Speaker 1: Welcome to How Do They Afford That? The podcast that
Speaker 1: peaks into the financial lives of everyday Australians. I'm Michael Thompson.
Speaker 1: I'm an author and the co host of the podcast
Speaker 1: Beer and Greed business News. As always, I am with
Speaker 1: financial planner Canna Campbell, founder of Sugar Mama TV, the
Speaker 1: financial literacy platform that you'll find on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, books,
Speaker 1: podcasts everywhere. Hello, good morning today. Budget Killers sounds very intense,
Speaker 1: doesn't it.
Speaker 2: It sounds a little bit satanic, baby.
Speaker 1: Yes it does. These are the things lurking in your
Speaker 1: budget right now, potentially that are either costing you money
Speaker 1: or perhaps causing you unnecessary angst. For me, it's things
Speaker 1: like it's like when your budget's kind of cruising along
Speaker 1: nicely right, and occasionally I get into that stage where
Speaker 1: everything just seems to be working and you've got everything
Speaker 1: under control, and then something just comes along and completely
Speaker 1: just blows your budget out of the water. And it
Speaker 1: is not like an unexpected expense, which is why this
Speaker 1: is so ridiculous. It is for me, the car red
Speaker 1: Joe that happens every year, and I should know that
Speaker 1: it's coming, and yet every year April is just an awful,
Speaker 1: awful month because it takes me by.
Speaker 2: Surprise for a lot of people's Christmas time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, school holidays, which I mean are they are
Speaker 1: there every year, They're on the calendar. You can plan
Speaker 1: around it. Yet these are budget killers. So today we're
Speaker 1: going to put together a list. These are the five
Speaker 1: silent budget killers to watch out for. I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about those kind of random unexpected things like a shock
Speaker 1: medical expense that might come along just out of the blue,
Speaker 1: but these are things that are probably in your budget
Speaker 1: right now doing some damage. And the thing I'm most
Speaker 1: excited about, Kenna, is that before we started recording this
Speaker 1: today and I said, we're talking five silent budget killers,
Speaker 1: and you're just really going to throw me under your
Speaker 1: face it went ashen. You're just like the color just
Speaker 1: drained from your face and you shook your head. And
Speaker 1: he said, I'm guilty of one of these, one of
Speaker 1: the five. And I can't wait to see what one
Speaker 1: it is. I hope it's a good one. Shall we
Speaker 1: jump in? Yes, number one on the list of five
Speaker 1: silent budget killers to watch out for? What is it?
Speaker 2: This is? I'm gonna have to confess my sins.
Speaker 1: Is it you? Are you? Is this you straight off
Speaker 1: the top? Yes?
Speaker 2: Oh this is really actually embarrassing to share. Okay, but
Speaker 2: I signed up to something under a thirty day free trial,
Speaker 2: forgot about it, then saw that it was going to
Speaker 2: be about just I got the warning like it's going
Speaker 2: we're going to start charging you. Still, did I do
Speaker 2: anything about it?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: No? Did I even use this description? No, but in
Speaker 2: my head I was like, okay, make sure you go
Speaker 2: and give this subscription a good test to see if
Speaker 2: you wanted or it. Didn't do that, And then it
Speaker 2: gets even worse. I thought the charge was in Australian dollars.
Speaker 2: It was actually in US dollars.
Speaker 1: Oh, no, even worse worse.
Speaker 2: Have I canceled it?
Speaker 1: No, because I still really want to see it works
Speaker 1: as a triple whami. You didn't use it, didn't use it,
Speaker 1: didn't cancel it, and it was charged in US dollars.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize that, and I haven't canceled it yet.
Speaker 1: I still haven't canceled it.
Speaker 2: Because I really I really need to sit down and
Speaker 2: have it go, using it to see if it actually works,
Speaker 2: because it could be really good.
Speaker 1: So Number one on this list of five silent budget
Speaker 1: budget killers is don't do what Canada does. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: so we're talking here. You subscription, I say not.
Speaker 2: What I do is what I was trying to I like.
