If you’ve never really looked into it, you may assume that a credit union is just another financial institution out to charge you fees and high interest. However a credit union actually differs significantly from a bank because they:

· Do not have shareholders demanding high returns, so their profits go back into maintaining low fees and low interest charges.

· Offer consistently better service, according to the October 2009 Roy Morgan banking survey which found 85.9% of credit union customers were satisfied, compared to just 72% of customers from the Big Four Banks.

· Are regulated by independent government bodies ASIC and APRA in the same way as the banks to ensure the security of your savings and the integrity of your service.

Credit Union Credit Cards

When you are comparing the best credit card for your needs, don’t forget to compare the features and benefits of the cards offered by credit unions, especially since there are more credit unions operating in Australia than there are banks.

Advantages of credit union credit cards:

· You are in control as a member of the credit union. When you apply for a credit union credit card you are applying to be a member, not a customer and as a result you will be able to vote on the governance of your credit union, and enjoy rewards from the profits being returned to the running of the financial institution, rather than to the shareholders.

· Better customer service. A credit union knows it has to offer an important point of difference from the banks and in addition to keeping fees and credit card charges lower, credit unions also excel in customer service. Therefore, instead of dealing with an Australian subsidiary of an American bank, and being put through to an American call centre, you are dealing with a local financial institution, and with staff who are members themselves.

· More chance to negotiate your circumstances. If your credit card application is rejected, you have more opportunity to negotiate with the credit union to find a solution which will allow you to manage a credit card account. Similarly, if you run into financial trouble, you can more easily negotiate a lower interest rate, reduced fees or a payment plan.

Disadvantages of a credit union credit card:

· A smaller product range. Since a credit union focuses on keeping their products affordable, they do not usually offer such an extensive range as you will find with a bank. However, rather than shopping around for the best credit card within one institution, you may have to compare the products of several credit unions to find one which suits you.

· Fewer rewards. You are less likely to find a credit union credit card with a rewards program as their profits go back into more affordable products, rather than rewards schemes.

· Shorter hours of operation. Banks tend to have more flexible hours of operation, open longer during the week and on the weekends.

Bank Credit Cards

Banks have bigger advertising budgets and therefore more money to spend on making sure that you know about their products, so make sure that you know about all the advantages and disadvantages to a bank credit card before you make your decision.

Advantages of a bank credit card:

· You can buy shares in your bank. As such, you can have an investment in the success of your financial institution and protect your interests, while also receiving dividends from the bank, and in turn getting back some of those fees and interest charges you may have paid.

· Your financial products remain independent of each other. A credit union will apply a practice called cross-collateralisation where your products will be tied to each other. Therefore, if you take out a personal car loan, the car becomes collateral if you default on your credit card; this means your car could be repossessed to pay off your credit card debt with a credit union, but banks do not use this practice.

· Your credit card application is based on your financial situation not your financial education. Part of the credit union credit card application process could be that you are forced to take financial lessons to make sure you know how to manage your finances before your application is approved.

Disadvantages of a bank credit card:

· You are more likely to incur a balance transfer fee. When you take advantage of a balance transfer offer of a lower interest rate on a balance from another credit card, a bank is more likely to charge you a fee to make that transfer compared to a credit union. That fee is usually a percentage of the balance you are transferring.

· Higher rates and fees across the board. When you compare the fees and the interest rates charged on bank credit card accounts, they will be higher than those on a credit union credit card, so decide whether you are happy with any extra features which come with a bank credit card.

· Less satisfying customer service. Where 85.9% of credit union customers are satisfied with the service they receive, only 72% of banking customers could say the same. Therefore, before you apply for a bank credit card, take their call centre for a test drive to see how long you wait on hold, how helpful the staff are and how easy the entire experience is.

Choosing a credit card is as much about the provider as it is about the features because you need to be happy with both the service and the products, with the rewards and the fees. Therefore, consider your needs carefully to determine which are the most important aspects of a credit card for your situation, before you decide between a credit union or bank credit card.

