Organising

12 Simple Bedroom Organisation Tips

Posted on September 10, 2021
Learn some bedroom organisation tips to keep your bedroom a clutter free space.

There is nothing worse than walking into your bedroom after a long day at work and seeing piles of mess all over. Laundry on the floor, loose coins piled up on the bedside table, your quilt, and sheets on the floor – this used to be my daily visuals until I decided that I needed to have my bedroom as a place of calmness and tranquillity. Here are some bedroom organisation tips I’ve found, that helped me achieve a mess-free organised bedroom without too much effort.

Let’s jump right in and declutter with these 12 Simple Bedroom Organisation Tips to help you keep your bedroom the sanctuary you’ve always wanted it to be!

12 Simple Bedroom Organisation Tips

1. Make Your Bed Every Day

I’ve included this first on purpose. Always make your bed. It’s the first thing you will notice when you walk into your room and gives a sense of cleanliness and order at a glance. Even better it only takes a minute or less! Making your bed alone brings your bedroom up to a semi-tidiness level and will spark the desire to keep going and get the rest of the bedroom in order!

2. Remove Unnecessary Items and Declutter

Remove clutter or items that don’t belong in your bedroom. The key is to make sure everything has a home. If stuff from other rooms in the home seems to be creeping into your bedroom it’s time to remove it. An easy trick is to have baskets for each person in the household which you can return their items to ready to be put back in the appropriate room without having to take multiple trips.

Think about when was the last time you used each item in your bedroom. If it was more than 12 months ago, or something that doesn’t really bring you joy anymore, then let it go. A great way to facilitate decluttering things in your room as you go is to keep a donation box or basket in the bottom of your wardrobe so you can donate things as you go.

3. Keep Clothes Hampers Close By

Put a clothes hamper in your bedroom, bathroom, or wardrobe to keep laundry off the floor. Better yet, get one with compartments for sorting to save you time when it comes to laundry day. Mine is on a rolling frame with bags so you can roll the hamper to the laundry or just grab a bag and go!

Check out these 6 laundry hacks to keep you on top of your washing pile! 

Declutter With Me Decluttering Course  

Are you finding yourself overwhelmed and stressed out by clutter in your home? If you’re looking to minimise the excess in your life, Declutter With Me: A 12 Week Guide to Declutter Your Home is a go-at-your-own-pace course that will give you the step-by-step, room-by-room instructions to help you clear the clutter in your home in as soon as just 12 weeks!

But clearing the clutter isn’t just about getting rid of your excess stuff. It’s important to change your behaviour and consumer habits so you can avoid re-cluttering your space once you have decluttered. Included in Declutter With Me, are “Keep It Minimal” tips for each area in your home + 7 Tips To Help You Keep Your Home Minimal, to give you strategies you can implement to help you spend with intention so you can avoid bringing clutter back into your home.

If you are keen to minimise your unwanted clutter check out Declutter With Me so you can create a home you love!

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4. Create a Capsule Wardrobe

In order to avoid the morning stress associated with having to pick something to wear from an overflowing wardrobe, and the resulting mess that comes from the mad rush, consider de-cluttering your wardrobe or creating a capsule wardrobe.

A more streamlined wardrobe filled with items you love will make getting ready a breeze and ensure those days of clothing strewn all over the floor are well behind you.

 

Related post: 7 Essential Questions to Help You Declutter Your Wardrobe!

5. Limit Items On Bedside Tables

Keep bedside table items to a minimum. It looks less cluttered and will be easier when it comes time to dust. Keep the things you need close by, such as the book you are currently reading but put the other stuff away. Ideally in your bedside table where they are accessible but not visually cluttering up your bedside table.

6. Organise Like Items together

Keep like items together; jewellery, hats, handbags, etc so they are easy to locate. And as an extra bonus, you can spend your money with intention as you can see what you have and know what you do and don’t need before going out shopping and coming home with duplicate items.

7. Utilise Over Door Hangers

Over-door-hangers are an easy storage option when you are lacking storage in your bedroom. The storage options for these are endless. You can use them to store things like shoes, socks, makeup, and jewellery.

Over-the-door hooks can be used to store clean but worn clothing so you can re-wear them. This will help keep clothes that can be worn again off the floor and provides great additional storage space and will keep your clothes lasting longer as you won’t be washing them every single time you wear them (within reason of course, please do wash your underwear after ease use hehe).

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8. Keep the Floor Clear

Keep as little on the floor as possible. Open spaces do wonders for the appearance of tidiness. A hamper in the corner or cupboard will greatly help to achieve this! Place cushions back on your bed and fold any extra blankets.

9. Use the Kon-Mari Folding Method to Maximise Space

Fold your clothes Kon-Mari style. This method allows you to fit more in your drawers, reducing the number of drawers you will need which will help your room feel less cluttered. This folding method also allows you to see your clothes at a glance as they are ‘filed’ inside each drawer.

They will stay much tidier as you can pick what you want out at a glance, rather than having to dig through a vertical pile of clothes to find what you are after. This saves you having to refold everything constantly and allows you to easily close your drawers!
I made the change to folding using the Kon-Mari method years ago and will never go back.

Here is a video containing the instructions on how to fold clothing the Kon-Mari way if you are keen to see how it is done. Get ready to enjoy folding! 

10. Be Selective With What You Bring Into Your Bedroom Space

Be selective with what you bring into your bedroom. Try to implement the one-in-one-out rule for clothing to avoid closet chaos. Don’t buy endless decorative items that take up space and attract dust. Select a few you love and keep the rest from cluttering up your room.

Check out these 7 questions to ask before buying anything to help you shop and spend your hard-earned money more intentionally.

