I'm probably going to be spending the next hour writing this as a response to O.P. (LALA) as I feel as though it had really good intentions but could be slightly misinformed, subjectively. I'll be playing the devils advocate for this entire thing so don't take any of this personally, I just enjoy partaking in this subject.
For starters, HECS debt is essentially zilch in the long run. You pay it back through a fraction of your income and it doesn't compound above the rate of inflation, so it never grows in real terms so I don't see how that can put a hole in your pocket. As I'm the guy you talk to on Skype I'm going to be writing this as detailed as possible to call you out just because I'm a naughty trouble maker and am here for a debate with the mystical Lala so this is written with good intentions for a bit of fun and for a debate. People who are just coming out of school like yourself wouldn't have that many debts that set you back a whole lot; you may get your first car soon and thus pay for petrol which completely contradict the 'Lala Saving Tips' so unless you are taking out a mortgage at the ripe old age of 18, in which this person wouldn't be hanging around an educational forum, you won't have any major debts.
I know how you get your source of income but let us pretend I don't know. Let us say for the average joe, you have a part-time job at a minimum wage organisation with no real benefits asides from experience - you can easily make ends meet. We live in a country that has some of the most expensive material possessions such as cars being 2 1/2 the price of what the US pay and people constantly talk about what is bad in our country. What about the good? For someone looking at buying a house, there is a first buyers home owners grant. We have one of the most amazing educational resources available to us, proven with websites such as these to supplement our learning and it shows the level of motivation and commitment some people in Australia have for their desire to succeed. Australia is a great place and you can make ends meet, regardless, no matter the position you are in unless you have a financially deficient hobby just as a substance addiction which can end your life financially and physically. To finish the pep talk now ...
The target audience for whom you are writing to I'm guessing is people from this website and those who are just coming out of school and into the real world, right? Well when you are satirically addressing the idea of 'staying at home -> leech off parents' equals automatic wealth it just doesn't give a great image. Within the animal kingdom a mother raises a their baby until they are at the age to go off and live their own life in which 18-20 seems to be the stereotypical age of moving out acceptance. What then? After 18 years parents would have the desire to live their own life, get together with their partner of by themselves and explore another avenue of life so they can move on, but if you have an 18 year old kid staying home, tying down your plans and leeching off you financially to just suddenly 'take off,' it's just morally inept; that is of course unless you are paying an agreeable amount for board (food, utilities, rent etc.) so you can show you can live a basic adult life. If it's all about 'me, me, me' and your own future, you are impacting someone else's who may selflessly sit in the corner and say nothing.
Talking about a hypothetical here, but let us say you are 18 years old and the last 'expensive' material possession that was bought for you was in 2007 when you were 12 years old, I guess it comes down to what you categorise as 'expensive.' You may be trading your parents money for their tax money when you receive from Centrelink (I'm guessing as you can't have an income otherwise at 12) so that isn't exactly portraying an independent image - not everyone can receive funds from the government for whatever cause. If you were working since 12 and honestly bought everything you own that is considered expensive ($100+ I'm guessing) such as clothing, insurance, occasional school fees such as camps etc. What about the costs of utilities, rent or mortgage that your parents had to pay off? You are a contributing member of your family and your parents have put a roof over your head, so it is unfair to say you've paid for all 'expensive goods' since you were 12, you are underestimating what your parents would have done for you; its these little things that are overlooked that can really create costs as the 'expensive goods' you would have been referring to would just have been material possessions I'm gathering, but you would not have been able to fend by yourself since 12 years old.
1 - Save all of your fucking money ; This is stupid again. Your 20's is a period in your life when you have extreme freedom to work out who you are and the general direction that your life will go. If you were financially conservative throughout your 20's and owned an investment property or two but didn't know anything about yourself as you saved, didn't go out nor travelled internationally to uncharted territory to see life on another set of pastures outside of your geographic region ... How would you reach inner peace or spiritual depth? How do you know you would have chosen the right career field when you didn't consider the opportunity cost of purchasing a Porsche instead of 'saving' your money for future investment when you didn't take up that new experience that could have opened up another door in your life - instead of becoming say, an anaesthetist, how do you know you wouldn't have been best in becoming a mechanic and been most satisfied? The experiences in life are the things you will remember, not the amount that your balance had when you were mid 20's and what material possessions you owned. You need to live.
2 - This is just ludicrous. If you wanted to be financially savvy, get a debit card and set yourself a limit. Therefore with less cash in hand, you'll have a more secure level for inventory control with a permanent record for your account balance, where as physical money is something that can be lost, blown in hand etc. If you are worried about this, a limit is much more efficient that not spending your dollar coins.
