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Mum-of-two and popular blogger, Olivia White, shares her tips on how she saved an impressive $30,000 over the past 12 months.

The House of White founder set a goal with her husband to save money to build a new shed and study.

‘As a self-proclaimed nerd and numbers girl I am pretty excited to share this with you,’ Olivia wrote on her blog.

“We began our journey with no other debt other than our home loan. We don’t have credit cards, loans or any outstanding debt on things like cars or department stores.

‘We also don’t live in a capital city, we live regional! And while distance wise it has its drawbacks – it does afford us to have a smaller mortgage. So please keep this in mind as I know everyone’s circumstances are different!

‘Everything I am sharing is our own experiences and opinions, but should you want any financial advice please seek this from a qualified financial adviser or institution.’

Mrs White said there were five key things that were key to their saving success:

Her first tip – Use spreadsheets and log every expense in the household.

Her second tip – Plan  meals and supermarket trips.

Olivia  planned out a week of meals before the weekly shop and did so by picking five recipes and shopping for specific needs only.

The third tip –  Work out a weekly/fortnightly payment for all the utilities – electricity, gas, water and rates.

She said this allowed them to keep their bills in credit and prevented any ‘bill shock’ or large amounts of money leaving their account at any one time.

The fourth tip – A ‘side hustle’ for extra money.

Ideas Mrs White came up with included small side businesses, selling clothing on eBay or selling unwanted items on Gumtree or Facebook marketplaces.

Her final tip – Don’t ever compare!

“Especially in the age of social media and the constant bombardment of everyone’s lives in your feed. It can be easy to get caught up and think you want/need something just because you see what someone else has.”

A bigger house? A Fancier car? A lavish holiday? Do you really need it?

Read Olivia’s full blog of tips HERE.

Share your comments below

  • I earn just under $30,000pa so my savings capacity would not compare to theirs at all.

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  • Spread sheets?!?! I don’t think so. This couple would have to be on a good wage to start with to be able to save $30 000 in 12 months. There’s people who don’t even earn that in 12 months

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  • There are some wonderful tips and advice given in this article. Thank you

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  • Some good ideas. $30,000 wow that’s a big saving. Good on her. Hope to put some of her strategies to work.

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  • It is very important to keep you and your families goals in mind and just not notice what others are doing. I read an article not so long ago about a woman who was being deceived by her husband about how much money he made. It wasn’t till their divorce she realized he had been hiding funds and positively thanked him for providing her with the ability to budget.

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  • Fantastic great ideas to help us save money we need more articles like that please

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  • These are some great ideas. Thanks for sharing

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  • What wonderful tips there are here. Well done.

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  • Good on her, a fantastic achievement. We live by a few of her tips and whilst we haven’t saved $30,000 in a year, we own our home and manage to live quite comfortably with an overseas family trip every couple of years.

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  • I love your budget ideas – have been doing this all my life and I know it works. Hope others will learn from your tips.

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  • $30,000 is an amazing effort. Well done! Of all the tips the one that resonates most is the precise planning for meals, and knowing the exact items, buying no more or less. I wonder how much this might save me, and whether I’d be able to stick to it (especially would I get hungry from under planning?!) So often I have a ‘general idea’ of the week ahead and its needs, what is in the house and head to the supermarket with a skeleton list, to which I add any specials (especially that will keep or freeze). However, I often feel I spend more than I ‘should’ – despite not going over my target amount and getting specials that will be used in due course. I wonder if I could really save from better planning meals. I suppose I’ll have to try.. and see if everyone can bear the lack of flexibility that will come with it!

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  • We’re a cash household. We get out a set amount at the start of the week and it has to last us. You think a lot harder when you can physically see how much you’re spending. And we also put out coins in a tin at the end of the day and that adds up to at least 1 or 2 thousand in a year.

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  • I’ve read “The barefoot investor” lately and since then I’m a little bit more strict in how I handle our money. In the transaction account I leave the money that I expect to spend that month, except the mortgage that is in the off-set account. As soon as the salary gets in, I move money to an online saver, to pay taxes and GST, more money to the superannuation, a small amount goes to a “smile” account that could be for holidays or entertainment, another amount in a school account to pay school fees. I leave a fixed amount in the transaction account and that’s what we have to live with till the next salary. The rest goes to the off-set account.
    But saving 30.000 dollars would be impossible probably because we start from a very low income.

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  • To save money here, at the end of each pay fortnight what ever is leftover it goes into another account. We didn’t use it so it can be put away.
    I also have been putting aside any $5 notes and$2 coins, which quickly add up


    • We also save the left over cash – so satisfying to put it away for a rainy day!

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  • We budget our monthly and weekly expenses. One of our ways to stay out of debt is that we don’t own our own property,so no homeloan or morgage, we rent our house. Plenty of second hand clothing or hand me down and my husband sells quite some items on ebay.

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  • Useful to have more articles on money. As always with running a household and a family budget it comes down to being organised. Living below your means is also essential.

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  • There is no indication how much income was being received. Either one of them is earning high wages or they are both working. I budget pretty well and I don’t save that much a year. I shop once a week, that’s it!! I have a good idea what is in my cupboard and fridge. I don’t do a meal plan ahead. I shop as much as I can via specials of food I use all the time and make meals around them. Sometimes I buy extra of a product and instead of buying it at full price the next 2 weeks I will have enough I bought at the low price. I may have a high bill one week and an average or low one for a couple of weeks. I’ve love to know whether or not they grow any of their own vegetables (and have fruit trees) to help stretch the budget. I only buy in season, or some I buy frozen. “fresh” is not always fresh. What very few people realise is that a lot of produce stays in coolrooms for months. Some vegetable growers even have coolrooms on their own properties.

    Reply

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