CAN SINGAPORE BE CHEAP?! // NEWEST MALL, FIVE DOLLAR MEALS + CHEAPEST DURIAN EVER!

[@Neil-clare]

We’ve just come back from Singapore and we went out a few times to a few restaurants meals ranging from $165 to $190 with a few drinks………we then went to lau pa sat hawker centre and a few others and had better food for both of us for less than £10…….hawker centres are by far the best option…..the meals we had at lau pa sat were amazing!

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

😱 that’s crazy prices!! Even $10 meals at Lau Pa Sat is a lot! I’m glad you enjoyed the food though - it’s all good in Singapore!

[@mikewong9513]

New to your channel but love it already…glad that you blend so well to the local community and lifestyle so well…keep coming love it

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Thank you so much!! Hope you continue to enjoy the channel and our content! 😊😊

[@greeneyedcat717]

Another fantastic video. Thank you! I am really enjoying the mix of content. You are right about the hawker centres, we were recommended and although we went and looked, we didn't have the courage to navigate them as tourists. Maybe next trip!

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Oh yes, you must!! You’ll never look back!!

[@maggielua8471]

Oh Milo is eating caifan! He has definitely blended into local food culture so well! Living in Singapore is not expensive as we’ve wide range of lifestyle to choose from. Another wonderful video! Thank you the Tan family! ❤

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Thank you! We love caifan - it’s quite regular for us 😂 even now when the fridge is fixed heheh

[@johnlim549]

Takeaway sushi and bakeries usually offer discounts at 8 pm or earlier before closing. Fruit shops cut up fruits for sale before they spoil 😅 At economy rice stalls, 2 veg 1 meat sells at $3.40 or cheaper!

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Nice tips!! Actually the hawker near Jonty’s work does one veg one meat for $2.80!

[@aaditkamat4995]

It’s fun to watch your blogs @Wonderlust. I’m glad that you have created a new blog!

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Thanks so much! 😌

[@aidaville]

Hello !! I hope Aspen is better ? Love your videos about very local places and your experiences of them, really interesting for everyone (Singaporeans and expats). Most expat videos usually feature MBS, Chinatown, Lau Pa Sat, Little India and anyone outside of Singapore watching would think that's all there is. Personally for me, it's good to see the other neighbourhoods, how they've changed and what's new. I SO want that robot, the challenge is a technophobe hubby who insists that old fashioned mopping is cleaner ..... my 2 girls and I are working on him slowly *HAHAHA !* As for the disappearing Hawker culture, there's a back story to this. Many of the older hawker centres are being bought by large businesses, who then upgrade the facilities. To recoup their cost, they set up their own stalls, using cooks from China or Malaysia, obviously the prices of food goes up. Rents dramatically increase and many of the original hawkers who have been cooking their food for decades just give up. To give an example - a kopitiam across my block was bought for $40m .... and the the average rental per stall is now $8K.. How is the humble Aunty/Uncle Fish Ball noodle, Laksa or Nasi Padang stall going to afford the rent ? They close and we lose the food that's so much part of our culture. Read about it here : mothership.sg/2022/06/tampines-coffeeshop-sold-rent/ Have a good weekend ! Aida.

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Thank you for the article - we’ll have a read!! Aspen is feeling better - the cough is lingering, but she’s much better! Heheh

[@leewn2319]

Hi Jonty, Notice both u & Milo have mixed veg with rice. U can stretch your dollar if u both order different dishes and later swap half portion of each respective dish and u get to enjoy more dishes per pax.

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Nice idea! Thanks!

[@healingpossibilities44]

We enjoyed the Hawker centre food. So easy once you’d showed us how. The ‘cleaner’ looks great 👍. Hopefully you’ll get to keep it. ❤

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Sadly the little robot has gone back!

[@NEAAFFAIRS]

Another hack. Caifan ask for dishes. Family of 4 with rice, 4 dishes about $15 or less ( no fish dish) Ask for gravy on rice too. Curry or "loh" gravy

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

We do that sometimes!! If we have a lot of friends to dinner and we don’t have time to cook 😂

[@iAxianguy]

Serangoon Central is a great place to get cheaper food and fruit. There is a stall call Lucy who sells cheaper frozen food and meat :)

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Ok, thanks! We’ll have to check it out!

[@audreyang902]

Hi. Glad you love staying in SG. Safe, convenient to travel around n good governance. Enjoy full facilities, unit . Some still think here is so expensive to live in.

