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17 Ways I Saved Money in 2023

Every year I try and think back to all the ways I tried to save money over the last twelve months I think it’s always nice to have a record and it a great way to pay yourself on the back for a year for all your hard work to save money over the year. 

I also love that every dollar we save each year, and each new habit we adopt compounds over the years to help us save even more in the future. 

Here are 17 Ways I Saved Money in 2023. I hope they help inspire you with some ways for you to save more money in the coming year! 

Disclaimer: None of the suggestions below are sponsored products, they are all just my own genuine attempts to save money that I am sharing in the hope they will help inspire you with some ways to save money as well.

17 Ways I Saved Money in 2023

  1. Utilised food apps or memberships to save on dining out 

Eating out is getting ever so expensive and it is something we like to do so this year we tried to find ways we could save whilst still getting to occasionally skip cooking. Some things we tried were signing up for discounts such as to Rashay’s for a discount on our total bill, Or signing up to get a free dessert, and using KFC and the My Maccas apps to save on food. This meant rather than paying full price for meals we could get a discount or find cheaper meal options to save money.

  1. Joined Cinema memberships to save on movie ticket prices

It now costs about $25pp to see a movie in Sydney which imo is getting just too expensive. This year to help us save on cinema tickets we paid $15 to join Hoyts rewards VIP program which saves us 25% on tickets for the whole year and let’s us gain access to reward points that can get get us a free movie ticket and offers discounts on food and movie of the week for $10 a ticket. We’re also a lot more selective on what movies we go out to the cinema to see.

  1. Used fuel apps 

To save money on fuel which is a huge chunk of most of our budgets, I utilised my State’s fuel app which tracks the price of service stations around my State. It helps me plan out where to get petrol. With the app I was aware of the petrol price cycle which is currently ranging from highs of $2.20 to lows of $1.70 on any given day. By checking the app before fueling up for both our cars this helped us save up to $0.50/litre on both cars which is no small savings. 

  1. I started paying more attention to reward discount offers 

This year I made more of an effort to take advantage of rewards discounts and offers I was being offered such as from my utility provider, private health insurance and NRMA roadside membership. 

My private health insurance offers many discounts on gift cards from 3-10% so now before buying things I check my list of discounts to see if I can get a small discount before buying them. I recently discovered that with NRMA I can save 20% on parking which will help save some more $$.

  1. We cooked at home more 

I don’t think this is a new one for any of us, but in 2023 my husband and I really made an effort to cook at home to save money and experimented with new recipes. We found ways to have more expensive meals we’d normally buy out at home without the high cost. 

We tried Hot Pot for the first time in Jan 2023 and loved it but knew dropping $120 on Hot Pot was going to be a very expensive habit. So we found a way to have Hot Pot at home using our One Pot which only costs us about $40 rather than 3 x that to dine out. 

Some other meals we have learned to do at home are Beef Brisket, a range of Japanese dishes including Okonomiyaki and Katsudon, Pork Knuckle or Indian curries. To dine out for many of these would cost us $60 and upwards but to have them at home works out much cheaper for us and we still get to eat the food we love. 

  1. We started brewing our own beer

This is a really new one, but friends of ours started brewing their own beer at home this year. When they mentioned after a small initial outlay, the cost was only $1 per bottle of beer I was for the idea. 

My husband bought a home brew kit with a gift card he won at work and is awaiting his first batch in the coming weeks. We are yet to see if these first batches of home brews can live up to his beer ratings. Some of his favourite beers are priced at $18 a can, so fingers crossed this could be a good saving! 

  1. We changed our dining out habits

With the cost of living crisis and the very high cost of living in my hometown Sydney, dining out is becoming more of a luxury than ever. We used to love dining out on the weekend but with the cost, it’s now getting harder to justify that expense. I felt like everytime I went out to a cafe or restaurant, I was just outraged by the cost of everything and it wasn’t so enjoyable, at least not on a regular basis. Especially now that we are semi-chefs hehe. (See #5 ;))

Now when we want to eat out for dinner, we usually just get take out rather than dining in, this way we can save money on things like drinks (which are now $5+ for a soft drink), and can cook our own rice rather than paying $8-10. 

We’ve also done our best to find new restaurants that are more affordable for us to dine in and left the more expensive ones for more special occasions.

We also reduced what we order when we go out. In the past we would have shared an entree and ordered two mains, but now sometimes we just order two mains and skip the entree or just order one main to share. 

  1. I became more of a bargain hunter

I’ve always been someone who tries to find the best deals, but felt like I could do better and keep more of my money in my pocket. 

Recently I found myself about to pay full price for some new beach towels. These were $70 beach towels so not some cheap towels from Kmart. Instead of paying full price I put the towels back on the table at the store and set myself weekly reminders to look out for a sale. Within two weeks I was able to get the towels I wanted for 40% off and didn’t have to wait much longer at all. 

I’ve now implemented this habit for things I want to buy to help me get the best deal and go that extra step to make sure I really want to buy something before I hand over our hard earned cash. 

I’ve done the same for more pricier groceries where if I could hold off on getting them, I just waited a week or two until they were on special again before I bought them. 

  1. I shopped around for my mobile plan

Each year I review my mobile plan about twice a year to make sure I am getting the best value on my plan. This year I waited to until Black Friday to buy a sim card that was on special that would that would cost me half the half the price per month then my current mobile plan. This will save us $360 a year between two plans! 

It’s an annual plan, which I have never had before but I am keen to give it a go, and it I don’t like it I can always change it next year 🙂 

  1.  I started looking into how to propagate fruits and veggies at home

This year we started growing our own fruits and veggies from seeds from items we bought. I’d seen a lot of these seed propagation videos on pinterest that helped inspire me to get started. And the great thing is you don’t really need to spend a cent to do this. We have just been taking seeds from food as we buy them, and using takeaway or butter containers to plant the vegie seeds in.

This is still a new process, and we are yet to set up proper veggie gardens but we are hoping it will save more money in the coming years. As we speak we have attempted strawberries, basil and capsicum and have some thriving chives and spring onions, hopefully with more to come.  

  1. We meal planned more frequently

This year we really tried to find our groove with meal planning and eating out less. We were consistent with our meal planning so we shopped with more intention, wasted less food and saved on our grocery budget and found the more we stuck to our meal plan the easier it got and the more it become a routine. We also got better at making different meals so we could change things up a bit an avoid getting sick of eating the same meals. 

Some of our favourite meals this year were katsudon, pulled pork tacos with pineapple salsa, beef brisket burgers with coleslaw and salami napolitana pasta with red capsicum. 

  1.  I identified what really brought me joy

This year I honed in more on what really brought me joy. This meant I spent more in some budget areas, like on Entertainment, namely concerts/festivals but cut back in other areas like dining out.

When I saw one of my favourite bands the Foo Fighters play in Sydney recently, watching them play for 2.5 hours I knew my tickets were the best use of my money vs having an average overpriced dinner out. 

Whenever I go to a concert it’s something I really enjoy so I will do my best to be more mindful of that next year when I need to decide what’s more important in our budget and prioritise.

  1.  I spent less on takeaway coffees

My husband loves coffee so this was more of a saving on his part. This year he found a coffee he loves from Coles that’s a bit more expensive than the Aldi one he used to buy, but it means he’s more than happy to make coffee at home rather than having it out. With some coffees now $6 or $7 it’s a decent saving of $5 or more per cup of coffee and will go a long way to helping us save. 

We ended up buying the coffee straight from the supplier so it is much fresher, albeit a little pricier but still a huge saving. 

  1.  I focused on finding free activities when we travelled 

This last year we went on numerous weekend trips and on our first trip to Japan. 

When we travelled this year we focused on finding free activities to stretch our budget further whilst still having a good break, such as watching the sunrise and sunset, walks on the beach, stargazing and watching movies at our Airbnb. 

We ate breakfast at home and grabbed dessert from the supermarket to save on buying expensive restaurant desserts. 

