I am disabled and get the DSP. I recently quit smoking for good. I plan on saving money now. I really do not want any smokes any longer. I worry that I have cancer from the smokes. But, I am only 43. My goal is to save $20,000 or more
I am currently building my EF for the first time. My biggest motivation is to feel safe for once, and that a big expense (like an unexpected trip back to my home country for an emergency, or vet bills, or medical bills) will not cause me debilitating stress. I planned out the whole year (started Semptember 2025 and planned until December 2026) with a really cool colourful spreadsheet to see how much I can realistically save, and I found out I can save 8.175€ of which 5.600€ will be in my EF (That's 2 salaries for now!) and 1.975€ are in a flex fund that I can use for more expensive but essential treats to myself (rock festivals and trips basically). I really enjoy having an overview of monthly expenses because then when an expense comes up that I didn't plan for I am super flexible to switch some stuff around based on priorities. I don't track daily expenses as it is quite stressful to me and I keep forgetting, but once I have built a buffer where I don't leave paycheck to paycheck anymore, I might go back to YNAB that made tracking easy. I haven't automated the transactions on my banking app because I like to do the transfers manually on payday, it feels very empowering. And I have pockets in my account that I assign money and bills to be paid from, and if at the end of the month there is some leftover there (because I round up some amounts) then that will be building up, until one day I can pay a whole set of bills with "old money". This concept really excites me because I come from extreme financial hardship, and have been terribly broke in the past, since I had to finance my own studies incl. all living expenses.
Adding on, one thing i do when im craving some shopping/ online shopping is to put all the things i want in the cart/wish list! Idk if it works for others but just having them in the cart and thinking i could buy them helps give me time to actually decide whether it's a worthy purchase.
I did the math for apple charges last month and it added up to $105 monthly. I wanted to yell at my phone lol. I run to cancel every subscription when I realized how much it really was
I love this video! I'm trying to save for so many things plus pay off debt, and sometimes I feel so overwhelmed. I really like how you've set this out and kept it realistic.
A private wealth advisor once told me: “The ones who disappear didn’t go broke- they read The Silent Laws of Cash Power and moved in silence.” That quote haunted me until I found the book. It reads like a manual for ghosts: trusts, holding corps, banking techniques that don’t exist on your timeline. After that, I stopped posting and started positioning.
I used to think leverage meant debt or influence. Then someone sent me a link to The Silent Laws of Cash Power with no explanation. Halfway through the book I realized… I’ve been making money in public, while the real players do it in silence, inside the lines, but outside the spotlight. After that book, I started structuring differently. Not earning more- but controlling more. Huge difference.
I found The Silent Laws of Cash Power in a weird way- mentioned in a Reddit thread that got deleted a few hours later. No hype, no funnel, no reviews. Just raw ideas that flipped my thinking on money completely. It doesn’t give you steps. It gives you truths. Stuff that explains why some people break through with less effort, and why others grind forever with nothing to show. It’s not motivational. It’s liberating.
Back when I thought I was doing well, I stumbled into a circle of guys who weren’t loud, weren’t flashy- but had private jets and no social media. One of them said, “There’s a book that breaks down the laws nobody’s supposed to talk about. Not tax loopholes- power dynamics.” He was talking about The Silent Laws of Cash Power. I found a PDF. I read it in one sitting. It’s the kind of book that feels like it shouldn’t exist- but once you read it, nothing about the money system surprises you anymore.
Lol ive only got 500 a fortnight spare cash and that goes on extra hikes in petrol costs, random medical, random work related cost, hikes in food prices.
I made a SoFi account for savings bc it’s a high yield account, and it separates from my regular checking, they have “vaults” that seperate ur savings into goals u can track and name them it’s the best thing I’ve done
Is 100,000 AUS Dollars, approx £50,000 GBP? I am from the UK and really into my saving etc with my own personal goals and trying to make sure I am saving in all areas I can for emergency funds, deposits etc so this is super helpful!!
I love the app “Carted”. If there is something that I KNOW I am going to buy at some stage, I save it to the app and it alerts me when it goes on sale. I use it for kids birthday presents or bigger purchases for myself.
For years my hubby wanted to buy me a coffee machine, I always said No, afraid it wouod addict me to MORE coffees per day. But there I was, spending approx $40 per week on takeout coffees. Well, he bit the bullet and bought us a coffee machine… and we've never looked back! It is much more delicious and there is sth about enjoying a wonderful cuppa in the comfort of Home…. ☕️❤ and it paid itself off in 5mths.
