Minimalism

Minimalism at Thirty: What it Means to Me

Posted on January 30, 2018
Check out what minimalism at thirty looks like to me

About three years ago I found myself in a bit of a slump that I will call a “quarter-life crisis”. I was approaching my thirties and wasn’t sure what the future held for me. I found myself feeling empty, lost and dispassionate. I had approached my early to mid twenties full of life, with passion and goals I knocked out one by one. Having goals gave me something to strive for, something to grow towards and gave me purpose. But achieving each one seemed to leave me feeling more empty than fulfilled.

I had achieved what I had set out to do in my twenties; completed my Accounting degree and CPA, buying our first home at 25, had a wonderful wedding and travelled around the world and yet I wasn’t sure what was missing. I was surrounded by stuff, slowly but surely cluttering up our home, and found myself feeling more stressed and struggling to keep up with my insane schedule. I couldn’t see a way out and felt powerless to change my life.

One day as I was searching for some bottoms in my pants drawer I hit pure frustration. The struggle of fitting anything more into that drawer was just too much stress for me to handle. I grabbed everything out of that drawer and threw it on my bed. Somethings had to go, this drawer situation was just getting ridiculous. As I went through my pile I came across five pairs of shorts. Mind you I had not worn any of these more than once. I couldn’t believe that I even owned five pairs of these shorts or that I didn’t even know were there. I put the unwanted items in a pile and put my newly spacious drawer back into it’s row. I didn’t know at the time that that small moment would be the start of removing over half my possessions and lead me to the path of Minimalism.

Before I knew it I started decluttering the shirt drawer and the sock drawer and moved onto the closet finding more and more items with tags attached I had completely forgotten I had even bought! With each clothing item I pulled out and donated I found that I could breathe a little easier. I’d made space where there was no space before. I could now see what I had to wear at a glance. I wanted to know what other crap we had that I could declutter and soon moved onto the kitchen drawers, pantry, fridge, linen closet. Nothing went untouched.

Something had been sparked inside me and I found myself researching as much as I could about decluttering and organisation in any spare moment I had. I soon came across the term Minimalism. I spent the next two years decluttering over 60% of our possessions and learning as much about Minimalism as I could. I couldn’t read enough about it. I read about how Joshua and Ryan from The Minimalists decluttered their homes and completely changed their lifestyles of working 80 hour weeks and discovered Joshua Becker at Becoming Minimalist journey to a less cluttered life. Their stories made perfect sense to me. Less is more!     

Inspired by No Side Bar’s article written by Jennifer Tritt Minimalism at fifty: What it means to me and upon celebrating my 31st birthday I thought now would be a good time to reflect on what Minimalism means to me at thirty as I head into a new and exciting decade of my life. Discovering minimalism a couple of years back has changed my life in so many ways and I am so glad to have stumbled upon this lifestyle now so I can make changes for the better earlier in my life. Minimalism can be a useful tool at any age, here is how it has affected my life in a positive way at thirty.

1. It means more space in my home
I moved out of home 6 years ago at the age of 25 and as the years went by, the clutter seemed to multiply. With each birthday and Christmas that passed, more and more stuff came into our home. Not to mention the trips to Kmart, Target and IKEA, always with the temptation to bring something home that I “needed“. Of course upon arriving home I would realise that I already owned three of the same striped shirts and that my new scented candle would not fit into my already overflowing candle drawer.

After discovering minimalism I pared back about 60% or more of our possessions. We now have space. This makes life easier whether it be space to prepare our meals with a clear bench, space on our dining room table to use it if we wish to eat meals at or work at, and not having to fight our closet or drawers to fit our clean clothes in. I can’t begin to imagine how much stuff we might have accumulated over the years and the anxiety that would have brought. I have never enjoyed space more and haven’t looked back.

2. It means being content with living in a smaller home
Our first home, which was to be our stepping stone into the home buying world was a 1300 square foot home with three bedrooms, a study and one bathroom. We figured it was big enough for us for now and within our budget and knew there was always the option to up size later on when we had the financial ability to do so.

After discovering minimalism the need to up size our home for a double garage, second bathroom and more master bedroom than we had, faded. Rather than wanting to go bigger, we made room for the essential and realised the benefits of a smaller home.  I acknowledged that I didn’t need a second lounge room, more storage space or huge backyard to be happy. Minimalism at thirty has allowed me to be content in our smaller home.

3. It means becoming debt free faster
Since discovering minimalism the impact to our finances has been nothing short of amazing. After learning to appreciate what we have and limit buying things on impulse, we have reduced what we are spending. Rather than spending more, we made money – over two thousand dollars by selling unwanted knick knacks that were cluttering up our home and not adding value to us. This is money we have redirected to things or experiences that bring us value.

By being content with a smaller home we can resist the temptation to up size for something bigger and better. This will allow me to pay off my mortgage before I am 40 (or maybe sooner than that!) rather than at 55 or even later had I gone down the Jones trajectory and taken on a bigger mortgage.

By being more intentional with spending and planning ahead for purchases it means I can sleep easy knowing I am not trapped under mountains of consumer debt. My pay doesn’t go to regrettable purchases on my credit card that I can no longer remember. It can go to things I need or truly want and the things that are important to me like the roof over my head and food in the fridge.

Minimalism at thirty means I can avoid taking on unnecessary debt that would impede my future finances, happiness and opportunity to say yes to experiences and mean I can utilise my money more efficiently rather than by trying to keep up with an endless debt cycle.

4. It means I spend my money more thoughtfully and efficiently
When you know what truly adds value to your life and question each and every purchase you can save a lot of money. Thanks to minimalism I now make more educated purchasing decisions, sometimes holding off for a few months before making a decision to make sure I am spending my money in the most thoughtful and efficient way possible.

Rather than walking into a store with very little information, I ask family and friends or people in online communities for recommendations. I look up reviews, research the products available and features for what would be the most suitable for me as well as researching the price before buying any item over $100. I soon adopted this method across most of our spending as possible. We waste less as we shop with intention when we go to the grocery store and review annual bills to make sure we are getting value for money. This has really helped us save and reduce regretful, impulsive and excessive purchases.

5. It means knowing my values and putting myself first
Minimalism has shown me what my values are and how important it is to live by them. I am now much more selective with how I spend my time. I don’t dedicate large amounts of time to things I don’t enjoy or am not passionate about and spend time with friends who have similar values and who respect my choices, as I do theirs.

I used to be resentful on occasions when I had wasted my weekend doing things that other people enjoyed, or even times I thought I enjoyed them and then living with the consequences, such as staying out into the early hours and ending up sleeping away my Sunday mornings and still having to find time to clean, grocery shop and do what I wanted to with my weekend. Minimalism at thirty gave me more confidence to say yes to putting myself first even if sometimes that means disappointing others.

