She's On The Money - The Small Habits That Quietly Made Us Richer

Starting point is 00:00:00 My name is Natasha Bamblett, I'm a proud First Nations woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. Tii, gilinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yinbina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imalan, mumubangaraboma ininyalan waka, gaunonyakarumja, wutunarana. Hello beautiful friends. We gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. we thank acknowledge and respect the aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see she's on the money podcast acknowledges culture country community and connections bringing you the tools

Starting point is 00:00:42 knowledge and resources for you to thrive she's on the money she's on the money hello and welcome to she's on the money the podcast that's here to show you building wealth doesn't always have to be about big flashy money moves because today we're talking about the tiny habits that made a big difference the low effort often relatively unglamorous things that quietly made us a little bit richer. I'm Victoria Devine and I'm a retired financial advisor and joining me is the woman who lives and breathes clever money habits, Miss Jessica Ricci. Hello. The inspiration for this episode actually came from a brilliant thread in our Facebook group, which by the way, low-key, I'm obsessed with. Did you see the person who posted a picture of their pet duck

Starting point is 00:01:46 the other day? Oh my god, I love it. I have gone down an absolute rabbit hole. Like first, it was you. You mentioned that you were going to get a porch goose and I was like, what's a porch goose? So I'm starting to look up on TikTok and on Instagram, porch goose. For those of you playing along, it's a large sized plastic duck that you have on your porch and you decorate it for different events. You dress it up. I'm here for it. But by looking up porch gooses, I also started having duck videos turn up on my feed. And now my son, Harvey, he and I are banding together and we're trying to convince my husband that we need a pet duck. I completely, I think you do.

Starting point is 00:02:25 And then somebody posted their pet duck as pet tax the other day and I was like, you are my people. Their pet duck, by the way, was named Marshmallow. So cute. Stop it. But if you're not in our community, what the heck are you doing? There's lots of free money, tips and tricks that our community shares every single day free of judgment and also, I'm sorry, pet ducks.

Starting point is 00:02:47 Like what more could you want? I can't offer you anything more. And get this, Jess, we now have more than 300,000 She's On The Money besties waiting for you. The thread that I was talking about before I started talking about geese and ducks, that thread was about small money habits that have made a really big difference. And I would say that there were some seriously smart tips and tricks that you and I didn't even think of in there. But Jess, before we get into the community tips and tricks, I want to know what are the little money things that you've done that have made a really big difference? I don't want to sound like a broken record because I feel like I've said this every

Starting point is 00:03:22 episode. I need to hear it again. It needs to be reiterated. The circular economy, people. If you've got things, make them work hard. Rent out your nice dresses. If you have nice dresses or if you have tools, rent out your tools. If you are, you know, one in and one out. If I want to buy something new, I'm financing that by selling old things. People have over $500 of unused stuff, like the average person. Just in your household. Correct. So like, let's get that working. Like, make sure that if you're bringing things in as much as possible, you're financing them by sending things out. It also helps to reduce your overconsumption. It saves you space. I won't harp on because I've spoken about it so often, but genuinely the circular economy is where it's at.

Starting point is 00:04:03 I would also say, you know, cross-check fees of your providers annually. I know that that's another one that we recommend a lot but having a reminder in your calendar I just changed our electricity provider which is not something you'd maybe think about but there's kind of boring low key but like also we're gonna save over $1,200 a year though which is a lot of money and you can use government websites to compare different things or other compare websites just be conscious of which ones you're using because sometimes you can be paid to be ranked higher but doing your research we're not going for companies that are marketing more just the government-based ones yeah but doing your research seeing where you can save money on those fees really can add up

Starting point is 00:04:40 one little unhinged rule that i have for myself for takeout is i really tried not to order an uber eats if i want takeaway and i go oh great like i can get an uber eats and i can have pizza here in 20 minutes can't order an uber eats i've got to go pick it up nope nope sorry that tip's not for me but there's two reasons no half the benefit of the pizza is that someone's bringing it to me i don't have to put shoes on i mean maybe look into getting it delivered direct from the company. But firstly, Uber Eats adds on like the prices are higher. You pay the surcharge, the delivery. I didn't say you weren't smarter than me. You are. I am lazier than you. The other thing is a lot of the time I'll go, oh, I can't be bothered going out to get the pizza.

