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Saturday 3 September 2011

Frugality and other ways that I save $$

Having many years ago racked up a lot of debt and not spent wisely, I have learnt some very hard money lessons.  Now that I am pretty much debt free (apart from mortgage and car), I no longer have a credit card and I although my savings are not awesome I can now only buy what I afford.  So to be able to afford my fashion passion and enjoy life here are some things that I do to save the precious pennies:
  • I have a visa debit card not a credit card, it doesnt have any account keeping fees attached and I avoid ATM fees, though I do usually end up paying a $2.00 atm fee once a month when I am stuck and need cash out
  • I borrow all my books and most magazines and cds from the library - seriously they have every brand new book thats available from the bookstore.
  • I subscribe to Who, Allure and Glamour - a saving of about $350 a year.  I did have a cleo and cosmo subscription but I have grown out of them slightly and they havent come to the party with a good subscription price - plus I can get them from the library
  • When I really really want a CD I buy Itunes vouchers when they are sale (recently got $40 voucher for $32 from Coles) then download them from Itunes as the are slightly cheaper and usually come with bonus tracks - I have serious issues with how Itunes and E-books are still not cheap compared to how much they cost for a hard copy and how much it must cost them to transfer electronically but there is not much I can do about that market price issue!
  • Coffee- in pretty much every saving tip out there but seriously it costs nearly 5 bucks for one store bought coffee, so I usually buy one or two a week as a treat and then just suck it up and make my own at work
  • eating out - I pick the cheapest dish or if I am eating with Hubbie get a pizza to share.  We usually twice a month splurge on a nice lunch or breakfast
  • We never get take out.  Seriously. 
  • always eat left overs, freeze them and take them for lunches - you will get hungry at work and you will eat them
  • I get a hair cut every sixish months and I only get half a head of foils, I dont get a toner or any extra treatments and I try and push it out to 8 weeks vs 6 weeks (I am faux blonde)
  • I signed up for Priceline club and buy the body basics and chemist stuff there as well to rack up the club points - they always have great freebies to look out for as well
  • I bus it pretty much everywhere including work ( I take the early bus to avoid the crowds), this can be slightly irritating at time but saves sooo much money! 
  • Walk it/bike it instead of taking the car - good exercise as well :-)

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