Oh my gosh, can you believe it we’re now halfway through the year?
HELLO JULY! I feel like I only just came back from the January holidays.
Before we know it Christmas will be here and the stresses of having to make our money stretch that little bit further will be upon us.
So today, I feel it’s time to share some tips on preparing yourself before the year is out and having your money work a little smarter for you by looking at ways you can spend less and save more.
In this blog post, I’m going to share with you my top 10 tips on how you can spend less without feeling like you’re missing out.
So let’s dive into it.
No 1. Check Your Bank Accounts Regularly
First thing you need to do is check your bank accounts regularly. This first tip will save you a lot of money from extra charges and online fraud that seems to be happening more and more today because we’re buying more online.
Go online to your banking app or if you receive bank statements via post then check them. Look down at the debit column and make sure what’s coming out is what you’ve authorised.
Check to see if there’s been no internet fraud on your account, any subscriptions that you thought were cancelled that haven’t been and make sure there are no unauthorised amounts. If something doesn’t look right or you don’t recognise that transaction on your statement then call your bank immediately to get more information on what that debt is for.
Today with the click of a button via our fingerprint on our smartphones we approve new apps and before we know it we’ve subscribed to something that we hadn’t intended on having long term but have forgotten to cancel the subscription.
So make sure you go through regularly your bank account statements. This is the first step to keeping more money in your pocket.
No 2. List Your Debts Down
Listing your debts down will give you an idea how much you’re throwing away on interest payments that could be better used for growing your nest egg.
Look at your current debts, whether they be personal loans, credit cards, store cards or interest-free loans. Grab a piece of paper and at the top label it “Debts”. Then make 4 columns.
The first column you’re going to call it “name of debt” this is where the debt came from ie; the bank, company or person you took the loan out with
Next column you’re going to call “amount owed”
Then column 3 will be named “minimum monthly repayments” and
The last column you will label “interest rate”.
I’ve already prepared a worksheet that’s available in the resource area which you’re more than welcome to download to make it simpler and easier for you to get your debts down on paper.
Next, I want you to take a good look at what’s going out every month from the “minimum monthly payment section”. Add that column up to see how much you are giving away to the banking institution every month on your debts.
Ok so you may be going into heart failure right now and need resuscitating or you might be feeling ok realising that you don’t have as much debt as you had thought.
So what I want you to look at is whether there are any debts you can quickly pay off.
When it comes to your credit card call your bank or credit provider and negotiate with them for a reduced interest rate. If they’re not willing to look after you, research other providers who are more than happy to offer you a 0% interest rate on balance transfers for a specified period of time.
Banks are more than happy to talk to you about transferring your credit as they know secretly that you’ll never pay the card off before the free interest expires. But because you’re super smart – you will be paying down as much as you can on your credit card debt before the time comes due, so you’ll end up with a zero credit card balance in the end thus saving you hundreds and I mean hundreds of dollars in interest payments!
This is definitely one way of putting more money back into your pocket and seeing you spend less on monthly bad debt interest payments.
No 3. Start Using Cash
While you’re enjoying your interest-free credit card for the next 6 or so months make sure you leave your credit card at home and take cash with you. This will stop you from spending on purchases that you can’t afford and will also give you the chance to clear the current debt away.
Using good old fashion cash instead of using credit as this will see you spending less money because you’ll become more aware of what you’re spending your hard earned money on.
No 4. Your Small Change Adding Up Big
Save your coins!
How many times do you pay for things with cash and end up with small change and coins in your wallet or purse?
Go back to what your grandparents did and keep a jar in the kitchen cupboard and every time you get coins, add them into the jar. You’ll be surprised at how quickly it adds up to some decent dollars, which you can then use to pay off your credit card debt faster, or put towards your savings account.
No 5. Zero Monthly Bank Account Fees
Next, look for a bank account that has zero bank account fees.
Did you know you could save in excess of $500 per year just by banking with a bank that doesn’t charge monthly account keeping fees? There are plenty so shop around.
I recently did this with my personal banking accounts and I now have no monthly account keeping fees which add up to more savings and less spending.
