Savings guide to freebies and discounts in 2020

It’s no secret that Aussies love a bargain. But with family finances tighter than ever, saving on the fun stuff has never tasted sweeter. 

Whether it’s a free Whopper burger on your birthday or 60% off a pair of Apple Airpods, there are plenty of places to save. 

To make life easier, we’ve compiled the ultimate list of savvy ways you can snag discounts and freebies on everyday items, including food, drink, fashion and entertainment.

Birthday freebies

Businesses certainly make it easy for you to pamper yourself on your birthday, with a large number of outlets across Australia offering treats in the form of free food or gift vouchers. To score the freebie or discount, you’ll generally need to join their loyalty program - either by downloading their app, grabbing their loyalty card in-store, or signing up to their newsletter/marketing communications. 

Hot tip: Tempting as it may be to use a birthday gift voucher you’ve received from David Jones, Country Road or Dymocks, it’s best to think twice before buying that maxi dress or pretty notebook. You’re actually spending more than you’re saving, if the only reason for your purchase is to get the $10 or $20 off (plus, you might find an even cheaper deal by shopping around online rather than sticking with the store you got the voucher from). 

As for birthday offers that are actually free, most are food or drink related. To redeem these offers, remember to bring along your loyalty card, app or email voucher. You may also be asked to show your photo ID.

*Note that while these offers are available at the time of writing, they may be subject to change.

Discount websites

Gones are the days when shopping around involved keeping an eye on catalogue discounts every week or trekking from store to store to compare prices. Nowadays, bargain hunting can be done from your computer desk, with online communities like OzBargain and marketplaces like Catch.com.au offering the convenience of searching for discounts from a single browser.

These sites are updated constantly, but if you aren’t bothered monitoring them every few hours for new offers, you can opt to have daily emails delivered straight to your inbox. OzBargain also lets you set up search alerts for particular items or brands. 

Meanwhile, other discount websites cater to specific product types. For instance if you’re looking to treat yourself to a greasy comfort meal or a dinner out with family, then Frugal Feeds or Groupon might have special deals you wouldn’t find just by heading straight to the restaurant or ordering over UberEats.

Browser extensions

Not too eager for your inbox to be flooded with hundreds of promotional emails? The good news is there are handy features you can add to your browser that will do the heavy lifting of sifting through discounts for you. 

Once installed, extensions like Honey and RetailMeNot Deal Finder will scour the net for any relevant coupon codes or cashback offers and then automatically apply them to your purchase at checkout. Easy as! 

Both these add-ons work for Chrome and FireFox browsers, while Honey is also available on Safari, Opera and Edge.

Price match

‘Big ticket’ items like smartphones, cameras and fridges could leave you thousands of dollars out of pocket, but this is a trick to ensure you never have to pay full price again.

So how does price matching work? Once you can find an item for a cheaper price, just show the deal to an employee in-store and they should let you purchase that same product at the lower price. Many electronic and white goods retailers such as Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi have a price match policy, while Officeworks takes things to the next level with a promise to beat the competitor’s price by 5%. 

To successfully price match, look for a competitor offer that’s:

• In stock
• Australian (grey or direct import products not sold through an authorised Aussie-based reseller won’t be accepted)
• Not part of a cashback or coupon offer
• Not a clearance item (but items on sale should be acceptable).

How much should I budget for the fun stuff?

That depends on a range of factors, including your income, expenses and savings goals. While every household’s budgets will look different, a useful method to follow is the ‘50/20/30’ rule:

• 50% of your monthly paycheck goes into essentials (e.g. rent, utility bills, debt repayments, groceries)
• 30% goes into ‘fun’ (e.g. entertainment, eating out)
• 20% goes into personal savings.

However this rule-of-thumb can be adjusted according to your needs. For instance, if you’ve recently experienced a pay cut or you just want to buff up your rainy day fund, you may instead decide to dedicate 35% to savings and only 15% to fun. 

Wondering where to stash those dollars you’ve spared, thanks to discounts and freebies? Your best bet may be a savings account with a high interest rate and monthly conditions you can realistically meet. Scroll down below for a snapshot of what’s on offer right now, or for a more comprehensive list, head over to our high interest savings accounts page.