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Some parts are very expensive, rent has gone up considerably. Some of our friends rent went up by 50% and that’s a lot of money to suddenly increase by, so they had to move. The market is right at the moment. But there are ways to cut down monthly expenses - where you shop and what you buy. We tend to shop local and don’t often but British brands that cost a lot more because of the importation costs.

[@CKology]

How can you live without a fridge wif 2 kids?! 🤲🏻 praying it gets fiX soon. Another fab video!

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Thank you! It is all sorted now 😊

[@xaviergracie]

I love lucky enoki from makisan 😍 i usually dip it in the soy sauce, always exciting video from u guys, happy weekend ❤

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Yea! They give you the soy too. And wasabi - which too many times I’ve taken too much and had watering eyes 😆

[@xaviergracie]

@@WONDERLUSTworld i dont like wasabi, so just soy sauce for me 😂

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

I always think I like it then quickly remember I don’t after having some.

[@Suwantiallan]

I said to my self “ amazing , she’s just like me eat rice for breakfast and lunch “ when I’m back home to Indonesia … ❤

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Yeah! I try to avoid wheat so rice is a great alternative for breakfast!

[@weshz2429]

Miss Singapore❤

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

I can understand why!

[@yush7080]

My coffee shop here in Woodlands serves $3.4 caifan for 1 portion rice + 2 veggie + 1 meat + 1 packaging if dabao 😄

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Oh wow that’s great! Did you catch our recent woodlands vlog? Where can we find that caifan stall?

[@gotmyonu1027]

Thanks for sharing. I like the bot. But I think you need to remove cables laying on the floor... It might get tangled... And bot will not run.

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

That’s the great thing about this one actually, it detects in real time anything left about. I agree it’s better to tuck them away but if they get forgotten it should be ok. And if it does have a hint of getting stuck it stops rotating and tries to free itself.

[@gotmyonu1027]

@@WONDERLUSTworld Thank you for sharing

[@raspberry_scareglow]

Woodleigh Mall and the surrounding Bidadari (which in Malay means Fairy Princess or Angel)! Used to be the dead roaming the area but now the living are doing the roaming 😅 Also delinquents from nearby school settling their issues by fighting each other in the cemetery. Also that place was once a nice place to go for jogging in the morning and evening because of the shades and quietness in that area. Not so much these days

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

I think they’re re-doing the lake area to have more nature 😊

[@jahnsega5599]

See monthly bills with the current global inflation more scarier

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Yes, seems to be a worldwide problem, our families in the UK have also noticed utilities rising. We're looking for ways to cutdown outgoings and being mindful of what/ where we eat can help with that.

[@jahnsega5599]

www.gowhere.gov.sg/budgetmeal/

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Jonty uses this site! Heheh. It helps us to save money 😊

[@lm8483]

im guessing you're going for the tiny away escape at lazarus!!

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Hehe 😜

[@Aloffghae]

When they say hawker centre is dying they are refering to the evolution of food. Modern gen will combine strange things like ramen fishball noodle. Thia just 1 of the many example. In fact the last 20years we have seen lots of changes to our food. Strange things like removinf pork from hokkien mee have already happening

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Ah interesting take. We do notice more fusion things. Need to keep supporting the OG’s. I’m sure a few took a hit during covid unfortunately.

[@kelvgan]

When we go visit some neighborhood countries where super affordable is a bargain, we say chip chip or bird bird...cheap word can be somewhat degrading and sensative, so just be mindful. Thimbs up!

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Thanks for the thumbs up! Chip chip - isn’t this a play on “cheap cheap”? Does that mean we can be degrading toward our neighbouring countries?

[@kelvgan]

@@WONDERLUSTworld lol. Nah we just have to be mindful about conservative and don't make it sound too humbling, we s'poreans know the feelings if we say this and that is cheap right. Try not to be too blunt oops 😬

[@1979chyeo]

Saw you guys in Affyn event lol

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Are you here?! Come say hi! Our friend worked on the game 😃

[@1979chyeo]

@@WONDERLUSTworld sorry, too shy to approach 😊

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Ah no worries, we’re friendly I promise! Had you worked on the game or were you there to play?

[@1979chyeo]

@@WONDERLUSTworld Just an investor and was there to play 😀

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

It was a super fun event!! Kids enjoyed it too 😊

[@MD196x]

👍

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Thank you ❤️😊

[@audreyang902]

If I am in London, or further other suburb area . My simple breakfast is £8.! SG is much cheaper,though . Hahaha. .