Starting point is 00:05:19 I guess I'll just make something at home. And so I end up not buying the pizza anyway. Yeah. We're having toast. And you know what? Toast is sometimes a very logical dinner. I think girl dinner is totally acceptable. 100%. but those are a couple of little ones that I have I feel like you maybe have a couple of your own unhinged hacks um when my husband's not home like there's no uber eats so like I can't order take out if I'm just ordering it for myself because like I feel like that adds up and as we said before I'm literally happy to eat whatever's in the fridge like girl dinner could be some leftover rice it could be an egg it could be toast the other day my husband was out and I

Starting point is 00:05:58 had Nutri-Grain for dinner and you know what I did the job like I'm 10 out of 10 on board with that the one thing that I would say has like a small thing quote that has changed my money habits is just I automate everything and yes it's in my budget already and I track it that way but like if I've decided that I'm saving for Christmas or if I've decided that I'm saving for a holiday like I work backwards so you know I went to Bali recently and I wanted some extra spending money and like I knew that we're going for months because we're going for a wedding so like we knew in advance I actually just automated a transfer and you can like set timers on it so you don't even have to go in and cancel your timer or like your transfer you can just be like okay

Starting point is 00:06:43 for the next 10 months transfer $50 to this account every week or every month or whatever and like for me just having money allocated for a specific purpose makes me feel really in control I think it's pretty common knowledge that I have ADHD and I feel like if it goes in one ear it's coming out the other and I'll just forget to do stuff automating bills has been really powerful for me so on our electricity it's never consistent right so what I did was work out what our annual amount was divide it by the amount of months so 12 and then I just automatic transfer I think it's like $10 more than what we think it's going to be. And then at the end of the year, like we do our audit, because as you guys know, we do an annual audit of all of our finances as everyone should,

Starting point is 00:07:30 I believe. And we might find out that we're actually like $50 or something in credit to our gas or electricity company. And that means that I feel really in control, but I also didn't ever have to go and pay a bill. Sorry, I'm lazy. I'm going to make it as easy as possible for me. so that works and where possible I'm trying to make sure that I just have some like backup lazy meals in the freezer in saying that Nutri-Grain worked too don't go and get a meal that you're like put that in the freezer as my backup girl you're gonna get pizza put something in the freezer that you're like oh if I wanted to get takeaway this musselman curry I would happily eat yeah as a good little alternative well on the Facebook thread Amara has taken your lazy meal

Starting point is 00:08:15 concept and turbocharged it's like i'm boring she said i've put a list of 20 plus meals on the fridge and i'm not allowed to eat takeout until absolutely every option has been used up and that's really working excuse me genius i know she said a lot of options can be made multiple times due to how easy and low cost the ingredients are and i feel like if you can make up a few meals from just like pantry staples or items you can make sure that you've always got like a can of tomatoes on your grocery list if you go out and like I'm sorry tomato pasta elite bring back the recipe book I say I remember my mom had like a it was just a paper book where she'd put recipes that she cut out of magazines and stuff back in the day obviously we can modernize that and you can

Starting point is 00:09:02 save them on your computer or have a photo album I want the book I save my marley spoon recipes if they're good I've got a drawer in my kitchen and I put the good ones in there yeah I have like one of those like binders with the clear plastic and i just slide them into that that's more organized than me mine's in a pile in the bottom drawer with everything else in the batteries but i feel like amara's on it like half the time not wanting to cook i feel a decision fatigue so if you've got the ingredients you've got the recipes that you like i feel like that's a little bit of a money win i do low-key feel like that's really smart and just having quick meals also on our website i've said this time and time again we worked with ten dollar meals with chelsea and

