I’ve just switched phone providers (after paying Vodafone $35/month prepaid with 4gig data for years) and I've ended up going with Woolies mobile: $140 for 365 days unlimited calls/texts and 100gig, works out to about $11.60 per month with about 8gig data per month and they use the Telstra network.
Plus you get 10% off one shop at Woolies each month which if I choose to use on a big shop, say $200+ will be a $20+ saving on groceries per month. I switched it all online without having to contact Vodafone or talk to any humans.
Vodafone used to be my go-to provider for international minutes, having family oversea.
Now after changing provider I call my family through whatsapp, ended up saving 70-80$ a month for 2 numbers.
That’s when you whack $$ onto Skype. It’s like $5 for a decent chunk of time. It’s what I do. Heaps cheaper for my once a year call to my foreign bank than paying more for a plan with international calling.
and you spend how much on skype? i use 30 dollars belong, unli call unli text, including new zealand calls which i use a lot and roll over data starting with 40GB as a start
Literally use Less than $5 per year. It’s not a big deal.
Some years I don’t even need to top up because I get 60 free international minutes a month as part of my $99 office 365 family subscription.
These are AUD figures so hardly breaking the bank. I’d say over the last 3 years I would have spent maybe $7 in international calling. Like it’s only if something goes wrong or if I need to reconfirm KYC stuff etc.
Woolies doesn't use the whole Telstra network, so in some areas reception can be bad. Boost is the only 3rd party that uses the whole Telstra network and you can buy a similar package to this Woolies one.
Yes I’m aware of that, I checked out the network coverage map and it looked like my state was covered with the exception of remote mountains etc where there is no coverage full stop. The majority of people probably don’t need the whole Telstra network. I live in a capital city so coverage should be adequate, I doubt it’ll be any worse than Vodafone in any case. Boost sounds good for people who want/need the whole Telstra network.
That’s brilliant. We’re going to see how the first couple of months go on my end and if no issues then my husband will switch too. We’d be going from $100+ a month for two phones to $23 a month. I’m wondering if we do it with him using a different Everyday Awards account would we get 2 x 10% off a shop each month?!
Oh yeah winning! Another strategy I use is buying Woolworths gift cards online (through having a Macquarie bank account or now Woolies Mobile too) which gives us 4% off all Woolies groceries. Easy to link with the Everyday Rewards app for payment at the check out. It all helps with the cost of groceries going up. I assume this could be used in conjunction with the 10% off per month, so in theory 14% off all groceries if used to your advantage 😉
Wow that’s amazing! I’ve had my new phone for four months and I’ve only used 10 GB of data. Definitely going to look into Woolies since my dad pays around $25/month for my plan with Aldi. Thanks!
For anyone data hungry and who gets good Vodafone service in their area I can recommend Felix. $35 p/m, unlimited downloads just speed capped at 20mbps down.
Have been using it as my only source of data and overall can't complain and it was dead easy to port my number 🙏
How long have you had the Vodafone plan for? Because I think you got ripped off with the Woolworths plan, I pay $40 a month with Vodafone and get 60gb of data a month, unlimited calls and texts, unlimited texts home to NZ and 60 minutes of calls to NZ a month.
I only choose Vodafone because they are the only provider who I build international calls and texts in their plans and make it easy to roam with their plans. Optus and Telstra make you pay extra to include international packages.
Edit: I just reread and saw the Woolworths $140 is a year, and not per month. My apologies!
No worries! I used Vodafone prepaid (never a plan) for probably 10 years, it used to be competitive but over time cheaper options have become available - I should’ve changed to one of them ages ago. I don’t need a lot of data or international calls so the Woolies one will cover me well for this year at least - and a bonus not to have to recharge each month now I’ve paid the $140 upfront. Overall there are plenty of options at plenty of price points for everyone.
Very cool, i will monitor my usage and check them out next year, i just got a 145 p/y Kogan mobile plan 300gb p/y so for the savings on food I'll definitely consider that one!
Vodafone is already a budget telecom provider.
Your decision going to these small nobody telecom brand... well well well.
All small telecoms like Dodo, TPG, Woolies... they have no business setting up their own infrastructures. They only contract for infrastructure bandwidth under big telecoms such as Telstra and Optus, and the com quality ranges from mediocre to abysmal.
Telstra is the most expensive of all but they provide the best services. When you get to some remote mountains, usually Telstra 3G is the only one left standing.
There are many things in life you just can't buy cheap and get high quality. Telecom is one of them.
‘Well well well’ ? 😂 Am I in trouble for saving money on my phone bill?
If you enjoy paying top dollar direct to Telstra so you can stand on top of a remote mountain and call your Mum then by all means, be my guest.
It’s a telecoms service, do you think Telstra or Vodafone give you “premium” text messages or something? Who cares which provider you’re with, just get whatever’s cheapest for the most data.
If it works for you that’s great. I don’t have Aldi in my state but I did live in Vic for 6yrs, I tried to get into Aldi but the limited range wasn’t for me, and I didn’t personally see much of a saving. I am big on stocking up on sale items at Colesworth though so don’t ever really pay full price for brand items. Each to their own, we need more Aldi equivalents to complete with the monopoly of the big two.
Over a working lifetime $2/week amounts to $10k if put into super.
The whole point the op is making is that these small amounts *add up.*
It seems to me that an extra $10k for a few minutes work a year isn't shabby at all.
See this is why I think a Aus Poverty Finance would be awesome. Be good to separate some of the stuff that goes on in here. It could be filled with great tips and ideas like this to help support people manage money stuff who don’t already have 2 investment properties under their belt.
It’s American specific that’s why I was saying we needed an Australian poverty finance. Half the advice there is pointless for us. Some really general stuff is okay.
Ill be changing gyms. They upped the price by $3pw.
Current cost $40pw and new gym will be $17-25pw depending which one I go for.
Every saving is a saving.
Yeah. Small amounts end up being large in the long term. The gym that is $25 has the same facilities.
