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Hacks for Working Mums to Boost the Budget
By Rani Cohen
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usy professional parents often find that the “mental load” of juggling kids, life and a career means that making those little changes to boost their financial fitness can fall further down the list. As a working mum also managing a side gig, Rani Cohen from WeekDay Space has found there are little things that don’t take a huge effort when spread across the year, yet they can make a big difference to the family budget.
Rani’s top 5 hacks: 1
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Annual household provider review – The sad thing about most of the providers we use for electricity, health insurance, streaming or pay television etc. is that they will rarely offer you a better deal unless you ask or even threaten to switch. Every year I put a week in the diary to do some research on alternate suppliers for all my major household expenses. Often this can save you hundreds of dollars a month. I recall feeling somewhat elated one year when I managed to find an extra $250 a month just by switching family health insurance, renegotiating with my internet/TV provider and changing electricity supplier. That’s an extra family holiday right there!
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Taking advantage of free local resources
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– I am going to put my hand up Side gigs that utilise your extra space here and say that until I discovered – Everyone knows that the share economy is one of Baby Rhyme Time, I had no idea the most popular ways out there to make extra money. that local libraries were such an A recent survey by finder.com.au found that Aussies amazing resource. Until then I are earning an average of an extra $7300 a year had been regularly buying age from side jobs - which would go a long way on the appropriate books, DVDs etc. And family budget! But if you already have a day job you who can’t resist still buying books probably don’t want to take something on that as, frankly, they are such a great is going to take a lot of extra time or effort. thing for your children to own. But Platforms such as Spacely where you can rent boy, was I was amazed that you unwanted storage space or WeekDay Space could access new release DVDs, where you rent a spare room to a professional audio books for big kids (like me or student lodger during the week (and have and hubby) and keep your little ones your room back on weekends) are great stocked up with new-age relevant ways to utilise unused space without a books and TV series every week. huge time commitment. Not to mention the free events that many local councils hold for families to attend and enjoy. Proving that best things in life can actually be free!
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Peninsula Kids – Winter 2019