Please Suggest Ways of Savings in Regular Expenses

Our family consists of me, my wife, and our toddler. Please suggest whatever way I can save. We are struggling in finance stuffs. Below are some of the utilities I regularly pay:

Utilities

*AGL gas - $371/last 3 months => Switched to cheaper plan using same AGL. Might look to move again in Jan
*AGL electricity - $773/ last 3 months => Switched to cheaper plan using same AGL. Might look to move again in Jan

Private Health Insurance

*Medibank - $384.33/monthly

Mobile prepaid plans

*Belong for me - $26/month (Need abilities to call Canada and Bangladesh on regular basis. Not much data or other things needed) => Bought Lebara $199/yearly deal. Will activate it end of month when Belong expires

Broadband

*uniti broadband - 89.76/month (We get 100/20 speed on a 24 month contract. We are on 12 month right now)

Car related

*NRMA Road Side Assist - 134.00/yearly => $12/monthly
*NRMA Comprehensive -242.55/month
* Rego renewal (Do not remember)
* Pink Slip (Do not remember)
* Green slip - 499.60/yearly
* Servicing every 6 months (Do not remember)
* License renewal (Do not remember)

Others

  • open ai chatgpt
  • scribe - $34/month (Used at work)
  • amazon prime - $79/yearly => ~$7/monthly (We get many of our monthly deliverables here on cheaper cost)
  • apple monthly - ~$10/month (I get abilities for many anon emails…)
  • optus kayo. - $25/month
  • grammarly - $96/yearly => ~8/month
  • woolies -$60/yearly => $5/month
  • coles- $19/month
  • tweetdeete -~6/month

Edit:
I had gas and electricity bill switched when I wrote it. I updated it. I have crossed out the ones I already cancelled & added more comments of updates

Comments

  • +12

    I have cancelled below as of now.
    * scribe
    * optus kayo.
    * grammarly
    * woolies
    * coles
    * tweetdeete

    Reviewing rest

    • +6

      I just did a quick check around in internet. It did not take long to find a better plan right with AGL. It will save me ~$150/quarter for Electricity.⚡️I called them. They also put in ~$150 credit. Not bad.

      next is to haggle with car insurance and health insurance.

    • -1

      Review these:

      *NRMA Road Side Assist - 134.00/yearly => $12/monthly
      *NRMA Comprehensive -242.55/month

      Do you really need NRMA road service?
      NRMA car insurance is amongst the most expensive

      Get online and compare with "Comparethemarket"

      Do the same with your health insurance

      • -1

        Just go straight to Woolworths car insurance.

        • +4

          You'll also get 10% of a grocery shop once a month or twice a month if you sign up for Woolworths Everyday Rewards.

          • +3

            @MITM: Same option with Woolworths Mobile. Put one thing mobile/insurance in own name and one in the wife's and you can do it twice per month.

      • +6

        Get your car serviced at My Car Tyre & Auto and you get FREE national road side assistance…. $134 you can cross off your list.
        https://www.mycar.com.au/offers/mycar-roadside-assistance

        • Premium that you would pay for My Car's services will cost you much more than $134 so I am not sure how valuable this is. Local mechanics (and still reputed) would charge you lower for services compared to My Car and other chain stores.

      • NRMA isn't always the most expensive (I've found them to be 2nd cheapest on my last 2 cars) but agree that seems like alot for comprehensive.

      • +5

        comparethemarket is just a list of affiliated insurers that agreed to pay them :)
        Better off going with canstar and ignoring the promoted ones.

        DISCLAIMER: I WORK FOR AN INSURANCE COMPANY THAT DOESN'T GET REPPED BY COMPARETHEMARKET

    • +1

      You forgot to cancel Tik Tok and OF.

  • +31

    Medibank - $384.33/monthly

    Curious why you feel this is necessary over and above Medicare. That's $400/month immediately. Unless you have a specific medical coverage need or visa requirement maybe.

    Also, $3,000 a year on car insurance is extremely high for a budget-concious person.

    • +19

      I'd say it's purely as a tax avoidance tool.

      I wouldn't have it if it didn't cost me more in tax rather than take out a PoS policy with them.

