As a Volunteer Budget Advisor, I act as a free source of advice to many clients who are finding it difficult or impossible to make ends meet. There is not always an easy solution, but independent advice can often provide a solution. If the weekly budget is in deficit, there are only 2 possible solutions […]

Set up an excel spreadsheet to record monies going in and every bill going out weekly, we do this over a 3 month period so we can see what we can realistically put into savings every month with whats left over. We do this on one wage and still manage to put $600+ away in […]

I keep two coin jars, one which all the family knows about and contributes to. They also take money from this jar for garage sales and the like. A second sort of secret jar contains mainly 2 dollar coins. This is my Christmas fund. There is already about one hundred dollars in this jar. We […]

With Telecom [now Spark] people often pay about $15 per fortnight directly to the company via automatic payment to cover their bill before it comes in. Paying a little more than the monthly rental will cover a toll call or two that they might make. This way, when the bill comes in you don’t have […]

For the past few years I have worked out the average monthly amount I pay on all of my bills and set up an AP to come out each pay day. I always slightly overestimate to be safe. ALL of my accounts are in credit with variable bills such as power gaining so much credit […]

My banks cheque account is fee free if you deposit a minimum amount each month. This amount can be a little short of my wages for the month, so on pay day before I pay my bills I withdraw money from the cash machine out side the bank and walk into the bank and redeposit […]

Bank charges of automatic payments. My grandmother pays 25 cents to the bank each time an auto payment goes out. 25c for rent, 25c telephone, 25c HP, 25c electricity, 25c doctor, 25c insurance; plus anything else she may pay. Why? They’re small amounts – it doesn’t bother her. It does bother me! All the 25c’s […]

Last year we ran some budgeting and cooking classes for those on low incomes entitled ‘Living on the smell of an oily rag’. I took the budgeting one which was quite successful and had requests to speak on the subject. The base line most found challenging was my statement that shopping for $40 per week […]

• To focus on your goals it can be a good idea to print out a picture of the things you are aiming for (eg house) or that are important (eg kids) and either glue this onto your credit card or print it as a sticker and stick it on. That way every time you […]

Make the most of the recession with interest rates for floating mortgages low at present, if you are able to keep paying the same amount you were before the interest rates dropped. This way you will be paying the difference straight off your principle loan amount. You can save thousands of dollars in interest in […]