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How to Say Goodbye to Financial Anxiety with Sinking Funds

Posted on June 11, 2018

Leave bill shock in the past with Sinking Funds

It’s that time of the year again, you open the mail (or email ;)) to see a bill for your car registration or insurance renewal staring you in the face. It’s due in three weeks time. What do you do now? Panic? Just chuck it on the credit card? After all, you’ll pay it off gradually over the next year, right? Uh sure… but what about the last three bills you put on that same credit card that you still need to pay off?

That, my friend, is what we call a band-aid solution to your finances and is a surefire way to end up with mounting credit card debt. It’s a quick fix that will only cause you endless stress and anxiety, and throw you into a panic every time you get a new bill. It could be a nightmare for future you. And we don’t want to screw over future you! We want a happy, debt free future you that has the flexibility to travel and go out, and cut back hours at work, doesn’t that sound great?! It sure does to me! So how about instead of continuing down the same old path of panicking every time your car breaks down or you get a new bill in the mail I explain How to Say Goodbye to Financial Anxiety with Sinking Funds.

I was faced with a similar bill shock situation back when I was 21 that changed my approach to finances from that day forward and forced me to think about my financial future.

I had just walked down the driveway to my letter box to check the mail. I saw a letter addressed to me and quickly opened it. To my shock it was a $1200 bill for my car registration and Greenslip renewal. Frick. I had completely forgotten my registration was due. That bill that comes at the same time, every.single.year. I’d only had two of these bills before but hey, it was enough for me to know better. I couldn’t believe that it had completely slipped my mind.

Thankfully at the time I had just enough saved up in my bank account and managed to pay both bills with a little left over to cover the car inspection. However, I now had only $25 to my name to last me until pay day. It wasn’t the end of the world by any means, I still lived at home and would get paid again in a week, but it did mean the small financial safety net (what I’d later learn to be called an Emergency Fund) I had built up for myself was now gone in a split second. I now had no money for petrol, food or anything else for the next week until pay day.

My stress wasn’t over yet. I crossed my fingers hoping the car would pass the inspection as I sat in the waiting area of the mechanics. I knew I didn’t have any more money for any other repairs so needed good news! I held my breath as the mechanic walked over to me to tell me the outcome of the inspection. He told me everything was fine, but he couldn’t pass me. I needed new wiper blades that were going to be an additional $40. Again, not the end of the world by any means, but I didn’t have enough. Had my car needed $1000 worth of repairs I would have been in disaster town. I told him I was down to my last $25 and pleaded for him to pass me, assuring him I’d come back the next day to get them done hoping Mum would spot me some cash, which of course she did, and I went back the next day to get them repaired.

This event was a small financial blip in my adult life but taught me a valuable lesson that changed my financial future. I never wanted to feel that financially insecure again and committed from that moment I would always plan ahead. It was a small moment in my life but made a huge impact.

Have you ever been surprised by a bill or not had the money to pay one? You’re certainly not alone. It doesn’t have to continue to be the norm. The answer to avoiding bill shock is simple and one that you can implement in a matter or minutes. We are going to prepare ahead of time. We know the bills are coming every year or quarter, so why don’t we utilise the time we have to save up in advance and plan ahead for those bills? We can! And this post is going to teach you how to do just that that using a simple budgeting system called Sinking Funds.

Don’t let that term scare you into thinking it will be too much work, or something only finance nerds can manage. It’s going to be easier then you think and I promise, like my financial defining moment, and with a little bit of effort you can say goodbye to financial anxiety too.

The awesome news is you will only have to set up your Sinking Funds once and spend a few minutes a year updating them. The even better news is that once you implement your Sinking Funds you will never have to worry about bill stress again. Yay! Let’s get into it!

Accepting the Reality of Bills

The best thing we can all do for our finances is accept that bills are part of life – the essential ones: water, electricity, health insurance, car insurance, they’ll always be there. Sure there are other, more fun things we could spend our money on but let’s be honest – isn’t having essentials like safe tyres for our car or heating for our homes in winter worth it? Instead of dreading those bills, let’s use our Sinking Funds to prepare ahead of time so they aren’t such a drain on your wallet.

What is a Sinking Fund?

A Sinking Fund is a fancy term for saving up for a future bills such as, your car insurance or your next holiday. Instead of dealing with them as they arrive and trying to cover the cost of your bill out of one or two pay cheques, you can plan ahead for your regular bills and spread the costs over 52 weeks or 12 months of the year. You can set up Sinking Funds for anything you like: Christmas and other gifts; Car insurance; clothing; an annual holiday or to save up for your next quarterly utility bill.

