How to do an Annual Review and Save More Money

Tax time is the ideal time to review all your finances, compare deals and make sure you’re getting the most for your money.

The following is from a financial review we did in 2018, you can find another in 2019 here.

When it comes to doing a financial review it can seem daunting at first but if you go step by step it isn’t too bad.

Look at your bank statements, bills and regular spending to see what changes you can make.

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Groceries – Save at least $50 a week/$2,600 a year

Most Australians are throwing out thousands of dollars worth of food each year because they haven’t planned well.

Check out 21 tips to reduce the cost of groceries, 13 tips to reduce the cost of meat and how to stop food waste.

With a few changes, you can easily save over $50 a week on groceries.

For a few ideas on leftovers check out 28 recipes for mince or 20 meal ideas for leftover sausage.

Get up to $200 off with HelloFresh, spread across your first 6 boxes for new and returning customers. Conditions apply.

Get easy meals from $2.19 per plate with this discount from EveryPlate.

45% off your first box with Marley Spoon and further discounts.

Up to $140 off Dinnerly, spread across your first few boxes.

My savings – $1,300 a year

Friday Family Fun Night for treats instead of treats every day, making your own takeaway and rotating meal kits saved $1,300.

Housing/Rent/Mortgage – Save $10+ per week or $520 per year at least

When was the last time you refinanced your mortgage or reviewed rent?

Have you looked at ways you can make your home pay for itself?

Refinancing can save you a few thousand a year, negotiating when you get a rent rise or looking elsewhere, depending on where you live and the property market there.

To make money from your home you can rent the garage on Spacer.

You can also rent your place or a room on Airbnb.

For more tips, read how to make your mortgage pay for itself.

What I’m saving – $588 a year on rent & making an extra $7,303+

Moving to a cheaper property saved $588 a year on rent, after taking out the cost of moving.

The new home had more income options, producing $7,303 so far in extra income.

Transport – At least $1,000

Living without a car can save a fortune but isn’t practical for everyone.

Check out this post on living without a car for more information.

If you need a car, make sure you keep it well maintained, use apps to lock in great fuel prices, keep an eye on fuel prices, only drive when necessary and make sure you’re tyres are at the optimum level.

All the little things really add up when it comes to the cost of running your car.

Also, do a comparison for insurance to make sure you’re getting the best rate.

Read how to reduce the cost of transport and the top 10 tips for your car.

My savings – minus $2,367

Moving to the new home meant a longer commute and costs $2,367 more per year but was a specific area we wanted to live in.

Phone and Internet – save $20+ per month or $240 a year

When was the last time you checked your phone and internet plans?

Check the fine print and special offers happening because you might be eligible for sign-up bonuses and discounts.

My savings are $285 for the year

So far we can only add in the mobile phone savings, but internet will be at least $10 cheaper when we move, saving another $520 a year

Banking – get rid of your fees and make $100 as well

Switch your banking and save, or possibly even make money.

Basically, with banking, check all your fees and transactions.

Check your savings accounts for the best interest rate, minimise or eliminate fees for all your banking and look at your credit card options.

If you have credit cards or other debt, compare to ensure you’re getting the best rates and switch to 0% balance transfers to help you get ahead if needed.

Be aware, it can impact your credit score and borrowing capacity though.

Total savings/extra cash for me $280+ for the year.

This is a combination of saved fees and interest/investment increases.

Debt – save thousands and clear it!

Having debt is crushing, it’s stealing from tomorrow.

Whenever you buy things on debt, you’re simply postponing the payments, but you can change the cycle.

List out your debts including how much is owed, what the repayments are, what the interest is and any fees and charges.

Next, create a plan of action to pay it off. Most people have great success working from the smallest debt to the largest.

All extra money is thrown at the smallest debt to clear it.

As one debt is paid off, the repayments are applied to the next debt and so on.

Insurance

What insurance do you have and when is the last time you compared it?

Never simply pay the renewal, always compare and get a new quote. Insurance companies give their best rates to new customers, so shop around.

List all the insurance you have such as home and contents, car, health, life and TPD insurance. Check what you are currently paying then compare.

Don’t use the sites which advertise heavily to compare as they don’t have all the options.

Instead, use the government ones or do your own research.

Use this government site for health insurance.