Starting point is 00:09:38 she is an angel but there's a free ebook on our website yeah so you could meal prep a couple of those chuck them in the freezer sorry ten dollar meals that serve four people that's insanity money win all right i think it's time we take a really quick break but guys don't go anywhere because after this we're going to dive into even more clever habits from our community some of these tips i would say are relatively simple but the impact is going to be long lasting so guys don't go anywhere. All right, Jess, we are back and I feel like we're going to dive into the juiciest stuff. It's the small habits can have a big impact on your finances. And like, I don't like to pay favorites, but as an ex-financial advisor, this first one I think might be my favorite. So Kate

Starting point is 00:10:25 said, and get this, like you're going to see why it's my favorite. I've been salary sacrificing a very small amount to super from the age of 21. Despite 3.5 years of maternity leave and over a decade of working part-time, I have a super balance that's higher than my partner's who earns now almost four times my salary. Oh my God, that's amazing. What the heck? That's crazy. Small things that make a big difference. Like if you're listening to this and you're a baby, so like I consider anybody under the age of 30 to be a baby. I just had a picture of like a literal child with headphones on like a fetus I'm sorry I don't repost these because like I I think everybody knows I don't like putting kids on my stories or sharing them not because I don't

Starting point is 00:11:09 love your kid videos please continue to send them because they are so soul nourishing but the amount of people that send me videos of their little kids going she's on the money she's on the money oh I love it like can you imagine the impact that we're gonna have Jess in like 15 years when these little kids have just like subconsciously been absorbing finance content in the cars. I don't mean those babies. I love them arguably a lot. But if you're under the age of 30 and you have a few extra dollars, why not put it towards future you? And then this is another one. Eleanor said she did this too. Between the ages of 19 and 23, she was putting an extra $35 a week into her super and now she has more than double what is normal for her age. It's insane to hear

Starting point is 00:11:58 like how significant the impacts can be with the power of compounding interest. Yeah from little things big things grow. It's like sorry yes I know that some of us can't afford $35 but if you can that could be life-changing. Yeah even $5, $10. From my perspective and also just logically super is one of the most powerful tools Jess that you've got where small changes can make a really big difference. Things like picking the right risk profile for you, consolidating multiple accounts, or even just checking your fees. It doesn't cost you anything, but they can seriously boost your balance over time. I would say it's one of the easiest ways to set future you up for success. Such a good one. I have a little hack from Katie who said she pays everything weekly. She's got a

Starting point is 00:12:43 spreadsheet of everything from council bills to insurances, and she calculates what the weekly amount would be and then either puts it in the account that it gets drawn from if it's a direct debit or she will send the weekly amount. Yeah and you can like automate that so like because I'm the queen of being lazy like I cannot imagine anything worse than having to every single week go in and pay my bills. Not gonna lie that's just not my journey but as I told you earlier like I have it transferring every week so like I go in and I set it up once and like you might go okay cool. I'll just have this end at the end of the year. Or you can go in and change any of your direct debits or like quick transfers. But like, sorry, that's genius. We also had a few people

Starting point is 00:13:30 say that using cash or buying gift cards on sale for future use has been helping their budget, Jess. The gift card is a good one because you can often get through Coles. Coles and Woolies both do it with their respective points earning platforms, but they'll often do 20 times points on gift cards. it's so smart and I've seen a lot of people say well I'll buy like a $500 Kohl's gift card 20 times points on $500 I'm gonna spend $500 this month on groceries 10,000 points is that right yes I was like good math girl thank you I'm really trying did you eat like if you're gonna spend it anyway you can get grocery gift cards uber eats gift cards if you are someone who does the occasional cheeky order gift cards like the good guys and stuff like that Kohl's my gift cards to

