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Hi all, I just found 4 packs of instant noodles in my cabinet which have expired on Nov last year. However they are not opened yet and I googled in some sites that it is safe to eat because they are dehydrated food and bacteria won't grow inside. The MSG is salt and so won't get spoil too. So should I eat them or throw away?

Disclaimer: I don't hold anything against freegans, but if they are overly desperate in hunting for free stuff and even work lesser, the line may be crossed. If everyone stop spending, will the world not stop moving? Afterall, all these free stuff come for someone else pocket, and I wonder if taboo applies to these group of "free" thinker. Commentary: Living in Singapore doesn't have to be so expensive when you're a freegan https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/freegan-food-rescue-waste-lifestyle-cost-living-sustainability-2753251 SINGAPORE: With the cost of food and petrol increasing on a weekly basis, every conversation with friends is sure to touch on inflation. Sometimes I am shy to admit I have not felt it at all, because my expenses have not increased in the past five years. Yet life has only gotten more abundant. At home, our fridge is full of fresh vegetables and fruits, sourced from food rescues where we collect “ugly” but edible produce from shopkeepers. Our cupboards are full of canned food and condiments, gathered from cafes and restaurants that have shut down. We have more soap and shampoo than some provision shops stock, enough for maybe a decade of use. We have a brand new CorningWare gifted from a family after spring cleaning and a Rommelsbacher 40L oven picked up from a void deck. As freegans, we collect things other people no longer want, to reuse or repurpose for our own needs. We limit our participation in the conventional economy as much as we can to save the environment and our expenses. Freeganism originated in San Francisco in the 1990s and has since spread globally. Our Facebook group Freegan In Singapore has grown to 10,000 members since I co-founded the movement in 2017. Alongside the growing popularity of freeganism is rising concern about our carbon and waste footprint. According to a study by the Institute of Policy Studies published in 2021, three in five Singaporeans believe protecting the environment should be prioritised over economic growth. However, making more sustainable choices is not always cheap. Vegan and fair-trade foods and clothes tend to be more expensive than their regular counterparts. So are electric cars, even with incentives and rebates. But the freegan lifestyle marries sustainable and frugal living through its emphasis on reducing consumption. Each item you buy comes from a long supply chain that uses up resources and produces waste at every stage, even if those products are sustainably sourced. Take for example an audio store owner whom I recently met. He needs to keep a surplus stock of earphones to provide exchanges for customers claiming their warranty. After a few years as warranty periods lapse, the remaining stock is discarded. That’s how I ended up receiving a hundred boxes of brand-new earphones. Multiply this by the number of businesses in Singapore, big and small, and it’s no wonder the country’s non-domestic sector generated 5.12 million tonnes of waste in 2021. But freegans don’t always strive to cut waste out of a passion for the environment. Some have a much more pragmatic reason – to reduce personal expenditure. I used to spend S$2,000 a month in my pre-freegan days. Now my necessary monthly expenses have dropped to just S$350, including insurance. As I eat mainly rescued food, I’ve lowered my food costs from $500 a month to zero, not counting the occasional birthday treat at a restaurant for a loved one. I am also a lot healthier as the variety of food I eat has expanded. I don’t remember when I last stepped into a shopping mall because I’ve been able to get items on my wishlist for free. What I spend on entertainment has plummeted because all my favourite leisure activities cost nothing: Communing with nature, visiting our island’s many parks and beaches, volunteering with social causes, and enjoying meals made from rescued food with friends. My one luxury is travelling. Before the pandemic, I was travelling five to six times a year – much more frequently compared to the one or two yearly trips in my pre-freegan days. This was due to having not only more disposable income but more free time. Because freegans spend less, we aren’t as pressured to earn more. Full-timers become part-timers. Dual-income households become single-income. Some choose to retire early, like I did three years ago. Freegans believe the price of making money is too costly, because we buy money with our limited time alive. Think about it: In any kind of paid work, you are exchanging your lifetime for cash. Some squander it on impulse purchases, meaning they need to spend more lifetime to earn more money. I would rather spend four to five hours of my lifetime each week collecting things I need than spend 40 to 50 hours each week earning money to buy the very same things. With that time saved, freegans can focus on activities that matter to them. This could be making art or writing, growing plants to beautify the surroundings and improve mental health, or building communities where members look out for each other. We rediscover the hobbies we enjoyed before a money-centric world taught us we had to monetise what we like to do or drop it. We no longer sell irreplaceable lifetime to buy replaceable material goods. When so many things we need can be acquired for free, there is little else we absolutely need to spend money on – meaning that the cost of living in Singapore doesn’t have to be sky high. What many people find expensive could be the cost of lifestyle instead.

