She's On The Money - Cutting Car Costs

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

How much are you spending on car costs each week? If you’re like the average Australian household, it’s nearly $500. Crazy, right? Well we couldn’t believe it either, so we’ve pulled together some killer tips to help you save on your transport costs. Join us as we break down easy, practical steps to lighten that load on your wallet. Get Victoria's free guide to getting a better deal here. Invest with Queenie breaks down electric car costs here. Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money. She's on the money.

hello and welcome to she's on the money if you are like the many households feeling the pinch when it comes to transport costs you are not alone the transport affordability index by the australian automobile association or the aaa has revealed the average aussie household spends almost 500 on transport each week 500 bucks yeah i'm sorry i'm just in the background and where'd you come from 500 a week that's what some people earn beck i know i know that's so hectic so today we're going to give you all the tips and tricks you need to relieve some of that pressure you are feeling when it comes to your transportation cost. How fun. Thank goodness. I feel like that's a lot. I guess like when I think about tolls, you've got your petrol, which is like

a million dollars a litre now. We're going to break it down. Let's break it down. Joining me today is the woman who's all about helping you keep that hard-earned cash in your pocket. I say it like there's someone extra. There's like another person here. But I always dive in. Like you write these beautiful intros after I'm like, this is what we're talking about. And then you're like, this is where you come in, V. And I'm like, no, it's not. But that's really cute. I was trying to keep it a surprise. So who's with you? Wow. Whoa, Victoria Devine, what are you doing here?

Holy moly, Bex Syed, thank you for having me. Oh, you're so welcome. Thank you for being here. I'm excited to talk about transportation costs today, mainly because once we started digging into this, I was so mad about how much we're spending on transport. I did not realize that it was that much. And then when I reviewed my own budget, Bec, it is indeed that much. It is. And it's just not okay.

I know. So I can gather you were as shocked as I was. I was as shocked as you are. I have had a little bit of time to mull it over. According to the report, over the 12 months to June the 30th, 2024, my birthday, transportation costs for the typical Australian household rose by 10.5%. That is almost triple the CPI increase of 3.8% over the same period.

It also showed that in the June 2024 quarter, the typical Australian household spent 17% of its income on transport, which is now up from 15.9% 12 months previous. Like double whoa. I mean, up from 15.9%. But Bec, I had never deep dived into the statistics around what transportation costs. And I feel like if I made this episode a year ago, I think I still would have been offended at 15.9%. That is massive and also worrying, of course. So how do we break down those costs? So the report says that the average household spend on transport is $458.82. And 46.2% of that goes to car loan repayments for an average of $211.82. And then Beck, $101.44 or 22.1% goes to fuel. I don't think anyone's surprised by that one. We're spending on average $43.58

on insurance. That's 9.5%. Servicing and tires take up 7.7% or $35.36, which I feel like so many of us forget to spend on so just a reminder if you haven't got your tires checked do it now registration ctp and licensing is 32 and 14 cents per month or seven percent beck and we're spending 20 and 99 cents on public transport and two dollars and 36 cents on roadside assist beck i know that's when you like start to add them all up it really starts to eat away at your budget but we're so good at not zooming out when we look at car costs i go what's your fuel this month you go yep 100 bucks and i go great no worries that makes sense move on we forget to really budget in registration cpt what your actual license in your wallet costs true exactly because

like you're not paying that every single year most of us are paying it like every five or ten years yeah usually so we forget that roadside assist did you remember that some of us pay that because i forgot that i am shocked by how little it is and i don't know why that's because it's about 120 bucks a year on average yeah okay gotcha gotcha gotcha and 11 and 15 cents on tolls each month beck which i need to tell you about something i'm in a little bit of trouble what you do oh i'm in trouble with the police beck i would never have thought it's me there's gonna be a warrant out for my arrest do you want me to tell you why or should we just not tell anybody and leave it be elusive that's cruel let's do it okay so i recently got a new car and did everything

for it but the thing i forgot to do was update my tolls yeah right so obviously the toll company has been sending me invoices, but very complex, very, I guess, privileged position that I'm in. My car is registered in my business's name. And as you know, I've recently moved offices, haven't I? Which is exciting. So all of the toll letters have been going to my old office and I haven't swung past there in a little while to pick up my mail. So get my mail back. And not only are there toll notices and I saw them and I'm like, oh my gosh, that's so silly of me. I need to pay them, put them on my desk. No worries. You would think that's where it ends. The police have sent me a fine for driving on toll roads without the like toll licensing or

