Lala's saving tips

[lala1911]

A few more good tips :
* When you think your toothpaste is empty , cut it in half and it can last you another week .
* Always have a bucket of water with you when washing your dishes , or changing temperatures in the shower . That way you can use it on the garden later , and save water prices .
* Instead of buying junk food from fast food outlets and supermarkets . Make it at home , its much healthier and cheaper .http://www.youtube.com/user/robjnixon , this channel on youtube shows how to make all the fast food recipes you love .
*Instead of paying money for something like foxtel . Most of the things on TV are  on the internet for you to watch freely .
* Dont smoke or do drugs , and they dont drink oftenly . I can't stress enough the economic and health dangers .

That's getting really specific and being a cheapskate. They do work though.

[WonderBunny]

Try this website for money saving tips- http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-zero-to-hero-in-one-blog-post/

The guy retired at 30 just by using money saving tips.
Here are some quotes:
"If you can save 50% of your take-home pay starting at age 20, you’ll be wealthy enough to retire by age 37"
"Your current middle-class life is an Exploding Volcano of Wastefulness, and by learning to see the truth in this statement, you will easily be able to cut your expenses in half"
"Happiness comes from many sources, but none of these sources involve car or purse upgrades"

[ShortBlackChick]

That's getting really specific and being a cheapskate. They do work though.

LMAO what?

[taiga]

Some useful tips which I think are of a similar standard to many posted in this thread

1. Collect cans and bottles from train station bins and wait for a friend going to South Australia to deposit them for you. Don't give them a cut of over 5% of the total value. To save more money, tell them they can be rewarded by taking a couple bottles for themselves to reuse

2. Go to Fountain Gate shopping centre every sunday. I can confirm that there are several coins there which are available in the water fountain area. Take this money and open up a bank account to accumulate interest in the CBA opposite the fountain, and celebrate with a glass of water from MacDonalds.

3. When out with friends, many will actually consume most of their drink but leave traces in it along with the ice. Order a glass of water (not filtered or mineral as this often costs money), and calmly wait for them to finish with their drinks. Kindly offer to take your drinks back to the waitress for them. As you take all their drinks, shoot a couple careful looks back and forth to make sure no one sees, and quickly spill the remainder of these drinks into your glass. Ask the waitress to microwave these for you and you will have a delicious concoction of flavour, all for FREE!

4. Left over food at restaurants. After you have been banned from most restaurants for falsely manipulating their good will as suggested by OP, head to those restaurants in a disguise (I recommend a moustache generated from chewing gum beneath seats and leftover hair at the local hairdresser) and pose as a waiter. When patrons are done with their meals, move all the food into one plate, move to a quiet corner of the restaurant and remove your waiter outfit and proceed to eat your delicious meal.

5.  Free samples at supermarkets. Take your girlfriend on a date to coles between 11am to 3pm from Thursday to Sunday and you should find someone handing out samples of sausages/meat or something similar. She will appreciate this, and want to stay committed to a long term relation with you. Once you gain her trust, proceed to go to more expensive restaurants and as OP says, start to 'forget' your wallet each time you go on a date. She is your guardian and therefore is there to feed you.

[pi]

Some useful tips which I think are of a similar standard to many posted in this thread

...

And you win the thread Sir, I'll be at Fountain Gate tomorrow to try this! I might give #5 a go while I'm there too, thanks

[Fyrefly]

Not all credit cards are evil guys. I've never paid a cent of interest on my credit card, because I pay it off in full every month. In the meantime, I get to earn interest on my own money sitting in my own bank account. I'm essentially using someone else's money for free while I earn interest on my own.

If you're responsible enough with money such that you don't spend more than you have, it is possible to use a credit card to your advantage.

[LastOfUs]

Some useful tips which I think are of a similar standard to many posted in this thread

1. Collect cans and bottles from train station bins and wait for a friend going to South Australia to deposit them for you. Don't give them a cut of over 5% of the total value. To save more money, tell them they can be rewarded by taking a couple bottles for themselves to reuse

2. Go to Fountain Gate shopping centre every sunday. I can confirm that there are several coins there which are available in the water fountain area. Take this money and open up a bank account to accumulate interest in the CBA opposite the fountain, and celebrate with a glass of water from MacDonalds.

3. When out with friends, many will actually consume most of their drink but leave traces in it along with the ice. Order a glass of water (not filtered or mineral as this often costs money), and calmly wait for them to finish with their drinks. Kindly offer to take your drinks back to the waitress for them. As you take all their drinks, shoot a couple careful looks back and forth to make sure no one sees, and quickly spill the remainder of these drinks into your glass. Ask the waitress to microwave these for you and you will have a delicious concoction of flavour, all for FREE!

4. Left over food at restaurants. After you have been banned from most restaurants for falsely manipulating their good will as suggested by OP, head to those restaurants in a disguise (I recommend a moustache generated from chewing gum beneath seats and leftover hair at the local hairdresser) and pose as a waiter. When patrons are done with their meals, move all the food into one plate, move to a quiet corner of the restaurant and remove your waiter outfit and proceed to eat your delicious meal.