      • +9

        If he's trying to cut on expenses this much I can't imagine the income being high enough to about the medicare surcharge.

        • +3

          if you're spending $4800 a year on health insurance i'd assume the OP's income is pretty significant.

          One would hope…

          • +2

            @Drakesy: In context of this post.. doubt it? He's cutting things to save single digit dollars.

        • +1

          I dunno mate, my medicare surcharge is higher than it would be for medical insurance. I have a mortgage and while I am not drowning I have to be quite careful with my money

      • +5

        I'd say it's purely as a tax avoidance tool.

        I would encourage everyone to keep funding Medicare, ie. not to accept the argument of "tax avoidance" or "but I get 2 x free dental check-ups a year".

        • +21

          I dont mind paying double or triple for Medicare.
          Fund Medicare properly rather than fill the pocket of these Ceo's of private companies.

        • +1

          Oh 100% i would rather give the money to Medicare but the lobbyist rort is real and just undercuts the fine

        • +7

          But the surcharge just goes into the tax 'pool', doesn't it? I'd happily pay it if there was certainty that it was actually going towards improving Medicare.

      • +1

        If it's tax avoidance it shouldn't be that high. I assume OP at least have Silver Hospital + 70% Extra. You can downgrade to Bronze if it's strictly tax avoidance. I think Silver cover is probably the most useless cover for YOUNG family. You either have Gold if you want to have pregnancy coverage or Bronze if you need to avoid MLS.

        As for extra, cannot really comment on this because if you have a lot of dental work, it's probably worth the money.

      • +1

        Pretty sure you can avoid the Medicare surcharge with a much cheaper health policy than OP has though.

        • -1

          Oh 100%

          Op must have like a family of 5 and another on the way to justify that expenditure.

    • +3

      I think the OP can still have private health insurance (really helpful if you've a kid) but can probably get it cheaper than this elsewhere, like HCF.

      • +2

        At that sort of price it won't be a basic plan either. Can drop the level of coverage and save a fair bit I expect, for anything critical I've found the public system in Australia to be great anyway, but always had insurance as it's cheaper than the additional medicare/potential future loading.

    • when you hit the pregnancy/ child birth check box, private health is insanely expensive.

      if you are going to have more kids, ok but if not, get rid of it as the costs will be reduced immensely.

    • This is a great call out.. for it to be worth it from an financial standpoint OP's household taxable income would need to be exceeding 307k. (4600 / 1.5%)

  • +15

    Others:
    Dont check ozb too often. I recommend once a month

    • +13

      I don't recommend checking monthly and rather just checking when purchasing a specific item. Checking monthly will result in regret of missing out on past deals resulting in you checking it more frequently and the vicious circle carries on….(I am an Ozb addict now)

      • +2

        And that’s why I check daily… who am I kidding. I open ozbargain on the browser homepage.

      • +1

        and also setup subs to a specific item you want, both on Ozbargain and 3Camels

  • +7

    Some of the insurance type things are typically cheaper when paid annually rather than weekly/monthly. Not sure if you are doing so already

  • +6

    Gas seems so high, what you use it for?

    Calling overseas - lots of people using whatapp now and it's free. If you can do this instead, I suggest to sign up for annual kogan for only $120 for 120gb data, but do most of your calls when you have wifi.

    250 car insurance a month?

    Unsubscribe all those supermarket thingy, shop at Aldi.

    • Yes, we have gas for hot water (kids have looooong showers no matter how much we nag) plus a gas fire and gas cooktop. Our bills would only be near this in winter when the fire is on most days..

  • +2

    Have you shopped around for everything? There are cheaper options for pretty much everything on your list if you're not afraid to switch.

  • +5

    Why are you servicing your car every 6 months?
    If you are doing the K's then fair enough I guess but otherwise 12 months should be fine.

    Any of the things you use for work should be deductible from your income as well (I guess you already know that?) But you are not a private operator shouldn't your workplace cover those for you?

    • +5

      I agree with that service car every 10,000km or every 12 months minimum. Service car at independant mechanic instead of a dealership which should save you alot of money.