No 6. Lookout For Foreign Transaction Fees
When shopping for a bank with zero monthly account keeping fees I want you to keep in mind whether they offer a visa debit or credit card with no foreign transaction fees.
Why is this important? Well, every time you use your credit card to buy things online whether it be via PayPal or using your credit card, you sometimes are buying in a different currency and when it converts back you may be paying a foreign transaction fee.
These are hidden fees that most consumers aren’t aware of.
In my business I use a range of apps and services that are generally from the US. When I had my previous visa debit card/credit card to pay for them – I was often slogged a foreign transaction fee and because I checked my accounts regularly started seeing this increase.
So I rang around to find out which bank or financial institution offered a card with no foreign transaction fees and luckily when I moved my personal and business banking halfway through last year I was able to take advantage of a card that offered “no foreign transaction fees”. This has seen me save hundreds of dollars a month.
I honestly hated seeing money disappear on fees, especially given I’m a money person who loathes having money come out of my account that I didn’t use or intentionally spend on. This has given me more back into my pocket, which I love.
No 7. Preloved Items
An area often overlooked is buying items second hand.
Don’t be too proud to buy something second hand online from companies like Gumtree or eBay – as you can pick up some awesome bargains. I also encourage you to go for a clean out around your home and look to earn some extra cash with items you can move on through the use of these free online selling sites.
For anyone struggling to get an emergency fund up to $2000, this is a great way to de-clutter while earning money on stuff around your house that is just gathering dust.
No 8. Bargain Shop & Shopping Online
Look for specials. Again don’t be too proud to get a bargain or special when you can.
Here in Australia, there is an app called “Fuel Watch” that lets you know the cheapest fuel for the day.
Filling up your car on the day that fuel is between 10- 15 cents cheaper will save you loads at the bowser.
There are other ways you can spend less and that’s by doing your shopping online.
We save hundreds of dollars by doing our shopping online and retailers encourage you by offering specials throughout your online shopping experience.
No 9. Discounts & Special Offers
Number 9 on my list is using Entertainment Cards & Discounts.
I wanted to share this one with you especially, as the other day my parents were buying their great nephew a 21st birthday present at BCF which is a camping and fishing store.
When they went to purchase his $300 gift card – they presented a card called The Entertainment Card.
This card offers many discounts and specials on things like dining out, shopping, travel & leisure to name a few.
So when they got to the checkout they received a 10% discount which meant our nephew is going to receive a $300 gift card that only cost my parents $270.
Bargain! Not just for my retiree parents but for anyone who loves to grab a bargain and save money.
When you start adding up the savings and discounts you can receive, it adds up to the hundreds sometimes thousands of dollars depending on what you’re buying.
So don’t be too proud to check out where you may be able to get a discount – as essentially you’re leaving good money on the table.
And lastly, another way for you to look at spending less and having more money is to…
No 10. Make Your Own Coffee
Yep, I know you love to go out and have someone make your coffee on a daily basis – I get it – coz I do too.
Why not look to invest in a coffee machine where you can buy good quality coffee beans or pods and then treat yourself once or twice a week to a takeaway coffee.
Today it appears that everyone I visit has their very own coffee machine at home.
Australians love entertaining and part of this is serving good coffee to our guests.
We are no longer happy with just servicing up our guest Moccona – we want to impress them with a good cup of coffee.
When you do the numbers – coffee machines depending on the type will pay for itself in no time.
An example of this is if you were to look at the upper end of a pod machine by DeLonghi – that’s fully automated you can pick them up new for under $350 – $400.
I’ve seen this fully automated pod machine come down to as low as $250 during sale times.
Now if you’re really clever like my husband he used points that accumulated on his credit card linking his spending to a points system and got our machine for zero dollars yep zero!
Now there are of course cheaper machines but for this example, I’m using the one we got for our camping travels as we have another bigger machine on the kitchen bench.
If you are purchasing 1, 2 or 3 coffees a day which I know a lot of people do it could be costing you around $10 – $15 + a day per person depending on what type of coffee you order and what size AND don’t forget to add in the sweet treat that normally goes with it!
