7 invaluable tips I have learned over the years to help you save money

With great power comes great responsibility, they say. Your power is your hard work that was paid in hard-earned money. Now, it is your duty to acknowledge the power the money gives you and respect that!

Not by wasting it away but by looking at it as an asset you must manage.

I know that I can make a conscious effort to avoid throwing away excess food. Why not do it?

I can take responsibility for my impact on the environment. Why not do it?

I may not be the best one to advise on the Google algorithm, but bookkeeping?!! Now — THAT is my job and I know what I am talking about.

You know all those labels — ‘crunching numbers’, ‘guru numbers’, ‘make every bean count’ — yeah, they are all over my T-shirts, one sticky label on my forehead and I am that close to getting a tattoo!

I add to that being a wife twice — and both of them husbands useless with money — and a mother, and a single mother.

As a single mother, you learn how to make a whip from shit, and … it also cracks!

What can you do to manage your finances with a few easy money-saving tips?

1. Constantly check all your bank accounts.

Make sure to check the balances and also the transactions.

Two reasons for this:

• first, you have the chance to catch in time if any scammer is using your card details and spending your money;
• and second, you are aware at any moment how much money you have, you are abreast of the details of how often and what for you spend your money.

Be aware of any movement of your funds in and out and inform the bank immediately if something is not right. On several occasions, I spotted when my bank account was used fraudulently, and I could stop it before it got much worse.

2. Identify the strictly necessary items in your life and the ones that are not quite necessary.

Since you already follow up on your bank transactions you can also spot if you really use EVERYTHING that you purchase.

k your memberships and subscriptions — do you need all of them?

I found myself with an Amazon Prime subscription that I never asked for.

My gym subscription was $150/month when I realized that I only went 3 times/month. It turned out it cost me $50/session. By then I had replaced the gym with long walks and yoga.

3. Compare the market for cheaper options on everything that you purchase.

For example in Perth, petrol is cheaper on Tuesdays, at even 18% cheaper! It must be something like this everywhere — there is a cycle created by purchase-stock-sale, so fill up your tank every Tuesday — I mean your ‘local Tuesday’.

One of the most expensive necessities is food, so check prices at different supermarkets to find the cheapest option.

You may find that for the same amount of money, you can shop for more items in Aldi than at Coles or Woolworths. Look for the cheaper vegetable markets, some of them are located in local shopping malls, and prices are significantly lower than the farmer’s markets. (these are some of our Australian supermarkets, but you get the gist of it)

I am happy to shop in a cheaper place even if that means that I don’t have so many options for meat cuts for example. But I can easily see how for the same amount of money I filled four bags with food from Aldi but only managed to fill two bags from Coles.

KidSport sells the brand sport shoes like Nike, and Adidas at half the price of what you pay in their store.

If you have the chance to install solar panels, it is one investment that will save you lots of money in the long run. Our power bill went down from $280 to $25. What, more than 10 times less? Yes, really. 10 times less!

As far as I am concerned solar panels are the best discovery after coffee!

4. Don’t buy in bulk unless you know that you will use it, otherwise, it will be just a waste.

It may sound good when you can buy three items for a better price, but do you need three or just one? For food, if you buy bulk and it expires before you get the chance to use it, you waste the money and send food to the landfill. On fresh fruit and vegetables buy only what you know you will cook or eat in 7 days, otherwise, it will go off in your fridge.

It will not only save money but you can do your bit to save the planet!

Don’t leave all the work to Greta Thunberg.

Do you have any idea about the amount of food that gets dumped in landfills every year?

Do you know what that does to the economy (it costs money to get that garbage sorted out) and to the environment?

I know that in Western Australia is more than 4 kg/week/family. And I know for sure that is not from my family.

Can you try to estimate 4 kg of food a week — how much is that in money that you spent on food you did not eat and wasted? Even if I average to something lower like $5/kg food waste x 4kg x 52 weeks = $1,040 / year

These are the money that you paid for the food and you put it in the bin!

Give yourself 30 seconds and check in your city what are the statistics, and the numbers on the wastage.

5. Cook instead of eating out or ordering in.

For the minimum of $40 that you spend for a two-person Uber Eats order (this is the local version), you can buy meat and vegetables to cook healthy soups and stews, or meat and veggies for at least three meals. There is also the advantage that you eat healthier, as you know what exactly you put in your food, and cooking can be great fun.

You don’t have to be Gordon Ramsey or a Michelin household to good healthy.

We also use the indoor compost buckets to collect the food scraps and we use the compost in our little garden vegetables.

6. Once a month, check the expiry dates on the cans and jars and use any vegetables that you have in the fridge.

Create new recipes of stews and stir fry with the leftovers in your veggie box. With a side dish of rice or pasta, you can cook what you have in the fridge and the pantry until you empty all the shelves.

We call it “clean up the fridge and pantry”.

I find that we can cook sometimes for more than a week with various stocked items and we only shop for bread and milk. More money saved.

7. Create your own savings system.



ALWAYS save something, $20, $50, $100 per week. You decide what is easier and you change the amount as you need higher or lower as per your income. Ultimately set up a weekly transfer into a savings bank account for which you don’t have a card, so you cannot spend it, and forget about it. In no time the balance will grow.

Most of our holidays happened due to money that we saved by following these tips.

Here’s to saving more money, maintaining a clean environment, living a healthy life, and enjoying wonderful holidays!