Tips & Ideas for Saving Your Money, Time and Resources – Top Money Saving Ideas for Australians

Baby oil is a cheap and versatile beauty product. This is a great substitute for hair gel and hair serum, cheaper and less irritable, and gives your hair a healthy natural glow. Rub a few drops of baby oil onto your hand, and then rub onto your hair. Baby oil is a great alternative to shaving gel, as it is odourless, gentle and softens dry skin while keeping your face moisturised longer. It makes a wonderful massage oil, and body lotion as it helps to insulate and moisturise the body during winter. Baby oil works wonders as an eye and lip makeup remover, and for dry skinned people with pores that are not prone to clogging up, can be used as a general face makeup remover. Use baby oil as low-cost bath oil. Leather shoes and handbag looking tired and dull, a few drops of baby oil on a cloth, rubbed over the leather and it is an makeup and beauty products. A lot of the more economical brands like David Jones home brand, Avon, Natio and supermarket products offer brilliant alternatives and are just as effective or look similar in shade, colour and texture to the more expensive department store brands. The difference with the expensive brands is you are paying for their huge advertising budget and movie star endorsements.

Do-it-yourself facials. Don’t spend $70 a week on facials at a salon, buy exfoliants and masks for around $70 which lasts for months, and give yourself a facial. Alternatively make your own facial with natural ingredients for a low cost chemical-free facial. Egg yolk, honey and olive oil or avocado make wonderful hydrating facials. Ground oatmeal and milk/lemon juice make brilliant exfoliators. For a skin brightening effect, add lemon juice or yogurt.
Shop around for hairdressers. You can easily find a $20 wash, cut and blow package from hairdressers in suburbs like Box Hill, Melbourne and Hurstville, Sydney. Hairdressers is one of those services where costs vary significantly depending on where you go. You can also save by increasing the gap between hairdresser visits.
Visit hairdressing and beauty schools. Most TAFE colleges which offer beauty and hairdressing courses, also offer these services to the public for a nominal fee. These students are supervised by a professional hairdresser or beautician, so the quality is generally at a reasonable standard, and remember even the best celebrity hairdressers started off at one of these colleges.

Visit private home hairdressers and beauticians. There are professional hairdressers and beauticians that perform these services in their own homes and charge a lot less as they save on shop rental and other outlay costs. Ask around your neighbourhood.
Buy your cosmetics online. There are many sites which offer genuine branded products at fraction of what you would pay at a department store. Test the products out for right shade, texture, smell etc at your local department store, and then purchase it at one of these online shops. www.StrawberryNET.com.au is an online cosmetics store which stocks all the famous brands at a fraction of what you would pay at the department stores. It also offers free delivery worldwide.
Visit the Estee Lauder staff store in Sydney and Melbourne. Although it is a staff store, they also provide some Estee Lauder affiliated companies’ staff access to the store – you need a special pass to get in. The store sells Estee Lauder and other brands it owns such as Clinique and Origins at very low employee prices.

Borrow clothes for parties and special events. With formal wear, you usually only get to wear it once. Why not share and swap with friends and family who are a similar size.
Shop at factory outlets and cut price stores. Factory outlets like Brandsmart and DFO sell brand name items at significantly discounted prices. Cut price stores like Savers and Dimmeys also sell brand name clothing that have been overstocked. Some of these sell brand name items like Bonds underwear for a fraction of normal retail prices as they purchased bulk overstocked items. Even stores like Supre, Valley Girl and Target stock quality fashionable pieces at very affordable prices.
Shop towards the end of the season. Retailers discount to get rid of old stock during these periods, or shop at wholesale fashion websites. The only issue is most of them are overseas so you need to look at the measurements carefully as most do not have refund or exchange policies, and some require a minimum order, and most charge in US dollars so you need to be aware of interest rate movements.

Shop at charity and op shops like Salvation Army or St Vincents De Paul. Many of their items are still in excellent conditions, and many people, especially in more affluent suburbs give away brand new unworn clothes to these places.
Buy classic quality clothes. Buy clothes with quality and style that last and generally do not go out of fashion for many years. These include staples like classic little black dress, white blouse, khaki pants, black cardigan, black or beige trench coat. Only have one or two items per season of the latest trend.
Buy versatile clothes that can be mix and matched. Such items include black skirt, classic black or white top, beige pants and brown belt.

Accessorise with scarves, belts and sweater chains for a different look, without spending much. You will be surprised at how much difference a scarf worn strategically looks. This is a great site for showing you how to tie different scarves www.texeresilk.com/cms-scarf_tying_guide.html
Swap clothes and accessories online. Swap things you no longer wear with like-minded people online on fashion swapping sites.
Rent designer clothing and bags. For important events, don’t buy new clothes but rent them from fashion renting sites. Clothes and bags go out of fashion very quickly. Rather than spending a few hundred dollars on a dress that you will only wear a couple of times, why not rent and borrow it online for less than $100.

Look for low cost designer alternatives. Shop Til You Drop is a great magazine for finding much cheaper designer look-alikes to what the latest stars are wearing, as well as heaps of information on beauty and fashion. Instead of buying the magazine look it up online at www.shoptilyoudrop.com.au or borrow it at your local library.
Ask for discounts for stained or slightly damaged clothes. Most shops are keen to get rid of damaged or dirty clothes and will offer large discounts for someone to take it off their hands.
Buy cut price real diamond and gold jewellery at auctions. Commercial auction houses and the Federal Police often run auctions for unclaimed stolen jewellery, where fantastic bargains can be found. Second hand antique stores and some retail jewellery stores offer annual sales for estate, second hand and unclaimed lay by jewellery. For example Thomas Jewellers in Victoria have bi-annual second hand sales which they advertise in The Age newspapers.

Buy simulated diamond jewellery. Rather than buying real diamond jewellery, go for man-made laboratory created diamonds that look like the real thing from a human naked eye and cost a fraction of the price. Try stores like www.secrets-shhh.com which has stores all over Australia.
Buy cheap fashionable clothes from online Korean fashion stores. There are many wholesale Korean fashion stores online that sell clothes for a few dollars.