Money Saving Ideas for the Families and Everyone else

Borrow kids DVDs and Books from public libraries instead of buying them. A friend who works in a council once told me that councils spend up to $200 per local resident per year on library facilities and if you are not using those facilities, you are letting that money go to waste.

Make a call to your bank to cancel your card and in most cases, they will waive your fee for atleast one year. This is the easiest trick that everyone should use to save anywhere from $30 to $500 for just making one call. It almost always works!!

#3 Sign up to a toy library and borrow toys. These are usually community run with a low annual fee, and it saves buying new toys. It also saves space as you can borrow large items eg play equipment and return them once the kids are sick of them and they would otherwise become dust collectors.

#4 Buy kids clothing second hand on Gumtree, eBay, Facebook or at markets. You can get clothing at $2 a piece or less and it's great for basics, especially when they're in size 0000-0 and grow quickly, and you go through lots of items per day in washing.

#5 Exchange babysitting services with local mums & dads / friends. You can look after their kids for free for a certain number of hours and then they can reciprocate in hours. It will save a lot of $$ on babysitting, which can add up.

#6 Bulk buy basics like toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo etc that have a long self life and you know you'll use when they're on sale. As long as you have storage space that is...

#7 Plan your meals around, and find recipes using, fruit and veg that are in season (so cheaper) and other grocery store specials.

#8 Keep track of what's in your kitchen cupboard. Every few months or so, do a 'stocktake' and plan to use up items that are about to expire. I also find this helpful for cleaning purposes and because things get pushed to the back of my cupboard and I forget they are there!

#9 Invest in good doonas, blankets and snuggly nightgowns and slippers to encourage the family to rug up instead of using the heating.

#10 Make sure you have enough fans, and try to avoid using the air conditioning which is a huge electricity guzzler. If you do use it, keep the thermostat set at 24.

#11 Don't automatically renew your car and home insurance every year. Rates are often inflated, even through the same provider, for the convenience of automatically renewing. I save hundreds every year by shopping around. A warning though: make sure you read the T&C as not all policies are equal. If you don't have the time, it may be better to just renew with a provider if you've read and are happy with their T&C rather than buying a policy you don't understand.

lisss wrote:

#5 Exchange babysitting services with local mums & dads / friends. You can look after their kids for free for a certain number of hours and then they can reciprocate in hours. It will save a lot of $$ on babysitting, which can add up.

Recently I had a babysitter for my children and paid $20 per hour. Next time I will ask a friend to help me.

I'd also add other utility bills to #11. I estimate we are saving close to $1500 each year since switching Electricity providers! Part of that is through replacing a number of 50W halogen lights with LEDs, but the majority of the savings were simply due to better rates.

Number 12, but I suspect it should be #1, is to budget. Using 'pocketbook' we now know that our second major expense after the mortgage is the grocery bill. So managing that properly - reducing impulse buys, using food when in season (when it's cheapest) as per #7, etc - can make a big difference.

ninhursag wrote:

I'd also add other utility bills to #11. I estimate we are saving close to $1500 each year since switching Electricity providers! Part of that is through replacing a number of 50W halogen lights with LEDs, but the majority of the savings were simply due to better rates.

I would never have thought of this because sadly in WA, we only have one electricity provider and no competition. We have only recently had a second gas provider enter the market, and it has already resulted in downwards pressure on prices!

lisss wrote:

....sadly in WA, we only have one electricity provider and no competition. We have only recently had a second gas provider enter the market, and it has already resulted in downwards pressure on prices!

In WA for electricity it probably makes a lot more sense (if you own a house) to simply install solar panels. Here in Vic my panels will probably pay for themselves in about 7 years, but you could probably recover the cost in 3 and no longer have to worry about power bills! ;-)

ninhursag wrote:

lisss wrote:....sadly in WA, we only have one electricity provider and no competition. We have only recently had a second gas provider enter the market, and it has already resulted in downwards pressure on prices!

In WA for electricity it probably makes a lot more sense (if you own a house) to simply install solar panels. Here in Vic my panels will probably pay for themselves in about 7 years, but you could probably recover the cost in 3 and no longer have to worry about power bills! ;-)

It's definitely something to look into and I think it's better to do sooner rather than later because I believe that governments are going to end up raising electricity connection tariffs (rather than increasing fees) so that solar panel users still have to pay extra $$. The whole government subsidised solar panel scheme was badly thought out from government's perspective; now they are complaining that solar panel users are making it difficult for them to fund the electricity infrastructure and that regular electricity users are subsidising solar panel users for the costs of the infrastructure.

Unfortunately I have a property in a strata block with strict rules so no solar panels for me!!!

riman wrote:

Borrow kids DVDs and Books from public libraries instead of buying them. A friend who works in a council once told me that councils spend up to $200 per local resident per year on library facilities and if you are not using those facilities, you are letting that money go to waste.

Agreed!

Today everyone want to save money but it is very difficult so this post really help you for saving , so just read all tips and save own money for future.