If you’ve never had a budget, or if you’ve tried and given up on one before, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. Visions of complicated spreadsheets and living on nothing but 2 minute noodles make the idea seem at best, snore-inducing and at worst, overly restrictive. But the truth is it takes very little effort to get a basic system – ‘money buckets’ – in place. This is great news, as it can mean the difference between major savings and none at all.

If you’re hesitant to set up a budget, or even if you have one now that’s only kind of working for you, here’s a solution that may just work: separating you money into ‘buckets’.

What is a money ‘bucket’?
The concept of ‘money buckets’ has been doing the rounds of the personal finance blogs and media for a while now, and it’s a simple one: instead of a complicated line-by-line budget that accounts for every cent, you simply split your income into large ‘buckets’, setting up a separate account – and automatic transfers – for each. That way, you automate your saving and spending so it becomes easy to save: it’s that simple.

Step 1: Track how you’re spending now
For a week, or better yet, a month, track your spending. You could log this manually in an app or sync one with your bank account, but actually, many banks in Australia and New Zealand have this function built in to their online banking already, categorising all your transactions for you. However you choose to do it, you’ll soon see trends emerging, and you’re ready to move onto the next step.

Step 2: Choose your categories and decide how much goes in each
Once you have all your info, it’s time to come up with a few broad categories that reflect a realistic picture of how you want to spend and save. For example, you could have categories like rent or mortgage and bills, emergency savings, groceries, eating out, fun money, travel savings and debt. Less is definitely more – fewer categories makes for a simple budget that’s easy to stick to, making it easier to save. Once you’ve set your buckets, decide what percentage of your income needs to go into each. Assuming you’re not spending more than you’re earning, this needn’t be vastly different from how you’re spending now.

Step 3: Open an account for each bucket
With a different account for each type of spending and saving, you’ll know exactly how much you have in each bucket. Many financial institutions offer an option for multiple accounts linked together, and you can even give them customised names so you can see, at a glance, how much you have in each of your ‘buckets’.

Step 4: Set up your automatic transfers
As with many things in life, set and forget is the surest path to success. Make sure you set up direct debits for each of your buckets so your money is moving where you need it without you needing to think about it. Many companies will let you split your salary this way, or you could have all your income go into one account to begin with, with regular transfers set up to move money between accounts automatically.

Step 5: Regular check-ins
Whether monthly or quarterly, it’s a good idea to check your buckets regularly to make sure they’re where they need to be. That way, if you find one overflowing while another is almost empty, you’ll know it’s time to tweak your transfers to better match your spending and saving goals.

So what are you waiting for? It’s time to let your savings take care of themselves. Get started on your money buckets to see how automating your finances can help you save towards your dreams.

The post This could be the secret to better budgeting appeared first on Credit Simple NZ.

The post 7 money saving tips you can complete in 10 minutes each appeared first on Credit Simple NZ.

As the long weekend kicks off, it can be all too easy to fill your time with fun and frivolous spending. But before you know it, Monday night rolls around and your bank balance is looking more than a little depleted.

Luckily, it doesn’t take much to reset your default setting from ‘spend’ to ‘save’ for a few days, and the savings can be pretty significant. Read on for our tips to boost your savings in just a few days.

Skip 1 thing
You probably have a pretty good idea of which is your biggest discretionary spend. But what would happen if you skipped it, just for this weekend? It’s easier than you think.

For example, for many of us, a big money suck can be eating out. With 4 days off, you could find yourself eating out a couple of times a day and think nothing of it. With even your local cafe or Thai restaurant setting you back at least $20 a head. If you’re a couple or a family, you could save hundreds of dollars.

Only use cash
Studies show that when we use cash rather than cards, we feel the loss of money more. This is because cash is a physical, tangible thing you have to give away to pay, while credit and other payment methods feel hypothetical or even non-existent.

Switching to cash not only makes it easier for you to mentally track your spending, but if you take out a set amount at the beginning of the long weekend, it makes it much easier to stick to a budget.

Take the zero-spend challenge
This one’s a game changer. For a single day (or even the whole weekend if you feel like an epic savings challenge), don’t spend a single cent and see what happens.

