Easy ways for Aussies to make & save a few extra bucks during the Cost of Living Crisis

How’s that cost of living crisis treatin’ ya?

It’s been a pretty tough year for a lot of people, so I wanted to share some things I’ve found to help ease the pressure that have allowed me to still squeeze some enjoyment from everyday life that pretty much anyone can take advantage of.

Look, I’ve read a lot of blog posts like this over the years okay. I grew up in a pretty low income family, and I’ve really only had about 4 years when I was working and living at home with my parents where I was making enough money to stuff my savings account with hella cash. I wasn’t earning that much, but my living expenses were pretty low and most of my friends were online so I wasn’t spending heaps of money on a car or going out and getting drunk like most of the other people my age were. The thing with lists like this is that a lot of the time it feels like they’re just throwing whatever they can think of at the wall and your job is to scroll for 2 hours, reading all of these ideas, and picking out maybe 3 of the 100 that might actually work for you. A lot of them need special skills in some form or another, or require 20+hrs/wk turning it into a full-on business venture (which if you’ve ever attempted before is NOT just some quick easy side hustle). I’m convinced most of the people writing these blogs are people who have never tried most of the things they are suggesting and are publishing with the sole intention of getting clicks and views and generating some revenue for themselves.

SO! I’m here to give you a ..medium? (it was small to start with but it grew) list of things that I have actually tried and do myself (with a few exceptions that I think are still relevant but have marked as untested), that DON’T require you to have any particular skillset and DON’T need a whole business and marketing strategy behind them to make a buck. You don’t even need to leave your house to do most of these.

I’m not getting paid to write any of this. I do have referral links or codes for some of the things below that give me a little kickback, but you get something out of it too and they are in no way my main motivation for writing this. I’ve gotten really into personal finance over the past 6-ish years, and as someone who currently has a very tight budget, these things have genuinely helped me out, so I’m hoping they can help other people too.

These are options to save yourself some cash on your regular purchases or make some extra income on the side, regardless of whether that’s for helping with bills, building up some savings, or just throwing it in your splash fund so you can enjoy a damned iced matcha every once in a while without feeling guilty.

Items are listed in the following order:

1. SAVING MONEY ON THE THINGS YOU ALREADY BUY/PAY FOR

2. GROWING THE MONEY YOU HAVE FOR THE FUTURE

3. MAKING EXTRA BUCKS

(Information last updated: June 2024)

Saving money on the things you already buy/pay for

• ShopBack
  Use referral code F30cLV for a $5 - $10 signup bonus (must enter your withdrawal details within 90 days to get the bonus)
  
  ShopBack offers cashback at loads of different retailers and service providers when you make online purchases using their mobile app or browser extension. You can also take surveys for some extra money, get extra bonus cashback for some stores if you pay with a Westpac card, and join challenges for extra rewards (make sure you scroll to check for any relevant challenges before making a purchase because they’ll only count if the challenge has already been activated and they don’t exactly put them front and centre).
  
  You will have to wait for your cashback to clear before you can withdraw it (this can take up to 3 months depending on the store, some are faster), but it can give you a nice little boost, even without having to spend much. I’ve gotten a bunch of half price or even free (after cashback) pizza and have withdrawn over $220 from the app since joining in October (a lot of it was bonuses from signups, challenges, surveys, and 2 referrals, with actual purchase cashback mostly just being some cheap pizza and things I needed for my business).
  
  The minimum amount needed to withdraw is only $10 and you can get it paid out straight to your bank account. Just be careful if you have a shopping problem as it can be a little tempting browsing through the deals. Minimal invasion of space, no annoying emails, just deal popups sometimes when opening the app and semi-regular notifications if you turn them on.
  

  ⚠ Only allow push notifications for this app if you have good self control around spending because they WILL let you know when shops have deals going on. It can be handy if it’s for something you need anyway, but mostly it’s just dangerous temptations.
  

• Cashrewards (Untested)
  Referral code tHnsZr for a $10 signup bonus ^
  
  Basically the same as ShopBack, but there are some different stores and they’re affiliated with ANZ instead of Westpac. I have the browser extension installed but I haven’t actually ended up using it yet.
  
