7 Quick Tips to Reduce All Your Expenses
Reducing all your expenses can feel overwhelming if you are trying to tackle it all at once.
Instead, pick the ones that seem easiest for you and implement them first.
Once you get the hang of some of them, try more and eventually, you will have developed great frugal habits.
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1. Review The Big Bills
The general advice is to go over all your bills and expenses but an easier way is to pick the big ones and start there.
For example, most people have large electricity or gas bills and these can be compared in minutes.
Grab one of your bills, upload it to a comparison site such as Energy Made Easy (a government one) and it will give you options.
Find the one that suits you best and will save you money then switch.
In a matter of minutes, you could potentially shave hundreds off your bills each year.
Do the same with insurance, get some quotes to compare with what you currently pay and see how much you can save.
Electricity, gas, insurance, phone and internet are all big bills that can be compared and potentially reduced in a matter of minutes.
Doing this and saving money quickly helps with motivation to save more so it’s worth starting with.
Bonus Tip: If you can, switch to annual payments if they are less.
If you aren’t in a position to switch now, pick one of the bills you pay monthly and work out how you can pay that annually soon.
Then the following month choose another bill to start paying annually and so on until they are all annual bills and you are saving to afford them as they come due each year.
2. Compare Debt, Savings and Other Financial Accounts
The difference in interest between various lenders can be significant.
When it comes to your debts, compare them all and see if there are better options out there for you.
This goes for your mortgage, personal loans, credit cards, all of them.
Do NOT make a bunch of enquiries or applications though because each one will reduce your credit score and be listed as if you have that debt.
Instead, do some research and find out if there are options then decide what you want to do.
When it comes to your mortgage, many Aussies save a few thousand when they refinance so it can be worth it.
Speak with a broker for those sorts of debts and needs if you want.
As for your savings accounts, you still want to do some research and find the bank with the highest interest and no fees.
There is no reason to pay fees these days as there are so many fee-free bank accounts available.
The higher your interest rate for your savings account, the more money you can make.
ING often offers $100 when you join, Up Bank offers $8 and Ubank has a $20 bonus.
3. Remove The Temptation
Marketers are tricky and know how to get you to spend more money.
All the apps, loyalty programs and other things you can use to save money are also designed to make you spend.
By offering discounts and specials, they tempt you to spend more, often when you had no intention of spending in the first place.
Remove all the temptation to avoid spending and you might be surprised how much you save.
Unsubscribe from everything so you don’t know about the sales or special offers.
Put a no junk mail sign on your letterbox so you don’t get the catalogues and can’t be tempted.
Remove notifications from your phone to ensure all the apps you use to save money aren’t tempting you to spend more.
Check out 5 tips to reduce temptation and 10 tips to stop spending for more.
4. Maximise Discounts
Plan your spending and make the most of all the discounts out there when you do.
If you are smart about how you shop, you can save thousands every year but you need to make sure you follow step 3 and reduce the temptation too.
There are lots of ways to combine discounts to save even more and these 9 frugal habits will help you save thousands.
5. Make Time to Review Your Habits
Some things to save money can be done quickly, others take a little more time.
Below are some articles for every area of your budget you can review and save money with.
Work out the areas you can make a change then start implementing those changes.
Take the time to read one, pick some things from it to implement and start saving.
How to save money on electricity
How to save money on schooling and education
How to afford medical expenses
How to save money on your phone and internet
Complete list of everything you can use your health care/pension/senior/DVA concession card on
23 ways to save money in 2023
31 ways to save $200+ and make money
How we live a fun and frugal lifestyle (it’s a few years old)
50 ways to live for free
10 quick ways to save money
6. Get Freebies
One great way to save money is to get things for free.
Most companies have sign up bonuses, free offers and discounts throughout the year.
Check out the list of birthday freebies we have, most of them have sign up freebies as well as birthday freebies.
Look at the list of Aussie freebies here and tips for families to live for free which covers everything from housing to travel.
7. Fast Money
Do the 7 Day Fast Money Challenge, a free email challenge where you get a daily email with things you can do immediately to make or save money.
Often we need money now and it can be extremely stressful when we don’t know how we are going to pay for everything we need to.
The 7 Day Fast Money Challenge is completely free and has a lot of bonuses to save you even more.
What will you do today to reduce your expenses?
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