1. Print your bank statements or keep all your receipts for a fortnight or month and find out what your money is really being spent on. Coffees, snacks, taxi fares you may be shocked.
2.Set up a table income vs expenditure to find out if you are actually saving or just making ends meet.
3. Work out where you can save money.
Consider;
-The day you fill up your car
-Where you buy your food from
-Latest product offers available eg car insurance
-Interest rates and fees on credit card
-Bank fees for savings accounts
-Home loan comparisons
-Takeaway food
-Clothing
-Gifts
-Travel
-Phone
-Internet
4. Put the necessary changes in place and set yourself a budget. You might find it easier to deduct fixed automatic costs first such as mortgage/rent then calculate what is left to pay the rest of your living costs and work from there. eg Income $500 a week, rent $100 a week so $400 leftover in a budget each week to buy food, petrol etc.
5. Organise your wardrobe and pantry. If you can clearly see what you have you won't end up buying things that you do not need.
6. Regularly check your tyre pressure. Having properly inflated tyres will allow your car to run effectively, saving you on petrol and having to replace your tyres sooner than necessary.
7. Menu plans your meals from pay to pay. Write a list and stick to it so there is no food wastage or impulse buying.
8. Buy in bulk and freeze food. Get your groceries through wholesalers who deal in large portions and cut up into meal portions yourself and freeze. You'll save a tonne of money.
9. Familiarize yourself with discount buying sites such as Groupon or Scoopon. You will save big on holidays, electrics and other big bargains. There are so many sites, just sign up to a newsletter via email and have daily deals sent to you.
10. Pay your bills on time. Most companies, particularly utilities such as gas and electricity, will offer a discount for accounts paid on time. Consider paying a bit each pay direct from your account so you don't have to find a lump sum at the end of the quarter.
11. Find your money. Lot's of people have unclaimed money in dividends and super. Do a search of your name on Money Smart to see if there is anything owing to you.
12. Re-evaluate your lifestyle. Does your car serve its purpose? eg. You have a 4wd for driving to and from the city but never go off road? Would a more economical smaller car suit your lifestyle? How much alcohol and what type do you drink on the weekend? Would you benefit from joining a team sport for social interaction and better health?
13. When not in use turn all appliances off at the powerpoint and where you can UNPLUG them. It could save you up to $200 a year.
14. Get any leaking taps fixed. It may be a drip, but it all adds up at the end of the quarter.
15.Smart savings.If you have a home loan keep your savings in an offset account. It will help reduce the interest on your loan.
16. Where possible make extra repayments on your homeloan. Even most fixed rates will allow a certain amount extra paid off over the year. Use the bank's online extra repayment calculators to help you work out how much you can save in interest and how many years you can knock off your loan. Check that you have a redraw facility with your bank so that if you fall into hard financial times you can get the money back without penalty.
17. Learn to say no. It's often hard to save when you have offers of birthday parties, nights out on the town or you are desperate for a holiday. These are only short term problems and a week later will be forgotten about. There is nothing wrong with taking care of yourself.
18. Share house. It's a daunting thought for some people but all in all it's hardly ever that bad provided you start out the right way. There are plenty of sites such as Gumtree or Easy Room Mate or Share Accommodation where you can set up a profile to dictate exactly what you are offering or looking for in a potential housemate. Make sure you are clear about it. Don't try and dodge people's feelings as it will only flare up later when tensions are already possibly high. I have done this many times over the years and only two flatmates (out of thirty odd) turned out to be not so wonderful.
19. Clear out your spare room or shed. Remember your trash could be someone else's treasure and earn you some extra dollars.
20.Change your credit card. If you have credit cards with balances, look into rolling them over on to another card as a balance transfer. You will be charged a dramatically reduced interest rate over a longer period of time and save a lot in interest charges. Do a comparison of cards over the net. Some are currently even doing a 0% interest balance transfer for 12 months. Just make sure you cut up the card you transfer it from to avoid further debt.