whatever it is. Yes. I didn't realize that the police got involved in that. Well, I hate to break it to you, but I have had at least 12 of those exact same things. Well, so I'm not going to jail. You're not going to go to jail. I don't like this part of Victoria. It is a very Victorian thing. I never had this in Sydney. You were like, I could not pay my tolls and nobody would come try and arrest me. Yeah. Or at least I'd be like, oh, you need to pay your tolls. And if I can't pay my tolls, it's because I can't afford my tolls. I felt like I'd been dibbed on. Yeah. Because now it's like with the police and they're charging you at least 10 times more than the actual toll itself. I know. I'm thankful that there's no demerit points. I just

have to pay a fine but like i just forgot to register my car and like don't get me wrong of all people to have not done something it should not have been me like i should be better than this i get it crucify me but i'm just a girl you're just trying to make it in this world i'm just trying to make it in this world i get it okay i think we can save our listeners some of these costs do you reckon we could maybe try yes like i didn't come here to just have a sulk about something and then walk away and be like, this is your problem to deal with. I don't want to do that. My entire life purpose is to save people money and get them investing so that they can be

rich. Like I want everybody to be rich. It's so nice to be here. It'd just be so fun. It would be fun if we were all rich. Yeah. Like we can all be rich friends. That's the goal.

All right. So I obviously want to start by talking about getting a better deal on two of the bigger ones. So your car loan and your insurance. Those are the like big hitting ones we're going to start with. And I know for some people, Bec, they might feel a little bit icky when it comes to asking for a better deal. Drop the ick at the door.

We don't have ick. We want to be rich. And rich people, they ask for a better deal. That's rich girl energy. Here's the thing. If you don't ask though, Bec, you don't get. So you can stay with your crap deal or you can get a better deal. when i put it like that it makes you feel a little bit bad for staying with a crap deal doesn't it

that's my intention moving on great no one's going to ring you out of the blue and be like hey here's a better deal for you beck because that's just not what they do and they're definitely not going to say oh we're going to cancel your loan or your insurance just because you asked sadly so you've got nothing to lose and here are the steps that you need to take so start by doing your research for car loans compare interest rates fees and the loan term then for insurance check out the premiums coverage options and the customer reviews which i think is really important because at the end of the day insurance i want to be the biggest waste of money ever like i want you to be like damn i didn't use insurance great nothing bad happened you didn't need to claim on

it money win life win but when it comes time to claim reviews are really important because if it's then a really fickle situation to claim or they're not nice to deal with. Like we don't need that in our lives, especially when you're probably already stressed because you probably had a little bit of a bingle with your car. The more you know, the stronger your negotiation position. So just a quick heads up, if you're using comparison websites, remember that some of them are actually just marketing tools. Yes, that's true. They might be getting paid to promote certain retailers, which means they're not always showing you absolutely every single available option. you might need to dig a little bit deeper, do a bit more Googling. You could be missing out

on better deals elsewhere. And our community member, Jess, I've pulled this from our Facebook group. She says, before you do your research, wipe your cache on your browser so that your history is completely clear on your computer so that the internet shows you new customer prices instead of current customer prices when you look at your current provider. Oh my God. Smart girl. thank you jess that's really clever yep and they often offer new customers better prices to lock them in only to jack up the price next year it's called loyalty tax we've done an entire podcast episode on it look it up i've heard stories of people cancelling their current policy only to sign straight back up with a new one with the same company on the same day just to save themselves

some serious cash yeah cool from my perspective i don't know if this is ballsy or not but like tell them you can do that like on the phone be like either give me a better deal or I'm counseling and I'm just going to sign back up yeah like what do you want me to do here like make the math math yeah like I'm not trying to be a dick I just want to not pay loyalty tax yeah like I've been loyal to you I've given you my money consistently for the last few years and you're telling me you're going to give someone else a cheaper deal it would be more than incentive to stick around. Yeah, like imagine a company that said,

Beck, join us, pay the market, right? And then every year we give you a little discount for staying. Yeah, we give you a little treat. We give you a little treaty treat. Yeah, that would be way more incentive, I think. Exactly, exactly. I mean, I'm not a marketer. No, but like we could be.