Speaker 1: That subscriptions, direct debits and forgotten free trials.
Speaker 2: Yes, so what I would recommend the wise, responsible, organized
Speaker 2: Canna is normally this is why so shame because she's
Speaker 2: so out of character for me, And it's just this
Speaker 2: one particular subscription because I'm desperate just to give it
Speaker 2: a proper go, and I don't want to cancel it
Speaker 2: because I had this free trial which I won't get
Speaker 2: back anyway. I'm learning.
Speaker 1: Is it a streaming service? Is it? You just really
Speaker 1: want to see what brick boxes like? So you can
Speaker 1: watch the Bill TV. That's the last thing I never sorry, okay,
Speaker 1: just gidding.
Speaker 2: It's like an educational program. That's fine.
Speaker 1: Oh that sounds very dull.
Speaker 2: I am a bit of a nerd.
Speaker 1: We've stavaged that if you're going to break one of
Speaker 1: these rules, at least do it for something exciting like naughty.
Speaker 2: No, No, it's really dull and boring. But what I
Speaker 2: recommend you do is, and I say this in my
Speaker 2: in my coaching of course for budgeting and cash flow.
Speaker 2: Check your accounts on a regular basis at least once
Speaker 2: a week, if not twice a week, which is what
Speaker 2: I do. And I didn't actually pick this up because
Speaker 2: I guy was actually coming out of my business account.
Speaker 2: But also recommend checking your phone under the Apple subscription.
Speaker 2: Great tip, Yes, so important because that's where a lot
Speaker 2: of them are hidden.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've signed up for like that Apple News Plus
Speaker 1: before you know how Oh yeah, yeah, and I've signed
Speaker 1: up for that one the New York I think, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I have had that one before as well. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: clearly you're speaking my language here with this one. Where
Speaker 1: you have all of these subscriptions. You've got direct debits,
Speaker 1: you've got the streaming services, magazines, newspapers like always like.
Speaker 2: A clean up the back of your phone, Like there's
Speaker 2: there's so many of them, and if you have kids,
Speaker 2: sometimes they've downloaded ones that you haven't you realized.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it when businesses let you know when your
Speaker 1: free trial is coming to an end.
Speaker 2: They should should be the law.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah it is, and it's very handy, like
Speaker 1: whether it's we need to act on them.
Speaker 2: That's the problem. I got the notification, didn't I.
Speaker 1: And so whenever I sign up for a free trial,
Speaker 1: and look, sorry to be lecturing you here on this phone.
Speaker 1: Whenever I sign up for a free trial, I go
Speaker 1: to my calendar and I put a note in there
Speaker 1: about three or four or five days before the free
Speaker 1: trial ends saying cancel free trial. And that actually then
Speaker 1: has a built in buffer for procrastination of one, two, three,
Speaker 1: four or five days. And to date I have not
Speaker 1: missed canceling any of those.
Speaker 2: That's a lie, because you've admitted.
Speaker 1: Letting things, yes, but not when i'd set a reminder
Speaker 1: in my calendar. Okay, well it's a loophole I am.
Speaker 2: You are more of a nerd than I am in
Speaker 2: there case.
Speaker 1: I'm not the one who's just lost money on an
Speaker 1: educational tool. That is the very definition of being a
Speaker 1: nerd here, not that there's anything wrong with being a nerd.
Speaker 1: I've been a nerd since I was born.
Speaker 2: I'm a leader of the club.
Speaker 1: Like sorry, okay, nerd club.
Speaker 2: That's actually sounds like you're safe with me.
Speaker 1: Okay, So subscriptions, direct EBITs, forgotten free trials, the gym
Speaker 1: kind of things like this. It comes down to whether
Speaker 1: you're still using it in the end, like if you
Speaker 1: if you've got Netflix and Stan and Amazon on Prime
Speaker 1: and Binge and kind of the HBO Max one and
Speaker 1: all that you could easily have and Ko and Fox
Speaker 1: telling like you could end up with seven or eight
Speaker 1: streaming services all at the same time, and the question
Speaker 1: is are you actually watching them all?
