New malls in Singapore

New Malls Singapore

With all the new developments sprouting up all over Singapore, it can be hard to keep track of all the new shopping malls that are opening up all across Singapore. It looks like more is soon to follow, especially in heartlander estates as Singapore seeks to inject some life into formerly sleepy neighbourhood towns.

With that in mind, here are some of the newest shopping malls that opened in Singapore! Check out which are near you and which are worth your time (or not).

Kallang Wave Mall

Kallang Wave Mall

(Image credit: mylilbookworm.blogspot.com)

1 Stadium Place
Singapore 397628

This new mall, which opened in the later half of 2014 is definitely worth your visit if you are in the area! As the shopping/retail/dining wing of the Singapore Sports Hub, Kallang Wave Mall has a definite focus on sports. It boasts a gigantic indoors rockclimbing wall that is sure to be fun for the whole family, as well as many sporting shops such New Balance and Runner’s Edge. There is also a FairPrice Xtra which apart from selling the usual things, also has a focus on organic and healthfoods, and is quite a large hypermart overall. For the fashion conscious, you will definitely enjoy well known shops such as Cotton On, Forever 21, Uniqlo, and H&M. The best thing is that you won’t see the same crowds you normally see at such stores at Kallang Wave Mall! In addition to many food options, the Kallang Wave Mall also has Daiso and Harvey Norman if you should need to pick up any miscellaneous goods or electronics.

Big Box

BigBox Singapore
1 Venture Avenue
Singapore 608521

Big Box is another new mall that has gotten a good deal of press for its unique warehouse concept. Opened in December 2014, this megastore contains a hypermarket, a home improvement section, a fashion section and an outdoor and sporting goods section, all on just the first floor. The second floor boasts a large furniture section, consumer electroics and IT, geriatric products and more. The entire megastore has much more to offer besides just this. For example, there are still dining options for shoppers. Big Box also has a drive-through option for those who do not have much time to shop – simply order your goods online and pick them up from the drive-through. If you ever want to experience a more normal retail experience, simply head over to the nearby JEM and JCube, which are in the vicinity as well.

One KM

One Km
11 Tanjong Katong Road
OneKM Shopping Mall
Singapore 437157

Located on the site of the former Lion City Hotel, One KM is yet another place where Uniqlo is an anchor tenant, opened in November 2014. For the fashion conscious, you can also find Espirit and other clothing shops at One KM. However, One KM Mall’s real strength lies in food. One KM has a few interesting choices for retail such as: Fika Swedish Cafe, Beauty in the Pot (a hotpot restaurant specializing in collagen soups), Baikohken Japanese restaurant, Milk & Honey Yogurt, Tenderfresh Classic and others. One KM also has a Cold Storage for your grocery needs.

Seletar Mall

Seletar Mall Singapore
33 Sengkang West Avenue
Singapore 797653

Seletar Mall, one of the new heartland malls that opened last year in November, is a good destination for anyone who lives in the area. It has a little bit of everything, from a Shaw cineplex, groceries, shopping, a BHG department store, and services such as clinics, hair and beauty, optical shops and a money changer and POSB bank.

HillV2

Hillv2
4 Hillview Rise
Singapore 667979

HillV2, in the prime neighbourhood of upper Bukit Timah, opened in October of 2014. It caters to a slightly more upmarket crowd, with many gourmet food offerings. Hillview Market Place caters to your supermarket needs, while the gourmet grocer Dean & DeLuca and for the wine lovers, Wine Connection Bistro is also available. Other gastronomical delights in HillV2 include Black Angus Steakhouse, Cold Stone Creamery, and iO Italian Osteria amongst others. A Spa is also on location if you should wish to indulge in traditional Javanese Massage.

How many of these 5 new shopping malls that have opened only in the last few months have you visited? Share your experience with us!