As an added bonus, you’ll find that (as long as you have a well-stocked fridge and ready access to a car or public transport) that the possibility for free activities are almost limitless. Make your own coffee, go for a run, fire up netflix, have some friends round or chill in your local library. It can be a really fun experiment.

Apply the ‘clean slate’ principle
If you spent Friday-Sunday on a bit of a spree, that’s actually ok – studies show that at the beginning of a week, month or any time that feels like a ‘fresh start’ is the perfect time for habit change.

With that in mind, Monday or Tuesday may be the perfect time to set up a new budget or set and ambitious savings goal, especially after a few days of spendthrift-madness.

So go on, take the challenge – enjoy a low-spend long weekend. It could save you heaps!

The post How to enjoy a low-spend long weekend appeared first on Credit Simple NZ.

The post Top tips to avoid over spending at Christmas appeared first on Credit Simple NZ.

Zero waste saves money. Since I vowed to reduce my waste last year I’ve saved a bucket load of cash.

But let’s get this clear. ‘Zero waste’ is a philosophy/lifestyle goal of reducing the amount of rubbish you personally send to landfill. No-one will be 100 per cent perfect unless they’re a Buddhist monk or a hermit.

The bonus is if you cut down on what you buy for environmental reasons you spend less overall. Yay!

On a personal level the great thing is that virtually everything I cut from my life has paybacks for my finances. Some of those over-packaged products I find I don’t need any more are in fact quite costly.

A word of warning, however.: zero waste doesn’t save money you if you run to the shops and buy eco this and eco that instead of buying nothing at all.

There are many strategies I’ve used to save money already on my zero waste journey:

Try buying in bulk

If I’m going to avoid buying unnecessary packaging, I need to buy from the bulk bins, which are of course cheaper than packaged foods. Many zero wasters are best friends with the Bin Inn chain. In Auckland I have the luxury of going to an Indian supermarket called Lotus, which is supercheap. Loose kidney beans, for example, cost me $4.99kg compared to the equivalent of $8.38kg at New World. That’s a huge saving for choosing to buy loose. All the big and medium size cities in New Zealand have Indian supermarkets, some of which will have bulk bins.  The Moshims Discount House chain in the North Island does.

Buy second hand

Everything I buy new is more of the world’s resources wasted. So I bide my time and buy second hand now, which saves a lot of money. Sometimes the enforced wait allows me to forget the need, or I find a cheaper way. At the time of writing this I desperately wanted a leather desk pad holder. Sad, I know. But it’s the sort of thing people buy and don’t use, or they downsize the office and get rid of. Sooner or later one is going to turn up in the local recycle centre for a couple of bucks, instead of $49  new. By waiting I’m I’ve saving the planet, one desk pad at a time.

Say goodbye to all sorts of things

It’s amazing how many disposable items can be replaced with reusable or compostable equivalents. Try tampons and pads (washable pads and menstrual cups), nappies, paper towels and napkins, dental floss (silk floss is bio degradable), toilet paper (a bidet), aluminium foil, branded house cleaning products (when a microfibre cloth and water will do), peppermint tea (when I have peppermint in the garden), plastic toothbrushes and dish washing brushes, plastic razors and so on. This list could go on for pages.

Repair, repair, repair – don’t replace

I was very tempted to buy a new $1,000 coffee machine when mine stopped working recently. A $90 repair sufficed. It’s a good lesson and I repair everything I can instead of using the breakdown as an excuse to buy new. (For an enlightening lesson on why we need to recycle – and upcycle – hit up this video on YouTube.)

Offload on Trade Me

If I’m not going to waste stuff, then it follows that I have to find a use or home for what I no longer need. As a result I sell items on Trade Me that might have sat cluttering my house and are too obscure to donate to an Op Shop. Artists and craftspeople in particular are often looking for he obscure and have bought everything from a Lazy Susan to a kapok mattress for their creations.

Whilst most of us want to use fewer plastic bags, don’t bag yourself. Start your zero waste journey with baby steps. Get used to one change before you do the next. Pat yourself on the back for every single item you don’t buy, because you spend less and you dump less.

The post Want to save (even more) money? Take the zero waste challenge appeared first on Credit Simple NZ.