Bills – ours are under $70 a month

Get out your bills or check your statements online for everything you pay for such as electricity, water and gas. Compare and switch if needed.

When you do this, check your usage, compare the actual rates plus discounts.

Are you eligible for a pensioner discount and can you do the pay-on-time discount?

Many companies now offer a discount of 30% or more off your usage if you have direct debit and pay on time.

For tips to reduce your electricity usage, check out 17 ways to save on electricity which outlines how we keep my bills down to $60 or $70 a month!

Energy Made Easy is the government site you can use to compare electricity and gas.

My savings – ?

Keeping bills low has been easy but this will change as the new home is bigger.

Hobbies and entertainment

What are your hobbies, what do you do for entertainment and how can you save money with it?

To give you some ideas of free and cheap hobbies join meetup or Facebook groups with events in your area, do some trial classes, pick things you want to learn and look for discount offers to do them.

For example, Groupon has a variety of classes and activities from cooking to archery and skydiving.

Check out these 10 hobbies that can make and save money.

My savings with hobbies – minus $2,604

A gym membership and a few classes increased the spending in this area but is so worth it.

Beauty – save $500+

Australians spend $22 billion on beauty a year.

You can easily reduce how much you spend by doing a few things yourself, changing your routine and knowing what works for you.

If you sat down and added it all up, you might be surprised.

Waxing, haircuts and colours, makeup, skincare, manicures, pedicures, nail polish etc.

Even DIY costs money for the products, but it often isn’t included properly in the family budget.

This post shares my tips for health and beauty. If you saved even $10 a week on beauty, that’s $520 a year!

Health/Medical

Doctors visits, tests, medication, physio and other unexpected medical expenses can hurt the budget.

Medical isn’t an area you can scrimp on a lot, but there are things you can do!

Read how to afford medical expenses (some of it is aimed at those living on Centrelink).

Asking your doctor if they bulk bill or finding one who does, learning some natural remedies, realising that a virus doesn’t need antibiotics (bacterial infections do, but basic viruses simply need you to rest), things like that.

It all adds up and saves you money, plus if you know more about yourself you can take better care of yourself.

Clothing, Shoes, Accessories

Knowing what you have in the wardrobe, which clothes suit you, the brands which last and you love all help.

This knowledge means you can shop easily in sales or at op shops and actually wear what you own.

Most people wear 20% of their wardrobe 80% of the time.

This means 80% of your clothing probably isn’t being worn at all.

When it comes to shoes, quality is important. Since we walk everywhere, it’s important shoes last.

As for accessories, we buy bags and things on sale usually.

Make sure you have an amount in your budget allocated for clothing, shoes and accessories.

Kids wear out clothes quickly, they grow and you will need to replace everything fairly often.

Savings

Do you have a set amount you save? Great advice to increase savings is pay yourself first.

We allocate money for everything, then try to save money from what’s left over.

If your savings were treated as a bill, you’d find the money to make it happen.

Choose an amount such as 5% to 10% to start saving.

Set up a separate high-interest savings account and an automatic transfer.

If you’re with ING they have a round up feature which means when you spend, if the amount was $7.95 for example, it can be rounded up to $10 and the difference deposited into your savings account.

If you want to be a millionaire, you can be through doing this alone.

Check out how to become a millionaire, even as a single mum here.

Birthdays and celebrations

Check out our list of Australian birthday freebies here to help you save money.

Read how to afford kids’ parties for some tips.

For other celebrations such as weddings, invitations etc read this article.

Miscellaneous

Are you saving to replace certain items and need to budget them in?

Are there any areas of your budget you’re currently not paying attention to or need to save for?

Takeaway, coffees at work, work presents and unexpected car maintenance are a few common ones.

Have a buffer for these sort of things but try to take note of them as they come up too so you can plan for them.

Ones such as replacing the car or fridge you can plan for now and start saving.

Check your credit score

As part of an annual review, it’s a good idea to check your credit score.

This is something that impacts the interest rates you are offered and what you are eligible for so it is important to know.

Check your net worth

Your net worth is the total you are worth when you add up all your assets minus your liabilities.

Assets include the value of your home, superannuation, savings accounts, shares and other investments.

Liabilities include debts such as your credit card, personal loan, mortgage etc.

Find out more about how to check your net worth and why you should here.

And tips to increase your net worth here.

Have you done an annual review of your finances? How much did you save?

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