6. It means that I can plan to retire earlier
After discovering minimalism I discovered new lifestyles that didn’t revolve around working until you are 70 and revolving around working more to spend more. One blogger in particular is Mr Money Moustache who semi-retired with his wife at the age of 30 who is encouraging many ‘moustachians’ around the world to reach retirement age much earlier.

Through Minimalism I have reduced spending money on many areas in my life, which over time will allow me to save for the important things such as my retirement and to start thinking about that at 30, when I can take advantage of more compound interest benefits rather than an after thought as I approach the end of my working career.

7. It means I value experiences more
Now that I spend my money more efficiently and have eliminated most wasteful spending, I can spend my money guilt free on experiences that bring me joy and that I find value in. When I was younger I was a lot less willing to spend money on experiences. I didn’t place as high a value on them or travel as I did physical items. After all, why flutter your money away on a two week vacation when you could buy something for the house or some new outfits or buy something that you can keep for years, right?

Minimalism really helped me change my mindset on spending. I now see the value in experiences, not just stuff. Sure my new Dyson and Kindle are great and I find great value in them, but my honeymoon in Europe and road trip around Iceland and New Zealand have added so much joy to my life that no new TV or wardrobe ever could!

By buying less stuff and I now have the opportunity to have more experiences. I can now go out for a movie with my husband, a weekend away, or buy concert tickets and know that these things will truly add value to my life whilst creating wonderful memories with no clutter.

8. It means freeing up time and valuing my time more
A huge benefit of owning less is that I now spend less time maintaining my stuff. I have more manageable laundry, my smaller home is easier to clean and maintain, I have less stuff to organise and there is less paperwork coming into our house to take care of. All of these small changes have added up to time savings that I can dedicate to more important or fun activities.

The time savings goes further as I also reduced the time I used to spend shopping for nothing in particular. I now only shop from a list of items that I build that up over the space of a week or month and do my best to get in and out fast. And thanks to knowing when to say yes and no I’ve clawed back my weekends.

Minimalism gave me the mindfulness to walk away from the extra $100 I was earning each week at a second job so I could claim my Sundays back. I look back now and wonder how on Earth I use to rush off from where ever I was on a Sunday night to get to work, quickly shoving dinner down as fast as possible only to arrive at home wide awake at 12am with the thought of having to wake up for my full time job at 7am. Minimalism at thirty has shown me that money isn’t everything and that I am deserving of free time and time to unwind and that my decisions shouldn’t be purely based on money.

9. I live for each day, not just the weekend
Minimalism at thirty has given me the ability to enjoy every day and not just live for the weekends. I try and find happiness in everyday. I listen to an Audiobook on my commute, go for a walk occasionally at lunch and take notice of the birds or trees swaying in the breeze and feel the sun on my skin. Or catch up with a friend for a chat over a hot chocolate (I’m the 1% of the population that doesn’t drink coffee, great for the budget ;)).

When I find the time I write or play bass or sing or read a chapter of a book. Every day holds the potential for joy. Minimalism at thirty means I do my best to enjoy 365 days of the year and  not write off the majority of them as a lost opportunity because they are work days. I may not be able to go and have a beach day or a picnic, but I can certainly find endless ways to make each day enjoyable.

10. I have learned the value of growth
Through the process of eliminating the focus on buying stuff and tying my happiness to physical possessions I was able to identify what was missing in my life; personal growth and contribution.

Discovering minimalism at thirty has encouraged me to grow. I now aim to learn something new each day or more often than not, it could be a new word in my vocabulary, a new budgeting or cleaning tip, or something musical related. Even if it’s just getting a little fitter each week or doing something to improve a relationship or your own mental health. It also gave me the courage to start my own blog and to contribute to helping others live a more intentional life. Knowledge and growth adds so much to our lives and shouldn’t be undervalued.

11. I put more value in my close relationships
Minimalism has highlighted to me the importance of relationships to my happiness. It has allowed me to invest in good relationships and reassess the less good ones. When I meet with friends or family I make more of an effort to be present, to keep my phone off the table, undistracted and paying attention to what they are saying.

I try and be more positive and supportive in anything my loved ones are passionate about and try and surround myself with people who also value this and encourage me to be the best person I can be. I’ve tried to make more time for the important people in my life, whether it regular date nights with my husband, just because family lunches and recently started a new tradition of gifting experience gifts to our nephews so we can take them out for a fun occasion.

12. I’m more mindful
Minimalism at thirty has showed me how to be more mindful. When I wake up of a morning and reach for my phone I pause and leave it on airplane mode a little longer. If someone or something is causing my stress I can recognise that sooner and take action or set new boundaries for that relationship. Instead of watching TV all day I write or go for a walk with my husband. When I see the sunset on my way home, I stand outside my home looking at it for a minute or so and soak it in rather then running into my house to start my list of errands. I’m loving being more mindful and hope to get better at it 🙂

How has minimalism benefited and changed your life? Please share your experience in the comments below 🙂

Minimalism

15 Intentional Ways to Simplify Your Life

Posted on January 11, 2018
Wanting more time and less stress? Check out these 15 Ways to Simplify Your Life in 2018!

Are you in need of some help to simplify your life?

Whether you’re starting a new year or not, now is always a great time to reassess our current lifestyle and make positive changes. One of the most common complaints from people is they don’t make enough time for themselves, or their families, or to just do things they want to do. We find ourselves filling up our free time with mindless Facebook scrolling, endless washing and cleaning, and doing things that we probably should have just said no to.

Make this year a year to remember, a year for you to work on how you can simplify your life. The start of saying no to things you don’t want to do and yes to things that you have wanted to do for too long. Take a step back and reassess what is important and what isn’t, what is adding unnecessary stress in our lives and what we want more and less of.

15 Ways to Simplify Your Life!

1. Declutter

There is no greater path to simplify your life than through decluttering. When we remove the excess we can focus more on the essential. By removing things that do not add value to our life we help to simplify our lives. By reducing the clutter in our homes we open ourselves up to numerous benefits. We reduce; the anxiety caused by too much stuff, the amount of time we waste cleaning and maintaining our stuff, and can soon notice the financial benefits when we are more intentional with our spending. Check out these 101 Things to Declutter in Your Home Right Now to get you started!

2. Learn to say no

Don’t fill in your weeknights and weekends and leave yourself no downtime or time to reset. It’s okay to say no to people and events and put your needs first. If there is an invite to something you are really not keen to go to for whatever reason; you can’t afford it, it doesn’t sound fun to you, you really feel like you can’t possibly cram one more thing into this week, it’s okay to RSVP no. Simplify your life by reserving your time for what truly brings you joy.

Declutter With Me Course

If you want help decluttering and simplifying your home – and keeping it that way – check out my course Declutter With Me, where I will teach you home to minimise the clutter in your home and give you tools and strategies to change your consumption habits for good.

If you are interested to learn more about my course you can by clicking the button below!

declutter my home? yes please!

