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Article 10 TIPS to being money brilliant – part 2

By Jen Bakker
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27 Comments

We’ve been having such a good time in the MoneyBrilliant office brainstorming our top money saving tips that we decided to see how many sets of 10 we could get.

This is part 2:

  1. Rediscover your local library. I recently found out as well as book, magazines, DVDs, and videos my local library hosts book signings, author talks, youth movie nights and demonstrations (think food). Most of them are free, some run at a small cost.
  2. Buy a drink bottle. Make it BPA free and refill your bottle from the tap. How many times on the run do you buy a bottle of water? Even if you invest in a water filtering jug you’ll be way ahead.
  3. Buy essentials in bulk when they are on sale – toilet paper, washing detergent, toothpaste, and wine – when you see them half price grab extras and put them in the cupboard for later.
  4. Buy quality. Its well worth spending the extra $$ to purchase an item once in 10 years rather than spending less and purchasing the same item annually. Think vacuum cleaner, toaster, and frypan. My latest mistake was going for the cheap bicycle tyre pump – not just once but twice. Now I’m pumping balls with a borrowed pump and marking time to buy a new one.
  5. Make up – check out Priceline, there are lots of great brands and regularly they have 40 or 50%. Also consider shopping online as some websites have free shipping costs.
  6. Make your own sweet thing – the cost of making a batch of brownies could be around the same price as 1 or 2 slices from your local café. Not to mention you also know what goes in to it! If you don’t want to eat it all, just freeze it in to slices you can grab out of the freezer on the days you want a sweet fix.
  7. Clean out the pantry – every once in while skip the grocery store and use up what’s in your pantry. Just slip in to the local fruit and vegetable shop to stock up on fresh stuff. You might find a bargain there and you won’t be tempted by the attractive goods laid out enticingly in the supermarket aisles.
  8. Always use a note to pay by cash – put all your change in to a tin that requires a tin opener for opening. Just before Christmas open the tin and use it to buy gifts and food for your family and/or friends.
  9. Give the gift of labour – Once we had kids, my favourite gift to receive became the voucher for a nights babysitting. How good is that! There are all sorts of takes on this idea, one of the guys in the office gave his wife a 10 pack of vouchers to clean the windows (stipulating that it has to done within 30 mins of her asking)!
  10. Buy chickens – I have it on good authority that a family of 4 can save $300 annually on free range eggs. That’s 4 chooks laying an egg each a day. And the savings are after the cost of feeding the chickens. **Disclaimer: according to google the number of eggs laid per day can vary.

Do you have any tips to add to this list? Please SHARE in the comments below.

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Comments

  • These are all really quality tips. Its fantastic to be able to save a few dollars

    Reply

  • We have 2 chickens and our son loves feeding them scraps. They eat almost everything!

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  • Great advice

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  • Yeah, but number 10 comes with the emotional cost of telling your kids that a fox has eaten the chooks!

    Reply

  • i always buy the things like toilet paper, washing powder, tinned tomatoes, cleaning products etc when they are on special as you know you will always use them.

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  • Great tips! I already have the chickens, though not just for the eggs; they’re wonderful pets (and one that I adopted is old and doesn’t lay anymore) as well as ducks. Duck eggs are almost twice the size! I also try to remember to take a water bottle with me wherever I go, even just refilling one I’d bought from a shop. If I forget, I try to go somewhere cheap. Woolworths/Coles service stations have them for $1 a bottle, as did Hungry Jacks the last time I checked.

    Reply

  • Thanks for a great read, Jen. We do most of these, including being lucky enough for room for the chooks (so much fun). I also recommend cooking everything at home – no takeaways or coffees in town for us – and for growing as much fruit and vegetables for yourself as you can. We pickle/preserve/freeze our garden excess for later in the year. If you don’t have room for an orchard or a garden, even a pot of herbs on you kitchen window sill will give you extra flavour and freshness without the ongoing costs.

    Reply

  • I like the point about buying quality- often its easier and cheaper to buy less especially household items, you think money is better spent on nessecitarys. But it all adds up. Cost of replacing cheaper items couldve bought a great quality, long lasting item.

    • In actual fact my cheap toaster lasted longer than my expensive one did.
      Priceline also charges less for some prescriptions than other chemists do, those that are not stipulated by the Govt. to be a set price. One prescription I have I get at almost 1/2 the price that another big group charges even if you are a paying member and get a % off. I actually save more than my paying membership in 6 months of one medication and getting their discount. It just proves how much profit some pharmacies make. Try getting some Pharmacies to admit they make huge profits. Good Luck!!! You deserve a medal if you succeed.

    Reply

  • I save money buy cooking from scratch every day. We eat out just 3-4 times a year. We eat better and healthier this way. I’d love to have a better freezer to be able to cook more and freeze.

    • I agree!! I would LOVE to have the room for a bigger freezer. We buy meat in bulk & on sale, as well as needing to keep bread in there sometimes. The space runs out so quickly. Jen :)

      • Yes, sometimes there are very good specials at the supermarket, and having a big freezer surely helps saving!

    Reply

  • i love cleaning out the pantry and coming up with good mixes of ingredients. make do soup etc.

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  • These are great tips. Make your own lunch instead of buying it.
    If you have a pet, like a dog or cat, get a storage bin and buy big bags of pet food, it is cheaper

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  • Buying fruit and vegetables that are in season, or on special, saves lots of money.

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  • Fantastic tips. We already implement most of these except the chickens (no. 10) which I would love to add to our list.

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  • Lke hg

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  • Fantastic tips, we always buy in bulk, especially toilet paper when on special.

    • We buy and bulk and it does save $$ and it so good for a budget.

    Reply
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