IKEA

While most items like furniture certainly cost much more than $5, there are many useful household accessories that cost less than $5. Big plastic chopping board for only $2.90, glass bottle jar with lid for $3.90, stainless steel cutleries holder for $4.90, wall clock for only $1.90 (battery is extra of course but you will only need one AA battery), a set of four clothes hangers for only a dollar, cushion for $4.90, cups or mugs for $2.90, plant pot for $3.90, simple self-assembled shelves for $12, and many more. They do sell potted plants, well, like a nursery. A small potted plant sells for about $5. You can get the pandan, a common plant, in IKEA.

Of course, if you buy lots of these small items the cost does add up. And we sometimes end up buying more cushions, chopping boards or wall clocks than we really need at home. With our busy lifestyle where we hardly cook at home, probably one or two chopping boards will suffice. And the cheap wall clock while functional do indeed look cheap.

IKEA

Just look at the always crowded cafeteria in Ikea. There is a big cafeteria in IKEA where you can eat pasta for $4.90 or nasi goreng (fried rice) with two pieces of fried chicken wings for $4.50 and a refillable yoghurt ice-cream for $2. The $1 soft drinks are refillable too.

Cheaper still you can get an ice-cream cone for 50 cents. You can find the cone ice-cream station after the cashier counters. Hot-dogs and Swedish cookies, jams and smoked salmon can be found at the small supermarket there.

Free shuttle to Ikea

As the location is a little inconvenient, for the IKEA store at Tampines, a free shuttle bus is provided to/from Tampines and Bedok MRT stations daily. They also provide free shuttle to/from Pasir Ris and Sengkang/ Punggol, but they are only during weekends and public holidays.

If you have nothing else better to do you can always hop into the complimentary shuttle bus. A good way to spend time browsing stuffs without necessarily having to spend money. Yes, many Singaporeans indeed love to spend their free time at IKEA. We love to eat and shop, and IKEA have both. Plus being a family-friendly place, there is a small kid's area where the kids can watch cartoons while the adults go shopping. The free shuttle will also stop at Giant Hypermarket and Courts Megastore.

Fried rice with complimentary tea (for members)

By the way, if you plan to pick up some items from IKEA bring along a bag because being eco-friendly the store does not supply plastic bags. If you forget to bring one, you can always buy the blue recyclable but quite fashionable bag for 90 cents for the larger size and 30 cents for the smaller one. And if you do eat at the cafeteria, please return the tray at the trays collection points.

IKEA stores open daily from 10am to 11pm. The cafeteria opens half an hour earlier perhaps to allow shoppers for some brekky or a cuppa of coffee before browsing the huge stores.