    • +2

      Learn to do basic DIY servicing if not in new car warranty

  • +3

    What level PHI is Medibank for that price? Gut tells me it isnt gold. If thats the case, move to somewhere else. Medibank and Bupa both extortionate pricing

    • What are you with?

      • HCF Corporate via RAA. Hasnt moved much in price so about the same per month, family for Corp Gold (no extras). Recently found Police Fund a great option if you qualify.

    • Probably some kind of corporate rate with Medibank. Possibly still has pregnancy in the policy if OP is planning on more kids and private birthing?

      Perhaps OP could cut out the extras and just have basic hospital to avoid Medicare surcharge.

  • +14

    Nearly $5k for private health, why?

    Nearly $3k for car insurance, why? Do you have a Bentley?

    Do you get free housing?

    Do you waste thousands eating out?

  • +1

    Medibank - $384.33/monthly

    Start PHI churning. There are always often deals for a few free weeks (or bonus points which can be redeemed for either free renewal or groceries). You will still get your tax benefits, and end up saving a lot. It's a bit of a process, but can save you a lot of money for the effort.

    • Just moved to BUPA corporate - family plan. Was paying close to $500 per month with CBHS and will now be paying $313 for hospital and extras (3 of us use optical plus all use dental so it is worth it). They also had an 8 weeks free deal for switching. Them and HCF looked like the best options I could see.

  • +8

    nearly $3k on car insurance?! damn, thats a lot.. you're either a really bad driver or you have a ferrari

  • +5

    open ai chatgpt (Need it for efficient work related)

    What did chatgpt say when you asked it for help?

    • +2

      hmm, a few thoughts:

      grammarly seems unneeded, prob can cancel that
      woolies & coles seem redundant. def cancel one of those
      scribe & apple mail sub seems sus, try to cancel or downgrade
      kayo, amazon, tweetdelete all nice-to-haves but nonessential. consider axing
      belong mobile plan sounds pricey for just calls. look into lebara or telstra prepaid
      for utilities, definitely shop around come jan. switch to cheapest on market
      car stuff is vital obv but see if can bundle/save elsewhere
      biggest opportunity seems to be health ins tho. medibank is $. look into hbf, ahm, etc for better value fam coverage

  • +8

    Mobile prepaid plans - Belong for me - $26/month (Need abilities to call Canada and Bangladesh on regular basis. Not much data or other things needed)

    You are spending about $312 annually on your mobile plan alone. Until last year you could get Amaysim Annual plans for $99 with international call inclusions. But I do see Bangladesh is not included in this plan.

    You could try this: $199 for annual plan: Lebara Mobile, with 425 GB Data, Includes unlimited International Calls to Canada and Bangladesh (and 48 more countries). Uses the Vodafone 5G/4G+ Network.

    I compiled a list of cheap annual mobile plans here.

    • +1

      Thanks mate. I think both me and my wife going for Lebara yearly plan from Belong.

      • +1

        Great, happy to help.
        When I took this 425 GB plan, since it has data banking and unused data rolls over to the next month, I could manage last 4 months without an additional Home WiFi plan. I used to just Hotspot my phone's mobile data since I had banked like about 200 GB + had 35 GB plan data of the month; and would get 35 GB afresh each month too.

  • +5

    apple monthly - ~$10/month (I get abilities for many anon emails…)

    Duck.com is free

    woolies -$60/yearly => $5/month
    coles- $19/month

    These aren't the kind of services you'd deem 'essential' if struggling with their finances. Go to the shops yourself? (Unless the time spent going to the shops was actively spent doing overtime or a second job )

    tweetdeete -~6/month

    Well now you're just having a laugh

    Update:
    (Saw your first post…good start, clearly non essential expenses if you're actively trying to bring your spending down)

  • +3

    Have you cashed out the Bitcoin yet?

    • -2

      This, absolutely.

      If you're lucky enough to even be able to cash it out…

      • +1

        If you're lucky enough to even be able to cash it out…

        What's happened to stop people cashing out crypto?

      • There's zero issues with cashing out crypto.

  • +3

    What is your income?
    Does you wife work and if so whats the total family income?

    You have not mentioned the biggest expense Rent/Mortgage?

