1. Shopping day.   Every week you must change your shopping day. I have my own method of shopping called RSM or RSM Quicksave. So I follow  my calendar. By doing this I save my entire budgeted shopping amount every 4th week. It's easy to do follow the link

and you too could be saving heaps in a matter of months. www.rsmshoptosave.com   ..... Although I am very passionate about this tip, I won't go into to much detail after all I have dedicated a whole website to this and it would be best you take a look yourself and make your own mind up. So even though it's not for everyone, it could be for you so why not check it out. You've got nothing to lose and lots to gain. 

2. The right time of day to shop. All of the supermarkets have routines that they follow for mark downs. Items can be marked an incredible 60% of the price. This even includes specials. For example Mince might be on special for $4.99 kg. It might regularly sell for $6.99 kg. Lets say there is a kilo pack on the shelf. Normally you would pay $6.99 for that pack. Because it's on special your going to pay $4.99 for the same size pack or  ARE you ?  Not if you know that the mince gets marked down at 4pm most days. So you of course are at the supermarket in the afternoon. If there  is quite a bit of mince left in the meat cabinet the person responsible for marking it down might go the full 60% off the ticket price, That means you could buy that kilo pack of mince for $2.25. On a normal week with no reduction that would have been $7.00 with rounding up.  Are you aware of the right time to do your grocery shopping? If not you can easily find out. Talk to friends and experiment by going at different times and most of all be aware and look out for the mark down stickers. Long weekends are an excellent time to pick up bargains. Because the shops are closed for that extra day most fresh food departments mark down almost 50% more stock than they would normally have done. Even though on RSM we don't go shopping on weekends I often set a bit aside just to grab some of these bargains. Or I minus it from my shopping amount. It is certainly a great time to buy meat, seafood and deli lines. By knowing the right time of day to go to your supermarket the saving on your shopping  bill can be from 25 to 30% . Amazing but true. More info on this on advise about  "Getting to know mark down times at the  supermarket."

3. Bulk buying. Even though you might not see why you should buy large amounts of some items, you should look at the big picture. For example your not going to stop washing the clothes anytime soon. It seems never ending. Yet most people only buy washing powder in 1kg amounts or liquid in 1 litre amounts. A few years ago I discovered that my husbands workplace that sells car parts mostly, also sold washing powder. It was in 25kg tubs and it was industrial strength, great product too . Even though it seemed to cost a bit when we got one. When we worked it out it was around $2.60 a kilo. And it seemed to last forever. We haven't bought one in a while, because when we see what we use (front loader types) on special we buy a heap of them 10 - 12 at a time usually. We normally pay between $1.69-$1.99 for a kilo pack. I do also know that if you go to places like big bubble ( in W.A},  you can take in your own containers and they will fill them up for you. Because you provide the container it costs less. I don't do this mainly because of where I live I have to factor in the petrol cost of going to one of these shops. I'm sure other states of Australia have similar and also other countries  around the world too. You could also get a few friends to get together and start buying large amounts of fruit and vegetables from the markets. For  example most families couldn't get through 20 or 30 kilos of potatoes before they would go rotten. But if 5 families shared the cost of a bag that would be 6 kilos each family, for a 30 kg bag shared. The cost would be a fraction of what you would pay at the supermarket for 6 kilos worth.

Now this is something I don't personally do as I use #2 tip mostly.  I do however have a friend who started a market circle with mums at her local school. I think there is 6 families envolved they each put in $35.  Two of the mums go to the wholesale markets  (they're registered with a card)  they buy a couple of big bags of potatoes, fruit and vegetables mostly the ones in season that are better value buys. Then they divide it up into washing baskets. And because it's coming from the markets the quality and freshness is so good that this last each family 2 weeks. That's right they go to the markets fortnighly. 