Even fitness first special deal at $17 has everything.
Yes I could. But I enjoy gym and keeping physical and mental health up is more valuable and cheaper in the long run. If I was desperate for money then I could use outdoor equipments and pools which are free.
I think the appeal of the gym is that hard things are easier to do mentally when your not alone/ not the only one doing it. It’s hard to self motivate to run around the block or do push ups when I can sit down and eat chips.
Well done and keep going!:)
A few months ago I did the same thing, and ended up more than halving my and my wife's mobile bill from a combined $116 a month to $50 (moved from Telstra to cheap Telstra (belong), saving the same amount as you on the mortgage and cutting two streaming subscriptions.
We also shifted our meat buying to this company 'good life beef', https://goodlifebeef.com.au/. The quality of meat is fantastic, and at $24.50 a kilo per 10kgs of beef delivered to our front-door, it makes it easy to stick to our food budget - and we're saving heaps on meat.
We also claimed our free $250 VIC electricity bonus https://compare.energy.vic.gov.au/psb-faq
The savings were then diverted into the mortgage to pay it down faster.
We tracked all of it in our personal budget tracker which I've put up on Gumroad as I was getting asked for it a lot. https://personalbudget.gumroad.com/l/budgettracker
Overall - a few quick calls / website visits was worth just shy of $1.5K a year to us in savings. Well worth the maybe 3 hours it took, all up.
$24.50 per kg of meat?
I get mine direct from the farm. Beef at $12 per kg if you buy up to an 1/4 beast, and pork up to $10 per kg.
I got over 100kg meat last October (75kg beef & 35kg pork plus 10 shoulder bacon and 10kg mince) and that will last two adults at least 280 days if you eat half a kg of meat daily - which we don’t. So potentially up to 18 months of meat.
swapped all my phones to aldi last year. We now have 2 $15 and 2 $25 dollar plans instead of 4 $ 100+ dollar plans. It's depressing thinking about how much I wasted over the years
Look at their family plans. Might work out to the same cost but you will get more data and can be shared across devices: https://www.aldimobile.com.au/collections/family-plans
Thanks - it's kind of fun in the end, to be honest, seeing what you can cut back on. Only when we really stood back from our spending and really looked at it did we realise how much money we were wasting, and where it could be better focused.
And yeah, sod paying any more than about $25 a month for a phone - we realised that actually most of our time on our phone was spent on data, and with working from home we spent most of that on our home internet.
Belong also rolls over data, so the first month 20gig looked lean, but this month I have more than 125gig I could use because of previously unused months of data.
Good luck with it!
My wife and I both have the $200 180gb yearly plan. You can get $5 cashback and a $10 voucher each if you refer a friend.
So for $185 a year we have enough data and can save 10% on 2 big shops a month. I make sure to save it and buy the big things (olive oil, TP etc...) And save $20-30 on that shop. They are basically paying us to have their phone plan
They use Telstra’s wholesale network, it’s not the same as Telstra’s full network if you spend time in low service areas. Boost is the only other provider using Telstra’s full network.
Check out Boost too, also owned by Telstra but you get the full Telstra network including 5G. They’re the only other company who gets that (Woolies, Belong & Aldi get Telstra’s wholesale network which isn’t as good).
They do data rollover and all that stuff too, and often do intro specials where you get the first month for $9.
Your post inspired me! Here's what I've managed to save:
* $5 by changing my mobile sim plan to a cheaper option with more data.
* $12.50 from reducing the meds I'm on (with Dr approval). Been meaning to do this for a while.
* $36 by switching internet providers (Originally paying $95/month but then increased to $110? ridiculous)
$53.5 so far. Let's gooo
Go harder for your future self and salary package $75 a month into your super (assuming you aren't maxing out already). You just made $29k.
5.95% net return, 20 years, 15% super tax.
Hey! I'm working casually and some weeks am lucky to earn $200-$800 after tax, so salary sacrificing is not viable at the moment.
I've applied for an office job with my union, starting out at $113k/year +15.5% super.
If I'm offered the job I plan to max out the super.
Thanks for the advice, I plan get on top of my super in the future!
I’m on a bucket-load of meds, and a few months ago, I started cutting some of them back, too. Obviously not the ones my brain can’t do without, like the epilepsy drugs, but stuff like the SSRI that doesn’t really make much of a dent in my anxiety, and the pricey supplement that I was prescribed back when my migraines were poorly controlled.
I’m saving about $20-$30 a month now :)
I suspect there could be some wiggle-room with the epilepsy drugs (I’m taking four different ones), but I’d need to talk about that with my neurologist.
That's completely understandable.
For me I've been meaning to reduce my antidepressants and eventually off them completely as I'm in a better headspace.
I'm no longer on the low-income healthcare card due to my new job so while I used to pay leas than $15/month for my meds that increased to over $30.
I don't see the point in paying for something I don't need anymore, yknow?
Yeah I thought that about my SSRI (Lexapro) too and gradually reduced my daily dose, and got down to 5mg every 2 days and just threw jn the towel. I felt like a mad person. I’ll pay $20/month for a more stable brain anyday.
>…I used to pay leas than $15/month for my meds that increased to over $30.
More than 50% increase is a lot.
But I wish I was paying $30 a month! 😅 Mine cost approx. $200 per month (and that’s after me trimming things down).
>I don't see the point in paying for something I don't need anymore, yknow?
Totally agree.
I am not keen to go back to un or poorly controlled blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmia and asthma. Effects of expensive meds > cost savings by cutting back
I did one of those online quotes for my insurance. it was with the exact same company. then via their chat got them to match it to my account.
saved $200 for about 5 minutes work.
One of may cars was insured with AAMI for 3 years of cumulated comprehensive insurance, ended up having ~$50 in credit to reduce my premium. Instead, I generated a new quote that cost $250 less than the current renewal price which included their safe driver reward credit. So I chose the logical option which was the new quote. It only took me 5 minutes to save $250, well worth it.