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5 Cats That Hit Internet Fame All The Way To The Bank

You can think of countless ways to earn money. With this money, you can buy a pet or two. But, in rare cases it is the other way around. Your pet or pets can earn countless amount of money for you and your family. All you have to do is be equipped with a video recorder or a hand phone.

These cats had become Internet sensations and have been making their owners rich by showing off their adorable or grumpy faces.

5. KEYBOARD CAT

Although he passed away in 1987, this video from 1984 has been earning his owners about $175,800. The YouTube video had gotten more than 38,309,946 views. In this, keyboard cat plays a fast-beat music while in costume.

4. MARU

Maru, a male Scottish Fold cat from Japan, become famous due to YouTube, print, and television. His YouTube videos have an average of 800,000 views each and earns roughly $21,800-$181,600 in total.

Watch Maru’s introduction video with over 20 million views in the present:

3. TWO TALKING CATS

Mossy and Stina are two adorable cats that usually fight with each other. In this rare captured moment of more than 58 million views, the two cats seem to be having a deep conversation.

Both of them are described as female, healthy, and vigorous. They have been earning their owners about $8,500-$70,700.

2. TARA THE HERO CAT

After courageously rescuing her owner’s son, Tara has been making appearances in news and even in the first pitch of a Bakersfield Blaze game. She has been reportedly earning about $55,600-$463,700 for her owners.

1. GRUMPY CAT

Grumpy Cat or Tardar Sauce is an Internet celebrity that is best known for her grumpy facial expression. Her owner, Tabatha Bundesen, says that Tardar’s face is permanent due to underbite and feline dwarfism.

Image Credits: Neon Tommy via Flickr

Image Credits: Neon Tommy via Flickr

Aside from appearances in Reddit, YouTube, and The Wall Street Journal, she has recently graced the small screen in the Christmas special for the Lifetime network.

According to the Business Insider and Telegraph, Grumpy Cat has earned her owner nearly $100 million!

Sources: Wikipedia and ViralNova

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Subscription boxes in Singapore You Need to Look Out For

Subscription Boxes

The subscription box trend has really taken off in Singapore and around the world with a wide array of boxes you can sign up for. Subscription boxes are usually a monthly affair, where a mystery box of goodies will arrive at your doorstep each month for you to unwrap! This can also be a cheap, efficient, and fun way of trying out new products that you wouldn’t otherwise have heard of. Boxes usually contain sample sizes of products or even full sizes, and are thoughtfully curated to have something that will appeal to everyone. If you are interested in buying the fullsize product, quite a few of these services have websites where you can do so, often at a discount from the retail price.

That being said, with all the different boxes in the market, here is a quick rundown of different subscription box services in Singapore.

Beauty/Cosmetics:

1) BellaBox 

Bella Box

(Image credit: makeupstash.com)

One of the most established beauty boxes in Singapore, this box will set you back $19.95 per month. Each signature blue and white polkadotted box contains 5+ surprise products for you to try! Their website also reveals some sneak peeks of next month’s box.
2) The Little Black Beauty Box (styleXstyle)

The Little Black Beauty Box

(Image credit: cindykhor.blogspot.com)

The LBBS partners with TANGS to deliver a luxury experience to you each month for only $22.90. As they are partners with TANGS, the LBBS tends to have higher end products, and comes packaged in a sleek matte black box.

3) Glamabox http://sg.glamaclub.com/glamabox/

Glamabox Singapore

(Image credit: sweetestsins.blogspot.com)

Glamabox is a subscription service fronted by Lisa S, and runs about $19/month. Each box contains 4-5 products thoughtfully selected for you.

Food/Drink:

4) Thirsty

 photo IMG_1308.jpg

(Image credit: Irisslove, Photobucket)

 

Thirsty, a well-known craft beer shop, has a subscription monthly beer club that will set you back $165 for 24 bottles of craft beer. A good way to try out hard-to-find craft beers if you enjoy your drink!