Speaker 2: But also what currency? Because this is why I've realized
Speaker 2: some of ours subscriptions have gone up quite substantially, and
Speaker 2: I've really questioned the value.
Speaker 1: So do a subscription audit, go through and see what
Speaker 1: ones you're actually using right and just and if you
Speaker 1: are not using it, then get rid of it.
Speaker 2: And also ones that are due to automatically renew particularly
Speaker 2: expensive annual ones. I'm all caught out on one of those.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Disney Disney Plus is an annual renew and it
Speaker 1: ends up being like one hundred and eighty bucks or
Speaker 1: something for the for the annual renewal, which I mean
Speaker 1: you forget because it's a year in between, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden.
Speaker 2: It's recipe apps as well. There can be you know,
Speaker 2: three hundred dollars what yeah, what I got caught out
Speaker 2: all as well, But I complained it gave me a refund.
Speaker 1: Oh really, oh well done. Yeah, okay, so you do
Speaker 1: the audit, You clean up your subscriptions, Yes, you go
Speaker 1: through your direct debits. You mentioned checking your account kind
Speaker 1: of every week at least, and going through your your
Speaker 1: Apple subscriptions, seeing what is there and just seeing what
Speaker 1: you don't use. If you can get rid of it,
Speaker 1: get rid of it, because these are the things that
Speaker 1: they just roll over and they just keep on coming
Speaker 1: back to damage your budget. Right, they are a silent
Speaker 1: budget killer. Yes, okay, that's number one. Number two, what
Speaker 1: have you got?
Speaker 2: Infrequent essentials? So they are things that belong in your budget,
Speaker 2: They definitely should be there, but they're irregular. So a
Speaker 2: car regio, uh huh, you got me there, insurance premiers,
Speaker 2: particularly ones that renew annually. I got on in this
Speaker 2: the other day. School fees now my middle both my
Speaker 2: two kids are at public schools, and used to think, oh,
Speaker 2: they're free, and then all of the suddenly I got
Speaker 2: a couple of bills which combined were almost five hundred
Speaker 2: dollars with the bills for the for that quarter. Didn't
Speaker 2: know about that is because this particular school has this
Speaker 2: particular special kitchen that they have for the students and
Speaker 2: you're supposed to contribute to it and at this particular level.
Speaker 2: So that caught me by surprise. That then coincided with
Speaker 2: school holidays where you are the you know, entertainment deck coordinator,
Speaker 2: you know, going to this school camp today, Especially if
Speaker 2: you're a working parent like I am, you're trying to
Speaker 2: find activities for them to do, camps for them to
Speaker 2: go to, you know, especially if it's weather dependent, that
Speaker 2: can be expensive and frustrating. So these are the ones
Speaker 2: that you have to pay them. You need them, but
Speaker 2: if you don't plan for them, and you know, this
Speaker 2: is why I recommend having a calendar that's always three
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty five days in a head so you
Speaker 2: can prepare for these and uniforms, sports uniforms, you know,
Speaker 2: school shoes, sporting equipment. What I recommend to do you
Speaker 2: do with this and again it's what I teach in
Speaker 2: my course, but you have a financial float and every
Speaker 2: month or every time you get paid, you put money
Speaker 2: in that financial float so that when those expenses come,
Speaker 2: you always have more than enough to handle them, but
Speaker 2: also to handle multiple expenses at the same time.
Speaker 1: That makes sense.
Speaker 2: You just looked at me so blankly.
Speaker 1: Oh No, I was just I was thinking back to
Speaker 1: my own cash flow kind of situation and thinking just
Speaker 1: how nice it would be to have that set up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: to have that and that the peace.
Speaker 2: Of mind it's a financial float.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, it does make a lot of sense. Okay.
Speaker 1: So they are the infrequent essentials that they do come around,
Speaker 1: there's no avoiding them, and it is just about, yeah,
Speaker 1: making sure that you're actually budgeting for them and aware
Speaker 1: that they are coming up. So they are the first
Speaker 1: two subscriptions, direct debits, forgotten free trials, and the infrequent essentials.
