45 Tips to Save Money Fast & Manage Expenses During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our lives. With so many Australians facing unemployment or underemployment, here are tips to reduce household expenses fast as well as finding additional sources of income.

• If you have a mortgage, contact your bank to pause your mortgage repayments.
• If you’re a tenant, get in touch with your landlord to request a rent reduction. Tenancy rates have increased in the past couple of months as temporary workers and international students have left Australia. Now is the time to to get a rent reduction or move to a cheaper residence. Remember, there is a six-month moratorium on rental evictions which prevents landlords from evicting tenants if they can’t pay rent due to financial issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• If you’re having problems paying rent, see if you can move home or live with friends and family temporarily.
• If you own your own place or have a spare room, rent it out for extra income on Airbnb.
• Contact Centrelink and find out what income support you can qualify for. If you’ve lost your job, apply for JobSeeker.
• If you’re still working, keep track of your hours worked as you can claim home expenses. With the new ATO rules about working from home during COVID-19, you can claim 0.80 cents an hour for working from home hours from 1 March 2020 to 30 June 2020. 
• Create a budget to determine how much income is coming in and what expenses you have going out. Then determine what expenses you need to reduce or cut out completely.
• If you’re not on contract, cancel your gym membership. There are plenty of other ways to exercise for less. If you’re still on contract, check if you can freeze your gym membership to save on payments while you’re not earning an income.
• Cancel your streaming services like Netflix, Spotify, iTunes, Disney+, Stan, etc. There are free streaming services you can use instead.
• Review your electricity or gas plan. Call up retailers and negotiate for a better rate.
• Check with your insurance provider to see if you can adjust your coverage for car insurance. You might be able to reduce the excess or premium or switch from annual payments to more manageable monthly payments (at no extra cost).
• Also check what items can affect your car or home insurance. After enquiring about the price increase for my Comprehensive Third Party (CTP) Insurance, the insurer advised that they couldn’t adjust the cost of the CTP. But after asking if my car was garaged each night and being driven less than 5000 km a year, they reduced my comprehensive insurance by $54 for the remaining six months of my policy. Check if you can home insurance discounts for alarm systems, window locks, etc.
• If you have a boat or caravan, see if you can reduce your premium for it. NRMA Insurance enabling its customers to maintain their cover at a reduced premium for up to 6 months while you’re not using your caravan or boat.
• Reduce your utilities. Turn down the heat, seal up draughts and have shorter showers. Here are more tips to save on utilities.
• If you’re on a mobile phone plan which you can reduce, move to the lowest tier that you can manage for your phone and data use. Check with your provider to see what support they can provide. Telstra is offering a discount for their eligible consumer and small business customers currently receiving the JobSeeker payment, to reduce their mobile costs.
• Call your phone company about your phone, broadband and mobile service and ask about new discounts and plans. Ask about features that you’re currently paying for that you might not need like call waiting, call conferencing, etc. If you mention you’re shopping around for the best rate, they might be able to offer a special rate or a one-off credit.
• If you have credit card or personal loans bills due, contact your bank to defer payment. You can also ask for monthly account keeping or credit card annual fees to be waived or refunded.
• Apply for energy rebates. Visit the Australian Government Energy website for more details.
• Create a two-week meal plan so you can plan what to purchase for different meals to save money, time and food wastage.
• Use what you have in your pantry, fridge and freezer. Use the website or app SuperCook. Enter what you already have in your fridge and pantry and it comes up with a recipe. Great way to use up the food you already have and save on grocery expenses.
• Eat more vegetarian food. It’s cheaper than meat dishes.
• Shop online for groceries if you can to make sure you’re not shopping impulse buys. If you don’t want to pay the delivery fee, choose the click and collect option.
• Make a shopping list before you go to the supermarket to avoid buying what you don’t need. Here are additional ways to save money on your grocery shop.
• Learn when the supermarket does its markdowns on packaged meat, fish and produce and visit then. Often you can score great discounts on products near to their expiry date.
• Switch from name brand to generic home brand versions of products.
• Purchase imperfect fruit and veggies for big savings. Woolworths has their Odd Bunch while Harris Farm offers imperfect produce as well.
• Check your rewards account like Woolworths Rewards and FlyBuys and redeem your points off your grocery bill.
• Always check your grocery bill before you leave. Print out a docket when you do your grocery shopping and review it to make sure that you’re being charged the right price. If you haven’t, go back and get a refund. Scanning Code of Practice for Woolworths, Coles and Aldi entitles customers to receive an item free of charge if the scanned price of an item is greater than the shelf price displayed. Exceptions under the Code are products with a shelf price greater than $50, as well as tobacco and liquor products.
• Grow your own herbs and vegetables. With the Australian climate, it’s easy to grow food to eat.
• If you know how to fish, get a fishing license and catch your dinner.
• Cut back on your spending on alcohol. Here are some tips to save money on booze.
• Reduce your spending on buying clothes and accessories. Here are tips on looking great on a budget.
• Consider dropping your private health insurance if you can’t afford it. Some health funds like NIB are also letting you suspend your account for up to 6 months if you’re receiving, or have registered an intent to claim, Australian Government financial assistance and provide supporting documentation.
• If you want to keep your private health insurance, check to make sure that the cover is correct for your needs. If you don’t need extras covered like optical, physiotherapy, dental or natural therapies, remove the cover. Also, if you’re not planning to have any more kids, remove the costly obstetrics cover from your policy.
• Go through your health bills for the past two years and see if there are any you can claim on private health insurance or sure Medicare.
• Get refunds for cancelled flights, travel insurance, accommodation, events or activities. That’s extra money you can use now to pay bills.
• If you have frequent flyer points with Qantas Frequent Flyer redeem them for WISH gift cards that you can use at Woolworths, Dan Murphys and Big W.
• Check if your hotel loyalty programs will also let you redeem points for grocery cards. Recently, I cashed out Marriott Bonvoy points for $20 Woolworths Card. Better than nothing.
• If you are struggling to pay bills, you can also access $10,000 of your superannuation savings during this financial year and next financial year.
• If you’re facing school expenses that you can’t pay at the moment, contact your school. Often schools have a hardship program
• Cancel magazine subscriptions and reduce book purchases. Here’s how you can save money on reading materials.
• If you have high value in-demand items that you can sell like motorbikes, sports equipment, designer clothing, list them for sale.
• Look for ways to make extra money during this time. Here are 30 ways to increase your income like renting your place out on Airbnb, driving for Uber Eats or renting out extra space.