  ^ To get the $10 signup bonus you need to make a qualifying purchase of $20 within 14 days, so maybe save this one until there’s something you need.
  

• Woolies Rewards
  
  Get points when shopping at Woolies, Big W, and BWS to build up money off your future purchases. We don’t spend heaps on groceries and we shop across multiple stores, but we racked up like $40 of free groceries super quick thanks to sign up bonuses and probably get about 10 bucks of credit per month.
  
  2,000 points = $10 and you get 1 point for every $1 spent, but there’s always a bunch of bonuses on offer to grow your points faster. You can share the same account by ordering extra physical cards or just using the digital card, just make sure you boost any relevant offers in the app before checking out. The app also keeps all of your receipts digitally for you.
  
  They also have a paid subscription thing to get extra bonuses and savings, but you would want to look into that based on how much you spend as to how beneficial it would be for you.
  

• Flybuys
  
  I ignored Flybuys for ages because I had it 15+ years ago and it use to be trash and basically pointless, but turns out it is now very similar to woolies rewards with the point to $ ratio and bonus point boosters. You can use it at WAY more stores, but the app isn’t as easy to use as the woolies one and it only tracks your transactions, not the actual items that were purchased, which makes it a bit harder to check if you got bonuses for certain things. You can have multiple people using the same card (physical and digital copies) and the benefit of it not being as good tech-wise is we somehow managed to get a big bonus reward twice when we both checked out at the same time with qualifying purchases, so that was cool.
  

• Honey plugin
  Referral link: joinhoney.com/ref/4a5m9g
  
  Browser plugin that finds discount codes when shopping online. I’ve been using this for YEARS and it comes in handy pretty often.
  

• AGL Peak Energy Rewards (Untested)
  
  I wasn’t actually able use this because it’s not available in my location or something so I can’t confirm how good it is, but I was waiting with bated breath for our digital meter upgrade thinking it would give me access to this. I am only aware of this program because we previously had our electricity plan with AGL, but other providers might have something similar which could be worth checking out!
  
  Basically you can sign up for the program and they will send you an alert when there is too much pressure on the grid. If you keep your electricity usage below a certain amount during that time, they will give you credit towards your next bill.
  

• Concession Cards & Student Cards
  
  This won’t apply to everyone, but if you have a concession card (healthcare card, disability pension card, senior card, etc), there are a bunch of services and places that offer concession prices. You can get a discount on your electricity bills, movie tickets, and bus fares, amongst other things.
  
  Student cards can have similar discounts, and you might even be able to snag cheaper food at some restaurants or grocers. Check out StudentBeans to find heaps of student discounts for retailers and service providers you might already use.
  
  Don’t have any of these cards? Do some research and see if you might be eligible! You can apply for a low income healthcare card even if you are working and don’t receive a payment from Centrelink.
  

• Don’t just buy all your groceries from whatever shop is closest (and try the homebrand products)
  
  If you buy 100% of your groceries from Coles & Woolies, there’s a good chance you’re paying a lot more than you need to. The savings at Aldi aren’t as good as they use to be and you can no longer assume that they’re cheaper (specials on at other stores are sometimes a better deal), but they still have some pretty good prices on certain items, especially for alternatives to stupidly expensive stuff like dishwasher tablets (the cheap powder concentrate does the job just fine). Try out the cheap homebrand products the stores have too. Some of them can be trash, but a lot are very similar or even just white-labelled (literally the exact same product in different packaging). Figure out what’s actually worth paying brand name prices for and go generic for the rest.
  
  Check for discount grocers around your area! If you’re near Aspley in Brisbane, T-bones is awesome and posts their super specials on facebook every day. The name is misleading, it’s partly a butcher, but they have heaps of fruit and veg and I’ve gotten some really great vegan replacements there for super cheap. I believe Coco’s Annerley is similar but I’ve never been there. If you’re a morning person, it’s also worth checking out your local farmers markets. If you’re buying directly from the grower, you can often find stuff cheaper and more of your money is going to the person who produced it instead of the store.
  
  Places like Silly Sollys and your local cheap shop can be great for cleaning supplies and storage, and some of them have a good range of snacks and food for a few dollars cheaper too.
  