Starting point is 00:14:12 give us gifts stock up on them get the points you might as well then use the points to buy groceries or use the points come Christmas time and it'll feel like you've saved for Christmas yeah money win um also on that whenever I talk about credit cards and points I want to be really clear you don't have to have a credit card to accrue points no you can do flybys you could do whatever the Woolies rewards you can do so many different point systems without a credit card like we're not here going get a credit card it's great for everyone because past me could not be trusted with a credit card in fact when I got one I got in a whole heap of personal debt fail like not very good but now I have a credit card and my husband and I use it responsibly for points

Starting point is 00:14:57 whenever we're thinking about like changing credit cards which you know the the credit card companies aren't going to want to hear this Jess but every single time their like period comes up so like you might need to have that credit card for two years to lock in your like bonus points at the start, sorry, I'm moving credit cards because I want my additional hundred thousand dollar sign up bonus. Um, and I'm using the points hacking website to work out what works for me. I don't think it's any secret in the she's on the money community that I collect virgin and velocity points. So like I always find a credit card that has a really good amount of like bonus velocity points and then basically work out the fees, work out what's going on and whether that works for us.

Starting point is 00:15:39 and I'll probably sign up to that one. The one thing I would say is if you are going to get into your points era and start collecting points, some of them have capped points per month. Most of us actually have monthly expenses more than $2,000, but they might say, oh, you can only collect points on the first $2,000 spare. So just make sure that it suits you. But like, sorry, I'm collecting points and then using them at Christmas time. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:16:04 And if you want more info, we did, the two of us, I was on the episode. we did a whole episode on point packing so exactly the other thing that i saw coming up a few times jess was people saying that they have no spend days yeah or like no spend months which by the way that's probably a little bit much for me but like i could do a no spend week i could do a no spend two weeks every time someone says they're doing a no spend month or longer i'm so impressed that's like emma edwards from the broke generation adore her she banned herself for an entire year from buying new clothes and shoes and stuff I'm so sorry I respect that so much you go follow her she's a genius couldn't be me it was so fun to watch her do it though and like she did a lot of

Starting point is 00:16:49 posts talking about her takeaways and stuff it was really interesting but I've been talking about doing it again yeah girl are you Delulu I love you so much but like also I could never be me but like that's the best thing right we can learn from other people and I go do you know what I could probably do that for a week or so shrink it down whatever's achievable exactly the next thing is a very helpful tip for one of what I would say is the biggest money leaks we have these days subscriptions oh yes so Vicky said and I thought this was genius because like also if you're a little bit near as spicy like me you set up subscription you already forgot you set up the subscription um but she said if she sets up a new subscription like she signs up to like Disney or

Starting point is 00:17:27 Netflix or something for her business like DocuSign she'll always cancel it immediately so like same day because it'll still be valid for the month you paid for for those 30 days but it won't automatically pay for it again and then if she really likes it and it comes up oh your subscriptions lapsed good reminder she goes yeah I did want to continue that so she goes and signs up for another month yeah but if you get the pop-up and it says your subscriptions cancelled and you're like well you get out of it sorry you didn't even have to do any work and you're saving money that's so there's definitely been many uh like random i would say like a work thing or like do you sign up you're like oh i really need this one app for this one task you sign up you forget

Starting point is 00:18:10 about and then a month later you go what do you mean yeah 100 it happens to us all the time and like you know maybe not that relatable but like if you're a business owner do an audit because i found out recently you have an adobe subscription brooke has an adobe subscription as it turns out we could have shared a business one. So we might be going and changing all of that soon because I realized maybe we have a few little money leaks of our own. Nobody's perfect. But I also didn't know that we all use this particular software anyway. So silly. And I think a lot of people think if you cancel a subscription, it actually finishes right away. But as always, I would be checking the T's and C's, but you will generally retain access to that service or that content

Starting point is 00:18:56 until the end of the current billing cycle because you already paid for it. And a lot of platforms will offer a retention bonus too. So you might get an email saying, oh, your subscription is about to cancel, but if you come back, we'll give you 20% off. Sorry, I'm going to do that every month if that's the case. Genuinely, it's worth it. I feel like that's genius. Next, I've got a really smart app suggestion.

