The Economiss

Finance your lifestyle

How I saved 30% of my income and cashflowed four overseas trips in 2017

What plans do put in action to achieve your goals? For me, 2017 was about getting my finances on track. In this article I will give you the insights into the 10 ways I saved over 30% of my income, $18.3K, towards my house deposit as well as cash flowing four overseas trips in 2017.

Points hacking

My friends will tell you, I am the Points Queen! In this post I will document how to more effectively use your points to cash into vouchers. I managed to get $950 worth of supermarket vouchers free with my points in 2017 as well as a cash payment from my bank so I must be doing something right!

Work Strife Life

Mia Freedman is the owner of the world’s largest female podcasting network with a range of shows go across a number of areas from work and career, health, politics, fashion, art, parenting. Where does this book review fit on a website that is curating resources and creating a new narrative for millennials and finance, everywhere!

$40 Grocery Challenge

The $40 Grocery Challenge touches your own personal creativity to reduce your carbon footprint to allow you to free up some extra money to give to your favourite charity.

Second quarter 2018 expenditure breakdown

How are you going on your 2018 financial journey? This past three months have been really, really hard for me. On the 17 April I had an accident on my bicycle and fractured my coccyx and two parts of my sacrum. As someone that is normally really active, 2500km logged on Strava cycling before this accident, this has been mentally and physically hard. I have felt like I have lost a little part of my identity and I have been stuck at home. Here’s a quick rundown of my second quarter and how I’m tracking. Today I have $49,530 towards my house deposit and I’m still aiming to get to $60,000 for my house deposit by the end of 2018. There are now 12 pay fortnights for me until the end of 2018, I usually save $818 a fortnight, to reach this goal alongside 6 more interest payments on my savings which are a little over $100 a month. So please read on for my second quarterly spending report for 2018…

Millennial case study: Tasha gets frugal

Something I found difficult before I started on my house saving journey was a series of evidence of different women and millennials achieving financially. In this new series of case studies I will share the knowledge of others. For my first case study I am proud to introduce you to Tasha, a 28 year old, Brisbane based, single, millennial that I connected with through Instagram. In June 2018 she successfully became debt free clearing $11,489 of debt in 12 months. She writes a personal finance blog, tashagetsfrugal.com where she shares advice and tips, from the best Brisbane birthday freebies, to her budget updates, her goals, interviews with members of the debt free community and her personal finance journey.

5 small weekday habits for you to hack to find an extra $12,740 a year in your budget

Small habits can really add up. This year I am more focused with wanting to buy a house at the end of the year and I thought I’d share with you how I have applied behavioural economics theory to change some of my weekly routines to hack my budget. Here are some items I change up most of the time to find extra money in my budget. These 5 small tips to find an extra $245 a week or $12,740 a year in your account for travel, paying debt or saving for a house! Disclaimer: I’m a millennial so I defo still budget in brunch at the cafe with friends once a week although I’m a sucker for bacon as opposed to avocado.

Book club: Work Strife Balance

Nothing boosts me up and inspires me more than a great podcast. Mia Freedman is the owner of the world’s largest female podcasting network with a range of shows go across a number of areas from work and career, health, politics, fashion, art, parenting. Where does this book review fit on a website that is curating resources and creating a new narrative for millennials and finance. The answer is everywhere! Today I will delve into three important messages I got from Freedman’s book, Work, Strife, Balance that have fuelled my financial journey.

How to write a budget

What sort of budgeting method do you use? Today I will share with you how I construct a zero based budget and provide you with a free spreadsheet to load in your figures so you can harness the power of your most powerful wealth building tool, your income.

Beauty on a budget

Did you know as well as a gender pay gap of 15.3% in Australia women are also expected to pay more for our deodorant and razors too? Every woman uses between 10,000-12,000 disposable menstrual products a lifetime and while men’s Viagra is GST free women are expected to pay GST on tampons and pads. Not the Economiss, This week’s article has some quick tips for women about beauty on a budget!

Getting the best deal for your mobile in Australia

Step 3 of the Barefoot Investor Steps is Domino your debts, this means having a close look at your current bills and seeing whether you can negotiate or find a better deal. For me at the moment until I buy my house the only payments I am in charge of are my health insurance and my cell phone bill. This week I will share with you my investigation across current Australian cell phones to you and reveal to you which company I am changing to and how I am getting my next year’s worth of cell phone access for free.

Book club: Slow Clothing

How often do you buy new clothes? What do you do with your old clothes? Do you know what your clothes are made from and who makes them? I bumped into my neighbour, Meg, and she shared with me her new business, Robe & Crown a business where Meg is selling high quality, natural fibre, second hand clothes. In our conversation we got talking about the Slow Clothing movement and Meg lent me her friend Brisbane based entrepreneur and author, Jane Milburn’s, book Slow Clothing. I had seen Jane speak at the 2016 QUT TEDX event and feel quite a lot closer to the ideals she speaks about after I visited India and the garment factories for work with my clients in 2017. This article provides an overview of three lessons I learnt from Milburn to apply to my personal finance journey: repair items, repurpose items and do your research.

Top four favourite Finance podcasts

I am a podcast addict, there are over fifty different shows I am subscribed and listen to. I prefer podcasts over television as I like to do several things at once. For those of you not in the know I found out last week that I fractured my spine; two places in my sacrum and one in my coccyx and I have been at home trying to heal over the past week, podcasts and books have been the answer for me as sitting up hurts up lower back and these activities have allowed me to lie down. In this post I will share with you my four favourite finance podcasts.

Bookclub – Grit

How far are you willing to go to reach your financial goals? I’ve recently hit a wall with my budgeting. A high wall. A $16,500 wall that 15 months is mentally crushing me. It’s is not that much considering how far I have come. Considering that my board and amount of savings I need to budget to achieve my goal is sitting at about 60% of my net income. I’ve come back to Harvard Professor, Angela Duckworth’s book for inspiration. In this article I’ll share with you my recent continued hardaches and the three elements I have come back to in Duckworth’s research to recentre and recalibrate.