This page goes over some of the cheapest ways of accessing ongoing expenses which will reduce your regular expenses. Also don’t forget to combine these with offers from Shopback and Cashrewards for additional savings.
Groceries
Independent local grocers can sometimes be cheaper and sometimes be more expensive than your larger Coles or Woolworths so it’s worth it to actually have a look around and you may be able to find your new go-to store for weekly shopping. As an example, I’m in Brisbane and there’s a shop called Coco’s Annerley which do weekly “9c” deals such as 9c avocados, limes, Oreos, or 9c/kg bananas, watermelon etc. Shopping at your local grocer also helps support local businesses and your local community which is always a plus.
On the other hand, sometimes Coles and Woolworths are your only option but luckily there a plenty of ways to reduce your weekly spend at these places.
Weekly Specials
It’s always better to buy things when they are on special compared to when they are not. The weekly specials are shown in their catalogues and run every week from Wednesday through to Tuesday before changing to the new week’s specials. Many products are on a cycle where they will be on special every few weeks so it could be a good idea to stock up on enough items when they are on special to last until the next time they are on special. I use pricehipster to view the historical prices of items and work out if they will be on special again soon.
Gift Cards
Gift cards are the single easiest way to reduce your spending at these supermarkets as you can generally find them for 4% – 10% off their face value prices through various rewards programs (see page on Gift Cards) or even through the supermarket themselves. The main downsides are that if you’re careless, you may lose or forget the gift card and that they are a little less convenient to use. But in my opinion, a 4% – 10% discount on ALL of your grocery shopping is well worth it.
Woolworths Mobile
Another possible saving at Woolworths is to sign up for any of their mobile plans (cheapest is $65 for 15GB and 180 days) which entitles you to 10% off (up to $50 per month) the first shop at Woolworths of every month the plan is active. That means if you can spend at least $108.33 on the first shop of every month, then the saving would already completely pay for the plan and any additional spend would be further savings.
Rewards Program
Coles and Woolworths both have rewards programs which are structured in a very similar way. Coles is partnered with Flybuys and Woolworths is partnered with Everyday Rewards. Utilising both of these rewards programs can reduce your regular shopping expenses.
How They Work
You earn 1 point for every dollar spent and when you reach enough points, you can redeem them for a discount on your next shop. Currently, 2000 Flybuys or Everyday Rewards points gives a $10 discount on your next shop which gives these points a standard 0.5% return in value. They both also provide a function to automatically redeem them for airline points.
- 2000 Flybuys points = $10 discount on next in-store shop at Coles/partner OR 1000 Velocity points
- 2000 Everyday Rewards points = $10 discount on next shop at Woolworths/partner OR 1000 Qantas points
Maximising Value
The key however to maximising your rewards is through their bonus offers which provide far better return than just the ongoing earn rate of points. These offers must first be activated, either online or in their respective apps and are generally in one of the following formats:
- Earn x points for spending $x on a single trip (single spend)
- Earn x points for spending $x every week for x weeks (consecutive spend)
- Earn x points for purchasing x product (bonus product)
The first few offers you get may be around 2000 for a single spend of $30 or more which is exceptional return (essentially $10 back for spending $30+ on groceries) however the way their algorithms work is that the minimum required spend will gradually increase as you meet them so your offers may look like this:
- week 1: 2000 bonus points for a single spend of $30.
- week 2: 2000 bonus points for a single spend of $40.
- week 3: 2000 bonus points for a single spend of $60.
- week 4: 2000 bonus points for a single spend of $80.
- week 5: 2000 bonus points for a single spend of $120.
These bonuses are designed to get you to spend more and more every time. If someone is just $5 off from the bonus, you would likely buy something for an extra $5 to reach the $10 bonus but over the weeks, this just adds up to additional spend that you otherwise wouldn’t have made and also increases the minimum spend requirements for your next offer, all of which defeats the whole purpose of trying to reduce your expenses.
There are a few ways to mitigate the affect of this. One way is to alternate your weekly shops between Coles and Woolworths because when you stop shopping at one, they will gradually reduce the spending requirements to try and entice you back to shopping with them. If however you still end up shopping a lot and find it difficult to meet bonus spend requirements, there is a more effective strategy if you have an additional household member who is eligible for their own account.
