5 Creative Ways To Earn Money This Yuletide Season

This is the season to be jolly. Parties, presents, and all the festivities do not come cheap! You can easily be trapped into months worth of debt if you remain careless. This is why you must find a few creative ways to earn extra money.

1. RECYCLE YOUR STUFF

Your unwanted pile of trash can turn into treasures thru a single environmentally friendly act – recycling. Some individuals, especially in developing countries, make a living by selling scrap. Do something similar by submitting your trash into one of Veolia’s recycling station. Veolia’s Cash-For-Trash Programme started in May 2014. Since then, various stations were set up within the HDB estates.

Papers can earn you about 10 cents per kilogram while, old clothing can earn you about 30 cents per kilogram. Aluminum cans can earn you about 50 cents while, metal tins can earn you about 10 cents. The distinct prices of your items depend on the quantity and material.

2. SPREE FOR FREE

Wouldn’t it be nice if the cost of your holiday shopping was generously covered? I know it sounds counterproductive to make money by spending money, but it is possible!

The people that shop for a living are called Mystery Shoppers. Mystery Shoppers are paid by the company’s marketing department to report about their experiences as they try the said company’s services or buy their goods. Accepting this job will entail getting paid for your time as well as for the items that you bought.

Eager to be one? Check out the current job openings at Gumtree.

3. WORK MORE THAN USUAL

I am going to impart one of the most efficient ways to make more money in the remaining days of December. This is none other than hustling at your current job. Work overtime and take extra projects. You may be tasked to widen the referral system or input hundreds of data. Just take on the task that no one else wants and receive appropriate payment for it.

4. WRAP FOR FEE

As the eldest of three siblings, I experienced wrapping gifts for several friends and family members. It is undeniably a chore that most people do not appreciate. This is why gift wrapping enthusiasts and alike can offer their skills for a fee. Purchase colored papers, festive ribbons, and gift tags in bulk to save more money.

If you can sell your service in a cheaper rate than what the shopping malls are asking then, you can easily hit the jackpot.

5. SELL YOUR SNAPS

Have you ever been attracted to the images attached in the online blogs and other advertisements? Most of these eye-catching features were from the company’s stock images. Stock images consist of photographs that are usually licensed for specific purposes. Companies pay decent amount of cash for these.

If photography is a special part of your talent reservoir, consider selling your masterpiece. Companies are in constant need for images for their websites, brochures, cards, blogs, and other projects. Start by selling your snaps on Shutterstock. Each website works differently so read through the guidelines first before you commit.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Source: INC

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Delicious And Affordable Places For Spicy Dishes

Singapore is a melting pot of various cuisines that cater to all sorts of palettes including the burning one. By burn, I am pointing out the dishes that evoke a desired intraoral sensation by putting spices such as chilli (or chili) peppers and curry. Fortunately, satisfying your cravings for spicy food does not have to come with a price tag that is beyond S$40!

NAKHON KITCHEN

 

For people who love Thai food as much as I do, scouting for an affordable yet authentic restaurant can be a hobby. Look no further than the casual experience that Nakhon Kitchen can bring. Most of its dishes are reasonably priced for as low as S$6. However, its seafood dishes range from S$10-12.

Going back to the topic at hand, Nakhon Kitchen’s resident Tom Yam Soup is a reward for the spicy food enthusiasts. The extremely spicy soup is garnished with the generous amount of chicken and seafood. The distinctive aroma of lemongrass and the taste of sourness will win your heart in the first bite alone.

 Location: 212 Hougang Street 21 #01-341, Singapore 530212

KKO KKO NA RA KOREAN RESTAURANT

As it turns out, spicy food seems to gravitate toward the laid-back atmosphere. I am referring to the smooth vibe of the Korean Native Language that diners at Kko Kko Na Ra Korean Restaurant can appreciate. What patrons keep coming back to is their version of a tasty fried chicken. The fried chicken has 4 flavors namely: hot & spicy, sweet & spicy, soy garlic sauce, and original. Stretch your dollar by ordering the “combo set” to get an assorted plate that features all the flavors.

Aside from the chicken, take your spicy taste-buds on a joyride as you devour either the Kimchi Chigae and the Spicy Korean Ramen. The prices of the dishes range from S$15-30.