We save hundreds of dollars when we travel around Western Australia because we take our little portable fully automated DeLonghi pod machine and we use the money we save paying for sightseeing instead.
So how long do you think it would take for your $200 – $300 coffee machine to earn its keep?
Well, it would take just on a month before it would have paid for itself and even less if you look at cheaper one.
Don’t believe me then do the numbers yourself – as you may be surprised at how much you are spending daily if not weekly on coffee.
Today there are so many ways to put more money back into your pocket while spending less and without having to cut costs or stick to a budget that most of us struggle to work with.
I trust this has given you some inspiration on how you can look at ways you could spend less, put more money back into your pocket and start feeling good about the way you can manage money better.
Where are the ways you could spend less while enjoying more money in your pocket?
Leave me a comment below as I’d love to hear from you.
Until next time here’s to your financial health, wealth & happiness.
We took this at 1am after cleaning up from his party ? on Saturday night remembering we didn’t get one photo of the 3 of us. Too late for our daughter to get into the photo as she was fast asleep ? by then.
Reaching 50 or any milestone in your life is worth celebrating ?.
It’s important to celebrate the milestones along the way whether it be birthdays, paying off debt, work achievements or whatever joy and happiness has come in at that time.
When we celebrate the special milestones in our life it triggers a change in habit to our brain ? and this enables more of the good stuff to come in.
Celebrating even the fact you’re still here is a major milestone today as I’m sure we’ve all had special people in our life that are not here and had their time cut short.
Gratitude and appreciating all that you have in life – whether you don’t feel like being grateful because of certain circumstances that have occurred in your life – is the key to receiving more.
Now I’m not going to bang on here about gratitude and appreciation, as I feel there is plenty of that out there for you to tap into in other’s messages.
What I do want to share and highlight is to truly appreciate all what you have today whether it be a little or a lot and be thankful that you’re here.
So enjoy every milestone and moment in your life and live with love and gratitude ❤️
p.s. check out that rogue strand of hair sticking out lol – I was too tired to take another photo but love that we finally got one of the two of us before the night was out. Important to document special occasions even with unruly hair 🙂
Most of us desire happiness and balance but very few of us know how to get it in their life.
This is a tough subject because there are so many factors that inhibit us from truly being happy.
The obvious one that appears a lot is the lack of money and the other is we’re too busy being busy that we’re not stopping to see what’s going on around us and then making the changes we need to bring more happiness and joy in our life.
I was reflecting this morning how for the first time in weeks how I have really enjoyed the start of the school day with my daughter and how it felt when I wasn’t rushing her to get ready for school, with packing her bag, brushing her teeth and brushing her hair ready for me to tie up.
Ruby loves to dance in front of the mirror and often comes up with dance moves. Typical pre-teen. She’s got some good dance moves even though she doesn’t want to do dancing lessons. She often breaks out in dance moves when I feel we don’t have the time.
However, this particular day I just allowed and it was such a special moment. I caught myself really smiling just not a smirk to humour her and I was caught up in her moment. It reminded me of what life was like when I was a kid many moons ago. The freedom to do whatever I wanted without worry, without the hassle of all the things it takes to be an adult today with the many responsibilities.
So why today, what was so special about today…what was different about it. Why did I stop and be in the moment and be present in my daughter’s usual shenanigans?
It hit me about an hour later after I dropped her at school.
The ahhha moment at that time was,….take pressure off yourself – things will get done when they’re meant to get done. You can’t rush life.
Now some of you listening may be thinking that this is not the most motivating conversation for but for me, it was and made so much sense.
It was about knowing what’s really important and why we are working – not just to earn an income and pay our bills. For most of us we’re working – so we can build a life that we want to enjoy. It’s about creating a life we truly desire and makes us happy.
So many people strive for balance but most don’t actually get there. We’re too busy working, shuffling kids to sports, birthday parties and other things that we do when we have a family and taking care of our loved ones or whatever fills our busy adult days.
Life is precious.
Going back to my moment this morning something also hit me….
Last year my Dad’s 3 eldest brothers past away plus his best childhood friend all in the same year.
It was a reality call that highlighted again to me that I can’t take life for granted and I have to make each moment count.
