month, she will cut back on spending next month.

 Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

BUT… 笨mummy does not recommend for people without self-control in their financial as, very often, this group of people run in trouble with overspending and not being able to pay their credit card bills.

笨mummy's daily rant - 23 Sep 2010

笨mummy took the train today instead of waiting for the express bus - 502 as the 'TranSGuide" application on her iPhone shown "no prediction" when she checked when that bus is going to arrive at her bus stop.

A 5min bus ride from her stop to the bus stop A, and a 15min walk from the bus stop A to the MRT station and take the West-East line. This is follow by 30min of standing in a packed train with foreign workers, elderly (refering to aunties and uncles who need to get up early to go to work, not retirees) and students with their bulky bags. When the train stops at Jurong East Station, it was already 人山人海, and the people are waiting to come into the train. That reminded 笨mummy of a scene in Resident Evil where the zombies gathered around to attack a car.

This is not the end yet. 笨mummy needs to get off at Raffles Place MRT station to change to the North South line to Novena. This is normally where 笨mummy can finally get to sit down after 50min of standing and walking and enjoy the rest of the ride.

Normally the train arrived at the station, it was already 10% filled with foreign workers with darker skin colour. 笨mummy just cannot figure out where these workers come from since the station before Raffles Place is Marina Bay and it is not possible to have workers dormitories located in that part of Singapore. At City Hall, more commuters including foreign workers got into the train and the train is getting packed again. This time, they are workers from the "middle kingdom".

Finally at Orchard Road, most of the people get off including foreign workers. And this is the part where 笨mummy starts to love her ride. But it only lasts for less than 10min or only about 12% of her travelling time of 1 hour 20min.