5.  Free samples at supermarkets. Take your girlfriend on a date to coles between 11am to 3pm from Thursday to Sunday and you should find someone handing out samples of sausages/meat or something similar. She will appreciate this, and want to stay committed to a long term relation with you. Once you gain her trust, proceed to go to more expensive restaurants and as OP says, start to 'forget' your wallet each time you go on a date. She is your guardian and therefore is there to feed you.

You just made my night. Remember there is also free gum under public tables and chairs!

EDIT: I wrote this comment at the end of comment 3 as I couldn't wait and had to congratulate you - turns out you already covered it!

[BigAl]

Here's few advices from my experience
-Just add some water into a shampoo bottle when it is just about to finish. You can save a lot with this method.
-Collect yesterday's bread from bakers.It's much cheaper and still edible.
-Cook your own food. Eating outside is a luxury now
-Don't own a car. Use the public transport. You save a lot.
-Purchase homebrand or coles branded goods.

[Hancock]

Here's few advices from my experience
-Just add some water into a shampoo bottle when it is just about to finish. You can save a lot with this method.
-Collect yesterday's bread from bakers.It's much cheaper and still edible.
-Cook your own food. Eating outside is a luxury now
-Don't own a car. Use the public transport. You save a lot.
-Purchase homebrand or coles branded goods.

Yeah, I loveeee stale bread.

Other tips are better than most in this thread though.

[Hancock]

Yeah, I loveeee stale bread.

The other tips are better than most in this thread though.

[lala1911]

Try this website for money saving tips- http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-zero-to-hero-in-one-blog-post/

The guy retired at 30 just by using money saving tips.
Here are some quotes:
"If you can save 50% of your take-home pay starting at age 20, you’ll be wealthy enough to retire by age 37"
"Your current middle-class life is an Exploding Volcano of Wastefulness, and by learning to see the truth in this statement, you will easily be able to cut your expenses in half"
"Happiness comes from many sources, but none of these sources involve car or purse upgrades"

Thanks for this, will read it myself, brings up a lot of good points.

Some useful tips which I think are of a similar standard to many posted in this thread

._.

Not all credit cards are evil guys. I've never paid a cent of interest on my credit card, because I pay it off in full every month. In the meantime, I get to earn interest on my own money sitting in my own bank account. I'm essentially using someone else's money for free while I earn interest on my own.

If you're responsible enough with money such that you don't spend more than you have, it is possible to use a credit card to your advantage.

But that's you though, some people aren't able to control their urges to spend.

[ocarina_noob]

One more thing: Sell your old crap on ebay. Go to garage sales with your smartphone and search up the price of easy to ship items you find there and see if you can buy it very cheap at the sale and resell it on ebay for a profit.

More of a money-making method than a money-saving one, but anyone can do it and it's not a bad way to spend the summer (better than working at Mcdonalds IMO).

[slothpomba]

I come across the statement "I need more money", sometimes from people who work good jobs.

Reminds me of a quote. Someone once asked the multi-millionaire (yes, the old timey one) John D. Rockerfeller "How much money is enough?", he replied "Just a little more". If you have more money you'll definitely find a way to spend it.

10. Savings account. Ever since I've signed up for my savings account 21 months ago, I've only made one urgent withdrawal. The interest that you accumulate is amazing and if you withdraw it, you lose a months worth of savings. It's a really good incentive.

For this i recommend uBank (owned by NAB). They tend to have the highest interest out of absolute anyone. If your money isn't in a savings account, its slowly losing its value due to inflation, not to mention that the bank is short changing you on all the interest you could have been making.

13. Credit cards. No. I will probably never sign up for a credit card, even though I do have control it's still a hassle. You don't want to be paying more fees and having the risk of going into debt. Use a debit card, or better than that just use bank cards with a reloadable visa from the Post Office (my method).

All one big scam. A credit card companies favourite customer is a poor one. They will just pay off the interest and not the balance, they'll be a constant cash cow. One of the reasons they exist is because employers and people who control the money flow weren't paying their workers enough. If you don't pay your workers enough though, they cant continue to consume and buy the things you make. They didn't fill that gap by massively lifting wages, the average person has the ability to consume more because of credit.

18. This leads me to my next point - CARS. Now I know many of you are 18+ so getting a car is mandatory, right? No. Cars are expensive as shit and degrade in value a lot. Let's do some math:

Forgot fuel in that alongside maintenance and other things as well. I read an article the other day that riding the bus instead of taking your car can save you ~$10,000 a year but i think it was written for America. Unlike most of your other tips though, i feel like it doesn't apply to everyone. Some people just plain need a car, maybe you have really shitty public transport either from your house or at the destination to where you're going, it might make either so impractical or perhaps even impossible to get where you need to go. A lot of jobs require you to have your own transport as well, so, by trying to save money you could actually be costing yourself money.

There's also the money value of time (i'll mention more below). If it takes you 3 hours to get where you want by PT but its a 40 minute drive, that time can really add up. It might justify the money cost to save all that time.