4. Buying meat in bulk.   I would caution you about buying bulk meat packs which is not the same as buying your meat in bulk, let me explain.    1st if you can afford to buy your meat in bulk from the butcher or supermarket you can save a packet. As long as you know what your getting. Buying a side of beef for example. I bought this way for quite a few years. It has just gone up so much in price that the last side a bought was about 7 or 8 years ago. It then cost $4.99 kg, I think now they're about $5.99 a kilo to buy. I always got my sides around 80-100 kgs in weight. A butcher explained to me many years ago that the bone weight in an animal of a side of beef that's 60kgs is roughly the same for that of an animal of a side of beef for 80kgs or 100kgs or more. In other words once an animals grows to a certain size the bone weight is basically the same. What is different is the age of the animal that is older means more meat. And of course not as tender as the younger age. You get I found much better value on a side of around 100kgs. Any bigger than that the meat will be quite a bit tougher. I once bought one that was 118kgs, never again. The bone weight is of course wasted, YET you pay for it. But when you consider that the whole cost of what your paying for it is worth it. I mean where can you get porterhouse steak at $5.99, you CAN'T, unless you buy it as a side of beef and then every cut is costing the same price. The butcher will go through with you what cuts of meat that you would like from it. Some people might not wan't a topside roast and prefer it be cut into steaks instead.  Anyway it is worth investigating this option if you can afford to outlay that kind of money all at once.

I am not saying the bulk packs are all bad either. You know the ones that you night see advertised that read 6kilos of mince, 5 kilos of chicken pieces, 2 kgs crumbed cutlets, 2 kilos of sausages, etc etc and it will be a set price. If your going to buy on of these deals I would encoourgae you to try the meat from that outlet 1st. Years ago maybe 20 or so I had a bad experience. I saw an add in the Sunday paper advertising a bulk lot of meat. It cost around $80 from memory and that was a lot of money back then. It took me a couple of months to save up for the meat. Anyway the meat was horrible but we had to endure it for months. The steak was tough and the chicken never quite tasted right, needless to say I learnt from that experience and would never buy like that again. The butcher who told me the information about bone weight also told me that most butchers use the cheaper cuts of beef in these packs. Not that I'm saying that there's anything wrong with cheap cuts but are you getting what your paying for?

 Also if you have a bit of property you can grow your own. We've grown ours, unfortunatly we named them, so they're just part of the family now. But one day I'll have a boy calf born and I won't name him and then we'll get the cheapest and nicest beef of all. We do have some lambs born last year without names so maybe this year although our friends say, "yeh sure" ........

  5. Converting your car to gas.  This is something I've done about 6 months ago. Why I did not do it sooner is the question I ask my self all the time. I have save heaps of money. It actually cost me not a CENT. Of course I had to pay at first. The cost for my car a commodore VS I think (2003) was $3000. I received $2000 rebate from the Federal government and $1000 from the State or was it the other way around ? I'm not sure but the money I used for it went straight back into the bank. My car was costing me well over $100 a week to get around. I do a lot of traveling as I Iive 1/2 hour from anywhere to start with. Now I use around $60 - $85 a week.  So I estimate in one year I will save at least $1000 if not more. I know one of the things you have to be careful about is the cost people are charging for the conversion. Just with me I found a difference of $1750 just in the few phone calls in comparing prices. Also you need to make sure the company that's doing it is a reputable buisness. You also need to be sure your car is worth converting, my husband tells me some are not. With us my ute wasn't worth doing it would lose to much power and as I travel on hilly roads I need a reliable car. So we actually purchased the commodore to do the conversion as we couldn't find a car that was a decent price already on gas. If you don't wan't to convert maybe it's worth looking at changing to one already on gas. Of course you may already have a fuel efficient car. But if you don't,  sit down and take stock of how much your car is costing you to run, if the answers too much then it may be time to convert to gas.