  If you’re struggling, Ask Izzy is a great resource where you can search for local food pantries, grocery parcels, and free meals (there is also a directory for heaps of cheap/free non-food services too). Don’t be afraid to reach out to these services for help, that’s literally why they exist, you don’t need to be homeless-level broke to use them. I’ve used a foodbank in the past that really helped me out and I would recommend it here but apparently they’re under new ownership and are now charging equal or more than the big supermarkets while still claiming to be a cheap food pantry so they can go eat poop. If you’re at uni, most of them have free food pantries available for students in need too.
  

• Compare your phone plan (and any other services you might be paying for)
  
  You might be able to save a decent little stack by switching mobile service providers. I’m with ALDI mobile for my monthly pre-paid plan and they use the Telstra network so there was virtually no difference in service since that’s who I was previously with. I mainly use wifi at home and don’t need heaps of data so most mobile plans are more than I need. These guys had the cheapest pre-paid plans at the time, but there’s a few other budget providers around now that I haven’t looked into yet who might also have some sweet deals. I think people seem a bit suss on ALDI mobile sometimes because of the brand but I’ve been using them for like 8 years or something and have never had any issues. I’m grandfathered into some secret exclusive plan so I think it is a couple bucks more now but as far as I’m aware it’s still one of the cheapest plans available. It’s worth comparing your plan every couple of years to see if something better has popped up, because providers are always changing their offerings. Same goes for your internet, electricity, gas etc. providers.
  
  I recently switched energy providers because I realised this old plan I’ve been on for about 6 years that was suppose to be the super cheap option is actually costing me more than my provider’s current lowest plan, and even that is not particularly competitive right now. Recurring bills for services like this are easy to just set and forget, but if you stop paying attention for too long and they add a bunch of cheaper plans without telling you, that shit can add up pretty fast. Keep an eye out for any lock-in contracts, exit fees, or other potentially hidden little nasties that might make things less appealing. I like a good no contract, no exit-fee plan so that I don’t get stuck with it if I find something better down the track.
  
  I switched to OVO which apparently has a referral program, but UNFORTUNATELY I didn’t know about it when I signed up so I missed out on googling someone’s code and getting $120 in credit (sadface). If you decide to go with them, learn from my mistake and use this link to sign up.
  

• Consider changing banks to save on fees
  
  TL;DR: Look for fee-free bank accounts if your bank is charging you a monthly fee for not depositing enough (what I like to refer to as the ‘poor fee’). There’s a bunch that won’t punish you for being low income. There may also be other fees you can avoid or lower on your accounts, credit cards, etc.
  
  UPDATE 05/10/2024: As of October 1st 2024, ANZ Plus now has conditions which remove interest if not met. Please always check the account terms before choosing a product as they are constantly changing. ANZ Plus is still fairly minor in its requirements as of this update (grow your balance by $100 per month), but it no longer suits for how I was using the individual savers. I may keep my emergency savings in there for the higher interest while I am still contributing to it regularly. I’ve personally just moved most of my savings categories to Up bank because I really like their app functionality and gamification and want to maintain being able to lower my balance without losing all of my interest (since it's mostly me organising bills and spending). They make things feel a lot more fun and accessible, so if you're wanting to improve your money habits but aren't super into the whole thing, consider checking them out. You do have to do 5 taps with the debit card to activate bonus interest which may or may not be super easy depending on your shopping habits, and the interest is a bit lower, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for the easy organisation and automatic pay splitting feature. It's another online-only and fee-free bank, but it's backed/owned by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, and their home loan and automatic offsets stuff sounds pretty juicy too for whenever that might be needed. They do a referral bonus so if you like the sound of them you can use this link to get $10 on signup: https://hook.up.me/coldwire.
  
  For an update on the Macquarie front, I did end up going with them for my business stuff. Just using personal accounts, not official business accounts, because the rates are much better and I’m a sole trader so I’m allowed to do that. I’ve got it set up with a main transaction account for available funds/spending and then a couple of different savings accounts for the things I need to keep separate like my taxes, annual costs/bills that will need to come out eventually, and the fund I use to recycle my table fees for markets and events.