  1. I spent less time at the shops browsing

This year I spent less time going to the shops. It meant I often wasn’t aware of what sales were happening which meant I was less tempted to buy anything I didn’t really need. 

Instead of browsing stores on my lunch breaks to pass the time, I’d watch a show or go for a walk. If I did go to the shops I would get what was on my list and leave which helped me be more intentional with my spending and save money. This isn’t too difficult for me, as I don’t particularly enjoy shopping these days but limiting browsing as a hobby certainly makes it less tempting to spend.  

  1.  I was more mindful of our electricity use

In July our electricity cost per KWH went up 20% so it was going to add a hefty amount to our bill over the coming Summer. So to try and keep our bills down we checked our electricity app frequently (I set a reminder on my phone to check it at least once a week), we made sure to turn off lights we weren’t using, we used blankets as much as possible in the colder months before turning on the heater, and utilised our fans and windows when it wasn’t hot enough for air conditioning. 

When we had to put the heater or aircon on we made sure to adjust the temperature so it was on higher or lower setting to use less power and a lower fan speed and would only turn the ducted on in the rooms we needed to. We are currently looking into getting solar to try and save even more money on power next year. 

  1. I organised my home  

Over the last few months, I really made an effort to organise my home more and get more clarity over the things we had in our home. 

I wanted to make sure if I had something I needed in the future, that I would be able to easily find it, rather than having to go and buy something and waste money on something I already had at home but couldn’t locate. 

I tried to declutter things I didn’t need so that I could store the things that really mattered.

Now I am much more aware of what we own and where it is located, and this will hopefully save me money in the new year. 

I would love to know what you did in 2023 to save money. Share yours in the comments!

Photo by Cristian Escobar on Unsplash

Budgeting

How To Do An Energy Audit On Your Home

A row of lightbulbs that are turned on

Have you ever conducted an energy audit on your home? 

Conducting an energy audit on your home is a great way to help you reduce your electricity bill and save some cash on your upcoming and future electricity bills. With electricity bills on the rise, and record temperatures expected this coming Summer, it’s as good a time as any to start looking at ways to save money on your power bill. 

6 Steps to Conducting a Home Energy Audit

To make your home more energy efficient, you can carry out a home energy audit. You’ll pinpoint appliances to upgrade, save big bucks on your energy bill, and make your home more comfortable to live in. 

Here are 6 steps to get you started.

1. Find out your energy usage in kilowatts per hour (KWh)

For any Aussie’s out there, the government has a super handy dandy energy benchmarking tool to work out the average electricity use in your local area. (If you aren’t from down under do a google search and see if there is something similar offered in your country :))

You simply need to enter your homes postcode and the number of people in your household:

Then answer 3 more questions to find out what the average energy use is in your suburb. 

The following results will display based on your selected postcode area:

This will help you to compare your energy use from your electricity bill and see if you are perhaps using more energy than you should be. You can then compare this figure to your most recent electricity bills. This information can help you see if you might need to make changes such as upgrading old appliances, or being a little more aware of how much electricity you are using.  

2. Identify energy guzzling appliances 

It’s important when you are armed with your energy use, that you start to identify older energy guzzling appliances. When appliances last longer than expected it can be a positive thing, but sometimes when we hold onto these appliance for too long they end up costing us in higher power bills such as; old fridges, pool filters and small fan heaters. 

There is number of ways to identify which appliances are more energy consuming than others. 

The first is using a smart meter and utilising your electricity providers app to identify what your appliance is costing to run, by trying to run only that appliance. I.e. Have your regular stand by power on and then only run the dishwasher at 11am. Then the next day check the app and see how much your energy use shot up at 11am. Experiment over the coming weeks to determine how much other appliances are costing. 

Another simple trick, if you don’t have a smart meter, is to turn off all your appliances except the one in question and look at your electricity meter to see how many revolutions it does in a minute. The faster (more revolutions) the meter goes, the more energy the appliance is using.

Another method is to multiply the wattage of the appliance (often found on the base) by the number of hours used per day. Divide this by 1000 to obtain your daily kWh and then multiply by the rate per kWh on your energy bill to find out how much the appliance is costing you each day.

Related Posts: Want more money saving tips? Check out 11 Every Day Tips to Save Money

3. Upgrade old appliances 

If your appliances are 10 years or older, it is likely they are using more energy than more modern and energy efficient appliances. This may seem like an expensive investment to update appliances, and it likely will be depending on how many you need to update, but the energy savings will help offset the cost.

Remember to go for the highest energy star ratings where possible. You can also check with your government and see what rebates are available. Some governments offer rebates to help you purchase new energy efficient appliances such as replacing lighting to LED downlights.  

You might even be able to pick up some good second hand bargains or floor models that are still energy efficient models, but that are discounted.

4. Check your lighting and heating/cooling is optimised  

A great way to save on power is to replace inefficient halogen lighting with LED lighting. Heat and cool only the rooms you are currently in in your home. Set your air conditioner or heater temperature to a lower temperature in winter such as heating at 23 degrees or higher temperature in Summer such as cooling at 25 degrees so it still heats or cools the room as desired and makes the room a comfortable temperature, but uses less energy, saving you money. 

Related Posts: If you loved this post you may love 22 Things I Did in 2022 to Save Money

5.  Install adequate insulation and ventilation

If your home is hot in summer and cold in winter, it’s time to look at insulation and ventilation. Installing insulation can help keep your home warmer in winter and cooler in summer, such as by installing batts in your roof. It can be difficult to install insulation in walls of a pre-built home but there are alternatives such as wall insulation foam sprays that can provide a workaround (albeit an expensive one). 

It may be worth getting a few insulation experts out to provide you with quotes on what it will cost to insulate your home better. Remember this should provide you on savings when it comes to your future electricity bills. 

6. Check for air leaks

You don’t want your heating and cooling to flow out of your home under the door. As part of your home energy audit you should check for any air leaks under doors, and through the sides of windows. These can easily be fixed with caulking and weatherstripping such as caulking around window gaps or using door seals.

Check your local hardware stores for solutions to stop air leaks in your home so you can keep your home air cool or warm as desired. You might even hire an energy assessor or other weatherization expert to test your home for air tightness to help you make sure your home is more airtight and saving you on electricity.

Well there you go, 6 steps you can carry out to do a home energy audit and hopefully save some money on your electricity bill. These tips may not be something you can implement overnight, but over the coming months you can try and work towards each step, such as saving up to buy a newer appliance to replace a less efficient one and doing your research on what government assistance or rebates are available to you in your local area which may help offset any costs involved. 

If you are keen to save money on your electricity bill this upcoming quarter, if might be well worth the effort to conduct an energy audit on your home to make sure you are savings as much money (and energy) as possible. With the cost of living going up, every dollar you can save will really help to stretch your budget further and keep more dollars in your wallet!  

The above six steps are courtesy of Energy Australia’s DIY Energy Audit. This post is not sponsored and I do not receive any commission from it, it is merely to share helpful advice with readers in the hope they can reduce their electricity bill. 

I’d love to know what you found from your energy audit. Leave a comment below if you found this post helpful, if you were able to identify anything from your home energy audit or if you have any extra tips to save on electricity. 

Do You Want to Learn How to Spend Your Money With Intention?

If you want to take control of your financial future, stop stressing about money and learn how to spend your money with intention, book in for your free Q&A call to see how Minimise With Me Financial Coaching can help you gain clarity around your finances! 

You can learn more about Minimise With Me Financial Coaching services here

Photo by Anthony Indraus on Unsplash

Budgeting

Unlocking the Benefits of Working with a Financial Coach

Your Financial Coach Jessica Skene
Financial Coach, Jessica Skene

There are so many people we hire to make our lives better and save us time. We hire psychologists to help us tackle the challenges of life, we hire gardeners to make our lawns look beautiful and cleaners to help save us time so we can have more time for the things we enjoy doing. One thing that many of us may not know about, or may not have thought about hiring is, someone to help support us with our finances.