Sinking Funds are similar to a regular savings account but rather than adding to your savings, they are working backwards from the budget expense totals and saving up a portion of that over time. Essentially, you only put away what you need to cover your bills in your sinking fund, whereas with a savings goal your intent would be to grow that savings balance over time above and beyond your expenses.

Why Do I Need Sinking Funds?

Here are some of the benefits of a sinking fund to help you understand their usefulness in your budget:

A sinking fund is a way to plan ahead and estimate bills that are due early on, rather then waiting for the bill and eating two minute noodles for the next month;
They will help you avoid paying bills on the credit card and wracking up large credit card debt at high interest rates;
They give you piece of mind that if a bills arrives you will have the funds to pay for it. This will reduce budget stress and anxiety;
They help take the guess work out of budgeting. Once you know your bills are accounted for you know what you have left over that is allowed to be spent rather then spending all your pay check, when in reality some of it should have been put aside;
You can use them to save up for events like Christmas or vacations to reward your family and make sure there is money put aside to enjoy yourself.

How to Set Up Your Sinking Funds

Here are some simple steps to get you started with your sinking fund:

Step 1: Write a list of all your bills and anything else you want to add (such as a fund for Christmas) during the year. An example has been provided below for you.

Step 2: Write next to the bill a reasonable estimate of each bill or expense for the year. Take note of the bill frequency. If for example, you have a bill paid quarterly, you will need to multiply it by 4 to get the yearly total.

Step 3: Add up the bill totals for the year, write that down and divide that amount by 52 weeks or 12 months depending on your budgeting preference or pay cycle to get your weekly or monthly sinking fund total. This is the amount you will need to put away to cover these costs each period.

Refer to the below table for some category examples.

In this example there are 8 Sinking Fund Categories totaling $15,000 for the year which would require $1,250 a month or $288.46 a week to be set aside to cover the bills as they fall due. In the next step we’ll get your accounts set up.

Setting Up Your Bank Accounts

When setting up your sinking fund accounts there are three options:

Option 1: Keeping all the sinking fund categories in one ‘bills account’ that is exclusively for your sinking fund total

– Pros:

Only requires one ongoing monthly transfer to be set up to one account
Monitoring is easier as you can check your balance by logging into one account only
Can be easily tracked using the Minimise With Me Sinking Fund Worksheet

– Cons:

Having one bank account with all sinking funds in it means that you won’t know the balance of each individual sinking fund unless you track it in a worksheet or in a workbook

Option 2: Setting up multiple bank accounts for each individual category:

– Pros:

you can name each bank account according to your category e.g. Christmas, holiday, car expenses and see at a glance what you have in your account for each sinking fund. No need to calculate your balance as it will be the account balance.

– Cons:

Not all banks let you have such a high number of accounts so you may need to open accounts at multiple banks and have multiple log ins
This option requires a transfer to be set up to each account so takes a little more work to set up initially, but less ongoing work as you can see the balance at a glance.

Option 3: Cash Envelopes

This third option is for those who prefer to work with cash in their budgets. Simply grab a few envelopes and write on each one what expense category it relates to.

– Pros:

Great for people who prefer cash and seeing their money or those who want avoid budgeting worksheets

– Cons:

Putting away $250 or so into a cash envelope you leave lying around at home or in your handbag can be a security risk. This method is best left for the smaller, more frequent bills to limit how much cash you have in your home. Of course you can mix and match with the bank account option and cash envelopes.

Once you have decided on one of the above two bank account set ups or cash envelopes you can open the necessary bank accounts you need.

These accounts should ideally be fee-free accounts. Shop around for your bank account/s to ensure you aren’t paying fees you don’t have to.

Once they are set up, ensure that you use them exclusively for your sinking fund. Do not go and withdraw money for anything that is not included in your sinking fund or you will leave yourself short when they are due.

Take the Work Out of Saving and Automate

Now that your accounts are set up you will need to set up your automatic savings transfers. You need to schedule a regular transfer from your regular transaction account where your pay/s is deposited to your sinking fund account/s for the relevant totals you have listed. Set it to come out the same day every week or month and for the same amount until you cancel it or revise it. Set it for the day after your pay day every week or month. That way the money comes out the day after you are paid, before you can accidentally spend it.

