After much planning and taking note of our own tips, we have compiled a list of ideas to help you reach your road trip journey sooner. Not all of these will be applicable to everyone, but a lot will be useful for most of us. We use many of these tips, not only in our savings goals, but as everyday life.

Let’s start with running the home:

Insurances – we all know insurance companies aren’t our best friends. They seem to charge what they like, take it or leave it. And a lot of them take for granted that most people don’t spend the time after the first year is up to look around for a better deal. Not ME! I am lucky as I have time. Plenty of it. Every 6 months I make a quick call to my multitude of insurers to make sure everything is going well and we are covered. In previous years, one of our insurers decided to put a wrong BSB in our file, hence money was not taken out of our account and turned out we were not insured for a couple of months. That scared me! So if you have the time, make the call. When our policies are coming to an end, I grab the paperwork out, look at what we are insured for, look at what our new policy is going to be including the costing, then I start the ring around. My big tip here… DON’T BE LOYAL. If you can find a better deal somewhere, go for it! And then the money you save each year on the new policy can go straight into your Big Lap savings fund.

Utilities – You can do the same here with your gas, electric, phones and internet providers. Most utility companies don’t lock you into contracts anymore, so you are free to change at any time. But, before you do change, find out what better price you could be getting first, then ask your current provider if they will match it. If they will, bonus! Saves opening a new account with another provider and going through the whole process again. Be aware though, some may charge an exit or disconnection fee. Find out if you will be charged this before making the move. We do this exercise once a year.

Shopping – This one is a no brainer. It’s an expense most people see every week. From $100 per week for a smaller family to upward of $300 per week for the larger family, this is a lot of money to spend. It’s a big chunk out of the weekly wage but cannot be avoided. So perhaps look at your grocery store options, you may have a couple close by that you could select from. We personally used to make the trip to Aldi each week, however, of late, we have found that Aldi just don’t stock everything on our shopping list, and we would find ourselves at Woolworths or Coles to get those last things. The downside in doing this was impulse buying. There would always be something at our second stop that wasn’t on the list and would end up at the register. So, we use only the supermarket that stocks everything we need. No need for a second trip.

While shopping, always eat before you go. If I take Mr with me and if he hasn’t eaten, there will always be lots of extras that we didn’t intend on buying. And I always have to do my best to avoid the chocolate aisle, as he is a huge chocolate fan.

Stick to your list. This is a big one for most people. I used to go into the store for milk and come out with a basketful quite frequently. I avoid the aisles where I would impulse buy, usually the meat section when they have something with a low use by date that I could freeze and use for a dinner later that week. But, having said that, my next tip is quite the contrary.

Look for items with the clearance sticker on them, or the low use by date. Most of the items I pick up are 50% off. These are great if you have room in your freezer, and lucky we have a huge freezer, or lots of shelf space, which we have plenty of too.

Go it alone. Do your best to leave the family at home. My kids were always be allowed one item. That was the rule, and they didn’t ever try to argue that one as they knew there was no chance of debate. It’s harder to justify the ‘only one’ to Mr as he is the bread winner of the home. So, I just either do the shopping online, or go when he is out of the house.

Online shop. There is little chance for impulse buying with this one if you have your list in front of you, however, you don’t have the opportunity for the clearance items.

Use frozen. Some say frozen isn’t as good for you as fresh, however, frozen vegetables are still great for you. You can generally pick up a 1 kg bag of mixed veggies that have a multitude of uses for under $2 and they take no time to cook. No preparing. Ready to go. Of course, it is nice to have fresh from the farmer from time to time, but this is a cheaper option.

Grate your own cheese, wash your own lettuce and potatoes. You’ll be surprised how much extra you pay for the luxury of someone washing your produce for you or grating your cheese.

The odd bunch. I’m not advocate for Woolworths, nor do I receive anything from them for promoting this, it’s simply a tip not everyone knows about and I’m glad to be sharing it with you. Woolworths have produce called ‘The Odd Bunch’. It’s simply weird looking, smaller, or oddly shaped produce, that tastes the same, but can’t be sold in the normal area of produce. Sometimes called ‘seconds’. It’s sometimes a huge discount on these, compared to the standard looking items.