Financial Coaching is a fairly new service and one that you might have never heard about. If you have or haven’t heard of a ‘Financial Coach’ and are curious as to how they might be able to help you when it comes to your finances, here’s some info to help you get to know a little bit more about what a Financial Coach is and what they do.

What is a Financial Coach?

A Financial Coach is an accountability partner and soundboard, to support you with making financial decisions, to be there to guide you through those unexpected financial issues that always seem to pop up out of the blue, and help you set and achieve your financial goals sooner!

What’s the Difference Between a Financial Advisor and a Financial Coach?

A Financial Advisor and Financial Coach may seem like they do the same thing but they add very different value to their clients. 

A Financial Advisor will work with their clients to help them plan for their financial future. Some of the things they can help their clients with are; investing, insurance, taxation, estate planning, and retirement planning. They help their clients with selecting the right investment products and asset allocations for their risk tolerance and work with their clients to build the retirement they desire.

A Financial Coach is focused on helping their clients with their day-to-day money management. They are an accountability partner that’s there to help their clients identify their financial goals, make a sustainable plan for their money and help their clients follow through on those goals. 

Financial Coaches are there to strategise and problems solve with you as life throws new financial obstacles at you (and let’s face it, these are always going to come up).

What Can a Financial Coach Help You With?

A Financial Coach can provide judgment-free support and be an accountability partner that can help you with budgeting skills, paying off debt, saving money, setting up systems to manage your day-to-day finances, learning new money habits, building a positive money mindset, goal-setting, and planning ahead with your money. They can help you:

  • Gain clarity over your finances so you know where your money is going each paycheck
  • Create a plan for your money that is sustainable
  • Set up easy-to-use systems to help you keep track of your finances
  • Resolve financial challenges you are experiencing 
  • Identify your financial goals and help you achieve your desired results faster
  • Pay down debt and understand the reasons you are going into debt so you can stop the debt cycle
  • Find extra money in your budget to contribute to your retirement fund
  • Change your money habits 
  • Identify your money values so you can spend your money with more intention and create your ideal life
A lady working at her computer in deep thought

Why Should I Hire a Financial Coach?

Money is the #1 cause of stress in Australia (Medibank May 2022 survey). Money stress can have a hugely negative effect on people in all facets of their lives. Financial Stress doesn’t end at your wallet and limit itself to impacting your finances alone. The ripple effect caused by money stress can affect other many areas of your life such as your sleep, health, relationships, parenting, and quality of life.

Your finances can be a difficult or uncomfortable thing to discuss with your spouse, family, friends, and colleagues. You might not know anyone in your personal circle that you can turn to for a judgment-free discussion around money.

You may have tried to discuss finances with someone close, but found that their responses were unhelpful or that they have their own financial money blocks or negative views about money. You might walk away from that conversation feeling more confused or frustrated at responses like “oh we’ll always be broke” or, “things will only change if we win the lotto”. 

You might have been struggling with your finances for some time and are starting to feel hopeless about getting ahead, not knowing who can help you turn your financial future around.

This is where a Financial coach can help you. A Financial coach is there to help you talk about your financial challenges, goals, and dreams in a safe, supportive, and confidential space.

A lady waking in a field of white flowers near the beach, slightly higher on shore with a sun hat turning towards the water

What Are The Benefits of Financial Coaching

Improving your finances, will certainly help your finances, but Financial Coach has many benefits outside of more dollars in your bank account.

By removing roadblocks and financial challenges, many different areas of your life will improve, some that may not seem like they have anything to do with finances! But when you look deeper at your financial challenges you will start to see how much financial stress can impact other areas of your life.

A Financial Coach can work with you and help you to:  

  • minimise or eliminate stress around money
  • sleep better 
  • spend your money in alignment with your values
  • minimise impulse spending
  • strengthen your relationship with your spouse 
  • feel more confident with financial decisions
  • be a more present parent as well as, set an example to your children with good money habits 
  • build your ideal life so you can do the things you always dreamed of and
  • create more happy memories with your family and friends
  • feel financially healthy 

Why Should I Hire a Financial Coach When There is so Much Free Info Online?

Having all this information can be helpful for some, but extremely overwhelming for others. Not everyone has the time or patience to figure things out slowly. Plus the trial and error can take years and when we tackle a goal, most of us need to see progress very quickly to keep us motivated to keep going. If we don’t see that progress almost immediately we might give up before we’ve made any long-term changes to our financial habits.


I know when I was starting my business, for the first year I was determined to figure it all out myself. I didn’t want to spend money as I wasn’t ready to see the value in investing in my education. I watched endless youtube videos, read blogs, listened to podcasts and joined business Facebook groups, and consumed as much free information as I could. This was super helpful but didn’t quite get me as far ahead as I had hoped. There were so many gaps I needed to fill and I really just needed someone I could ask that could guide me in the right direction.

Within 12 months, I found myself not closer to where I wanted to be in my business, I felt like I was spinning my wheels. I needed someone to take all the information for me and put it into a structured plan I could follow and knock out those action steps so I could make progress more quickly.

I finally took the leap and invested in myself and purchased a course I had been considering buying for months. Immediately I felt a sense of relief that someone else that has done all the trial and error themselves and was going to give me the tools and know-how, that I needed to move forward with my business. I can’t imagine how much further behind I would be if I had just kept on struggling and not allowed myself to spend money on something that was going to add value to my life.

If you’re busy and short on time, you may not have the time to research and find the right financial tools to make progress with your finances or figure out the best plan of action for you. If you don’t see yourself moving forward and getting results with your finances after trying to on your own for so long you may lose the motivation you had at the start and end up not making any progress at all. 

When working with your Financial Coach you will be in good hands, they’ll be there as your accountability partner to help you stay the course with your financial goals.

A Personalised Approach

Financial Coaching is not your one size fits all approach like some of the financial expert’s advice out there. If finances were just a ten-step plan that was straightforward forward we would all be debt free, retiring early and rolling in money right?

Personal Finances is so much more than just simple steps. It is personal! Each person’s financial journey is different. If you ignore the behaviour, habits, and don’t get to the crux of what motivates you and why this is important to you, you may struggle to move forward with your financial goals.

Your coach will take the time to get to know your financial dreams, personal challenges, and goals and help you to overcome those roadblocks stopping you from getting you where you want to be in life. You may have tried different financial tools to manage your finances before but found that they didn’t work for you. A Financial Coach will be there with you as new financial issues arise to help you strategise and brainstorm new solutions and find the right tools and systems that work best for you.

Finding the Right Fit With a Financial Coach

Financial Coaches are not a one size fits all. Many have very specific niches in order to help people with very specific goals. Often in areas that they are passionate about, or have walked through themselves so you know that you are in good hands as most likely your coach has been where you are before.

A Financial Coach might exclusively work with engaged couples to help the couple set themselves up for a happy financial future with their new husband or wife. Others, work with teenagers to help set them up with the financial skills they need to navigate their steps into adulthood or exclusively work with divorced men and women to help them with their finances to build their new life after a divorce.

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Can I Afford to Hire A Financial Coach?

It can be difficult to make the decision of hiring a Financial Coach when you are trying to pay off debt and save money. Paying for Financial Coaching can seem counterintuitive at this stage right?

But the decision to delay or not seek help if you are facing financial challenges may result in you ending up prolonging your financial challenges. The cost of inaction when it comes to your finances may result in a much higher cost than the investment in working with a Financial Coach. You don’t want to delay taking action with your finances and delaying your financial progress. This is especially true if you are planning to take advantage of Compound Interest! The sooner you pay off your debt and get investing the better for future you!

The best investment you can make is in yourself – Warren Buffett

Investing in yourself can be the best use of your money and something many of us are reluctant to do. Why are we so reluctant to spend money to invest in ourselves – afterall, we are our most important investment!

