The Top 21 Things YOU Can Do To Save Money NOW

This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all the things you may be able to do to save money – it is intended to be a checklist of the things you can do to save money and get ahead financially which will give you the biggest return for the smallest pain (or even no pain).  This is not about racing from one grocery store to another to redeem a 20c coupon or cutting open the toothpaste tube to save $2 per year (although we're not saying don't do that if you feel so inclined). Some of the information is specific to New Zealand, and some things may only be applicable to those living in main centres but much will apply regardless of where you live.

1/ Increase your income. 

Watch this space for more ideas about this.

2/ Sell off all your un-used stuff & save money & time on postage. 

That's why God invented Trademe (or EBay if you live somewhere other than New Zealand). Forgive me (or not) if you find that comment blasphemous.  

Save money on postage:

If you are selling things that can be posted, you don't need to use NZ Post's expensive packaging. You may package your items in any used packaging you have lying around and either put a yellow parcel post sticker on it and/or use NZ Post's online postage tool which will print off your ticket for you based on the size and location information you input. No need to stand in line at the Post Office! If you do a lot of posting NZ Post offer a 10% discount by buying their tickets online by the book.  Incidently, they also don't postmark those yellow parcelpost stickers...do with that information what you will.

3/ Make sure you are receiving all the allowances you are entitled to.

Here are some allowances you may be entitled to. You do NOT have to be a beneficiary to be eligible for some of these allowances. There is comprehensive information available on the Work and Income website. There are some figures quoted which are accurate as as March 2012, but do change from time to time.  Watch this space for more information available here as well.

Working for Families.  You may be entitled to tax credits, accomodation supplement & childcare (including before/after school care) if you are working and earn less than $75,317 per year if you have one child and $166,567 per year if you have 6 children.  You may also be entitled to a Parental Tax Credit for a new baby.  The income limits are higher than for the other tax credits so check the Working For Families website to see if you are eligible.

Accommodation Supplement: You may be able to receive up to $225 towards your accomodation costs (rent, mortgage, rates, water rates) depending on where you live, how much your accomodation costs are, your circumstances and how much you earn.

  • Asset limit : $8,100 for single person & $16,200 for couple and sole parents
  • Income limit $49,296 for a single person and $75,920 for a couple with children.

Ongoing Health Costs: You may be able to receive up to $59.12 per week. This allowance goes by the somewhat misleading name of Disability Allowance as it isn’t just for disabilities; can include any ongoing health issues like depression, allergies, asthma etc. Can also be used to pay for counselling & alternative therapies. You will need to have costs signed off for by your GP; so get a GP that is willing to sign off for legitimate ongoing healthcare costs.  You don't need to be a beneficiary but it is income tested as per the following table:

If you are... Your weekly income before tax must be under
Single aged 16-17 years with no children $497.21
Single aged 18 years or over with no dependent children $575.48
Married, civil union or de facto couple with or without children $851.83
Sole parent with 1 dependent child $693.45
Sole parent with 2 or more children
$730.60

Temporary Additional Support.  You do not have to be a beneficiary to apply for this support.  You may be able to receive up to about $85 per week if your income is not sufficient to cover your expenses.  Expenses that can be claimed for under this include accomodation costs, childcare, hire purchases for essential items like beds, fridges and washing machines, healthcare costs and more.  The amount is paid for 13 weeks; and you can keep reapplying if you can show you have done everything within your power to increase your income and/or reduce your costs.

Childcare subsidy:  If you have a preschool child, anyone, working or not, can get a subsidy for 9 hours per week if your household income is below the income thresholds ($1400pw for 1 child, $1600pw for 2, $1800pw for 3 or more). The subsidy is up to $3.84 per hour depending on household income.  You may get up to 50 hours subsidy if you are working and/or studying.

Out of School Care (after/before school and holiday programmes): if your household income is below the income thresholds ($1400pw for 1 child, $1600pw for 2, $1800pw for 3 or more). The subsidy is up to $3.84 per hour depending on household income. You may get up to 20 hours during the school term or up to 50 hours subsidy in the school holidays if you are working and/or studying.

Food grants, medical grants, dental grants - these are grants and do not need to be repaid: You may not need to be a beneficiary to apply for some of these.  You may be required to undertake a budgeting activity to apply for these grants, particularly if you have applied more than twice. The best thing you can do is to embrace this activity (usually conducted by a budgeting service not a WINZ employee) as they have a lot of valuable information you may be able to glean.