Thursday, 11 April 2013
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Make money from home with little or no outlay
In recent times the job market is becoming more competitive and jobs are not guaranteed. But don't despair, there are always little things you can do to help you towards a saving goal or even a brand new career! Below I have listed different ways to make anything from a few dollars all the way through to potentially starting your own empire! Who knows maybe one day this will be the view from your lounge room window :)
1. Completing online surveys. There are so many to choose from these days from Your Opinion, Toluna, Global Test Market andRewards Central. These companies are looking for people of all ages, incomes and employment and relationship status to complete surveys by companies. They pay anywhere from a few cents for survey through to about $5 per survey or issue you with points that can eventually be "cashed out" or used to purchase items online. To be successful at these surveys, you need to make sure your profiles are up to date so that you can receive surveys relevant to your lifestyle. Other things to consider are the amount of time you have to put in. Some surveys can take 4 minutes and others 30 minutes. The following are all free to join. See YourOpinion.com.au, Toluna, Rewardscentral.com.au andGlobalTestMarket.
weekendnotes.com.au is a website that allows you to produce written articles on all the things to do in Australia and even some other countries (see website for details) You can also submit reviews, stories and articles on a range of subjects. Earn money from people reading your articles. It is good to write as many articles as possible, but keep them interesting! That way each time an article is read it is generating money, even if you aren't currently working on another one as they all stay available. Get more reads of older articles by linking them in to your newer ones. Eg." I just love making these dog toys, for more ideas on how to entertain your dog see my article My dog is an energiser bunny"
3.Download the application Airtasker. Airtasker is relatively new application currently in NSW and Brisbane, however there are plans to expand into other states. Airtasker lists random jobs that people need completed. A price is usually set, however you can choose to "bid" your own price to get awarded the job. These jobs can also be online jobs, so don't discount yourself just because you are not in the local area. They can be anything from data entry to waiting in line at a sale to buy someone a particular dress or concert tickets.
4. Write your own blog. The demand for people wanting to find out their information online is always increasing. Many stay at home mums now are creating blogs about motherhood and are getting many followers! Start keeping a blog about something you are interested in and see where it takes you. The money is not so much earned from your actual blog but by selling space for advertising. The more people that visit your blog the more likely you can get people to advertise on your site. You can also search for companies that pay you a commission for advertising and selling their products on your site. This is called affiliate marketing.
5. Enter competitions for magazines such as Take 5 and That's Life!Competitions such as writing holiday stories, Telling a sordid secret or even submitting photos of your pet or child can earn you anywhere from $50-$500 if published in the magazines.
6. Be a photographer for friends and families birthday parties or events. Even if you aren't great at taking photos you can jazz them up with tablet application such as Instagram or computer software, such as Adobe Photoshop. Charge a small fee for the day.
7. Deliver catalogues in your local neighbourhood. Go to the website of companies such as Deliver For Dollars and SimplyHired.com for more information.
8. Have your own ironing business. Lots of people these days are time poor and are looking for ways to make their life easier. Why not place an advertisement in your local paper, school newsletter or post flyers up around the shopping centre to do ironing? Set your own prices and be sure not to undersell yourself. You could charge per item or per basket.
9. Rent out space. Maybe you have a spare room in your house you could rent out to a uni student or some space in your shed that you could store someone's boat or valuables while they are away. Either way make sure you have a clear written agreement and you if renting out a room ensure you are familiar with tenants rights and responsibilities.
If you are renting out storage make sure that whoever you rent to understands that it is their obligation to have insurance on their belongings also.
10. Spring clean. Sometimes you just don't know what you have until you do a great big spring clean. Everything from excess furniture, clothes, books, kids toys, baby goods. It's all worth SOMETHING! List on free sites such as gumtree or local facebook trading sites such as "Adelaide Baby Bargains" or "Garage Sale" Also if the items are collectors pieces or worth that little bit more you could list them on eBay. See Gumtree and eBay.
Reputable Home Businesses
Lots of people like the option of working from home and there are a lot of home based businesses out there. Not every home based business is going to suit everyone so it is really important to do your research to discover what is going to work for you and your family. Try to choose something you could be passionate about or that you even have a background knowledge in. For example if you have always worked in the beauty industry, cosmetic companies such as Avon, Nutrimetics,and Mary Kay might be a good choice for you.