We could be. Look at how smart we are. But getting back to doing your research, once you have all of that information, it's time to make the call. You can start with, hi, I've noticed that Competitor X is offering a lower rate and I'd really like to talk to someone who can match that. What we want to do here, Bec, is kill them with kindness. If you go in aggressive, which you might feel because you might have realised

that you're being taken for a ride. Sure. We don't want that energy on the phone. We don't want to bring that because, like, you used to work for a super company. If someone called you salty, were you happy to help them? No, no, no, no. I would go out of my goddamn way for someone who was nice to me. Yeah, exactly. Someone who's immediately mean and I don't even know them. They don't know me. I

don't know them. I'm literally just here trying to make a buck. Exactly. So we're going to be polite, but firm. Kindness obviously goes a really long way. I adore the saying, you catch more flies with honey. And it really rings true when you're dealing with customer service operators. So true. Don't be a dick. Yeah, I love that. It's not that hard. Make sure that you mention your loyalty, but highlight the better deals that you've found. So for example, you might be whipping out your pen at this point. Your introductory rate for new customers is much lower than what I'm currently getting as a very loyal customer. Or consider bundling. So say, if I bring my car insurance over in addition to my home insurance that I already have, can you offer me a discount?

Make it worth their while. And remember, be ready to walk away. So that one is the hard one. Yeah. Be ready to walk away. Sometimes the best deal is actually with another provider and that's totally okay. You can say on the phone, thank you so much for your help, Bec. I know that you've said that you're trying your best and that that's the best deal you can offer unfortunately I just think I can get it elsewhere cheaper like I'm sure you can understand that like everyone is just out to get the best deal for themselves Beck just worked for the super company you know like you're not mad that Sandra is not going to stay I don't mind you don't mind yeah and you'll probably like

slay Sandra like get that budget get it girl because they can't say it but they know in their heads they're like you can get a bad deal yeah yeah yeah like you know that that's a shitty deal you know that that's not exactly what we want but I can't tell you yeah by the way go down to this other provider they're going to give you cheaper insurance they're not going to say that because I'd lose my job in no way absolutely not you can have a laugh and be like you and I both know Beck catcher like yeah I love when you're working with like hospitality or retail staff or like something stinky happens and you say something that you know they can't respond to so all you get back from them is like a little smirk and then they walk off. I'm always like,

exactly. So we are going to be ready to walk away because we want a better deal. But do you know what? Sometimes when you say you're going to walk away, oh, look at that. They have a last minute offer. Where did this come from? What a coincidence. Now, if you didn't take notes on all that, don't worry. V has made a handy little guide for you. I have. And when I say I have, I mean, my gorgeous graphic designer, Georgia has. Thank you, Georgia. She's taken all of this information and put it into a handy dandy little guide that you can download. Guess what, Bec? Yeah. For free.

Whoa. On our website. I love free stuff. Do you want anything? Nope. Don't want anything. Name your trade. Yeah. Maybe an apple or something. Oh, thanks.

Well, if you want to find that, it will be in the show notes. We can download it or you can download it on the website. True. So there are also some other ways to cut down your insurance costs. The most obvious is opting for a higher excess, which you can budget for. This means you'll pay more upfront if you end up making a claim but if you've got your emergency fund sorted it might be worth considering to bring down those premiums like if you're planning your emergency fund maybe have a look maybe you go all right well I know that if I had a thousand dollar excess instead of a five hundred dollar excess I'd pay less premiums over the year can we also just like I guess sense check this as

well Beck because you might want to be saving that but you don't have the capacity to have an emergency fund with an extra $1,000 in it. I'm not delusional. I know that that is hard for a lot of people. So, if it works for you, fantastic. That's what financial freedom affords you, Bec. Financial freedom can sometimes afford you to go with the cheaper option, right? Some people have to go with the higher option because they don't have that emergency fund and they don't want people listening to this and being like, well, that's not me. I guess I fail. No, you don't, Queen. Look at you listening to finance content getting ahead. Get it, girl. Get it. I actually think it was really important to sense check there,

