Keep the Change

Ever wondered what cards we use to earn miles on a regular day in blistering hot Singapore as a couple? We documented our spending on a recent Sunday below.

Time: 0900

Description: Woke up craving for yakun kaya toast – booked grab to nearest yakun outlet

Category: Transport

Amount: $12.30

Card: DBS Women’s World Mastercard (4mpd)

Miles earned: 48

Time: 1000

Description: Ordered 2 breakfast sets at Yakun.

Category: Dining

Amount: $15.00

Card: UOB Lady’s card (4mpd)

Miles: 60

Time: 1030

Description: Dabaoed for the family McBreakfast via the McDonald’s app (pick up)

Category: Fast Food (online)

Amount: $20.20

Card: DBS Women’s World Mastercard (4mpd)

Miles: 80

Time: 1100

Description: Shopping at Uniqlo

Category: Shopping (in-person)

Amount: $99.70

Card: UOB Preferred Platinum (4mpd)

Miles: 380

Time: 1130

Description: Too broke to take another grab so took MRT home

Category: Transport

Amount: $1.80 per pax

Card: UOB One – to hit $500 min spend as part of UOB One savings requirement (note that the min spend can be combined with spending on the UOB Lady’s Card)

Miles: 0

Time: 1200

Description: Helped a dear friend pay the deposit ($6k) for her wedding banquet at a restaurant. Unfortunately she doesn’t own a miles card and her best option is only a card offering 1.5% unlimited cashback. Fortunately for us, we offered to pay on their behalf, gave them a higher 1.8% instant cashback ($108), while we racked up 18,000 miles using the UOB KrisFlyer Credit Card (3mpd unlimited), which equates to paying 0.6cents per mile – a win-win!

Category: Dining (Restaurants)

Amount: $6000

Card: UOB KrisFlyer Credit Card (3mpd)

Miles: 18000

Time: 1300

Description: We got hungry, but the weather was blistering hot to head out so we decided to order grabfood for lunch.

Category: Food Delivery

Amount: 18.8

Card: Citi Rewards (4mpd)

Miles: 72

Time: 1400

Description: Booked SQ flights for a short getaway to Bangkok next year. We only need to pay for taxes as we redeemed the flights using KrisFlyer miles!

Category: Travel

Amount: $134.40

Card: DBS Women’s World Mastercard (4mpd)

Miles: 536 earned, -20500 used

Time: 1500

Description: Went to the gym – which reminded us that today is the day we pay our monthly fees

Category: membership (online)

Amount: 190

Card: HSBC Revolution

Miles: 680 (4mpd)

Time: 1600

Description: Today is the day we begin our home renovation! Arranged with our ID to pay the outstanding required via bank transfer, split into 3 separate transactions. We used CardUp promo codes to make these payments using a mix of OCBC 90n and DBS Altitude to earn 29,383 miles by paying an additional service fee of $426.96. This equates to buying miles at 1.45 cents each. To put it another way, this is akin to paying the price of an economy ticket, and flying in business class!

Category: Renovation

Amount: $22176 + $426.96 in fees

Card: OCBC 90n, DBS Altitude (1.3mpd)

Miles: 29,383

Time: 1700

Description: Fill up petrol at Esso (before driving to JB for dinner)

Category: Petrol

Amount: 66.89 (after 12% cashback)

Card: Promotion on Kris+ linked with DBS Women’s World Mastercard (3+4=7 mpd)

Miles: 462

Time: 1900

Description: Dinner at claypot lala at JB (no jam from SG-JB)

Category: Dining (Overseas)

Amount: $80

Card: Citi Rewards + Instarem Amaze

Miles: 320

Time: 2300

Description: Home Sweet Home

Category: Others

Amount: Priceless

Card: House keys

Miles: Unlimited

Total spent: $640.89

Total miles earned: 2,638

In summary, our regular spending across various categories in Singapore (and JB) on this Sunday amounted to $640.89, earning us a total of 2,638 miles. However, when including one-off big-ticket expenses such as a friend’s wedding banquet deposit and home renovation, the total spending climbed to $29,243.85, with a whopping 50,021 miles earned. These miles-earning opportunities help us maximize rewards from daily and occasional expenses, making every purchase count!

Keep the Change

Tine & Hao