11. Use Boxes, Baskets and Containers For Drawer Organisation

Use boxes like IKEA Skubb or DIY versions to organise drawers into sections. This can be great to organise bras, underwear, and socks or shirts into sections and keep them tidy and sectioned so they are easy to find. They also look great! And why not have beautifully organised spaces in drawers as well as elsewhere in your home!

12. Implement a Plan For Worn Clothing

One of the biggest pain points for untidy bedrooms is dealing with clothing and laundry, whether it be clean, worn but still wearable, or dirty.

Ensure every time you wear something you assess: Does this need to be washed or will I wear this again?

Find a system that works for you. Here’s mine.

I put dirty clothes immediately into a hamper in the bathroom and if it is something that can be worn a second time, I will hang it up on hooks behind our bathroom door.

Alternatively, you can put it back on a coat hanger in your closet or have a specific drawer for clothes you want to wear again but to keep them separate from the unworn clothes whilst keeping them off the floor.

Once you get into the habit of this, clothes left lying on the bedroom or bathroom floor – or wherever is your clothing hot spot in the house – will be a thing of the past and will go a long way to keeping your bedroom a tidy oasis!

I hope these will be some useful bedroom organisation tips for your household so you too can maintain a beautiful calming organised bedroom space.

Let me know in the comments what bedroom organisation tips you have for maintaining your bedroom!

Budgeting

How the Debt Snowball Can Get You Debt Free Faster

Posted on September 7, 2021

There is no faster ticket to financial freedom than being debt-free. Having debt can weigh us down and keeps us stuck, making it difficult to make the changes we want to in life for the better.

When we are in debt, more of our money goes to covering past decisions rather than funding future opportunities.

When you don’t carry debt, you free up your hard-earned money to put towards the things that truly add value to you such as, adding to your retirement savings, saving for a goal that is important to you or changing to a new career that you are passionate about but that involves taking a pay cut.

Several years ago, I came across the Debt Snowball Method for reducing your debts, being just one of numerous debt repayment methods.

I’d always considered focusing on the interest rate the smart way to go about debt repayment. It seemed more financially savvy to me to focus on the dollars involved and the interest saved.

But since discovering this method of debt repayment, I could also see the benefit in paying off debts from the lowest to highest balance over-focusing on the interest rate or dollars saved.

It is really a personal preference, personal finance is just that, personal!

Benefit of the Debt Snowball Method

The main benefit of the Debt Snowball, is that this debt repayment method is designed to give you ‘quick wins’ when it comes to your debt as you focus on paying as much as possible onto the lowest debt until it is paid off. This is a great debt repayment method for people who have a number of debts with different balances and who need that little extra reward when it comes to sticking out their financial goals.

Paying off debts is a hard slog. When you see how many years and repayment periods are left on your debt, it may seem like there is no light at the end of the tunnel and you may feel like you will be stuck paying those debts off indefinitely.

The key to the Debt Snowball is building momentum. Building new habits is tough and we often need instant rewards in order to keep us working towards our goals and that is why this debt repayment method can give us the small financial wins that we need to stay motivated when paying off debt!

When we want to lost weight we join a gym and closely watch the scales. It can be hard to stay motivated when those scales don’t budge in the beginning. When you finally lose that first kilo, it feels amazing! And all your effort starts to feel worth it. The small win, helps you stay focused and feel more determined on your weight loss journey.

Can you imagine trying to lose weight if you didn’t notice any benefits for 6 or 12 months? This is why the Debt Snowball can be so effective at helping you get on top of your debt. It focuses on knocking down the smallest and easiest debts to tackle first. With each debt repaid, you can see your progress a lot sooner than if you attempted to pay out a much larger debt.

There are no short-term solutions to paying off debt. It is likely going to be a slow and difficult journey but one that will be well worth it!

Imagine all the things you could be doing with your cash if you were debt-free:

Buying your first home, being able to finally take that dream holiday, starting your own business or investing for your retirement. These goals will be easier to fund once you get your lingering debt out of your life!

Keep these dreams at the forefront of your mind! If you have a partner, discuss what your dreams are together. Maybe you have the same dream, maybe they are different. But these dreams are going to be the motivation you need to keep going when things get hard.

>> If you like this post, you’ll love: “10 Easy Tips Save Money Groceries Budget“<<

But just before you dive into how to start your Debt Snowball I want to talk about something that is extremely important for your financial journal and a must before starting your Debt Snowball – the importance of building an Emergency Fund!

BUILDING AN EMERGENCY FUND

Before attempting to Snowball your debts you need to save an Emergency Fund. This will be a financial buffer for any financial emergencies that pop up whilst you are paying off your debt. It’s critical to have an Emergency Fund as you can’t pay off your debt whilst you are still living off your credit cards and adding to your debt. We don’t want to keep digging a hole for ourselves while we are trying to pay it off. You’re just going to end up back where you started and finding the whole process slowly destroying your original motivation to get on top of your debt.

Many finance experts recommend having an Emergency Fund between $2,000 and 3-6 months of expenses. I recommend having a starter Emergency Fund of at least $2,000 or ideally one month’s expenses set aside for financial emergencies at a minimum. This is a reasonable savings buffer to help you in times of emergency to put out any financial fires that come up whilst you are paying off your debt.

Of course, some of you may not feel comfortable with such a small Emergency Fund, so if that is you, you can certainly bump that up to 3-6 months’ expenses. But you do need to weigh up how much you want to set aside. It doesn’t make much financial sense to save a huge amount earning 1% in interest when you are paying 22% interest on your credit cards! That money is going to serve you better by paying down your high-interest debt!

