Innovation in Citizen Services
6 tools in Singapore to help you navigate inflation
11 April 2024
How can tech help Singaporeans cope with rising costs? These 6 government tools might have the answer.
According to a survey conducted in October 2023, the cost of living is Singaporeans’ top concern. Indeed, the government has been watching the issue closely and introducing support measures to ease the impact of rising prices for a wide variety of necessities, from water to groceries at the neighbourhood minimart.
On our part, it’s prudent to find ways to stretch our budgets and save while we can.
Fortunately, there are some apps and services out there geared towards making our every dollar count. Read on if you need a hand in navigating inflation!
Know how much you have with SGFinDex
You need to know how much money you have in order to know how much you can spend.
But keeping track of all your financial accounts can be quite a handful when you have multiple savings accounts and investments.
Thankfully, the SGFinDex, short for Singapore Financial Data Exchange, simplifies matters by consolidating your personal financial information under one view. This includes deposits, credit cards, car and home loans, insurance details and investments from 15 participating financial institutions – including major banks and insurers in Singapore, as well as the SGX Central Depository.
You no longer have to jump through hoops to keep an eye on your overall financial health, freeing up more time to plan your finances.
Cheap coffee shop meals – BudgetMealGoWhere
If you love to eat out, but lament that meals are getting pricier, then BudgetMealGoWhere is just the site for you.
Developed jointly by GovTech and HDB, the portal helps residents locate coffee shops offering affordable meals easily. Simply visit the site, enter the postal code you wish to search and see a range of eateries and the budget options available, with those within 2km of the postal code listed at the top.
A wide variety of dishes are featured, including loads of local favourites from fishball noodles to hor fan, and nasi lemak to chicken rice. Full meals cost as low as $3, and drinks go for as low as $1.
Users can also access the portal through the LifeSG app for more convenience.
If you have a budget meal recommendation, you can contribute to the repository through the CrowdTaskSG website, where you can submit photos and information about the meal.
Smarter grocery shopping – Price Kaki
Besides food, another category of unavoidable expenses would be the everyday necessities like vegetables, milk, toilet paper, household cleaners, and everything else we pick up from supermarkets.
That’s where Price Kaki comes in, enabling you to compare prices of more than 10,000 supermarket items – including groceries and household essentials – and locate the best deals across different outlets and locations.
Launched in 2019 by the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case), it includes additional information such as ongoing promotions and price fluctuations. A 2023 feature enhancement also allows users to view the prices of each product by unit.
While the app’s main function is to compare supermarket item prices, it also covers more than 31,000 cooked items sold in food courts, hawker centres, and coffee shops.
Rewarding fitness pursuits – Healthy365, LumiHealth, and ActiveSG
While these apps are primarily for encouraging healthy living, they have the added benefit of offering rewards in the form of vouchers for hitting health goals, such as a targeted number of steps a day or keeping a sleep journal for better rest.
Both Healthy365 and LumiHealth (which is for Apple Watch users) enable users to get vouchers from participating supermarkets such as FairPrice and Giant. You can even give yourself a treat at other participating merchants like Koi and Mr Bean.
And if all this talk about fitness has got you inspired, you don’t have to splash out to pursue a healthy lifestyle if you’ve got the ActiveSG app.
For example, instead of spending thousands of dollars on a gym membership, you can purchase a year-long pass that gives you access to all 28 ActiveSG gyms for just $300. And if you work out only on weekdays (excluding public holidays) before 4pm, you can get the off-peak year-long pass for just $80!
Stretching your dollar for the long haul
Singapore’s overall core inflation for December 2023 was 3.3 per cent, indicating that while inflation has been on the decline, it is here to stay for quite a while yet.
The global economy is still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, while war and geopolitical instability have also contributed to rising prices.
While these factors are out of our control, we have tools at our disposal to help us weather the tough times. So start saving with these apps and navigate inflation!