If both you and your accomplice have your own separate accounts, you can designate one account to the every-day spend (slowly accumulating points one at a time) and you can designate the other account to only taking advantage of bonus offers. The idea is that you use the every-day account for all purchases (and end up with unreachable offers) until the other account has a very good bonus offer. You then take advantage of the bonus offer for the bonus points for one shop, and then stop using it for a few weeks until it has another good offer. If you can also alternate between Woolworths and Coles then you will be highly maximising your bonus points and reducing your average weekly spend on groceries.
Phone Plan
Most people I know are on a monthly phone plan in the range of $30 – $60 per month ($240 – $480 per year) and they just accept it as the price of a phone plan without realising how much cheaper the alternatives are without missing out on any of the important features. The following plans are all fully fledged services (2G, 3G, 4G) with unlimited national text and call, and allow porting in and out (from personal experience it only takes a few minutes to port between them). The best values in each column are highlighted green.
| Plan | Cost | Data | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catch 365 (60GB) | $120/year (but regularly has promotions for $80) | 60GB [avg. 5GB/month] | – Optus Network – There’s also a 120GB option |
| Coles $120 | $120/year | 60GB [avg. 5GB/month] | – Optus Network – Free international calls and texts to 15 countries – There’s also a 120GB option |
| Boost 12 Month | $200/year | 118GB [avg. 9.83GB/month] | – Full Telstra Network – Free international calls and texts to 20 countries – 1200 mins standard calls to 30 countries + 1200 standard test to any country |
| Woolworths 100GB | $150/year | 100GB [avg. 8.33GB/month] | – Telstra Network – 10% off first grocery shop at Woolworths every month (up to $50 per shop) – Can gift data to people on a similar plan – There’s also a 150GB option |
| Kogan 365 FLEX | $150/year (but regularly has promotions for $135) | 80GB [avg. 6.67GB/month] (sometimes 100GB) | – Vodafone Network |
Chase the Discount
It is possible to spend even less (maybe around $3 per month) if you constantly switch every month and take advantage of new sign-up bonuses from multiple providers. The new user sign-up bonuses are only available if you port in from another provider. The biggest problem with this method is that it’s a bit annoying and you have to take care of a number of caveats, otherwise you might end up paying more or temporarily not having a plan.
- These plans generally have a requirement that they are activated within 30 days of purchase and shipping of the SIM could take between a few days up to 2 weeks so you need to ensure that when purchasing, you always give enough time for the SIM to arrive before the end of your current plan, but make sure you activate it within 30 days of purchase
- You also need to make sure you port out on the last day of your current plan (to maximise the value) because if you forget and it rolls over, the current provider may hold your number “hostage” and you might not be able to receive the SMS message required to port to a new provider. Of course you could always renew for another month with your current provider to receive the message and then port out later but in that case you end up spending a bit more money which defeats the whole purpose of chasing the discount
If you keep the above points in mind then you’ll be able to save even more on your mobile plan by constantly porting between the following plans:
| Plan | Notes |
|---|---|
| Amaysim 28-day | Through Shopback or Cashrewards, you’ll generally be able to snag a 28-day deal and only pay around $2 – $4 after cashback however occasionally they run promotions where cashback will be more than what you pay so you end up making a few dollars for the SIM |
| Kogan 60GB 90-day | Usually has a price of $99.90 but regularly has new user offers for between $9.99 – $14.99 (Note that to be a “new customer” with Kogan you have to NOT have held the number with them within the last 30 days of porting) |
| Woolworths 1GB 30-day | Isn’t the best value compared to the others but gives you 10% off your Woolworths shop that month (which could more than pay for itself) and adds to the cooldown before switching to another plan |
Home Internet (NBN)
The best way to save on internet is to sign up for promotional periods and change to a new service and promotion once the current on ends. The plans between providers are pretty much identical and similarly priced until you reach the really high-speed 100+ Mb/s plans which most people probably wouldn’t require anyway. The numbers in brackets are the promotional monthly costs for new customers which generally run for between 6 – 12 months. The numbers is green are the cheapest cost for ongoing and promotional plans.