3. Say yes to things you want to do

We can often get tied up doing the things we don’t want to do and the things we want to do end up falling by the wayside. Once we learn to prioritise our time better we have more time to do the things we really want to do like relax, exercise, watch a movie, learn a new instrument, read or whatever we like. By learning to say no more, we open up our calendar to say yes to more spontaneous things like a beach day when it’s perfect weather or hanging out with someone you just met.

4. Find joy in the small things

You don’t need to buy the latest iPhone or go on endless vacations to find joy. Don’t just live for big buys and get aways when there is joy to be found in everyday things. Make time to do things that adds joy every day and take the time to appreciate them.

It could be playing a game with your kids, watching an interesting documentary, having a hot chocolate and smelling a yummy candle on a relaxing night at home in front of the TV. When we learn to find joy in the little things we can simplify our lives and learn to appreciate the small things.

5. Remove and minimise toxic relationships

Toxic relationships add drama and stress to our everyday lives. They can consume us, take our focus off our goals and hold us back. Joshua Fields Milburn from The Minimalists in his blog titled ‘Fake‘ says ‘You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you’. 

This really is the crux of our relationships, we can’t change people in our lives but we can change who we keep close to us. Sometimes we need to remove or minimise contact with people in our lives, even if only temporarily, who take away from our happiness or that are toxic and detrimental to our well-being.

When we remove people that take our energy and bring us down and hold us back, we can remove an unnecessary barrier to our unhappiness and lead lives of positivity and growth. Sometimes even a simple conversation about new boundaries and expectations can redirect a toxic relationship into a more healthy one. Or maybe you will just be more conscious to limit the time you spend around certain people in your life that take from you and give nothing back.

6. Read more

Who has ever said I wish I had less time to read? Reading is a rewarding way to destress, learn new things, unwind and get lost in a book. When we make time to read, we are making time to sit down, stop all other distractions and focus on one activity that will aid you to simplify your life. Another benefit of reading is to teach you new skills that will help you to simplify your life such as a book on habit building.

7. Spend less time on social media

A lot of time can be freed up by spending less time on social media and on our phones. You probably don’t even realise how much time you are losing aimlessly browsing your phone. Make a conscious decision to use social media less. Simplify your life by deleting apps off your phone for a small period of time, but if that is too scary to consider, try timing your use. Limit yourself to your tea break only or put your phone away at a particular time each night. When you have important things to do put your phone on flight mode or hide it in a drawer so it is out of sight, out of mind. At a minimum, leave your phone off the table when you are having dinner with your partner, family or friends and just be present.

8. Simplify your wardrobe

Simplify your life by reviewing your wardrobe and identifying what clothes you feel are truly you at this time. Be honest with yourself about what you will and won’t wear. Don’t be afraid to let go of items you no longer need, you can always replace them with more suitable and loved pieces. When we limit our overflowing wardrobes we reduce the stress we encounter with picking an outfit before running out the door. Make your mornings less stressful by adopting a capsule wardrobe and simplify your life.

To get started you can grab your free Capsule Wardrobe Planner here!

9. Eat less and be more mindful with food

With YouTube, TV, Netflix, Messenger Chats, and all the other distractions we can sometimes find ourselves unaware of how much we are eating.

Simplify your life by being more mindful of what food you are eating and how much you are eating. Take your time eating. Acknowledge whether you are full and stop eating if you are and try and take note of whether you are just eating out of boredom.

10. Reduce Stress

Simplify your life by identifying things that cause stress and aim to minimise or eliminate them.

Is your work a toxic environment? Consider changing jobs.

Is your housework overwhelming you? Consider hiring a cleaner to come out and take the load off you.

Is going out all weekend not allowing you the time to reset and unwind after the workweek? Limit your outings on the weekend to one or two so that you have time to catch up on things at home and to relax.

Pay attention to the signs.

Is your heart rate elevated? Is breathing difficult? Do you feel overwhelmed and like you can’t stop worrying about things? If the stress is starting to have a negative impact on your life, seek help and see a psychologist who can help you with making the necessary changes and give you coping mechanisms for dealing with stress.

11. Limit your exposure to advertising

There is nothing more meaningless than spending your time watching ad after ad. Find ways to limit this and simplify your life. Some ways to try and limit exposure to ads is

-Sign up for Spotify membership and listen to your favourite music without the ad interruptions (although some podcasts still advertise but you can still skip though).

-Reduce free-to-air TV that is packed with ads and stick to ad-free streaming services such as Netflix.

-Be more selective of magazines that you buy as a large portion of them are just advertising.

-Considering paying for the YT subscription service to skip the ads

12. Unsubscribe from unwanted email subscriptions

Having an overflowing inbox with unopened email after unopened email can be soul-destroying. Simplify your life by eliminating unnecessary subscriptions from your inbox. Unsubscribe from each email as they come in if you feel that they do not add value and are cluttering up your inbox.

Not only will this save you potential money when you are no longer bombarded with sale after sale notifications, but will save you valuable time opening excess emails and managing them in your inbox.

13. Automate your finances

Take the stress out of budgeting and managing your finances and simplify your life by automating your finances.

You’ll save yourself the work of doing the transfers manually each pay and get the joy of watching your savings account grow over time!

Related Article: Check out How I Discovered Financial Stability Through Minimalism 

14. Limit your snail mail

Simplify your life with a simple phone call and get all your bills emailed to you and skip the hassle of sorting through mail each week. This will not only eliminate having to go through your mail but also avoid that pile-up of bills that is inevitable when you get snail mail.

You can also set up automatic filters based on keywords in your gmail account that will digitally file your bills for you, no need to do any physical filing at home!

Simplify your life further by limiting time wasted on collecting junk mail by sticking up a no junk mail sign on your letterbox. If you really need something you can quickly google it to find the best prices! And if you really want to browse a catalogue you can always find it online. I did this years ago and haven’t looked back! 🙂

15. Pack less when travelling

As someone who travels a few times a year (update post-pandemic: boo, hopefully I can back to my love of travelling soon!) this has really saved my own sanity. In the past, I would have packed 23kg of luggage to the brim plus carry on, assuming I would need more than I really did.

Do yourself a favour to intentionally simplify your life, the next time you travel pack minimally. It will mean less frustration at the airport waiting for your bags and dealing with lost baggage (trust me, losing your luggage one time is one time too many), will make getting around easier as your luggage is smaller and weighs less and travel will be much less stressful, and it’ll be easier to find things in your bag as you need them. And as a bonus, you will save money on hefty baggage fees if you are flying!

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. 

What changes have you implemented to help you simplify your life? What do you want to do to simplify your life this year? Share your thoughts in the comments below 🙂

Budgeting

17 Things I Did to Save More Money in 2017

Posted on December 20, 2017
Check out the 17 things I did in 2017 to Save More Money

As the 2017 year comes to a close I thought it would be a good time to reflect on financial decisions I made during the year to save more money and try and estimate the total money that I would have saved from those actions. I am more than happy to spend money on things that add value to my life or bring me joy, but I do not love spending my hard earned cash inefficiently.