Location: 57 Tras Street, Tanjong Pagar, Singapore 078996

MELLBEN SEAFOOD

Image Credits: Tapanick Akara via facebook.com/pages/Melben-Seafood-Blk-232-Ang-Mo-Kio-Ave-3

Image Credits: Tapanick Akara via facebook.com

Mellben Seafood has grown immensely since its humble days along the Alexandra Road. Spanning with about three outlets in Singapore, Mellben Seafood is known for its delicious chilli crab. You can expect nothing but huge crabs showered with spicy, slightly sweet, and thick chili sauce. You may request to adjust the spiciness to the level that you can easily bear.

Situated at a Kopitiam in one of the HDB estates, Mellben Seafood at Ang Mo Kio is remotely away from the bustling center of the Lion City. Its menu features a wide array of crab meals such as Chilli Crab, Black Pepper Crab, Butter Crab, and Shimmering Sand Crab. The average price per person is approximately S$35. You can save more by sharing a hearty plate.

Location: #01-1222, 232 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3, Singapore 560232

SOUTHWEST TAVERN

Please offer a moment of silence as I usher the spiciest challenge in town – the “Spaghetti from Hell”. Food adventurers and novice alike are familiar with this Southwest Tavern dish. Put your chili tolerance to the test as you chug down a seemingly friendly plate of pasta in under 10 minutes. Come out victorious to win S$100 worth of dining vouchers or other rewards. If you are not eager to participate in this challenge, you may choose the level of spice.

Spaghetti from Hell comes in three forms: the Hell’s Gateway (about S$18), the Halfway There (about S$22), and the Level 18 (about S$26). You may also try their Suicide Wings (S$14-22) to intensify the entire meal.

Location: 8 Boon Lay Way #01-33 Tradehub 21, Singapore 609964

This article has provided your with some of Singapore’s top spicy dishes. May you enjoy the tasty burns ahead! 🙂

Sources: 1 & 2

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How To Deal With Difficult Co-Workers

In this day and age, you can choose to create a massive wardrobe. You can choose to befriend the people who inspire you. Oh! You can even handpick the gender of your baby.

However, you usually cannot choose the people whom you will work with.

The fixed structure of the workplace allows you to interact with all sorts of people. Every workplace has toxic workers. It is inevitable! Dealing with these difficult people is challenging, yet very rewarding. Increase your positive coping skills by absorbing these tips:

Rise Above The Negativity

Some people love to create a bubble of negativity above their heads. They complain about almost every topic that exists. They feel overworked and underpaid. They do not like their bosses. Nor do they enjoy their jobs. They think their careers are on the brink of destruction!

If you are surrounded by Negative Steve and Negative Betsy, you have two moves up your sleeves. You can either avoid the negative bond or hear the person out. Avoidance is acceptable in this situation as you do not want to create a parasitic relationship (i.e., where one is dependent on the other). Take in the essence of what Tony Chatman, a corporate relationship professional, once said.

“If you bond with someone on a negative issue, they will feel that they have found a partner in their distress, and they will look for you every time they feel something negative.”

My significant background in Psychology supports these ideas. Once you bond with the negative co-worker and stimulate his or her rants, you act with validation. You make the person feel right and that the behavior is acceptable.

The other path opposes the first strategy as it employs active listening. You can initially listen to the complaints of the negative person. Decide whether these claims are legitimate or not. If so, offer assistance to solve the present problem. Know your limitations when giving advice. Suggest reading credible books, attending informative seminars, and consulting the professionals in the company’s Human Resources Department.

Prevent The Spread Of Infectious Gossip

Do you ever wonder how your every tiny mistake reaches your boss? Or, perhaps you are wondering how your embarrassing pictures reached the company’s Facebook group. Search no further than the Office Gossipmonger. Gossipmongers cannot keep their mouths shut when it comes to bad news. Instead of offering help, they seek to lower your credibility to stay ahead of the workplace hierarchy. They love to blabber about different stories as long as it does not involve them.

To prevent the spread of the infectious rumor, you must hold back on the private things about your life. Do not disclose an information that you do want others to know about. Remember that everything you say may be used against you. Donna Flagg, the author of Surviving Dreaded Conversations, highlighted that you must: “keep a safe distance so as to avoid getting sucked into the toxicity”.

As with anyone, there is a positive side to them. You can use them as a tool to spread an important information. If you want the workplace to act upon a specific issue, relay the “confidential information” to the gossipmonger. I am pretty sure that he or she will not be able to resist the urge to spread the message right away.

