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Money Saving Tips


seemingly

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What are your top tips for saving money? I'm hoping this thread will become an amazing trove of ideas and stories about money saving tricks and tips.


My ideas:


1. Cancel any subscriptions you're not using. We had Netflix, Foxtel Now and Amazon Prime. We didn't need three. We cancelled the first two and we're thinking of cancelling the third too, as we don't watch TV! But don't feel as if you need to give up everything - could you drop down to a lesser fee for your subscription? We also suspended our gym membership until after the holiday season lol!


2. Shop your own house first. I love Zanzibar Gems and was given one two years ago. I was thinking of buying another one, but ended up researching how to propagate them. Turns out you can literally cut them in half. So I did and now have two gorgeous plants. Where did I get the second pot? From the garden, bonus, already filled with soil. What did I use for drainage? Pebbles from the same garden xD


3. Join memberships. This may seem counter-intuitive to #1, but knowing when your favourite food/clothing/sport is having a sale/discount/event means you can save money on things you were going to buy/visit/eat anyway. Memberships via phone apps are particularly handy, especially if you create a family log in so anyone in your family can order and benefit (for example, Macca's app incentivises buying McCafe drinks, with the 6th one free).

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1) Pay yourself first. I have always put aside a percentage of my wage on payday as savings (or 'slavings' as we jokingly refer to it!) If you don't see it in your account you're less likely to spend it.


2) Don't ask, don't get. Every 6 months I call around our utilities, bank, insurance providers etc and ask for a better rate. 8 times out of 10 I get it. The other 2 times I switch providers for a better rate. Loyalty is not really a concept anymore.

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-Invest in good storage options so you can buy in bulk on special for grocery items.


- If you have a backyard, 3 chooks and a small run will pay for itself in 12 months


- learn to grow your more expensive veg and herbs from seed, You can often pick up very nice pots cheaply at charity shops and garage sales. All varieties of tomatoes, capsicum, eggplant and chilli you get at the supermarket are fertile and viable. If it's looking funky in the crisper, stick it on top of a pot of potting mix on the verandah, give it a water and see what happens. 9/10 times you will be happy. .


- I bloody love Gumtree!!!!! :D :D :ninja: :oops:

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I think the best thing to do is to know where you’re money is being spent.


I worked out our top three biggest expenses were the mortgage, then childcare, and then, surprisingly, groceries/food. Nothing else came close on a month by month basis. I could save a few hundred a year negotiating our bills, and cancelling subscriptions, but we will save much much more than that simply when the kids start school and childcare costs drop. So it’s important to know where your money is going.

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- When you're doing online banking, round down your everyday account to the nearest $5/$10/$50/whatever and transfer it to your savings. It's hardly noticeable and really adds up - the modern version of a coin jar, I suppose!


- The 'spare'/disposable money that is leftover after bills, savings, etc. have all been paid - transfer some (or even the majority) of it to a hidden account - then when you want to buy something unplanned/frivolous, you actually have to stop and decide whether you can be bothered transferring it back to your account, etc.


- Don't pay full price for groceries unless it's something that you really need, or something that never goes on sale. The supermarkets' catalogue cycles are quite predictable, spend a few weeks checking them out and you can see how often a particular item is on sale or half price. I've been doing this for years and it seriously pains me to pay full price for something now!


- The bargain table at the fruit and vegie shop - treasure trove of produce, and at the one I shop at it's still all in perfectly good condition.

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Planning meals for the week and batch cooking meals where possible - saves both time and money! Also another big one for me was cutting down on purchasing lunches and takeaway coffees when working from the office.

 

Yes, all of this would reduce our third biggest expense as mentioned above, food and groceries. It’s a great idea to meal plan or learn to be creative with what’s in the pantry and fridge, to minimise waste.

And become a vegetarian, lol, cause meat is so expensive unless you live off mince and chicken.

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Planning meals for the week and batch cooking meals where possible - saves both time and money! Also another big one for me was cutting down on purchasing lunches and takeaway coffees when working from the office.

 

Whereas we save far more money when we shop daily and cook the quantities we need as opposed to batch cooking.


Apparently all you need to do is stop buying takeout coffee and you will be able to buy a house according to some ;) :lol:

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ClaudiaCosette

What has been working for me is having a separate account for what I want to save for - in my case, it's my holiday fund. In theory it's a high interest account, but of course at the moment there's not much interest coming, but it does slowly add up. It does give me a little extra interest if I don't make any withdrawals in a month, so it's incentive to not dip into it until it's actually time for a holiday. At the end of each month, whatever I have leftover in my main account I transfer over to the holiday fund, and any extras I get I put in straight away. It's kind of "out of sight, out of mind" and over a couple of years it has grown considerably.


I also work on the theory, that say I'm thinking of buying a takeaway for lunch, do I really want this now, or will I enjoy it more on my holiday? So it helps to rationalise my impulse purchases.

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  • 4 weeks later...

There’s a member on another forum who always says that if you have a mortgage or saving for one, whatever you buy is actually costing you 2.5 times as much as the purchase price. Because if you were to pay that amount off your mortgage, that would be the equivalent to the purchase price plus the interest you would have saved.

Not sure if it’s true with the current interest rates, but I guess it’s a deterrent to buying things that you don’t really need.

This person says it all the time though and sometimes I think she takes it a bit too far, but if you really want to save, it could help some decide if that item is really necessary.

I have actually seen it on a couple of forums, not sure if it’s the same person or not.


We buy in bulk too and yes, most specials have a cycle, so you don’t always have to buy that much at once.

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  • 2 months later...

I was warned last year in October that my tax was going to be very high, but had completely forgotten. It is very high. I never knew you could do this, but you can set up a payment plan with no extra cost(!), which means you pay a minimum deposit of 20% of the sum and then choose a period of payment (weekly, fortnightly, monthly). It won't be fully paid off until mid 2022, but paying the lump sum would have left us a little too low on funds for our liking! In my ignorance, I thought payment plans existed with extra fees - prior to this I had always just paid the extra tax as a lump sum. I think in the future, I will always set up a payment plan, as releasing the funds slowly allows for more of a safety net. Just passing this on in case you've never heard of it before, like me!

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