3 - This is a good idea in utopian realms but $300 is not a lot of money. $300 will get you a few t-shirts or something, but if you really want to 'save' put a limit on the amount of money you can spend through a credit/debit card each month that correlates with your net income so you can have some saving and spending money, reaching a happy medium.
4 - Good idea again but I'd suggest Excel if you want to personify. Then again, if you get a credit/debit card, their records pretty much have a more accurate reading for spending habits etc. There are only 10 or so categories that you can put under 'expenditure' and where your money goes, such as rent, utilities, insurance etc. so it doesn't accurately show where your money is going when debit/credit card records specifically detail where your money is being chewed up, such as $40 a month to a magazine subscription which eats up $480 a year which could be spent otherwise.
5 - Do what makes you happy but don't put your parents under the hammer to purchase your fast food for the rest of your life. There will be a time when you realise you need to be independent and if you never want to eat fast food again, for both your health and financially, that is fantastic.
6 - If you are doing this inauthentically, that is just morally corrupt once again (without being rude). If you are calling up companies that you have no association to, claiming their goods or services were poor for a 'free score,' the hole in your pocket is going to another innocent, struggling entrepreneur trying to meet their own ends in life. But if their goods and services were actually poor and you paid for them, by all means ask for a refund or replacement.
7 - Instead of wasting $5 on unhealthy food, make a healthy, yum sandwich at home for $1.50 and throw the $3.50 in your money jar that you were mentioning.
8 - $100 a night is not that much if you do it with moderation, such as once a month. You can't go out like a regular person in university on $5 as that would barely get you the ice in a glass, let alone a single glass of alcohol at a cheap bar. That $100 could be spent otherwise, such as 'saving' or 'investing' but I think there is a time in everyones life where you can't be so serious and you have to live, or you will live in regret and will ultimately have no life. Fantastic idea as a hypothetical but not so great in application as depression and other extraneous problems could intervene.
9 - People have time management issues, let alone weighing per /l or /g or /kg which would never happen, but once again a great idea. If you want to shop cheap, go to Aldi or find those savings that Woolworths loves to sing about 'prices are down. down down down.'
10 - Yep, this is true. 10 steps forward and 5 steps back, having a taste of greatness and falling back on it is never a great feeling.
11 - A good idea for yourself but people will look down on you. I'd rather have integrity and respect for myself than 'leeching' off my parents for every box of Shapes that they have to pay for.
12 - If you didn't shop, you'll rot and die as you won't get any food or anything, unless you are completely reliant on your parents. Although I think it would be better to say 'don't shop until you drop.'
13 - If you are taking down notes for your monthly expenditure and have financial managing skills (spending an amount that is reasonable for your net income) then you can get a credit card, borrow money and pay it all back within the 30 days without interest.
14 - Online banking is great. Don't know why you said that.
15 - 100% agree but always look at the % their account has. 95% or less, don't deal with them.
16 - Yep, working to receive an income is your first step in the door to the 'money world' before you should begin worrying about 'Lala's saving tips.'
17 - Yep, goals in all aspects of your life are handy, but must be realistic and achievable. Use the SMART principle from any accounting/finance managing website.
18 - Registration and Insurance are totally wrong but why does everyone go down the car avenue? You can get a motorcycle with fantastic fuel economy at 1.5l/100km which I'll be doing this upcoming July! Wooo!
19 - Drinking has several benefits but I think the greatest benefit would be letting down and living. This will be looked down upon and there will likely be disagreement in this environment, but in order to live you have to damage your liver every so often. I despise smokers more than anything and same with drug addicts but they both have their benefits. I'm not condoning drug use but I'd love to go to Ecuador and experience the drug 'Ayahuasca' which several normal people experience and conform to it as a life-changing notion. Some people can excuse these three categories as 'living their life' and I hate the latter two with a passion but I believe there are exceptions such as possibly Marijuana (no experience with it, just doesn't seem harmful and has benefits).
20 - This is a good idea if the product is $100, otherwise, don't really bother. If a company is offering 'savings' on their products, are well known and competitive, it's safe to say they will be savings or else they can lawfully get in trouble for misleading advertising. A quick google search eliminates the possibility of being scammed regardless.
21 - Loans are bad but are mostly essential to life, unless you are planning on living with your parents until your mid/late 20's, can save up a fortune and then buy a house/car without one. For a IP, a mortgage is essential usually at a young age and you can choose to put it up for rent and have someone else pay the interest which is commonplace. Loans suck for the consumer but there are always ways around paying them.
I won't comment on the VCE section as 95% of people here will destroy me in scores and information in regards to it so I'll just trust you on that one.
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