Thank you for the tip re moving monies back out of savings… VERY good tip! I think that i keep doing this with my savings because I have a multipurpose savings account. Will look at laserfocusing on 1 thing at a time 🎉
I loved this video. It was the first one of yours I have watched and it’s great. Really great advice here for new budgeters. I have also started using that co pay spreadsheet this month and damn….. you realise why you have no money haha
Love your videos!! My favourite savings tip, is to scrap the monthly phone plan.
I buy my phone outright – this one is still going strong and I purchased it in 2019. Then I find the cheapest year-long, sim only ‘plan’. Mine cost $240 (discounted from $355). I get unlimited free calls/texts/MMS, then 320GB of data for the year.
I have home wi-fi, then use work wi-fi when I’m there. So I have never gone over my allocated data. If I did, I can buy a top up data bundle.
I did the numbers when I switched 5 years ago. Because I was paying off the phone with my plan (and paying for internet each month I was never using), I saved about $60/month. I was on the cheapest plan with the cheapest phone and it still ended up cheaper for me to swap and buy my phone outright.
There are always great deals on year long, sim only ‘plans’. They’re transparent, you don’t have to be loyal to any company and it’s a one off cost that I put into a sinking fund every year for. I’m now contributing to that sinking fund to make sure the money is in there for when I do need a new phone (I’m clumsy!).
I’ve saved so much money over the years, because when you buy a phone over X number of years on a plan, you always pay a higher amount than the phone would cost you to buy outright.
I'm currently saving up to move out of my parents house as an 18 year old, and in this economy it is unbelievably rough, haha! These tips are certainly going to help, especially around impulse buying!
I need to know how you can skip your beauty appointments (in detail). I've tried doing my eyebrows by myself but end up crying from the pain of plucking, and also ended up over doing it and it looked ugly and horrible.
Thanks so much for sharing everything with us! Just a tiny thing—would you mind speaking a bit more slowly? It's sometimes hard to keep up for non-native English speakers like me. Really appreciate it! :))
Wonderful tips, Ella. That $1,000 emergency fund will truly save you from the vast majority of emergencies. It’s worth establishing it and then pretending like it doesn’t exist (so you don’t spend it on non emergencies)! A few more things that I do to keep my non-priority spending areas as low as possible: * Meal plan. I have a weekly dinner menu that I repeat through the month. I do a big monthly meat shop at the farmer’s market (where I’m a member and get 10% off from each stall) and supermarket (where you can also get a discount if you’re a member – e.g. Cole’s and Woolies) so I’m stocked up on meat for the month and enough produce so I can meal prep and freeze a month’s worth of meals (either the whole meal or parts of it). I then shop once a week – with my list – for the fresh stuff. I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch everyday, so don’t need to ‘meal plan’ for those. * Run electrical appliances during the ‘shoulder period’ (for my provider it’s between 10am and 3pm). The price per KW is the lowest during this time. So, I do my best to time delay the dishwasher or washing machine or anything else to run during this period. * Price compare things at least annually (e.g. insurances, electricity, health insurance). I’ll price check again if I get a rate increase notice. Loyalty doesn’t mean anything anymore to most companies. * Sinking funds for known annual expenses. Be disciplined to use them. Putting away something towards known expenses each pay day = no stress when the bill arrives. After my first experience of having the money there when the bill arrived without stress definitely motivated me to stay disciplined! * Don’t see my budget as a budget. See it as an intentional spending plan. Remit Sethi talks a lot about this. And it goes to the heart of what he means for us to have a rich life. * Only paying cash for purchases. No more consumer debt for us. After my husband and I paid off $100,000 of consumer debt, I swore never to let that happen again. * Remembering that financial goals take time to achieve. I get frustrated a lot at not moving fast enough. I keep having to remind myself of the bigger context I’m working within and remembering that things will change in the future that will enable financial goals to be achieved faster. I feel like we’re conditioned for instant gratification and it can get demoralizing when I’m not an overnight millionaire.
I hope these help. I’m cheering for you on your financial journey!
What really helped me curve my shopping habits, was making myself have a list, and if I saw something I wanted to stop, observe, hold it, be slow and think “do I want to buy it for the sake of buying it” if so that’s no healthy. Tell yourself no, be disciplined for your why goals. Mel Robbins talked about it one time, that being aware helps really kill bad habits.