1. Write down your expenses, day by day - If you could actually see what you are spending everyday then it might shock you into not wasting so much money. If all the expenses are written on a board on the wall it is even worse. This is a real eye opener that everyone needs to do.
2. Never go shopping on an empty stomach - If you go shopping  with starving stomach then you will end up collecting extra junk foods that you may not have bought if you were not hungry. Everything looks good when you are hungry. We all know what it feels like. Even if you are thirsty you start buying lots of drinks. Fill yourself up before you go shopping and you will save loads of money.
3. Make a list of errands before you leave the house – This is good because you will go by a planned path and save your petrol and travel expenses. If you have not decided where to go then you will end up going in circles and wasting your time and money. If you stick to a plan it will also stop you from making unshedualed visits where you could spend more money.
4. Limit the number of cleaning products you use – Many people use different types of cleaning products for different appliances and devices which is not a good idea but only waste of money. It is better to use natural cleaning products and save your money. Cleaning products are a rip off. We do not need them at all. Try vinegar and bi card soda for cleaning the toilet and bathroom, water, eucalyptus oil and dish washing liquid for spray and wipe, and more…
5. Look out for a free car wash – There are several service stations that provide free wash for cars if you spend a specified amount on petrol. This sounds a bit scabby but I pay for water where I live. Washing the car can take a lot of water and if its for free then why not use it. Just make sure the price of the petrol isn’t jacked up to compensate the free service.

I personally like writing down the expenses on a board on the wall for the whole family to see. My children will not ask for money if they see that I have already spent huge amounts of money that day. It works a treat! This method is also good for seeing those hidden expenses that you forget about and just pay. You will be able to see where to cut down and stop wasting money.

1:  Auctions for the highest interest in savings

Instead of searching the internet for the best savings account or the highest interest rate on your savings, register with Money Aisle to participate in a reverse auction.
Rather than approaching the banks to see what they’re willing to offer, you can register your needs with Money Aisle and have hundreds of banks bid on your business in real time.
They’ll offer higher interest rates or better features to close the deal with you, and this means your savings can get an instant boost and a great ongoing deal. Not all banks and financial institutions participate in the Money Aisle auctions, but of the hundreds which are involved, all must have a high rating to participate so you know your savings will be secure, no matter who seals the deal.

2:  Find a better mortgage

If you feel you are struggling with your mortgage repayments, while family and friends, even your neighbours, seem to be able to afford expensive holidays and fancy cars – their mortgages are the same as yours right?
Not always, mortgages and home loan products can differ significantly from providers and for different customers, so head online to find out if there is a better deal out there for you.

Using an online personal finance tool called SmartHippo, you can compare the features and benefits of the mortgages of real people already using them. This means you can find out whether your neighbours really are managing their mortgage better, and whether there is an easier to use home loan product out there by reading reviews of other mortgage holders.
As part of the Smart Hippo community you can offer your own advice on the products you are using too, and reading the reviews of all the users you can gain a picture of the wider home loan lending market, rather than just the offers from the big banks.

3: Financial planning and goal tracking

If you need to have access to your budgets and financial plans quickly and simply, and there are a number of free online finance tools which can help with this.

For example, Simplifi offers you the advice of a virtual advisor named Sophie, who guides you through creating and sticking to a financial plan. You can enter all of your personal finance details into Simplifi, including your earnings, your expenses and your goals. Sophie can then offer you advice on repaying your credit card debt or saving for your retirement, allowing you to keep your finances and plans updated wherever you are.

Another financial planning tool you can find online is called Boulevard . Once you create an account with Boulevard, you can drag and drop your financial and life goals onto a timeline of where you hope to achieve them in your life. You can then prioritise different goals, enter an amount you are comfortably able to save each month, and Boulevard then shows you how and when each goal can be achieved.
4:  Budgeting online anytime

Creating and sticking to a budget can be time consuming, especially if you have to hang onto receipts to enter your actual spend each week and find the time to make your calculations based on changes to your budget. To make budgeting faster and easier, which will in turn save you not only time, but money, utilise an online personal finance budgeting tool such as Mint , Wesabe or Geezeo.

