- Aussie dad Jason Ch’ng is teaching others how to save money with his clever thrifty tips
- Based in Fraser Rise, Vic, the father-of-two started to make small, easy savings
- His family are now $75,000 better off thanks a few simple swaps
Here he shares his story in his own words.
Listening to the news about the latest rise in interest rates, I let out a troubled sigh.
‘Do you realise we’re having to pay $500 more a month on our mortgage repayments now?’ I said to my wife, Kim, then 38.
It was 2022 and, on top of raising our kids, Felicia, then 10, and Xavier, six, Kim and I both had busy careers. She worked in finance, while I was an associate director for an accounting firm.
It meant we never really had time to sit down and budget properly.
Because of this, we didn’t keep track of how much we were spending on groceries, eating out and family activities.
But now, with our mortgage repayments increasing, we had no choice. We sat at the computer and put together a spreadsheet to help us make changes, so as to save some cash.
‘We spend roughly $500 on groceries alone every week,’ I told Kim, after tallying up the numbers.
‘It was an eye-opener to how careless we’d been.’
Shockingly, we also spent $350 per month on takeaways and $400 on family activities such as going to sporting matches, trips to the movies and morning coffees.
It was a real eye-opener to how careless we’d been.
‘We can definitely be more clever with our costings,’ Kim replied.
After eliminating things like daily coffees and expensive cuts of meat, for the first time ever, we planned our family’s food menu for the week and added the items required to our shopping list.
Then, after scouring supermarket catalogues to see where the bargains were, we shopped around to find the best deals instead of doing our entire shop in one place.
Sticking to the list we’d made, I bought only the ingredients I knew we needed. Reaching the check-out, I was stunned that we’d halved the cost of our grocery bill from the week before.
‘That’s amazing,’ Kim said when I got home.
Buying cheaper cuts of meat like chuck steak instead of rib eye, I’d slow cook it to make delicious stews.
I also bought mince in bulk, making a big batch of bolognese sauce to serve with pasta. I turned the leftovers into chilli con carne the next night, and then beef pies.
Chicken always seemed to be a cheaper meat option, too, so we’d load up on that.
We also soon learned to stock up on discounted meat and freeze it.
And we did the same with fruit and vegies, opting for big bags of frozen peas, carrots and corn, as well as berries and bananas.
Making sure we also had fresh options, we bought the seasonal fruit and vegies that were always good value in local fruit and veg stores.
After just one month of sticking to our thrifty tips, we were blown away to be $800 better off, slashing our grocery shop from $500 to $300 a week.
‘We also made family meals fun!’
Not only were we comfortably covering the rise in our mortgage repayments, we were actually saving money!
What’s more, we didn’t feel as if we were making any major sacrifices or compromises.
Rather than ditching takeaways completely, they became a monthly treat that we all looked forward to.
We also made family meals fun!
On Friday nights we’d take turns to pick a cuisine and cook a dish from that country.
Italian and Mexican were firm favourites, and Felicia and Xavier nailed making delicious chicken quesadillas under our watchful eyes.
‘The fridge emptied itself!’
By planning ahead and prepping our own food we reduced food waste, which in turn meant we were getting even more bang for our buck.
We didn’t need to throw anything out – the fridge emptied itself!
After three months, I refined our budget more, managing to slash it back even further to $150 per week – 70 per cent less than when we started.
Instead of buying lunches, Kim and I ate leftovers from dinner, and the kids took sangas to school instead of buying food at the tuckshop.
It meant that mealtimes cost us roughly $1.78 per serving.
After just one year of making simple tweaks to our spending we’d saved a whopping $15,000.
To celebrate, we treated ourselves to a two-week family holiday in Japan.
Having become seasoned super savers, we started to think outside the box and incorporate lower cost family activities into our schedule.
Instead of days out at the footy – which would often cost in excess of $250 – the kids spent their weekends and after school happily playing netball after I purchased a hoop for $100.
Not only were they having fun and getting fit, it became a family affair when Kim and I both joined in on the sporting action with them.
And instead of expensive trips to the cinema, we enjoyed film nights at home thanks to Netflix.
‘We’ve now budgeted for three years.’
We also started to make small but easy and noticeable savings on electricity bills, simply by turning off the lights and appliances when they’re not in use.
After three years of strict budgeting, we’ve saved a whopping $75,000.
Being open about what we do with our cash – like saving for the long term or for holidays and budgeting for necessities – has taught Felicia and Xavier great life lessons too.
It’s helped them realise you have to work hard, save and be savvy to be able to afford nice things.
Being thrifty can take some forward planning, but it’s absolutely worthwhile.
Nowadays my mantra is the best life is a frugal life.
And if we can do it, you can too.
