In our inaugural blog post, I will like to share about how we can get maximum savings in our daily lives, through utilisation of the myriad of mobile apps in the market that offers deals, discounts and cashbacks in Singapore.
It may sound a tad lame for the tech savvy, but in this COVID environment where everyone are tightening their purse strings, these little savings from daily expenses will go a long way. So if you already know, do share it with your friends these little secrets of yours.
For a start, we’ll be exploring what are available in the Apple App Store in Singapore to sieve out the “sexier” and easier ones that you should try first.
ULO Lifestyle (Yes, our own Yay!)
First up, no reason to rule out the new kids on the scene as featured on the authority in technology publishers Vulcan Post. Marketed as Singapore’s first ‘happy hour’ app, ULO offers attractive discounts in Singapore for various lifestyle services; beauty, hair, nails, wellness etc. For services that many ladies will consider essential, getting up to 70% off can easily translate to savings of hundreds of dollars in Singapore. Best of all, instead of being treated like a cheapskate, the merchants will be glad to provide you with great service without the usual rush during peak timings; meaning even greater attention to details.
The ENTERTAINER
The ENTERTAINER offers a myriad of 1-for-1 or 2-for-1 offers for restaurants, beauty salons, health & fitness, leisure activities and many more, 7 days a week (excluding public holidays) and all year long. This translates to about 30%-50% savings on everything available within the app. The good thing about The ENTERTAINER is that their myriad of offerings ensures that there will always be something available around you, and you can share your account with your family in multiple devices. The downside is you will need to pay a subscription to enjoy the complete offerings, although the basic free version does whet your appetite with some free vouchers.
CHOPE
CHOPE are one of the veterans in the Singapore market. What seemed to have started out as a simple mobile app for making restaurant reservation, has now pivoted and expanded into many other markets and areas. If you are not aware, they do offer decent discounts on F&B offerings, and greater discounts through CHOPE Deals where you can purchase vouchers that’s gives you up to 50% off. Apart from that, CHOPE markets their guides to help you discover places to eat. A survey done in 2017 on American couples revealed that 132 hours are wasted a year just on deciding what to eat. How these couples would wish they had an app like CHOPE to help with the recommendations.
EATIGO
EATIGO is another popular mobile app in the F&B scene. Marketed with the mission to connect empty tables with empty stomachs by offering time-based discounts of up to 50%, ULO is like it’s distant cousin in the lifestyle scene. We all know that time-based services like restaurants continue to incur fixed costs operating during off-peak periods. EATIGO and ULO helps such merchants to fill up the off-peak voids through extending discounts to consumers like myself, who will be happy to take a couple hours off work to enjoy myself, and yet get great discounts off services. Happy customer and happy merchants with both enjoying savings in expensive Singapore.
ShopBack
ShopBack is marketed as the #1 rewards and discovery platform in Asia-Pacific, that enables shoppers across the region to shop ‘The Smarter Way”. ShopBack partners with over 3,000 merchants including Taobao, Expedia, Shopee, ZALORA to reward its users with cashback across a wide range of categories including general merchandise, travel bookings, fashion, health and beauty, groceries, and food delivery. I see ShopBack as the “utility app”, like how you have a catch-all credit card for every other expense that do not fall into specific categories like F&B. The cashback offered is also really similar to credit cards at around 1% – 5%, and sometimes more depending on what you purchase.
At the end of the day, this list is not exhaustive as the savvy discount-hunter will tell you, but we curated this list trying to cover as wide a range of products and services as possible. With these, you are guaranteed savings and discounts in covering almost every inch of Singapore.
Imagine on a typical month, you get to save the below:
| App | Service | Original Cost | Savings |
| ULO Lifestyle | Haircut + Wash | $40 | $20 (50%) |
| The ENTERTAINER | Indoor Spinning | $180 (4 sessions) | $90 (50%) |
| CHOPE | Buffet at Tenkaichi Japanese BBQ Restaurant | $124/pax | $68 (45%) |
| EATIGO | Harry’s Jazz Burger at Harry’s @ Harbourfront | $24 | $12 (50%) |
| ShopBack | Sambucol Black Elderberry Syrup on iHerb | $24.51 | $0.75 (3%) |
| TOTAL SAVINGS | $190.75 |
With the youthful generation consuming lifestyle services and restaurants on such regular basis, you can imagine the kinds of discounts you are missing out regularly. If you have yet to get onboard any of these, please go download them and start using.
The end it off, you can download ULO Lifestyle to enjoy that “shiok” haircut and massage during wash at a proper salon.