Starting point is 00:19:18 Love. Alyssa Jane said using the Sorted app to make wish lists of items she wants or likes has really helped her put at least 24 hours between her and her spending which we love she's on the money cult status absolutely she said it's super simple to share with friends and family come birthday or Christmas time as well because when everyone asks what you want you can just send them a link to the list that's actually genius and it's really good way to like keep track of things as Alyssa said put some distance between you and your spending but also like keep a track of price changes that tells you when the price goes up too so you can keep an eye

Starting point is 00:19:50 put like homewares and stuff on it too. Absolutely. I've got like stuff from Meijer on there. Stop it. Like any website pretty much that you. I'm like in my homeware era, I'm fantasizing and looking at all these things on Instagram being like, oh, I'd love that in my new house. I love this. I'm actually going to go get that because I feel like that's what I want. I couldn't agree more. Fia is another great app. It was made by Bill Gates's daughter, Phoebe Gates, a little Nepo baby shout out. It gives you the best price for an item and it includes secondhand options. Okay. which we love thank you nepo baby we love that and another app that I love that is not as smart as the ones that you've mentioned so maybe I need to move it's called wearing so w-h-e-r-i-n-g

Starting point is 00:20:30 my girlfriend Hannah and I use this and you can keep track of items you already own so like I kind of had a catalog and I need to be better at this sort of like actually uploading everything but you can catalog all of your items and then like recreate outfits and understand what's in your wardrobe so that when you're shopping, you can kind of go, Victoria, you actually already have a navy jumper with a collar. You don't need another one of those. And that can be really helpful. Now I've got another one here and this is from our friend Alice. She says, my bank has the option to set up spendable or available account statuses. So there might be like $3,000 sitting in her account, but if my spendable amount that she said is only $70, her brain says

Starting point is 00:21:14 too poor to shop and she's less likely to attempt to play like musical money to like justify a purpose so I thought that was I didn't even know that was a thing that's very cool I don't know which bank that is but I'm gonna do some research because I feel like I need that another one is from our friend Chelsea and she said that one of her bank features that she likes to use I think this is up bank is a three-hour lock so like if she's feeling spendy and she's like no I don't want to do it and she's fighting with herself she locks down her bank for three hours she can't spend it she has to put three hours between her and her spending forced saving you know what some of us need it totally not gonna lie like some of us are quite impulsive Jess and you know what

Starting point is 00:21:57 banks are actually getting smarter but for us so I think for a long time it was all about them promoting spending money whereas now they're kind of seeing a lot of the features and benefits if they're related to our saving are quite attractive and we might move to their bank so banks are getting smarter and have a heap more features that actually help you get on top of your money like I was looking at my banking app the other day and you guys know I bank with nab and I didn't realize how many features and benefits they'd added to their app and I actually need to do a little bit more research and see how they can work for me yeah it's really cool to see so many more features rolling out some you can even put in your payday so that they can then work out what

Starting point is 00:22:35 your upcoming payments are and then you can work out your spendable and available amounts from there yeah some of them my bank recognizes regular debits and we'll say hey in you know seven days we're expecting a debit from spotify and so it's very stop it all of these features i feel like we can really start to utilize to build out you know a more clever way of managing our money yes this is why we don't have a she's on the money app because like can you imagine the time and energy effort that it would take to organize this when your bank's already doing it they're already all over and i would argue the bank's probably better resource than us should we move on to one of the biggest money drainers though i feel like at the moment groceries no surprise the community had

Starting point is 00:23:19 some really great money saving hacks marissa said she basically only buys cleaning toiletries household stuff pantry items and treats when they're half price oh my god i do this i do this I feel like sometimes I'm like, Victoria, you can afford it. But I'm like, sorry, spray and wipe. In my head, that's a luxury. Yeah, absolutely. It's only happening if it's half price. Well, Marisa said her kids and her husband would always feast