I’ve heard that saying before but never really took much notice of it until reflecting at the end of last year.
Make each moment count as you just don’t know when our time on earth is up – none of us know when we will take our last breath.
Choose to spend time with the people that count. I’m choosing spend my time with the family and friends who make me happy and bring joy into my life and not because I have to see them.
Spend time with people who make you laugh, people who don’t judge, aren’t jealous or envious of you but love you for who you are warts and all.
Choose to declutter and detox not only things in and around your house, but people who don’t bring you happiness.
Choose to live life the way God intended us to – in peace, harmony and joy.
I challenge you here today to do more of what makes you happy. Reflect on all that is good in your life and clean out that which is not.
Don’t be afraid to offend people. Just do what you feel is right for you and your family.
It’s such a good feeling once you’ve done this – trust me!
This is one of the gifts I can give our daughter – teaching her to live her life with no regrets. Not worrying about what people think or say about her behind her back. To believe in herself and not listen to what other people say or think of her, but to listen to how she feels.
People will always have an opinion on who you are and how you should live your life. Choose not to let them get under your skin and choose your own special brand of happiness.
When you worry about what other people think it’s because you either have low self esteem and want to feel accepted or because in some truth there’s something about you that you possibly you need to change.
The people we are attract in our life often mirror something we like or don’t like about ourself.
Your reality is what you’re focussing on and thinking about is having a mirroring effect into what you’re attracting into your life whether it be a positive or negative experience.
It’s important to feed yourself and the next generation with positiveness, hope and the expectation we can achieve anything if we choose.
Choose to be happy and take the inspired action.
What are some of the ways you are choosing to be more happier and decluttering negativity out of your life? Let me know by leaving me your thoughts below.
A little while ago someone said to me what’s this thing you keep talking about financial muscle – it doesn’t make any sense.That’s probably because I’ve coined the phase “building financial muscle”.So here’s snapshot of what it means to have financial muscle!
So financial muscle is about building strength in your finances and it’s also about building mental stamina, as well as, ensuring your money is working for you and not for some credit company or banking institutions benefit.
It means that in a time of emergency you can pull on money reserves to get you out of a bind.
Having financial muscle is about taking the worry out of unexpected things that can go wrong and often do.
Financial muscle is also about knowing you’ve got this covered – you’ve money behind you and that’s giving you greater peace of mind.
It means you can enjoy more out of life without any added financial stress and worry.
I believe we all want the same things out of life.
We all want prosperity & happiness.
We want to live a life free from stress.
And we want to live a full life – filled with many adventures and the freedom to do what we choose.
The problem I see it is that today people are being burdened down with a massive amount of stress in their life.
Some – if not a lot – of the stress is caused by financial issues.
If you take a look again at this diagram you’ll see that when you don’t have financial muscle – it means you don’t have money working to your advantage.
If this is the case then you’re probably struggling and feeling very overwhelmed.
When this occurs it usually means you’re either spending everything you earn with nothing much left over.
Your relationships are probably suffering and you’re stressed out and if you’re not careful your health will start to suffer.
If you’re not quite at the bottom but feeling like you’re just surviving – by managing to pay your bills.I’m guessing you’re frustrated and possibly feeling angry and annoyed, no doubt still stressed out that your money isn’t working the way you want it to be.
In a recent study done by the Australian Psychology Society’s stress and wellbeing survey – financial issues continue to be the number 1 stress for people.
Today, there is not just one income earner but two in most households.
Families in general have more money coming in today than previous generations –and on the surface, things look really great.
However, we know there are more divorces today than ever before and the average family is looking a lot different now than from a few years ago.
When did we decide that we would give up so much of our core values in order to have the material things that give us the appearance of living a happier fulfilled life but in reality are not!
People are now slowly starting to question things like is it worth really getting into so much debt and buying stuff to impress people that we don’t even like?The onset of this is causing them to suffer in the process.
People are looking for options and want the best out of life without sacrificing their core values and principles.
You see…
“It’s not how much money we earn. It’s our ability to manage our money that can make the difference”!
Regardless of where you might be right now – invest some time into obtaining more financial knowledge that will lead to you making better decisions about your money and life.