Grow your own. Where we live, the land is dry and not a lot grows here without tonnes of water going through it. So, we have 9 dedicated veggie garden beds to grow produce in. It doesn’t go all year round, usually just in winter we grow tomatoes, spring onion, capsicum, pumpkin, onion and herbs. It’s lovely going down the back of our property with my little veggie basket and filling it up with different fresh and delicious vegetables. It’s a very rewarding exercise if you have the means to do it. We also have 10 different variety of fruit trees as well. Always something fresh to pick.

DIY. If you are not time poor, then you may like to consider making your own items, such as bread, cakes etc from scratch, rather than buying them. With some items, you can save up to 80% if you make it yourself.

Use reward programs. We have a couple of these loaded into apps on our phones and all you need to do is scan at the register and soon enough you will have money to save off your next shop. Some people save theirs and use it all at Christmas time when money is a little tight, but I use these for bigger ticket items such as a bottle of grog when Mr has run out. You can also use them at participating petrol stations to receive up to 4 cents per litre off your fuel. It actually pays, just to scan when you are purchasing your groceries.

Cook extra. This may sound a little crazy, but you’ll thank me for it later. Instead of cooking just half a pack of pasta with your 500g mince, cook the whole pack and make the meal go from feeding 4, to feeding 8. You, in turn will save cooking another night, or you have lunches for the family to take with them. Saves buying an extra loaf of bread that week. I do this at minimum once a week, and then we eat it 2 nights, and it saves me cooking another night. Winning! And because none of us are big eaters, I usually container up 2 meals from the leftovers.

Read the labels. This certainly will save you money. At the bottom of the shop label, you will find (usually in tiny print) what the item cost breakdown is. And, just to add to confusion and make it a little harder for you, some items sold by weight will measure their cost per gram in 10 gram increments, and others will use 100 gram increments. So use your phone calculator if maths isn’t your strong point and work out what will be cheaper for you. I’ve taught my daughter this one and she is a stickler for this rule now.

Shop at night. This one is best for bakery items, some meats and fruit and veg. The supermarkets don’t want to close their doors with packs of bread rolls, or donuts made that day still on the shelf. They heavily mark these down and you can save yourself some money here. And a lot of these items can be frozen too. As an example, our daughter was soon to have her 13th birthday party. She wanted a big extravagant cake, which I was going to dread paying big money for. A couple of weeks prior to the occasion, I was doing a late night shop and found packs of 12 cinnamon donuts for $1.75, half price as they were clearing for the end of the day. So I bought 5 of these packs, frozen them until I was ready to use them and I made a big donut tower cake. It was a big hit with the kids, especially with lots of chocolate oozing down the sides! The cake stood approx. 70 cms tall and cost under $20. Had I bought this at the local cake shop, I would have been up for at least $50, maybe more.

Support your local farmers markets. There are many of these about the place, so probably one not too far away. Some farmers are doing it tough, so supporting them is a no brainer really.

Try the butcher. I used to avoid the butcher, not for any particular reason, however, I’ve been stopping in at our local and purchasing great value meats from there and saving a few bucks too.

Avoid waste. Rather than opening the freezer to decide what dinner will be, try looking in the fridge first to see what needs to be eaten soon. Our neighbour frequently brings eggs to us as their chickens lay far more than they can consume, so I come up with all sorts of dinners (and other meals also) to use up fridge items that will soon be no good. Plus, I bake the neighbours a banana bread in return for the eggs. Obviously if the food is no good, or smells and looks a little funky, chuck it. Don’t make yourself sick.

Instead of going out to fancy restaurants, have a dinner party and have your guests bring a dish too. If you have 4 groups, you’ll have an amazing smorgasbord in front of you, and you’ll be in the comfort of your own home. Or you could have a BBQ instead of kid’s birthday parties at fast food outlets.