While they all have funny names, they can all help you track and manage your budget more efficiently. Once you register with one of these personal finance tools, they will collect all the information from all your banks accounts, savings accounts, home loans, personal loans and credit cards, in one place. Mint, Wesabe and Geezeo can track the fees of each account so you can avoid unnecessary charges, and you can set up alerts in case the balance of a savings account dips, or your credit card balance is approaching its limit.

To help you budget, you are able to enter your income and your expenses when you first register and each finance tool will track your budget, mortgage repayments, account balances and can even manage a brokerage account for you. all you have to do is login online, or using an enabled smart phone to make changes or view your progress and ability to stick to a budget in any month.

5:  Finances on Facebook

For a personal finance tool which links to another of your most used accounts – Facebook – you can use the MyMoney tool. Similar to Mint, Wesabe and Geezeo, MyMoney allows you to track all of your finances from the home screen of your Facebook account so you can create budgets, monitor account balances and avoid late payment charges and fees.
Facebook has made sure the MyMoney app uses all of the same security features required of an online banking site, so no one else can access your information and none of your Facebook friends can see the information in your MyMoney account.

Being financially savvy and saving instead of spending is in, so get connected and enjoy the ease and efficiency of some of the top personal finance tools available online right now.

About the Author:

Alban is a personal finance writer. He offers tips and advice to helps people to compare credit cards online.

BudgetPulse.com

A free online budgeting tool, BudgetPulse offers a variety of money tracking options as well as help with how to save for large purchases, and access to their blog sites and forum. The part I like best about the site is that it doesn’t force you to put account numbers or financial information that you want to keep private out there and at risk of being seen by others. You can watch the brief video on their homepage to get a better feel for exactly how the site works and what it offers.

MoneyTrackin.com

A free online tracking site, at MoneyTrackin.com you can visit their blog, use the site’s saving map to find ways to save money that hit close to home, or discuss budgeting matters and discover tips within MoneyTrackin’s online community. They even offer tools for small business accounting. Take their tour to discover more about the site’s features and capabilities.

Geezo.com

Create money goals, utilize money alerts, or chat about ways to save. Geezeo offers a variety of tools when it comes to tracking your money. Get recent news at the Press Center, meet and discuss budgeting topics with like-minded members of the Geezeo community, or just crunch some numbers and look for ways to save when it comes to your personal finances. The site is free and offers a short introduction by way of a brief (1 minute and 37 second) video tour.

Microsoft Excel

I personally find that simple Excel spreadsheets are one of the most effective methods of tracking and managing one’s personal finances. You can build the managing devices that best suit your needs, get as in-depth or keep it as simple as you’d like, add graphs and charts if needed, and keep your personal financial information away from any prying eyes that might be lying in wait upon the internet.

Microsoft Money

As you might already have this software (at least in some version) installed upon your computer, it could be a useful and available tool for managing your money. While Microsoft is no longer making this software available for sale, it doesn’t mean that it can’t or won’t be a valuable tool for your money managing needs. Frankly, I sometimes find that older versions of particular software are actually easier to navigate before all the added bells and whistles start to gum up the works.

BudgetTracker.com

BudgetTracker.com is a free online tracking tool that allows you to manage your financial life. Among its tools, the site offers the ability to track bills, build a budget, utilize charts and graphs, create a custom calendar of reminders, forecast incomes, or manage your business.

Bill Organizer

If you’re looking for simple and basic, Bill Organizer might be the money tracking tool for you. Bill Organizer is a downloadable spreadsheet devoid of many of the extravagant features found on so many other sites. Bill Organizer allows you to keep track of where your money is going, when it goes there, and in what amounts.

PearBudget.com

PearBudget offers a 30-day free trial, after which the service runs $3 a month. While I find it difficult to pay any amount of money for money tracking tools, PearBudget.com’s wizard function makes getting started quick, easy, and relatively painless.

Debtsteps.com

Debtsteps offers plenty of advice regarding financial matters and a number of tools including, budget worksheets, a discussion group, interactive debt help where you can read a money horror story or tell one of your own, and budget calculators. The budget calculators can be used to determine things like mortgage payments, credit card payoffs, minimum payments, or build a household budget.