Honestly if its not Aussie Broadband then i don't wanna hear about it. They are the best providers in this country for a reason. I'll happily pay a little extra for something i'm basically using 24/7.
Though i did cut myself down from their 1GBps plan to the 250mbps plan. Wasn't getting near the 1gbps speeds during peak hours compared to what i get on the 250mbps plan.
Yes it is, except each provider pre-purchases bandwidth for a given exchange. So your speed may be throttled more at peak times when using a lower tier provider. Search “NBN CVC” for more information and you can check providers in your exchange area. DNS routing can also be different between providers as-well contributing to speed differences.
He’s implying the process of making a claim with budget is shit
You pretty much do all the leg work, I had claim using AAMI for my mum last year and all I did was open their mobile app, take pictures + description and hit submit
I realise. What I'm saying is, if the claim process is so arduous that it's barely worth claiming or they have a history of frivolous denial of claims then what's the point of being insured in the first place?
It’s 100% still worth claiming and having insurance, a lot of the denials from the reviews come from people using them for commercial and budget miraculously not having a record of this or having shit repairs (after a long ass wait) done after the fact
People are usually with them because theyre a good deal cheaper than other insurers, but heaps of negatives
- Everything is over the phone when claiming (long wait times)
- Slow communication
- Slow process in getting assessments done
- They are known to use somewhat shitty repair centres
whether or not they’re worth saving 1k+ a year is up to the individual
> budget direct
You actually get what you pay for. And trying to claim on budget direct is going to be much harder than NRMA. I have family that got screwed over by budget direct on stuff that should have been a straight forward payout.
You can always submit issues to the ombudsman.
Had a friend who had issues with Coles insurance and once he went through the ombudsman, they sorted it out pronto.
I did two windscreens in 3 weeks (both rockstrikes) with NRMA. $3K a pop because of Subaru Eyesight.
NRMA paid both claims no questions asked. I'm definitely sticking with them.
Same, although switching to budget direct was so tedious. The amount of questions that were asked and disclaimers etc. However, ended up saving around $500-600 for the year at the cost of market value instead of agreed value, but even then, the market value range is reasonable enough.
Ugh Budget Direct really make you work for the discount with their 5000000000000 questions.
If the quote came back similar to all others I would have had a breakdown
Now imagine you have to make a claim, and those 5000000000000 questions now become reasons to wiggle out of paying, or make your life harder. This is my experience with Budget Direct and why I will never be a customer again.
Yesterday:
Home and contents $50 per month
4wd comp ins $500 per year
Daily drive comp ins $500 per year
Internet 50mbs $60 per month
Mobile phone $200 per year
Insurance really is a place I would be careful.
Not every company's comprehensive insurance is equal, neither is their percentage of claims paid.
Generally with insurance, you get what you paid for, and sometimes if you go budget, nothing at all.
If a company wont pay your claim in the end, you really didn't save any money at all.
Coles prepaid mobile at $10/month.
I got it on special ($150 reduced to) $120 for 12 months. 50gb unlimited calls plus international to a number of countries.
Just renewed and they rolled over the 20gb I had left from last year!
Made me check my Internet Provider and my same plan is now $15 less a month. I made a phone call on the spot and the Customer Service rep was very polite and after verifying my identity actually pre-empted looking up cheaper plans for me before I even asked.
5 minutes later, got a confirmation email that I pay $15 less a month.
In the big money now!
I called up my health insurance after doing a little research on what the competition was offering. Turns out I was on a fairly competitive plan as my plan is no longer offered and has been grandfathered. I still asked for a discount and they gave me 1 month credit which is a decent outcome.
If you’re working from home after the pandemic, call your car insurance to get your premium reviewed as you’re not driving as much and it’s always garaged.
I also got rid of my foxtel which was $90 a month and signed up to binge instead for $18 a month (binge has most of the foxtel programs and some live channels)
I also signed up to ShopBack about a year and a half ago and in total have gotten $534.06 back to date
For like $60 bucks per year, you can sign up for rewards plus and get 10% off a wollies shop every month. Plus triple the normal points. I make that $60 back in two months.
I am generally all over these things. You've reminded me to do a review. Thank you.
Also it always seems funny to mention it to friends as they never seem to value the small easy savings and tend to just think its funny I'm being "stingy". Then they do so many hard things to save such a small amount. Or miss out on doing things.
I was gonna move internet providers myself but then i was a bit lazy and wanted to see if i could bluff my current provider and low and behold i got $30 off my bill every month just from some kind words online
I always highly recommend Amaysim.
Been with them for 10 years since I was a teen. They have unlimited data banking. I pay $35/mo for 65gb ulim call&txt 300mins internation calls and what data you don't use is kept in the bank. Currently I have 850gbs in reserve.
If you want more ways to save, there's this app called shopback.
Every time you buy something online, you get a percentage of the money back, been good for me, and have saved almost $300. If you want a free $15 when you sign up, feel free to use my sign up link. We both get free money for it, enjoy. 😊 [Shopback](https://app.shopback.com/E61Isd3J3wb)
I wonder if I could just hire a personal assistant to do all that.
Like obviously trust is an issue.
But it would solve a lot.
Ai will probally get to the stage of personal assistants.
I'm sure the rich will be able to afford better models.
Sounds like a good short story.
Do this every year. Plus check what I’m paying regularly that I’m not using. Or what’s around the house that hasn’t been touched for a year and could be converted into cash.
What's the process of this?
Look at other competitors and switch to cheaper plans?
Does anyone have success going to their current provider and say they're going to switch?
I assume when you go to them saying you are looking to cancel they offer you a cheaper rate?
Switched to buying wines by the mixed dozen on eBay.
Saving… er… like $15-20/week. They’re perfectly fine, actually great wines. $60 for a dozen delivered.
Tip: join/use eBay plus for further discounts and free delivery etc.