Hiring a Financial Coach will benefit you in the long term and lead you on a path to spending your money on things that truly matter to you. It will also allow you to start your financial journey & achieve your financial goals sooner, making stressing over money a thing of the past. If you’ve hired someone to help you before with anything, whether that be gardening, painting, or cleaning, have a think about how awesome it’s going to be hire someone that’s able to not only help you move forward with your financial goals, but is going to cover their fee many times over by saving you money over your lifetime!

If you see the value in hiring a Financial Coach but are not sure if you can afford one, the great news is you’ve got a budgeting expert who will be there to help you with strategising your budget options so you can find a way to afford to hire a Financial Coach without you having to put your financial goals on hold. 

This is a perfect example of how a Financial Coach can help you move from a negative money mindset permeated with feelings like; ‘I can’t afford it’ to a more positive money mindset, where we can come from a more inquisitive mindset and turn that language on its head such as replacing language like ‘I can’t’ to ‘This is important to me, how can I afford it?’. Think of the amazing things you can do in life when you learn how to make the things you want to do a reality!

How Can I Work With a Financial Coach?

If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of working with a Financial Coach, click the link below to book your complimentary Q&A session with Financial Coach Jess to discuss your current financial goals and challenges and see how we can help you achieve your most important financial milestones.

Financial Coach Jess is here to help you spend your money with intention so you can create your ideal life. You can learn more about Financial Coach Jess and her services here.

Budgeting

22 Things I Did In 2022 To Save Money

4 balloons that are 2 0 2 2 for 2022

At the end of every year, I like to take a moment to reflect on the money-saving tips and tricks I implemented or attempted to adopt during the year in order to save money. For the last few years now I’ve compiled these into a blog post in the hope that they might be helpful to inspire your own saving goals in 2023.

You can check out my prior ones here…

17 Things I Did in 2017 to Save Money

19 Things I Did in 2019 to Save Money

I think it’s always helpful to think bigger picture when it comes to saving money. Often it’s implementing regular habits and behavioural changes that you repeat that end up saving you the most money rather than once-off attempts to save money. 

Some of these tips may be things I did to save money in prior years and others might be completely new ones. The magic of these tips is the more you repeat these, the more you will save month after month, year after year! 

So here they are without further adieu…

22 Things I Did In 2022 To Save Money

1. Set Up Google Flight Tracker Notifications

Now that 2020/2021 has been and gone, this year we wanted to make up for lost time and so, booked 3 seperate holidays. In order to try and save on those pricey flight prices I utilised Google Flight Tracker to try and get the best deals on flights. 

If you are interested, simply google a flight I.e. Syd to Melb flights 

Click the Flights tab

Enter your preference options and dates, and then toggle on the Track Prices tab. Google will then email you when there is a sale on your chosen dates.  

You can also select the price graph and date grid to see the price history and select the cheapest dates to fly. 

2. Used An Expense Tracker For Travelling to Ensure I Stayed In Budget

For my most recent overseas trip I utilised my own Travel Expense Tracker to track our budget to actual expenditure across different categories. This way I could see how much we were spending on a particular category and could be more mindful of spending on our trip. You can grab the same one I used here!

3. Paused Memberships

I love my Audible membership but can’t always get through a book a month, so whenever my book credits start to pile up, I’ll pause my membership temporarily and save the monthly fee until I am all caught up and can start using my credits to select some new books to listen to. 

Likewise, with TV streaming I stick to having one or two at a time and swap them in and out as I need them. I find having around two more than enough to watch, especially when you add in Youtube content.  

4. Only Bought Clothes When I Need to Replace Something

It’s a good thing that clothes shopping is no longer a hobby of mine, so it’s fairly easy for me to wait to replace clothing until I need something. But rewinding several years back this is where a huge chunk of my money would have gone.

I like to keep a list of clothing items I need in my Trello app so I can replace things as I need to and can easily find exactly what I need to replace. Now I focus on quality over quantity and let my clothes tell me when I need to update my wardrobe, rather than advertisements or shop windows. 

5. Upgraded Our Appliances

This year my dishwasher and dryer after 11 plus years of loyal service both bowed out. After previously paying a service tech to attempt to save our prior washing machine, only to have to call him back to fix a remaining leak and then ending up having to replace the machine anyway, this time we just started a new and bought new appliances (with much research!). 

We also decided to enter the year 2022 and updated our 11 year old 40″ TV to a 75″ one. I always prescribed to; if it works, why update it – but after achieving some of our huge financial goals the prior year we thought a new TV was a great way to celebrate our financial journey progress!  

These updates certainly cost us money upfront but would have given us a slight energy efficiency increase (even if only a small one), saving us on our power bills. Unfortunately dryers even a decade later still seem to still have horrid energy efficiency ratings (but don’t worry it is not used too frequently!)

6. Decanted Products When Travelling

On prior trips, I’ve always ended up needing something I forgot to bring or didn’t have and had to resort to buying things I needed at my destination. More often than not I am irked at the price of things that seem to be so much more affordable at my local discount chemist or supermarket. 

On my most recent trip, I tried to think ahead and bring those items along whether it be Panadol, eye drops, Dencorub, or makeup wipes to avoid having to keep buying things on my travels. Of course, you can rarely plan for everything that you need, but you can always try and limit what you end up having to buy whilst on holiday.

I used small travel containers to take only a small amount of what I needed to use to save on extra baggage and make sure they fit in my makeup travel bag and were convenient to travel around with. 

Even with my best efforts, I still did need to go and buy a few items at my destination but at least for the most part, I had everything I needed. I am trying to make my life easier but adding these items to a pre-made travel packing list I can refer to before each trip I take. Easy!  

7. Found More Fun Free Activities

With all the extra time we had at home in recent years (skipping over that part), we had to find more fun and free activities we could do at home. 

We started online gaming and now enjoy playing some PC/Nintendo switch games in our free time. These may have a once-off cost involved to purchase a game (though sometimes PC games are free!) but they do in the long run save us paying for other entertainment. We can also play with friends and family so it has a social aspect as well 🙂 

We now love listening to vinyl, look for local walks in our city to enjoy, and take advantage of star gazing on clear nights. All are completely free! We even invested in bikes, although we do need to make an effort to use those more!

When we venture out to see a movie we’ll try and use a gift card (yay for experience gifts!) and search for discounted movie tickets (if you are an NRMA member you get discounts at Event Cinemas or you might be able to get a discount via your health insurance, it is always worth a try!). 

I extend these efforts to try and find as much free entertainment when travelling as possible as well; such as walks, gardens, lookout points, museums, and art galleries which often are free entry. There is so much to do when travelling that doesn’t cost anything. By taking advantage of nature and walking as much as we can it helps us save on entertainment when travelling. 

8. Transferring Extra Cash To Savings

Each time I get paid, I check my pay amount and if it is slightly higher than normal (I.e. I got leave loading or a small bonus) I will transfer the extra straight into my savings account. This way I actually can utilise that extra cash for something important and spend it with intention rather than just letting it slip through my fingers. 

9. I Stayed Out of Debt

Back in May 2017, we repaid the last of my husband’s student loans. That was our last consumer debt owed and we have now been consumer debt free for over 5 years! And I promise there were no regrets about becoming debt free. This has allowed us to fast-track paying off our mortgage as we only had one debt to focus our efforts on. 

Even though my husband is back at University now doing his Master’s, we are cash-flowing his studies rather than taking on more student debt. By staying out of debt we can save much more money each year and continue to work on our next financial goal whatever that may be. 

10. Found Quality Coffee at Home 

My husband is a lover of coffee, I on the other hand don’t drink it so that at least helps hehe. But to try and save money on buying coffee out (and irking at the price to get a takeaway coffee – Sheesh!), which is now about $5.50 or more by the time you add in specialty milk, we were able to find a good quality ground coffee at our local Coles supermarket which my husband was more than happy with after much trial and error of other varieties. 

Although this coffee does cost more than other brands at the supermarket, it is a lot cheaper than paying $5.50 a coffee, 7 days a week. 

