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

Tax deduct work-related studies. For full time and part time workers, you may tax deduct self-education expenses if what you study is related to your area of work. Type of expenses that are deductible include tuition, student union, text books, computer depreciation costs, stationery, travelling costs and more. You also may need to reduce $250 from your total deduction. Refer to ATO site or your tax accountant for further information.
Claim Education Tax Refund. A maximum refund of $375 [as at 2009] for each primary school aged child and $750 for each secondary child may be claimed for expenditure towards computer, laptops, printers, software, textbooks, internet services and other eligible expenses, when you lodge your tax return.
Buy and sell second hand textbooks. These can be bought and sold at school or university bulletin boards or on one of the websites specialising in second hand books. It is not worth buying new books as second hand ones do the job just as well. Do not retain books, as most text books are never looked at again once the subject is over and are regularly superseded by newer versions.
Borrow and photocopy relevant textbook sections. With some subjects, only parts of a text book are used. It is more cost efficient to just borrow the book from a friend or library and photocopy the relevant sections, or just borrow the book for a short period when you need it.

Download textbooks for free from web. Some websites offer thousands of free eBooks for downloading legally.
Buy and sell second hand school uniforms. These can be bought and sold at your local school exchange or second hand uniform shop.
Limit the number of uniform items purchased. Instead of buying 2 summer dresses, buy 1 and instead wash it more frequently. Children grow out of uniforms very quickly.

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Purchase a couple sizes larger and let your child grow into it. This is particularly relevant for high value items like blazers. For dress, skirts and pants these can be altered to fit your kids, and then readjusted later.
Buy in bulk. Pool up with other parents and buy stationery in bulk from wholesale stores.
Buy at $2 shops. Discount stores like The Reject Shop and $2 Shops have a large variety of low cost stationery and other useful back-to-school things.

Don’t pay for “bells and whistles” on laptops and computers. PC models become obsolete very quickly, and secondary students only require the basic functions for their schoolwork. Purchasing a very fast and powerful PC only encourages students to use it for playing games and watching movies. PCs and laptops can be purchased very economically on the internet with auction sites like www.ebay.com.au and www.oztion.com.au. There are a lot of bargains for new items during end-of-financial year sales or stocktake sales at electrical. Refer to the PC and Computers section of this website for more ideas on acquiring free and low cost computer peripherals and software items.
Restrain spending during back to school sales. Parents should not feel pressured to buy new things for their children during back to school periods. Instead of buying new stationery when last year’s is still usable, buy it later in the year when it is used up - space purchases out during the year. Children appreciate receiving new items throughout the year more than being given 10 new things all at once.

Hire student tutors. University students charge a lot less for tutoring services and as they have recently completed their studies, are possibly better at explaining problems to your child.
Reciprocate tutoring with friends. Make arrangements with friends to tutor each other’s children in respective area of expertise, or doing something else for your friend in return.
Alternatives to private school. Rather than spending $20,000 a year on private schools, invest in programs that prepare your child for selective school entrance exams. These courses significantly increases your child’s chances of succeeding in gaining a place at a selective school. These schools perform just as well if not better than private schools and cost nothing. Alternatively, instead of sending your child to private school, use the saved expenses to hire private tutors. Some children benefit more from one-on-one tutoring than private schooling, and overall you save more too.
Save on music lessons. Instead of paying $60 an hour (current average rate), for a registered professional music teacher, hire a university music student who charges around half the price. This is especially appropriate for beginner students, as most music teachers use the same music books to start beginners on anyway. Alternatively there are retired men and ladies around neighbourhoods that take on a few young children students for a nominal fee. They do this as a hobby and for the company. Ask around your neighbourhood and you might find such a person in your next street.