Are you throwing money away every week on your shopping? Maybe you’re committing the Seven Supermarket Shopping Sins? Think online shopping for clothes you absolutely don’t need, or popping into a nice store because you like the look of something in the window and then walking out having spent $300. It’s okay – we’ve all been there.

But putting thought into saving money on your grocery shopping can help you to keep your bank account healthy, which means you’ll have enough money to pay your bills and payments and subscriptions on time. This means you won’t add any defaults to your credit report, which would affect your future ability to take out a loan. To get an idea about what your credit report looks like now, request a copy from Credit Simple.

Plan your meals each week

How much does your weekly food shop cost? Chances are you can dramatically reduce this expense simply by planning your meals at the start of the week, and look for the best deals, rather than the best brands. Marketing is a sure-fire way to encourage consumers to buy a product, so try to look beyond fancy packaging and choose products that are cost-effective and still hold nutritional value. You don’t need the coolest pasta brand. Settle for a home brand from your supermarket and save a few dollars.

By planning your meals at the start of the week, you can cut down on waste purchases. These occur when you buy something you think you need, only to find that you already have it hiding away in your fridge or cupboard. The new product you bought might expire before you use it because the other was already open, or you’ll have to throw out what you already had to make use of the new purchase. It’s really just throwing money away, even if it is just a few dollars. It all adds up.

When you have a menu set out, you will know exactly what ingredients you need, and also what you don’t. Removing extras from your shopping trolley in Australia should really start with them not being there in the first place – avoid putting an extra packet of biscuits in, don’t get suckered in to buying something you really don’t need just because it’s on special, and keep an eye on what your kids put in the trolley.

Are you spending on big stuff?

Are you seeing major transactions on your monthly credit card statements that shouldn’t really be there? Clothes shopping and buying unnecessary homewares are major culprits for hurting your bank balance, which could in turn affect your ability to pay your bills on time, which may result in a default on your credit report.

It’s harder to train yourself out of impulse buys, because impulses by definition cannot be controlled. We have to train ourselves to avoid caving in to our shopping impulses if we want to protect our bank balances. Try to only go shopping for clothes (and only to affordable stores) when you really need to i.e. when another item falls apart or you need something for a special occasion.

The same goes for homewares. Nobody needs three different sets of cutlery or new china crockery just because it’s on sale. It’s not a good excuse to buy unnecessary kitchen clutter, or another throw pillow, or more coffee table books, so stay away from your favourite shops unless you really need to visit (only go if something breaks or goes missing and you need a replacement).

Keeping defaults off your credit report starts with ensuring your bank balance is stable and you have enough money to pay the bills. Resisting the urge to buy extras on your weekly food shop or from your favourite stores can help you to save enough money to always make your payments on time. For more information about your credit report, get in touch with Credit Simple today.

The post Budget Betty: How much could you save by being smarter with your shopping? appeared first on Credit Simple NZ.

There’s a lot of buzz around smart homes, smart cars and smart appliances these days. And it can be pretty tempting to look at that big old TV in the corner and wonder if swapping it for a $5000 “smart” model might be a good idea.

At Credit Simple, we’re all about living smarter, but ideally without the big price ticket. So what’s a person to do?

We reckon buying a “smart appliance” is hardly ever the answer. You’re far better off “smartifying” the things you already have. The world is full of gadgets, widgets and dongles (oh my!) that can connect to the appliances you already have with a minimum of fuss, giving the things you already have a range of smart capabilities at a much lower cost. As a bonus, you’re protecting yourself against obsolescence too… just upgrade your outdated TV dongle rather than the whole TV.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can smartify your appliances and your life.

It’s showtime! Smartening up your TV

Four letters: HDMI. If your TV has this socket in the back, you’re ready to plug in some serious smarts. For under $100, a Google Chromecast will turn your TV into an internet connected device, putting Netflix, Lightbox, YouTube and more at your fingertips (some of these will need a paid subscription… but check if your broadband provider offers any for free). A Chromecast Audio dongle ($70) will wirelessly connect your stereo to your phone or laptop too, making it easy to turn your favourite Spotify playlist or streaming radio station up to 11.

