As the renovation of the house come to a close, it is time to start furnishing to turn the house into a home! And being young couple who are working with limited budget; aim $30k for the house for everything and every cents comes from our pockets [OUCH!], we are always ready to go the distance for research and hunt for wallet friendly buys so that we dont go over our budget!
Thus, beside just taobao, we would like to share some of the other budget purchase which we hunt down and hope this will help other young couples in the budget planning and home renovation as well! =)
1) Electronics and appliances
- The common place for cheap appliances is "GOH AH BEE" which is located at Hougang street 21 which is near where Kovan market and Heartland mall is. Their stuff are usually cheaper as compared to place like Courts, Harvey Norman, Gain City and the other giant stores. For quotation, you can simply drop by their place @ kovan or just drop them a call @ 6288 8611.
- Another cheap dealer is Jerome (very popular in renotalk), Jerome actually is the main contact person for "Kah Hock Repairer & Trading". They are located at 87 Circuit Road #01-989. Stan and I got quite a bit of our stuff from them actually. Depending on the brands and items, some of their stuff are cheaper than "Goh Ah Bee" or comparable. Thus, we end up getting our Hob & Hood (Turbo), Washing Machine (Samsung) and Fridge (LG) from them.
Turbo Hob & Hood
(3 cooker glass and Ultra Slim)
LG Fridge
GRM.702GLC (500+ Litre)
Samsung Washing Machine
WA 90F5S5 (9.5KG)
The pros of these traders is that they are actually cheaper as compared to the giant stores. But the cons which some may need to look at is the need to pay by cash; no installment & no credit card. After much calculation, Stan and I know that the saving we get from these dealers will outwin the rebate any credit card company give us. So if paying by cash is not a problem, then this is probably the best deal you can get! Which we did!
2) Home Networking
Not really sure what is this since stanley is the one who plans it, all I know is that this is some thing about setting up the home network of your house so that you can have lan or better wifi in all the rooms. Else base on what HDB gives and the layout of the BTO, network will be weak in the rooms if you do not do so. You can read more about it at this site
"PATNOTEBOOK".
Anyway, we engage someone to help us with it, not the cheapest since if you are real pro you can actually do-it-yourself, but we are kind of busy with too much stuff so hiring someone is our best options!
So we got this guy who does 3 points for $120 with FOC Tel Lodpsack. So you can contact PETER @ 92703131 / 93573131 or simply e-mail him at madlads8888@hotmail.com.
3) Air-conditioning
With the crazy hot weather all around the world now, air-conditioning seems to be a must-have in all BTO today. Depending on what you are looking for air-conditioning can be rather expensive and burn a huge hole in your pocket. So finding the right one is important and by right one we mean one with good service and after-care service.
Before we even started we were dead set on having a Mitsubishi Starmex Inverter System 4. Since Stan strongly feels that the living needs air-conditioning as well. So after much researching and comparing and looking at reviews, we decide to go with "Star Cool Air-Condition Engineering" which provides good service and is affordable as well; $3850 for our system 4 including 2 installation trips.
Mitsubishi Air-Con (System 4; Master Room)
4) Instant Heater and Ceiling Fans
This can be very costly items to buy in Singapore. Made a few trips to various places and the price of some of the items give me a shock! Example is the Alpha Smart 18i instant heater with pump which cost $600 plus in Singapore and that was suppose to be cheap.
Anyway after much research and some reliable source of information, we decided to head into Malaysia to get these items! Exchange rate is about SGD$1 = 2.56 Ringgit. With help from Stan's Malaysian friend, we head to
"TAMPOI LIGHTING CENTRE SDN. BHD." @ 2, 4, 6 Jalan Titiwangsa 3/1, Taman Tampoi Indah 81200 Johor Bahru.
Got our KDK ceiling Fans there and our Alpha Heaters there.
Alpha Evo - E (Orange) @ 286 Ringgit
Alpha Smart 18i with Pump @ 678 Ringgit
KDK Baby Fan (Sliver) @ 350 Ringgit
KDK R56SV (Grey) @ 406 Ringgit
5) Bomb Shelter Racks
Yee Sin Services @ 64547335 or 62800513. They have really good service and also is not expensive. They build to measure and also install for free!!
So yup, here are all the budget items we got beside TAOBAO-ing. Still we got a lot of items from Taobao which we will share with you all when the loots comes in! In the mean time we are just taking out time to slowly furnish our home! Love Love.
