How to Budget/Save on a small income (Or if your a Uni Student)
- Bernhard Budiono
- Jul 10, 2017
- 7 min read
I have officially reached 10 years at University. Growing up, I wasn't a trust fund kid, nor was I financially well off in general. I always had hand me downs and I pretty much began working from as early as I could. I found part time work at Woolies and later Coles, as well as helped my mum paint boomerangs and other things in our garage. During my first year of Uni, I was able to get some full-time work as an engineer and from there things have gone up and I have never looked back.
Unfortunately however, Iife still takes over, and I often have to budget and plan my life from paycheck to paycheck. Before I go into some tips I learnt to save and budget, I'd like to share some of the philosophies I took on to help me get ahead:
Take on 'good debt'
This one is important - Getting a HECS debt isn't that bad! I swear I'll be studying for the rest of my life. HECS is the Government's Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP) for Undergraduate study (and some other tertiary positions). In 2012, the cap was abolished, and students are able to study to their hearts content. I find that one of the best things you can do is invest in yourself. Take it on part-time and by correspondence whilst you work. Learn, get experience and get the qualifications that will set you apart from your peers. You'll be better for it, and it'll be the cheapest way to get ahead in the long run. Concurrently stay active, learn and work during the day and then study and do assignments at night. A couple years of hard work and it will definitely pay off.
Investing in yourself and taking a risk with others
This follows on from the above. Invest in courses that you need to get in the field you want! Study, learn and work in volunteer roles. Take a risk! I swear I started ringing every company in the Engineering Section of the yellow pages. I got from A - R before I even got an Interview... Over 100+ emails and 100's of phonecalls, but finally i got it. Something I could put on the CV for the future.
Don't sell yourself short when it comes to your skills. Maximise every opportunity to market yourself in a positive fashion. Volunteer in homeless shelters, overseas, in schools, wherever! Fill your CV up and tailor. Even if you're on Youth Allowance, Austudy or Newstart. Devote your time in the pursuit of helping others (even though you may have an ulterior motive!) and you'll one day be rewarded for it.
If you think you have what it takes, branch out and join the Army Reserve or take on a gap year
Tax-free dollars in combination with excellent training and opportunities. Let alone the appeal your experience usually brings to the table when you are looking for work. The reserve is extremely flexible and above all extremely rewarding.
Take Risks and start networking
Invest in others! Take risks, go to conferences and meet as many people as you can. Take a leap, ask questions from your lecturers, your peers, leaders in the business community or even in your industry. Ask them for tips and ask them for guidance. More often than not, a simple email asking for help and guidance can go a long way.
That personal advice differs for each individual, but for me they're points that have given me the most 'bang for my buck' and I can definitely say, that I wouldn't be where I am, without doing each one of those things. Now back to the original topic!
Even with all the things that went my way. My life wasn't without struggles - From sleeping in my car, to get to work the next day, or travelling to the Army Barracks afterwork; then travelling over 3 hours at 11pm at night so you can get home before getting up at 5am to get to work again. I found that with a little bit of elbow grease and a bit of organisation I could achieve a lot. Here are my best tips to save money:
Live with your parents (If you can!): This isn't as easy as it sounds often enough, and for many isn't an option. But whenever I could, this was home.
Get Organised: Track whatever you spend and keep track of it! Get in a habit of budgeting and trying to forecast your budget. You can buy a Spreadsheet Template I put together to help you do this! Just check out this page! Learn to use Microsoft Excel, and learn the most powerful tool of all - Microsoft Excel Pivot Tables. Once you start to track and forecast your expenditures against your income, you can start to set targets and dates where you will have enough saved to buy what your after. Feel free to contact me if you need any help with getting organised!
Sell whatever you don't use! In a Garage Sale! With the crackdown on GST for digital services, eBay and other online marketplaces are now increasing selling fees to accommodate for the new GST legislation. Have a Garage Sale! No additional fees. Put some signs up in key intersections, etc, near your house and pitch it for a Saturday morning and you'll have traffic in no time.
Wait for Weekly Specials: Every Tuesday, I log onto Coles, Woolies and the Aldi websites for their weekly catalogues, I log everything I need into an app, write the price down and put it into my shopping list.
Download Apps and Embrace the Cloud! I use Wunderlist and Evernote all of the time. I share shopping lists with my girlfriend and we allocate each other if we need something and one of us can't make it. Otherwise, when we go shopping we just blitz through each store (Woolies, Aldi and Coles) and target everything we put into our list.
Sign Up for Rewards Cards: Sign up for Flybuys / Sign up for Woolworths Everyday Rewards. When you go shopping make sure you take full advantage of the bonus coupons in the mail. One coupon can sometimes be worth 2000 points. That's pretty much a $10 note right there. Combine that with essential things like fuel and you'll be getting $10 discounts on top of your "Only Specials Diet" every couple of weeks. Make sure you have one account for you and your partner or if you live with a room mate or a friend. It may be a good idea to have a single account, and you'll get rewards quicker, especially if you split shopping bills.
Sign Up for Frequent Flyer Credit Cards: Since we got onto a Qantas Frequent Flyer Credit Card. We've accumulated enough points for 2 Round The World Trips. Make sure you have a buffer of at least one month's savings, get yourself a Credit Card and move all of your transactions on to it - Then pay off the Card every month on it's full balance. Make sure the Credit Limit is not more than what you have as emergency funds, and you'll have an extra month of interest, as well as rack up points for your next trip.
Take advantage of Rewards sites: Sites like Cashrewards or TopCashBack are excellent ways to purchase online. Get % cashback on various purchases. Even donations to charity! Check them out, get the extensions and install them in Chrome or a Firefox Browser and make sure before you purchase anything online, that the extensions are on or you have logged into your account. I've made over $200 in cashback rewards since I started a couple of years ago.
Take advantage of Discounts on gift cards and Stack your purchases: Wait for gift cards to come on sale, buy them with your rewards card and your FF Credit Card, then wait for sales at places that accept your cards, then use more rewards cards to double, triple or sometimes quadruple stack your points. I wait for 10-20% off $100 gift cards at Coles and Woolies, buy them with my Flybuys/Everyday Rewards Cards, buy more discounted cards, and wait for sales in other places then make sure I have rewards cards at those places and I get stacked points and products at sometimes upto 40% off.
Stalk sites like Ozbargain: Don't buy anything online, till you've checked out, Ozbargain. Be sure to keep upto date before making any solid purchases. You never know when someone else spots an epic deal and uploads their find. You could miss out on price matches or sales.
Cook or Bring all of your meals: For years I lived off tuna, eggs and rice. With Sweet Soy Sauce that was all I needed to survive. Occassionally 2-min Noodles or Mi-Goreng. These days however, I can afford to splash out a bit. Doesn't mean I've stopped cooking. Learn to cook, test out recipes and become a masterchef by bulk cooking your meals then freeze them.
Get a Freezer: Freezers will let you store months of food, especially during your exam/assignment periods where you may not have the time or lack the effort to cook amongst your studies.
Set up accounts in Financial apps like Acorns: Setup an account, login to your bank(s) and start investing your small change. Make it a routine habit and you could turn pocket change into thousands of dollars in a year; it's one of the cheapest fees for investments you can make, but will do you a world of good in to time. Download the app and find out what it's about. Check out this link!
There you have it. Some of my best secrets! There's plenty more, especially when you have enough for a deposit and get your first home. I'll keep you posted when I'm ready to share those tips and tricks!
Blog Post: Tips & Tricks on saving for a house deposit {Not Yet Completed}
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