DIY household cleaning – If you currently have someone who comes out to clean your home or maintain your garden, consider cancelling these services and do the jobs yourself, and that way you can put the money into your savings account. Some people even go to the effort of making their own cleaning products too.

Switch your bank – Don’t be loyal to banks that enjoy charging you fees for having your money sit in their institution. There are many banks with accounts these days that don’t charge monthly fees. We have recently just opened one with our local bank. It’s a freedom account, which means we don’t have to have a certain amount going into the account each month, and there are no fees.

Pay bills on time – Late fees are everywhere and sometimes cost more than you think. If you can pay your bills on time, you won’t see these fees and you can utilise the money on more important things.

Look at your streaming subscriptions – If you have Foxtel, consider changing over to the cheaper alternatives, which actually have just as good content on them and are far cheaper. As an example, when we cancelled Foxtel a few years back, it was costing us in excess of $130 every month. We now use Stan and Netflix and pay under $40 per month for premium packages on both of these. And look at cancelling any other subscriptions that you don’t use. Even consider the magazines, newspapers and other online costs that don’t seem to be worth their weight in gold.

Keep track of your spending – Consider sitting down with your bank statement at hand once every few months and look at your spending habits. You could find ways to cut back on things you purchased but didn’t really need, or direct debits and subscriptions that can be cancelled.

Do your own maintenance – If you have the tools and the know-how, perhaps look at fixing any issues on your car that you would normally spend sometimes hundreds of dollars using a mechanic. You could also service the vehicle yourself too. Services nowadays, for just oil and oil filter change can be upward of $400! Ridiculous. You can get the parts at an auto parts store for under $100 most of the time and save big if you know how to do this yourself. We have a hoist in our workshop at home and Mr has taught our son how to service his own car. He actually fixes pretty much everything on his own car as he is completing a mechanical apprenticeship. He’s even moving on to building engines now! (Proud Mumma here!)

Get rid of disposables – Instead of disposable cloths, utensils, party and cooking products etc, try reusables. They wash easily and save clogging up the home with things that you are just going to throw away anyway and cost you more money.

Have movie nights at home - With the streaming services available now, there are so many movies to choose from. You are probably already paying for the subscription, so set up the loungeroom, turn off the lights, put mobile phones away, cook the popcorn, turn on the surround sound if you have one, and settle in for a far cheaper alternative to the expensive $17 per person at the cinema! And you can even pause it when you have to go to the toilet. You’re welcome 😊

Make the switch to generic brands – These are pretty much just as good as the expensive brands and they do the same thing you need them to do. You can save up to 50% when you make the change.

Try vegetarian meals once a week – Meat is really expensive, so if you can convince your family to eat meat-free just once a week, then you’ll notice the savings by not having to buy that extra night of meat product. If we eat badly too much, I load us all up on vegetarian meals for 5 days to make up for what we hadn’t had prior. I get the couple of moans and groans but its good for us all and they actually enjoy the food once they’ve tasted it. And I’ve saved us a lot of money not buying the meat.

Pack lunches and snacks when you go out – Instead of buying food out, why not pack a couple of snacks and / or lunch also. Take away food costs consumers so much money each year, and when trying to save, taking food from home just makes so much sense.

Meal prep like a pro – So much can be said for meal prepping. Take one day out a week, and you will save so much time in cooking every night and a lot of money buying in bulk. I used to do it on Sundays when we didn’t have other plans. I’d buy bulk meats at the butcher and the non perishables from Aldi and spend all day prepping, cooking and container-ing. Our freezer was full of amazing dinners that literally took minutes to whip up each night and everyone got to choose what meal they had on the night. It was almost like a restaurant menu!

Fix items instead of replacing – If you or your partner are a handy person of sorts, perhaps when an item breaks down, try fixing it first instead of straight away buying a new one. Sometimes it can be just a small, easy fix to keep the item going for another year or 3. And think of the landfill you’ve just saved!