5) Nom box

Nom Box

(Image credits: weekender.com.sg)

Nom box is a dessert themed subscription box, that comes in two sizes, the normal Nom box ($28) for 4-5 types of desserts/snacks from cafes and the Nom Box + ($39) for 6-8 desserts/snacks. They have many well-known cafe partners and you can easily check out the past boxes for an idea of what you may be receiving!

6) BoxGreen

BoxGreen

(Image credit: Box Green Singapore)

Have a new year’s resolution to eat healthy? BoxGreen delivers 4 natural and wholesome snacks that are guilt-free and healthy to you each month for $19.90. What’s more, for every box delivered, a meal is donated through Willing Hearts to help the underprivileged in Singapore! So you can eat healthy, and be doing a good deed at the same time.

Clothing:

7) Lowinsky

Lowinsky

(Image credit: jocelyncjx.blogspot.com)

Lowinsky’s subscription box caters to both men ($58) and women ($38), with up to 5 pieces of hand selected apparel and accessories. If you don’t like something, you can let the team of stylists know so that they’ll be able to better select apparels for you for the next box!

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You Will Be Sorry If You Missed The Lowrys Farm’s Farewell Sale

Lowrys Farm Blog

If you haven’t heard of Lowrys Farm’s plan to exit from Singapore, it would be a pity if you miss out their clearance sale happening right now.

Lowrys Farm opened its first store in Ikebukuro, Tokyo in March 1992. The brand managed by Point Inc has since expanded to all other parts of Japan and other parts of Asia such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Singapore.

Based on the concept of casual and comfortable wear, the brand prides itself to carry quality and trendy apparels.

Quality usually come at a price. Most shoppers who reviewed in a local review website, TheSmartLocal, said that the clothes are trendy and of high quality, albeit a higher price tag. That is no surprise considering how Japanese worker uses artisanal skill to produce denims and other apparels in their production line, spotting every  misaligned eyelets and stitches.

Unfortunately, the strategy didn’t quite worked out in Singapore as the fashion industry is very competitive with brands such as Uniqlo, H&M and Forever21 dominating the market offering cheaper alternatives.

Nonetheless, if you want to own a piece from Lowrys Farm (either for memory sake or simply a purchase for the upcoming Chinese New Year), it’s the best time to do so as they prepare to clear stocks.

Here are a few tips on how you can make use of their Farewell Sale to slash their usually high premium price to make your purchase.

Lowry Farms

 

1. Get 50% off when you purchase 5 or more items

Usually shoppers are attracted by banners with words such as ‘Sale’ and ‘X% off’. They were usually blown up big to catch your attention but there are two words ‘Up to’ that are strangely downsized to protect retailers from misrepresentation. And most of the time, you walk out of the store with disappointment as the favourite pieces are not included in the sales item.

But look, now you can get 50% off EVERYTHING when your purchase 5 or more items. This has to better than another store that offers ‘Up to 75% Off’ on a few limited items.

This shoe originally retails for $129.90, but after 50% discount, it costs you just $64.95.

Lowry Farms Shoe

2. Make up 5 items with lesser priced items

Found something you like but don’t have the budget for 4 more items? Then make use of this trick to qualify for the 50% off. Look for cheaper items such as ear rings, socks and belts to make up the shortfall.

Take this pair of ear rings for example:

It is priced at $7.90.

Lowry Ear Rings

If you purchase 4 of this, it will cost you $15.80 and you can essentially buy another big ticket item such as this leather jacket that costs $129.90. Oh wait, $64.95.

Lowry Farm Jacket

 

Or a bag at $44.95. (R.P $89.90)

Lowrys Farm Bag

 

If you are going to need this fluffy item in a winter country, after discounts it cost $79.95.

Imagine a family of 5 who purchase 5 of these which amounts to a saving of $400.