So a huge thanks to my hubby for hearing me on this one and keeping his takeaway coffees to only very occasionally. And a bonus, for tea lovers, supermarkets now even sell Bubble Milk Tea packs for under $10 which again at $8 odd a pop, is helping us save $. 

The savings here are great, let’s say a $10 pack of coffee lasts you a week vs $5.50 x 7 days a week, we are already at a saving of $1482 a year (grabbed these rough estimates off my husband based on his consumption). 

11. Planned Ahead for Gifts

Have you ever noticed, that when you shop last minute you end up paying more? And then you are stuck paying $8.99 for a card as you didn’t get to the cheap shop earlier and then you don’t have any wrapping paper or tape, so now you are forced to buy a $5 bag on top of finding a last-minute gift that is full price, even though you could have got it online cheaper if you just had more time. 

I used to be a serial last-minute gift shopper, but over the years I have attempted to try and be more organised when it comes to buying gifts. My general rule is to try and prepare at least a month out when it comes to gift buying. For Christmas I like to start a bit earlier in October, and take advantage of the Black Friday sales come late November. 

Whenever I am in a cheap shop I’ll have a quick think about what birthdays or events I have coming up and what cards I will need. This saves any last-minute expensive gift-related purchases. And gifts do certainly add up in your budget over the year!

12. Asked For a Raise

I’ve never been that confident at asking for raises but I found some awesome advice a few years ago so I got into the habit of tracking what I did above and beyond my job description. Every time I worked on an additional project I would keep a note of that somewhere so I could refer back to it. 

When it came time to have our pay review discussions, I had my achievements in black and white to justify my case for a raise ready to go and could demonstrate my added value across the last 12 months.

This enabled me to get a slightly larger raise than had I not asked, so I highly encourage you to do the same and ask for what you deserve. Remember, no one cares about your income or budget as much as you do! 

Every dollar is going to be an extra dollar to put toward your goals.    

13. Maintained Good Tax Records to Maximise Refunds

Over the years I have set up a fairly easy to maintain tax filing system in Google Drive. It’s a great way to keep records for tax and ensure we can claim as many allowable tax deductions as we can. 

When you spend money for your job and are entitled to a deduction for those amounts, you want to make sure you’re keeping track of those expenses as you go and saving yourself a paperwork headache come tax time! 

And this could be some serious cash. If you earn over $45,000 per year in Australia, each dollar you can legitimately claim as a tax deduction can put 32.5 cents back into your pocket (As per ATO tax thresholds 2022-23)! 

Disclaimer: Correct at the time of writing this but subject to change. This example is based on a 100% deduction for work purposes, with receipts and subject to tax assessment. Please note this is general advice only and should not be relied upon as personal tax advice. Please consult a tax professional for specific advice for your personal tax scenario. 

14. I Used Up What I Had First

Before my minimalism journey, I would often bring new beauty, hair, and makeup products home to try, more often than not, just because they were on sale and I couldn’t resist. 

Since identifying these unhelpful spending habits, I have made an effort to use up what I have first, and only replace things like foundation, or lotions when I am running out. This way I am conscious of what I already have at home and can avoid buying things I don’t need!

I keep a rule of only having 1-2 spare ready to go when the current item I am using runs out and so far this has gotten me by. If I am ever really that desperate I can usually get the item from the shop that same day.   

15. Stocking Up On Sale Items

I used to avoid having too many items stocked up in my home, but with frequent stock shortages and the cost of living crisis we are facing, it now makes more sense to me to stock up on things I buy frequently when they are on sale to make sure that I have them when I need them and ideally on sale. 

If things I will definitely use are on sale, I will now stock up a bit more than I used to.

I won’t buy a year’s supply but I will grab 1 or 2 extra to help save some $! Things I try to stock up on now are vitamins, hand soap, dishwashing liquid, dishwashing tablets, lotions, shampoo, conditioner etc.  

16. Utilised 7/11 and NSW Fuel Check Apps 

I am sure I don’t need to remind you about the increase in petrol prices at the moment, we are all feeling the cost of living increase this year. To help with this wallet pain, I regularly check the 7/11 and Fuel Check Apps to see what petrol prices are around my local area so I can stay aware of when petrol prices are going up or down and plan to fill up my car accordingly. 

I am lucky to have a friend who is as vigilant as I am with fuel prices so between us we keep on the ball with when the best time to fill up is.

I’ve used the 7/11 fuel app to lock in petrol prices that are low and saved myself $20 on a tank countless times. It’s definitely worth the slight hassle for me. If you aren’t using a fuel app like the 7/11 ones or NSW Fuel check one, this is something that could really help you save some serious dollars!  

17. Invested in Quality Shoes

A while ago, if you looked at my shoe collection you would have a common theme of budget shoes, all under $30 a pair – bargains! This past year I spent the most I have ever spent on a pair of shoes before ($240) and I will sing from the rooftops about it. When you hit mid-30s, you cannot put a price on a good pair of comfy shoes! 

Although this is an example of me spending more money than before, and may not be a saving in that respect, technically I am saving money as I am buying one pair instead of many shoes, that are quality, will last me longer and I am certainly going to save money on massages for a sore back and feet! 

And so I am counting it a savings win for me.  

18. Used Bank Cards with no Fees or Reimbursements

My bank card refunds me all ATM fees and International fees and charges me no monthly fees, all of which can be expenses that add up quickly. 

I extended those savings on my recent overseas trip where I managed to save myself around 3% of each transaction as international transaction fees were reimbursed to me as well as $5 overseas ATM withdrawal fees. It sure pays to look into your banking card options before you travel! Look at all these green refunds! 

19. Cut and Died My Own Hair

I have been trimming and dying my own hair for years now, which came in particularly handy over recent times. To hit the salon with my locks, I would be forking out over $250 every six to eight weeks versus the $20 or less it costs me to DIY my hair at home.  

If I dye my hair 9 times a year thats $20×9=$180 vs $2250 if I went to the salon each time.

I keep my hair the same colour so I am not worried about any colouring mishaps, but of course, if you want to do something more experimental please do see a good hairdresser and save yourself any unwanted heartache. 

20. Dined Out Less

I am not sure about you guys, but after months of being stuck at home, I kind of got used to eating in the comfort of my own home, away from the noise and squishy, awkwardly placed tables. 

We started to adopt the habit of eating out less a couple of years back to save money and have carried that into 2022. 

Sure, I still love to dine out on occasion, but nowhere near the number of times I would have in prior years. We now prefer to save eating out for more special occasions.

By eating at home we can save much more money than eating out. We usually stick to buying only two mains, often make our own rice for Indian or Thai curries, and drink what we have in the fridge to save even more. 

So to add in some dollar values:

  • At home, we can pay $1.77 for a bottle of Coke No Sugar vs paying $8 (or more) for two glasses in a restaurant. Again, repeat that once a week, and hello savings! Estimated savings: $323 a year.
  • If we skip ordering rice and make our own at home we pay 50c vs $5.00. Again, $4.50 saved once a week is $234. 
  • I even asked for some alcohol for Xmas last year for a mini cocktail bar so I could make myself some of my favourite cocktails at home, saving a whopping $18 a pop. Say $18 twice a month I am saving $432. 

Of course, it isn’t all sacrifice! These small adjustments have made our “Outings” budget stretch a bit further so we can enjoy ourselves when we do go out. 

21. Found a High-Interest Bank Account

It’s always good practice to look around for the best high-interest savings accounts. When I did this earlier this year, I found a new bank account my current bank was offering that was paying a much higher rate of interest than I was currently getting. So after a quick change, we were able to earn a lot more in interest than we had been. 

If you have just $5000 in a savings account earning 3% the interest alone might cover one of your subscription costs per month and I think that’s a win 🙂 

22. Learned For Free

There is so much free knowledge available out there whether it be books, online courses, documentaries, Youtube videos, podcasts – you name it. This year I did my best to take advantage of as much free educational content as I could. 

Not to say that I didn’t spend any money on my own personal growth this year, as I did, and I think that is always a worthy investment, but I did take advantage of as much available information as I could. 

