18 Ways to Save On Household Bills

Take control of your finances so you can direct your hard-earned money to what really matters

In case you haven’t noticed, the cost of living in New Zealand isn’t what it once was! Over a period of years prices have been driven up for all kinds of common goods and services.

This has put pressure on many household budgets and even left the well-off wondering how to save on regular bills and direct more money to what truly matters.

To help keep more funds in your back pocket, here are plenty of ways you can save on routine household expenses.

1. Cut Transportation Costs

Transportation is one of the costliest regular items for any person or family. The other big-ticket items are most often taxes, housing, and food, so we’ll circle back to those soon.

With petrol prices showing no signs of dropping any time soon, anything you can do to cut back on transport costs can make a large difference. This might include:

• Take more public transport.
• Avoid making multiple trips from home in one day. For example, if you need to go to the supermarket try to incorporate this in your other travel for the day.
• If possible, work more from home.
• Downsizing your vehicle to a more economical model, or even an Electric Vehicle (EV) if you can. This might free-up a sum of cash too!
• Cycle or walk more.
• Change your pastimes to spend more time closer to home, cutting both travel time and costs.
• Make regular savings on gas by shopping around and using discount schemes.
• Keep your car well-maintained, including suitable tyre pressure. A well-maintained vehicle is usually one that runs efficiently!

Learn more: How to save money on petrol

2. Save On Groceries

A quick Google search will show you hundreds of ways to cut back in this area, which should include:

• Meal planning.
• Sticking to your shopping list (“click and collect” or similar can be useful for this).
• Only eat in-season fruit and vegetables.
• Buy generic brands.
• Buy on special, or “reduced to clear”.
• Bulk-purchase.
• Avoid pre-packaged, pre-cut, or pre-prepared meals. The markup on these isn’t usually worth the cost, unless you are particularly time-poor.
• Eat everything you buy, use your freezer and watch the shelf life. Sadly, substantial amounts of groceries are still regularly thrown out!
• Eat your leftovers.
• Stick to your budget.
• Leave the kids at home, they can be persuasive when it comes to adding an extra impulse item or two to the trolley, especially when waiting in the checkout queue!
• Explore weekend markets, sometimes they’re a great source of fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Shop around supermarkets. Your supermarket isn’t loyal to you, so there’s no need to religiously stick with one supermarket brand or location. Instead find the most cost effective.
• Join loyalty programs. The rewards do add up.

Learn more:

• ‍How to avoid supermarket rip-offs
• Save money on groceries

3. Reevaluate Your Living Situation

Okay, let's talk about the elephant in your living room, or more accurately, the elephant paying for your living room: accommodation costs. For most of us, this is the big daddy of expenses that makes your bank account whimper.

While you might not be able to magically conjure up a mortgage-free home, there are some genuinely practical ways to lighten that load. And yes, we admit some of these choices may be painful to make, especially if a spouse or family is involved.

Ways Homeowners Can Save

Homeowners can consider house hacking, renting out a spare room, taking on a boarder, or even leasing a parking spot (yes, parking spots go for gold in some cities). You might also entertain options such as moving to a lower-cost part of the same city or town or stay in the same area but downsize to a smaller place, or perhaps just move somewhere with less expenses such as maintenance, council rates, insurance, or body corporate (“body corp”) fees.

You might also be able to refinance or restructure your mortgage, or perhaps even subdivide your section and sell part of it.

Whatever you do, ensure you fully explore all related costs, such as one-off real estate agent fees, moving costs, legal fees, and so on should you relocate, and ongoing expenses including increased transportation costs if you move further away.

How Renters Can Save

If you negotiate your lease renewal or offer to prepay a few months, it can sometimes win you a discount. Especially if you're a good tenant, have been there a while, or are looking to sign a longer lease, your landlord might be willing to budge a little. Research comparable rents in your area to back up your request. You can even offer to do repairs or make improvements in exchange for a rent reduction.

Taking on a roommate is also an option.

As is the case for homeowners, relocating to somewhere smaller or somewhere slightly less desirable might also make a lot of sense. Just ensure you factor in all moving costs and any increased transport, or other, bills.

4. File a Tax Return

Getting some tax back might be the most satisfying form of savings!

Tax is the final of the “big four” expenses that dominate most family budgets.

Filing a tax return is a lot easier and quicker than you might think. The Inland Revenue Department (IRD, the government tax collection arm) let you do it online through the MyIR portal, and most Kiwis are in straightforward enough financial situations that they can file a return without the assistance of an accountant.

