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Australian Broadcasting Corporation
It's tough work making ends meet at the moment and it doesn't look like things are going to get easier anytime soon.
Most people are feeling the pinch at the moment with interest rates, grocery prices and of course, petrol, all rising in the last few months.
While not everyone is about to lose the roof over their heads the higher cost of living is at least making the purse strings a bit tighter. For the past few weeks, Anglican Community Care and ABC Local Radio have teamed up for a campaign called Dollars and Sense giving you advice to stretch your dollar further.
We recently spoke with Anglican Community Care's South East Support Worker Cathy Risely and MicroFinance Officer Margaret Solomans to get some handy tips on cutting the cost of living.
"If you just run you hot water service at 60 degrees rather than full bore, you've still got hot water but you can reduce your energy consumption," Cathy said.
"Also its surprise how many litres of water a dripping tap can waste. Also use energy efficient light globes and also check for drafts, especially around doors, because by closing them up you can save up to 25 percent off your heating bill.
"Get a timer and make sure you only have two minute shower. I know some people want to spend longer washing their hair etc. But if you just go into the shower and quickly wash yourself. then you can save a lot of money,[url=http://www.floware.fr]michael kors pas cher[/url]," Margaret added.
To save on petrol the financial gurus recommend walking to your destination and pulling out old umbrella and jacket to avoid the winter chills.
Another idea is to limit the number of trips you make to the shops by becoming more organised. Cathy suggests keeping a list of the items you need and maybe the jobs you need to do down the street, to stop you from having to go backwards and forwards.
Speaking of grocery shopping Cathy recommends that you give the takeaway food or frozen preprepared food the flick.
"What you can do is make, for example, a lasagne, which you could cook for about 10 to 15 dollars but that could be cut up and frozen so you've got a number of meals out of that," she suggests.
"You can cook items in bulk and just reheat them and add a salad or vegetables for a meal. Look for specials and buy in bulk if you can. Impulse buying is a major danger for the shopper never go shopping while you're hungry.
"Another good idea, especially for people on fortnightly pensions such as Newstart, is to buy a gift card from one of the supermarkets. When they do their shopping in the first week they should buy a card for about half their budget to ensure they've got enough money to buy items such as fresh fruit or vegetables the following week."
Margaret also recommends that people look at setting up a budget for their households but she recommends figuring out how much you spend in the first place.
"Keep a spending diary for about two weeks. Put everything you spend whether it's ten cents or ten dollars. Then you sit down and analyse it and figure out where you can make some savings," Margaret says.
When it comes to paying the bills Margaret suggests you don't wait for the bills to arrive and then struggle to find the money to cover them. She suggests averaging out how much you expect your bills to cost and then set aside an amount of money each week or fortnight.
"A lot of the utilities have a scheme where you can pay it every fortnight, every month. You can then pay it at the post office so you don't spend it. So at the end of the quarter when you get your bill it's likely you'll only have a small amount to pay," she said.
Another bit of advice, which will be joy to the ears of people who don't like to budget, is to make sure you set some money aside for yourself or in other words, pay yourself first.
"My mother taught me that you pay all your bills first and what ever is left over is for yourself. Well when you've got kids there's never any money left over. So when I learnt how to budget that was the best bit of advice. That's how I learned to save," Margaret said.
"And always try to leave a little bit for recreational entertainment like video hires or going to the movies. Because then you tend to be a bit more positive about your budget and you've got something each fortnight to look forward to," Cathy said.