Don’t forget to sign up to the Minimise With Me Mailing list for your free eBook ‘101 Ways to Save Money, Whilst Still Living Awesomely’!

Of course, this is all in unison with everything I have done over the prior years, don’t forget to check out my prior posts 17 Things I Did in 2017 to Save Money and 19 Things I Did in 2019 To Save Money

If you found value in this post I would be super appreciative if you could share it with others who might also find value in it 🙂

Question: Which of the above suggestions are you hoping to implement in 2023 to save money? Let me know in the comments 🙂

Photo by Eyestetix Studio on Unsplash

Budgeting Minimalism

8 Questions to Ask Yourself to Help You Stop Impulse Buying

Manequins at a store with a special sign on the front window

If you are prone to buying on impulse and want some tricks up your sleeve to spend your money with intention, here are 8 Questions to Ask Yourself to Help You Stop Impulse Buying.

The next time you go to buy something, pause before you reach for your credit card, or opt for a Buy Now Pay Later payment and ask yourself these 8 questions.

The more of these you ask yourself, the less likely you will be to bring something home that you bought on impulse. No one enjoys that post-shopping spree regret. Here were get, let’s help you spend your money with more intention!  

8 Questions to Ask Yourself to Help You Stop Impulse Buying

  1. Is This Item Going To Add Value To My Life?

If you are buying something that will not add value to your life why are you buying it? Sometimes we get so used to our shopping habits that we forget to stop and ask ourselves this.

If something is not going to add value to your life, you are truly just adding clutter to your home and wasting valuable resources: your time and money! You may justify buying something because it is so affordable, but there is more cost than the dollar amount exchanged.

The next time you face any of the following experiences or similar remember to ask ‘Is this item going to add value to my life?
You’re buying another book to add to your overflowing bookcase filled with books you still haven’t read…

You just added an outfit to your car that you only plan to wear once… (ignoring that you may already have something similar at home)…

You are stocking up on craft supplies when you haven’t even touched the collection of art supplies you already have at home….

If you aren’t planning to use that item in the immediate future, leave it on the shelf or delete it out of your cart.

2. Is It Something I Will Use Regularly? 

When shopping, think about how much use you will get out of the item and use this to help determine firstly if you really need to buy it and secondly, the amount you are willing to pay for it (with the cost per use in mind).

When you buy something you can use regularly, you get more bang for your buck. It’s a good habit to focus on quality over quantity. Spend more on what you will use regularly.

For example, an expensive quality jacket might end up costing more upfront, but less per wear, than a cheaper one that is lower quality and falls apart in a matter of wears forcing you to rebuy another jacket sooner than you would have had to.

Your things should also ‘earn’ storage space in your home. If an item is used regularly, it deserves that valuable space on your kitchen counter or in your wardrobe more than something that is not used regularly.

With housing becoming more and more unaffordable, it is going to be more important than ever to ensure what you are bringing into your home deserves to take up your valuable space. So reserve your space for what you will use frequently and get the most value from.

If it is something you only need once off, perhaps you can borrow it from a family member for that one time and return it, saving yourself money and valuable storage space.

3. Will It Bring Me Joy? 

Before making a purchase, ask yourself “Will this item bring me joy”? This will help you separate buying something that you want and that you will enjoy from something you are just buying out of habit, or boredom. It’s important to recognise that buying a want and buying on impulse are two different things. We can still purchase wants with intention!

Skip the purchases that won’t really bring you joy and save for the ones that do! Often we will say no to the things we really want (like a Summer holiday) but won’t hesitate to spend $10 here and there at Kmart on nothing in particular. That $10 may not sound like much in one shopping trip but trust me, it adds up!

For me personally, you won’t see me spend $1,000 on a handbag or a pair of shoes, but I will spend that (and more) on a mobile phone or laptop that I will use every single day and get 365 days of use out of the item! Work out what spending brings you joy, and what spending doesn’t, and spend accordingly!

4. Do I Have A Specific Use For It and A Place to Store It 

Before making any purchasing decisions, have a think about what you will use the item for and where you are going to store it. This may seem like a weird thing to think about but it can help you avoid a lot of post-shopping guilt and anxiety.

I know a constant stress for me, back when I used to spend my money with less intention was buying a whole bunch of stuff and coming home and having to think about where the hell I was going to store it all. I know some days I just left the bags on the dining table or my drawers so I could deal with that issue later.

If your closet is busting at the seams and you don’t have room for another piece of clothing, or you have no shelving space for another stylish ornament, avoid the stress of finding somewhere to shove it in your home by asking before you walk out of the store with the item where you intend to store it.

Picture it in your head.

Will it go in your drawers or cupboard? Will it fit in your linen closet or on a particular shelf? Consider, does the idea of thinking where to put your new purchase when you get home frazzle you? If that is the case it might be time to declutter your home before you think about bringing anything more into your space and just leave that item in the store.

5. Is Having This Thing More Important To Me Than *insert goal here*

Sometimes you might have the best intentions when it comes to your money. You set yourself a goal but end up spending money you don’t have which takes away from your goal. Perhaps you don’t even have set goals for your money, which can lead you to impulse buying and spending more money than you would have, had you had those goals front of mind and a plan for your money.

By setting yourself regular goals, you’ll have more direction with how you spend your money and can then frame your purchasing decisions with questions like;

  • Do I want this dress more than I want to go on my holiday to _______
  • Do I want a new car more than I want to save up for my first home?
  • Is this new book more important to me than putting that amount on my car loan to pay down my debt?

When you have a clear goal, you are more aware of what your spending is making you miss out on and you can use that goal to motivate you to spend more intentionally.

6. Am I Willing To Put The Time In To Maintain This Item?

Whenever we buy things, they come with a certain amount of maintenance which might not be so obvious at first. That is until it is in your home.

This maintenance might include washing and ironing an item of clothing, dusting around an item of decor, and so on.

Buying a car comes with the requirement to service it every 15,000kms, buying a new ornament requires picking that item up to dust or vacuum around it once a week.

These considerations convinced me to stay in my humble-sized home, rather than upsizing and taking on extra maintenance every single day.

These small chores add up over time and need to be considered when making a purchase.

Before impulse buying, ask yourself if you are willing to pick that item to dust around every weekend when you are doing your chores.

Ask yourself if you are willing to wash all those clothes you plan to buy and deal with the never-ending pile of laundry that comes with a large closet.

When you think about the commitment your stuff requires, it eventually looks a little less desirable and helps us to stop impulse buying. 

7. If It Was Full Price Would I Still Buy It?

Sometimes a sale can completely blind us to all the things we should take into consideration before making a purchase. By pausing and asking ourselves ‘Would I buy this if it was full price?’, we can identify if an item really does meet our wants and or needs, or if it was just us impulsively acting because it was on sale.   

When you change that price tag in your mind back to full price, suddenly you are asking yourself:

‘Do I love this enough to pay the full price’?

It’s a quick tool to have up your sleeve to put the brakes on grabbing for your credit or debit card, before you’ve really assessed how much you really want or need that item.

Sometimes after asking this question your answer would still be yes, and that’s when you know you can go ahead and make that purchase intentionally. If the answer is No, try and dig into whether that’s just a love of sales that’s got your saying no, or whether maybe you don’t really like the item as much as you thought you did when it had a for sale tag on it.

8. Is This Thing Worth My Time?

Most of us trade our time for money. I would suggest very few of us have an endless amount of money to pay for the things we want or need.

Every dollar we spend is therefore actually time from our lives that we can never get back.

When we buy things we need to consider how much of our lives we are willing to give up, or trade essentially, for that thing we want. When we think long and hard about our purchases in this light, it might help us to rethink how we spend our money and time and help us to stop impulse buying.

I was faced with this same scenario in my mid-20s when I worked two jobs. There came a point when I decided that losing my Sunday night, my time to relax and refresh before my work week started, wasn’t worth it in exchange for what I was paid and what I could buy with that money.  I ended up quitting that second job after 5 years of working in both jobs simultaneously and never looked back. Nothing was worth more to me than having my Sunday night and my free time back.