    • Food (includes non-food groceries) per 6-months limits are: $200 for a single person, $300 for a couple, $450 for a family (incl single parent family) with 1 or 2 children, $550 for a family with 3 or more children.
    • Emergency Dental $300 per year
    • Emergency medical $300 per year
    • Water tank filled
    • Other items which you may be able to receive a special needs grants for include: Drivers License,  vasectomy, termination of pregnancy, laser removal of birthmarks, wigs for people with medical conditions, health travel costs, bedding, ambulance fees, emergency medical equipment, re-establishment grants (ex-prisonors, refugees, solo parents who are the victim of domestic violence, long-term patients coming out of hospital), assistance whilst on strike, funeral grant.

For a full list of Work and Income (WINZ) grants/benefits: Go to their website at workandincome.govt.nz and go to A-Z benefits.

4/ Save money by saving on tax - it's one of your biggest expenses.

Most people think that tax is a fixed expense you can't do anything about - right?  Nothing is certain in life but death and taxes? WRONG! If you are on a salary or wage and you are paying PAYE start up a home-based business. If you are using 20% of your home for your business and you are paying $400pw in rent, $150pm on electricity, $400pa in insurance, $120pm on internet and phone and you are on a marginal tax rate of 30c (ie you are earning between 48,000 and 70,000) you will save $3,666 per year in taxes plus potential other savings. You will need to be aware of your obligations see www.ird.govt.nz . Also, if the business is running at a loss initially you will need to be able to show it is not just a hobby and the intention is to make a profit.

5/ Track your spending and set a realistic budget as well as some financial goals.

This is pretty essential if you want to make some financial headway. Check the free budgeting tools available online these days.

6/ Learn to constrain yourself when spending money.

  • There are tricks – look online for some hints or in your library for books. Have some fun with it instead of making it a chore. 
  • Some say the 10 second rule; if you see something you have to buy (this mostly applies to supermarket shopping) hold something for 10 seconds; if you still think you need it at the end of the 10 seconds, then you may put it in your trolley.
  • For larger items the 10 second rule doesn't apply and I would suggest the overnight rule.  Ask the shop attendant to put the "essential" must-have item away until tomorrow.  You may end up cutting down your spending HEAPS by doing this.
  • Especially for clothes - don't buy it unless you absolutely LOVE it and it fits perfectly AND you already have things in your wardrobe that go with it.
  • Another trick is to translate the item in to hours or minutes worked. Work out how much you actually get per hour (after travel, parking, clothes, tax, childcare and other work related expenses.) For a start that figure might shock you, you might be on a salary of $60,000 – after tax 918.49 per week. Travel and parking is $15 per day, you spend $520 per year on work clothes and lunches are $5 per day over and above what you’d otherwise spend. You generally work a 45 hour week and you spend an hour a day travelling and 30 minutes getting ready for work. Therefore the amount you actually earn per hour is ($918 - $15 x 5 - $520 / 52 - $5 x 5) = $808. The time you spend at work and getting to and from work is 52 ½ hours. Therefore the amount you actually get each hour is just over $15 per hour. Now, think about that $30 lipstick – mmmm 2 hours work. That $2 snack bar – nearly 8 minutes. That $8 glass of wine, more than ½ an hour of work to pay for that!
  • Write down the last 5 non-essential items things you just had to have that you spent over [say] $50 on.  Write down what you are doing with those things now.  If you still LOVE them and use them frequently - they were doubtless a good buy.  If they're sitting at the back of your wardrobe or gathering dust in the garage - probably not.  Carry this list with you so you can refer to it when you are feeling inclined to make a compulsive purchase.
  • Addicted to informercials? Magazine ads? Those things are genious at convincing people they absolutely need something they don't.  Don't look at them if they are a problem for you!
  • Finally, if you think you have a spending problem, see a shrink. Serious.

7/ Save money by walking not driving?

Or carpool? Walking school bus? Can you cut down on 1 of the family's cars?  Scary but you never know what you might be able to do with a bit of creativity.   According the AA; the cost of running even a small car for a year is nearly $8,000!

8/ Save money on unnecessary bank fees.

Review ALL your accounts at least once a year for potential bank fee savings. Don’t just include your main cashflow account; also look at all your credit cards and credit facilities (including store cards), mortgage/s and lines of credit. Most banks offer no-fee accounts if you process all your transactions electronically, and don't get bank statements sent in the mail.

9/ Use your credit card to save money.