Speaker 1: All of these are lurking within your budget and visibility
Speaker 1: and maintaining visibility and being aware that they're coming and
Speaker 1: planning for them. That is essential here right, Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: quick break, We've got three more. Are you guilty of
Speaker 1: any of the next three as well?
Speaker 2: Let me see, No, I am?
Speaker 1: Would that surprise you? No? Okay, all right, we'll take
Speaker 1: a break and come back in a second cana. Today
Speaker 1: we are talking about the five silent budget killers to
Speaker 1: watch out for the things that can really derail your budget.
Speaker 1: And they are just they are built into your budget.
Speaker 1: They are things that you're already spending money on and
Speaker 1: if you don't get a handle on them, then they
Speaker 1: can really knock your budget around a bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Number three on the list, what have you got loyalty tax.
Speaker 2: Oh, I can proudly say I am not a victim
Speaker 2: of loyalty tax because every frugal February I get on
Speaker 2: the phone and I demand a bit of deal. So
Speaker 2: I let them know politely and respectfully, I may go elsewhere.
Speaker 1: So, in terms of a definition, loyalty tax is basically
Speaker 1: when you as a long term customer of something that
Speaker 1: it might be your bank with your home loan, or
Speaker 1: it's not a classic one, might be your energy provider,
Speaker 1: your other utilities, your insurance where you've been with them
Speaker 1: for a long time and suddenly you see new customers
Speaker 1: coming in getting much better deals than you, as that
Speaker 1: really loyal customer who's been there for five years or
Speaker 1: ten years. That is a loyalty tax because you are
Speaker 1: paying for being loyal exactly.
Speaker 2: So that's not good enough, and that is when you
Speaker 2: need to jump on the phone and I love the
Speaker 2: phone calls and ask for a better deal, but be
Speaker 2: armed with the right amount of information so you know
Speaker 2: that X y Z are charging this, and you can
Speaker 2: at the same level of service or the same rate,
Speaker 2: or the same terms of conditions at a much better
Speaker 2: rate and give them the opportunity to not just match that,
Speaker 2: but beat it if they can. And I do this
Speaker 2: every year I call our energy and gas provider. I'm
Speaker 2: blown away by the savings I find. Like I think
Speaker 2: last year I got one hundred fifty dollars per month savings.
Speaker 1: That's big, it's huge. We've done an episode previously on
Speaker 1: the script to use when you're calling up your bank
Speaker 1: or your lender to get a better deal on your
Speaker 1: home loan. But I don't think I ever realized that
Speaker 1: you could do the same with your energy provider, your utilities.
Speaker 1: I just kind of I suppose maybe I've got it
Speaker 1: in my head that it's almost like a fixed price
Speaker 1: and there isn't room to move on it.
Speaker 2: Well, if you're on a fixed plan, it might be
Speaker 2: a little bit different, depends on obviously the details of
Speaker 2: your contract, but it is always worth asking.
Speaker 1: And they may be able to. There might be some
Speaker 1: other charges around the edges that they can.
Speaker 2: And some of them may have like an a penalty fee,
Speaker 2: like an early break fee that they may charge you,
Speaker 2: but it may be worth copying that if you're going
Speaker 2: to be saving so much more within a month or
Speaker 2: two elsewhere. But these are the questions you need to ask.
Speaker 1: Okay, So loyalty tax is a big one. Number four,
Speaker 1: This one's really interesting. Grocery weight. Yes, this isn't you?
Speaker 2: No, I have well, I had three now I have
Speaker 2: two labradors and lubrators eat everything so nothing is wasted
Speaker 2: in our house. Yeah, like everything even but even the compost,
Speaker 2: like it goes back into the soil of the gardens
Speaker 2: around where we live. Like, yes, so that's but on average,
Speaker 2: families apparently waste around twenty five hundred dollars per year.