Thanks for sharing Ella! Love all these tips! Another great way to save on subscriptions that we opt in for every year is wait until black friday. Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Peacock and Paramount all do specials. Of course, it's with ads, but the price is unbeatable. We have Hulu & Disney + with ads and pay only $2.99/month. It's worth waiting until Black Friday!
Thank you so much for the side hustle content shoutout in the description – appreciate you! ♥ My favourite thing in the world knowing I've helped someone get out of a place of feeling stuck in their finances.
It's crazy how much the little things really do add up, and we're also in the boat of ads on our streaming services (even though I think it's INSANE that it's even an option) and over 3 or 4 subscriptions, it really makes a difference.
Loved this Episode 😍 we used the snowball method to pay off a bunch of debt years ago and it worked so so well! And from watching your videos I started tracking my spending this year and my partner and I have now paid off $15K of $20K credit card debt in the last couple of months, (we moved overseas 4 years ago and bought a sailboat and started content creation and had to use the credit card to get us through a small period 6 months in, where we weren’t making money…instead of going back home to Australia to work full time) and now we’re so close to being completely debt free and finally start to save some money again! ❤️🙌🏼🫶🏼 so thanks for being an inspiration
![[Bombshell News] Consultants say we’re DANGEROUSLY near a recession 🚨](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DvnKvkjdsMc/maxresdefault.jpg "[Bombshell News] Consultants say we’re DANGEROUSLY near a recession 🚨")
I am disabled and get the DSP.
I recently quit smoking for good. I plan on saving money now.
I really do not want any smokes any longer. I worry that I have cancer from the smokes. But, I am only 43.
My goal is to save $20,000 or more
Get to the points. Too much word salad. Got bored and left.
Please speak more slowly 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
I am currently building my EF for the first time. My biggest motivation is to feel safe for once, and that a big expense (like an unexpected trip back to my home country for an emergency, or vet bills, or medical bills) will not cause me debilitating stress.
I planned out the whole year (started Semptember 2025 and planned until December 2026) with a really cool colourful spreadsheet to see how much I can realistically save, and I found out I can save 8.175€ of which 5.600€ will be in my EF (That's 2 salaries for now!) and 1.975€ are in a flex fund that I can use for more expensive but essential treats to myself (rock festivals and trips basically).
I really enjoy having an overview of monthly expenses because then when an expense comes up that I didn't plan for I am super flexible to switch some stuff around based on priorities. I don't track daily expenses as it is quite stressful to me and I keep forgetting, but once I have built a buffer where I don't leave paycheck to paycheck anymore, I might go back to YNAB that made tracking easy.
I haven't automated the transactions on my banking app because I like to do the transfers manually on payday, it feels very empowering. And I have pockets in my account that I assign money and bills to be paid from, and if at the end of the month there is some leftover there (because I round up some amounts) then that will be building up, until one day I can pay a whole set of bills with "old money". This concept really excites me because I come from extreme financial hardship, and have been terribly broke in the past, since I had to finance my own studies incl. all living expenses.
Could this be the best upload yet?
Adding on, one thing i do when im craving some shopping/ online shopping is to put all the things i want in the cart/wish list! Idk if it works for others but just having them in the cart and thinking i could buy them helps give me time to actually decide whether it's a worthy purchase.
I did the math for apple charges last month and it added up to $105 monthly. I wanted to yell at my phone lol. I run to cancel every subscription when I realized how much it really was
Voice annoying
I love this video! I'm trying to save for so many things plus pay off debt, and sometimes I feel so overwhelmed. I really like how you've set this out and kept it realistic.
Would you recommend closing accounts in the likes of "AfterPay & Zippay" ?
A private wealth advisor once told me: “The ones who disappear didn’t go broke- they read The Silent Laws of Cash Power and moved in silence.” That quote haunted me until I found the book. It reads like a manual for ghosts: trusts, holding corps, banking techniques that don’t exist on your timeline. After that, I stopped posting and started positioning.
I used to think leverage meant debt or influence. Then someone sent me a link to The Silent Laws of Cash Power with no explanation. Halfway through the book I realized… I’ve been making money in public, while the real players do it in silence, inside the lines, but outside the spotlight. After that book, I started structuring differently. Not earning more- but controlling more. Huge difference.