There's something you don't hear everyday when you are reading about how to save money! However, if you can be disciplined with your credit card you can save by utilising up to 55 days free credit PLUS many credit cards have excellent cash-backs or rewards programmes.  Use your credit card to pay all your day-to-day expenses.  Don't even consider it if you are not sufficiently disciplined to only spend what you have budgeted to spend so that you can pay it off in full each month!

10/ Save money by reviewing all your contracts and regular expenses.

Review all your contracts at least annually. Do you need them? Is there a cheaper (or better) option? The list to review includes (but not limited to): electricity, home phone line/s, internet, mobile phone/s, insurances.

11/ Save money on your grocery & food shopping:

You’ve heard it all before: don’t shop when you’re hungry, use a list, buy store brands (budget, homebrand etc), use a meal planner, buy in season. Do all those things but here are a few of other things that will save you screeds.

a/ Standardise your shopping list. Type one up on the computer. Do it in the order in things at your grocery store. Know how much things cost (some people use a price book); so you know a bargain if you see it.

b/ Shop less often. Monthly? It might take a while to build up to this as the purpose is defeated if you are constantly running to the shop to buy things you forgot.  For this to work, you really, really need to know how much of the essentials (that's REAL essentials like bread and toilet paper, not pretend essentials like cookies) that you go through.  Try recording everything you use for a month or 2.

c/ Never buy fruit and veges at the supermarket (unless they are on a good special). Use the specialist asian stores, fruit and vege stores and your local farmers market. They are about 1/2 the price on average of the supermarket.

d/ Budget and categorise your grocery bill. This may be something you can get away with doing a couple of times a year if you can keep yourself on task the rest of the time. You will find this a pain in the arse AND take up some valuable time but it could save you hundreds if not thousands. Examples you might like to have are protein, staples, cleaning, toiletries, fruit & veg. The 1 category you MUST have if this is to save you money is luxuries. Include everything in here that you like to have but which are not actually necessary for a nutritious diet and every day living. Think: muesli bars, fizzy drinks (or any drinks really), snack foods, things for the kids lunchboxes, camembert, biscuits, convenience foods, icecream, sugary breakfast cereals. Be a bit ruthless here – you may have convinced yourself that those snack packs of chips for the kids lunches are essential. There are some things that you’ll need to make some internal rules on like deli meats and salads, premium breads and pasta sauces. I’m not saying don’t have ANY luxury items; what I am saying is track them so you know how much you are spending on those pretend necessities, have a budget for them and stick to it.

e/ Phase in some vegetarian meals and/or use vegetarian ingredients like legumes to stretch expensive meat eg add red lentils to chicken mince (or finely diced chicken breast) to make a delicious and nutritious sauce for nachos, tacos or burritos. Add brown lentils to spaghetti bolognaise sauce. Vegetarian meals that can be made easily and cheaply and appeal to convicted (or should that read committed) meat eaters are falafels (make up a batch that will do several meals - it freezes wonderfully) and vegetarian lasagnes. (Search the internet for recipes and ideas).

f/ Check your asian grocery or bulk store (although in this shopper's experience bulk stores are often more expensive than the supermarket) for items which may be alot cheaper. Things like legumes and herbs are often ½ the price of the supermarket or less. Some asian grocery stores also have butchery and fish departments that are very fresh and much cheaper than the supermarket.

g/ Milk: Use milk powder instead of refridgerated milk (especially if you drink green milk). If you use 2 litres of milk a day and pay $3.60 per 2 litre bottle. You can buy 1kg milk powder for about $10. That is $2 per 2 litre bottle. Thats a saving of $584 per year. Plus you are never caught without milk in the house plus you avoid all those trips to the supermarket just to pick up milk and you end up spenidng $50!

h/ If you find yourself throwing out food regularly, see if you can figure out why and what you can do to stop it.  Firstly, you may like to apply the technique in 6/ above so you know how much of your work time you're throwing out.  That $5 dip you never got around to eating, you're not just throwing out some skanky dip - you're pouring 20 minutes of your [work] life down the drain!

    • Do you buy the bigger pack because its "cheaper" but then end up throwing 1/2 of it out?  If its not freezable (or able to be stored some other way) just buy the smaller pack! (or find someone you can share large packs with).
    • Do you cook double the serving so you can have it for dinner the following night and then don't feel like it or get invited out?  This will happen to all of us from time to time; but if it happens regularly maybe just cook for 1 night OR only cook a double batch if it can be sucessfully frozen.

i/ Here are some things to consider making if you go through a lot of them.