but that's definitely something worth considering if you want to bring down those premiums. And then another sense check here, because I completely understand that not everyone has the cash on hand to pay their car insurance for the whole year up front. But if you plan ahead, often paying in one lump sum could save you some money on premiums because they often have a lower rate overall if you pay annually instead of monthly. I think that that's just another reason why the rich get richer. So true. So annoying, right? I know. It's like, if I could only afford month to month, give me a discount. It just really frustrates me, the economic inequality that exists. It's the stereotypical example, right, of a pair of shoes. Somebody who has the wealth can buy their

kid a pair of school shoes that last the whole year because that pair of school shoes is like 150 dollars yeah and like that's so wild for a lot of parents but then over the course of the year they might go to Kmart a heap of times because they're just like I'm just buying school shoes from Kmart but like every second month or so they break or they you know fall apart and then they end up spending more on school shoes because they didn't have that higher entry price point to begin with yeah like it's just again the rich keep getting richer because they have the ability to invest in more sustainable options and i don't mean sustainable for the economy i mean more sustainable for them like that pair of school shoes might get three or four years of use out

of them because they're just a good quality shoe you know totally v so it just really frustrates me that that exists but apparently it also exists in the insurance world ah good good good good we can't escape it so then finally beck some policies have dry less pay less options which bet you didn't know that existed huh and i also think is really exciting because you pay a lower premium if you stay under a certain number of kilometers each year so if you know your average mileage use that for when you're getting a quote and it might actually make you get a cheaper rate kind of attractive and don't hesitate to ask for a discount on low kilometers even if it's not advertised they might offer it over the phone yeah true everything's up for negotiation yes

and if they say no I'm just going to negotiate with you from a different angle unlucky to get me on the phone I would cry immediately so unlucky I do apologize for anybody who does get me on the phone except for that one girl at Bupa who one time said that my podcast was really nice at the end of our phone call she's like I'm really glad that I could help you also I really like your podcast and I was like oh my god did you know me this whole time It was really wholesome. That is so sweet. It was my favourite thing ever.

Wow, definitely was put through her paces, poor girl. Like when she said, love your podcast, I was like, keep thinking like, at least I walked the walk, you know? Yeah, oh, I can't even imagine. So there are obviously some good ways to save on insurance. Let's take a quick break and when we come back, we'll have more tips to smash your transport costs. Don't go anywhere.

All right, V, we are back. Should we tackle petrol costs? Yeah, so this episode, just don't use petrol. Yeah. I did cycle actually for a few months to work. Well, that's a good money-saving hack. Yeah, from Brunswick to Richmond. I won't be doing that.

No. If you can't do that or like me, you just won't do that. Yes. That's very valid as well. Very, very valid. So it's probably a good idea to talk about it because in that report we quoted earlier, the average household is spending over five grand a year on petrol, Bec. Five grand.

That's a whole family holiday. Yeah, seriously. That's so much funnier. On stuff you literally burn. Don't talk to me about cigarettes. Not me. You, Bec. Yeah, I love a ciggy.

I know you do. We're not endorsing cigarette usage, by the way. Absolutely not. That is dirty habit and you should kick it and you know you should kick it. Yes, ma'am. But I do not judge you. Thank you. I couldn't care less.

You make a decision about your body. Anyway, Choice Consumer Pulse survey this year found that 81% of households were concerned about the cost of fuel. The other 19% must be pretty chill, to be honest. Imagine not being concerned about $5,000 on petrol. It must be nice. Be for real. I feel like petrol is constantly over $2 a litre these days.

I don't feel like I'm spending any less, which is so expensive. But the good news is there are some ways that you can save at the pump. Cool. Like, I know a lot of our community swear by this first tip. I get a lot of people recommending it for my bro tips, actually. Is it the 7-Eleven app? Well, you'll soon find out. I feel like the 7-Eleven app has a cult following.

It actually is incredible. But also Petrel Spy. I love Petrel Spy as well. There are so many of them. So how do you know the one you're using has the best info? Well, according to the ACCC, there are about 40 of them in total in Australia. Isn't that wild? Whoa.

I could not name 40. I could name the 7-Eleven Petrel app. Yes. That's it. That's the only one I use. And they all run a little bit differently. So, most of the state governments actually require petrol companies to report their prices and have their own data systems and government-run apps, which is interesting. Then there are third-party apps.