Some things that you may not have considered are tax deductible can reduce your overall tax bill, which means you could get a tax refund. This usually includes:

• Donations to charity.
• Many payments to tax advisers or accountants.
• Some payments made to financial advisers.
• Premiums for most income protection insurance policies.
• If you work from home, you can probably claim a portion of the household expenses, e.g. rates, power, rent or mortgage interest, water, home insurance, cleaning, and so on.
• Interest, if you have borrowed to invest. Ringfenced rental properties are a more complex area.
• Business deductions, if you run a small business or even a side-hustle, Airbnb, or even if you just rent a spare room or sleepout.

5. Cancel Unused Memberships and Subscriptions

Companies love ‘recurring revenue’ business models as it makes their cashflows more predictable, and often they know customers won’t make an effort to cancel. That’s why everywhere from gyms to television providers to telecommunications will offer a subscription service. The payments involved are often minor, which means they’re readily overlooked by those paying them.

As a result, you might be paying $1,000 or more a year in subscriptions you never, or hardly ever, use.

If you’re on the fence about any of your memberships and subscriptions, or find that you’re not using them very often, cancel them. You can always renew the membership later if it turns out that you miss it.

Don’t know where to start? Just trawl through your bank account and credit card transactions and find the recurring costs which can be eliminated. Many subscriptions you might not think much of can rapidly add up, possibly including:

• Magazines and other hard copy publications. Most can be read online now anyway.
• Streaming networks. Do you really need Lightbox, Amazon Prime, Disney, and Netflix?
• Sky TV. This is one of the most expensive commonplace subscriptions in the country.
• Digital services. Whether it’s for Dropbox, or extra Apple iCloud or Gmail storage, these costs can quickly add up.

6. Turn Off the Lights

Keeping the lights on in your home may not be expensive on a per-watt basis, but it sure does cost money over time. To save as much as you can, turn off lights any time you leave your house – or even when you leave the room. Turning off lights when you have plenty of natural sunlight can also help keep your electric bill down over time.

7. Cancel Credit Cards, and BNPL Schemes

Credit cards can be great if they’re used in a disciplined and wise manner. However, they can be a drain on your finances, especially if you’re not fully paying them off during the interest-free period most cards offer.

If you’ve got an expensive credit card, and aren’t getting much benefit for the annual fees, then consider switching to a low-or-no cost option.

If you carry a credit card balance from one month to another, a possible solution is a credit card balance transfer. This is when you move debt from one credit card provider to another, usually to take advantage of a lower introductory interest rate for a set period. Sometimes the rate is as low as zero percent. The goal is to save on interest and pay off debt faster.

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) apps including Afterpay and LayBuy should also be avoided or cancelled. These apps rely on continuous consumer spending and add another complication to keeping your money under control. If you really want it, saving up for it and paying in cash is fast becoming the new normal.

Learn more:

• ‍Smart ways to use your credit card
• Credit card balance transfer

8. Reduce Contents, Car, and Home Insurance

These policies are usually called general insurance.

General insurance can be costly. For example, if you’re paying for contents insurance but don’t own much of value you might find there’s plenty which is easy and low-cost to replace: there’s no point in paying for $100,000 of contents insurance if your personal effects are worth far less! In some cases you might be better off accepting a risk by having no contents insurance, and taking an approach of self-insurance, instead.

There’s often a wide range in car and home insurance when it comes to the cost of policies despite the benefits being the same, or very similar. You might get a better deal by switching providers, though proceed with caution as you may also lose a no-claims bonus or other benefits.

One simple trick is to just increase the excess on your policy or policies, and accept you’ll meet any lower-cost events yourself. Increasing your excess nearly always results in a lower premium to pay (premium is the regular cost of insurance cover).

9. Switch Power Companies

Electricity is a commodity of sorts: there’s hardly any difference between the electricity we get from one provider or another.

That means it’s usually best to find the cheapest, and a variety of New Zealand comparison websites have popped up to help you do just that:

• ‍Powerswitch‍
• Powercompare‍
• Glimp

Many electricity retailers offer joining discounts, too.

10. Change Your Phone Plan and Internet Provider

Phone plans can get expensive, especially if you’re paying for data or minutes you don’t use. Have a quick search online and see if a better deal is available, in some cases SIM-only phone plans are now far more cost effective than other bundled deals.

Likewise, broadband and fibre companies compete hard for business, and many offer fantastic sign-up deals if you commit to a 12-month plan.

11. Unsubscribe and Unfollow

Do you really need to know about the latest sale or product launch?

Avoid temptation by unsubscribing from marketing emails and texts from stores where you spend the most money. The same goes for your social media feed: unfollow your favourite brands and stores, or from anyone you follow who promotes them.