Once these automated transfers are set up you will only need to review them every so often. A quick glance every quarter and adjustment at the end of the year to account for any increases or changes would be ideal.

If you have an irregular income, but are sure that your earnings will cover the total of your transfer each pay period you can go ahead and set it up as an automatic transfer as well. But please note, if your pay is extremely erratic you may want to opt to do this manually instead so your automated payments don’t bounce. A simpler method is just to budget off the minimum you earn so you know you will always have enough coming into the account and save yourself from the manual work. Automated finances are much more convenient.

Build a Buffer

When you first start your fund you are going to be a bit short for some of your sinking fund categories. If for example, you are starting your sinking fund in January and have an annual bill due in March, you are not going to have 12 months to save up for that bill so you will either need to save more for those three months to cover that bill amount e.g. The bill divided by three months or you can start off your sinking fund with a bit of a buffer. A $1000-$2000 Sinking Fund buffer should cover you for any bills you are short for in the first 12 months until you can build up your payments to cover each bill as it is due.

A good tip to get this buffer built up quick is to walk around your house and grab anything you no longer want or use and list it online to sell and get some quick cash that you can pad out your sinking fund account/s with.

Keeping Track of Your Sinking Funds

If you you didn’t opt to have separate accounts for each sinking fund goal and want to keep track of your Sinking Funds in the one account, you can do so by using the Sinking Fund Worksheet which will help you plan out your sinking fund goals, monthly deposits and withdrawals and keep track of each individual sinking fund balance within the one account. It comes with some pre-filled categories to get you started and has plenty of space for you to add your own to suit your lifestyle and budget needs. Simply update the worksheet each month and reconcile it to your Sinking Fund account balance. And that’s it, you now know what your Sinking Fund balances are at any given moment!

If you are finding that you are relying on credit cards or overdrafts to pay your bills, or are in arrears, give the Sinking Fund budgeting method a go and in time your bill woes will be a thing of the past!

This week’s question: Do you use sinking funds in your budget? What happened that made you realise that you needed them? Please share your experience 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 🙂

[Photos: J Kelly Brito & Raw Pixel]

Budgeting

How to Communicate With Your Partner About Finances

Posted on February 20, 2018

**This post 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.**

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the financial stresses in your relationship and struggled to effectively communicate with your partner about budgeting and finances? *Raises hand*. Financial discussions with your loved one can cause stress and anxiety, but if left unresolved can cause more serious financial woes and long term unhappiness in your relationship.

Maybe you are the one who carries the bulk of the financial stress on your shoulders because you feel your partner has enough to worry about? Perhaps your partner doesn’t want to hear about financial issues or they don’t even know there are issues as they assumed you have everything under control? By being open an honest with each other you can remove the guesswork out of your financial security and get the reality of your finances out in the open so you can both start working together on a plan of attack.

Money can be one of the biggest make or break things in a relationship. Relationships Australia 2015 survey found that 7 out of 10 couple report relationship tension as a result of financial woes and stress. Finances are not something that should be pushed under the rug or left alone to cause endless stress in your relationship. Ignoring them will not make the bills disappear but make them harder to deal with when the time comes to pay them… and it will come.

Even though at first, it may be a difficult and awkward subject to discuss in the beginning, you will have more of a chance to achieve your financial goals when you are both on the same page working as a team. Don’t struggle alone when you can both be working together tackling your debts and achieving your savings goals head on. Just like having a gym buddy to hold you accountable for going to the gym and finishing a set, having your partner on your team will help keep you accountable to your financial goals.

Even if you aren’t married and have separate finances that doesn’t mean that you can’t both be on the same page when it comes to money and will certainly give you a head start if you relationship does progress to something more down the line.

Here are they are: 9 Tips On How You Can Communicate With Your Partner About Finances.

How to Communicate With Your Partner About Finances

1. Set a time to meet and discuss finances
Avoid leaving financial discussions with your partner to what you can yell over the TV ad or what discussion you can get in before you are interrupted by the kids. The best way to communicate with your partner about finances is to plan some time to get together and talk about your future goals and current finances in a quiet place so you can both focus and not be under other pressures or distractions. It can be be a over a home cooked meal when the kids are out for the night or morning (if you have kids) or out on a date night over dinner, it doesn’t matter just find a spare hour somewhere in your schedule to chat about your finances.

Don’t forget to let your partner know in advance that the purpose of meeting is to discuss about finances so they aren’t blind sided. After the first one, make it a regular gig. Set a monthly reminder to sit down for half an hour to talk about your budget each month and how you are progressing towards your goals.