Of course, there will be things that are worth spending on and exchanging our time for money, like food for our family, lights, water, and the clothes on our backs. There will be other things we find value in, like a decent computer or phone and the occasional book or movie to enjoy.

But when we buy things that we don’t need like our 50th pair of shoes, or a new phone when our old one is only a year old and works perfectly fine, we are throwing away hours of our lives that we can never get back on things that we don’t really need. I hope this question helps you to spend your money with intention and think of your purchases not just in terms of the cost, but the cost to your time, a resource that you can never get back.

Summary List

  1. Is This Item Going To Add Value To My Life?

2. Is It Something I Will Use Regularly? 

3. Will It Bring Me Joy? 

4. Do I Have A Specific Use For It and A Place to Store It 

5. Is Having This Thing More Important To Me Than *insert goal here*

6. Am I Willing To Put The Time In To Maintain This Item?

7. 8. If It Was Full Price Would I Still Buy it

8. Is This Thing Worth My Time?

This week’s comment questions: What do you find is the most helpful question to stop impulse buying? Let me know in the comments 🙂

Budgeting

How I made $5000 Selling Our Clutter Online

A notebook with a $ sign on it
 

In early 2016 after decluttering many items in my home, and really leaning into our #debtfreejourney I got the idea to combine my decluttering and savings goals and try to make some extra cash by selling our clutter. I knew some of our things were worth something and wanted to try my luck at getting some cash for them.

Of course, there are some things you will have to just accept as a Sunk Cost (the money is long gone now). The fact that they are no longer bringing you happiness means they are now costing you in space, time and quite possibly your mental health.

Think about how good it will feel to see your savings climbing. Or how good it will feel to finally get your car into your garage. Or how much easier it will be to find your favourite outfit when you don’t have to pull out 10 pairs of jeans just to find your 1 favourite pair.

If you are holding onto some clutter that no longer adds value to you, it might very well be something someone else would be happy to take off your hands and gain value in. This way you can be kind to the environment by passing it on to a new owner who will love that item as much as you probably did at some point. And a bonus, you can use the cash you bring in from selling an item to put towards a financial goal that is important to you.

One of the hardest things when it comes to decluttering is to think of all the wasted money you spent on these things that you are now getting rid of. There can be a feeling of guilt around all the things you could have done with that money intsead. But it is important to not get frozen by those thoughts. Give yourself some kindness. Remember, that was in the past. Now we are going to move past any feelings of guilt and take action so that we can avoid making those same unintentional purchases in the future.

How I Got Started Selling

When I hit my late 20s, I had been living in my first home for about 5 years. And was amazed to see how many things had accumulated in such a short space of time. I had stuff every where in our modest sized home. Over time I started to notice all the STUFF. I was surrounded. I couldn’t open my drawers. My dining table was covered in crap. And it didn’t feel like a relaxing place to return to.

So I started to go around my home and declutter things. After a bit of decluttering I realised that some of the brand name items or electronics might be worth something. I came across 4 boxes of brand new hair dye that I hadn’t used.
I thought about selling them and soon enough I had put my first item up on eBay. I had bought those hair dye boxes for only $5 each. I wasn’t really sure if I could donate them so I figured I figure I’d try and sell them to someone else who would find value in them.

I listed them on eBay for $10 thinking it would be nice to get some of my money back. By the end of the week, I was amazed to hear my phone go off with numerous bidders for my unwanted hair dye. That listing ended up selling for $37. I couldn’t believe it, I had almost made back double what I had spent on them and also gotten rid of four items out of my house. Talk about winning.

How to Start With Identifying Things to Sell

To get started, you must first identify what you no longer want to hold onto.

In order to do this, you need to get decluttering.

Start with one room at a time so you can focus your effort on a single space and feel like you are moving forward as you finish decluttering each room or space.
To declutter the items that you will (sell or donate) use 4 boxes or containers and label them with the following labels:

  1. Keep

2. Toss

3. Donate, and lastly

4. Sell.

Once you have sorted your items in the room or space you are decluttering, Toss your trash items, put the Keep pile back in its home and pop the Donation box into your boot, ready to be dropped off as soon as possible to a friend or local charity bin/store.

For your Sell pile, find a location to store your box or container. Perhaps set up a “sell station” in a garage or spare room if you have one.

Question To Ask As You Declutter

To help you get started decluttering here are 3 Questions to help you make decisions on what to let go and what to sell.

1. ‘Do I love this?’

If I did I kept it.

2. Have I used this item in the last 12 months?

If not, it is probably time to let it go. Remember if you really need the item again, you could borrow it from someone or get a second hand one.

3. ‘Would I buy this again today?

That usually helped me differentiate between what I should and shouldn’t keep. Most often the answer to this was No.

With these three questions, I was able to minimise about 70% of the contents of our home.

My Favourite Selling platforms

During my decluttering journey, I used three selling platforms to sell my unwanted times: eBay, Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace. I am sure there are much more available now, but these are the ones I have tried and tested and will limit this blog to discussing. I will go in detail below as to when is best to use the three mentioned above and what the pros and cons are of each.

eBay

When to use eBay:

  • You have something to sell that is easy to post domestically
  • You want to reach a larger audience
  • You want to sell something for what it is worth rather than just what you can give it away for
  • To avoid the hassle of meeting with strangers and wasting your time with no shows
  • Items are of higher value so you can accept the higher fees
  • You want to build up an eBay account with feedback to make your selling into a side hustle

Pros:

  • free to list
  • no need to pay to bump up ads
  • access to the eBay search features with high-detail posts so your items are more easily found by potential buyers
  • only pay final value fees & Paypal fees for what you sell
  • feedback over time will let your buyers know if you are a quality seller
  • you can tick the relist option which will automatically list your ad for the next three auctions
  • You can pick the ‘auction’ option and potentially sell your item for more than your base price

Cons:

  • high fees, eBay charges on average 10% and Paypal 3-4% so everything you sell will come with a 14% fee
  • fees are chargeable on shipping
  • the hassle of posting items (but this is offset by no timewasters and not having to give our your address or meet a buyer
  • it can be hard to estimate postage costs correctly and you can leave yourself short, not to mention postage is ever going up
  • if you take too long to post something or it is damaged in transit etc, you can potentially get negative feedback or have to pay the costs by refunding the customer
  • even though with eBay you are entering into a contract, I have had to refund bidders their money when they bought without reading the listing properly. E.g. assuming shipping was free or buying something that was local pick up when they lived interstate.

How to get started: In order to use eBay you will need the following:

  • an eBay account
  • a Paypal Account (and email address).
  • The eBay app (ideal for quickly uploading listings and pics straight from your phone)

Setting up your eBay and paypal accounts are fairly straightforward. Check out the links to get you started. A few things to note:

  • Before you start using eBay if you may have to wait around a month for eBay to release your first lot of sale funds. This meant for the first 4 or so weeks of selling on eBay I had to use my own money to cover the shipping costs. It was certainly a hassle, but that was just a once off and I didn’t have to wait for that again.
  • You will be billed monthly for the final value selling fees which in my experience are really hard to estimate. But from my averages, it works out to being about 11% of your combined sales and shipping and an additional 3-4% in Paypal fees.
  • Your Paypal fees are deducted automatically at the point of sale, and eBay fees are billed monthly. So make sure  you don’t spend all your new cash and forget to leave some to cover the fees to eBay.

