Buy household appliances online. Browse for the oven, cooktop, TV, rangehood and other appliances that you are after in shops like Myer, Harvey Norman, The Goodguys etc, and then buy the same item for around 20% less online from shops like
www.applianceonline.com.au www.thestorehouse.com.au
which offers top brands of electronics and kitchen appliances with below department store prices, all delivered free!
Buy past issue magazines at your local newsagency. Many newsagencies have “past issue” magazine baskets lying in the corner. These magazines are only a few months old and sell for a fraction of their recommended retail price. This is particularly useful for art, crafts and hobby magazines where timing is not such an issue.
Salvage items left out on nature strips. In principle it is illegal to collect items left out on nature strips as it has been left out for the council and they recycle some of these items. However, if you ask the owner you can take them, as it still belongs to the owner until the council picks it up. Driving around more affluent suburbs increases your chance of finding something still in good condition.
Furnish your house with items from your local Waste and Recycling Centre. Some centres will charge a very small fee for the public to collect furniture, white goods and other items, to help cover the cost of their staff sorting the waste. These centres collect thousands of unwanted household items each year and can be a gold mine for a flexible shopper, and they cost next to nothing. Contact your local council or a wealthy suburb municipal council to find out where their recycling tip is located.
Don’t buy magazines. Magazine subscriptions really add up as do the strategically placed ones at the supermarket checkouts. Instead visit your local library or view them online. Those few dollars a week really add up during the year, not to mention more environmentally friendly too. There are plenty of latest gossip and fashion news on the internet for free.
Don’t buy newspapers. Instead of subscribing to the newspaper, read news online for free. www.news.com.au covers all the latest major Australian headline news for free. Alternatively pick up a free newspaper at the station on in CBD eg. MX if you are in Melbourne.
Read free newspapers and magazines at cafes. Buy a coffee at your local cafe or even McCafe, and read to your heart’s content.
Do-it-yourself dry cleaning. Don’t spend $5 per garment for dry-cleaning. Buy a do-it-yourself dry cleaning kit like Dryel, and FreshCare which costs about $12 AUD + shipping and cleans 12 garments. I have not seen them in Australia shelves as yet, but they can certainly be purchased online and shipped to Australia.
Use coke to wash your toilet. Got a spare can of coke around the house - Don’t waste it. Coca cola is a great cleaning agent for toilet bowls - no kidding!. Pour a can of coke into toilet bowl and leave for around half and hour and then clean as usual with brush and flush. Coke contains carbonic, citric and phosphoric acids.
Don’t buy expensive commercial cleaning agents. Many cheaper natural alternatives exists which are just as effective, and better for the environment and for your family’s health as there are no artificial chemicals. Baking soda, white vinegar, and lemon juice are all brilliant alternative products to commercial household cleaning agents, disinfectants, bleaches and deodorisers. For example undiluted vinegar works marvellously as an all-purpose cleaner for stove tops, dishwashers, dirt and grime in sinks, ring around collar of shirts, as well stains in toilet bowls. Fill a spray bottle with half vinegar and half water and spray on to tiles and windows and glass surfaces for effective cleaning. Baking soda is great for deodorising smelly drains and toilets, stinky shoes, and for cleaning glass, stainless steel, and silverware. Lemon juice is a natural bleaching agent and a few drops can help bleach clothes, add shine to brass and copper items, remove stove stains and freshen up drains. Or add lemon juice to vinegar for a fresh smelling cleaning agent.
Shampoo “ring around the shirt collars”. Don’t buy stain removers, use a bit of shampoo and then rub the material together. Shampoo is specifically designed to remove body oil and dirt anyway.
Don’t buy bottled water and water coolers. They don’t call it liquid gold for no reason. Tap water or boiled and then re-cooled tap water is just as safe and costs much less. Tap water also contains fluoride which protects teeth enamel and help save on your dentist bills in the long run.
Buy items with cash and haggle, even in department stores. Ask the vendor to reimburse you the 2-5% fees that they save from paying banks, when you pay by cash instead of credit.
Haggle when buying large items like whitegoods or entertainment units. This is especially effective when purchasing more than one item in the same transaction. Even large departments stores like Myer and David Jones are negotiable when you purchasing something of high value. Besides a discount, you can negotiate for free delivery, free extended warranty, or other free add on services.
Buy a small rubbish bin and recycle supermarket plastic bags as a garbage bag. This saves you having to buy plastic garbage bags, is better for the environment, and there is less odour inside your house as the garbage is disposed of more frequently as small bins fill up quicker.
Use rechargeable batteries. Disposable batteries are expensive and use up very quickly. Rechargeable batteries incorporate a higher initial outlay of buying a recharger, but in the long run is cheaper.
Use $2 shops and thrifty store. These stores sell a large variety of household goods at low cost and in most cases perform the job just as well as a branded item from department stores.
Sharpen blunted knives and scissors. Don’t throw them out once the blade is blunted, instead pick up a ceramic bowl and turn it upside down so that the rough unglazed rim is facing upwards, and sharpen your blades by running it across these rough edges on a slant.
Propagate garden plants. Don’t by new plants, instead cut stems from plants in your family and friends’ gardens, stick it in a pot with fertilised soil, water it regularly, and watch it grow into a full plant. Please ask for permission before you snip someone’s plant and only certain varieties of perennials can be used to create new plants.
Prolong the life of cut flowers. Increase the life span of your cut flowers, by cutting them on a slant so more surface area is exposed to water, changing water each day in the vase, add couple drops of bleach and don’t expose flowers to direct sunlight.
Recycle and create your own organic soil fertiliser. Reuse an old rubbish bin as a compost container, and do use a lid so that birds can’t create a mess. Throw in used newspapers, grass trimmings, tree leaves, water, natural soil, remains of fruit and vegetables, eggshells and tea leaves and let them decompose in the bin for a few months. Don’t put in meat or oil items. Add these to soil a few weeks prior to planting something, to give the soil time to absorb, and blend with the nutrients in the compost.
Plant cactuses instead of installing security window shutters. Protect your home by planting cactuses around low level windows, instead of installing steel window barriers and shutters. Cactuses require little maintenance and watering too, and are better for the environment.
Use solar garden lights. These are energy and cost efficient way to light up your garden each night.
Strategically placed garden statues and ornaments are a great and cost effective way to add elegance and stature to your garden
Organise house renovations during low seasons. Tradesman generally charge less and are more responsive to negotiations and discounting when business is quiet. When bargaining, tell them you will provide free word-of-mouth advertising for them. For example for roof painting, concreting, air conditioning and house painting, plan for winter rainy months. For ducted heating repairs, installation or cleaning, go for summer months.
Get at least 3 quotes from tradesman. Quotes can differ by a few thousand dollars. Choose advertisements that are smaller and which offer free quotations.
Do-it-yourself renovations whenever and wherever you can. There are heaps of information at hardware stores and on the web on do-it-yourself home renovations, you just need patience to search for them. If you don’t have a particular tradesman tool required for your renovations, hire it.
Paint house in the same colour. Choose similar coloured paint for the entire house, rather than painting each room a different colour, as you will reduce unused paint wastage.
Hire a carpet steam cleaning machine. Do it yourself rather than hire a professional. Not only can you clean your curtains and carpets with this machine, you can also time it with friends and family, who also need steam cleaning, so that you can share the cost of hiring the machine with them.
Recycle and acquire household things for free by joining http://www.freecycle.org. This website is a global site and encourages recycling of goods. It is sorted by locality so you can join your local group to see if anyone is giving away something that you need for free. You can also post a message asking for something, and let others respond to you.
