Singapore dad, two girls, eight years of writing. This is the longer version of who I am, why this site exists, and what you will actually find here.
Hi, I am Don. I live in Singapore with my partner and our two girls. I started MoneySavingDaddy.com in 2018, the year our older daughter Loti was born. I have been writing here ever since.
The blog is what I do before the kids wake up, after they sleep, and on Sunday afternoons when the house is finally quiet. It is the thing I built so the stuff I was learning anyway would not get lost.
I am not a financial advisor. I am not a parenting expert. I am a dad with a spreadsheet, a Notes app full of receipts, and a habit of comparing prices before I buy anything. The math is real. The advice is not professional. Read it like a friend telling you what they tried, not like a textbook.
Before Loti was born, my partner and I relocated to France for a couple of years. We came back to Singapore with about eight weeks to get ready for a baby, and I realised very quickly that I had no idea what I was doing.
We needed a gynaecologist. We needed to book a hospital. We needed to figure out what to actually buy before the baby arrived. And every search I did online sent me in twelve directions at once. The information was everywhere and nowhere.
So I started a Google Doc. Just a list. Cheapest diaper, cheapest wet wipes, best value formula milk, the things I was Googling at 1am while my partner slept. The list turned into a few blog posts. The blog posts turned into a small following. The following turned into a thing.
For the first two years the blog was almost entirely about baby deals. Diapers. Formula. Wet wipes. The kind of stuff you only think about when you have a newborn and a monthly budget that does not stretch as far as you thought it would.
Then our second daughter came along in 2020. And in 2021 we started doing more travel as a family. And somewhere around 2022, the blog stopped being just a deals site and became a record of what our life actually looks like.
The deals are still here. The promo codes, the cost comparisons, the SIM plan breakdowns, all the SG-sibei-expensive stuff I still track obsessively. But the blog also has family trip reports now. Dad essays. Primary school notes. The full picture of what it costs and what it feels like to raise kids in Singapore today.
The blog is split into a few rough areas, mostly because that is how I think about it. None of this was planned. Each one grew out of stuff I was already doing or already buying.
Where we went. What we paid.
where the trip reports live. Japan, Korea, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the closer-to-home stuff like Desaru and Penang. Every report has the actual numbers. Flights, hotels, food, transport, the parts nobody else puts in their blog post.
Read →Weekend stuff with kids.
the weekend stuff. NDP tickets, holiday programmes, school holiday camps, the kind of thing you Google on a Friday night trying to figure out what to do with the kids on Saturday.
Read →From the inside.
the personal essay side. What it actually feels like to be a hands-on dad in Singapore. The school runs, the primary school decisions, the bedtime battles, the small wins.
Read →Real saves. Real math.
where the deals and money stuff lives. SIM plans, insurance, cost of living breakdowns, the personal finance math I run for our own family. I do not sell anything on Money and I do not take sponsorships for it.
Read →Promo codes that actually work.
the promo codes and ongoing promotions roundup. Shopee, GrabFood, Foodpanda, the bank promos, the credit card cashbacks. Updated whenever something changes, deleted whenever a deal expires.
Read →This is the part of the blog I have always enjoyed the most. I genuinely like sharing the good deals I come across. A friend finds a discount code at the supermarket checkout, a fellow parent spots a credit card promo that actually works, a random reader emails me about a Shopee voucher that knocks 30 percent off the weekly groceries. I collect them, test them when I can, and post the good ones in Best Deals.
The catch is the deals do not last. A promo code expires on Tuesday. A bank offer caps out by Friday. A bundle deal gets pulled when stock runs low. So if you want to catch them while they are still live, bookmark Best Deals and check back often. New finds land there as soon as I verify them.
The blog is what I built so the stuff I was learning anyway would not get lost.Don, on a Sunday afternoon
I write in first person because that is how I actually think. You will see a lot of "I" and "we" on this site. When something is sponsored or gifted, I will say so at the top of the post. When a post has affiliate links, I will say so before the post starts. None of the editorial content is paid for.
I am slow. I would rather publish one honest post a month than four rushed ones. I delete posts when the information goes stale. I update posts when prices change. The archive is messy on purpose, because real life is messy.
I write for the dad in Singapore who has a budget and a kid in primary school and a long work week and zero time for fluff. If that is you, welcome.
A small selection. The full archive is on the blog.
Came back from France. Loti was born. Started a Google Doc of baby prices. That became MoneySavingDaddy.com.
The diaper and formula posts started saving families real money. First wave of regular readers.
Second daughter. The blog becomes less about deals and more about what our life actually costs.
Korea. Bangkok. The trip report format is born. With the receipts.
Loti starts Primary 1. The blog becomes a record of the SG education journey, costs and all.
The big trip. Hokkaido with two kids under 7. The post gets shared more than anything before it.
The blog reorganises around five topics. Family Travel, Activities, Dad's Life, Money, Best Deals.
Eight years in. 400+ posts. Five topics. Two girls in tow. Still writing on Sunday afternoons.
I read every email. I do not reply to all of them, because life, but I do read them. The fastest way to reach me is the contact page. The slowest but most fun way is leaving a long comment on a post.
If you are a brand wanting to work together, Best Deals is where we talk. If you are a parent who wants to share a tip, the comments are where it lands. If you are a journalist, the contact form is the right door.
Thanks for reading.
Don