Just keep in mind what the teleological (end goal or purpose) of what money... is. At the end of the day its a medium of exchange, it lets you buy things, thats its purpose. There is no use hoarding money like a squirrel hoards nuts if you have nothing to spend it on or no goals to spend it on, ever. You'll just be inflicting pain on yourself (although if you ask a Buddhist monk, you shouldn't desire these things in the first place). I think the real idea here should not be just saving for the purpose of it but saving so you have more money to spend on the things you want to spend it on (wisely) or your goals.

Reminds me of one particular forum member. They don't spend much on other things but when they do spend their money they spend it on a good whiskey because thats what they enjoy. I think its important to take into account the joy and happiness value here; sometimes that exceeds the monetary loss of a product (bonus). Almost everyone is looking to lead a good or happy life, so, constantly saving on absolutely everything might not be all that pleasant.

Lastly, i just want to mention the time factor. Time is the only thing you cant buy or bring back. Sometimes you have you ask yourself whether saving X money is indeed worth the time or the forgone pleasure. If i save $10 by walking home from the station instead of walking 1 hour home from the station, thats not a trade im going to make. To me its not worth sacrificing an hour of my life (which we'll never get back) doing something i don't want to, in order to save $10 every now and again (not to mention friends have had weapons pulled on them/beaten up around here, its a rough area to walk home at 3am on a Saturday night). It's the same deal with spending hours to find $0.20 off a cable or $5 off a computer part or something, it might just not be worth it. Similar idea with all the transport related ones as well, time is valuable (according to Deloitte, your free time is worth $8 an hour apparently).

Finally, as someone else pointed out, avoid being unconstructively critical. Like anything in life, these tips won't be for everyone. It's fine to point out things that might not have been considered but everyone has different goals and ideals. It's also important to keep in mind intent; people who have shared tips in this thread did it with the intent of helping people in this community and contributing regardless of the end product of that intent and how you feel about it. Finally, lets not forget one of the prime rules of this community, no personal attacks (either implied, by intent or overt) or insults.

[lala1911]

One more thing: Sell your old crap on ebay. Go to garage sales with your smartphone and search up the price of easy to ship items you find there and see if you can buy it very cheap at the sale and resell it on ebay for a profit.

More of a money-making method than a money-saving one, but anyone can do it and it's not a bad way to spend the summer (better than working at Mcdonalds IMO).

Yes, I also do that, we have a lot of junk in our house so I try to sell off my unused items. Yep, thats such a good method with the garage sales. Two years ago Dick Smith had some gigantic games sellout and I made up to $1000 going around to pretty much every Dick Smith in Melbourne looking up prices on eBay and buying games. The problem with garage sales are that there arent very many and people just sell old crap.

Also, yes, but saving requires hard work. I've been selling on eBay for quite a while, but I figured that I want to save more, so I'm working now.

Thanks for your response. That sure is a good quote. ANZ were paying 4.6% when I signed up, now 3.90% so I might need to make a switch. I agree with everything you said about credit cards. Banks have no mercy on poor people, its just a two factor hierarchy with banks and everyday people, where banks profit off of the (already) poor. And yes with the cars, sometimes without a car life is impractical so I guess for some people it is a necessity. I'm willing to sacrifice enjoyment for $10k/yr!

And yes I do believe a goal is important if you want to save hard. Even without a goal, it still good to save money aside. You may be shocked one day where you need to pay for something expensive. I believe a goal not only makes saving purposeful but drives you to save even harder.

Yes we should be enjoying life with our money but in the right way. As mentioned above by someone restaurants are a luxury nowadays, but if you're on a $50k p.a salary, I think going out to a restaurant maybe once per Quarter is fair enough, paying $15 per person for a meal (and a drink from home of course.. unless you're feeling very generous to yourself). If you're just a student, I don't think going to a restaurant would be suitable at all :/

And yes we should set aside some money for things we enjoy but not all of it. I too don't want to be 30 and look back into my 20s and regret not enjoying my money. I want to enjoy my money but in the cheapest and non-regretful way. As a student, like pretty much all of us are, we don't really need to spend all of our money. Some of you might even be thanking me in a few years from now and I'm sure everyone here won't regret saving their money. I mean even saving 50% of your money is still a lot to save while spending a lot of money at the same time.

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Added in a few more things.

[Mao]

All one big scam. A credit card companies favourite customer is a poor one. They will just pay off the interest and not the balance, they'll be a constant cash cow. One of the reasons they exist is because employers and people who control the money flow weren't paying their workers enough. If you don't pay your workers enough though, they cant continue to consume and buy the things you make. They didn't fill that gap by massively lifting wages, the average person has the ability to consume more because of credit.

Strongly disagree. Credit cards are incredibly useful.

I travel regularly, and my credit card gives me travel insurance without me having to purchase it as an add-on. This saves me >$200 every trip, even after I consider my credit card fees.

I purchase things from shops overseas, using a second credit card specifically for this purpose, which gives me the wholesale mastercard forex rates and doesn't charge commission. Also extremely useful for travelling.

Many people do make mistakes with their credit cards, but there are times when credit cards are very good ideas, so long as you have the self control to use it appropriately.