One that I have been using for a little while is to "save your $5 notes". Recently I ended up with $90 in my little "$5 savings envelope" so I paid the kids their $12 and $10 monthly pocket money, donated $5 for Leukemia foundation and paid the rest on my credit card reduce my balance. When you see a $5 note in your wallet take it out and pop it in an envelope and before you know it you'll have quite a little collection that you can do something with. Think Christmas presents for the end of the year, a special school holiday day out or putting it towards your credit card, home loan or a holiday spending money. If you use your debit card and don't have a lot of cash in your wallet this may not work for you however I love using cash as it's more real how much you have in your wallet than mindlessly using your debit card. Just think "never spend another $5 note again if you can help it". This is one trick I would love to pass on to my kids too. It's small enough to not notice but big enough if you do it 4 times you end up with $20. I love this little savings tip.
Another one is the "52 Week Money Challenge"....I have tried this a couple of times however it didn't really work for me because the weekly amounts towards the end of the year are significant. I did however try to just cross off a week (not in order) if I had more money one week than the next however for me "saving $5" is easier. I do love this concept and totally think Christmas time is the time when you need more funds and this is a good way to do it if you start in January. You can start anytime, say a year before you go away on holidays to have extra funds etc.
The largest debt usually is a person's mortgage and there are ways to save here too. Paying fortnightly payments instead of monthly, paying off even an extra $10-$15 over the life time of the loan (usually 20-25 years) makes a huge difference. Instead of getting a "line of credit" loan which effectively wants you to get all your salary into the loan and then use your credit card during the month and then "redraw" to pay your credit card off each month. The theory behind this is that you use the "interest free days" on your credit card while your salary/cash is reducing your overall mortgage and then the interest will be based on a lower figure than your true mortgage. Here's an article on mortgages etc.
One thing that I know you can save/make money on and that is "ringing all your suppliers" every year to get a better deal/price or the same price with more benefits. They will not be ringing you to offer you a better deal or a cheaper price. They will be however offering better deals to win new customers to their company. You MUST ring them and ask them "can you do a better deal" and you will be surprised at what you can get in a 25 cent phone call. I know the thought of this is painful however I can assure you, it will be worth your while. Know what's on offer so you can either stay with them or move to a new company. They will want to keep you and if they don't, then switch suppliers. These days there is no such thing as "loyalty" to suppliers as their is such a variety out there and you need to do your homework and you could save yourself even $10 a month on one bill then that's $120 a year. If you earn $25 per hour in your job you have just saved yourself nearly 5 hours of work for one phone call. I encourage you to get your bills altogether and sit down and make call after call. You will have to set time aside as you may be on hold for a while before you get through depending upon who you call but it will be worth the exercise. I wrote a bit about it here.
One big thing that I have been doing for a year now is decluttering and selling things I no longer want, need or use. There is nothing new in this and years ago I used to use Ebay however I tried to say "local pickup" because by the time you add postage to items it doesn't make it a cheap item and whenever I did this people would still ask if I could post items. Things that I could sell 12 years ago nothing was selling. My sister put me onto our "local buy, sell" Facebook page and I've haven't looked back. I love it because the people wanting the item live in your local area so they just pop over that day or the next day to collect it and you have $$ in your pocket and more items leaving your house. You'd be amazed just what you can sell. People sell spare bits of timber, pot plants, craft supplies, kitchen items, clothing anything you don't want around the place sell it. This way of selling has been huge for me in the last 12 months and has helped to pay for lots of regular bills. I was never on Facebook and was someone who wasn't interested in it however I had to join so I could sell my items and this way of decluttering and putting cash in your pocket has been so easy and I highly recommend this method of getting extra cash.
You can get a jar and save your "gold coins" or your 50 cent pieces as 2 of them equal $1 and can add up pretty quickly. Start with something you think you can stick to or at least try and you will be surprised how quickly these small amounts add up to something. I hope this has been helpful.
It has indeed been useful, and I must check if we have a local buy/sell page here. We have £2 coins here which I take out of my purse and save. That's an interesting chart - I think if I were doing it, I might try it in reverse so that major savings accrued more quickly. More psychologically satisfying to have more under your belt sooner in the process? Great post and thank-you!
ReplyDeleteI agree....starting big going to small however in January (after Christmas) is hard to find the extra $$ a week. Kathy
DeleteI think this is a great post. Our young boy collects all of our change and puts it into one big jar. This small change quickly accumulates into significant amounts. We also support our boy to run a little stall at a local market twice a year, where he sells off his old toys//books. It doesn't cost much to secure a space and hire a little table to do this. He collects, organises and prices his wares, interacts with his "customers", makes sales and calculates change, works out his profit after expenses and banks the proceeds. It's a great way to learn about money!
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