Do what it takes to save up your Emergency Fund quickly so you can start paying down your debt as fast as possible. Ensure that your Emergency Fundis only used for emergencies. If you need to replace a tyre or you have a dental emergency, the money will be there for you. Just be sure to save up and top up your Emergency fund again as soon as possible!

Once you have saved your Emergency Fund you can move onto your Debt Snowball.

Check out these 40 Side Hustles to Help You Pay Off Your Debt Quicker!

THE DEBT SNOWBALL

With a small amount of planning, you can be well on your way to paying down your debt.

Please remember, this is just one of many debt elimination strategies so you don’t have to use this approach to pay off your debt if it doesn’t resonate with you.

Here are the four steps to use the Debt Snowball Method.

Step One:

Write down all your current Consumer Debt (Exclude your mortgage) in an Excel worksheet or on a piece of paper. Go back to your loan paperwork, online banking, or credit card statements and work out what your current debt balances are for all outstanding debts as of today.

Then, take note of what Interest Rate you’re paying and your monthly Minimum Repayment.

For the Australians out there, getting a current HELP loan debt statement is not possible as these are only sent out annually with your tax return. Instead, enter the HELP balance that was on your most recent Tax Assessment paperwork and make a note to update this when you get your next one.

Step Two:

Once you have written all your debts down, number them from  1, 2, 3 and so on from the smallest balance to the largest. Debt Number 1, the smallest debt balance will be the one that you are going to pay off first and attack with your Debt Snowball first. The last debt will be the highest debt balance.

Work out based on your budget, how much extra on top of the minimum repayments you can afford to put on your smallest debt for that month. If your lowest debt has a minimum monthly repayment of $25 and you can spare another $100 a month, start paying the $25 minimum repayment plus the additional $100 repayment, or whatever it is that you can afford.

Continue to pay Debt Number 2, 3 and so on as minimum repayments. Continue to do this until Debt Number 1 is fully paid off. Be sure to utilise any additional income, such as bonuses or tax refunds to go towards your debt. We want to make sure we are throwing every dollar we can at our debt! If you were under budget for the month, you can add that extra money as an additional top-up payment on your Number 1 debt to help you knock it down even faster.

Step Three:

Once your smallest debt is repaid, take the minimum payment for Debt Number 1, in the example above, that would be $25 a month, and add your additional repayments of $100 a month and add this to the minimum repayment for Debt Number 2 – your second lowest debt.

This means you will now be paying a much larger amount on your second debt – saving you significantly in interest and getting you to your debt-free goal much quicker. If your monthly repayments for Debt Number 2 were $40 you will now pay the minimum amount of $40 plus the $25 and $100 you were using to pay off debt number 1. In effect you are building a ‘snowball’ of your repaid debt repayments! Continue to do this until debt number two is paid.

Step Four:

Continue to do this for each of your debts in the snowball until the last one is paid off. For each new debt paid off, you will be taking the past minimum repayments plus your additional repayment and carrying it forward to the next debt in your snowball. Like a snowball, the repayment for each will grow and pay off a bigger chunk of each debt as it grows and moves to your next biggest balance.

Debt Snowball Worksheet

In order to help you keep track of your Debt Balance and Debt Snowball Repayments, I have created a Debt Snowball Worksheet so you can keep all your Snowball info: Current and Closing Balance, Interest Rates, Minimum Repayments and your Snowball Repayment in the one place.

It will help you to create a monthly budget so you can pre-plan how much you have to pay towards your Debt Balances and will calculate your Debt Free Date each month so you know when you will be debt-free!

Check out the Debt Snowball Worksheet to help you to track your Debt Free Journey and motivate you on your Debt Free Journey!

Your Debt Snowball Worksheet Will help you to Track Your Debt Free Journey

STOPPING THE DEBT CYCLE

Here are some tips to help you stay out of debt and to help you get to your debt-free journey sooner:

  1. If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. This one may seem obvious, but in 2020 the 6 million active Buy Now Pay Later Users (Source: RBA) in Australia haven’t got this memo. If you are using credit cards, whatever you are buying you are likely paying 20% or more in interest each month whilst that amount remains unpaid. Does that sale price look so good now?
  2. Cut up your credit cards. If you are the kind of person that can’t resist a good deal, you can’t pay your credit card off in full each month it might be time to cut those cards up or hide them away until you have got your finances under control, where you can afford to pay them off in full each month.
  3. Start setting goals! It can be easier to part with your hard-earned cash when you have no plan or goals for your money. Having a goal can help you keep that goal top of mind and help you when making purchasing decisions. You can ask yourself, do I really want this extra pair of shoes I don’t need or do I want to keep that money for my holiday?
  4. Learn to be content with what you have. Do you really need a brand new $35k car on finance when your current car works perfectly fine? Are you willing to pay x dollars every month for the next 60-plus months? In good times and bad – when you are unemployed, when you are trying to live on one income when you decide to cut back hours at work to study for a new career – that debt is going to still be there!
  5. Avoid shopping! It’s surprising how little you spend when you avoid going to the shops unnecessarily. If you have endless emails from clothing shops or stores that tempt you unsubscribe from them as well. Instead of going shopping, meet a friend for coffee, read a book, watch a movie. There are plenty of hobbies that are much cheaper and more valuable uses of your time.

Minimise With Me Financial Coaching

If you are still struggling with paying off your debt and staying motivated on your debt-free journey, consider hiring a Financial Coach to help you achieve your financial goals. You can check out Minimise With Me Financial Coaching Services here for more information on how you can start spending your money with intention so you can spend your money with intention.

For tips on how you can save more money to help free up cash for your Debt Snowball check out 11 Everyday Tips to Save Money.