| Provider | 19 – 23.9 Mb/s | 38 – 46.8 Mb/s | 76 – 90 Mb/s |
|---|---|---|---|
| AGL (with energy plan) | $60 | $65 | $80 |
| Internode | $69.99 | $79.99 ($59.99) | $99.99 ($89.99) |
| Kogan | $63.90 ($57.90) | $71.90 ($63.90) | $88.90 ($78.90) |
| Superloop | $59.95 ($54.95) | $69.95 ($59.95) | $89.95 ($74.95) |
| Spintel | $59.95 ($49) | $64.95 ($59) | $84.95 ($74) |
| Tangerine | $59.90 ($44.90) | $69.90 ($54.90) | $89.90 ($74.90) |
| TPG (6 month contract) | $64.99 | $69.99 | $89.99 ($79.99) |
Fuel
In some states, it is mandated that servos have to report their up-to-date pricing to a public database. Apps like PetrolSpy aggregate all of the data so you can see the current price for every single service station allowing you to find the cheapest option.
Unleaded Cycle
In the big cities, the unleaded fuel price tends to follow a cycle where it will slowly decrease for a while and then shoot back up to its maximum point. Melbourne and Sydney seem to have 5-6 week cycles and Brisbane has 3-4 week cycles. It’s always best to fill up right at the bottom of the cycle before it shoots up and try to have the fuel last as long as possible before filling up again after the prices have started falling again. This of course is not really relevant if you need to regularly drive and refuel once per week or more.
7-11 Price Lock
7-11 have a useful feature which allows you to lock the fuel price of a nearby 7-11 service station for 7 days. The locked price will be based on the cheapest price available at the 5 closest 7-11 service stations. After locking in the price, you can go to any 7-11 service station to fill up and pay the locked price. This can be used by travelling to a cheaper location, locking the price and then filling up at a closer, more expensive location; or locking the price at the bottom of the cycle and then filling up again after 7 days at previously locked price.
Some things to note are:
- You can’t remove a lock after previously locking it so if you lock the price and then find a cheaper one later, you can’t remove the previously locked price unless you fill up 1L-2L and use the previously locked price (if your locked price is higher than the current price at the service station, it will remove the lock and you will pay the cheaper price).
- The lock remains for exactly 1 week (168 hours), so if you lock it in the previous week in the morning, it will expire at the same time in the morning next week.
- If E10/91/95 are out of stock at a service station, they will offer the next grade of fuel at the price of the lower grade (out of stock) fuel. If this happens, you can lock in the price of the higher grade fuels at the lower price. For example, if they have run out of E10, 91 and 95, they will offer 98 at the price of E10 and you can lock in the price and use it at any 7-11 within the next week.
- Violates terms and conditions, (ab)use at your own risk: You can spoof your GPS location either with a cracked application or through other means and lock the price of any 7-11 service station in the country.
Discounts
Ampol/Caltex, BP and Caltex Woolworths/EG accept gift cards which can be purchased at a discount, see page on Gift Cards.
Ampol/Caltex
- 6c/L off first three fills when using FuelPay on their app
- 4c/L off at some locations with Everyday Rewards discount (Spend $30+ at Woolworths)
Puma
- 4c/L off with RACQ membership
Shell Coles Express
You can get up to 19c/L off if you spend money in-store, otherwise you can still get up to 9c/L off.
- 10c/L off when spending $20 or more in store on certain items (stacks with all other offers)
- 4c/L off with Flybuys voucher (spend $30+ at Coles) (stacks with all other offers)
- 5c/L off with the Shell V-Power app if their team wins a race
- 4c/L off with Linkt account
- 4c/L off with Carsales account
Caltex Woolworths/EG
- 4c/L off when spending $20 or more in store on certain items (stacks with all other offers)
- 4c/L off with Everyday Rewards voucher (spend $30+ at Woolworths) (stacks with all other offers)
Insurance
In general when buying insurance, you should go to comparison websites and ensure you are only getting what you need. You should also look for any sign-up/new customer bonuses and constantly switch for new bonuses (cashback, loyalty points etc.) whenever your current cover runs out provided that the current cover isn’t exceptionally cheaper than other alternatives.
CTP Insurance (QLD)
In QLD there are 4 options for CTP insurance and state legislation mandates the maximum premiums. All four options effectively have the same annual premiums and similar coverages however some give additional incentives:
- QBE: Give new customers a $25 – $50 gift card when switching to them
- Suncorp: Give new customers a $50 Eftpos gift card when switching to them
The other options do not give any additional incentives and you can switch between QBE and Suncorp every year to claim a new gift card as a new customer.