Selling Tips:

  • Before your list your item, do some research and see what the item is worth. You can make an estimate based on the original cost, but I prefer to check eBay for like items before I set the price to see what others are selling them for. I usually start my price at the higher end of what I think I can get for it and then drop it on subsequent listings from there if need be.
  • Be aware, once someone bids on your item you have entered a legally binding contract so you won’t be able to change your mind and cancel the bid. Don’t set the price lower than you are willing to take for the items otherwise you will be in for some disappointment.
  • eBay has sophisticated data recognition technology so don’t try and dodge out on eBay’s profits. I once cancelled a listing because a guy asked us if he could pay cash on pick up and within a matter of hours we received a warning from eBay that the account had been placed under review. If you make a sale on eBay you are obliged to pay the associated fees. If you don’t your account could be locked or completely banned so keep that in mind and just insist any buyers pay via the app even if they are picking up an item.
  • Put as many photos of an item as possible. The more the buyer can see of your item, the more likely they are to buy it and it saves you answering more questions about the item than necessary.
  • Provide as many details as you can I.e. Manufacture date, colour, material, wash instructions (I.e. dry clean only, 100% cotton)
  • Leave feedback for your buyers. It helps maintain the eBay buyer/seller feedback feature.

Postage Tips These are some lessons I learnt along the way with shipping items. There is a lot to get your head around and it’s best to do your research before you set your shipping prices and leave yourself short.

  • Research your shipping costs well. I got stung quite a few times where I only charged say $8 for shipping and ended up having to pay $15 or more! Ask the post office questions when you are there about the cheapest way to ship your item. I found that for months I was being charged $8.50 for posting something I could have posted for $3-4. That was a lot of money down the drain for me and the buyers. I found with the post office staff, they don’t always tell you the cheapest option so do your research on the website in advance as well so you know what it will cost so you can charge appropriately. Be sure to add in the cost of postage bags, bubble wrap and anything else you need to pack the item.
  • Don’t guess your item weight, because you will be wrong just get the kitchen scales out and be sure. Funnily enough just this week I paid for a 500g gram bag thinking I would be well under and the item ended up coming to 525g. That extra 25g brought my bill from $8.50 to $13.50 so it was a pretty expensive oversight.
  • Pack things well. I had one item get damaged because I assumed it would be okay in a regular bag. I lost my positive feedback streak and was really upset I had ruined someone’s buying experience. Bad feedback hurts so always make the effort to pack things so they arrive safe and sound!
  • Don’t ever try and short-change postage. I once sent something and through no knowledge of my own, I had underpaid the postage costs and had to reimburse the buyer. If you try and send something that is heavier or larger than what you paid, your buyer will have to pay the excess when they receive the parcel and you will need to reimburse them if you want a positive experience for the customer and positive feedback on your account.
  • For higher-value items, pay extra for tracking if it is not included. I once sent a $150 iPod without tracking and spent the next week crossing my fingers it wouldn’t get lost in the mail. Thankfully it arrived on schedule but definitely worth it for peace of mind to ensure most items, particularly high-value ones have tracking on them!

FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE

When to use Facebook Marketplace: Facebook Marketplace has pretty good reach so for that reason alone it is better than Gumtree, but as it is predominately a local selling platform your main buyers will be within driving distance so you won’t have the reach you would have on eBay. It’s also, at least in it’s current state, fee free which is a huge bonus! The app allows you to enter a location range, so no one will know your address until you decide to give it to them but they will have a rough idea of the area where the item is located so they can decide if your item is in driving distance for them.

Pros:

  • No fees
  • Great reach to local buyers
  • Easy to post listing with the Facebook app
  • There is a 🙂 and 🙁 rating system which helps know if people are worth working with which I think is a great feature

Cons:

  • The marketplace section of the Facebook app can be buggy, I found it defaulted to some European locations and I had to log into my PC in order to fix it. I also had one post that said it was listed but I couldn’t find it under my listings.
  • With the ease of the direct message I found at times I was being bombarded with messages with people asking silly questions E.g. Will you deliver the item? I didn’t have those issues with eBay or Gumtree.
  • I found people were generally more rude and annoying on the messenger app. I’d often get default messages saying ‘Is this available’ and then no response to my reply. Or being asked what is your address before I had even engaged in a conversation with people which made me feel pretty uncomfortable. Again, eBay and Gumtree were preferable for that reason as their message systems are a bit more removed so you don’t get very abrupt messages at least not in my experience so far.

How to get started:

You more than likely already have a Facebook account (if not simply sign up at www.facebook.com). All you need to do is select the menu item at the top middle of your Facebook home page or Facebook app ((that looks like a market).

For more info on using Facebook Marketplace check out the following link. Then click on Sell Something + and fill in the form below with your items details. Next add your photos. Don’t forget to mark your item as sold when it is no longer available and leave a 🙂 or 🙁 for your buyer.

List your item on Facebook in a quick moment.

Selling Tips:

  • Similar to the above ones I listed for eBay, make sure you put lots of photos and as much detail about your items as possible. The more you include, the less questions you will be asked… hopefully.
  • For your safety and convenience don’t give out your address or meeting place until you have agreed on a price and time. The last thing you want is someone rocking up at your house when you are out and insisting you hurry up to meet you. Or meet in a public place to avoid any risks with someone coming to your house.
  • Price your item higher than what you actually want for it. You will more often than not have to accept a lower offer.
  • Don’t be afraid to stand your ground on your lowest price. If you have patience you will sell it. But of course, if it is something you just want to get rid of it, negotiate and get rid of it!

GUMTREE

When to use Gumtree:

  • You want to sell something locally especially big bulky items like furniture or a BBQ – avoiding postage costs and hassle.
  • You want to try and limit fees on the sale like Ebay and PayPal fees
  • You’re not to fussed on what money you can get for an item

Pros:

  • Reach local buyers
  • Sell items quickly
  • You can list items as negotiable, free or trade or swap
  • Can pay to boost ads to get more reach for a quicker sale

Cons:

  • Low balling of prices
  • Be prepared to negotiate on price
  • Risk of people coming to your house if you choose to do that. Facebook seems a bit more connected to the actual person. 
  • Low reach visibility of listing after a couple of days unless you pay to bump or sponsor your ad

How to get started: Sign up for Gumtree and select Post an Ad.

Add a Title for your item and select the most appropriate category. Gumtree will pick one for you by default which you can change if need be.

Gumtree also allows you to select whether the price is negotiable, free or a swap or trade and allows a minimum offer amount to be set.

You can select a free listing which is what I usually do, but if your item is something more valuable it might be worth investing a few bucks into getting your ad Featured to reach more buyers.

Selling Tips:

  • Price the item higher than you want. People will lowball you, so if you want to sell something for $50, price it at $75 and you’ll generally be able to get what you wanted for it. Though of course, avoid overpricing your item or it will not sell.
  • When posting on Gumtree the first few days will be when your ad is most visible on the Free listing options. After a few days, it will start to be dropped into the abyss of items available for sale which means not as many people can see your ad. This is Gumtree’s attempt at getting you to bump up your ad to the top, which is of course how they make their money. If you are selling something for $300 or more it might be worth paying the fees to get a featured ad to sell your item quickly, but if you are trying to sell something for $20 I don’t recommend it. What you can do, is delete the ad and relist it as a new ad which will bring your ad back to the earlier search results.
  • Monitor your Ads position in your chosen categories pages. The ad will tell you what page it is listed on. If it’s anything after page 5 or so, it is going to get harder for people to find your ad and you might want to bump it up or try and relist it or relist it somewhere else.
  • You don’t have to provide your address until you are ready to accept an offer. Meet in a safe public place ideally. Never invite someone into your home and make sure someone is always home with you if people are coming to your house. 

There you have it! What are you waiting for? 🙂

Now I set you a challenge. Go through your home and start looking for things you can sell and get selling!
Good luck and please let me know in the comments how you’re going with it! 🙂  

Do You Want Help With Spending Your Money With Intention?

If you want to learn how to spend your money with intention and in line with your values and take the stress and anxiety out of your money, book in for a free Q&A call to see how Minimise With Me financial coaching can help you gain clarity around your finances! 

You can learn more about my financial coaching services and how I can help you achieve your financial goals here

How much money have you made selling your unwanted clutter online? And what items did you find were the most successful? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear about your successes 🙂 

[Photo: Raw Pixel, Unsplash.com]