Have a girls night – Instead of meeting at the salon, invite the girls over for a night of pampering. Bring the champagne, colour each other’s hair, give facials, paint nails and put on your favourite playlist. You’ll never want to go back to the salon!

Make take away coffee – Change your daily habits to include a coffee made at home to take with you on your way to work etc. A small cappuccino recently cost me $4.95 and I’m pretty sure I could make it at home for under $2! As I get my family off to work and school each morning, I make them a coffee, pack their lunches and that way they don’t have to spend any money all week.

Consider carpooling – If you work with someone who lives close by consider going to work with them instead of taking 2 cars. You can share the fuel bill and put the money you save into your savings account. Your co-worker may just enjoy the benefits also.

Pack work / school lunches – As much as it is nice to buy lunch, it also pays to take lunch with you. My family takes the lunches that I pack for them in cooler bag. They have a sandwich or 2, a small container with some chips in it (it’s cheaper to buy the bigger pack of homebrand chips at $1.75 and pack a handful into a container or sandwich bag than it is to buy the smaller lunch box sized chip packets) and a piece of cake that I usually make myself. They do this 4 out of the 5 days each week, saving potentially $60 per person per week.

Shop at Op shops – There are so many of these shops popping up over the place, and some of them have ridiculously low priced, good quality items. For example, there is one I used to visit near our old home, and each item of clothing was just $1. Yep, $1. So when our kids needed some clothes to run around in, or dress ups, that was where I went to get them. That way it didn’t matter if they got messy, and the kids had the time of their life out in our garden and sandpit getting dirty and making wonderful everlasting memories.

Check online for freebies – Facebook marketplace and gumtree sometimes have items people don’t want, for free. For whatever reason, the person listing the item doesn’t want money for it and you can organise to collect. Be aware though, there are some items that really should be free, that are not in great condition or actually broken or about to break, leaving you with the task of trashing it. Always check the item over carefully before taking it away. Especially if it is too big for a wheely bin, as then you will have to take it to the local tip at a cost to you.

Save money on utilities –

Turn off appliances and lights – When you aren’t in the room, you don’t really need the light on. When you turn the TV off at night, turn it off at the power point, the same with other items that have a standby, as this facility costs consumers a lot of dough for the luxury of having a remote.

Solar – if you have solar and are home during the day consider using this time wisely and use the ‘free power’ to run your appliances. We have a small industrial solar system on our home and we back this up with a Tesla Powerwall also. When the Tesla is full, I go crazy with getting jobs done that require a plug in. So I start the washing machine, and while that’s going, I have dinner in the oven, which is usually ready to serve by 3pm each day, and I get the vacuum out and clean like a mad lady! And then once the sun goes down, we run on the Tesla and pretty much remain off grid for most of the year. In fact, at a glance at our last power bill, we were in credit $641.34! And in this case, if you wish, you can request to have the money sent to you, or just leave the account in credit. We always leave the account in credit and use up the credits in winter when the sun is not as quick to fill up the Tesla.

Water – We have 50,000 litre rain water tanks so we can remain off grid for a good part of the year. For the part of the year that we are on mains I am very conscious of where the water goes. Wash the dishes only once a day, or use the economy cycle on the dishwasher and washing machine. Don’t rinse before you load the dishwasher. Fix any dripping taps. Regularly check that the gutters of your home and sheds are clear and free of anything that will stop water from collecting into the tanks. Water the gardens at night in summer time so the garden has overnight to soak up the water and little evaporation exists. Use mulch in the garden to keep moisture in.

Consolidate loans and balance transfer credit cards – If you have several loans, you may want to consider consolidating them. You could consider putting them into your mortgage and paying only 3 – 5 % interest instead of the crazy 15 + % interest that personal loans and credit cards can attract. And if you have several credit cards, balance transfer them into a new one, then cut the card up and work hard at paying it all off and closing the account for good before any interest kicks in.

Saving money doesn’t need to be a whole life changing experience. With just a few tweaks to your current world, you could be saving like a pro in no time, and you will be well on your way to having the savings you need to begin your life on the road.