How would you feel if you were debt-free? How would it change your life? Let me know in the comments below 🙂

Budgeting

40 Side Hustles to Give Your Budget A Boost

Posted on August 30, 2021
Side Hustle your way out of debt

What the current cost of living crisis, bringing in additional income can go a long way to helping you achieve your financial goals such as paying down your debt faster.

There are so many Side Hustle options available now that you can most likely turn your passion into some extra cash for your budget (and maybe even a new career!). Best of all, most Side Hustles can be done in just a few hours a week, some even from the comfort of your own home!

If you’ve got some talent or skills that you use for your day job, or a hobby you might be able to utilise those skills to bring in some extra cash which can go a long way in helping your budget.

**This post may contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase of a product from the links in this post I will receive a small commission, at no cost to you. This allows me to keep my blog advertisement free and support the running costs of my blog. I only recommend products I believe will add value to others and that I love myself.**

Check out these 40 Side Hustles to give your budget a boost!

40 Side Hustles to Give Your Budget a Boost

  1. Tutoring – Math’s, English, language or music lessons just to name a few. With Skype, Zoom and other Virtual options you can even teach from your own home.
  2. Dog walking – a great way to earn a few bucks an hour spending time exercising with your favourite animals. 
  3. Babysitting – if you love kids and are good with them advertise your babysitting services. Most Babysitters command $18-30 an hour depending on their qualifications and experience. Check out sites like Find A Babysitter and Babysitters Now to advertise your services.
  4. Drive for Uber or Lyft – if you have a car consider driving on the side or when you have some spare time (although be sure to do the math and make sure it is worth your while after car expenses and wear and tear!).
  5. Resume writing/career coaching – If you’ve gone for a lot of interviews in a particular field, or are skilled at putting together winning resumes and cover letters, put those amazing skills to use for job seekers who need that extra help to get over the line. 
  6. Gardening services – Do you love gardening? Why not advertise your services and get paid money to mow, weed or maintain gardens. You’ve probably got all the tools you need already too! 
  7. Cleaning – Grab yourself $35 an hour minimum as a cleaner. If you’re an efficient cleaner and don’t mind cleaning too much, this might be a great way to bring in some extra cash and shouldn’t be too costly to start.
  8. Car washing & detailing – If you are talented in keeping your car looking shiny AF, consider putting your talents into looking after other people’s cars. Detailing is expensive and if you can offer a good rate and a great service you can bring in some serious cash and be able to earn money doing something you love.
  9.  Offer your services – Airtasker is a great way to bring in extra cash doing odd jobs for people, like delivering bulk goods, grocery shopping, yard work etc. The possibilities are endless. You can also search listed jobs and see if any take your interest.
  10.  Start a blog – if you’ve got something to say why not start your own blog. It’s a great passion project and way to bring some extra cash in from affiliate income and advertising revenue. Sign up for Bluehost hosting and get started! You’ll need website hosting, a domain name, and a theme. Don’t forget to utilise Youtube, there are thousands of videos dedicated to starting your own blog. 
  11.  Youtuber – if you have a passion for sharing your skills or knowledge with the world and know how to wield a phone camera and basic video editing, you can start making some advertising revenue from Youtube videos. And the great thing is you can earn money from those videos for a long time to come!
  12.  Sell your clutter– if you have unwanted clutter collecting dust, now is the time to sell it. You can sell unwanted items on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Buy, Swap, Sell Groups, Gumtree, Poshmark etc. Check out how I made over $5000 selling our excess stuff for tips on how to start and what to sell.
  13. Ebay Reseller – if you have an eye for fashion, or antiques or any collectibles you can put your knowledge to good use by buying sought after items at hugely discounted prices and selling them on Ebay for a higher price.
  14.  Upcycle furniture – if you have an eye for furniture and love being creative and practical, then consider upcycling furniture. You might just pick up a piece of furniture on the side of the road or on the cheap from your local Buy, Swap and Sell group and put some elbow grease and a little bit of cash and walk away with a tidy profit. The more unique your talents are the better! 
  15.  Carpentry – if you are skilled at making things from scratch, you could start a side hustle making custom products for customers such as dining tables, outdoor settings, firepit seating etc. I’ve seen same amazing work from ladies and men online that people would pay over $1,000 for if they knew you were offering carpentry services.
  16. Make your own jewellery or other crafts – if jewellery or crafts is your go to hobby, consider selling some of your creations. Etsy offers a marketplace to sell items like earrings, necklaces, hand made cushions, knitted kids toys and so on. 
  17.  Hairdressing – If you are a hairdresser, utilise your skills and bring in some extra cash on the side. If you work full-time, a few clients on a Saturday or Sunday morning or the occasional wedding will bring in some great funds.  
  18. Makeup Artist – If you talent is make up, advertise your makeup services for formals, weddings, Christmas parties and other special events.
  19. Pet sitter – If you love pets, offer your pet sitting services. People are usually thrilled to save some cash on kennels and have someone who will be more attentive to their pets needs whilst they are away. Try Madpaws to advertise your services.
  20. Delivery driver – Most locations have at least one pizza joint that you can deliver pizzas for. Or pick up some work from Deliveroo, Uber Eats or Menulog. Again be sure to weigh up the costs of car expenses vs income here to make sure you are getting bang for your buck. 
  21. Photographer – if you know your way around a camera and photo shoot offer your photography services. You can do photoshoots for businesses, kids, families or sell prints online, such as on Etsy Marketplace or get paid to take stock images for websites like Shutterstock.
  22. Editor – If you are a grammar freak, offer your editing services to authors. Fiverr offers a platform to advertise your editing services.
  23. Social Media Manager – if you know more than most about social media presence, advertising, branding and all things marketing offer your services to businesses. You could even locate small business with little to no online social media presence and offer to set up their online social media prescence. Great for anyone who loves social media!
  24. Build websites – if you are gifted with tech skills, consider opening your own website building side gig. If you’ve done it enough times it’ll be some quick easy cash for you!
  25. Personal stylist – if you have a passion for fashion, consider offering your services to those who are less fashion inclined. You could offer a fee for your personal shopping assistance and help others find a wardrobe they love.
  26. Baker/Chef – if you are talented in the kitchen, you can have your own catering on the side. Maybe you make amazing cookies or macarons or cake pops. Whatever you love doing, there are always market stalls or events you can offer to work with.
  27. Gift baskets/hampers – my cousin once earned money putting together gift hampers for her boss for staff. If you are good at organising gifts for large groups of people and know what people like (other than those really average hampers everywhere else seems to sell) consider making your own hampers and charging a premium for them.
  28. Hire out unused space – if you’ve got a free room and bathroom in your home, or you travel a lot, a great way to earn some extra cash is on Airbnb by renting out your available space. It’s a great way to potentially meet new people and make some extra cash on unused space in your home, particularly if  you travel a lot. There’s also websites that let you hire out unused storage space like your basement, garage or parking spaces!
  29. Fivver – is a great platform for freelancers with a range of skills such as graphic design, music and audio, translation, website design etc . If you are talented at drawing, photoshop and the like it is a great way for people to find and hire you.
  30. Get a Part time or casual job – have a look and see what jobs openings are available locally to bring in some extra cash. It might be filling shelves at your local supermarket, waiting tables, or data entry around tax season. Or do something you enjoy like DJing or MC’ing at events. 
  31. Create an online course – Sell an online course on Udemy or Teachable. 
  32. Write an eBook – if you’ve got knowledge on a particular topic, create an eBook in Word, export it to a PDF and sell it online. Amazon Direct Publishing offers great options to do this in a low cost way!  
  33. Online Surveys – these are a way to earn money from the comfort of your own home. Some only pay in gift vouchers, and they are not bang for your buck, but if you enjoy them and have the time they can make you some extra cash without too much effort.
  34. Hire out party/wedding décor – A friend of mine used to work on weekends doing wedding ceremony set up as her side hustle. If you have some spare time on the weekends, have access to a trailer, space for 20 to 50 chairs, a rug and some decorations you can start you own wedding decor and set up business. When I was planning my wedding I realised the eye watering amounts these set ups costs so it is a fairly lucrative side hustle once you pay for your rental gear. Another popular option is hiring out picnic set ups.
  35. Lolly bar – If you have some spare time on the weekends, grab some glass jars and a bunch of lollies and offer your lolly bar service. These charge around $1,000 a pop for a wedding so is some serious profit to be made, with not so much effort. Although it might be hard to resist eating all those sugary treats (or is it just my weakness ;)) 
  36. Book Keeping – if you are an Accountant by day, you could pick up some extra clients after hours to add to your cash stash. You can also advertise your services to set up Accounting Software for new users.
  37. Repairs – If you can repair things, why not make some cash from it. You might be great at repairing phones, PCs, guitars, fridges, DVD players, dishwashers, general home repairs etc.  
  38. Shirt printing – if you are artistic and can come up with some unique shirt designs, this can be a great side hustle. Red Bubble, Spreadshirt and Etsy, plus many more websites now let you sell on a per order basis, so skip the need for lots of stock to be stored in your home.
  39. Performing – if you can play an instrument or sing look for gigs at weddings, parties and pubs or paid projects like recording on albums. These can be listed on Airtasker, or simply advertise your services locally. 
  40. Teach a class – if you’re talented and qualified to teach music, yoga, personal training, cooking or whatever your skills are, consider teaching in a class setting. It could be offering group PT for friends at the park, a virtual Italian cooking class or group music lessons for kids. 