Mymoney.gov

Yes, even the government is getting into the act when it comes to helping you with your money. While they don’t offer the same type services as many others on this list, they do provide several tools to help you with your money management. A slew of calculators ranging from college planning and credit card repayment to home buying and investing are there to assist you with your money matters.

Tom writes about managing money at MoneyCompare.com.au where consumers can compare online savings accounts in order to get the highest interest rate and lowest fees for their money.

If you have a spouse or a significant other, you should make this budget together. Sit down and figure out what your joint financial goals are…long term and short term. Then plan your route to get to those goals. Every journey begins with one step and the first step to attaining your goals is to make a realistic budget that both of you can live with. A budget should never be a financial starvation diet. That won’t work for the long haul. Make reasonable allocations for food, clothing, shelter, utilities and insurance and set aside a reasonable amount for entertainment and the occasional luxury item.

Savings should always come first before any spending. Even a small amount saved will help you reach your long term and short term financial goals. You can find many budget forms on the internet. Just use any search engine you choose and type in “free budget forms”. You’ll get lots of hits. Print one out and work on it with your spouse or significant other. Both of you will need to be happy with the final result and feel like it’s something you can stick to.

I wish I had known this in my twenties. If I knew how to budget and manage money I would be sickly wealthy by now.

Some serial money wasters are now tightening their belts to prepare for what might be ahead.

Grow your own vege patch. Don’t be lazy and say you have no time. Join the club. Wake up to yourself, who has got time these days? Just get off your bum and do it!!!  Even if you only grow a few things to swap with your friends. You could grow spinach and swap it with a friend that has eggs…

Start using the bartering system. If you get something cheap, share it with your friends and hopefully they will reciprocate. I have a group of friends that are into bartering and they are great, but do not get involved with people that just take take take…

Cut your grocery bill down. Stop buying those expensive brands. Flour is flour in a different package. Sugar is sugar, and so on. If you think people are looking in your trolley to see what you are buying, you are being paranoid. Maybe you should see a phyciatrist. Check out 50 Fantastic Tips for Grocery Shopping and Why is everyone keeping up with the Jones’s

Make sure you have freezer. I know this sounds stupid but having a decent sized freezer can save you hundreds of dollars. See What food and drink can you freeze to save money. Buy bulk foods when they are on special and also freeze unused food before its used by date.

Don’t buy what you don’t need. That’s pretty obvious but people still do it anyway. If you have towels with a few tears in them, who cares? They will still dry you. If you have no towels at all, them buy some because you NEED them.  See Do you have a shopping and spending money problem? and Things that make entice you to spend more money

Home Mortgage:
Of course this is the big killer. Considering most home loans run for around 20 years, this adds up to a huge amount of interest. If you can pay your home mortgage off quickly, you can save thousands.
Shopping:
Avoid shopping at all costs. Even grocery shopping can be detrimental to any budget. Stick to your list of what you need. Do not go shopping for fun!!! You will often buy items you do not need.
Telephone bills:
Now that everyone has a mobile phone, it is almost impossible to avoid extra phone bills. They are convenient and always have specials deals, but could you do without it? How about just receiving calls and not making them?
Pay TV:
Get rid of it! There is enough to do and see in the world, why spend your time watching TV.
Eating out:
You can feed a family of four for around $200 a week, however one meal at McDonald’s for the family can cost over $30. So 3 meals a day for a week is $530. If you like the cafes and restaurants you can double or triple that cost.
Lottery tickets:
I have heard of people spending $20 a week for twenty years on the same numbers hoping they would come up. Some people are lucky and some are not. If only those people had invested that money and compounded the interest. They would nearly be millionaires.
Movie Tickets:
I cannot get over the price of a movie ticket. I like to wait until the movie comes out on DVD and hire it out. Then everyone can watch it for a mere $6.
Car washes:
Why can’t people wash their own cars? You can turn it into a bit of fun with the family..
Bank Fees:
The banks have really got the fees covered. Interest on borrowed money, transaction fees, monthly account keeping fees, and the list goes on. Find out what fees you pay and then figure out how to reduce them.. Its as simple as that!
Utilities:
We can all save money on our utilities, especially the electricity bill. Turn off un-used electrical items and lights.