We work so hard for our money, why don’t we find savings in the things that don’t take away from our enjoyment of life so that we can spend money of the things that do! When we find non value-adding way to reduce our spending we can allow ourselves to spend money where we like guilt free.

These are the 17 Things I Did to Save More Money in 2017. When I added the savings up just for this year they came to over $8000! I hope they will inspire you to find more ways to save in 2018!

  1. Shopped Around for Car Services or repairs.

When my husbands car was due for a major service within ten minutes I had retreived four quotes raging from $350 to $750. I went with the cheapest who also happened to be our regular and reliable mechanic. This can be more limited for newer cars that for extended warranty purposes need to go to the dealer service centre but for any other cars shopping around is a must if  you don’t want to pay too much for your car services!

Total Savings: $400

2. Reviewed my mobile plan frequently

I started off with a sim only plan that was $49.90 a month earlier in the year that had 10GB of data included. The 10GB never seemed to be enough for my needs so I often ended up paying for additional data on top of that. As a result the bill was often more around the $70-80 mark and certainly more than I was willing to spend on my phone plan.

I wanted to get my plan back under $50 so did my research and ended up switching to a 6 month discount offer for a sim only plan offering the same inclusions for only $24.99 a month to new customers. I figured even with extra data charges, the same deal would still fall under my $50 budget whilst saving me that additional $20-30 a month I was forking out.

Once that six months discounted period was up and I was back on a $40/month 10GB plan I did my research again and have just switched to a new plan which although will be slightly  less flexible (it is a 12 month contract!) it includes 15GB of data for the same price. The great news is I will no longer have to top up my data each month and pay any extra. I was also offered a 25% promotional discount on sign up so actually only pay $30 for the $40 plan.

Total Savings: $480 (Original $70 a month vs new $30 a month plan :))

3. Requested a better rate on our mortgage

I was recently talking with a friend about his plans to get a better mortgage rate and realised that it had been a little while since I had done the same. Jumping online I saw that my bank was offering new customers a 0.61% discount on the rate I was paying. I rang up the next day and requested that we get access to the advertised rate. Within a week I had approval and had signed the paperwork. This was a huge win for our budget and for us to save more money.

Extra Tip: Come prepared when you make the call.  Research what other banks are offering in terms of rates and ask your bank to match their competitors!

Total Savings: Our new repayment was $27.23 lower a total saving of $1415 for the next twelve months alone. Based on keeping our original weekly repayment over the current life of our loan this could save us up to $13500 and allow us to own our house 8 months earlier! This is real money and life changing stuff! 

4. Stopped spending creep and saved our raises

My husband and I have had the same weekly allowance since we started budgeting six years ago after moving into our first home. We made it a fair figure to us so that we could live within it without feeling like we were too restricted day to day. With any pay raises, bonuses or anything else we receive we do not just absorb those into our lifestyles (know as bracket creep) and increase our spending. We try to be intentional with anything extra we earn so that it is not wasted. When we get extra money it goes to our savings or straight onto our mortgage. If you want to save more money don’t absorb your future raises, put them away and watch them grow 🙂

Total Saved: A wage increase of $20 per week saved and not spent can increase your savings balance by $1000 over a year.

Minimise With Me Facebook Group

5. Reviewed our electricity and gas plans

Once a year I like to review our electricity and gas plan and see what deals they are offering new customers. After researching online and checking our latest bill, I realised we were not receiving the full discounts we could be. With a short fifteen minute call we went from a plan with an outdated discount of 16% on our Electricity and 10% on Gas usage to a current advertised discount on Electricity of 23% and Gas 17%. A bonus was that we got a $50 credit on our next gas and electricity bill for signing onto new plans. If you are not checking your utility plans annually you are going to find that you are on an outdated offer that is probably costing you more. Check it annually to the competition and their new customer rates.

Total Savings: $30/quarter on electricity and $11/ quarter on gas plus $50 credit Total savings $214

6. Limited our electricity consumption

Don’t stop the electricity and gas savings there, there are ways to save more money on your bills to put back into your pocket! After getting a few too many $500 a quarter electricity bills we decided we needed to make more of an effort so cut down out power use. We made sure that we used only the appropriate amount of lighting e.g. turning on one down light instead of the other power point that turned on six lights when we didn’t need that much lighting. We started turning off our TV each night and turning off our PC monitors and power. I set the air conditioner at 22 degrees on hot days rather than 18 (much to my husbands disapproval :p) and only used fans at night.

I downloaded our electricity providers app and started monitoring the week to week electricity use and savings. Within the first few weeks I noticed them drop by about $7 a week. Not bad! Not to mention when you can see your impending bill estimate it is a great motivator to turn off those power points!

Total Savings: $364

7. Got smarter with our herbs and fresh produce

As a huge Basil fan, I got sick of buying new Basil bunches week to week only to have them go bad within a handful of days. I was determined to find a way to keep them fresher for longer. Since then I have been buying the Basil plants from Aldi which sit on our windowsill, and seem to last weeks with a small amount of care. I also researched the correct way to store different foods to extend their shelf life which helped us reduce our food waste and the cost of replacing spoiled food so often.

Total Savings: Let’s guesstimate on the lower side of things, a saving of $10 a week in reduced food waste at $520 a year! 

8. Switched to high interest savings accounts

After reading the Barefoot investor, I realised how silly we had been leaving any number of dollars in our bank account that was paying a whole 0.01% on balances, a.k.a. nothing! After a small amount of effort we made the switch to Scott Pape’s favourite ING’s Savings Maximser which currently gives us 2.8% on any balances in our account which is a hell of a lot more than the big fat nothing we were previously getting! Nothing to motivate you to save more money then someone paying you to do it 🙂

Total Savings – $2000 Emergency Savings Fund will now be earning $56 a year in interest. Doesn’t sound like much but the more your balance grows the more your interest will add up! 

9. We stopped buying as many clothes

After adopting a capsule wardrobe I found the need to hit the shops for new clothes greatly diminished. After all, I had a perfectly functional wardrobe ready to go day to day. The only time we bought new clothing or shoes this past year is when we needed specific items. Knowing what we had in our wardrobe and only keeping what we loved really helped us to limit any desire to go out and spend a ton of money on a new wardrobe.

Bonus tip is to resist buying a new outfit for each event and to ask friends or family if they have something you could borrow for the night. Return the favour the next time they need a fresh outfit.

Total Savings: Who knows but over the long terms I am going to say lots! 🙂

10. Started having dessert at home 

I am a dessert girl at heart but spending $20-30 on dessert on our weekly date night was not really value for money in my eyes. Of course a girl needs her dessert on occasions so we started having our desserts at home. Instead of going out to Max Brenner or San Churro, or ordering dessert with dinner twice a month we started to make our own dessert at home. Desserts like home made scones, waffles with strawberries and ice cream are a fraction of the price at home. If we were not going home we were happy to grab a coffee or ice cream at the movies. Rather than spending $25 or $30 or dessert each time we were only spending $10 or less!