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

Question: What side hustles have you picked up to earn more cash? Share yours in the comments below! 

Join our facebook community for women who want to spend their money with intention

Budgeting

10 Easy Tips to Save Money on Your Groceries Budget

Posted on July 21, 2021

Grocery shopping can make up a big portion of the weekly family budget and quite possibly one of your biggest expenses next to housing and child care. If you are not aware of your monthly grocery spend those supermarket trips can easily add up and blow out your budget. If you are keen to save money and make your income go further, reassessing your grocery budget can be a great place to start.

Don’t forget to give the Grocery Budget Challenge a go at the end of this post! 🙂

Here are 10 Easy Tips to Save Money on Your Groceries Budget that can help you plan ahead and that can quickly add up to some great and easy savings on your grocery bills.

1. Always bring a list with you and stick to it

Save money on groceries by having a shopping list on your fridge. This is my number one tip to save money on your groceries budget! When you are out of something, write it down and by the end of the week, you’ll have a list of things to buy that you actually use. Avoid walking into a supermarket unprepared! Once you are in the store, resist adding to this list with impulse purchases by completely avoiding aisles that don’t contain items on your list.

2. Resist buying large quantities of new products

Avoid buying new products or if you can’t resist, only buy one to try it out first and see if you like it to avoid ending up with multiple items that you may not like. We quickly learned that often new food or products we would buy on sale were more often than not left unused and taking up space in our pantry or cupboards. Sometimes it is best to stick to using our trusted and preferred brands of products to eliminate waste and save money!

