Click here to have your say on what sacrifices you making right now to pay your household bills. So far, 31% of respondents report cutting back on basics such as food, heating and electricity while 27% are going without a holiday. Some members are even going with out heating in winter while one member is still paying last year’s winter electricity bill! Some comments: Cutting back on i... read more>

The first news report I listened to post-Budget this week claimed “banks won’t be happy” and I thought…who cares? It must be a pretty good budget if the banks are the only ones not happy right? It turns out the banks will be hit with a new levy designed to help get the Budget back into surplus.  For the over-50s, there are also some new tax breaks to encourage downsizing, energy rebates and ... read more>

Around a third of Australian school kids now attend a non-Government school. The difference between school fees can be enormous, even for schools in the same catchment area.  For example, my children are in the Catholic system and the fees are around $10,000 a year just for tuition. A non-Catholic private school in the same area charges around $30,000. With school fees accounting for a ma... read more>

I was listening to an interview with the Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison recently and he was talking about managing the economy, the billions it costs in health, infrastructure, defence, education and so on. I don’t envy him the job of trying to make that budget work. But then he said something profoundly simple. If you’re spending more than you’re earning, it’s not good.  That applies to y... read more>

In last week's newsletter, we brought you the Private Health Insurane hack that saved blogger Bek Day $4000. Bek's story involved using the website HealthShare to be forewarned of upcoming surgical costs and avoid over-charging specialists. Well, 70-year-old Grahame Lonnie went one step further and asked his doctor for a discount. Mr Lonnie explained that he couldn't afford to pay for anothe... read more>