I found The Silent Laws of Cash Power in a weird way- mentioned in a Reddit thread that got deleted a few hours later. No hype, no funnel, no reviews. Just raw ideas that flipped my thinking on money completely. It doesn’t give you steps. It gives you truths. Stuff that explains why some people break through with less effort, and why others grind forever with nothing to show. It’s not motivational. It’s liberating.
Back when I thought I was doing well, I stumbled into a circle of guys who weren’t loud, weren’t flashy- but had private jets and no social media. One of them said, “There’s a book that breaks down the laws nobody’s supposed to talk about. Not tax loopholes- power dynamics.” He was talking about The Silent Laws of Cash Power. I found a PDF. I read it in one sitting. It’s the kind of book that feels like it shouldn’t exist- but once you read it, nothing about the money system surprises you anymore.
at this point, im just gonna keep my savings in cash. i cant stop reaching into it for little things.
Lol ive only got 500 a fortnight spare cash and that goes on extra hikes in petrol costs, random medical, random work related cost, hikes in food prices.
I made a SoFi account for savings bc it’s a high yield account, and it separates from my regular checking, they have “vaults” that seperate ur savings into goals u can track and name them it’s the best thing I’ve done
Is 100,000 AUS Dollars, approx £50,000 GBP? I am from the UK and really into my saving etc with my own personal goals and trying to make sure I am saving in all areas I can for emergency funds, deposits etc so this is super helpful!!
I love the app “Carted”. If there is something that I KNOW I am going to buy at some stage, I save it to the app and it alerts me when it goes on sale. I use it for kids birthday presents or bigger purchases for myself.
You talk too fast.
ayyyy Victoria BC sweater – my home <3
Would love to know those side hustles. Thank you!
Which company did you go with for your car loan? Thanks xx
For years my hubby wanted to buy me a coffee machine, I always said No, afraid it wouod addict me to MORE coffees per day. But there I was, spending approx $40 per week on takeout coffees. Well, he bit the bullet and bought us a coffee machine… and we've never looked back! It is much more delicious and there is sth about enjoying a wonderful cuppa in the comfort of Home…. ☕️❤ and it paid itself off in 5mths.
How i didnt know about Netflix with ads!? Thank you for that gem!
Thank you for the tip re moving monies back out of savings… VERY good tip! I think that i keep doing this with my savings because I have a multipurpose savings account. Will look at laserfocusing on 1 thing at a time 🎉
Hello from Brissy! Love finding Aussie YTers!
I loved this video. It was the first one of yours I have watched and it’s great. Really great advice here for new budgeters. I have also started using that co pay spreadsheet this month and damn….. you realise why you have no money haha
Love your videos!!
My favourite savings tip, is to scrap the monthly phone plan.
I buy my phone outright – this one is still going strong and I purchased it in 2019. Then I find the cheapest year-long, sim only ‘plan’. Mine cost $240 (discounted from $355). I get unlimited free calls/texts/MMS, then 320GB of data for the year.
I have home wi-fi, then use work wi-fi when I’m there. So I have never gone over my allocated data. If I did, I can buy a top up data bundle.
I did the numbers when I switched 5 years ago. Because I was paying off the phone with my plan (and paying for internet each month I was never using), I saved about $60/month.
I was on the cheapest plan with the cheapest phone and it still ended up cheaper for me to swap and buy my phone outright.
There are always great deals on year long, sim only ‘plans’. They’re transparent, you don’t have to be loyal to any company and it’s a one off cost that I put into a sinking fund every year for. I’m now contributing to that sinking fund to make sure the money is in there for when I do need a new phone (I’m clumsy!).
I’ve saved so much money over the years, because when you buy a phone over X number of years on a plan, you always pay a higher amount than the phone would cost you to buy outright.
Loved the video ❤
I love this content! Keeping it real. The struggle is SO REAL. So many of my friends are in this boat. It's hard. Thanks for sharing your tips.
I'm currently saving up to move out of my parents house as an 18 year old, and in this economy it is unbelievably rough, haha! These tips are certainly going to help, especially around impulse buying!
❤❤❤❤
💸💸💸
I need to know how you can skip your beauty appointments (in detail). I've tried doing my eyebrows by myself but end up crying from the pain of plucking, and also ended up over doing it and it looked ugly and horrible.