Total Savings: Opting in for dessert at home twice a month total saving $360 over a year

11. Found more creative ways to have fun

Saving money doesn’t mean missing out on fun. We just got a little more creative. Some nights we were more than happy to go home and watch Netflix rather than paying $40 to see a movie. When we did see movies we got discounted tickets which saved us 50% on the ticket price. We tried to go at times that the discount was valid where we could. On weekends if it was a beautiful day we would go for a walk or drive up the mountains. If the weather was crappy we’d crack out the Nintendo 64 and have Mario Kart Battles. Check out these Fun Frugal Ideas for more ideas on how you can have fun whilst you save more money.

Total Savings: Again a tough one to calculate, let’s guesstimate one night a month and $360 for the year!

12. Cut back spending on beverages

Coffee, beers, wine, hot chocolates they all add up to more than you would expect over the year. But making small sacrifices we were able to save more. Some ways we saved this year was by having hot chocolates at home. I buy Jarrah White Chocolate 10 packs which set me back less than $1 a cup! My husband chose quality over quantity and opted for drinking his favourite beers less often as a treat over cheaper beers more often. We also bought coffee for him to have at home to take with him on the go of a morning to skip the $4.50 or more morning coffee (I don’t drink coffee so that’s a big $0 for me ;)). So far we haven’t found one that stands up to his store bought versions but hopefully we’ll find a pro one in the near future! Coffee drinkers you could be throwing away $1170 on your morning coffee per person. We are working on that one 😉

We also cut back on our $8 fortnightly 24 water bottle pack and instead invested $12 in two water bottles and haven’t looked back.

Total Savings: Hot chocolate savings $150 and water savings $208

13. Started online grocery shopping

This was something that we adopted not necessarily to save money but to save time and make life a little easier. A great bonus of this decision was that we were buying less. When you are shopping online you aren’t walking past the sale ends or easy to grab, ever so tempting confectionery at the checkouts. When shopping online, the only way you will see those heavily discounted items are if you are specifically searching for them unlike in store where you’d be hard pressed to avoid making eye contact! We certainly don’t do this always, it takes some forethought but is a great way to help you reduce your impulse buying!

Total Savings: Complete random estimate let’s go with $10 a week and $520 for the whole year. Hopefully it is actually more 🙂

14. Got organised 

This one would have to be one of the biggest food saving methods in our budget for 2017. Through my decluttering journey I realised how much food we had been buying unnecessarily. At one point I found 8 cans of corn for two people, of which one of us does not like corn and the other one barely eats it. Go figure. We had kilos of flour, daily reminders that we had to find a way to use them up before they expired. All brought on from shopping on the go and not checking what we had in our pantry, fridge and freezer before we hit the shops! This was a huge realisation for our budget. We were shopping with no real plan and with little clue of what we already had to start with.

For a new aspiring minimalist the endless cans and boxes of stuff were starting to bother me, not to mention my knew found goals of reducing our household waste. We decided to get ourselves organised and got to work re-organising the pantry, fridge and freezer. Now that we could tell with a quick glance how many items of food we had we knew what we could buy and what we didn’t need within seconds. The cans were all lined up in a row on tiered shelves waiting for us to come and quickly check on shopping day. We also keep a shopping list on our fridge to write down groceries as they run out so we knew what needed to be replaced. This means that we only buy what we have used and need, anything else that sits in our pantry will end up getting eliminated from our shopping list in time.

Total Savings: This was a budget saving biggie! I am going to guess this alone has saves us $1000 over the year. 

Related Post: How an Organised Space Can Save You Money

15. We limited buying toiletries and other consumables

When I started on my minimalism journey I realised the waste that had occured in this area of our budget alone. We had about 10 bottles of shampoo and conditioner, about 8 cans of insect spray, a life time supply of air freshener, random and unfinished cleaning products, sponges galore – you get the idea! It was too much and completely unnecessary. Not only was it taking up space, cluttering our cupboards (clutter, ew!) but we were wasting money buying products that we didn’t need and couldn’t possibly use up in a timely manner.

It took over a year to use up our excess supply of deodorants, hand creams, body washes, soap you name it. It seemed never ending and really opened my eyes to the fact that you don’t need to buy so much of that stuff in bulk. We now only buy things as they need replacing and if something is on sale we will just get a spare 1 or 2 max, rather than buying 10 bottles. We also just stuck to the brands we loved. By only buying what we needed, we were able to spend on quality products and things that added value to our lives. Remember that saying quality over quality, we definitely found that to be the case.

Total Savings: My sanity!

16. Cut back on buying make up 

Now I have given this one it’s one section as this tip alone has the potential to be a huge budget saver! The old me would buy eyeshadow pallet after eyeshadow pallet, have 4-5 foundation bottles and 15 odd lipsticks. I would browse my local Price Line walking out with what I thought was the nicest shade of purple nail polish only to find I already had three similar shades at home. Not to mention that I never even paint my nails. Wrong! At one point I have four bottles of foundation open which was pretty ridiculous for a girl that only wore it to work or the odd outing.

Once I did my research I realised how wasteful this habit was. I was buying too much, more than I could possibly use up before the expiry dates. And yes make up expires! Most last 12-18 months which was truly eye opening experience! As with my groceries I now only replace my make up products as they run out. It is very rare that I will buy anything new that I don’t need as I no longer look at make up stores or aisles unless I am there to buy something I need to replace.

Total Savings: Not shopping for make up multiple times a month has saved me at least $240 a year!

17. I sold my stuff on eBay

My first eBay listing was a 4 pack of hair dye that I have bought and realised I was never going to use. I listed it for $10 as an experiment (I paid $20 for them so would have been chuffed to claw back half). They ended  up selling for $27 and from that moment I was hooked on finding things to sell around my home. I continued to chuck items up on eBay items for the next one and a half years making $965 back alone in 2017 for selling items around my home that I no longer needed! If you haven’t tried selling your unwanted stuff on EBay, CraigsList, Gumtree etc you might be missing out on some serious cash and serious motivation to declutter 😉

Total Savings: $965

Total estimated minimum savings in 2017 $8252

Do You Want Help With Spending Your Money With More 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. 

What tips do you have to save more money that you have tried in 2017? Please share them in the comments below 🙂

 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 🙂

Budgeting

40 Frugal Ideas to Have Fun These Holidays

Posted on December 11, 2017
Being on holidays doesn't mean that you have to choose between fun our your budget goals. Check out these 40 Frugal Ideas to have fun on your holidays! Photo: Vicko Mozara (Unsplash)

With the holidays approaching it can be a great time of year to plan all those fun activities you’ve been wanting to do. Those ones you keep putting off because you didn’t have the time or money. Sometimes, maybe even the energy. Don’t let your holidays disappear before your eyes without feeling like you made the most of them. I’ve found that in the past, even when I’ve have a free day, it can be hard to think of fun things to do that won’t take up an entire weeks entertainment budget. All you need is a little creative thinking, you don’t have to make a choice between fun and your budget goals!