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3. Shop online to help resist impulse purchases

Do your grocery shop online when you can. It’s easy to see what products you regularly purchase are on sale and helps you streamline your grocery list. I grab my shopping list, sit down for ten minutes, and order what is on that list and pick it up at a convenient time or get it delivered. Not being in the store means you avoid the additional temptation to make unnecessary purchases and helps you stick to your budget.

4. Buy only what you need and avoid excessive bulk purchases

Don’t overstock on sale items. Just because something is on sale doesn’t mean you need to buy a year‘s supply of it! Most popular items go on sale on a rotating cycle every 3-5 weeks so you needn’t be preparing for the apocalypse! (2021 update: Then covid and panic buying hits’;))

Try and keep in mind how much you need when shopping to avoid wasting money on groceries you won’t end up using. I know that I can buy a large packet of carrots for only 50c more, but I always go for the smaller packet so they don’t end up in the bin, and I save myself the 50 cents. Alternatively, if you do buy a little bit extra, make sure you store the items correctly so they will last longer such as in a container or in your freezer.   

5. Store food correctly to prolong life and reduce waste

Learn how to store food correctly in order to prolong its life. Some food such as potatoes and onions should be stored separately, tomatoes ripen better out of the fridge, and herbs and carrots thrown into a glass of water will last a few days longer than in the fridge. This will ensure you get as long out of your fresh produce as possible saving you another trip to the store and money.

Check out: How to Reduce Your Waste Footprint for more tips on how to reduce waste in your home!

6. Save with DIY Cleaning products

Reduce cleaning supply bills by making your own DIY cleaning products for a fraction of the price as well as limiting the cupboard overflowing with different products for each cleaning task. Bicarb, dishwashing liquid, water, and white vinegar alone can clean most areas of the home, as well as being safer to use inside the home. Cleaning products can contribute a huge portion of your grocery bills and can be a great way to save money on your groceries budget. 

7. Switch to machine-washable cloths

Switching to machine-washable microfiber cloths can help save endless dollars on dishcloths. A pack of microfiber cloths can be obtained for $5-10 and can be washed again and again to save you from replacing cloths regularly. Simply use and put in a washcloth pile to wash once a week. Other savings tips for regular kitchen cloths is to soak them in vinegar and heat them in the microwave for a couple of minutes to kill bacteria or to throw them in your dishwasher cycle at least once a week.

8. Meal Plan 

Meal Planning can be an easy way to save money on groceries. Base your shopping list on what meals you could make with the ingredients you currently have in your pantry or fridge. Add any additional ingredients required for those recipes to the shopping list. If you’re buying something that will not be used up in one meal, incorporate the leftovers into your next meal so you can avoid food waste or freeze the remaining portions where possible for next time.

Just ten minutes a week of meal planning can save you hundreds over the year and drastically help reduce food waste in your home.

Start saving money today with your Weekly Meal Planner Printable

9. Research specials online or in catalogues prior to entering the supermarket 

Buying more expensive items such as beverages, beauty, and cleaning products can add up over time when paying full price. In order to easily save money on your groceries budget, check out the weekly catalogues for your local supermarkets.

Make separate lists for your groceries based on what you are planning to buy in each and shop according to what store has the best price. This might take a little longer, but the savings can be very much worth your while. If you do online shopping this can be even easier where you can just order from different stores and get pick up or home delivery to avoid multiple trips (but with the cost of delivery it might be more savvy to pick them up from the one shopping centre if possible).

Alternatively, go to the shop when it suits you, it doesn’t have to be on the same day, if you will be near one today and another on the weekend grab what you need when it is convenient.

10. Pay attention to the ticket pricing per weight

In Australia, supermarkets are now required to include easy price comparisons on their pricing tags such as price per 100 grams. You can now easily compare various sizes and prices of similar products from the price tag on the shelf. This can be done much quicker than before when you’d be trying to work these things out in your head or with your calculator and can be an easy quick way to decide in-store or online what is the best value for money product to buy.

Grocery Budget Challenge

If you like the idea of a challenge here is one for you!

I want you to calculate how much you have spent on groceries over the last 3 months, so your monthly grocery budget spend. The steps are below:

  1. Simply go through your bank or credit card statements and add up all amounts spent on groceries over the last 3 months (so working backward from today by 3 months) and total up how much you spent. If you want a more accurate figure, go back 6 months and total up the grocery spend.
  2. Divide the total grocery spend you calculated by 3 or 6 months (however many months you went back in your statements).

This will give you your average monthly spend on your grocery budget.

With the above 10 tips in mind and your average monthly spend amount, I then want you to try and decrease your average grocery budget from what you calculated by 10%. So if your grocery budget came to $700 a month on average, I want you to try and cut it down by 10% ($70 in this example).

See how you go! You might find that you can easily cut it by 10% or more, and can redirect those savings to another financial goal! And even if you can only save $10 a week on your groceries, that’s still a whipping $520 a year back in your pocket! How awesome is that?! 🙂

For more tips to save on your grocery budget check out 6 Tips to Drastically Cut Your Grocery Bill and 15 Tips to Reduce Food Waste and Save Money!

Do you have any tips to save money on your groceries budget? How did you go with the Grocery Budget Challenge? Leave a comment below to let me know! 🙂

Budgeting Freebies

Grocery Budget Challenge

Posted on July 21, 2021

Grocery Budget Challenge

I want you to calculate how much you have spent on groceries over the last 3 months, so your monthly grocery budget spend. The steps are below:

  1. Simply go through your bank or credit card statements and add up all amounts spent on groceries over the last 3 months (so working backwards from today by 3 months) and total up how much you spent. If you want a more accurate figure, go back 6 months and total up the grocery spend. 
  2. Divide the total grocery spend you calculated by 3 or 6 months (how ever many months you went back in your statements).