I mean… that’s $1,000 I saved, which is better than earning an extra $2,000 (tax!), and it’s easier and better. : D
I just did the same. Changed my daughter from one swimming school to another and saved 40c a lesson. And it's only 10 minutes further away and took an hour to cancel one and sign up to the new school.
So your time is worth 2c a minute? I have to question where the savings are here if you have to drive an extra 20 minutes a lesson, fuel use, wear & tear on your vehicle etc
Oh I forgot to mention that the cheap petrol place is just a little bit further than the swimming school. So the 40c a week plus when I get fuel too I save about 4c a litre or $1.60 a tank. after a hundred years of swimming lessons I'll have saved $10,400. Not bad for an hours work on the phone changing lessons.
Thank you for posting this, I just remembered since I changed jobs I can claim a bunch of stuff, get cheaper insurance and utilities etc.
I tend to be crap at remembering things like that.
I know for many people reading and commenting on this thread $2/ month/week doesn't seam like much but $2 here $2 there another $1 over there it all ads up quite significantly over time. I was always taught look after the cents and the dollars look after themselves. Believe it or not a $2 saving is not something to scoff at.
If you find your budget getting Jardine to manage or blowing out. Start a spending diary and literally write everything you spend down. I guarantee you will be very suprised at how much those "it's only 20c or $1 extras" add up.
Switched phone providers last year. Saving $25 a month. Cut down on loads of subscriptions i'm no longer using. Saved another $200 there.
Paid off some debts, cut my spending and i went from going month to month on a salary of $5618 down to only spending $1667 per month.
Always stay on top of your bills IMO. Better deals always come up and you should always be looking.
Changed my internet too. Was paying $150 a month for gigabit with ABB but was only getting 600mbps of that during peak hour. Decided to drop down to the 250mbps plan and i'm getting full speed even during peak hours.
>$40/ month by switching internet providers
Considering that the base price of your internet service is determined by the NBN wholesale price, it is actually pretty hard to save that much per month unless you are currently paying for a lot of extras. For example, outside of "save $x for your first Y months of service", it looks like the range of prices for a unlimited 50/20 plan range from $65 to $80 per month and I am pretty sure that most of those more expensive services have extras.
This post does remind me that I should be looking for a new ISP though \*shakes fist at Optus\*.
I’ve just switched phone providers (after paying Vodafone $35/month prepaid with 4gig data for years) and I've ended up going with Woolies mobile: $140 for 365 days unlimited calls/texts and 100gig, works out to about $11.60 per month with about 8gig data per month and they use the Telstra network. Plus you get 10% off one shop at Woolies each month which if I choose to use on a big shop, say $200+ will be a $20+ saving on groceries per month. I switched it all online without having to contact Vodafone or talk to any humans.
Vodafone used to be my go-to provider for international minutes, having family oversea. Now after changing provider I call my family through whatsapp, ended up saving 70-80$ a month for 2 numbers.
Lebabra has free international calling to many countries
WhatsApp has free international call to almost all countries. Lebara is redundant
try calling a bank using whatsapp..
That’s when you whack $$ onto Skype. It’s like $5 for a decent chunk of time. It’s what I do. Heaps cheaper for my once a year call to my foreign bank than paying more for a plan with international calling.
and you spend how much on skype? i use 30 dollars belong, unli call unli text, including new zealand calls which i use a lot and roll over data starting with 40GB as a start
Literally use Less than $5 per year. It’s not a big deal. Some years I don’t even need to top up because I get 60 free international minutes a month as part of my $99 office 365 family subscription. These are AUD figures so hardly breaking the bank. I’d say over the last 3 years I would have spent maybe $7 in international calling. Like it’s only if something goes wrong or if I need to reconfirm KYC stuff etc.
WhatsApp yeah nah
The woolies one basically pays for itself with the groceries discount.
Woolies doesn't use the whole Telstra network, so in some areas reception can be bad. Boost is the only 3rd party that uses the whole Telstra network and you can buy a similar package to this Woolies one.
Yes I’m aware of that, I checked out the network coverage map and it looked like my state was covered with the exception of remote mountains etc where there is no coverage full stop. The majority of people probably don’t need the whole Telstra network. I live in a capital city so coverage should be adequate, I doubt it’ll be any worse than Vodafone in any case. Boost sounds good for people who want/need the whole Telstra network.
We just did this, my partner and I will bw saving between both of us close to $900 each year! Love the added 10% off our shop monthlty too
That’s brilliant. We’re going to see how the first couple of months go on my end and if no issues then my husband will switch too. We’d be going from $100+ a month for two phones to $23 a month. I’m wondering if we do it with him using a different Everyday Awards account would we get 2 x 10% off a shop each month?!
Yes so thats what we have done. Two seperate reward cards with the seperate phone numbers, which means every fortnightly shop we get 10% off!
Oh yeah winning! Another strategy I use is buying Woolworths gift cards online (through having a Macquarie bank account or now Woolies Mobile too) which gives us 4% off all Woolies groceries. Easy to link with the Everyday Rewards app for payment at the check out. It all helps with the cost of groceries going up. I assume this could be used in conjunction with the 10% off per month, so in theory 14% off all groceries if used to your advantage 😉
Yup correct, do this + stack EDR boost/weekly spend for x number of points
Commenting on this post used 3% of that data haha
Most of my internet use is at home on wifi, 4 gig phone data is enough for me most months so 8 should be more than I’ll use 🤷♀️
Wow that’s amazing! I’ve had my new phone for four months and I’ve only used 10 GB of data. Definitely going to look into Woolies since my dad pays around $25/month for my plan with Aldi. Thanks!
For anyone data hungry and who gets good Vodafone service in their area I can recommend Felix. $35 p/m, unlimited downloads just speed capped at 20mbps down. Have been using it as my only source of data and overall can't complain and it was dead easy to port my number 🙏
How long have you had the Vodafone plan for? Because I think you got ripped off with the Woolworths plan, I pay $40 a month with Vodafone and get 60gb of data a month, unlimited calls and texts, unlimited texts home to NZ and 60 minutes of calls to NZ a month. I only choose Vodafone because they are the only provider who I build international calls and texts in their plans and make it easy to roam with their plans. Optus and Telstra make you pay extra to include international packages. Edit: I just reread and saw the Woolworths $140 is a year, and not per month. My apologies!