Being on a budget should not impede you from enjoying your break and having fun. When you put your mind to it, there are really a huge list of things that you can do for fun over the holidays, and they can certainly be done without spending a lot of cash! Plan ahead and rethink your entertainment options, they really are unlimited.

If you have particular interests not mentioned, this list could be even longer! Here are 40 Frugal Ideas to Have Fun These Holidays to get your started! Most of these are free or can be done with very little cost. 🙂

  1. Have a Movie marathon day/night. Select a theme such as 80s movies, or your favourite actors films. Invite friends or family over and have a poll on what to watch. 
  2. Sit down with a partner or friend and listen to an album from start to finish reading over the lyrics. In today’s world of Spotify, Netflix and Social Media, this activity really does get pushed to the back burner. 
  3. Go star gazing. Go on a road trip out of the city and watch the night sky. 
  4. Colour. Grab an adult colouring book and some pencils and get colouring. 
  5. Read a book. Start a new book or read an old favourite. 
  6. Start to learn an instrument or if you already play one, learn a new song. Learning one with a friend – even better.
  7. Cook a nice meal or learn a completely new recipe.
  8. Bake dessert or a cake. Make something special like creme brulee or waffles. 
  9. Play a video game – if you’ve got your old Wii or N64 crack it out. Invite a friend or two over. 
  10. Invite friends over for a board game night. Ask your friends to bring over one game each. Ideas include Chess, Pictionary, Monopoly, Cards Against Humanity or Uno. 
  11. Watch a documentary about a topic you are passionate about. There are stacks on Netflix to choose from.
  12. Watch a stand up comedy show, again there are heaps on  Netflix. Or better yet find a free comedy night in your city.
  13. Binge watch a new TV show that you’ve been dying to watch. 
  14. Have a picnic.
  15. Go for a walk. Drive to a new area for a change of scenery.
  16. Go out for coffee with a friend or relative.
  17. Do something artistic; draw, paint, or get crafty.
  18. Write something a poem, short story, or try your hand at writing song lyrics.
  19. Go to a local BBQ area with friends. Bring some sporting equipment and have a few games. 
  20. Attend a free local event or festival.
  21. Check out the library and read some new books.
  22. Go to a free Museum or Art Gallery you’ve been wanting to go to for ages.
  23. Take a drive to a national park for a hike or bush walk.
  24. Grab the bikes and go for a ride with your partner or friend. 
  25. Swim at the local pools or go explore a new beach. Don’t forget to check out the rock pools!  
  26. Hire a kayak for an hour and explore on water whilst getting some sun and exercise.
  27. If it’s a hot day, have a water fight. Hit up your local Kmart or cheap shop for water guns or water bombs. 
  28. Find a local pool-hall and play a few games.
  29. Check out online event guides for free (or affordable) gigs.
  30. Invite friends over for a cocktail party. Get everyone to bring a bottle of alcohol and juice/soft drinks so you can make a few different drinks.
  31. Go to a botanic garden and explore the different gardens.
  32. Take a trip to the city and bring your camera. Take photos.
  33. Try and find cool cinema playing some unique movies. A foreign film, premiere film or old fave.
  34. Check out Things To Do on Trip Advisor in your city and do what you haven’t done yet.
  35. Go camping for the weekend. Or camp in the backyard.
  36. Go to a Drive in Movie.
  37. Redecorate your home. Shop your home for decor items to freshen up your home. Bring out a new quilt cover and sheet sets, put a new photo in your frames, put on a nice smelling candle and swap your decor items around.
  38. Have a pamper night. Get in your favourite robe, make a DIY face mask & put a hair treatment in. Run a warm bath with some candles and chill out music.
  39. Teach yourself a new skill you’ve always wanted to learn. How to sew, sing, dance, take photos. Look up videos on YouTube and start learning!
  40. If you’re feeling extra motivated, get organised. Declutter the items in your home that you no longer need. Scan any old photos, or cards you want to let go of. Go through your wardrobe and cull anything you no longer wear. Tackle the kitchen cabinets and donate anything that’s not needed. You will feel amazing after all that excess is gone!

What Frugal Ideas For Fun These Holidays do you have? Share them in the comments below so we can grow this list even further 🙂

Need some tips for gift ideas this Christmas? Check out 10 Minimalist Gift Ideas that Add Value to Your Life – Not Stuff! 

Minimalism

10 Minimalist Gift Ideas to Add Value to Your Life, Not Stuff!

Posted on November 28, 2017

With the gift-giving season fast approaching it’s the perfect time to rethink our normal gift-giving practices and adopt new ones. Gifts can help us to show how much we care for a loved one but they don’t have to be things in order to add value to their lives! Even with the best intentions, buying stuff can cause friends and family long-term clutter problems.

There is the guilt associated with receiving an unwanted gift that we have no use for. The worry of where to store or display another gift, that may have been extremely thoughtful but you know that space is severely lacking in your home. There is also the stress associated with buying a large amount of gifts with a limited budget. Not to mention the inner struggle of trying to guess what someone else might need or like when most people probably have everything that they need.

Sometimes the best gifts are not things at all and are just as valuable and useful to us. A donation of time to a family member in need, covering an expense that adds value to our lives or gifting an experience can provide a truly memorable gift that will be remembered long after that new set of tea towels you didn’t even need are forgotten.

If you are looking to simplify your life and holiday gift preparation consider giving a minimalist inspired gift. Here are 10 Minimalist Gift Ideas to add Value to your Life, Not Stuff for your loved one that will hopefully bring a smile to their faces and add value and joy, not more clutter to their lives.

1.  A Gift Card for a consumable
Is there something they need or love? Consider a gift card for a consumable such as a subscription service they love. Examples are Audible, Kindle Unlimited, Netflix, Spotify etc. They can read or listen to their favourite book or have a month of movies and TV shows on you!

2.  A movie gift box.
Let them enjoy a night in or out on you. Include a Netflix gift card or tickets to their local cinema, popcorn, drinks and snacks. Check out this movie gift box for some inspiration.

3.  An experience gift.
Such as ticket to the zoo, aquarium or the observatory. Other options are tickets to a show, game, or to see their favourite band.

4. Offer your time or skills.
Does someone you love need a babysitter, help with doing jobs around the house, someone to teach them to cook? Or simply offer to take them someone special. Sometimes donated time can be the greatest and most helpful gift.

5. Get artsy or crafty.
Put your creative talents to good use. If you are a sewer, writer, singer, painter, photographer, give a personal creative gift to someone special.

