Rising Tide Blog

If you’re part of the daily grind, chances are you have daily expenses.  Things like petrol ($20), public transport ($10), coffee from your favourite café ($5), lunch ($15), gym classs ($20) etc.  Over a week these daily expenses can add up to over $350 – quite a chunk out of your weekly earnings… 

Thankfully, online tools and mobile apps are making it easier than ever to both cut down expenses AND generate additional income over and above your daily wages.  The best part? You won’t need to give up your daily coffee fix.

It’s no secret around the office that I’m a bit of a tech junkie.  Here are my top tech picks for everyday use:

Rent your car out for cash

Rent out your car while you’re at work with Car Next Door, a car sharing website that allows you to share your car with your neighbours for cash

Possible earnings: Up to $200 per week

Save on petrol

If you need to drive for work, it’s worth downloading Motormouth, an app that shows you where can find the cheapest petrol in your area.  A seemingly small saving per litre can save you over $100 in a week-long period!

Possible savings: up to $100 per week

Get a better deal on your coffee

Being from Best Financial Planners & Advisers Melbourne, I love my coffee so the idea of giving up my daily flat white to save money just doesn’t fly.  Luckily I’ve discovered this nifty app (started by some Melbourne guys) that allows me to have my cake and eat it too!   The UpShot app allows you to purchase a coffee subscription to your favourite café.  $15 gets you unlimited coffees for a whole week!

Possible savings: $20+ per week

Don’t pay for texts or calls

Download WhatsApp, Viber or Skype and make as many calls and texts as you like for free!

Possible savings: Up to $50 per week

Keep track of stingy mates

If a restaurant doesn’t allow split bills I’m often the one to volunteer to pay the full amount on my card and tell my mates to fix me up later.  The trouble is that I often forget who owes me what or feel awkward about chasing my mates for the money.  I’ve started using an app called SplitWise that not only allows me to track IOUS’s but also send automatic reminders to my mates.

Possible savings: Depends on your mates 🙂

Rent out your spare room

Owning a B&B used to be a full time gig but now you can do it on the side (in addition to your day job) thanks to AirBnB.  Renting your spare room out for just a couple of nights a week can bring in an extra few hundred dollars.  Better yet, if you’ve got a holiday coming up think about renting out your entire home and fund your holiday while you’re at it!

Possible earnings: $200+ per week

Sell your crap

Home from work early?  Time to sell some things you don’t use on eBay.  Do you really need a different type of glass for every drink you consume?  Are you really ever going to fit in to the suit pants you wore to your year 12 formal again?  Probably not.  Declutter your home and make some serious cash in the process.  Just try not to go out and buy more stuff with with the cash you earn!  Instead, put it towards a holiday, an investment or pop make a voluntary super contribution.

Possible earnings: Depends on your stuff but you could earn thousands of dollars!