This will give you your average monthly spend on your grocery budget.

With the above 10 tips in mind and your average monthly spend amount, I then want you to try and decrease your average grocery budget from what you calculated by 10%. So if your grocery budget came to $700 a month on average, I want you to try and cut it down by 10% ($70 in this example).

See how you go! You might find that you can easily cut it by 10% or more, and can redirect those savings to another financial goal! And even if you can only save $10 a week on your groceries, that’s still a whopping $520 a year back in your pocket! How awesome is that?! 🙂     

For more tips to save on your grocery budget check out 6 Tips to Drastically Cut Your Grocery Bill and 15 Tips to Reduce Food Waste and Save Money!

Budgeting

5 Financial Mistakes I Made in My 20s That Changed My Financial Future

Posted on July 13, 2021

We often look back on past and present financial mistakes with shame, embarrassment, and annoyance. We can judge ourselves harshly for stupid financial decisions we have made, whether that be taking on debt, throwing away money on things we can’t even remember or any other financial mistake you can come up with.

Just like skipping a day at the gym, there is no positive benefit to beating yourself up for making a financial misstep. The best thing we can do for ourselves is to get back it the horse, to reflect on the behaviour, habit or lack of knowledge that led to that financial mistake, and try and make more intentional and informed financial decisions going forward, armed with our past experiences to guide us.

Now, well into my 30s, I often consider the things I wish I knew as a young adult and ponder how much it could have changed things.

Would I be further ahead financially had I done things differently?

Could I have reached FIRE (Fire Independence Retire Early) by now, or much sooner?

Would I have started my own business years ago? Could I have helped people sooner?

Could I have travelled more or started to live a more meaningful life earlier?

Don’t get me wrong, I am extremely grateful to be where I am, but I feel reflecting on my past financial mistakes is always a good way to remind me of my financial principles and where I started. And hopefully will be an opportunity for me to pass on valuable lessons in my life to help you avoid making the same financial mistakes I did.

Here I am reflecting on 5 Financial Mistakes I Made in My 20s That Changed My Financial Future

5 Financial Mistakes I Made in My 20s That Changed My Financial Future

1. Only Saving What Was Left After Spending

When I got my first full-time job at 21, I very quickly became accustomed to my paycheck. I went from working part-time to full-time and completely changed my lifestyle to align with my new larger and more consistent income.

During the first six months of working full-time, I adopted a spend first, save last financial philosophy.

I was bringing home just over $3000 a month as an Assistant Accountant. I was still living at home at the time, just paying $100 a week in board plus my own bills. Somehow I still could only save a measly $100-200 a month. Just over 5% of my income when I had barely a financial care in the world as I was living at home still. 

Each month I would do my savings transfer of what was left in my account. I soon realised, that each month I felt a huge sense of guilt when I logged into my account to see that I had only a small amount left over to save of my paycheck. I know that having some savings still sounds like an accomplishment, but I was a born saver. This wasn’t really an accomplishment to me. It was a failure in my eyes.

Thankfully within 6 months of getting my first full-time job, I realised that something needed to change. I didn’t want to keep spending my money without knowing where it was going and leaving saving to an afterthought.

I set up automated savings transfers to transfer my savings on my payday so that I could still spend my money, but there would at least be a boundary set to give me a spending limit. It also took the work out of it for me as the transfer happened automatically so saving became easier overtime, and soon enough I adapted to my slightly lower spending allowance. I was actually surprised how easy it was to adapt after I got used to it over a few weeks.

By adjusting how I did my savings to ‘pay myself first‘, I was able to pay off a $5,000 car loan, $11,000 in HELP Debt as well as save up a deposit for my first home within three years of starting at my first full-time job! 

And this one long-term change I implemented into my finances, sparked by this one financial mistake I chose to learn from has set me up financially for life. Since then, armed with my financial principle to ‘pay myself first’, my husband and I funded a Wedding, our Honeymoon in Europe, paid off over $40,000 in Student Debt, paid off a huge chunk of our mortgage and funded travel all over the world!

It’s just one example of how one small change to your finances, made as early as you can, can compound over the years and change your financial future!

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2. Not Planning Ahead

When I was 20, I had about a thousand dollars in savings and felt like that was a pretty good position to be in. This view all came crashing down when I opened the mail one day and found two bills addressed to me.

I ended up with two bills totalling $1300 for my car registration and Greenslip Insurance (medical vehicle insurance) that I had completely forgotten was coming up.

I remember thinking at that moment how much I had royally fucked up. I was annoyed at myself for being so forgetful that the bill was coming.

I wasn’t able to borrow money from my parents so I had to completely deplete my savings to keep my car on the road and get to work and find a few hundred dollars to fill the gap in order to pay those two bills. Thankfully I was able to take on some extra shifts and managed to put enough together by the due day to pay the bills.

But that left me short for paying for my rego check or any repairs to my 1994 Camry so it would pass rego.

I ended up having to borrow $50 from my mom to tide me over until I got paid again so I could pay for a rego check and new wiper blades. If I had needed more expensive repairs I would have been in trouble. I hadn’t borrowed money from my mum in a long time and had always felt proud by that, but now felt like a bit of a failure having to do this. I just knew that I didn’t want to have to borrow money from anyone else ever again I wanted to make sure I would be prepare next time and could stand on my own two feet financially! 

So I made a mental note to myself to always save up for repairs and car expenses in advance.  

This experience taught me a very valuable Financial lesson in planning ahead for bills. Something that was such a pain in the butt at the time stuck with me all these years and taught me some very important financial principles.