  OLDER ENTRY: Earlier in the year, I opened up an ANZ Plus account after stank-eyeing ANZ suggesting it to me for several months because I assumed it was just some gimmicky thing and didn’t bother looking into it. Well I finally looked into it, and it turns out it might actually be completely awesome. Granted, there are some limitations and down-sides but this is an app-only account system (meaning you can’t access the accounts at a branch or with regular online banking, but you can still use ATMs with them) that offers ZERO account keeping fees (you know that $5 poor fee they charge you just for having a bank account if you’re not making enough income?), and a savings account with a competitive interest rate (4.9% at the time of publishing this) with NO requirements. You don’t lose 90% of your interest for the month if you need to pull out 10 bucks, you don’t have to deposit or spend $2,000 with an associated account, none of that crap. This seemed too good to be true considering all the little conditions most banks attach to their interest rates, but I read everything I could find and as far as I can tell it’s just a super flexible and accessible high interest savings account. Woohoo! As long as your balance is under $250,000, it applies. (If you have over 250k in savings, there’s probably better places for you to be getting money tips than this blog post). This savings account doesn’t come up on most high interest savings account comparison lists because it slides in just under 5%, but the vast majority of the accounts on those lists have their interest made up almost entirely of condition-bound bonus interest and pay absolute trash if you don’t meet the requirements for that month (or they only made it on because of a higher introductory interest rate that goes down after a couple of months).

  
  Bonus cool thing: You can open up to 99 individual goals/categories inside of the savings account which is super helpful for allocating money (I’m a huge nerd for that shit) and managing your cash flow, while also taking advantage of interest since you can keep things separate and pull stuff out whenever you want without needing to keep it in a separate account. I have like 28 different buckets in there right now because I’m secretly an insane control freak with financial trauma. I already had accounts with ANZ so it felt like a pretty easy transition for me, but you can’t really use this as a solo thing because of the limitations (no branch access, limited to one transaction and one savings account, and for some reason there is no option to put a reference in when sending money).
  
  I’ve started looking into more fee-free transaction accounts to find one to open specifically for my business stuff, and ANZ Plus definitely isn’t the only one. I’m still early in my dig so I’m not going to try and list them (you can just google no fee banking), but so far Macquarie is looking pretty good since it also gives you a solid interest rate on your transaction account. I didn’t even know transaction accounts with interest rates (at least interest above 0.01%) existed.

• Find your local Buy Nothing group
  
  These might have different names in different areas, but a lot of towns and suburbs have a facebook group where neighbours can pass on or lend out their unwanted or unused items for free to keep them out of landfill and help save people some money. I’ve gotten some super helpful items from ours including display items for my markets and a respirator to keep me from melting my brain when doing my resin casting and spray painting, and I even got a casio keyboard to gift to my friend. Commonly there are items like clothes, kids toys, household items, pantry food, and gardening supplies, but you never know what you’ll find. Try searching ‘buy nothing’ plus your location on facebook to see if there’s one near you. The community facebook groups are also great for finding local resources and initiatives like crop swaps, communal gardens, street libraries, and kindness carts.

• Apps for saving money on eating out (Partially untested, I browse the apps but haven’t used the deals yet)
  
  If you’re planning on eating out, see if you can save yourself some dollarydoos while doing so. First Table (referral link for $5 credit) is an app that offers 50% off your bill when you book a table during quiet periods, and EatClub offers deals on a bunch of takeaway and dine-in options. These are probably most useful in metro areas.

• Check for pre-loved clothes before buying new
  
  Another money and sustainability win rolled into one. Op shops are obviously awesome when it comes to treasure hunting, but even if you’re after a specific style or piece you can still check for 2nd hand options before buying new. Do a search on Depop, ebay, or facebook marketplace to see if anyone is selling what you’re looking for. There’s a lot of stuff that has never even been worn floating around because people accidentally order the wrong size or don’t like it on once it arrives. I was dreading having to spend money on a new dress for an upcoming wedding, but I found a $250 brand-name dress on Depop that I’m pretty sure is brand new and I paid $30. Absolute bloody bargain, mate.