12. Use Vouchers or Store Credit

Have you got unused or partially used vouchers just lying around? Perhaps you’ve got an unused in-store credit or some air-points?

Due to inflation, the value of these credits and points is slowing being eroded, so you’re better-off using them sooner-rather-than-later.

13. Weatherproof Your Home

Winter can be cold and damp so plug holes and cracks that let warm air escape.

You should be able to get materials and possibly advice about this from your local hardware store about inexpensively stopping unwanted heat loss. A little time spent researching this online might go a long way to save on your winter heating bills.

14. Cut Back on Dining Out, Uber Eats, and Coffees

At the risk of sounding like a cliché parent giving tips to a young adult, the cost of those iced lattes really does add up! Consider:

$7 a day for 365 days a year = $2,555

If there’s two of you = $5,110!

A few less dinners out, Uber Eats, and lattes can make a major difference to your overall financial position. This includes packing a lunch to take to work rather than ducking out for a meal. If the average workday lunch costs around $15, making a sandwich or packing something even more exciting can easily save you over $3,750 every year.

15. Use Energy Efficient Bulbs

Energy-efficient light bulbs might cost a bit more initially, but they have a much longer life than normal incandescent bulbs and use far less electricity. It might be hard to decide which type to use, but any type of efficient bulb will probably be an upgrade if you’re not already using them.

16. Minimise or Quit Your Vices, e.g., Alcohol, Smoking, Gambling

Bad habits cost! The heavy taxes on these areas are an added incentive to kick the habit, once and for all.

Giving up a bad habit such as gambling can also save on other indirect costs too. For instance, if you quit going to the casino - you probably won’t spend so much on drinks, parking or transport, and meals out.

17. Refinance Or Restructure Your Mortgage

A timely mortgage review or restructure can be a financial game-changer. It's not just about chasing the lowest interest rate (though that helps!). By actively reviewing and potentially adjusting your home loan, you can tailor it to your current financial situation, whether that's reducing repayments to free up cash flow, or shortening your loan term to save thousands in interest over the long run. Many New Zealanders find that reassessing their mortgage, perhaps by adjusting fixed-rate periods, consolidating higher-interest debts, or even just switching payment frequency, can significantly trim those hefty monthly outgoings and bring them closer to being mortgage-free.

18. Activity Swap

Especially if you have children, there are lots of free things you and your family can do together.

Outside activities are probably healthier and more memorable, anyway. New Zealand’s nature and scenery are free, so it’s a win-win for everyone.

This also applies for your spouse and friends.

Beware, Cutting the Following Expenses Could Cost You More Than It Saves

Trimming household costs can be a great financial move, though there are several areas you should be very wary of cutting back, this might include:

• Continued education or development. This sort of expense is usually a great long-term move, if this is done in a logical way it should bolster your future earning power!
• Reducing or changing personal insurance policies including life, health, income protection, and similar covers. Plenty of research shows New Zealanders are generally well-under insured in these areas, so this isn’t a logical place for most people to start saving. Shopping around for a cheaper policy is an approach advocated by many financial gurus, however, when it comes to most insurance policies cheaper isn’t always better. In fact, by changing policies you may create significant issues for yourself, as a new policy won’t usually cover you for any conditions you developed since taking out your current policy. Naturally, your current policy will nearly always cover you for health conditions which have arisen since you took the policy out, including if you’re having treatment for anything right now.
• Cutting back investment contributions, including KiwiSaver. This might sound like a great idea to increase cashflow, though of course it is just robbing your “future self” so should probably be a last resort!

Related article: Never cancel health insurance

Overall, always remember that you can’t save yourself wealthy. You’ll need to invest to achieve that, so we usually encourage investing and growing income as the best ways to get ahead over the long-haul.

So if you can combine wise budget habits with growing your income and investing, then you’ll be on a winning financial path!

The Bottom Line: How to Save On Household Expenses

Saving on household bills isn’t about turning into a scrooge and counting every cent while life passes you by. It’s about getting intentional with your money so you can spend it where it really matters. Whether it’s shaving dollars off your power bill or restructuring your mortgage, every little win adds up and adds to the amount you can instead allocate to things that bring you genuine joy.

You’re clearing financial clutter so you can invest more in the things that bring happiness and life satisfaction. Which could mean more time on weekend getaways with and friends, dinners with those closest to you, or finally booking that dream trip.

It’s time to start making deliberate choices that add genuine value to your life, rather than letting your money quietly slip through your fingers. Start living richer, not just spending less!