2. Approach the conversation from an understanding and non-judgmental zone
When you try to open a dialogue and communicate with your partner about finances, don’t assume the worst or treat the meeting as an opportunity to bring up every unacceptable expense (in your eyes) that you have been bothered by in the past. You may find that your partner actually agrees with you on getting your finances in better shape and completely acknowledges what your financial problems are. They might have even been thinking the same thing and weren’t sure how they were going to bring it up with you!

Sometimes they are even aware of their own spending problems but don’t know how to change their spending habits and need a plan and your support in order to help keep them on track. Approach any conversations calmly and with the intention to work as a team, not go on the attack and lay blame on your partner. Acknowledge that you might even have your own over-spending areas that you need to work on and be honest about these to your partner. Leave the mistakes in the past, and focus on what changes you can make in the future to reach your financial goals.

3. Know your why
Get on the same page with your goals. Budgeting isn’t meant to be about torturing yourselves indefinitely and saying no to anything and everything that is non-essential expenditure. It is about making your goals and dreams come to life. How far away that is will depend on your current state of finances. If you are swimming in credit card debt and other loans with little in the savings account it may take a while for you to see that you are making progress on your debts but you will get there with a little bit of determination. And there is nothing more motivating that having future plans written down and at the forefront of your mind. These goals are what are going to keep you on track during those times when you want to quit.

Write down your joint future goals:-

Do you want to go on a family holiday next year?
Be debt free so you or your partner can cut back hours at work or for you to spend more time with the kids?
Are you wanting to stop living week to week?
Or remove the anxiety you feel about your finances and get an emergency fund built up?If you are both on the same page you will have more motivation to stick to your financial plan for the long haul. Put your goals somewhere where you can see them such as a Financial Vision Board or on the fridge so they are there to remind you of why you are doing this.

4. Acknowledge the finance problem areas
Now that you’ve got your financial goals written down and you’re excited to take the next step in your financial freedom journey, it’s time to acknowledge the problem areas. If you are hiding debt, bills or anything from your partner, now is the time to come clean. A genuinely honest relationship includes being open an honest about any debts that you may have or spending habits that you know are not helping you achieve your financial goals. If there are any pressing financial issues bring them up and be ready to hear them. Take a deep breath and appreciate that your partner is being honest with you and starting to communicate.

Acknowledge that your budget issues are not going to be something that you can fix in a night or a week, or possibly even a year. This is going to be a long-term process that will take time to work at. Be patient with each other as you slowly replace your less-than-ideal spending habits with more intentional ones.

A good place to start is reigning in the expenditure that won’t hurt so much. Cancel unwanted gym memberships or subscriptions to services that you are no longer using, make more of a conscious effort to save electricity where possible, renegotiate your mortgage to a lower rate and commit to only shopping once a week to reduce the amount of times you are stocking up on groceries. None of these measures leaves you feeling any extreme budget pain but the savings will give you a super helpful boost to paying off those debts and speeding up the debt repayment process.

As you progress in your financial journey you can move on to tackling those not so easy spending problem areas. Consider how you can reduce any excessive spending on areas such as:

Overspending on clothing, shoes, accessories
Regular costly dinner outings
Car repayments that you cannot afford
Spending on hobbies that is costing large sums of money
Buying coffee multiple times a day, every day

Don’t try to tackle the problem expenditure all at once. Pick one and go from there. Maybe this month instead of buying coffee each day you could bring your own from home or make one at work. Next month you can limit your expensive dinners to once or twice a week and cook at home more. The following month you could adopt shopping at thrift stores instead of buying everything brand new. These small changes may seem unimpressive on their own, but when you add all those savings together it can really add up! Over time you will build your budgeting muscles and find new ways to save.

5. Plan your budget
Your budget needs to be something your partner and you both agree on. Think of it like taking on a new commitment, you both have to sign on the dotted line. By leaving your partner in the dark about finances they may think things are rosier than they are and that is not going to work now that you are a team! With the numbers in black and white you can both be on the same page and work together to dodge any budget pressures that come up.

Don’t misconstrue that being on a budget will suck the joy out of life. It is a tool to make your life easier, with the end goal being what you want it to be! More time, regular holidays or an emergency fund, whatever your financial goals are. Be sure to allow individual and joint fun money in the budget (we’ll go into that below) to ensure your budget is realistic and that you will not set unrealistic expectations and fail before you start.