6. DIY beauty products.
Unleash your inner beautician with some Pinterest recipes of beauty products for lip balm, bath bombs, facial or hair masks. Some great ones are Vanilla Brown Sugar Body Scrub and DIY Home Made Soap Jellies.

7. Give the gift of food!
Everyone loves dessert, you can’t go wrong with this one! Some ideas are an ice cream box with different ice cream toppings and sauces, a waffle box, home made-brownies or cookies.

8. Their favourite beverage.
Let’s not forget the drink lovers. Cater to your loved ones preference whether that be wine, beer, spirits, cocktails, tea, coffee or hot chocolate!

 >>Heading off this Christmas season? Check out these 16 Easy Tips To Pack Minimally for Your Next Trip!

9. Contribute to their upcoming holiday.
If your friend or family member has plans to go on a holidays in the not to distant future consider giving them money towards their trip to help them saving up for it. Alternatively ask them if there is a tour or attraction they wanted to do on their trip that you could gift them.

10. The gift of no gift giving obligation
Sometimes the best gift of all is simply saying to your family or friends not to worry about a gift. Gifts involve, planning, shopping, wrapping, carting them around on the day not to mention the cost of buying them. Save your loved one the stress associated with hitting the shops, finding a parking spot and managing the chaotic crowds at this busy enough time of year and give them the gift of freedom. Freedom from any obligation to buy you a gift so they can invest their time and money in something more valuable to them. Agree to forgo gifts and just enjoy each others company!

What are your minimalist gift ideas? Have you made any new family traditions around gift giving? Do you and your friends say no to gifts or have you found more creative ways to give at Christmas and other special occasions. Please share your ideas to simplify in the comments below!

Budgeting

13 Effortless Tips to Save Money on Your Travel Budget

Posted on November 20, 2017

The best part about travelling is preparing the travel budget… eh… said no one ever? Even I, a self-confessed budget-lover can feel overwhelmed trying to get the best prices and deals and attempting to not go spend-cray when we are living for the moment on holiday.

Seeing as we have just gotten back from a month in Europe I thought what better time than now to share what tips and tricks I use when travelling to stretch our travel budget.

We travel reasonably often on our own as well as on band trips and that can really add up, especially if you are not watching what you spend each time. If you are only travelling once every few years you can probably get away with going a bit all out on a hotel room, shopping trips, and fine dining on your vacation. But that’s not going to work so well for your budget when it’s a regular gig.

The cost of travel can be significantly reduced with a little bit of planning and being selective with what you will and won’t spend on, or just tweaking things ever so slightly so you don’t spend as much. Some of it starts before you have booked a thing and others are to help you maintain your goal budget once in your destination.

Check out 13 Effortless Tips to Save Money on Your Travel Budget for how you can save on your next trip!

  1. Shop around for all bookings

Shop around and consider all options when booking a holiday.

Is a hotel cheaper and better value for accommodation or would an Airbnb be better? If you’re just after a bed and shower and plan to be out all day, a hostel could be a more budget-friendly option.

Can you be more flexible with flight days? Booking a flight the day before or after you planned to or at a less convenient time might cost you some sleep but save you hundreds of dollars per ticket. For our trip to Japan, we avoided Easter long weekend dates and saved $1000 just by booking our trip 2 days later!

When booking hire cars get 2-3 quotes so you can make sure you are paying a reasonable rate.

A little effort at the start of your holiday planning can add up to huge savings.

Don’t forget to use the incognito mode in your browser in order to get the best deals on flights and accomodation!

Potential Savings: Picked Airbnb over Hotel room saving $40 a night on accomodation 

2. Book your flights and accommodation early

Book well in advance for tours, car hire, accommodation, and flights. Bookings closer to the travel date means you will end up paying more or missing out on the dates or times you want. If you need a particular travel day or time you will most likely have to pay much more for the same service than you would have if you just planned ahead.

Most accommodation sites offer free cancellation on bookings (and after 2020 I highly recommend you always choose the free cancellation option just to cover yourself!) up to a certain time depending on their terms and conditions for the place you are booking so you can often book accommodation in advance and change the booking dates without being hit with fees if you need more flexibility. Budget Traveller recommends booking flights on Tuesday to get the best flight deals.

Potential Savings: Flying on a 7.40am flight over 11am flight saving you $$$

*** Want help planning your next holiday’s budget? Grab your Travel Planner spreadsheet here. ***

3. Walk or take public transport as much as possible

Where possible on your holidays walk to places to get the most out of your travel budget. You will not only save money by skipping an Uber or taxi, get some exercise and fresh air as well as get to see more this way than if you were to drive or take a train.

If you can’t walk or the distance is a bit far, consider taking a bus, tram or train over a taxi or Uber to reduce your holiday transport costs. Look into any travel passes such as 48 or 72 hour passes that are available that might be able to save you on transport costs over the duration of your stay.

Potential Savings: Taking the train or bus $4 fare over $15 per trip taxi ride

4. Find free activities and entertainment

Travelling and sightseeing can be extremely expensive, especially when you have a lot of bucket list items to tick off. We were happy to spend on activities we really wanted to do or see and the rest of the time tried to find free forms of entertainment.

This could include exploring your destination city on foot, checking out a local park, spending some time in your resort’s pool or at the beach, visiting a free Art Gallery or Museum, checking out some local scenery or chatting to some other travelers at a bar or cafe and swapping stories.

Don’t assume everything fun or enjoyable costs money. Seek out budget-friendly activities and your travel budget will go much further without you missing out on the really awesome stuff.

Before you head off on your trip research “free things to do in ________, and insert the city and do as much of these activities as you can to stretch your travel budget further.

Potential Savings: Free museum entry over ticket entry to viewing platform $50

5. Spend your money where it counts

Following on from finding fun free activities, spend your travel budget on the things that matter to you. If you love Theatre go to a show on your trip, see a band you might not be able to see at home, or do a group tour to a site on your bucket list. By being selective with where you spend your cash, you can afford to do those really important must do activities.

Potential Savings: Guilt-free spending here to do what you really want thanks to your saving efforts elsewhere 

6. Drink less

Alcohol can be very expensive in a lot of cities around the world. A single drink can set you back $10-20 or more, particularly if you prefer fancy fruity cocktails like myself. If you are going away for a week you can probably get away with buying a few expensive cocktails with dinner, but when you are travelling for a month, that cost is going to eat away at your spending money fast.

On our most recent trip to Europe we limited drinking in the more expensive cities and stuck to going to bars in the more affordable destinations. There are only so many $14 Vodka and Oranges you can justify on a trip without eating away your travel budget.

Potential Savings: One less cocktail a day at $18, total saving of $126 for the week

7. Pack your lunch and cook occasionally

Back in 2017 we were in the Faroe Islands and Iceland and were astounded at the price of food! We thought we lived in one of the most expensive cities in the world but this was a whole new level of expensive!

On our first day in the Faroe Islands we paid $40 for two small sandwiches and two small bottles of soft drink. Ouch!