  • +4

    Get your gas heating checked. Last place I lived (renting) the gas heater was about 20 years old (old enough it didn't have a star rating). It was replaced with a 3-4 star (I forget which) gas heater and our bill halved.

    If you add up everything except car and health insurance, there's about $8k of costs and most of it is needed to some level. There's another $7k in car and health insurance. There's some low hanging fruit there (cancelling Kayo, get your work to pay for scribd) but of the $8k there's not a huge amount of savings. In the $7k there's a lot you could do. But the rest of your costs would be a greater question.

  • +3

    More of a long term thing, but if you can get rid of your gas appliances totally you save on the gas service charge. Check with your local state/territory about gas swap out deals.

  • What’s your accommodation situation and cost?

  • free version of chatgpt might be good enough now

  • What car? What age bracket?
    .

    • +1

      It’s a Toyota Rav4 2015. Only $29k .

      • $2,910 per year is crazy for RAV4 (even for a new one) if you have a clean history and in a Metro city. That is 10% of the car p.a..
        Also, budget direct road side assistance is generally $89.99 (currently $76.46) p.a.
        Shop around.

        • +1

          I pay $1200 for a 2022 Rav4 with Premium Comprehensive with RAA (permanent new for old, for example).

          When shopping around, NRMA came in at $1900

          Location Adelaide Metro

      • +3

        If it's a toyota then just ditch roadside assistant altogether, I've been driving shitboxes for years and the only time I stupidly paid for such service was the first year after watching NRMA scare-campaign bullshit.
        Unless you have bad habits of keep running once the fuel check light stay on (I did this everytime) or keep squeezing your dead battery out when it's clearly on its last leg (I do this all the time too), you never need road side assist, and in the event you do, a premium add on the spot will suffix, you're already ahead by not using roadside assist for 2 years or so.

        I must admit I occasionally ran into trouble with flat battery but always managed to find good samaritan to help me out, if you don't want to just invest in a jump starter. And my life advice is don't bother asking for help with driver on European cars lol.

      • +3

        Can keep NRMA Road side assistant, but switch the comprehensive car insurnace to other company.

  • Holy shit, your car insurance . My comprehensive insurance for my 2014 outlander is $400 a year

    • +1

      There's strong regionality to it though. Our insurance almost doubled when we moved from Brisbane to Sydney

    • My 2012 i30 is closer to $1000. What's your excess? Market or Agreed value?

      • Agreed value $16,000 and a $900 excess

    • +1

      Can I ask which insurance you are with , I have a 2014 outlander but paying a lot.

      • +2

        Auspost Car insurance.

        I've posted deals for them about 5 times so far.

        they often have $75 or $100 off for new customers , and 15% or 13.3% Cashback with ShopBack

    • +1

      $400 a year for comprehensive insurance for a 2014 vehicle?

      Do you really expect anyone here to believe that?

      • +2

        my bad , It's up to $468 this year as my 18 year old got her licence

        was <$400 for years.

    • I’m paying $400 a year (cheapest I could find) 3rd party for a nearly 25 year old car, I struggle to understand how you’re getting comprehensive for the same price on a 10 year old car.

      • +1

        I honestly can't explain it. though I believe it could be due to premium history. maybe 9 years ago when coles first got in to comprehensive car insurance they had a "name your price " deal going. I named a very competitive price.

        I went with that. and had supercheap comprehensive insurance. I also have a 20 year no claim history, drive a generic boring vehicle, live in a "safe" area, have a lockable automatic gate. etc.

        maybe the algorithm has captured that data and kept at it. I can't explain.

        my insurance records (email folder) start in 2017 when I was paying $323.28 with coles, though I cancelled that because 2 months later they a price beat deal were I could then get comprehensive insurance for $307 (with $550 excess + Market Value)
        in 2018 I paid $246 -Coles -another price renewal price beat with another insurer, and then cancelled that policy to get a price beat +discount with coles
        in 2019 I paid $281 -Coles
        in 2020 I paid $317 -Coles
        in 2021 I paid $352 - coles
        in 2022 I paid $349 with Auspost (with 15% cashback)
        in 2023 I paid $468 with Auspost - due to listing my teenage daughter as a driver

        I have 3rd party fire and theft on my 10 year old mazda 6 - that cost $223 with an excess of $550

      • What state are you in?
        From my research VIC is about triple the price of TAS for example.