Mitz Pantic writes articles for various sites including Fill Your Money Box, Free Computer Help, Tips4pc, Brisbane Computers and more.

When you succeed at saving money you are helping yourself. Pat yourself on the back for meeting your goals. Remember that just because you have determined to live by a budget, does not mean that you are “cheap”.

Be content with what you have
Remember that you have so much more than most people in this world. Do not view budgeting as doing without; but as being an intelligent consumer, and consistent manager of your money.

“Stretch” everything as much as you possibly can
For example, you can dilute these products with water, or cut them in half and they will work just as well: toothpaste, shampoo, hair conditioner, dish detergent, dishwasher soap, and laundry soap.Drink lots of waterIt is better for you, and much easier on your pocketbook. At home, the cheapest of course, is your tap water. However, if you do not like tap water or desire filtered water, you can still save money on bottled water by using these tips:

Buy the store brand – do not pay extra for name brands. When your bottles are empty, look for the bottled water machines at your grocery store. In my area, I can fill a gallon for only .25 cents. Compare that to .75 cents (or more) per gallon that you are paying in the store. Stock up on small bottles when they are on sale, and reuse them for lunches. At work and when dining out, always order water. It is usually free. If you take a bag lunch, take along a bottle of water or a thermos.

Always stockpile sale items whenever your budget allows for it
This is a huge money saver, and my all-time favorite tip. Stockpiling means buying enough of the item while it is on sale to last you until the next sale.

Spend as much of your budgeted money as you possibly can on sale items. “Loss Leaders” are the low-priced sale items that the grocery stores advertise to get you into their stores. They are hoping that as you stop by for the sale items, that you will do all of your shopping in their store. Don’t. Get the sale items and leave.

Shop around. Compare prices. No one store ever has the lowest prices on everything.Never pay retail prices unless absolutely necessaryUse coupons, send for rebates, and shop the sales. If you use the previous tip, you will always have on hand the things you need. You will not have to make special trips to purchase items at full price.

Don’t be caught by surprise – plan ahead. You will feel more secure knowing that you have a full pantry as well.

Make it yourself
Make what you need instead of buying it. My favorite thing to make is Laundry Soap.There are many things that I make instead of buying. One is Pickle Relish. Instead of paying $1.29 for a 10 oz. jar of pickle relish at the store, I buy the 46 oz. jar of whole pickles on sale for $1.50-$2.00. Then I chop the pickles in my blender or food processor. I save $3.00-$4.00 by doing this. I refuse to buy processed cheese slices. I buy store brand bricks of cheese on sale. The typical price is $1.20 for an 8 ounce brick. Then I process the cheese in the blender/food processor and add a little mayonnaise. This makes a great cheese spread that you can put on sandwiches, and it is much cheaper!

Shop the discounted bread stores
Did you know that most of the time the bread stores carry fresh breads? You can get baked goods for a much lower price. Most bread stores also offer promotions such as “frequent buyer cards”. Our local bread store gives discount cards. For each $5.00 purchase, they will stamp the card one time. When your card has 7 stamps, you turn in the card and receive a free $5.00 credit. These bread stores also carry snacks, spices, and mixes.

Pay your debts
Pay them off as soon as you possibly can, and do not charge anything else until they are paid for. You may want to cut up your credit cards, but be sure to leave yourself a low interest card so that you can take advantage of great deals online. You also may want to keep it for emergencies. However, when you buy online, make sure that you pay for your purchase as soon as the bill comes. If you let interest add up on your great deal, it is no longer a great deal.

Don’t buy it unless you need itNotice I said, NEED it – not WANT it. There is a big difference. Curb your desires, and learn to discipline your spending habits. Trust me, it can be done.Before you buy something, ask yourself the following questions

Is this something I can live without?
Do I already have something that I can use instead?
Can I borrow it from a friend or family member?
How long will I have to work to pay for this?
Do I really need this, or do I only want it?

Always use the Five R’sRepair, Restore, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – these alone will save you a bundle.If you will incorporate these tips into your daily life, you will save money – guaranteed.
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