We planned to stay eleven nights out of thirty in Europe in Faroe and Iceland and knew paying such hefty food bills three times a day was going to completely blow our travel budget.

Instead of forking out $50 plus per meal, we grabbed some groceries to make breakfast at our accommodation each morning to save us buying one meal each day. We were staying at an airbnb so had some handy dandy full kitchen facilities.

We also grabbed a few ingredients to make up some sandwiches to take on the road for lunch a few of the days. A handful of nights we cooked or heated up frozen meals. It’s not something you probably need to do for a short overseas trip in an affordable location but is extremely helpful when you are planning a longer stay, particularly in the more expensive destinations where eating out day to day is going to cost a lot more than you expected.

Potential Savings: Eating breakfast at your accommodation total savings $10 to $30 per day

8. Shop less

I know a lot of people who travel plan to go shopping potentially leading to Mindless consumption. I’ve never really understood this myself, I can shop any day of the week in Sydney and don’t feel spending my time on holidays stuck inside four walls at a mall is a valuable use of my time or airfare.

Since I don’t shop on holidays unless I really need something, I not only save myself money when travelling but save myself time. Time that I would much rather use exploring a new city and country, not on finding stuff I can cram my home with.

I know you’ll say, “But Jess – I am buying things at a huge discount”… And I’ll say, “Maybe, but you just spent a small fortune on this trip to waste your time shopping and not enjoying what the destination truly has to offer?”.

That doesn’t include the nuisance of lugging around heavy, packed-to-the-brim luggage on your flights or paying excess baggage fees which seem to be getting more and more exorbitant.

Once we cut out unnecessary shopping on our holidays it meant we could afford to travel more often and didn’t need to save up a whole bunch of excess cash for spending.

Want to know how to pack minimally for your next trip. Check out these 16 Easy Tips for your next trip!

Potential Savings: Not shopping every day $100+?

9. Be selective with souvenirs

On our first couple of overseas trips we felt the need to bring home souvenirs from each place we visited. How could you show that you’d been to Thailand without a key ring to show it right?

You name it we bought it; decorative souvenir plates, key rings, snow globes (which always seem to break) and a new fridge magnet from each city. That didn’t include the souvenirs we bought back for family.

Soon enough we found ourselves running out of walls and space to house them all.  And I’ve got to be honest with you, apart from a select few displayed around our home, we never really looked at the others sitting on the shelf. We realised that we probably didn’t need all these trinkets to remember our holidays and that the majority of them were really just dust collectors. We decided to limit our souvenir collection for future trips and decided to be a little bit more creative about what we did bring home.

This past trip to NZ we limited our souvenirs to our photos, a key ring, and necklace and some jelly bellies!

We also took many photos to remember our travels. Not buying souvenirs made traveling easier as we weren’t risking going over our weight allowance and didn’t have to worry about having breakables in our bag that might get damaged in transit.

If you do find joy in souvenirs pick one or two you would love to display in your home from your destination but just keep in mind if you do love to travel these are going to add up over time.

Potential Savings: Limiting souvenirs $50-100+

10. Pack thoughtfully

By bringing what you need you can reduce the money you spend at your destination and help your travel budget. Unless you do your research, some destinations can really set you back for things you can buy affordably at home.

I lost one of my gloves in Iceland and the cheapest pair I could find as a replacement was $40. I left my raincoat at home due to limited space in our luggage thinking my umbrella would be fine, and after realising that umbrellas are redundant for Faroe Island weather, the cheapest raincoat at my destination that I could find was around $150 AUD.

A simple solution to packing thoughtfully is keeping a travel checklist. This can help you to remember all the important things you will need for your trip and save you buying them! Packing a Capsule Wardrobe can go a long way to covering you for all your clothing needs on your holiday.

Potential Savings: The cost of buying clothes etc $20+

11. Utilise Free WIFI

Save money on your travel budget by taking advantage of free WIFI. Buying a sim at each of your destinations can add up. For most of our destinations in Europe, we got away with using our Airbnb’s or hotels WIFI and Free WIFI in cafes. Downloading Google Maps of our destinations also really helped us to access the maps we needed whilst out and about.

Whilst you are there be sure to download things you want to stream, listen to on Spotify or Apple Music, or Audible books to keep you entertained when you don’t have access to wifi.

Potential Savings: Buying a different sim for each country you are visiting

11. Keep your mind open to alternative tourist attractions

Consider alternative options, outside of main tourist areas to help your travel budget go further.

In Iceland, we realised that we’d left it too late to book the Blue Lagoon Pools. We decided rather than going at night we’d try and find another Geothermal pool on our road trip. We found one on our route that ended up only costing $80 for both of us versus the $200 + it would have cost had we booked at the Blue Lagoon. It ended up being a very similar experience and meant we had saved a fair wad of cash for more adventures!

Potential Savings: Picking a lesser known tourist attraction for a similar but more affordable one without the crowds $100

12. Shop around for your travel card

If you plan to use a travel card, know that they can charge a range of fees and eat into your spending money. After purchase fees, reload fees, currency conversion fees, ATM fees, and the like, they can quickly eat up your travel budget.

When shopping around be sure to compare as many options on the market. A good starting point is Choice’s Travel Money Card comparison but be sure to check the card’s website before deciding to ensure you have the most up-to-date information.

A good starting point is to find a card that has no purchase or reload fees (fees to add money to your card), and ideally one with a low currency conversion charge or none at all, and no ATM fees.

Some cards allow you to earn points as you spend. Or if it’s less hassle, take your bank card with you, just be sure to do your research on whether you can use the card at your travel destination and check out the fees associated with using your card. On my most recent trip, I bought my bank card along which waived all overseas transaction fees which saved me some $$$$!

Potential Savings: $5 ATM fees per withdrawal, reload fees, conversion fees, international transaction fees.

13. Set a daily budget before you leave for your holiday

Don’t wait to arrive at your destination to think about the travel budget. Before we left for our trip we set a daily budget and converted that amount in each currency we needed based on how many days we were staying in each. This gave us a stopping point so we could visibly see when we were nearing the end of our budgeted spending money.

If you are budgeting $150 a day as a couple and staying somewhere for two weeks, only convert $2100 in spending money. If you need more you can always add more later, but that limit will help set you a travel spend budget boundary that will help you to know whether you are within your travel budget or over, so that you can adjust your spending accordingly.

It’s best to research the cost of local restaurants, transport etc from travel bloggers or ask a friend who has been before to get an idea of what you should be budgeting.

Potential Savings: Sticking to your $150 a day travel budget rather than not having one and ending up spending $200 a day or $500 extra than planned over a week

How do you travel on a budget? What are your tips for stretching your dollar further whilst still having an amazing, fun holiday? Share your tips in the comments below 🙂

Want more tips on how to save money for your next trip? Check out these 10 Easy Tips to Save Money on Your Groceries!