        • Qld

  • +1

    Amazon Prime… Get it from India for INR 1500 ~ 26.34 AUD for whole year. This is achievable using any VPN.
    Apple Subscription from Turkey without any VPN. Just create a new Apple ID with country as Turkey and link your current ID. I pay 1 AUD for 50 gb subscription monthly.

    NRMA comprehensive is too much. Look somewhere else. I got good deal from Budget Direct.

    Hope these helps

    • +3

      Amazon Prime… Get it from India for INR 1500

      Useless if they using prime for it's deliveries (as they mentioned in the initial post)

      • -1

        true but good for watching movies.

    • is it normal amazon.com.au or you need to make ac on amazon.in?

      • You can use your Amazon AU logon to login to amazon.in as well.

        • …but a Prime account on Amazon.in won't allow for deliveries of physical goods to .AU address, right ?

  • +5

    You found a better plan with AGL, but why stay with AGL at all? They are not known for good prices or service. Only use www.energymadeeasy.gov.au, it is the only comparing tool that is not for profit and guaranteed complete.

    If you change power or gas company, your power and gas will not stop at any point. AGL doesn't actually provide any services, they are one of many middleman companies and if you switch all that really changes is the price and the company name on the direct debit.

    It's a year away, but when your Uniti contract ends, do not sign another one. The prices are not especially good, no reason to be locked in at all.

    • +1

      What do we use if we're in WA? Energy Made Easy seems to only be for the eastern states

  • +1

    *AGL gas - $371/last 3 months

    You don't need gas, unless you live in an apartment and it's built into your apartment. Cooking with gas is toxic. A decent-size electric hot water system is at least as good as gas and cheaper.

    *AGL electricity - $773/ last 3 months

    Use less electricity. My GF and I are spending about $200-$300 per 3 months, plus we have no gas bill.

    *NRMA Comprehensive -242.55/month

    Too high. You must have a very expensive car. If not, you could negotiate a cheaper price. I have an old car. I pay $250 per year for 3rd party insurance.

    *Servicing every 6 months (Do not remember)

    If you don't drive that much, you can service it once/year. Just keep an eye on the oil, etc. in the meantime. In fact, I service mine every 18 months to 2 years. Have been doing this for 6 years without a problem. Maybe not the best strategy if you have a new car and plan to sell it though.

    *Medibank - $384.33/monthly

    This is insane. What value are you getting from that $4500/year? That's $45,000 over 10 years. And you will still need to pay for GP appointments and specialist appointments and medication if you're sick. Just say on a rare occasion, you need an invasive examination like a colonoscopy or gastroscopy. They only cost about $1000-1500 in total (including all the hospital fees). Or you could go on a waiting list and get it done for free. Private health insurance in Australia is not worth it unless your employer pays for it or subsidises it.

    Your total yearly expenses look like they about 5 times mine.

  • +1

    consolidate mobile and broadband if you're not an internet power user.
    do you really need broadband speed and bandwidth? how much do you download a month avg? broadband is usually for internet engineers, content creators and porn.

    road side assist, how many times have you used? you can join on the spot no need to stay a member. use savings to maintain a reliable car instead.

    start with cutting down the biggest annual expenses.

  • +1

    I recently stopped the NRMA monthly for road side. It's a contract however, thus I will still need to pay till early January.

    Apart from road side, I use them for discounted motoserve, but I found that sometimes when they do promo, they combined everything even those that is not in promo and just do one discount, thus those not in promo ended up not discounted. Have raised enquiry but nothing they could do. I switched to Kmart one, the rate seems cheaper anyway and if you do certain type of service they give you free road side assist anyway.

    And if you don't drive much, you can service annually rather than 6 months.

  • +1

    $242 per month for insurance? I pay $61 per month for a new 2024 model car. What can cost 4x more? Before purchasing my car I did research on insurance and partially based my purchase decision on the insurance cost, as it is a major cost of running the vehicle.

    Look around for a better deal. One insurer (Budget Direct) wanted $1500/yr for my car. Hollards through CBA wanted just $732. Same level of cover and excess.

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