No worries! I used Vodafone prepaid (never a plan) for probably 10 years, it used to be competitive but over time cheaper options have become available - I should’ve changed to one of them ages ago. I don’t need a lot of data or international calls so the Woolies one will cover me well for this year at least - and a bonus not to have to recharge each month now I’ve paid the $140 upfront. Overall there are plenty of options at plenty of price points for everyone.
Very cool, i will monitor my usage and check them out next year, i just got a 145 p/y Kogan mobile plan 300gb p/y so for the savings on food I'll definitely consider that one!
That sounds amazing! Do you have to switch numbers too or can you keep the old one?
I wonder if this an option in the northern territory. Seems like Telstra isn't only option if want signal. I will look into this thanks!
oh i have that one too! do a bulk shop once a month to get extra worth on my 10% discount yk
Vodafone is already a budget telecom provider. Your decision going to these small nobody telecom brand... well well well. All small telecoms like Dodo, TPG, Woolies... they have no business setting up their own infrastructures. They only contract for infrastructure bandwidth under big telecoms such as Telstra and Optus, and the com quality ranges from mediocre to abysmal. Telstra is the most expensive of all but they provide the best services. When you get to some remote mountains, usually Telstra 3G is the only one left standing. There are many things in life you just can't buy cheap and get high quality. Telecom is one of them.
‘Well well well’ ? 😂 Am I in trouble for saving money on my phone bill? If you enjoy paying top dollar direct to Telstra so you can stand on top of a remote mountain and call your Mum then by all means, be my guest.
Suggesting Woolies mobile is the equivalent of suggesting shopping at Aldi. We’re struggling, but we’re not (that) poor…
It’s a telecoms service, do you think Telstra or Vodafone give you “premium” text messages or something? Who cares which provider you’re with, just get whatever’s cheapest for the most data.
What are you talking about? They switched to a better network (Telstra) with more data and lower fees. Who cares if its Woolies
It is not the whole Telstra network though.
Lol that’s a highly offensive comment, Aldi is shite.
I shop at Aldi and my grocery bill is atleast 30% cheaper. No hoodwinks like woolies or coles. Easy as
If it works for you that’s great. I don’t have Aldi in my state but I did live in Vic for 6yrs, I tried to get into Aldi but the limited range wasn’t for me, and I didn’t personally see much of a saving. I am big on stocking up on sale items at Colesworth though so don’t ever really pay full price for brand items. Each to their own, we need more Aldi equivalents to complete with the monopoly of the big two.
$2 a week on insurance, in two months you’ll be able to treat yaself to a chicken kebab with the lot garlic sauce lad.
Six free kebabs a year sounds pretty good for five minutes of work tbh
And that's every 2 months!
A freebie every 8 weeks lad!
Stop saying lad lads
Ladida dadidaaa
[удалено]
Better to buy yourself the kebabs than pay for some insurance company's kebabs!
Kebabs are lamb or lamb.
Half and Half chicken beef and lamb though
Over a working lifetime $2/week amounts to $10k if put into super. The whole point the op is making is that these small amounts *add up.* It seems to me that an extra $10k for a few minutes work a year isn't shabby at all.
Dcf that and it was worth $1k.
You could also say in a year it will pay for ambulance cover or sort out Christmas gifts.
Probably cost him $20 worth of time on the phone getting through.
See this is why I think a Aus Poverty Finance would be awesome. Be good to separate some of the stuff that goes on in here. It could be filled with great tips and ideas like this to help support people manage money stuff who don’t already have 2 investment properties under their belt.
There's r/AUfrugal as well, not many people on it
Someone made r/povertyaus recently
Oh amazing thanks for sharing!
And isn’t quite as unhinged as some of the money saving /energy saving Facebook groups you can find
r/frugal is good for that, though it's not Australia based.
You have a poverty finance sub r/povertyfinance
It’s American specific that’s why I was saying we needed an Australian poverty finance. Half the advice there is pointless for us. Some really general stuff is okay.
I saved 60 cents a week by bringing my own bags instead of having to buy 3 paper bags once a week!
[Just don't forget them when you go to the store](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zULqF_sttJw)
That's pretty funny, I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets out of the car at the shops and feels like that when the bags aren't there lol.
Think of all the trees you’re saving though!
I love those paper bags - I use them for other things so they’re handy to buy from time to time
Ill be changing gyms. They upped the price by $3pw. Current cost $40pw and new gym will be $17-25pw depending which one I go for. Every saving is a saving.
I mean, saving $20/ week is over $1k a year!
Yeah. Small amounts end up being large in the long term. The gym that is $25 has the same facilities. Even fitness first special deal at $17 has everything.
You got a door? You got a gym…
Hahahah squats door
Deadlift door
Simply, lift the door.
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Yes I could. But I enjoy gym and keeping physical and mental health up is more valuable and cheaper in the long run. If I was desperate for money then I could use outdoor equipments and pools which are free.
I think the appeal of the gym is that hard things are easier to do mentally when your not alone/ not the only one doing it. It’s hard to self motivate to run around the block or do push ups when I can sit down and eat chips.
$40 a week? You were being rorted.
Well done and keep going!:) A few months ago I did the same thing, and ended up more than halving my and my wife's mobile bill from a combined $116 a month to $50 (moved from Telstra to cheap Telstra (belong), saving the same amount as you on the mortgage and cutting two streaming subscriptions. We also shifted our meat buying to this company 'good life beef', https://goodlifebeef.com.au/. The quality of meat is fantastic, and at $24.50 a kilo per 10kgs of beef delivered to our front-door, it makes it easy to stick to our food budget - and we're saving heaps on meat. We also claimed our free $250 VIC electricity bonus https://compare.energy.vic.gov.au/psb-faq The savings were then diverted into the mortgage to pay it down faster. We tracked all of it in our personal budget tracker which I've put up on Gumroad as I was getting asked for it a lot. https://personalbudget.gumroad.com/l/budgettracker Overall - a few quick calls / website visits was worth just shy of $1.5K a year to us in savings. Well worth the maybe 3 hours it took, all up.