Over time you will get better at finding frugal ways to have fun such as going for a long walk or bike ride together, inviting your family over for breakfast, going to the beach or inviting friends over for a night of board games. If you think you can’t have fun without spending money you have tried hard enough 🙂

To help you get started, you can download my Budget Worksheet here. Don’t forget to include those often missed budget expenses like your Spotify and Netflix membership, house repairs or beauty treatments!

6. Set an allowance for you and your partner.
This is a great tool and bound to save you lots of arguments over spending by yourself and your partner that you both probably will never agree on (I am a non-coffee drinker, the hub loves his daily coffee, I’ve come to terms with it ‘;)). We are all individuals, with our own interests, hobbies and wants, use this allowance avoid explaining to your partner every purchasing decision you make.>

Having $0 for ‘free spending’ to do as you wish is not going to work, nor is questioning every dollar your partner spends. Set an allowance based on what your budget will allow. It could be $50 or $100 a week to spend each, whatever you both agree on and stick to it. This gives you and your partner the autonomy to spend it as you see fit. If you have kids you can add in a small allowance for them, it will be a great start to teach them about budgeting and saving!

It also takes some of the guesswork out of budgeting and makes it easier to stick to your goal. Withdraw your weekly allowance in cash or keep it in a separate account for each of you so it is easy to keep track of. Simply check your wallet or bank balance and you will know what is left. Great for those who aren’t that great at keeping track of their spendings or remembering to enter them into an app or notebook. Of course if you don’t spend it all you can save it up to buy something you really want down the line!

At the same time set up a joint spending account and allowance so you have some money each week to go out on a date night or day, or to catch up with friends. After a while you will get into the routine of what you can and can’t afford and sticking to your budget will become less of a struggle.

What about expensive hobbies?
If you or your partner have some big spending categories, this might also be a good time to set other budget allowances for those expenses to keep them in check. If you love shopping for new outfits, maybe you can set yourself an annual allowance on what you are allowed to spend on clothing. This can work for any expense; concerts, hobbies, beauty, new tools etc. This gives you the permission to spend guilt free on those items when they are in budget and helps to keep you conscious of when you are overspending on those categories.

7. Be considerate and honest
I’ve heard horror stories of partners going out and buying new cars without speaking to their spouse first. This kind of thing makes me cringe. Agree to avoid making large spending decisions without consulting with your spouse first. If you have shared finances and even shared debt, you should both be on the same page with spending. It can be helpful to agree on a threshold as to what you need to discuss together before buying something.

You don’t have to ask permission to buy every single item, how exhausting would that get! I’m suggesting to consulting your partner before buying those more expensive items. Such as a new appliance, phone or piece of furniture for the home. Even ignoring the financial aspect, it can’t hurt to ask for their opinion on something you want or need they made have some great advice or suggestions to offer, and it is particularly handy if it is something for your home (I’ve certainly unknowingly bought some things home that were deemed “ugly”).

8. Get Educated
Open your mind to new budgeting tricks and tips and financial strategies. If you are short on time listen to an audiobook on your commute to work or on your next shopping trip – wherever you can. I recommend listening to (or reading) Scott Pape’s Barefoot Investor and Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover which have some great strategies to get your started on your new financial journal.

It’s something that might get you more open to talking about finances with your partner and get you both excited about your new financial path! If your partner wouldn’t date touch a finance book, don’t push the issue. You can sometimes effectively communicate with your partner the message of what you are reading just by discussing your favourite parts of the book with them.

If you sign up for my mailing list you can also get your free copy of my eBook “101 Ways to Save Money Whilst Still Living Awesomely!”. Reading about finances might not be the most enjoyable thing for everyone but listening to a few financial gurus will open your eyes and ears to things that may make achieving your financial goals that much quicker!

9. Be patient
You might not be on the same page at day one or day 100. Sometimes people need more time to grasp new ideas and lifestyles and long-term support in order to do so. I’ve listened to many Dave Ramsey Debt Free Scream stories where people had read the Total Money Makeover books years earlier and yet only started to change their habits after years of thinking about. Or it took their partner longer to get on board but once they were they were a strong team.

It might not happen as quickly as you would like but over time you will learn how to effectively communicate with your partner. In the meantime you can always lead by example and start making changes to your own spendings such as reigning in grocery spending, skipping the drink at lunch and just bringing your water along with you and finding more frugal ways to catch up with friends such as skipping lunch and going for a walk instead.

