Frugal Friday Frenzy

I’ve been inspired by the FIRE Movement to save more money so I’ve been sharing some money saving tips each week with a Frugal Friday Five. Here’s the monthly round-up of them!

Building knowledge

• Building my financial literacy through; Documentary ‘Playing with Fire’, Blogs ‘Mr Money Mustache’ and ‘Afford Anything’, Books ‘Your Money or your Life’ and ‘The Joyful Frugalista’, Podcasts like ‘ChooseFi’ and ‘This Abundant Life’ and watching YouTube Channels like ‘Our Rich Journey’. I used to think that I wasn’t good at ‘money stuff’ but now I’m finding it fascinating and inspiring.
• Knowledge is power: I liked Grant Sabatier’s tip to ‘spend 5 minutes with your money a day’. I check my bank balances, transactions and budget and like the user friendliness of Apps Pocketbook, Raiz and Everydollar.
• No shame/ blame: “Look at how your financial life has gone so far, with no shame and no blame”. Vicki Robin “Your Money or Your Life”. I’m trying not to feel guilty and cross at the things I spent money on that could’ve been saved instead. Like ordering all 4 Taylor Swift Deluxe Journals individually in American dollars with separate international postage. Bygones! Pausing and wait-listing items before purchases will hopefully help with this in future. Moving on Swiftly like a Swiftie…
• (INSPIRATION- Estimated saving Priceless)

Foodiness-groceries

• Shopping at Aldi, the happiest place on Earth, and aiming to keep weekly food 🥘 budget under Fiddy bucks. 
• Using up my freezer food with ye olde slow cooker.
• Semi-carnivore: I’m aiming to eat less meat and more veg which is cost effective and apparently healthy. I heard a tip to think of meat ‘as a side-dish or condiment rather than a main’ so a little goes a long way.
• (FOOD-GROCERIES-Estimated Saving $120/month)

Foodiness-out and about

• The Latte factor: I’ve been guilty as charged as buying fancy $5 café coffees. Now I’m DIY-ing it with a bag of Aldi coffee, a plunger and a 2 buck K.mart Milk frother and loving every minute of it.  When I do have a café coffee, I will savour and appreciate it more as an occasional treat. 
• BYO: Being prepared like a cub scout when I leave the house armed with water and snacks and ‘brown-bagging’ it at lunch time means less spent money on provisions when out and about.
• (FOOD-EATING OUT-Estimated Saving $80/month)

Let me entertain you

• Oversubscribed: I realised I don’t really need ALL my subscriptions like Netflix AND Stan AND Spotify AND Amazon Music AND Audible. I’ve kept Amazon Prime which is a bit cheaper than the others and Apple Music for now… I’ve discovered the CloudLibrary App where I can borrow library audiobooks for free. This saves money and I don’t have time to watch/ listen to EVERYTHING anyway.
• (ENTERTAINMENT-STREAMING-Estimated saving $50/month).

Wealth Creation

• Side-hustle: Dave Ramsey says, ‘Your biggest wealth-building tool is your income’. I’ve been saying yes to relief teaching and babysitting and looking for things I no longer use to sell off. The cat is safe…for now.
• Consolidate: I got a bit over-excited with multiple online ING savings accounts (home, holiday, dreams, other) and have now merged them into 1 ‘buffer’ account. I’ve also shifted any Superannuation left in previous funds into my main fund.
• (INCOME-Estimated Saving $300/month)

Nails, hair, hips, heels.

• Getting off the SNS manicure roundabout and giving my nails a break✨.
• Vouch for me: Have you used all your vouchers and gift cards? I found ones for a $30 discount at the beauty shop and a free pedicure at the nail place. I also took advantage of my free fringe trim in between cuts at my hairdresser. You beauty! I do my hair toss, check my nails. Baby, how you feelin’? (Feelin’ good as hell)
• Purse full, big bills, bitch I’m a big deal (BEAUTY-Estimated Saving $70/month

Shop-bop

• Free stuff: I made out like a denim bandit with 5 new pairs of jeans from a clothes swap.
• Buy Nothing :  I also got 2 new pairs of jeans from my Local Buy Nothing Group including my new fave TopShop Mum jeans.
• Keeping eye out for bargains like three $1 books bought at Darebin library book 📚 sale (and borrowing books 📖 too obvs). (SHOPPING-BOOKS-Estimated Saving $10)
• (SHOPPING-CLOTHES/ BOOKS-Estimated saving $10 per pair/ book)

Behaviour Management:

• Energy Conservation: I love my washing machine and dishwasher but am now trying to run them only when full rather than on-the-daily. I’m investigating the potential savings that switching to a metered plan and using them at off peak times could bring. I’m conscious of turning off appliances at the switches, using my blinds to keep heat in and out and only boiling as much water in the kettle as you need-I learnt this one recently.

 (BILLS-UTILITIES-Estimated saving: I’ll keep you posted via next bill).

• Wait-list: A tip I heard on “This Abundant Life” podcast was to waitlist items you want to buy to see if you still want them later-like in 72 hours time. Buying things (especially online for me) can be a compulsion so the waitlist gives you space to decide if you really want it or were just seeking instant gratification (by the time the online purchases arrive I’m often WHAT IS THIS?!)
• Karma: In exchange for a few hours of cleaning the yoga studio, I get vouchers for yoga classes. I find this surprising enjoyable to be ‘of service’ in my community. What goes around, goes around, goes around, comes all the way back around.
• (HEALTH-Yoga-Estimated Saving $20/class)

• On Trial: I’m giving a month’s trial to not buying clothes, books or accessories. If this is too tough, I’ll allocate some future budget money to it. So far, I’ve enjoyed re-discovering items in my wardrobe and on my book shelf and leaning into the library and swaps. 

I look forward to continuing to share Frugal Friday tips. Saving money is fun, how do you do it?

Love and light and a penny saved is a penny earned xxx Yvette

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