4 ways to live well on less
23 Jun 2015
Four years ago, Jody Allen was on maternity leave and had just been made redundant, forcing her to learn how to survive on just $50 a week for groceries.
“Before that, [my husband and I] were both on wages, we used to buy a lot of prepackaged foods and go out for dinner a lot more. We didn’t worry about money, but we didn’t have any saved up either,” she said. “It wasn’t until we had children, which happens to most people, that we had these ‘oh my God’ moments, because we didn’t realise how much they cost and they’re expensive!”
So Jody began devising new money-saving ways to make her finances go further and even launched a successful website to share her tips with other families. Since then, a large community of other mums and (the odd dad) has grown over time, who now share their ideas with each other.
Jody has just released a book called Live Well on Less, which is an accumulation of her money-saving tricks and the information she’s gathered from her online community. Here, Jody has shared some of her top tips with Active Retirees:
1. Go through your filing cabinet
“This is my favourite one. I found $5000 worth of savings when I went through mine one day. I was very unorganised before that. When I went through all my bills, I was shocked by how much money you can save by analysing your bills, going through your insurance and shopping around for the best deals for you. It’s worth just taking that one day to go through it all with a fine-tooth comb.”
2. Write down your goals
“This is one of the biggest mistakes people make. People don’t write things down and they think they know all these hints and tips, but they don’t put them into action, because they don’t have goals or write them down. If you don’t write it down, it’s like a wish. You need to write it down to make it happen. I like to put my goals on my fridge, like a new car or a new shed, so I see them every day and it’s a way to help me keep working towards them.”
3. Cook meals ahead of time once a week
“One older gentleman told me he really liked the idea of once-a-month cooking. He didn’t like cooking every night and so it was something he did with his daughter once a month. They would buy all the food in bulk, make it and then freeze it into nightly portions. The daughter knew he was eating well and he was more independent because he had nutritious food in the fridge. It made a really big difference in his life.”
Cooking in bulk once a week or once a month reduces the chance of you buying meals at the spur of the moment.
4. Change your attitude towards saving money
“The very hardest thing for me when we started saving money was the mental attitude towards it. I felt cheated by life. It wasn’t until I changed that mindset that it got easier. It was a life changing moment for me. I turned it into a challenge and began enjoying it, which I never thought would happen. I’d think ‘All right, I’ve got it down to $90, next week it will be $80. What can I do to save money this week?’”
“When you’re learning to budget and save, you have to face the reality that you might not be in as good a position as you think are, but there’s power in knowledge. So once you sit down and work it out, it can be depressing, but you can own it. Don’t bury your head in the sand when it comes to finances, you need to know exactly how much money you have in the bank, down to the last dollar, all the time.”
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