Growing the money you have for the future

• Earn Interest on Your Savings
  
  I highly recommend growing and keeping an emergency fund (with 3-6 months worth of living expenses) as a safety net. This and any other savings you have sitting in the bank should be earning you some form of interest and at least attempting to keep up with inflation.
  
  Check out this spreadsheet of high interest savings accounts that I found on reddit if you want to see what options are around: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/145iM6uuFS9m-Rul65--eFJQq_Au7Z_BA4_CwkYwu2DI/edit#gid=271791020

• Micro-Investing with Sharesies
  Use this referral link or the code KNP34W for a $5 signup bonus
  
  Sharesies is great for getting started out and testing the waters with investing, or if you’ve already been investing but don’t have enough extra money at the moment for the usual higher brokerage fees and bigger parcel purchases that a lot of platforms require.
  
  ⚠ IMPORTANT: There are risks involved with investing, always do your research and read the PDS (product disclosure statement) before purchasing any financial products. You can find some good beginner investing info and tips at https://moneysmart.gov.au/how-to-invest and the Sharesies app has some good little tips too. Never invest more than you can afford to lose, blue-chip companies and broad-based ETFs with slower growth are generally the safest options. Investing comes with tax obligations and ETFs and overseas companies can make these a bit more complicated.
  
  If you want to know WHY investing is important, have a play with this compound interest calculator (use a 7% interest rate, this is the conservative historical average return from the stock market, adjusted for inflation) to see how much difference it makes vs keeping everything in cash. Compounding really starts to kick in at around 10 years and starts snowballing like wild after that.
  
  The cool thing about Sharesies is that it allows you to buy fractional shares with no minimum purchase which adds a lot of flexibility, and if you’re only putting in a small amount (eg. $200/month or less) you can opt for their free plan that takes approximately 2% of your transaction in fees instead of paying a monthly cost. If you’re wanting to invest more than that, plans start at $5/month and cover fees up to a certain amount. They also have options for automatic wallet top-ups, round-ups, and auto-investing (but read the terms and check your plan details for any extra costs these might incur).
  
  I already had an investment portfolio when I opened up my Sharesies account, but I usually try to save up at least $2,000 before making any buys because of brokerage fees and so that I can make sure I have enough to cover several units (some shares and ETFs can be pretty expensive, even just to buy one unit). With my current income it takes me a pretty long time to save up that much outside of covering bills and topping up my emergency fund, but investing is important to me (mainly BECAUSE of being low income and wanting to gain some kind of financial security in the future), so being able to just chuck over $5 or $10 a week, even though it seems hardly worth it individually, is something I really appreciate having access to. It let’s me get my money into the market faster so that I can start getting that growth in and stops it from just getting spent on something else, and I don’t have to worry about having enough to cover a full unit because of the fractional shares, so I can put it into whatever the heck I want. Just keep in mind that you will have tax obligations for any investments when you eventually sell them and overseas investments and ETFs or managed funds are likely to make that a lot more complicated.
  
  Make sure you keep good records of all your transactions and get a tax person if you’re finding it too complicated or worried about accidentally commiting tax fraud. This kind of sounds like an ad, but I promise it’s not. I just genuinely think it’s pretty awesome. Before I was doing my small weekly auto-investments I just used my signup bonus and whatever money I got from Shopback, so you can basically learn and get use to investing without even using your own money (sort of) if you’re feeling extra timid, it’ll just grow slower since there’s less going in. Technically it is your own money once they’ve given it to you, but you know what I mean. It feels less scary to use that extra bonus money than giving up some of your usual income.

• Super Co-Contributions
  
  If you’re a low or middle income earner and are in a position to do so, consider making a concessional contribution to your superannuation. If you earn $58,445 or less, and make an eligible post-tax contribution to your super, the government will also put in a co-contribution of up to $500. It’s going into your super and you won’t be able to access it until you reach retirement age, so keep this in mind before making a contribution if you might need that money for essentials, but if you have a little extra cash saved up (perhaps from the things mentioned in the next section) then it’s definitely worth thinking about. Every little bit will really start to add up when that compounding interest kicks in later down the track.
  