This is the first thing you can do to start learning how to build financial muscle.
The second way you can build financial muscle is investing in yourself.
Investing in your belief that you can do it, while earning how to pay yourself first.
You pay yourself first by putting away every pay day a minimum of 10% into an account that you can not touch or access easily with the swipe of an ATM card.
This account should be one that doesn’t have any ongoing monthly fees and gives you the ability to automatically transfer at payday the minimum 10% directly into this account.
Having this on autopilot means you don’t have the think about transferring money and it just gets done.
You’re not going to miss this amount and before you know it you will have built up a sizeable amount of money that can now be used for investing and growing you money further.
Stick to the minimum of 10% until all bad debts like credit cards etc are paid off.Once you’re in a position then look to increase this to 15%.
This is how you build financial muscle.
Did you know that 80% of people are managing their money out of sheer habit with no real understanding why their doing things a certain way.
So often following or listening to someone who is not that knowledgeable in financial matters.Or following “the crowd mentality and subscribing to clever marketing tactics by advertisers” both can be dangerous if you’re not sure what you’re doing.
Managing money requires know-how and understanding on whether its actually good for your own situation.You see we all have different comfort areas and risk tolerances.So check with your financial adviser before embarking on any new investment opportunities to see if they fit your personal investment style.
Research has shown that when people get a handle on their money they end up making making smarter, healthier financial decisions that enable them to live with less stress.
Making changes in this area can be difficult for some than others – and it does require courage and commitment.
But unless people decide to make some major changes, there will be a very difficult future that lies ahead for them.
Obtaining financial education is one thing – having an awesome mindset is another and both go hand in hand for you to achieve a stress free life.
When you start building financial muscle you will find yourself at the top of this diagram.Feeling happy and confident that you are on track to becoming debt free, maybe looking at investment options and overall designing your life the way you want it.
Building financial muscle is about understanding how money works to your advantage so that in the end you can live a financially stress free life.
I hope you now have a better understanding what “Building Financial Muscle” is all about so you can create a stress free life for you and your family.
Until next time…. here’s to you building financial muscle.
I can’t remember exactly when I first heard about Mel Robbins and The 5 Second Rule on my youtube feed, however, I know that I was intrigued about some of the stuff Mel was saying and it was making SO much sense at the time.
Well, I’ve finally finished the book and what an awesome read it was.
I think it’s going to be a book that I’ll pick up again and again, as there are so many reminders we need to stay true to ourselves and live the life we desire without procrastination or fear of failure.
I have to say I’m a bit of shocker when it comes to reading books, as I generally have about 4 books on the go at one time.
I so love reading and how the words in some books just pop out and you go “hell yeah”, which is what Mel’s book did for me.
There are so many things we already know on a daily basis we “should be doing” but reading this book gives you a gentle reminder to continue to put certain things back into practice.
I had so so many “take-outs” from this book that I’ve written down and will keep for myself to look over to remind me to stay true, be brave & stop procrastinating.
I’ll do my best to highlight the main ones that I got out of the book, without giving too much away in case you decide to read it for yourself.
So here goes my “take-outs”…
I do the count down with our daughter and didn’t realise it until I read this book and yes the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 count down definitely works!
How to beat fear & procrastination by using the principals and practises Mel describes.
We are the problem no one else – for whatever is going on in our life.
Trust your gut & yourself more – research confirms the “gut theory”.
Letting go. There are always people who are going to jealous, envious or just plain don’t like you. That’s ok. Stay true to yourself, move on and forgive!
Improve your life by moving and stop making excuses – JUST DO IT!….and
How to stop overthinking things.
We all struggle with the same self-defeating problems.
We all doubt ourselves.
Don’t buy into these feelings….
There you go just a few of my “take-outs” from Mel Robbins book The 5 Second Rule!
An awesome read for anyone who wants to improve some part in their life.
Reading books can inspire us to become more of who we want to be.
Be inspired, read more, love more, live more and just be you – you are perfect exactly the way you are.So embrace you and be HAPPY!
If there’s a book you love then please let me know as I’d love to hear what ? inspires you ?