Can someone familiar with credit card transaction advice on this matter? I signed up for an online course in 2019, it was charge to my credit card on a yearly basis and i've the card details saved in the merchant's portal. This Sept is the 2nd year billing, i dont intend to renew and forgotten to cancel with the merchant - they had already billed to my card. I noticed my card had expired in Jun, so why can can the transaction still went through? I called the bank, they took few days to investigate and responded back saying this is possible cos the transaction is recurring so they cannot stop it. Is the bank correct ? cos i feel this is a security issue.

Not too sure anyone post this before but just for everyone's info. The new JB CIQ has many zones, you can top up you Touch N Go card at Counter 10 of any zone. This means that you no need to stop your car at aside and walk to counter 10. You can clear your passport at Counter 10 and drive forward a bit to have your Touch N Go car top up. I just did mine today but I did not know about this and hence I park aside and walk to counter 10 to top up.

Why will dealers bid for COEs and then let them expire huh? They will lose the $10k deposit with LTA? Woww...

We bought this for $9.50 from NTUC - Tesco brand 2L ice-cream that was made in UK. Turned out to be horrible. Not sure what happened to it. Just to share with you. My helper said that it looked and tasted like expired cheese! but it certainly wasn't expired.

Spotted a retailer selling Caltex Havoline manufactured on 15 Nov 2004. Is this engine oil still OK to be used? Will its efficiency be reduced?

Beware eating at Mac or KFC in Shanghai, China .... CNA: China shuts factory for supplying expired meat to McDonald's, KFC SHANGHAI: Shanghai has shut a factory of US food provider OSI Group for selling out-of-date meat to restaurant giants including McDonald's and KFC, authorities said Monday in China's latest food safety scandal. Shanghai television, which reported the original allegations, said that workers at the OSI China plant mixed expired meat with the fresh product and deliberately misled quality inspectors from McDonald's. Other customers included Burger King, Papa John's Pizza, coffee chain Starbucks and sandwich maker Subway, the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported on Monday. City officials closed the factory on Sunday and seized products which allegedly used expired meat, the Shanghai food and drug administration said in a statement. Police were investigating, it said, threatening "severe punishment" in future. McDonald's said in a statement it had "immediately" stopped using the factory's products while Yum separately said its KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants had also halted use of its meat. China has been rocked by a series of food and product safety problems, due to lax enforcement of regulations and corner-cutting by producers. One of the worst occurred in 2008 when the industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy products, killing at least six babies and making 300,000 people ill. Retail giant Walmart of the United States said early this year that it would tighten inspections of its suppliers in China after it was forced to recall donkey meat products that had been found to contain fox meat. Last year, China detained hundreds of people for food safety crimes, including selling rat and fox meat disguised as beef and mutton, following a three-month crackdown, police said. - AFP/fa link: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/china-shuts-factory-for/1274626.html & the owner of the company that supply those meats....

anyone had missed out on redeeming your groupon / deals vouchers ? any luck in redeeming an expired voucher ?

My car just turned 3 years this month. Not sure if i should continue with C&C or try other workshop for servicing. Any recommendations? Thanks.

....EXACTLY, well almost 10 years. Was looking at the receipt, and this bugger, up lorry al.... Damn, I must say it is really value for money to have lasted all these years!