Learn How To Handle The Resident Bully

Workplace bullies employ emotional, physical, or sexual attacks toward their co-workers. Examples of wrongful acts include inappropriately criticizing one’s performance and taking credit for other people’s work. Consequences of these acts include dreading to go to work and public humiliation (i.e., due to being shouted or called at).

The upcoming fact took me by surprise! Statistics found that 1 in 4 Singaporeans have suffered from workplace bullying with the top aggressors being their bosses (62%) and their clients (21%). To make matters worse, Singapore was one of the few countries with the highest acceptance of workplace bullying.

If you are one of the unfortunate targets of the resident bully, deal with him or her by reading this article.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Sometimes, prized abilities and proper work ethics do not go hand in hand. This is why toxic or difficult people exist at the workplace. You may not control how these people behave, but you can control how you will react to them. Think about this!

Sources: 1,  2, & 3

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Now we can all get Honest and Instant Insurance Advice

The traditional mode of how insurance is sold is a frustrating process for most people. Consumers do not know where to start when it comes to getting insured. In many cases, there is a sales-pitch and high pressure selling from advisers who have a conflict of interest.

To address these needs, Do It Your-way Insurance (DIYInsurance) was launched in 2014 to empower people to make informed decisions about their own insurance purchase and they started Singapore’s 1st Life Insurance Comparison Web Portal for users to compare insurance products and provide greater transparency. To-date, more than 150,000 users have used DIYInsurance.

Consumers find it difficult to know where to start when it comes to getting insured. To help consumers obtain an assessment of their life insurance needs, they have recently launched Selfcheck, Singapore’s 1st digital adviser to bring insurance planning to the next high level.

This is like having an insurance adviser help you with your insurance check-up and providing instant advice, but without you feeling the obligation to buy anything.

diyinsurance-selfcheck-key-protection-needs-1

You can easily uncover:

  • types of insurance you really need
  • how much insurance you require
  • surplus or shortfall in your insurance coverage
  • recommended policies to meet your needs

diyinsurance-recommendations

Everyone can now perform a Selfcheck and obtain a customised and tailored insurance solution from a place they can trust.

The DIYInsurance Difference

Expert advisers to assist you

When you plan your insurance with DIYInsurance, they assign a dedicated expert insurance adviser to complete your planning process. Simply put, you use Selfcheck to build your own insurance plan and the human insurance adviser act as your guide to complete the process by fine tuning your plan. This is insurance advice at its best.

Honest advice

To avoid conflict of interest, all of their insurance advisers are salaried-based and not remunerated on a commissions-basis hence there is no incentive to hard-sell and push products that reward higher commissions. DIYInsurance wants to provide the most honest, independent and competent advice to their clients.

Dedicated after-sales service

If there are any claims or after-sales service requirements, you not only can approach your adviser, DIYInsurance has an entire team of Client Service Managers who stand ready to assist you. All you need is to contact them and they will do everything for you.

It is critical is that there is a trusted DIYInsurance adviser and a client service team whom you can always go to. DIYInsurance is not just High-Tech, they are High-Touch.

Lower Cost

With Selfcheck, the insurance process is made more efficient and hence they are providing greater cost savings to their clients by increasing their commission rebates from 30% to 50%.

DIYInsurance rebates 50% of the salesperson’s commissions to their clients and retain the remainder of the commissions as their service fees. These rebates to their clients are on top of ongoing policy promotions offered by the insurers and they rebate the commissions for as long as the insurer pays them on a policy which could be over a period of 3-6 years.

Expertise

Started by Providend Ltd, a licensed financial adviser and registered fund management company with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) since 2003, the key leaders of DIYInsurance are Chief Executive of Providend Ltd Christopher Tan, MBA, CFP® and Head of DIYInsurance, Eddy Cheong, CFP® whom each have almost 2 decades of experience in the wealth management industry. All DIYInsurance advisers are licensed with the MAS.

Summary

When you plan your insurance needs through DIYInsurance, what you get is quality, transparent and conflict free advice at a much lower cost from a trusted place. Best of all, you can do all this at the comfort of your desk, without feeling the pressure that you need to purchase something. In addition, you still get all the help needed when you need to claim against your policies. That is why DIYInsurance is not “Do It Yourself Insurance” but “Do It Your-Way Insurance”. Try Selfcheck today!

