SINGAPORE – The phrase “cost of living” is on everyone’s minds amid global trade chaos and broader economic uncertainty. So, how do you slash monthly expenses without sacrificing your quality of life?

Choose what matters to you and trim the excess, says Associate Professor Pearpilai Jutasompakorn of the Singapore Institute of Technology’s accountancy programme.

“This is about spending less where you can, yet not cutting so much that you feel miserable or deprived,” she says, adding that an aggressively spartan budget might work for a month or two, but will strain quality of life or lead to revenge spending further down the road.

Also, it is worth understanding the psychological tactics companies deploy to keep you paying more and trying to avoid the pitfalls.

These include bundling (combining multiple products to obscure individual costs), dynamic pricing (adjusting prices based on your online browser behaviour) and choice overload (overwhelming consumers with a variety of options, so you end up relying on default recommendations).

Here are some counter-strategies to keep your expenses down.

1. Update your phone plan

Since the mid-2010s, the price of each gigabyte (GB) of mobile data has plummeted from dollars to cents, with the rise of SIM-only plans such as Maxx’s $9.90 for 290GB or Simba’s $10 for 300GB offerings.

This shift stems from the increased affordability of smartphones, making the old contract model obsolete, and competition from new entrants such as Simba and Circles.Life. M1, Starhub and Singtel have also launched their own budget sub-brands – Maxx, Eight and Gomo respectively.

One way to cut costs is to audit your current plan against today’s market offerings. 

Many consumers who have not revisited their plans in a while or continue to use phone contracts may be paying premium prices for services now available at budget rates. This is partly because the bundling trap of attractive handset subsidies makes it tricky to...