 6. Mortgage.  Make sure that the type of mortgage you have is working for you. There are so many different types of mortgages and ways to reduce your mortgage that you need to be happy that yours is working for you the best it can. If you can go to a mortgage broker that doesn't cost anything for advise then I recommend it. Many years ago my brother had told me about line of credit mortgage. And being typically human by nature I said no it's ok I am happy with the old fashioned way. You know monthly payments with a mortgage payment book. I should have listened to him a little sooner than I did. I mean I understood the concept but still didn't want to bother about changing. But when we were going to buy another house to live in, we decided it doesn't hurt to see what it's all about. The guy we had was really good and he took all our bills and incoming wages into account. About a week later he came back with a projection of how the mortgage would go up and down and when it would be paid off. He then showed us how it would work the other way with the current interest rates of the time. The difference was that we would pay our house off about 7-8 years earlier from memory. It was great and worked well for us. We never paid that home off  as we moved onto another as most people do. But we still have one mortgage that way, and our other one is paid weekly. Monthly payments but we pay weekly that gets your more ahead. Everyone's situation is different and there are so many different ones out there to choose from it is certainly worth shopping around.  I remember asking the broker "what do you get out of this, when we don't pay anything" loan we took out through him  He told me no matter which bank  we choose to go with, he worked through many, that he got a percentage for all the years we stayed with them as we signed up through him. Sounded fair to me after all he did all the work to find the one that would work best for us.     

7. Budgetting. This is a topic many don't like to discuss let alone organise and follow. Yet budgetting is on of the best ways to keep track of your money. Not only will you be aware of what you have, but you will know what it is for. The biggest mistake a lot of people make is to save there money only to spend it on whatever. Then find the car needs repairs that they hadn't counted on. Or some unexpected thing happens and they need money but don't have it cause they just bought a new t.v. I guess your getting my drift. They don't plan for the unexpected. In most budgets your should have a surplus. Or in my case I have a heading I call sundries, this is for anything I haven't planned for within my budget. The best way I can explain it to you is to guide you to a link on my website that goes into great detail of how I set mine.  

It is www.rsmshoptosave.com/howtobudget.htm  The page is Why do I need a Budget? How to set one.

There are many ways to set a budget and many many sites on the internet that show you how. There are simple buget calculator available all over the place. You just need to look around to find one that your comfortable and confident to use. Some are really in depth and others like mine more basic. I hate doing any sort of maths so I make mine as simple as I can. One thing I do know is that all those sucessful buisness and the government even, have one thing in common. Each year they set and follow a new budget. For financial stability they're a MUST.

So if you don't already have a budget my suggestion is Best you start researching and organising your own personal one to follow. 

8. Clothing your family. Now I have dedicated a whole chapter to this subject in my book which I wrte but haven't got around to publishing yet. So I might just keep this brief and write a whole advise article on this one subject. The first point I want to make is that with babies and young children in particular you can save a packet.   They don't yet understand fashion, color or anything like that. For them they just understand if they're too hot or too cold and they have no trouble in telling when this is the case. So why then do we go to designer shops and pay top dollar for something? I guess the answer lies with us, we want them to look good. And you can argue all you like about the argue the point about quality all you like. You'll never convince me that it's better to pay $12-$15 or more for a fancy jumpsuit as against going to the swapmeet or garage sale or op shop and getting a similar garment, that costs between 50 cents and $2.00. I have been going to the swapmeet  lately and I have been selling clothes my children have outgrown. I sell clothing mostly at 50 cents a garment. The good warm, thick jackets I sell for $2.00.

I don't buy all my kids clothes from these places. I buy from the shops out of season. So at the end of summer when the shop sell the rest of the summer gear at next to nothing, I buy for next year and sometimes the year after. The same goes for winter clothes. As the kids get older you need to take into consideration fashion and there own particular likes and dislikes. For example my daughter Natalya loves to wear skinny leg jeans. There would be no point in me buying her a pair of apple bottom or flare jeans. She hates them and just wouldn't wear them. So it doesn't matter how cheap they cost, it would be a waste of my money.  I have gotten some amazing savings by buying the clothing either on sale or out of season. Also seconds shops and factory outlets are fantastic. I got a pair of branded jeans once from Target. The original price on these was $49.95 I paid 49c. No lie, it was about 3 years ago. I get such a buzz out of these sorts of bargains. My kids do get brand names now, but as babies definatly not. My youngest boy Ben (12) would probably horrified if he knew that as a baby I often put him to bed in a pink jumpsuit or pj's. I mean his older sister was only two years in front of him, they were in good condition and did the job of keeping him warm at night, who else was going to know only us at home. And to be honest it didn't make him any less a boy. He didn't care then and he won't now, because I won't tell him.