For a bit over $200, you can add an Apple TV. Again, this plugs you into a world of online content including paid movies via the iTunes store and a world of free stuff. (Apple TV also provides YouTube and Netflix.)

Wake up and smell the (computer controlled) coffee

Imagine waking up knowing your coffee machine had turned itself on 30 minutes earlier and was hot and ready to go. Or coming home to a house warmed by heaters that switched on as you left the office.

You don’t need fancy pants appliances to do either of these. A wireless smart switch (about $80) plugs into the wall to power your appliance and is controlled from a smartphone app. You can either turn your appliances on and off remotely from your phone, or set schedules (great for controlling lamps to make your house look lived in when you’re on holiday). Some models even track energy use, so you can find out just how much juice that espresso machine is using.

Staying safe and sound

Plug-in smart technology can be an affordable way to keep your home and family safe too. Security cameras are super affordable, and brands like Nest, Panasonic and Arlo use your home’s wifi to send images to an online server so you can check with your phone if you’re out and they detect motion. Unlike traditional systems, you don’t need to wire them in, so when you move house you can take your system with you. Spark’s Morepork also offers complete systems, although these come with a monthly subscription cost too.

Smartish technology even has you covered if there’s a fire. The Roost smart smoke alarm battery ($35US online) looks like the 9-volt battery your existing smoke alarms use (you do have smoke alarms, right?) but includes a wife transmitter that tells your Roost app when the alarm is triggered (and sends you a message when the battery is low, rather than beeping at you at 3am).

Light up your life

Always wanted fancy colour-changing mood lighting that you can control from your phone? OK, no one has really always wanted that, but now that you know about it you have to admit it sounds cool. Smart LED lightbulbs combine low energy use with the ability to change colours to suit your mood. A wife transmitter is built right into the bulb, so you can control the lights via a central base station and app. Philips Hue is the brand to look for and kits start at $200.

The post Forget smart appliances … why smartifying your old ones is the way to go appeared first on Credit Simple NZ.

Avocados have gotten a bad rap lately. The real reason millennials can’t afford to buy their own homes, commentators said, was not sky-high prices or the banks requiring 20 per cent deposits, it was young people’s insatiable hunger for the creamy green goodness of smashed avocado on toast. And even if you don’t like avocado, the finger-pointers would point out (with their fingers) that while our parents got by with a cup of Choysa made from a tea bag that was usually good for three rounds, the young’uns were tossing back fancy coffees that cost more than former Reserve Bank Governor Don Brash might spend on dinner.

(The next step in this battle of the generations was almost inevitable: cafés began offering, with more than a hint of irony, lattés served in a half avocado.)

So is saying no to the pear-that’s-not-really-a-pear the path to financial freedom? Well, simple maths tells us that scoffing a $14 brunch every other day isn’t going to help your bank balance grow. But the occasional breakfast out is a treat, right?

It makes more sense, we reckon, to save money on the stuff you pay for but don’t enjoy.

Power to your pocket

Take electricity. You can buy the stuff from lots of places these days (last time we counted there were two dozen power retailers choose from around the country). And does Mercury electricity makes your lights come on faster or glow more happily than Meridian? Of course not – it’s the same stuff.

So why do power companies charge different amounts for it? Because they can. It’s over to us to hunt down the best deal and switch when we find it. Luckily, Consumer NZ has crunched the numbers and has a website that makes it easy to do just that.

Take it to the bank

Credit cards and mortgages are big expenses for many New Zealand families. And just like electricity, an interest rate is an interest rate. ASB’s one doesn’t smell minty fresh, and Westpac’s one won’t kill the germs that ordinary brushing can’t reach.

So it’s well worth comparing and switching if it’s worth it.

This site makes it easy to compare cards.

And this one does the same thing for mortgages.

Bonus: if you find you can get a cheaper mortgage somewhere else, don’t switch right away … give your existing bank a call and tell them you’re looking or a better deal. Banks hate to lose customers, so there’s a good chance they’ll give you a rate cut on the spot.

Insurance: why pay a premium?