Find what your partners passion is and what they will be willing to change their financial habits for. Go back to your why and find out theirs. Sometimes the only thing they need to hear is that it would make your family more financially secure and both of you happier to get them motivated to start on the financial journey with you.

Don’t forget to be a little flexible. Maybe your loved one won’t give up their monthly gym membership for the budget, their Audible membership or their daily coffee but hopefully they will be willing to make other changes to get you to their goal and be more proactive in reducing expenditure such as taking more notice and filling up on cheaper fuel days or cancelling their unwanted memberships.

When the above measures aren’t helping

Of course there are instances where no amount of discussion or understanding can get your partner on board with your financial goals. If your efforts to budget and get ahead are met with constant resistance you may need to consider other issues that are present. If your partner is facing issues with addiction e.g. drugs, alcoholism or gambling, attempting to adjust your budget may not be met with encouragement and make your efforts come undone.

I won’t go into that situation in too much detail as this is a finance blog and I am no psychologist, but I will mention that if you partner is constantly resisting and attempting to tear down your efforts to get ahead, that it may be time for them to seek help with those issues, or for you to reassess the relationship and whether it is in line with your long-term values. This article written by The Minimalists may help you with how to approach a relationship with deteriorating communication.

Do you have any tips for how to effectively communicate with your partner and approach budget and finance conversations? 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 🙂

Freebies

Your Freezer Inventory Worksheet

Posted on February 6, 2018

Do you ever really know what is in your freezer? If you are anything like me, you are short of space and sometimes would rather just avoid going into your freezer altogether. But don’t fret there is an easier way to know what is in your freezer without having to pull everything out each meal planning day.

Check out my Freezer Inventory Worksheet.

Simply print out your own copy, write down the items in your freezer by category, note when they were frozen, how many days you have to use them (e.g. if you freeze chicken breast on the 8th and the use by date is the 12th I write +4 days so I know once it is) and then mark in the quantity as a weight or number. Then stick it on the front of your fridge or in your planner.

If you do your freezer inventory worksheet once every month or so you will be able to see what you have in your freezer at a glance, plan meals around it and reduce food waste. Not to mention you will avoid having an overstocked freezer where things start falling out or your door doesn’t close!

Don’t forget to check this blog post for tips on how to reduce food waste in your home and save money on your shopping budget!

Thanks Minimisers,

Jess

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!

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.

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.

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. 🙂

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.
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.
Go star gazing. Go on a road trip out of the city and watch the night sky.
Colour. Grab an adult colouring book and some pencils and get colouring.
Read a book. Start a new book or read an old favourite.
Start to learn an instrument or if you already play one, learn a new song. Learning one with a friend – even better.
Cook a nice meal or learn a completely new recipe.
Bake dessert or a cake. Make something special like creme brulee or waffles.
Play a video game – if you’ve got your old Wii or N64 crack it out. Invite a friend or two over.
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.
Watch a documentary about a topic you are passionate about. There are stacks on Netflix to choose from.
Watch a stand up comedy show, again there are heaps on Netflix. Or better yet find a free comedy night in your city.
Binge watch a new TV show that you’ve been dying to watch.
Have a picnic.
Go for a walk. Drive to a new area for a change of scenery.
Go out for coffee with a friend or relative.
Do something artistic; draw, paint, or get crafty.
Write something a poem, short story, or try your hand at writing song lyrics.
Go to a local BBQ area with friends. Bring some sporting equipment and have a few games.
Attend a free local event or festival.
Check out the library and read some new books.
Go to a free Museum or Art Gallery you’ve been wanting to go to for ages.
Take a drive to a national park for a hike or bush walk.
Grab the bikes and go for a ride with your partner or friend.
Swim at the local pools or go explore a new beach. Don’t forget to check out the rock pools!
Hire a kayak for an hour and explore on water whilst getting some sun and exercise.
If it’s a hot day, have a water fight. Hit up your local Kmart or cheap shop for water guns or water bombs.
Find a local pool-hall and play a few games.
Check out online event guides for free (or affordable) gigs.
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.
Go to a botanic garden and explore the different gardens.
Take a trip to the city and bring your camera. Take photos.
Try and find cool cinema playing some unique movies. A foreign film, premiere film or old fave.
Check out Things To Do on Trip Advisor in your city and do what you haven’t done yet.
Go camping for the weekend. Or camp in the backyard.
Go to a Drive in Movie.
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.
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.
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!
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!

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!

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!

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