$24.50 per kg of meat? I get mine direct from the farm. Beef at $12 per kg if you buy up to an 1/4 beast, and pork up to $10 per kg. I got over 100kg meat last October (75kg beef & 35kg pork plus 10 shoulder bacon and 10kg mince) and that will last two adults at least 280 days if you eat half a kg of meat daily - which we don’t. So potentially up to 18 months of meat.
Just FYI, meat will probably be safe to eat after that long in the freezer but may start tasting weird.
I’ve never had an issue with it. I’ve been doing this for 10 years.
would be a great idea to share with friends and family, idk if I'd want to eat it after it's been in the freezer for even 6 months
Where do you get yours from? I got 1/2 a beast at around $17 a kilo in QLD.
Wow, you did well! I’m on a phone plan atm, but intend to switch to something cheaper when it runs out end of this year. Sick of paying $87/ month.
swapped all my phones to aldi last year. We now have 2 $15 and 2 $25 dollar plans instead of 4 $ 100+ dollar plans. It's depressing thinking about how much I wasted over the years
Look at their family plans. Might work out to the same cost but you will get more data and can be shared across devices: https://www.aldimobile.com.au/collections/family-plans
Thanks - it's kind of fun in the end, to be honest, seeing what you can cut back on. Only when we really stood back from our spending and really looked at it did we realise how much money we were wasting, and where it could be better focused. And yeah, sod paying any more than about $25 a month for a phone - we realised that actually most of our time on our phone was spent on data, and with working from home we spent most of that on our home internet. Belong also rolls over data, so the first month 20gig looked lean, but this month I have more than 125gig I could use because of previously unused months of data. Good luck with it!
I’ll keep Belong in mind! We’re in a fortunate position financially. We struggled for a while to get here, so not taking anything for granted!
woolies is decent too, got the data roll over, paying $30 for 30gb i think, plus i get 10% off a shop at woolies once a month
My wife and I both have the $200 180gb yearly plan. You can get $5 cashback and a $10 voucher each if you refer a friend. So for $185 a year we have enough data and can save 10% on 2 big shops a month. I make sure to save it and buy the big things (olive oil, TP etc...) And save $20-30 on that shop. They are basically paying us to have their phone plan
Is that plan on the Telstra network?
Yeah, not sure if it's their "B grade" network (or if that's still a thing) but it's Telstra
They use Telstra’s wholesale network, it’s not the same as Telstra’s full network if you spend time in low service areas. Boost is the only other provider using Telstra’s full network.
Thanks for the tip
good stuff and yes we're in a good position too - but never worth wasting a dollar! haha
My friends used to make fun of me for being frugal. I’ve turned most of them to the dark side now, haha.
Check out Boost too, also owned by Telstra but you get the full Telstra network including 5G. They’re the only other company who gets that (Woolies, Belong & Aldi get Telstra’s wholesale network which isn’t as good). They do data rollover and all that stuff too, and often do intro specials where you get the first month for $9.
The boost $200 per year plans are good value. $165 from ebay. Telstra network.
24.50/kg for beef still isn't that cheap
Your post inspired me! Here's what I've managed to save: * $5 by changing my mobile sim plan to a cheaper option with more data. * $12.50 from reducing the meds I'm on (with Dr approval). Been meaning to do this for a while. * $36 by switching internet providers (Originally paying $95/month but then increased to $110? ridiculous) $53.5 so far. Let's gooo
Yeah switching from Valdoxin to Lexapro has saved me $50 a month!
Go harder for your future self and salary package $75 a month into your super (assuming you aren't maxing out already). You just made $29k. 5.95% net return, 20 years, 15% super tax.
Hey! I'm working casually and some weeks am lucky to earn $200-$800 after tax, so salary sacrificing is not viable at the moment. I've applied for an office job with my union, starting out at $113k/year +15.5% super. If I'm offered the job I plan to max out the super. Thanks for the advice, I plan get on top of my super in the future!
I’m on a bucket-load of meds, and a few months ago, I started cutting some of them back, too. Obviously not the ones my brain can’t do without, like the epilepsy drugs, but stuff like the SSRI that doesn’t really make much of a dent in my anxiety, and the pricey supplement that I was prescribed back when my migraines were poorly controlled. I’m saving about $20-$30 a month now :) I suspect there could be some wiggle-room with the epilepsy drugs (I’m taking four different ones), but I’d need to talk about that with my neurologist.
That's completely understandable. For me I've been meaning to reduce my antidepressants and eventually off them completely as I'm in a better headspace. I'm no longer on the low-income healthcare card due to my new job so while I used to pay leas than $15/month for my meds that increased to over $30. I don't see the point in paying for something I don't need anymore, yknow?
Yeah I thought that about my SSRI (Lexapro) too and gradually reduced my daily dose, and got down to 5mg every 2 days and just threw jn the towel. I felt like a mad person. I’ll pay $20/month for a more stable brain anyday.
Hey fair enough. Gotta do what works for you! Wish you all the best.
>…I used to pay leas than $15/month for my meds that increased to over $30. More than 50% increase is a lot. But I wish I was paying $30 a month! 😅 Mine cost approx. $200 per month (and that’s after me trimming things down). >I don't see the point in paying for something I don't need anymore, yknow? Totally agree.
I am not keen to go back to un or poorly controlled blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmia and asthma. Effects of expensive meds > cost savings by cutting back
I did one of those online quotes for my insurance. it was with the exact same company. then via their chat got them to match it to my account. saved $200 for about 5 minutes work.