Speaker 2: I think it's much more than that.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of money. So just by kind of
Speaker 1: buying too much.
Speaker 2: Duplicates not using it up in time, and it's ruined.
Speaker 2: You know, it's gone off, it's gone moldy, or you
Speaker 2: know what.
Speaker 1: You know what's really handy for this? Do you remember
Speaker 1: the episode that we did on using chat GPT for
Speaker 1: your groceries.
Speaker 2: I use it all the time.
Speaker 1: And being able to go, okay, look this is what
Speaker 1: I've got in the fridge, Like the I've got some
Speaker 1: bacon that's nearly at the end of its life. I've
Speaker 1: got some kind of Chinese cabbage. I've got some these
Speaker 1: these days, and put it all into chat GPT and
Speaker 1: it will tell you what to make.
Speaker 2: It's awesome. It is so cool. I do this all
Speaker 2: the time socially when I cannot be bothered to go
Speaker 2: to the supermarket again.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty staggering figure, though, that two and a
Speaker 1: half thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: I think it's much more than that. It's fifty dollars
Speaker 2: a week, especially for young families. And like I think
Speaker 2: about my kids, like, especially when they were younger, Like
Speaker 2: they throw food on the floor and then they'd say
Speaker 2: I want to eat this and have a bite, and
Speaker 2: they go, no, I don't like that, and you know,
Speaker 2: and and fridge meals to get them to eat.
Speaker 1: And your fridge ends up full of kind of quarter
Speaker 1: full pannets of berries. Berries where they start where they start,
Speaker 1: where they start to go soft, and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden they just kind of get left and pushed up
Speaker 1: the back of the fridge, and a new punnet gets
Speaker 1: bought and opened. And pannets of berries are so expensive,
Speaker 1: I know, And that's right.
Speaker 2: We should be eyeing and frozen. It's great with second
Speaker 2: money on berries.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but it's hard to kind of pack frozen
Speaker 1: berries into a lunch box.
Speaker 2: No, they're perfect. They thaw out during the day. I
Speaker 2: put them in the kids yogurt pots. Oh really, it's delicious.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, but two and a half thousand dollars
Speaker 1: if you were to cut down on that, and if
Speaker 1: you were to buy is one way to get around
Speaker 1: that to buy strictly to a list in terms of
Speaker 1: what meal planning, and buy to that list and perhaps
Speaker 1: use chat GPT for your meal planning.
Speaker 2: I was actually chatting with some friends the other day,
Speaker 2: and the amount of my friends that actually just go
Speaker 2: to the supermarket and just buy without a list. They
Speaker 2: just throw whatever in the trolley blows your grocery bill
Speaker 2: out massively. But if you just spend twenty minutes going
Speaker 2: through going Okay, which days of the week are we home,
Speaker 2: what's the balance diet? We'll do salmon one night, chicken
Speaker 2: one night, vegetarian the next. Cross references what you've already
Speaker 2: got in your pantry, what can use up? You know,
Speaker 2: what can you create that's quite a budget friendly meal
Speaker 2: and it keeps everyone happy and obviously filled up with
Speaker 2: the right quality produce. It is a brilliant way of
Speaker 2: actually not just saving money, but also saving yourself a
Speaker 2: lot of time energy as well.
Speaker 1: I reckon, maybe we are probably the average with the
Speaker 1: two and a half thousand dollars, but I would like
Speaker 1: to think that because we do so much of our
Speaker 1: grocery shopping online, that perhaps makes us a bit more
Speaker 1: deliberate in what we're buying. That you are not just
Speaker 1: walking along the aisles and describing whatever you see that's
Speaker 1: on special, that you're really just going, Okay, I need
Speaker 1: to get Rice. Just search Rice up and pop that
Speaker 1: in the digital digital trolley. What's it called your basket basket?
Speaker 2: I think cart.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now that's it. That's it. But maybe that's a
Speaker 1: way to do it as well. It's not for everyone.
Speaker 2: I like that because you know, I do my grocery
Speaker 2: shop either on Saturday night or what a raging weekend
Speaker 2: I have, or Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. So yes, So let's just get this clear.