 

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Indulge in Esplanade’s festive offerings without breaking your bank.

Come December, Esplanade offers a whole month of free programmes, activities, crafts workshops and roving performances for families, friends and lovers alike. There is even PJ Harvey to look forward to when January arrives.

Don’t miss Alan and Evan’s ukulele performance on 16 December. Together, they have over 12 years of experience playing the ukulele. Alan has performed at major festivals such as Bangkok Ukulele Festivals. At only 11 years old, Evan has already performed for three years. Let them take you through different eras and music genres on this traditional Hawaiian instrument.

Celebrate meaningful relationships and positivity with local singer-songwriters Audris Ho and Charlyn Too. There will also be a special guest appearance by Lily Goh, Founder of ExtraOrdinary Horizons (a social enterprise for the Deaf) on 18 December.

If you’re itching for some action, catch SherePunjab Bhangra (SPB) around Esplanade, as they teach you some Bhangra dance moves so you can groove along with them. Bhangra dance is a traditional dance originating from Punjab, and SherePunjab Bhangra has uniquely combined Punjabi folk traditions with Western pop music in their performances.

Introduce your little tots to a world of music with Vocal Fun!, a music workshop for ages 3 to 6. Angelina Choo from Urban Music Productions brings music in through various games and songs, and lets children experiment the endless possibilities they can do with their own voices. Don’t miss this one session held only on 10 December!

If you‘ve watched popular Taiwanese movie film Our Times《我的少女时代》, you don’t want to miss Arpeggione Quartet rendition of it. Happening on 29 & 30 December at the Esplanade Concourse, let this talented string quartet serenade you with an evening of classic jazz and local favourites.
marina-bay-singapore-countdown-2017-gallery01

And of course, countdown to the new year at Esplanade with some of the best views of the impressive 8-minute long fireworks display over the marina. With a total of 6 performances on New Year’s Eve, Singapore Char Siew Baos! And The Mad Company will be there to entertain you all night long at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre from 7pm to 1am. If you’ve watched MediaCorp Channel 5’s 2010 One Moment of Glory, The Singapore Char Siew Baos! would be familiar to you. They came in as semi-finalists in this reality competition. The Mad Company, on the other hand, consists of alumni from Republic Polytechnic who express their passion for music through unplugged music.

For the full list of upcoming events, please visit the Esplanade’s website here: www.esplanade.com/celebratedecember.

We can’t help but share other exciting news brewing in Esplanade this January. Usher in the new year with musician, poet, artist, and only two-time winner of the Mercury Music Prize, PJ Harvey. Harvey is an international icon who has commanded attention throughout her career of more than two decades. She has carved a name for herself in the international music industry, earning numerous Grammy and Brit Award nominations and Artist of the Year awards from Rolling Stone and Spin. Throughout her music journey, she has worked with various music veterans such as Thom Yorke, Nick Cave, Tricky, Björk, Mark Lanegan, and Gordon Gano of Violent Femmes.

At her only stop in Southeast Asia as part of her international tour, Harvey showcases music from her acclaimed latest release The Hope Six Demolition Project, together with her full 10-piece band on 13 January. Prices start from $68 ($45 for students, NSFs and seniors).

Get your tickets from: http://bit.ly/PJHarveyEsp

“If there were any rules about what makes a genuine rock god, then Polly Jean Harvey has torpedoed most of them by now…she is a powerhouse.”

– The Guardian

‘Tis the season of giving (& receiving)!

  1. Win a trip to Club Med Maldives or Bali!

maldivesblack-white-card

Purchase the Esplanade&Me Black or White Card and stand a chance to win a free holiday to Club Med Maldives or Bali! Valid from 1 – 31 Dec 2016.

Sign up for the White card or the Black card.

  1. Festive Specials

Enjoy festive deals and take a lucky dip to win special gifts such as limited edition esplanadeXsupermama porcelain plate sets, E&Me White cards, to #artsXlife experiences only at Esplanade Mall! Valid from 1-31 Dec 2016. *T&Cs apply.

  1. Touching Lives with the Gift of Arts

Esplanade is a not-for-profit arts centre with a social mission. They believe in transforming lives through the arts. This December, join them as they bring the joy of the arts to even more people from different communities. Your contribution will help their beneficiaries from various VWOs to enjoy a hosted visit to a performance at Esplanade, as well as creative workshops conducted by artists. Find out how you can make a difference here.

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