Greetings! Are the cash in a expired cash card refundable? If yes, where and how do I go about doing it? Thanks ! *edit : OMG wrong forum. Apologies

STOMPer Alex was appalled that the manager at Ben & Jerry's Orchard Central outlet, rudely told his family off that their bill was only for $28 when they presented a voucher to pay with. Said the STOMPer in his email: "My family and I dined at Ben & Jerry's Orchard Central outlet today (Mar 26) at about 9pm.We had the most unpleasant experience and that left a bad taste in our mouths. "We were appalled by the rudeness and audacity of the staff in the store, having the supervisor speak to us in a rude manner was bad enough, when we requested to speak to the manager, Mr Jeff, his tone was equally bad, if not, worse off than his subordinates. "This is the gist of the incident. Upon arrival at the restaurant, we presented a discount voucher issued by UOB bank to one of the waiters to check if we can use this voucher. The waiter was not sure and he proceeded to enquire from his supervisor, a China lady by the name of Jennifer. She confirmed that we were able to use the voucher and we went on to order our food and ice-cream. She then returned the voucher to us. "After we finished our food, we called for the bill and presented the voucher once again. The supervisor, Jennifer brought the bill to us and also collected our voucher, she returned shortly after and told us that the voucher has expired and could not be used anymore. "We were surprised as she was the one who gave the approval to use the voucher. A slight argument ensued and I guess for the fear of being reprimanded, Jennifer insisted it was solely our mistake and repeatedly mentioned many times that we should have checked the voucher before using and it was all our fault! "At that moment, she could not find anymore excuses and we demanded to see the manager. The assistant dining manager came out and before we could speak, he told us, 'yes, you can use the voucher provided it was not expired'. "We reasoned that it was his supervisor who told us we could use the voucher and that was why we sat down to order our ice-cream, how could he turn the tables around and say such illogical excuses? "We held our grounds and told Jeff that this verification was done by his waiter and supervisor. He should not deny and he did check with Jennifer. Seeing that there was no way out, Jeff mentioned very rudely, 'it is just $28, I can buy you the dinner'. "To my utmost astonishment and shock, that was not what I was expecting from a manager! Was he looking down on me by saying such things in a very rude tone? I warned him not to be rude and he mentioned once again, 'it is only $28 lah. I can buy for you'. He then walked away. "Actually I was pinpointing at the rudeness of the supervisor, but seeing how rude and uncouth the manager is, I forgave her and thought to myself, maybe this is Ben & Jerry's way of protecting their staff and subordinates, by standing on the staff side and oppose all customers regardless! "This will be my last visit to Ben & Jerry's. Customers to Ben & Jerry's at Orchard Central, beware."

Don't you think this is a better way to really reduce car population than to let them pay PQP. Right now. All cars with COE expired can just pay PQP to get COE. Don't need to bid. Just pay and you get COE. To help further reduce car population, don't you think owners should bid for COE just like new cars instead? This way, the no. of cars registered will never exceed the COE limit set.

Singapore, 21st April, 2010 - THE next time you take a big swig of beer, take a look behind the bottle. You may be drinking stale beer that

I didn't know my cashcard expired on 31 March 2007 and today(2nd April) I drove thru ERP gantry with it. What will happened?

Yes. I have reached the mystical 100k km mileage for the car. Didn't break down. 12 oil changes so far. Alive and ticking but the ABS fault light is on and I don't care. CNG installation will commence soon.

Hi guys, I'd love to hear some advice from you regarding purchasing a COE-expired car. I'm looking at the MX-5, but buying new is simply out of the question for me. I've two options now... to look for a 3-year old MX-5 at about $70k or get a 10-year old MX-5 with renewed COE at about $40k. Given that the 10-year old car will cost 150% the road tax and I'll have to go for inspection every year, which do you guys think is the better option? I'm driving a 3 year old Corolla now, so I probably won't have to top up anything for it. But of course, having a 3-year old MX-5 will look more attractive, but I'll have to top up at least $20k for it. And it'll have 7 years of lifespan left, compared to the 10 years for the renewed COE car. Any advice or comment will be much appreciated. Thanks!