    • Yoghurt: Easy. You can make it from milk (made up from milk powder). Heat the milk to just under boiling, add 1-2 tablespoons of milk powder (optional but improves texture and reliability of this method). Cool it to blood temperature. Mix in 2 tablespoons of LIVE yoghurt. Leave overnight in a warm place (or in your yoghurt maker). Mix in some pureed fruit and make or buy some funky pottles for lunches etc. Costs about $1 for the equivalent of a $4-7 6 or 12 pack of yogurts. If you go through 2 of those a week and it saves you [say] $4 a time – thats a saving of $416 per year.
    • Canned fruit: This one may take more time than some families have, but it can save a heap. Buy cheap seconds fruit. There are places in Auckland you can get about 5+ kgs for about $2-3. Cut out any bad bits and the cores etc (no need to peel). Cook and puree (smooth or chunky). Freeze in used plastic containers. Great in yoghurt, cereals, baking, sauces etc etc. Depending on how much you pay for your fruits maybe works out at 30c or less for the equivalent of a can you pay $1.50 for PLUS no additives, sugar etc. If you go through 3 cans of fruit a week $187 savings a year.
    • Hummus (& other dips). Cheap, easy and far more nutritious to make yourself. Hummus freezes well too.
    • Fast (microwaveable) rice. Cook up a whole packet of rice (or as much as your pot or ricecooker will allow. Freeze in serving sized containers. Thaw first for fried rice; others can be reheated from frozen if required. Add a bit of water and microwave on medium. Leave to sit for a few minutes. If you're using 2 packets of fast rice a week, thats a saving of about $250 per year!
    • Muesli bars, muffins, cakes, biscuits. Search google for recipes.
    • Frozen meals. Have a cook up once a month and freeze some heat and eat meals. Search the internet for ideas but things like pasta & sauce or curry and rice freeze really well.
    • Pasta sauces. If you go through a lot of these look at cooking and freezing (or bottling your own). Most are just canned tomatoes, onion, garlic and herbs.
    • Stock. The packs of “real” stock are awesome for cooking and add great flavour that is hard to achieve without it, BUT they are ridiculously expensive and stock can be cheap and easy to make. Keep a bag or container somewhere easy to get to in the freezer and keep all your vegetable trimmings like ends of onions and carrots, silverbeet stalks and capsicum seeds. Boil them up with some bay leaves and peppercorns and bruised garlic bulbs for a great stock. If you can find any bones/carcusses cheap enough you can make beef, chicken, pork or lamb stock. Strain and freeze in containers eg old butter, honey or margarine containers.
    • Bread. Homemade bread is delicious and way cheaper, not to mention less additives/chemicals if you can find a cheap source of bulk flour. Also great if you have any special dietary requirements like gluten free. Find a secondhand breadmaker on trademe or if you are enthusiastic you can make it by hand. If go though a loaf of bread a day, you could be saving $700 or more per year.

i/ See if there are obvious cheaper items. One thing that amazes me is where I live we have 2 rubbish collectors. Judging by the bags on the street 95% use the "main" orange one which is at least 25% more expensive than the cheaper yellow one that provides exactly the same service on exactly the same day! BTW if you can cut down on your rubbish you can save a fair bit too as well as being more environmentally friendly.

j/ Don’t buy food and drinks out. OR if this is a luxury you don’t want to do without (we understand) have a budget and stick to it.k/ Search the internet for nutritious and much cheaper school lunchbox ideas than prepackaged foods like snack packs of chips/crackers, flavoured milk, muesli bars, biscuits etc. Get the kids involved with organising and cooking their lunches. They’ll probably love it and even give them a pocket money kick back of a proportion of $$ saved.

l/ Always have 1 or more quick-fix meals available in the freezer that can be prepared in less than 15 minutes.  This makes it more attractive to eat in rather than revert to takeaways and its also much healthier.  Things like commercially produced frozen bags of stirfry and frozen rice you can microwave, ready made frozen dinners and commercially produced pasta sauces are great.

