Shopping essentials: grocers, household, and what to import

Short answer: Shop item by item across Sheng Siong, FairPrice, RedMart and the wet market instead of picking a favourite chain. Don't over-import appliances. When you throw things out, e-waste and bulky junk go through ALBA, your Town Council or the condo MA, and never the void deck.

You can buy almost anything here. The skill isn't finding things, it's knowing where the sensible version of each thing lives, and how not to end up dumping a broken fan beside the chute.

Where to buy what

The "cheapest supermarket" and "which online grocery" threads on r/askSingapore (weekly delivery, RedMart on Lazada, platform fees, the FairPrice no-show) almost never crown a single winner, and that's the answer rather than a failure to reach one. Loyalty to one chain quietly costs you money. Shopping item by item doesn't.

What you work out by week three

House brands from FairPrice, Sheng Siong and RedMart routinely save 10–20% on flour, oil, frozen veg and cleaning supplies, which adds up faster than any single promotion. Pair that with batch cooking and frozen protein — bulk chicken packs and Emborg spinach are the forum standbys — and the GrabFood bleed stops fairly quickly. We've put numbers on that in cost of living.

Don't over-import

Voltage, mould and floor space defeat giant appliance ambitions, usually before the box is unpacked. Ship the things you're sentimental about and ship them carefully, then buy the functional stuff locally: fans, rice cookers, drying racks. For the maths on furniture and what it costs you on the way out, see furnishing a rental.

E-waste and bulky junk

Singapore's e-waste system is regulated, not casual. It runs under the Resource Sustainability Act's EPR framework with NEA behind it, and ALBA operates as the Producer Responsibility Scheme, which is why your old monitor has an official route and not just a bin. In practice you have these options:

• E-bins at malls, community centres, supermarkets and RC centres
• Retailer 1-for-1 take-back when a new regulated product is delivered
• Quarterly estate collection drives, such as the ALBA STEP UP schedules
• ALBA doorstep collection for large appliances, though check the current free versus fee rules first
• Town council bulky removal for oversized household items if you're in an HDB flat
• The condo MCST, the cleaners, or the monthly open-top in a private estate, which means a tip or a paid bin rather than leaving it beside the chute

Moving out

The bulky-item threads (HDB bulky, condo bulky) converge on roughly the same shape:

What you shouldn't do is leave fans, monitors or fridges beside the chute room "for the cleaners." Chute-side trash and void-deck dumps are exactly what draws Town Council and NEA attention. If a neighbour keeps doing it, report it through OneService or LifeSG rather than quietly becoming the block's unpaid cleaner (chute dumping threads).

What to buy in week one

A rice cooker or an Instant Pot equivalent, a drying rack, basic cookware, a reusable wet-market bag, and a dehumidifier if your flat is a west-facing glass box. Everything else can wait until you know the rhythm of your own neighbourhood, because a Tiong Bahru wet-market life and a Tampines FairPrice life are genuinely different and you can't pick between them from abroad. Heartland drying racks, dripping laundry and the neighbour diplomacy that comes with both are covered in heartland living.

One note if you have kids. The mall indoor playground really does become a source of belonging, but only if you treat the mall as a repeat rail rather than a retail outing. Set yourself a soft spend cap before the soft-play session starts.