Speaker 1: You do your grocery shopping on Saturday night, you review
Speaker 1: your budget on Sunday night, and somewhere in between, and.
Speaker 2: Then Friday morning or Friday afternoon. I also do bi
Speaker 2: weekly budget review my transactions. Really, yes, I sound like
Speaker 2: I have no friends and no life.
Speaker 1: No, No, you sound like you'd be great fun at parties.
Speaker 2: I am a lot of fun. I have a lot
Speaker 2: of friends.
Speaker 1: I don't know if when you are the one claiming
Speaker 1: that I don't know how much weight that really carries?
Speaker 2: Can I count my dogs as my friends?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, because we can't ask them to confirm. Okay, So
Speaker 1: all right, so grocery waste that is, that's a big one,
Speaker 1: and because we can actually put a number on that
Speaker 1: and say it's two and a half thousand dollars probably
Speaker 1: minimum that people, and it is just by overshopping and
Speaker 1: not kind of paying attention to what you've already got
Speaker 1: in the fridge and just not and not kind of
Speaker 1: consuming all the leftovers. And even if it's going into
Speaker 1: kind of a recycling kind of process, whether you've got
Speaker 1: a worm farm or a compost bin or something like that,
Speaker 1: at least that is helping, but it's not going to
Speaker 1: save it out of your budget.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Can I have said one out of the
Speaker 2: quick point before we please go to the next, and
Speaker 2: that is to actually declutter your pantry and fridge. I
Speaker 2: recently did this and I was it was still quite disgusting,
Speaker 2: to be honest. You can check it out on TikTok
Speaker 2: the video of what I found. But since doing that,
Speaker 2: our budget, our grocery bill has come down quite subunificently
Speaker 2: because I'm really prioritizing eating up the things that we
Speaker 2: bought for a once off meal, like a particular paste
Speaker 2: or powder and using that up. And I now know
Speaker 2: not to go there again because it's a waste. And
Speaker 2: seeing a neatly organized pantry is amazing. What it does
Speaker 2: for your mindset is you approach food planning and the
Speaker 2: groceries and you want to keep it neat and tybe
Speaker 2: with less stuff in there.
Speaker 1: I like that last one. ATM fees and bank charges
Speaker 1: like ATM fees, right, if you are still paying ATM fees,
Speaker 1: and if they are a silent budget killer, that's got
Speaker 1: to be a relatively niche thing now, because I mean
Speaker 1: so many people are cashless. Yeah, and you can also
Speaker 1: find one within you or banks.
Speaker 2: Network exactly friends of yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah indeed, but bank charges that one is a little
Speaker 1: bit harder to avoid.
Speaker 2: Right. Then there's the monthly account keeping charges Yeah, that
Speaker 2: definitely could happen in foreign transaction fees as well. And
Speaker 2: then of course late fees or overdrawn penalties.
Speaker 1: Late fees is probably a perfect example for this as
Speaker 1: a silent budget killer because they are things that are
Speaker 1: happening that are easily avoided, right just by paying on time,
Speaker 1: and whether that is a mortgage payment or a credit
Speaker 1: card payment or any of these, or any kind of
Speaker 1: loan repayments, they are easily avoided. And also just penalties
Speaker 1: for not paying your kind of mobile phone bill on
Speaker 1: things on.
Speaker 2: Time exactly and could do what you did, put five
Speaker 2: reminders in your phone, your calendar, well buffer so you
Speaker 2: don't procrastinate.
Speaker 1: As you turn this around on me now to make
Speaker 1: it sound like that's a bad thing just because I'm
Speaker 1: suddenly organized with my money. Never thought i'd say that
Speaker 1: to you. It's quite quite an exciting day. So atm
Speaker 1: fees and bank charges they're probably fairly minimal, but then
Speaker 1: you do have the persistent as well, and also if
Speaker 1: you have a home loan for instance, that you might
Speaker 1: be paying a fee a larger fees. Yeah, indeed, is
Speaker 1: there room to move on those things?
