This is for the middle-income families that are spending about $3,000 - $4,000 per month, paying for bills, groceries and most of in-person expenditure. It is also for the people who are unlikely to pay for business class, but want to fly business class more regularly. If you are as described, my goal is to make sure that you do indeed get your 4mpd or more.
What would it take?
It will take a lot more tracking, and a lot of small, but noticeable, steps to make sure you do indeed get your miles.
The DBS Yuu card is perhaps the best miles card in the market. With 10mpd in the market, the accrument rate is unparalled. That said, there are so many restrictions that make it very difficult to even meet the minimum spending of $800 per month. However, there are ways to make it work.
Buy your phone and subscriptions through Singtel.
If you have CIS promos, often buying your phone with a phone plan is often the more cost-effective option. It also allows you to spilt up your phone payments across 24 months, which means it is easier to meet your $800 minimum spending each month.
Another thing that helps would be to consider getting subscriptions through the Singtel app. Most are more expensive, which I do not recommend, but some are reasonable, including Amazon Prime.
The more reasonable way to get subscription payments through Singtel is through carrier billing, i.e. to pay for subscriptions on mobile phones (Android, iOS) through the monthly billing. I use this for various subscriptions, including YouTube premium,, Google Drive monthly payment and ChatGPT subscription, but I think there are other things you can pay through carrier billing too.
Beyond food delivery on Foodpanda - pick-up, groceries
You might think that doing food pick-up is expensive, but in reality it can be cheaper than if you order straight from the restaurant. There is also an added benefit of getting to skip the queues (Stuff'd at Bugis Junction, I'm looking at you). Foodpanda Pro subscribers typically get 20% off pick-up, which can tip the scales.
Additionally, you can also utilise the groceries function of foodpanda to get some fresh foods delivered. You can even access Giant on it, though my experience with frozen food hasn't been good, so try to stick to fresh food.
Utilise gift cards from 7-Eleven
Some places will recommend you to purchase vouchers from Cold Storage, but that only works if you expect to spend more from Cold Storage in the coming months. If not you are just kicking the can down the road.
Another aspect not mentioned is using the gift cards from 7-Eleven. While the range of gift card is limited (mostly to gaming credits), the best is Spotify. However, do note that this does not apply to discounted plans e.g. Family, Student.
This is important to me because I have to meet minimum spending on UOB One and DBS Yuu card, requiring $1,400 in spending. It is thus unlikely I can rely UOB Visa Signature for my mobile contactless payment consistently, as it requires a $1,000 minimum spending that month. I very much prefer to use the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa (PPV), which has recently been nerfed to have a cap of $600 for mobile contactless. That is why I am trying to convert most of my in-person spending into online expenditure, so that I can distribute my spending across a few cards:
Citi Rewards Card ($1,000 monthly cap)
DBS Women World Card ($1,000 monthly cap)
UOB Lady's Solitaire ($750 per category, for which I have selected Travel and Fashion)
Kris+, Shopback, Grab Dineout and pick-up options are your friends
These apps allow you to save money or get miles, while converting your spending to online spending. Pick-up options on Grab and Foodpanda also allow you to skip queues.
A small shout-out to the Fairprice app, which allows you to pay online instead via the app.
HeyMax is a great friend of UOB Lady's Solitaire (with Fashion)
If you scroll through HeyMax, you will find that there are many different merchants for which you can buy vouchers for. And when you buy vouchers, you cut down on the in-person spending at e.g. IKEA or Shengshiong, and more importantly convert all your spending into Fashion, ensuring that you are always getting your 4mpd. More actually, given that you have some additional miles earned from it.