Australia is considered by a lot of people to be one of the best countries to live in, as it is filled with beautiful and amazing sights that you can enjoy staring at every day. However, living in the country can sometimes be difficult, as the cost of living in Australia is higher than in the United States (US) but lower than in the United Kingdom. So, a lot of people, especially those that moved to Australia, would find it challenging to budget their expenses while living in the country.
Luckily, there are certain tricks that people can do in order to save more money while living in Australia. Saving more money would allow you to pursue your goals without being stuck thinking about how you should balance your budget every day. To know more, here are some tricks on shopping on a budget in Australia. Be sure to check out this comprehensive guide on how to stay safe when visiting Australia as well.
Cook More Instead of Eating Out a Lot
One of the greatest ways to save money on food is to cook more rather than eating out a lot in restaurants. As Australia is rich in natural resources, it is expected that the country would have plenty of farms that would make vegetables, fruits, and different types of meat abundant and affordable.
So, if you buy ingredients for cooking, you will notice that you will save more money in cooking your own food compared to eating in restaurants, which would often have ridiculous but sometimes justifiable prices since they also have to pay for labor, rent, and other aspects of the business. If you do not really know how to cook or prepare a meal, you should definitely learn first how to do it before moving to Australia.
Shop Online
If you want to get discounted prices for grocery products, fashion pieces, and more, you should definitely try buying those items online. While physical stores would usually have discounts on popular products, online stores are often much more generous when it comes to slashing down the price of the items and products they sell on their website.
There are plenty of online stores that organize sales every now and then, so you should try buying in those shops if you want to get reduced prices on your favorite products. However, you may need to wait for one day or a few days before you can get the order, but the wait is worth it since you can get it at a discount. Wait for a sale to happen so that you can take advantage of the reduced prices.
Buy in Bulk
In addition to sales, you can also get products at discounted prices by buying in bulk. There are several online shops and even physical stores that offer discounts if you buy certain items in bulk. If you have a favorite product that you constantly eat or use, you should just buy it in bulk so that you can surely save money instead of just buying it whenever you just feel like it.
Of course, if you are buying in bulk, it is important to make sure that the product you will be buying isn’t expired or close to expiring, as some shops wouldn’t be able to monitor the expiration dates of the products they are selling in bulk. If you are going to buy online, be sure to buy only in trusted stores so that you will be given products that are still months or years away from their expiration date.
Join a Loyalty Program
Another effective way to get discounts is to join a store’s loyalty program, where you can earn reward points that you can then use to get discounts on specific items or to get different products for free. In a physical store, a loyalty membership will come in the form of a card, which can store the points that you earn from the shop after you make a purchase.
In online stores, the points that you collect will automatically be added to your account. Once you earn enough store points, you can then use those points to redeem discount codes or to receive special items that will be given to you for free once you order other items from the store again. The trick to getting more points in the loyalty program is to be a constant buyer in the store, hence the reason why “loyalty” is in the name of the program. So, if you want to get more points, you should stick to one or only a few stores.
Collect Coupons or Vouchers
As evident in this article, there are so many ways to get discounts in stores that would allow you to shop on a budget, and one of those ways that we haven’t talked about yet is collecting coupons or vouchers. These coupons or vouchers are promotional items that are typically used to reduce the prices of regular products and items in the store. The good thing about a lot of coupons is that you can use them whenever you need to without the need to wait for sales or to collect points in a loyalty program, although most of these coupons have expiration dates.
There are various methods of collecting coupons, and online stores are usually the ones that give out more coupons compared to physical shops. One way of collecting vouchers is to simply keep an eye on them on the online shop’s homepage, as the shop will already promote the vouchers to customers on the homepage’s banner. Another common way to collect these vouchers is to sign-up for newsletters, wherein online shops will provide not only exclusive coupons but also the latest news on the biggest deals in their store.
We hope that this very simple article has helped you in learning how to shop on a budget in Australia if you are currently living in the said country or are planning to move there. It is essential that you set a daily budget for necessities so that you won’t overspend, which can be problematic if you don’t earn a lot of money for work. Save money by budgeting and following the best shopping tips in Australia we have provided above, and you will surely have a stress-free experience living in the Land Down Under.