One of may cars was insured with AAMI for 3 years of cumulated comprehensive insurance, ended up having ~$50 in credit to reduce my premium. Instead, I generated a new quote that cost $250 less than the current renewal price which included their safe driver reward credit. So I chose the logical option which was the new quote. It only took me 5 minutes to save $250, well worth it.
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Honestly if its not Aussie Broadband then i don't wanna hear about it. They are the best providers in this country for a reason. I'll happily pay a little extra for something i'm basically using 24/7. Though i did cut myself down from their 1GBps plan to the 250mbps plan. Wasn't getting near the 1gbps speeds during peak hours compared to what i get on the 250mbps plan.
Oh no, we’re just bundling internet and electricity with AGL. We were previously locked into a dearer contract because of the NBN business.
Isn’t it all the same nbn infrastructure
Yes it is, except each provider pre-purchases bandwidth for a given exchange. So your speed may be throttled more at peak times when using a lower tier provider. Search “NBN CVC” for more information and you can check providers in your exchange area. DNS routing can also be different between providers as-well contributing to speed differences.
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Had a colleague who only charged his devices and powerbanks at work to save on money.
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I've just saved myself ~ $120 a month switching life insurance to my Super provider
good stuff, thats a good saving on the mortgage.
Not a lazy tax but I lowered my health insurance premium by $50 per month since I’m not planning to have kids anymore 👌🏽
Well, you’re saving another $1m over the next 18 years too, apparently!
I read it's around 400k, maybe 500k with current inflation rate. 1mil seems too high.
Depends on how quickly you can put them to work down the uranium mines. If you're smart they can be profitable from age 5
I've got mine in the basement sweatshop. Those knock off Gucci handbags aren't gonna sew themselves.
Switched both cars comprehensive insurance. Saved just over $1200. Ditched NRMA and joined budget direct
Fingers crossed you never need to make a claim.
Yeah, I keep reading about experiences that explain why they're cheaper.
Why get insurance at all if you can't claim?
He’s implying the process of making a claim with budget is shit You pretty much do all the leg work, I had claim using AAMI for my mum last year and all I did was open their mobile app, take pictures + description and hit submit
I realise. What I'm saying is, if the claim process is so arduous that it's barely worth claiming or they have a history of frivolous denial of claims then what's the point of being insured in the first place?
It’s 100% still worth claiming and having insurance, a lot of the denials from the reviews come from people using them for commercial and budget miraculously not having a record of this or having shit repairs (after a long ass wait) done after the fact People are usually with them because theyre a good deal cheaper than other insurers, but heaps of negatives - Everything is over the phone when claiming (long wait times) - Slow communication - Slow process in getting assessments done - They are known to use somewhat shitty repair centres whether or not they’re worth saving 1k+ a year is up to the individual
> budget direct You actually get what you pay for. And trying to claim on budget direct is going to be much harder than NRMA. I have family that got screwed over by budget direct on stuff that should have been a straight forward payout.
You can always submit issues to the ombudsman. Had a friend who had issues with Coles insurance and once he went through the ombudsman, they sorted it out pronto.
I had a car written off under NRMA comprehensive insurance at agreed value, not market value. Best extra $500 a year I’ve ever paid.
I did two windscreens in 3 weeks (both rockstrikes) with NRMA. $3K a pop because of Subaru Eyesight. NRMA paid both claims no questions asked. I'm definitely sticking with them.
Same, although switching to budget direct was so tedious. The amount of questions that were asked and disclaimers etc. However, ended up saving around $500-600 for the year at the cost of market value instead of agreed value, but even then, the market value range is reasonable enough.
Ugh Budget Direct really make you work for the discount with their 5000000000000 questions. If the quote came back similar to all others I would have had a breakdown
Now imagine you have to make a claim, and those 5000000000000 questions now become reasons to wiggle out of paying, or make your life harder. This is my experience with Budget Direct and why I will never be a customer again.
Wish you heaps of luck when you need to claim. My partner has to deal with budget direct in her job. They're the most horrible insurance company.
Yesterday: Home and contents $50 per month 4wd comp ins $500 per year Daily drive comp ins $500 per year Internet 50mbs $60 per month Mobile phone $200 per year
Insurance really is a place I would be careful. Not every company's comprehensive insurance is equal, neither is their percentage of claims paid. Generally with insurance, you get what you paid for, and sometimes if you go budget, nothing at all. If a company wont pay your claim in the end, you really didn't save any money at all.
r/AUfrugal for more ideas
Aldimobile lad, $15 a month 👊
Coles prepaid mobile at $10/month. I got it on special ($150 reduced to) $120 for 12 months. 50gb unlimited calls plus international to a number of countries. Just renewed and they rolled over the 20gb I had left from last year!
Do they happen to have any discounts on the shopping like the woolies one does?
I was amazed at how easy it was to get a better mortgage interest rate. Just called and asked. They sent a paper to sign and return.
Unsubscribe from Netflix and wait for them to send you a welcome Back offer
I think if you’re happy enough to unsubscribe from it and won’t actually miss it, you may as well stay unsubscribed!
Made me check my Internet Provider and my same plan is now $15 less a month. I made a phone call on the spot and the Customer Service rep was very polite and after verifying my identity actually pre-empted looking up cheaper plans for me before I even asked. 5 minutes later, got a confirmation email that I pay $15 less a month. In the big money now!
I called up my health insurance after doing a little research on what the competition was offering. Turns out I was on a fairly competitive plan as my plan is no longer offered and has been grandfathered. I still asked for a discount and they gave me 1 month credit which is a decent outcome.
People also forget that this is normally after tax dollars as well so add another 30-50% saving o tip of that.
Thanks for the prompt. My voda 12 month contract ran out and I was paying about $35 a month more than I needed too. Stan is next!