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Yea that’s right! We hardly ever ate out the UK - if we went out for the day we’d take a picnic with us.

[@leewn2319]

Great to see u guys trying for 3 meals below $15. Perhaps u wanna challenge yourself - 3 meals within S$13.00

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

We have done 3 meals under $9! Caifan all the way! Heheh. ❤️

[@leewn2319]

@@WONDERLUSTworld 👏👏👏👍👍👍

[@kennySg101]

$5 can't find u a proper meal nowadays. Nevertheless, still much cheaper than takeout food in UK which is few times more. Still miss the neighbourhood shops in older hdb estate. Hope gov can bring back those. They will certainly help bring down living costs as land cost of shopping mall is much higher.

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

We definitely got a good meal for under $5 - quite a few!! Under that in the UK is unheard of!

[@jlcdrivewayramps7343]

Most people even foreigners pronounce mall as in "maul" rather than "mell"

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

🤣 my accent is from Norfolk in the East of England… sorry! Heheh

[@RonLarhz]

You could have added the leftovers from breakfast to your lunch/dinner. It's dying bcos locals who can cook are getting old n retiring. The new hawkers n many other are staffed by foreigners who put little to no heart in the food. Or youngsters trying to put out new/fusion food and usually not lasting very long.

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

No left overs this time but that’s a good idea. Dinner left overs usually end up as lunch the next day but our fridge was broken so we couldn’t keep anything left over. I guess we need to keep supporting the smaller hawker stalls with business.

[@RonLarhz]

@@WONDERLUSTworld I mean the money.

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

@@RonLarhz ah yes! Yeah I did 😀 we spent the extra on fruit with dinner.

[@RonLarhz]

@@WONDERLUSTworld I made the comment when u can't find anything for 5bucks in the mall...😅

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

I was pretty determined to find for $5! To be honest $7 would have been pretty good too.

[@OG21020]

It's unlikely to happen here but I remember the horror story about a hacker who hacked into the robot cleaner of a woman and somehow filmed her in the toilet. I was in a hurry and did not get all the details but seeing that robot cleaner brought it back. 😄 Also unlikely to happen here, hackers hacking into people's home security cameras and watching them in every room of their home, including outdoors. This incident was in the USA. And of course, there's the horror stories of cameras hidden in hotel rooms. $15 is easy for me 😄since I eat two meals a day. I think I'll probably spend less than $15.

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Wow that sounds horrible! Do note this one doesn’t actually have a camera through, it had our GoPro on top of it. Phew. Which meal don’t you have?!

[@OG21020]

@@WONDERLUSTworld I drop lunch. 😄 Breakfast is around 7 am. Dinner around 2 pm plus. I don't eat anything else after but drink water / black coffee / green tea etc (zero sugar). I switched to two meals because I'm no longer as active as I was. If I feel peckish around 12 pm, I'll eat a small cup of yoghurt or a packet of plain wheat crackers.

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Fair enough 😀 Sometimes if I’ve had a larger breakfast I’ll just snack at lunch. Good to eat just when you feel hungry really.

[@Linda-vl5ci]

those would be for smores 😊

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

😉

[@Grasspowder]

Find a library to learn via dua lingo, its way cooler i reckon

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

The beauty of Duolingo is that it doesn’t take very long for each mini level. So it’s easy to do when I have my breakfast at home. Have you used the app before?

[@Grasspowder]

@@WONDERLUSTworld yep i have, i just cant bear with the heat during dis dry season..the humiditys a killer

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Yes I agree there it can get a bit much sometimes. We have a fan on our balcony so it’s actually quite nice and cool 😎

[@Grasspowder]

You got very good facial skin, no wrinkles spotted under the sunlight

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Why thanks!

[@Grasspowder]

@@WONDERLUSTworld wats your secret for having such an amazing youthful skin

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Genetics I guess! Drinking water 💧

[@sumit6190p]

Singapore is not expensive if you are homeless. 😂😂

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Do you mean the most expensive thing is the home itself?

[@sumit6190p]

@@WONDERLUSTworld Exactly if u own one. Incase if you rent in today's economy then that would be biggest expense by a big margin. Have witness rent going 1.5-2x upwards.

[@WONDERLUSTworld]

Very true. Although it seems to be curbing now and hopefully subsiding a little… 🤞🏼