12/ Save money on electricity:

You’ve heard it all before, turn everything off at the wall. Turn off lights when you leave the room etc etc. Do those things too but here are some things that you can do that WILL save you ALOT of $$.  And of course review your contract regularly.

a/ You may not be able to get away with this if you have a big family but you can try it and see. Turn your hot water cylinder off during the day and turn it back on at night. If you are a household of 1 or 2 people you may be able to get away with only having it on for an hour or 2 before you have a shower. I halved my power bill doing this. Savings $720++??

b/ Use the subsidised or free schemes (ask your local budgeting service what they are aware of) to get your place insulated. There are even some 100% funded schemes that tenants can apply for. If you are renting a place ask the landlord/rental agent about the insulation. If they can’t answer you; its probably not insulated and stay clear. If you are thinking about moving; if your circumstances allow you the flexibility, leave it until the winter to look for new housing; all the foibles will become much more noticeable when the weather is bad.

c/ Make sure you have no leaks (taps, hot water cylinder etc) or badly functioning appliances eg fridges with bad seals.

13/ Save money on your mortgage.

This site is not intended to give specific mortgage advice; but it is wise to review how your mortgage is structured on a regular basis; particularly when interest rates change. To give you an idea of the savings that can be made. A $300,000 mortgage at 6% over 25 years and paid monthly results in a monthly payment of $1,932.90, so total payments made of $579,871.26 and interest paid of $279,871.26. Now, if you pay just $20 per week more, you pay the loan off in just over 22 ½ years and save $30,130.17 in interest! Imagine if you put 50% of the money you have saved by reading this site directly on your mortgage!

14/ Save money on alcohol, cigarettes:

In a perfect world – give up or cut down. If not, find cheaper alternatives. Obviously for cigarettes you can smoke rollies but have you looked in to growing your own tobacco? For wine, beer and spirits, make your own. You can make great wine for a mere $1-2 per bottle. Check www.makewine.co.nz – if you drink 4 bottles of wine a week in your household at $12 per bottle, that works out a a savings of $2,288 per year or nearly $30,000 over 10 years (at 5% interest). WOW!

15/ Save money by making your own household cleaners:

I just don’t know about some of the recipes for making cleaning stuff like making your own laundry powder. I’m pretty sure some of it is more expensive (not to mention more time) than the bought stuff. Very happy to be corrected on this. However, things like spray and wipe can be made for next to nothing with water, detergent and a few drops of lavender and/or teatree oil (search the internet for cheap supplies of essential oils – look to pay about $25 for 100ml). Also, good is toilet cleaner with bleach and detergent and water in an old toilet duck bottle. Baking soda makes a good, albeit lightweight scourer. Won’t get the really tuff stuff off but much cheaper and better for the environment. Use vinegar instead of rinse aid. I don't think it would be hard to save $5 per week or $250 per year.

16/ Save money on gifts:

Have a budget and put an amount aside each payday. Don’t spend more than you have in that kitty. Look at making fabulous and thoughtful gifts yourself (search the internet for ideas). I don’t know about you; but the best gifts I’ve ever received have cost nothing or very little in money but have given a alot in love eg a poem written or a family video made. Check TradeAid for fabulous, inexpensive gifts that are also helping families in developing countries help themselves out of poverty.

17/ Remember the $2 shop:

There are alot of things which are MUCH cheaper than the supermarket / chemist (although don’t assume that because its in the $2 shop it is cheaper). Here are some things which are much cheaper: hair colour, kitchen utensils, packing tape, shoe polish, some cleaning/baby supplies, stationery, sunscreen, kids toys, disposable gloves.

18/ Save money on skincare and cosmetics.

There are quite a few websites where you can get cheap(er) cosmetics. But have you tried making your own skincare? What about using essential oils instead of perfume. Far, far cheaper and far less chemicals on your skin. A google search should give you some good recipes.

19/ Use freecycle.org

to find free unwanted items + hand on anything you don’t need anymore

20/ Save money on fines + penalties.

If you have fines; particularly if they’ve attracted penalties and you owe thousands; look to see if you can have them remitted as Community Work. Chose your favourite charity or organisation and offer your services. Many charities are registered with the Justice Department for Community Workers and if they’re not registered they may consider it. Apply at your local district court.

 

21/ Save money on debt.

If you need help with managing your debt – see your local budgeting service www.familybudgeting.org.nz . If you have debt with the IRD or an insurance company and it is creating financial hardship to repay those debts (eg if an insurance company is claiming off you for an accident you have had with one of their clients) apply to have those debts forgiven. Seek advice before taking on any additional debt – particularly consumer debt (hire purchases for household appliances, cars etc).

 

 Questions? Comments? Something to add? Email moneynz@hotmail.co.nz

© 2012 Money NZ 

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