Starting point is 00:23:44 on the treats as soon as they saw them. So she now has a little tub in the shed that she hides from them. They don't know about it. She keeps it filled up with all of the half price treats and the school snacks and then she just rations them out. Do you know what? That is a thing. So like in our house, we, we, and as you know, like I used to be a bit of a, like from scratch

Starting point is 00:24:03 household. Like I always had my Marley spoons and like the meals, maybe like a big tub of yogurt or something. So if you came to my house and you were like, Oh, I'm hungry. I'd be like, Oh, I've got some yogurt or some fruit. I could put it together like a snack for you. And you'd be like, great. But like now I've got a baby in the house, Jess, I've got snacks coming out the kazoo. like i have fruit bars i have muesli bars i have six million different types of rice cracker i'm sorry those are for my baby why does my husband consume them all why does he just go to the baby drawer and take out one of those like little fruit roll-up things sorry that's not for you that was bought for the baby and he's like oh well i need as a snack sorry for the years we

Starting point is 00:24:44 lived together without buying snacks and things like that you were fine yeah all of a sudden you need a fruit bar no the temptation I think is getting him Sharon said she does the same except she buys half price at Woolies or Coles when they have a spend fifty dollars get fifteen dollars off promo so she says half price and then basically another thirty percent off on top of that which is very clever yeah and then patience says she saves on meat by knowing when her butcher puts the clearance stickers on that's so smart that's every Sunday so she makes sure that she like plans her shop around the times when she knows it's going to be discounted that's like someone and it wasn't from this thread a while ago she's like I have worked out when the rotisserie chickens get

Starting point is 00:25:25 marked down and I've never paid more than five bucks for a chicken and I'm like you're a genius that is so clever you are actually a genius we also had a few community members saying looking outside of supermarkets was smart for like cleaning products because it can mean really big savings so I kind of knew this but don't utilize it as much as I should they're like bunnings big w the reject shop and even like agricultural trading stores were all mentioned as having very cheap cleaning products and like just you and i are quite big fans of the reject shop i love a little reject shop shop i love getting like my omo washing machine pods and stuff that is always just so much cheaper and i feel like sorry they are unnecessarily expensive

Starting point is 00:26:09 they carry this is a public plea to if anyone works at the reject shop specifically in buying they occasionally carry my favorite cleaning product of all time they used to sell it at you can't get anymore it's the brand is fairy it's a little bottle spray it's like a degreaser if you own an air fryer this thing will change your life when it shows up at my reject shop i am buying the whole tray but i haven't seen it in a few months and i'm very sad about it I'll keep an eye out. Anyone, yeah, check your reject shops. And if anyone works at the reject shop, please, love of God, bring them back.

Starting point is 00:26:44 All of my dishwashing tablets, my like dishwashing liquid, not that you guys actually care, but I always buy the Fairy brand because I feel like they're just as good, but they are also always cheaper at Coles and Woolies and stuff when you're buying it. And I feel like sometimes you're just not willing to try a new brand because you're like, oh, I'm just going to use the Finnish ones because like I don't want to mess with my dishwasher.

Starting point is 00:27:05 Sorry, the Fairy brand is good. they often go on sale and they are oodles cheaper than any other brand sorry also a cute name so cute so cute i feel like this has been a really fun episode to do but i also think it's a great place to leave it so if this episode gave you a few ideas to try or maybe made you think about your habits a little bit differently we would love it if you hit subscribe leaving a little quick review or please send it to a friend who might also get value out of this it really does help us reach more people and grow our community and I feel like we just are better together like sorry did anyone ever say that more friends were worse no we want more money friends I want to have

Starting point is 00:27:45 more money conversations anyway have a good day my friends and we will see you bright and early on Friday morning for a Friday ep 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 Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.

She's On The Money - The Small Habits That Quietly Made Us Richer

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