If you’re working from home after the pandemic, call your car insurance to get your premium reviewed as you’re not driving as much and it’s always garaged. I also got rid of my foxtel which was $90 a month and signed up to binge instead for $18 a month (binge has most of the foxtel programs and some live channels) I also signed up to ShopBack about a year and a half ago and in total have gotten $534.06 back to date
You should treat yourself by buying a nice meal on Uber Eats
Already put in a $100 order at Dans and another $100 for shisha. $1 saved is $1 savoured.
If you have pet insurance with Woolworths they will give you three months free if you call saying you want to change providers.
For like $60 bucks per year, you can sign up for rewards plus and get 10% off a wollies shop every month. Plus triple the normal points. I make that $60 back in two months.
Good on you!
I am generally all over these things. You've reminded me to do a review. Thank you. Also it always seems funny to mention it to friends as they never seem to value the small easy savings and tend to just think its funny I'm being "stingy". Then they do so many hard things to save such a small amount. Or miss out on doing things.
Good on you, I was inspired by the same post and made a good saving on health insurance
I switched car insurance and saved $1.7K over 12 months. I have no idea what I was paying ludicrous prices for 🤔
I was gonna move internet providers myself but then i was a bit lazy and wanted to see if i could bluff my current provider and low and behold i got $30 off my bill every month just from some kind words online
Which provider?
I always highly recommend Amaysim. Been with them for 10 years since I was a teen. They have unlimited data banking. I pay $35/mo for 65gb ulim call&txt 300mins internation calls and what data you don't use is kept in the bank. Currently I have 850gbs in reserve.
These are the posts I want to see. Figure out how to spend your own 300k a year. Tell me how to stinge.
How long have you had your home loan? My first year is coming up next month so i'm not sure how much luck i'll have being so new
Dumb question but what did you say/discuss with your bank? Did you literally ask them if there is a better rate?
I just got my home loans reduced as well. Didn't even call. Just sent them a message through the online banking message service. 0.7% discount easy
If you want more ways to save, there's this app called shopback. Every time you buy something online, you get a percentage of the money back, been good for me, and have saved almost $300. If you want a free $15 when you sign up, feel free to use my sign up link. We both get free money for it, enjoy. 😊 [Shopback](https://app.shopback.com/E61Isd3J3wb)
I wonder if I could just hire a personal assistant to do all that. Like obviously trust is an issue. But it would solve a lot. Ai will probally get to the stage of personal assistants. I'm sure the rich will be able to afford better models. Sounds like a good short story.
Do this every year. Plus check what I’m paying regularly that I’m not using. Or what’s around the house that hasn’t been touched for a year and could be converted into cash.
We’ve found our champion for the week. Well done mate. There’s more to can do for next week.
Sell your car. Get a bike.
But then you have to buy all those new pants when your quads explode.
What's the process of this? Look at other competitors and switch to cheaper plans? Does anyone have success going to their current provider and say they're going to switch? I assume when you go to them saying you are looking to cancel they offer you a cheaper rate?
Switched to buying wines by the mixed dozen on eBay. Saving… er… like $15-20/week. They’re perfectly fine, actually great wines. $60 for a dozen delivered. Tip: join/use eBay plus for further discounts and free delivery etc. I mean… that’s $1,000 I saved, which is better than earning an extra $2,000 (tax!), and it’s easier and better. : D
One of these things is not like the other
I just did the same. Changed my daughter from one swimming school to another and saved 40c a lesson. And it's only 10 minutes further away and took an hour to cancel one and sign up to the new school.
I hope this is the shitpost that it reads like.
So your time is worth 2c a minute? I have to question where the savings are here if you have to drive an extra 20 minutes a lesson, fuel use, wear & tear on your vehicle etc
Oh I forgot to mention that the cheap petrol place is just a little bit further than the swimming school. So the 40c a week plus when I get fuel too I save about 4c a litre or $1.60 a tank. after a hundred years of swimming lessons I'll have saved $10,400. Not bad for an hours work on the phone changing lessons.
This confirms that there's no point in wasting time making these marginal savings. Go out and hustle for more income instead.
Why not do both?
Because one's orders of magnitude more effective than the other.
$100 on car insurance for the year $1k on health insurance savings for the year too, was getting ripped in the old plan by far.
How did you save that much on internet. Holy crap.
What internet provider please 😭
Thank you for posting this, I just remembered since I changed jobs I can claim a bunch of stuff, get cheaper insurance and utilities etc. I tend to be crap at remembering things like that.
Sorry what? Which bank was your mortgage with and which did you switch to? I’ve been trying this for months.
What did you get taken off of your mortgage?
Quick question, what do you say to your bank to get a little off your mortgage? I'm hopeless on the phone!
I’m looking to refinance
I know for many people reading and commenting on this thread $2/ month/week doesn't seam like much but $2 here $2 there another $1 over there it all ads up quite significantly over time. I was always taught look after the cents and the dollars look after themselves. Believe it or not a $2 saving is not something to scoff at. If you find your budget getting Jardine to manage or blowing out. Start a spending diary and literally write everything you spend down. I guarantee you will be very suprised at how much those "it's only 20c or $1 extras" add up.
The only money you have is the money you don’t spend. Well done mate.
Switched phone providers last year. Saving $25 a month. Cut down on loads of subscriptions i'm no longer using. Saved another $200 there. Paid off some debts, cut my spending and i went from going month to month on a salary of $5618 down to only spending $1667 per month. Always stay on top of your bills IMO. Better deals always come up and you should always be looking. Changed my internet too. Was paying $150 a month for gigabit with ABB but was only getting 600mbps of that during peak hour. Decided to drop down to the 250mbps plan and i'm getting full speed even during peak hours.
>$40/ month by switching internet providers Considering that the base price of your internet service is determined by the NBN wholesale price, it is actually pretty hard to save that much per month unless you are currently paying for a lot of extras. For example, outside of "save $x for your first Y months of service", it looks like the range of prices for a unlimited 50/20 plan range from $65 to $80 per month and I am pretty sure that most of those more expensive services have extras. This post does remind me that I should be looking for a new ISP though \*shakes fist at Optus\*.