Speaker 2: Definitely, you can, oh, one hundred percent at me Go.
Speaker 2: You could definitely call them up and say I'm not
Speaker 2: happy about this fee whilst you're also haggling for a
Speaker 2: better interest rate deal as well, and quite often they
Speaker 2: can wave them well.
Speaker 1: And credit card fees, not just the late fees, but
Speaker 1: credit card to do.
Speaker 2: Much harder to do. But yes, it's worth asking.
Speaker 1: But you could also change to a credit card that
Speaker 1: doesn't have a fee.
Speaker 2: Definitely, of course you want to make sure that the
Speaker 2: credit card works for you.
Speaker 1: Okay, five silent budget killers? Which one out of those
Speaker 1: five is the biggest budget killer? Do you think what's
Speaker 1: the one that does the most damage to your budget?
Speaker 2: I would say the loyalty tax is the biggest, particularly
Speaker 2: around homelands, because you know, if you look at the
Speaker 2: cost of interest per month, it's quite substantial. You know,
Speaker 2: the loyalty tax on your gas bill might be say
Speaker 2: twenty dollars a month, but you're the loyalty tax on
Speaker 2: your home loan could very easily be two hundred or
Speaker 2: two thousand dollars a month. So it is the biggest
Speaker 2: one that needs to be addressed as a number one priority.
Speaker 1: But if you want some quick wins, then go through
Speaker 1: your subscriptions and your direct debits because you can get
Speaker 1: up you can get some easy little wins there, right.
Speaker 2: True, But when you think about the time involved, it's
Speaker 2: pretty much the same call your bank, or call your
Speaker 2: you know, Fox cell provider or your streaming service. Like
Speaker 2: it's the same phone call the same amount of time,
Speaker 2: probably going to be on hold for the same amount
Speaker 2: of time as well. Point, but the payoff is potentially
Speaker 2: bigger with a Homeland Okay.
Speaker 1: Number one, subscriptions, direct debits, forgotten free trials. Number two
Speaker 1: the infrequent essentials annually insurance and car red Joe and
Speaker 1: school fees and Christmas those kinds of things that do
Speaker 1: come around every year and it just pays to be
Speaker 1: more aware of them so they don't derail your budget
Speaker 1: when you get to them. Number three the loyalty tax
Speaker 1: on homelans, utilities insurance. Number four grocery waste actually using everything,
Speaker 1: just buying exactly what you need and shopping to a list.
Speaker 1: And number five atm fees, bank chargers and other fees
Speaker 1: and charges that you are charged that you just forget
Speaker 1: that they're there, and it pays to see them, be
Speaker 1: mindful of them, pay on time to avoid them. And
Speaker 1: haggle and negotiate your way out of a fee. If
Speaker 1: you possibly can haggle, heart listeners, we might have just
Speaker 1: going to put myself.
Speaker 2: Back on that nerd level again.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, that was a very nerdy way to finish.
Speaker 1: We might have to do an episode just on haggling,
Speaker 1: on your greatest tips for haggling, because I want to
Speaker 1: know how you walk into an electrics like a Harvey
Speaker 1: Norman or a shop like that, and how you haggle
Speaker 1: your way down to a better deal on a washing
Speaker 1: machine or something, because I imagine it would be quite
Speaker 1: a ferocious thing to witness. Will you do it?
Speaker 2: Yes, we will a challenge accepted?
Speaker 1: Excellent? All right. If we want more information from you,
Speaker 1: where do we find you?
Speaker 2: The best place to reach out to me is on
Speaker 2: Instagram at sugar on my TV.
Speaker 1: And you can hear me every day with Sean Aylmer
Speaker 1: on Fear and Greed business News. You can use thank
Speaker 1: you for listening to how do they ford that? Remember
Speaker 1: to hit follow on the podcast. And the best thing
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Speaker 1: link to this episode, spad the word about how do
Speaker 1: they ford that? Thank you for your company, join US
Speaker 1: again next week,