Lowrys Farm Coat

 

3. Shop with friends or family members

(Image credit: sg.kidlander.com)

(Image credit: sg.kidlander.com)

If you want to be exceptionally frugal and don’t even want to spend $15.80 on 4 other items, there is no better reason to preach this clearance sale to your family members or friends with Chinese New Year around the corner.

Bring your siblings, or a couple, or three friends to raid the store. Good things must be shared right?

4. Organise a trip in a community

Lowrys Farm Community

(Image credit: magnya-bbru.blogspot.com)

 

No one in your family is interested? Then organise a trip with a few others in your community. You don’t need me to teach you how to use popular forums such as Hardwarezone, SGForums and Cozycot right? If you don’t use any of those, you ought to have a active Facebook’s account.

5. Just walk into the shop and roped in other buyers

Lowrys Farm Shop

Don’t worry if you are an independent warrior, just walk into the store and look for what you want to purchase AND look for other shoppers with items in their hand. Ask if they want to combine purchase and i don’t see why would anyone rejects you when it is a win-win when both of you are enjoying the discounts.

If you own a credit card that offers rebates, then that’s even better. You offer to pay for the items with your card and get other shoppers to pay you in cash.

When will this last?

It will last all the way until the last day they withdraw from Singapore or while stocks last. We have no definite date yet but as a ballpark, we were told by the salesperson that it will be some time before Chinese New Year.

So happy shopping.

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6 Ways to get Cheaper Books

6 Ways To Get Cheaper Books

If you’re a booklover and a voracious reader, chances are that you spend way too much money on books, with an average paperback book going for about $15 in the local big bookstores. It can be difficult to read as much as you would like with the costs involved, so here are some ways to save money while reading books!

1) Online retailers

Often, you can save a good deal of money simply by buying the books online, where prices can be up to 50% cheaper than the retail price in Singapore bookstores.

Some popular options are:
Bookdepository.com, an international site that offers free shipping to your doorstep, and carries a very wide range of all books;
local online retailer, OpenTrolley, which allows local pickup at a retail location, or shipping for a fee.

Other common options are eBay and Amazon, however, beware of shipping costs for these options.

When buying books online, be sure to also check out oo.sg, which searches all these online retailers and more, including Kinokuniya and Popular online, for your specific book and allows you to comparison shop for the cheapest price.

Generally, my go-to book retailer is BookDepository as they usually offer the most competitive prices with a large range of options.

Be sure also to check out the different editions of the book, as the softcover is usually cheaper than the hardcover.

2) Book Sales

The popular bookstore chains in Singapore, such as Times and MPH, regularly have warehouse sales a few times a year, either at the Singapore Expo or other locations. Be sure to keep updated on when the next sale will be so as to be able to grab books for really low prices, like $5 each new, or even lower!

3) Secondhand books online

There are a few options I would recommend for buying secondhand books online. Sites like secondhandbooks.com.sg or bookfishing.com.sg are frequently updated and have a good number of books listed by sellers.

Recently, the Carousell application has also seen quite a lot of use for buying and selling books, which is another option you may want to consider.

4) Secondhand bookstores

There are a few secondhand bookstores currently operating in Singapore, although they are a dying breed, and a few have closed their shutters. Bras Basah Complex is one place where you may go to find secondhand books and textbooks.

5) Book exchanges

If you’re looking to clear some of the unwanted books lying around your house, why not try to swap them?

For instance, the NLB has an annual book exchange where we can exchange our unwanted books for other donated books. You may also have some luck trying to swap books online.

6) Ebooks

Buying an eBook may not necessarily require you to purchase an expensive eReader! There are many eBook readers available for free to download on your smartphone or your computer. Ebooks are also significantly cheaper than physical books, and usually cost you a couple of dollars at most. Just be sure to convert your eBook into the desired file format for your downloaded eReader (ePub is generally able to be read by most eReaders).

Reading doesn’t have to burn a hole in your pocket, but with these tips, books may start to take up way more space than availabe in your house!

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