The cost-of-living and rental crisis just seems to go from bad to worse.
In a bid to help others navigate these tough times, a young Aussie entrepreneur has shared the saving rules she lives by.
Brisbane-based Téa Angelos, 27, is a money expert and the founder and CEO of Smart Women Society, an online community that helps women become “smarter with money, careers, wellbeing and their love lives”.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today 
“My biggest tip to make saving easy is to automate your savings,” Angelos tells 7Life.
“Set up an automatic transfer to your bank account the day after your pay day.”
Angelos says the main thing when it comes to saving is to not be discouraged if you are only able to set aside small amounts as “small amounts each week add up significantly over a year”.
The three main money mistakes she says women make are “not educating themselves enough about their finances, not having a plan or a budget, and not being prepared in case of an emergency”.
She encourages followers to set up an “emergency fund”, a rainy day pot of money to cover urgent or unexpected costs.
A typical such fund covers three to six months of expenses.
Tracking your expenditure is imperative if you want to be better with your finances, the money expert says.
“If you don’t actually know what you’re spending, there is no way you can have a good handle on your money,” she says.
She swears by keeping a daily, weekly and month template to track expenses.
Other areas in which women can save include pruning unused memberships and subscriptions.
“Audit your subscriptions and cancel any that you no longer or rarely use,” she recommends.
Many women love beauty products and tend to splurge on personal care but Angelos suggests “opting for DIY treatments, buying products on sale and reducing the frequency of expensive treatments”.
The budget expert is also super savvy when it comes to shopping, saying it’s all about choosing classic pieces that don’t go out of fashion quickly, and opting for quality over quantity.
“Additionally, buying secondhand, hiring or swapping clothes with friends can be both fun and save money,” she says.
In terms of bills, she advises to review them frequently and to see if you can “negotiate a better deal or switch to a cheaper provider”.
Impulse purchasing can be a real obstacle when it comes to achieving your saving goals, but Angelos has some tips and tricks to avoid it.
Her first tip is to “always wait 24 hours before you buy anything. Most of the time you realise you didn’t even want the item”.
It’s also good to ask yourself when shopping: “Would I rather put this money toward my goals?”
Her other tip is the “three outfit rule”’.
“Whenever you want to buy a new piece of clothing, if you can’t figure out at least three different ways to wear it with things you already own, don’t buy it,” she says.
Angelos’ final hack for saving is using Cashrewards, an Australian-owned, platform where you can earn “actual dollars back into your bank account”.
The young entrepreneur says she has managed to save $1,500 in a year from signing up to the platform.
Angelos says if she could give her younger self financial advice, she would tell her to “start saving and investing as soon as possible.”
“Building your wealth is not an overnight process so start as soon as you can and watch the power of compound interest take place,” she says.
www.20304050.best has not received any monetary benefit for this story.