Alternatively if you are not someone who likes doing the hard sell or bothering friends and family to gain a new stream of income, companies such as Homecare or Penny Miller might be a better option for you, with weekly catalogue drops and a commission made on whatever your customers order.
You can choose full time or part time hours depending on how much time you have and do not have to worry about harassing family!
There are plenty of other opportunities for home businesses but these will often have some sort of outlay to get started. You can always Google work from home opportunities but beware there are a LOT of scams out there, so make sure you do your research and live within If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is
Hi to my new community out there!
Welcome to my NEW blog that i have decide to do after I had lots of feedback from family and friends to consider working in the financial sector.
Now, I'm no accountant, financial advisor or cash cow BUT I HAVE managed to get my family from almost claiming bankruptcy to now living within our means.
I am hoping that by sharing my experiences of both successes and failures I can help other people in similar situations or even if your money is doing ok, help you improve it and begin to see it really work for you!
I am open to anyone and everyone joining my blog, I also hope to get interviews from inspirational people who can pass on their own advice on how to get ahead.
While life is always that little bit easier having more money, it is also VERY important to nurture the relationships with those around you. If heaven forbid we lost everything in a house fire, what do we have? The answer?: EACH OTHER.
I can speak from experience here. Several years ago my two gorgeous dogs and I moved in with my partner of two years.
One Friday night coming home from work we drove down our street to find what I like to refer to as "an episode of CSI"
Fire trucks, several camera crews, emergency services tape blocking off our house and all our neighbors in the street -watching our house burn down.
I don't even remember jumping out of our still moving car. I ran to the house only to be pushed back by a fireman. My dogs were locked inside and i was distraught. I screamed at the fireman "where are my dogs?!"
He replied, "I'm so sorry mam we have not seen any dogs."
He caught me as i collapsed on the concrete.
A news crew shoved a camera in my face. "Excuse me are you the owner? How do you feel about your house burning down? Are you insured?"
Truly, I could have grabbed their camera and beaten them but lucky for them a police officer managed to grab me and hold me in my hysteria and force the news crew to back off.
There was nothing I could do but watch our home burn with all our belongings and my fur babies inside....
My partner had gone into shock. He just stared at the house in disbelief and waited for his mother and sister to arrive. He was completely oblivious to my distress.
After what felt like eternity, one of the fire crew stumbled through the gate along with my two dogs who while had had a decent amount of smoke inhalation were otherwise unhurt. I have never felt more relief in my life and the tears POURED out of my face!
Someone was watching over me that day. EVERYTHING in the house perished. EXCEPT FOR my dogs, (who had amazingly managed to open the laundry door themselves and get into the courtyard!) our photo albums, which had been moved to the back bedroom which was the least affected and the home movies of my partners young son.
Experiences like this make you really appreciate the little things in life and that material things can be easily replaced (but its not that hard to live without them either!)
The cause of the fire was believe to be an electric blanket that had been left on. The house burning down really broke open the already forming cracks in my relationship. He was more concerned with the loss of his material possessions rather than the fact that everyone was alive and safe and that the sentimental stuff was miraculously preserved. Needless to say the relationship didn't last, however it sure made me realise the qualities that are important in a person.
Remember no matter how hard life gets, stick together. There is always going to be a way through even when you think there isn't. You just have to keep persevering. I was exceptionally lucky to have the friends that I did. Solid rocks that supported me through such a trying time. I would have struggled so much more without them.
Life throws us lots of curve-balls and for some of us those curve-balls get thrown again and again. Hear it from someone who knows, not from just watching our house burn down but from many life experiences. You just have to GET BACK UP AND RE-GROUP.
“A person can learn a lot from a dog, even a loopy one like ours. Marley taught me about living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart. He taught me to appreciate the simple things-a walk in the woods, a fresh snowfall, a nap in a shaft of winter sunlight. And as he grew old and achy, he taught me about optimism in the face of adversity. Mostly, he taught me about friendship and selflessness and, above all else, unwavering loyalty.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog
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