Some of these run using the government data, while other commercial services use information that is community-sourced, meaning you're relying on other motorists to update prices, which you might see in, like, the Waze app. So, you know how you can, like, track things in there? I find that really interesting conversation for another day. The ones that use government data seem to be the most accurate as it comes straight from the source. And this is a shame for us in Victoria as our state government is the only state that doesn't do this. Yeah, really nice. But 7-Eleven app, you just lock it in and it's guaranteed. We love to see it.

Even with short notice, we're not being sponsored by 7-Eleven, by the way. I just really love those sandwiches. I love 7-Eleven. Just had to disclaimer that because I sounded like a little bit of an ad. They've got nothing to do with this right now. Shocking. I mean, we should have approached them, actually. That would have been good.

Oh, it's not too late. But we didn't. No, it is too late. It is too late. Even with short drive, though, Bec, you might find significant price differences between different petrol stations. A Choice article highlighted a 52 cent per litre difference they found in the same type of fuel between two petrol stations only five minutes apart.

Oh, those dogs. Isn't it insane? So it's definitely worth using these apps to shop around and to save and put yourself in the best possible position. The Premier of South Australia has even come out and said that their app has saved locals who use it about $315 each in the last year. Amazing. So if you're listening, Victoria Government, it's me, Victoria Devine, and it's time to start your own place and thank you. And don't forget, a lot of fuel retailers in Australia are owned by supermarkets. So, it's always worth checking if your rewards cards can score you an extra deal.

You know, back in the day, you'd have those little- Yeah, shopper dockets. That's all on the rewards card. I feel like this episode's getting really long, but I looked at the back of my supermarket receipt the other day, Bec. Well- There was no deals on it. No, not anymore.

What has happened? You've got to get a rewards card. I hate it. I hate it here. I don't want to live in 2024. It is nice when you get those little dominoes ones. Obviously. All right.

So, back to this. It's all about looking at your shopping habits and seeing where you can use some points and rewards and even cash back to maximize your savings. We saw in the community recently people buying gift cards on Shopback to then use to spend on fuel. Geniuses hacking the system. And you might remember us talking about the savvy queen from our community a few weeks back who was buying upsized ampoule vouchers from Shopback and then scanning her Woolies card for points and hacking the system completely. So good. Be for real. But what about the way you run and take care of your The one thing that they really didn't take into account is how much people spend cleaning their

cars. Like I live in a city and I'm really lucky when I drive home, sometimes my dad will wash my car in like their front yard, free for me, money win. But like, I can't just like put my car in the driveway and wash it. Like I have to spend money cleaning my car, going through like the car wash or even the DIY car wash that takes the two little coins. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I totally do. It's another cost. They forgot that one. Yeah, that's so true. Another one.

I've always wondered what the point is. I don't think I've cleaned my car in a while. Like, do you do it for safety reasons? Like, can you see in your windscreen? I can see through my windscreen. That's all I need to do. Okay. We'll talk about this off air.

But servicing is much more important than cleaning your car. I know it might not be the most exciting thing on your to-do list, but a well-maintained car is a fuel-saving machine. Like, at the end of the day, when your car is in its best shape, it's less likely to guzzle fuel because of issues like clogged air filters and faulty spark plugs or low oil that my car keeps telling me it's got. Like, babe, you don't need oil. You're not cooking. Book in your service. Book in your service, but also do try. There are so many things in my car that I've just done myself. For example, like it wouldn't start once I just changed one of

the fuel injector fuses, which doesn't make sense right now. But if you Google literally, you can do most things. I mean, I feel like. You can change your windscreen wipers. Like you can just go to Autobahn and buy them for like 20 bucks. You don't need to pay $120 for them to fix it. I changed my headlights the other day. It took me literally less than three minutes. You can top up your own coolant. You can do all of that stuff yourself. Oh my God, we should do Beck's car hacks and it's Beck teaching you how to do things with your car. Seriously, I could diagnose it for you and then we can go from there. But yeah,

try and diagnose yourself. Do you check your tire pressure? Of course I do. I've written that down as my next tip. So this is something that you can easily do yourself next time you stop for fuel and it's free you can usually find the right pressure for your tires on the driver's side door frame inside the fuel door in the glove box or in your car's manual or on the actual tire yeah think of having under inflated tires like trying to push your bike uphill it takes way more effort which means your car's using more fuel yes true so top up your air for free to