In the 14 years since I have never once forgotten to save up for an annual bill. 💪

Over the years, this lesson has saved me so much anxiety and stress around money. I always know that if something comes into my inbox (we’re back to 2021 now hehe), I’ve prepared ahead for it financially and I’m not going to have to live off two-minute noodles for the next couple of weeks or put something on my credit card until I can find enough money to pay for it. It’s already taken care of 🙂


3. Buying a House With No Emergency Fund

At 24, along with my boyfriend at the time (now husband), we bought our first home. We had worked hard over two years to save just enough for a 10% deposit on a small home and had a bit extra to buy some furniture and to cover the solicitor’s fees.

But anything else that was thrown at us financially, we weren’t really going to be prepared for. And we were so lucky!

A decade later – with my 30-year-old hat on, I now would highly encourage anyone before buying a house to make sure that you have a 3 to 6 month Emergency Fund built up for your peace of mind (especially while we’re in a pandemic!). Owning a house is expensive and it is going to try and break you financially at some point just to see if you can hack homeownership.

I remember one year, we had a hail storm and our roof was leaking as a result. We had to pay a $500 excess to claim repairs through our insurance. No big deal…

But then after making the call, I walked outside to check on our cars and realised that my windshield had been cracked by the hail as well as having other hail damage. My husband’s car also had hail damage. Great! It ended up costing us $2,100 in insurance excesses that day just to repair the hail.

Not three weeks after this happened our water heater died which set us back another $1,300!!!

It was just one of those moments where it really opened my eyes to how expensive homeownership is, and how important it is to make sure you have savings for when the shit hits the fan. Because at some point, it will, and sometimes it’ll hit that fan three times in a row.

So if you’re a homeowner, just hold on to your hat, strap in for the ride and build up your Emergency Fund to 3 to 6 months expenses quick smart so when the weather or whatever goes wrong, you are ready to go with some savings! 


4. Not Investing Sooner

One of my most costly financial mistakes in my 20s was that I didn’t invest! I first started investing outside of my superannuation when I was in my early 30s! Which isn’t the worst thing, I still have plenty of time to make up for lost time, but when it comes to Compound Interest, the sooner you start, the fast your money can grow!

Initially I figured that my Superannuation was taking care of my retirement plans.

No one I knew at that time was investing so I didn’t really have anyone to talk to about it or ask advice. Plus I had $42k of Consumer Debt to repay, and wanted to save up a 3-6 month Emergency Fund before I tackled any other financial goals!


Then I came across a blogger, Mr Money Moustache and discovered the FIRE movement. I realised that I didn’t know if I really wanted to wait until 60 to access my retirement savings. That was 30 + years away. Was I really going to stay in my job until my 60s?… It didn’t sound like the greatest plan for me, personally.


And so, I started to educate myself about investing. I watched hundreds of Investment videos on Youtube and read as many Finance and Investing books as I could get my hands on. 

 
If there is one thing I could do, I would go back to my early 20-year-old self and tell myself to invest my money and take advantage of compound interest even earlier!  If you want to get started investing money, I recommend you find a flat fee, licensed financial adviser who can help you get started with your investment goals.


5. Spending Money Without Intention

Like many of us, in my 20s shopping was a hobby for me. It was a way to spend my weekend, to catch up with friends, a way to pass time if I was bored, a way to reward myself for all my hard work and probably filled some void in my life I wasn’t quite aware of at the time. I remember whenever I finished my University exams, the first thing I wanted to do was to go straight to the shops and finally have the time to go shopping. That seems a little sad to me now, but that’s what I was feeling at that moment.

This led to a lot of impulsive and unintentional spending in my twenties, to the point whereby my mid to late 20s, my home was extremely cluttered and causing me stress and anxiety.

It took a while for me to put two and two together; that my Shopping habits, in fact, weren’t bringing me happiness and that I needed to be more intentional with my money, my time, and my home. My home was supposed to be my sanctuary, not an area to store clutter.

When I first caught onto how my spending was becoming an issue, I has about 60 pairs of shoes, 50 dresses and had managed to fill up a 4 bedroom house with seemingly endless amounts of clutter. That now seems pretty crazy to me!


After decluttering about 70% of mine, and my husband’s possessions, my eyes were opened to the lack of intentionality I’d had previously when it came to spending. And to be fully transparent, it was mostly on my part. 

I set about making some gradual lifestyle changes including adopting a more minimalist lifestyle which benefited my physical, mental health, and financial health.

I stopped shopping as a hobby.

I stopped browsing or shopping without a list.

I started this blog and made sure to spend my time doing things that added more value to my life.

I tried different spending bans to get on top of wasteful spending and implemented wait times before I could buy things to make sure I was buying them for the right reasons and not out of boredom, on impulse, or just because something was on sale.

It’s now been a good 7 years since I’ve made these changes to my shopping habits and the amount of money that I have been able to save as a result is truly amazing! It has allowed me to pay off over 1/4 of a million in debt and helped me to create a more meaningful life. You can read more about how this change positively impacted my financial future here.


These are 5 Financial Mistakes I Made in my 20s That Changed My Financial Future. They taught me some valuable lessons and helped me to adopt new financial principles that allowed me to live a more meaningful life. 

Remember – there’s nothing wrong with making financial mistakes, we’ve all made them!

We just need to make sure that we turn those mistakes on their head and reflect on them so that we can learn from our past mistakes when it comes to money and allow those financial mistakes to help us change our financial future for the better.

Question: I would love to know, what financial mistakes did you make in your 20s and how did it serve you to change your financial future?

General Advice Disclaimer: The information on this site is of a general nature. It does not take your specific needs or circumstances into consideration, so you should look at your own financial position, objectives and requirements and seek financial advice before making any financial decisions.