You hear a lot of scare ads from insurance companies about how many families are under-insured (and lots are). But plenty are over-insured too. Does the contents policy you took out when you had three kids at home cover more stuff than you need? Talk to your insurance company about the effect of reducing the sum insured. Is your car still covered for teen drivers who aren’t teens anymore? Excesses are worth looking at too. If you hardly ever claim, and you’re happy to cover the first $500 or even $1000 of a whoopsie, then see if upping your excess can help tame your premiums.

Spend a little while doing your homework on the boring stuff … power, money, insurance and so on … and you could surprise yourself with how much you save. And that, of course, means more money for avocados on toast.

Um, we mean, for prudent financial planning and retirement savings.

The post Forget avocados, smash the big stuff first appeared first on Credit Simple NZ.

Because I’m both a procrastinator and a multitasker I recently found myself avoiding work by cleaning the pantry while listening to a recording of the Hobbit. Unfortunately, owing to my overactive imagination, as I cleaned and found packets of things I don’t remember purchasing, I could hear the small but persistent voice of Gollum quietly hissing:

“What has it got in its cupboards, hmmm?”

I don’t want to admit to Gollum that we have eight different kinds of flour.

“Is saffron the precious, hmm?”

We have two tins of saffron. Clearly we were feeling rich when we bought the first tin. And just as clearly we were feeling insanely rich when we bought the second. Or forgetful. Or drunk. Hard to tell.

Gollum’s voice became louder and more insistent as I worked my way up the pantry shelves. We have five different kinds of rice – one for every occasion? On other shelves unrecognisable legumes in jars consort with each other – and I only managed to identify these by Googling ‘legume images’ and making uneducated guesses from legume lineups.

We have clearly fallen prey to the seven supermarket shopping sins:

• Greed – shopping hungry
• Gluttony – shopping without a list
• Pride – product snobbery
• Lust – buying what you can’t afford because you want it
• Envy – coveting your neighbour’s fancy cheese and buying it for yourself
• Wrath – becoming furious because you know you’ve forgotten something but you can’t remember what it is – and buying wine to make up for this
• Sloth – not comparing brand prices because you can’t be bothered

By committing all of the above, we have an out-of-control pantry and overdraft. We’re overspending on items we don’t need because we don’t know what’s in our cupboards while also falling prey to marketing and its shiny, shiny promises that are nearly always terrible, terrible lies.

It has become apparent that our pantry is the place we hide many of our financial errors. The cupboards contain evidence of panicked shopping, enthusiastic shopping, forgetful shopping and possibly even slightly boozed shopping because we own a bag of curry leaves that neither of us have any recollection of ever purchasing, much less putting away in the back of the pantry to be ignored for 18 months (time determined by when we moved in and clearly would have noticed said bag of leaves as it is very large). In addition, for people who rarely use paprika, we are flummoxed by the fact we own three packets of it.

Possibly you’re rolling your eyes at the shambles in my kitchen because you’re the type of person whose cupboards have only the essentials and no items of shame like beetroot-flavoured oil, marmalade hummus or salt from places that don’t even exist. However, I’m willing to bet there’s a good chance that just like us your pantry contains bottles of expensive exotic sauces used once that now have use-by dates older than MMP.

The discovery of what lurks in our cupboards has made us consider that this month’s financial challenge might have to be a round of pantry survivor. We reckon we could live off what we have in the cupboards quite easily – allowing for a weekly fruit’n’vege run – and stop spending so much at the supermarket each week on things we think we need but don’t eat.

Cheating will result in being voted out of the household and into the naughty corner up the back of the garden, next to the compost where the cat likes to hang out because of the less than delightful stench.

We are also aware that pantry survivor will mean we cut back on the delicious but overall quite expensive purchasing of wine that somehow always becomes part of any dash to the supermarket.

Given our pantry is the dumping ground for items that time forgot, items we doubled up on and ingredients that failed to live up to expectations, I don’t think we’ll starve over the next week.

And if I can do this, so can you. Take a break from practising the seven very naughty supermarket shopping sins and live off what you have in your cupboards for a week. Because you know what’s precious? Saving money and silencing your inner Gollum.

The post Let’s play Pantry Survivor – are you committing the seven supermarket shopping sins? appeared first on Credit Simple NZ.