save some fuel genius keeping your tires at the right pressure and aligned can make a real difference so you can help save on fuel by making sure that there's the right air in your tires back and also by not being victoria divine and hitting the curb as often as i do ideally yeah because then you don't have to get your wheels aligned as often two birds one stone that's fantastic and while you're at it give your car a little spring clean because extra weight does mean extra work for your engine as well you just carrying heaps of stuff around in your back i've never been in your car i just feel like the back seat of your car is probably like a house I was gonna say you could probably imagine what my car is like not in a bad way I just feel like

you'd be like nuts in the car because like you're always at different friends houses and like going to different places I feel like you're telling us to clean out our car when if you did it you'd be annoyed at yourself because now the handy stuff's not in your car totally every single thing I've ever needed is in my car at the moment so you see I get anxious if there's stuff in my car yeah fair like nah the boot has to be empty oh you would have a conniption if you looked in my boot and then I have nothing when I'm out I'm like oh I wish that was still in my car okay so this probably seems negligible but when I have like extra peeps on my car I can see that the petrol kind of runs out a little bit quicker than it usually would so if you have like junk in your car or you just

want to give it a good clean out just keep it light just keep it bright just keep it clean I love that while we're talking about like what's in your car maybe we should talk about the car as a whole because you said it costs you more because there's more stuff in it but like I don't know if I'm throwing myself under a bus because I do drive a soccer mom car. But if you're not hauling around a soccer team every weekend, maybe you don't need the SUV. Maybe it's time to like downgrade. Small cars usually mean better fuel economy. I've got a friend who bought the smallest car that they could find thinking it'd just be for their husband's commute to and from work. But it turned out to be so fuel efficient and such a money saver that they've set a new rule. So

whenever you're not driving the kids, that's the car you've got to take. And it's saving them so much money on their fuel and it's practically their first choice now. Like so smart. I really like my car though, Bec, so like I can't bring myself to get rid of it. I know. But if you can and you're a money-saving queen, maybe do that.

And the cheaper to buy as well. Yeah, exactly. If you try and just jump on Gumtree or CarSales. But you can even consider going like electric if you had the money to do that. I feel like that's an expensive option still. It's a really expensive option. But once you're there, I feel like things are cheaper from that point. Yeah. Actually, do you know what? There's a video and I'm going to find it and I'm going to link it in the show notes. Queenie Tan did a video because she has a Tesla and obviously a Tesla is

like to me a really bougie car. But she did the maths on how much the Tesla costs her and how much she's saving on fuel and how much her electricity costs her. I think it's an Instagram reel video. I'll find it and I'll put it in the show notes. But that video taught me that you do save money but you have to be kind of in it for the long haul it's like putting solar panels on your roof yeah like it doesn't pay off in the first year but over time it does maybe if you're not ready to go like full electric you could think about like a plug-in hybrid car could be the perfect middle ground so you've got like the best of both worlds you've got improved fuel economy and the flexibility of a petrol engine like how good how good i feel like we've covered so much

today so we've given you some solid tips how to negotiate better deals on your insurance and loans and the best way to use fuel map apps and a few clever hacks to stretch your petrol budget even further but i feel like the best tip coming out of this podcast today is like don't ask don't care yeah yeah let's just put our big girl shoes on and be like well can you do a better deal for me yes like it's hard but once you kind of like do it for the first time every other time after that gets much easier and i mean in this cost of living crisis it's all about doing what we can to keep money in our own pockets. I mean, I'm a fan of that 24-7,

but right now I feel like people are feeling the pinch. So even if you only do a couple of these things to save yourself like $100 or $200 a month, Bec, that's like $1,200 or $2,500 a year. Yeah. Like, that's a lot of money. That is so much money back in your pocket, and let's be honest,

who doesn't want an extra couple of grand to work into their budget? Wouldn't hate it. I wouldn't hate it either. Obviously, no. In an ideal world, these things would be accessible and cheap and affordable. But right now, we've got to do what we've got to do. Exactly. So we'll see you on Friday, everyone.

For now, I'm off to finally drop that op shop box that's actually been sitting in my car for a little while on my way home. So we'll see you then. Bye, guys. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.

Victoria Devine and She's on the Money are authorised representatives of MoneySherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289. Thank you for watching!