The emergency expense audit that could save you $800 a month

April 18, 2026 — 5:01am

We’re all feeling an immense expense squeeze. Suddenly, it seems the price of everything, not just petrol, is up. So, get forensic about your finances with an emergency expense audit – really a life audit – that saves more than an instant average of $800 a month.

Ditch and switch your expensive suppliers

On everything from gas and electricity to your insurances, price checking your so-called fixed costs will reveal they are anything but.

Indeed, if you’ve been with your providers two years or more, you could likely slash hundreds off your monthly bills.

Comparison websites make the process easy too. The independent government outfits energymadeeasy and – in Victoria – compare.energy.vic.gov.au show you how to save on energy.

Many commercial comparators do the same but also on most insurances and other financial products. See Canstar, CompareClub, Compare The Market, Finder, iSelect and RateCity, while I like WhistleOut for phone and internet.

Be on the lookout for providers with priority listing purely because they pay; you should be able to change a filter to the genuine best products instead. (And we’ll get to the standout independent health insurance comparator shortly).Look out particularly for new-customer discounts. Then, whether it’s cheaper to stay or go.

Pull the lever guaranteed to slash incomes

Savings now are probably worth more to you than savings later, so look at how much you’ll keep – or even get happily refunded – if you up the excesses on all your insurances.

Please note that the hope of insurance is that you hardly need to claim on it. You might find, anyway, that what you save in premiums is sufficient to cover a larger excess in as few as two years.

And a special note about health insurance, which has just gone up the most in a decade at 4.41 per cent. As I wrote in a recent column, until 2019 you needed an excess below $500, for singles, and $1000, for couples/families, to be exempt from the Medicare Levy Surcharge.

Today, it’s $750 and $1500, respectively. And that makes a big difference to the premiums you pay. Also consider turning off obstetrics to save $600 or so; if you don’t need hip replacements, maybe another $400.

My comparator of choice for health insurance is the independent, government privatehealth.gov.au.

Use the smart electricity saver

With one in 10 cars being bought now an EV, on a petrol-induced sales surge, think about switching to an EV-particular electricity plan. This will give you an ultra-cheap rate, say, after midnight for a few hours.

The trick, then, is not just to plug in your car and set the timer for those hours, but also for the dishwasher and washing machine, and even pumps and heaters for swimming pools.

Pay rates monthly

A big rates bill just landed? Most people don’t realise there’s no loading to pay monthly with many councils – and you don’t always lose a discount any more either.

Besides, did you know you pay rates in advance? So, you are giving your council money early by stumping up in full when your bill lands.

Purchase everything with strategy first

By simply adding a step before all shopping and living costs, you could save financial stress. In fact, there are two first-step strategies.

One, buy everything with gift cards bought at a discount to face value – for example, through Everyday Rewards you can often get cards for Woolworths, and Woolworths affiliates such as Big W, at 3 per cent off. Other merchants can be 10 per cent or higher.

And various associations, unions and telcos offer discounted gift cards for all sorts of different things. Just pre-pay to pay less. But there’s potentially a better opportunity here too – compare the savings by instead buying through a cashback service.

Shopback, TopCashBack, GoCashBack, Citro and others (like some banks) act as a conduit between merchants and customers. Most have hundreds or even thousands of partners to purchase virtually everything you need in your life – cheaper.

Fight petrol prices anyway possible

You, by now, probably know to price check on the Petrol Spy app. But also check the price-lock feature on 7-Eleven’s app: you can search up to five nearby locations then lock in the best price per litre – plus a 25¢ per litre discount – for up to seven days.

You can “fuel lock” for up to 150 litres on your app; then you just present your card at the pump. Of course, by now you might also be driving like there are eggshells under the pedals. And slower.

Refinance your mortgage

You could call this the mic-drop money-hack – as interest rates bite, about 35,000 Australians a month are refinancing right now, according to the ABS lending indicators.

Say you have the now-typical $700,000 home loan and move it from an uncompetitive 7 per cent to a best-of-breed loan with a real offset account, still down at 5.8 per cent, you’ll slash your repayments by $523 a month. If you have a $400,000 loan, it’s $300 a month.

Remember, if you are struggling to meet any of the above bills, providers must have dedicated financial hardship teams that will cut you some slack. But it’s possible you’re paying over the odds and hurting unnecessarily.

Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon is the author of How to Get Mortgage-Free Like Me, available at nicolessmartmoney.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.

• Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.

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