9. Join the Library. One of the best things you can do for your children is join the local library. And you don't have to wait until they can read to do this. Many libraries have childrens mornings or storytime or something similar . When my two were little I used to take them to storytime at our local library. I am NOT a reader. In fact I only pick up a book if there is something I want to find out information on. Sad but true. But I still took the children, they listen to a story read by the librarian. Then they would do a little activity. They did look forward to wednesday mornings and it was an outing for us. Joining your local library is Free. Many libraries have a good range of Videos, I guess by now it's DVD's. I haven't been to my local (we'll it's not so local 1/2 from me) in aboout 6 months. My 3rd child Natalya was reading by age 4, so the library was a goodsend. She got 3 or 4 books out to read each week, just imagine if I had to buy all that reading material for her. The cost we saved and fun we had going to the library  all those years ago is imeasurable. So I say if yoou have yooung children join the local library or toy library, you will save a packet. 

10. Buying Whitegoods. Never in all my years have I paid a full ticket price for a large household item. From beds to washing machines, T.V etc etc. Firstly we always think about weather we need it. Then we decide what type and do a bit of price comparisions. Never have I just gone into one shop and said ok this one will do.  Most of the time I will buy one of these items at either the stocktake sales in June. Or the post christmas sales. The most recent item I bought was a front loader washing machine. I have to tell you my husband is great at fixing things, he really takes after his dear departed Dad. My washing maching was about 14 years old. We bought it new, on sale and then got another $50 off the price because it had a dent in the side. It has done washing for our family wonderfully. Every now and then some part would wear out, so off to the tip we'd go. Take another one of these parts out of the many hundreds dumped at the tip. He'd put this part in and off we'd go for the next couple of years. I'd hadn't been able to wash in hot water from about year 3 in, but that's ok I use cold water anyway. Anyway we'd decided it was time to get another. The government was going to take away the rebate at the end of the month, so off to work I went. Found out the cheapest one I could with a low rate for water usage and power etc. Then we went to a place that gives you a lower price for cash. Told them the equevelent price of one we wanted from another place that they also had in stock, and you guessed it they beat the price, because we payed cash. My old washing maching is still here. We figure if we ever run out of water (were on tanks) we will drag it out and fill it with bore water to wash with, hasn't happened yet. This good old washing machine resides in our other house. We live on a property with two houses, the second has my daughter Natalya  living in it. It's only across a courtyard. So in her laundry is this washing machine. I use it when I need to wash something really large like a doona. It's probably got a few more years left in it. But I have a really funny washing machine story to share with you.

As I said befor Vic's Dad, Ben was a great handiman. His washing machine packed up one day. It smelt like burning, so we said time for a new one. He toddled off into the house and came back with a warranty booklet for the machine. The washing maching had been purchased 30 years to the exact day when It bit the dust, AMAZING. We said I think it's slightly out of warranty all had a great laugh and went and bought him a new one. His dad was in his late 70's then. Now he complained that the new washing machine didn't work properly, so what do you think he did. Week after week he week he would fiddle with the old machine. One day when we came to visit he couldn't wait to show us proudly how he'd fixed the old machine. He went back to using the machine for a few months then it broke down again. He died not too much longer than that. We took the old machine to our house for a few years not being able to throw it out, silly I know. Eventually after Vic had a go and couldn't fix it we relented and took it to the tip. The new machine we gave to one of his grandchildren who were in need of one.  I know this bit isn't exactly about money saving but it does go to show that sometimes before tossing something out to buy a new one that you should check if it's worth fixing. By the way my hubby and I are known by most of our friends as Mr and Mrs Steptoe. To those to young to know what that means, it means we are hoarders. 

In closing I hope these tips do help some of you, and I encourge you to share with the rest of us Your top Ten Tips, which I look forward to reading.    

Cheers and happy savings,  Carole.