Thanks so much for sharing everything with us! Just a tiny thing—would you mind speaking a bit more slowly? It's sometimes hard to keep up for non-native English speakers like me. Really appreciate it! :))
Wonderful tips, Ella. That $1,000 emergency fund will truly save you from the vast majority of emergencies. It’s worth establishing it and then pretending like it doesn’t exist (so you don’t spend it on non emergencies)! A few more things that I do to keep my non-priority spending areas as low as possible:
* Meal plan. I have a weekly dinner menu that I repeat through the month. I do a big monthly meat shop at the farmer’s market (where I’m a member and get 10% off from each stall) and supermarket (where you can also get a discount if you’re a member – e.g. Cole’s and Woolies) so I’m stocked up on meat for the month and enough produce so I can meal prep and freeze a month’s worth of meals (either the whole meal or parts of it). I then shop once a week – with my list – for the fresh stuff. I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch everyday, so don’t need to ‘meal plan’ for those.
* Run electrical appliances during the ‘shoulder period’ (for my provider it’s between 10am and 3pm). The price per KW is the lowest during this time. So, I do my best to time delay the dishwasher or washing machine or anything else to run during this period.
* Price compare things at least annually (e.g. insurances, electricity, health insurance). I’ll price check again if I get a rate increase notice. Loyalty doesn’t mean anything anymore to most companies.
* Sinking funds for known annual expenses. Be disciplined to use them. Putting away something towards known expenses each pay day = no stress when the bill arrives. After my first experience of having the money there when the bill arrived without stress definitely motivated me to stay disciplined!
* Don’t see my budget as a budget. See it as an intentional spending plan. Remit Sethi talks a lot about this. And it goes to the heart of what he means for us to have a rich life.
* Only paying cash for purchases. No more consumer debt for us. After my husband and I paid off $100,000 of consumer debt, I swore never to let that happen again.
* Remembering that financial goals take time to achieve. I get frustrated a lot at not moving fast enough. I keep having to remind myself of the bigger context I’m working within and remembering that things will change in the future that will enable financial goals to be achieved faster. I feel like we’re conditioned for instant gratification and it can get demoralizing when I’m not an overnight millionaire.
I hope these help. I’m cheering for you on your financial journey!
Would absolutely love to see a comparison of your budget from 2020/2021!
Hey Ella, Happy Friday. I loved this saving money video and seeing ways that you used to save up so much money. 😊🥰
What really helped me curve my shopping habits, was making myself have a list, and if I saw something I wanted to stop, observe, hold it, be slow and think “do I want to buy it for the sake of buying it” if so that’s no healthy. Tell yourself no, be disciplined for your why goals.
Mel Robbins talked about it one time, that being aware helps really kill bad habits.
Thanks for sharing Ella! Love all these tips! Another great way to save on subscriptions that we opt in for every year is wait until black friday. Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Peacock and Paramount all do specials. Of course, it's with ads, but the price is unbeatable. We have Hulu & Disney + with ads and pay only $2.99/month. It's worth waiting until Black Friday!
This is an interesting video as I am in the phase of buying a house, renovating, wedding and dept pay off. Thank you for sharing. ❤
Great video – such practical tips! ❤
Do you have gas? I think it’s good to mention that if you have gas as that will contribute to a lower electricity bill
Thank you so much for the side hustle content shoutout in the description – appreciate you! ♥ My favourite thing in the world knowing I've helped someone get out of a place of feeling stuck in their finances.
It's crazy how much the little things really do add up, and we're also in the boat of ads on our streaming services (even though I think it's INSANE that it's even an option) and over 3 or 4 subscriptions, it really makes a difference.
Thanks Ella. I was thinking I’d love another video from you, then I woke up and you had a new one for us. I would love the comparison from 2021.
Which debt payoff strategy did you use the smallest debt first or the one with the largest interest?
Thank you for this!! Always interesting but I’m going thru related things so this was helpful to hear!!
Loved this Episode 😍 we used the snowball method to pay off a bunch of debt years ago and it worked so so well! And from watching your videos I started tracking my spending this year and my partner and I have now paid off $15K of $20K credit card debt in the last couple of months, (we moved overseas 4 years ago and bought a sailboat and started content creation and had to use the credit card to get us through a small period 6 months in, where we weren’t making money…instead of going back home to Australia to work full time) and now we’re so close to being completely debt free and finally start to save some money again! ❤️🙌🏼🫶🏼 so thanks for being an inspiration