Budgeting Blog Part 4
These are my best picks for where
to cut back to save those hard earned dollars
·
HAVE FINANCIAL GOALS! We have goals. Each year
we sit down and write what we would like to achieve over the next financial
year. What we want to work towards. I like to print out our goals and hang them
up somewhere so we can be reminded of what we are working towards. There is
absolutely no point going through life with no goals. Goals give you
motivation, determination and a destination to reach. Even if your goal is something
as simple as “Limit how often I buy a coffee on the way to work” It’s still a
goal, it’s still something you can work towards. Our financial goal for
2015/2016 financial year is to get our 4wd set up like a proper off road
vehicle so that come July next year we can do the Gibb River Road in The
Kimberly Region of Western Australia. This is a fairly heavy financial goal as
we need a fair bit done to get the car ready for a big trip like that but I
have my goals list printed out on our wall and I’ve got my notebook with all my
price comparisons. If we work hard, it’s totally achievable.
·
Pay TV. I hate pay TV. There is absolutely no
need for it. I’ve lived in plenty of country towns with less stations that the
city and have still never been tempted. I know so many people who cry poor but
they still keep their Foxtel subscriptions because it’s a “need” for them.
Pfft! Cancel that and save yourself hundreds of dollars a year! Besides digital
TV has like 12 hours’ worth of cartoons per day for all you people that say you
NEED it for the kids’ channels. If your kid can’t survive with “only” 12 hours
of cartoons a day maybe it’s time to get them outside and moving around (of
course people and children with disabilities that can’t move around or leave
the house are the exception)
·
Do you buy a coffee on your way to work every
single morning? Say you spend $3.50 on a coffee 5 days a week. 52 weeks a year.
That’s $910 a year your spending on something you can make for like $0.50 at
home. Get up 5 minutes earlier. And if you desperately want a fancy coffee, try
limit to 1 a week-that’s only $182 a year.
·
Insurance companies. I hate all these stupid insurances
that are on offer these days-life insurance, car insurance, funeral insurance,
income protection, home and contents insurance, pet insurance, health insurance
etc. etc. the list is never ending. Some of them like car, contents and life
insurance are definitely worth it. But if you have a pet that doesn’t end up at
the vet too often is pet insurance really worth it?! Do you really need life
insurance and income protection insurance? Our life insurance policy also
includes permanent disability and serious illness as an option so we have it
all under 1 policy which saves us a fair bit of money. Also most insurance companies
give you a discount for having more than 1 policy with them. I do a big ring
around probably once every 2 years, get some quotes and see if there is a
better deal out there for us. At the moment I’ll admit I have all our
insurances with different companies-however that is mainly due to where we
live, certain companies will only insure us for certain things because we live
in a remote town that is on the border of the “high risk cyclone area” and
getting ambulance cover in an ‘isolated town’ can be harder with some insurers so
our insurances are a bit messy at the moment :-/
·
Magazines and newspapers. Most of this gossip
and info is readily available free of charge online these days save yourself
another couple bucks a week by spending 20 minutes online, instead of flicking
the pages of a magazine that’s only going to end up in the bin.
·
Shopping around is obviously a big one. I’m
really into shopping around. At the moment hubby and I are getting lots of work
done to our 4wd. I have a little notebook that I keep a list of what we need,
what stores/online places stock it and how much it costs. This way I know what
we want (because I’m not a very good car person) and I also know how much its
worth, then if I see someone having a sale on I know what prices other
companies charge to see how much of a saving we would get. City people get
catalogues delivered so that’s one quick way to check out the competition and
see what’s on offer.
·
Buy ONLINE!!! So many savings to be had. I can
get things shipping over from America and including postage/freight it still
works out cheaper than buying here. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for buying local
and keeping money in our country etc. but sometimes the price difference is so
extreme that I can’t see the point in paying more than double here. At the end
of the day my family comes first, some things I just wouldn’t be able to afford
to do if I didn’t do at least a little bit of shopping from overseas. Some
Australian companies also have better deals online for some things if you
really want to keep shopping local. Hubby has just recently done a massive tool shopping spree and all his tools came from QLD or NSW and including freight/shipping charges it worked out cheaper. See? Still supporting Australian business..
·
No spend days. Ok, I’ll admit I’m spectacularly
bad at this one. It seems every day I plan a no spend day I end up with a kid
at the Dr or a husband that forgets and brings home dinner. We definitely need
to work on this. But the basic idea is you pick a day of the week, it could be
a different day each week depending on what suits you, and you literally just
don’t spend money. It’s amazing how much money we spend every day, little
things like taking coins from the cookie jar to grab a coffee or “window
shopping” but coming home with $50 worth of things. Try have one day a week
where there is NO money spent J
·
Most men (and women) will be shocked at me for
even THINKING about this but oh well…ALCOHOL!! And cigarettes. If you smoke
then that’s just gross, chuck that habit and save yourself potentially
thousands of dollars, and your life-because you know there’s no point making a
budget if you’re just going to die early anyway. (ok that was mean. But you get
my drift…) Alcohol I’m fortunate that my husband isn’t the kind to sit back and
drink 10 beers a night. But I know so many people who spend money on beer and
wine BEFORE putting food on the table. And that’s just wrong on so many levels.
Maybe instead of buying 2 cartons of beer and a couple bottles of wine per week
you could buy a 6 pack and 1 bottle of wine on a Friday for the weekend. Still
have your fun and drink but just limit it. Considering you can pay $50 for a
carton of beer if you go from 2 cartons to 1 a week that’s $50 per week or
$2600 per year. That’s a good chunk of money right there!
The first year will probably be quite a shock to see where
all your money goes and how quickly it adds up.
We set ourselves a $300 per week grocery budget which
includes all cleaning products, dog food, nappies, baby food, as well as all
our food (if we have birthday parties or BBQ’s/outings we include
that in our weekly food bill too). But just think $300 per week over 52 weeks
that’s $15, 600 per year JUST on groceries!! We often come in under budget and
that extra money just goes straight into our savings account or onto our car
loan. But you can see how quickly it all adds up.
1.
Open a Direct Debits Account.
2.
Keep Track of ALL your spending
3.
Set saving goals and find places to make your
cutbacks
Simple?! Absolutely!! Give it a go for a year and see where
you end up…
I hope this has helped you out in some way with your
finances. But like I said before. If you take nothing else from this Budgeting
series the direct debit account will save you so much financial stress.
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