  The thresholds and entitlements change each year, so check the ATO’s website here to find more information: https://www.ato.gov.au/tax-rates-and-codes/key-superannuation-rates-and-thresholds/government-contributions

Making extra bucks

(a couple of simple at-home ‘side hustles’ without all the time consuming and confusing business shit)

• Sell your unwanted stuff
  
  One homie’s trash is another homie’s treasure! If you’ve been watching Marie Kondo and found yourself doing a big cull (or haven’t done one yet but need to), eBay, Depop, facebook marketplace if you’re feeling lucky, and cheap local 2nd hand markets can be your friend. It can take a bit of time to list things online, but a lot of places are free to list (some may charge fees on sales), and are relatively low effort to potentially bring in a bit of extra cash
  

• Surveys
  
  Okay, I know what you’re thinking. You’ve probably heard about paid surveys all over the internet for years. They’re bullshit, right? It’s either a scam or you spend 5 hours filling out surveys to make 10 cents, but HEAR ME OUT. Some of these platforms are legit and every now and then the surveys are even genuinely interesting.
  
  These can be time consuming and definitely don’t pay comparable to a real job, but there’s a few sites that are worth trying (and a lot that probably aren’t). I only started doing this late 2023 and it was because of the built-in survey options on ShopBack, but I’ve since done some more research and found more sites that pay out real money almost instantly (once you meet the minimum) for doing surveys without the 3 month cashback wait that ShopBack’s Savvy Surveys has.
  
  My personal favourite is MyOpinions. I was a bit worried signing up for this one and put it off several times because they require your driver’s license to verify your account and stop people from spamming the surveys, but I signed up in February and I’ve actually made $240 on there as of June. I haven’t been doing them much lately because I’ve been pretty busy, but when I first signed up I spent a pretty solid chunk of time on there and made like $80 in one week. The pay works out to be around $6-7/hr, and they also have bonus tiers based on your lifetime points that give you extra points based on how much you earned the previous week, and they don’t reset, so once you hit the top tier (10% weekly point bonus), you stay there.
  
  Another one I’ve used and heard a lot of good about is Octopus Group (referral link). I personally get screened out of most of these ones and rarely get given surveys on it so I don’t think I’m in the right group of people for this one to work too well, but a lot of people seem to have a lot of success with it. Both Octopus Group and MyOpinions require $20 in credit before you can redeem, and I have successfully redeemed cash from both.

  
  Another one with varying levels of pay (usually a lot lower), but worth mentioning just due to the sheer volume of surveys to choose from, is Attapoll (referral code TWXQA for $1 bonus). I think you only need like $5 to withdraw from that one and I did end up making withdrawals from it several times, but it’s really only good if you’ve got a lot of time to kill. I don’t really use it anymore.

• Can/bottle recycling
  
  This one has a pretty pathetic payout unless you go through a LOT of bottles and cans or are also getting them from other people, but if you’re going through them anyway, why not just collect them in a corner somewhere and cash them in every now and then instead of throwing them into your recycling bin. You can hit up those community facebook groups I mentioned above if you need a few extra bags of cans. A lot of people can’t be bothered returning them, so they’re more than happy to give them to someone else.
  

• Odd jobs and monetising your skills

  
  Here is where most of these ‘ways to make money’ posts get 95% of their content from, so I’m going to try and keep it short and NOT attempt to list out every possible option here. This one is up to you, have a little brainstorm of what might work for you and your personal interests and abilities. If you enjoy doing something or are good at it, think about if other people might have any use for it. Don’t automatically assume nobody would pay for it, you might be surprised. This could be literally anything (within reason, don’t go causing too much havoc please).
  
  Examples could be gardening, baby/pet/housesitting, baking, crafts, cleaning, proofreading, entertainment, streaming the video games you’re already playing, social media, talking about celebs/sport/politics, sharing knowledge about your special interest, lifting heavy things, reaching high shelves, math, cooking, etc.
  
  Write a list of ideas and go wild. You can figure out the logistics of how to actually make money from each one and whether it’s ‘realistic’ or not after.

That’s all I can think of for now.

Anything you’ve tried and had success with you’d like to add to the list?

Chuck a comment below, it might help someone out :)