It was your favourite story of the year – the World’s Best Saving Tips 2017.
So when we set about researching the top savings tips for 2018, we knew our readers would want to have their say.
And you certainly did.
From money tins to meal planning, your saving tips made lively reading on Facebook.
So we want to keep it going.
Firstly, please take a look at our current collection, and vote by liking those you think work best.
We’ll award the most liked by next Thursday a bottle of French champagne.
And we’ll do the same through the next three months – so keep those terrific tips coming.
In the end, we’ll publish the 100 best for the year, and find Australia’s champion saver!
Here are 19 of the best so far.
You’ll find the rest at Facebook.com/reallysimplemoney.
Keep them coming.
Anouk Mynarends: Be aware on being too heavy footed on the gas whilst driving. Take off from stop signs and red lights slower, do the speed limit and keep your tires at a good pressure, shut your windows at any speeds over 50km, lighten the load of the car wherever you can and save on fuel and wear n’ tear on your car. Doesn’t hurt reducing our green-house gases to boot! (Yes, pun intended.)
Anna Byrd: Cut your family members’ hair yourself. A basic set of clippers costs about the same as 1-2 haircuts by a hairdresser. This saves our family hundreds of dollars every year.
Anna Byrd: Every time your insurance is due for renewal, shop around. You can easily get quotes online. I saved hundreds of dollars by switching insurers on just one of our policies this year. I checked that the new insurer had a reputation for being easy to deal with, too.
Judy Kidd: Cook from scratch, using seasonal fruits and vegetables bought from markets rather than supermarkets and meat from wholesale butchers. Learn about cuts of meat and how to best cook them. Bake gifts from scratch for friends too, instead of giving material gifts.
Prue Bedford: Recycle everything, food scraps into the garden, paper and boxes into wrapping paper and gifts, cooking for presents, baking from scratch and my most fun tip…card game nights with friends and families with everyone bringing a plate to share..
Jojo Deeker: My partner catches the early train to work because if you arrive before 7:15am in Melbourne on weekdays it’s free. He saves more than $25 per week.
Jojo Deeker: Once every 5 – 6 weeks we cook only from the fridge, freezer and cupboard (i.e. no grocery shop). And every 3 months we commit to emptying the freezer (sometimes it means eating “freezer surprise” for lunch or dinner) before buying any meat or other freezables.
Jojo Deeker: Get an entertainment book – save heaps on dinners out by using vouchers.
Jojo Deeker: My latest favourite: buy Woolies vouchers for 5% off full price. Then use them to pay for groceries when rewards campaigns are running. I just spent $50 each week for four weeks and got $30 back in points from Woolies.
Ching N Al: We have 3 dogs. Rather than purchase tinned food and doggie rolls , we recycle all our leftovers & mix them with brown rice or wholemeal pasta. Keep a airtight plastic container in the fridge – in go all the vege peelings
Carole Peers: Pay credit cards in full every month to save excessive interest
Jessica Maloney: Kept the Lego sets I played with as a kid.. and sold one recently for $3000!!!
Alice Rose Collard: Choose one financial goal a year and work backwards from that. For example, a $50,000 house deposit. Work out how much you need to save if you want to use it in 1 year or 5 years and plan to put it away each week. Lock it in. Have it automatically transferred each week into a high interest savings account that you don’t touch. If your income increases in the mean time, add it in to shorten the time frame or contribute to a different financial goal. Constantly evaluate, take stock and calculate your expenses to see if you can increase your savings for your big goal. Before you know it, you will be halfway there!
Kay Traeger: Find the fruit stores or supermarkets in your area that usually have great specials on fruit and veg. Today I made two litres of pumpkin soup at a cost of $1.90.
Emmi Koll: I set up auto transfer to transfer 20% of wages into a separate savings account
Sam Clifton: I put all all our family change into a jar and bank it once a month.
Ali Perry: Buy a good quality coffee machine and make your coffee at home. You will save so much and also avoid takeaway coffee cups which are not great for the environment. We worked out as a couple we were spending $15 per day on our coffees on the weekend alone or $30 per weekend. It adds up so quickly. You can pay off a very good quality machine in around 6 months so then your savings really start to add up.
Tabatha McCarthy: Meal prepping has saved me thousands. I make big batches of different foods and freeze them in containers. I only cook once a month, so I save on my gas, I never buy takeout anymore unless I want to treat my family occasionally, there is less dishes and I have a variety of foods for a small amount of money
Charisse Childs: Get rid of your credit cards and open up 4 different bank accounts, one for bills, one for splurging, one for holidays and one for emergencies. Put all of your pay into the bills account and then remove 30% of your pay and split it into 10% into each other bank account. You’ll then limit yourself to what you have in the accounts and not overspend.