It's the dailies that mount up.
I am a miser. I currently live like a bit of a pauper since I arrived with nothing in a First World country and was used to having pretty much nothing anyway.

Avoid cafés. Buy fresh coffee every day? Maybe twice? $3-$4 a cup twice a day (not uncommon amongst people I've worked with) can leave you $2000 a year poorer. Find a good instant and drink that if you need the caffeine. Plus, when you buy a cup of the good stuff, you will really appreciate it.

Buy loads of cheap shirts. Odds are you don't care what you wear to work that much, and if you have 30 shirts you only have to do a big load of laundry once a month, and your cheap clothes will last long due to the infrequency of washing.

Grow a beard. Shaving's a con.

Good shoes. Combat or work boots are cheap, comfortable (depending on type), shine well, last for ages and look as good as anything else under your work trousers. Being able to run over broken glass is a benefit.

Drink out less. If you're blowing $100 a weekend on parties, you could be living in a place $100 a week more expensive and still afford a few sixpacks at your swanky new abode with friends.

Learn to share. The economy is fucked, it'll get worse. You may value your independent lifestyle, but savings will help your self-esteem more when you inevitably lose your job. Find reliable friends, share a decent-sized home and bask in the money that's accumulating.

Reliable old car. Buy an old Camry or similar. They don't break in any important ways, are cheaper to replace than insure and aren't desirable enough to steal. You won't care when you scratch or dent them, and parts are easily available and cheap.

Decent home theatre and Blu-ray. Bit of an outlay, but it's much cheaper than the cinema if you watch a lot of flicks (BDs are like $10 or less from Amazon) and the quality's about the same. Share with friends. A decent 1080p 3LCD projector now costs little more than a regular TV. Spend your saved coffee money on it. Also works for games.

Don't Breed. Kids will ruin you and there are enough out there.

I earn relatively fuck-all, have lived in über-expensive Sydney and Melbourne for four years and accumulated tens of thousands of dollars living like this.
(Ladyfingers is in your wardrobe,, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 5:57, 24 replies)

Cheaper to replace than insure!?
You're allowed to drive around without insurance in australia?
( Lumpbucket tekcubpmuL, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 6:45, closed)

Just get third party
That's all.
(Ladyfingers is in your wardrobe,, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 6:50, closed)

Lots of good solid tips. But
I'm gonna have to disagree with you on the 'no kids' one.
I shall have lots of kids and be very, very nice to them, too.

When you are being manhandled by surly, uncaring, minimum-wage earning gorillas in an overflowing aged-care facility, you will understand why I am telling you this.
(Gritty, yet fluffy. kipperpillock is obsessed with me =), Fri 11 Nov 2011, 6:54, closed)

Death before dementia.
Suicide is on my agenda. Fuck rotting.
(Ladyfingers is in your wardrobe,, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 7:08, closed)

Maybe advocating donating towards Dr Philip Nitschke's cause would be a good call.

(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Fri 11 Nov 2011, 7:48, closed)

Trust Me On This

*You* shouldn't breed.

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Sat 12 Nov 2011, 12:02, closed)

Shaving's fine,
just don't buy into this Gillette / Wilkinson 15 blade shite at 2 quid a cartridge, that is a con.
Get either a straight razor and strop, or if you don't want the hassle (it takes much longer, even when well practised), get a double-edge safety razor and order the blades online.
Much better shave, hairs don't get stuck between the blades, cheap as nuts and just as easy to use, probably easier once you get the hang of it; but then I learnt to shave using one of these (get one with a butterfly type opening mechanism).
(MayorBoris, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 8:02, closed)

This is true!
I use a safety razor my grandpa gave my dad about 60 years ago. I'm about a quarter of the way through a big box of blades I got off eBay three years ago.
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Fri 11 Nov 2011, 9:10, closed)

Yes! Grow a beard!
Beards are so manly. Clean-shaven faces are for boys.
(IHateSprouts is baking a huge pie shaped like an enormous pie, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 8:23, closed)

A pauper with a home cinema set up.
Do you project it against the inside of the rubbish bin you live in?
(Kitty Fantastico "Dwarf, Anorexic and In a Fight ", Fri 11 Nov 2011, 8:33, closed)

my thoughts exactly
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 9:08, closed)

No projector yet.
Currently using a 46" TV. Nice thing about Blu-ray is you can sit really close to the screen and it doesn't look terrible.
(Ladyfingers is in your wardrobe,, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 11:39, closed)

"Find a good instant"
Ha ha ha! There's no such thing.
I buy cheap, nasty instant from the pound shop, to satisfy my office caffeine needs.

"Decent home theatre abd Blu-Ray" is a hilarious money-saving tip. DVD's are dirt cheap now, and match the cinema for picture quality, but watching at home is nothing like the cinema experience, so why kid yourself. Free-to-air TV shows plenty of films, anyway, so you'd save more money by not owning a DVD player.

What do you do with your 000's of accumlated dollars? Burn them for fuel?
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 8:42, closed)

There was never a good instant. EVER.

(Kitty Fantastico "Dwarf, Anorexic and In a Fight ", Fri 11 Nov 2011, 9:01, closed)

Correct

(McChinaman banned, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 9:47, closed)

"Watching at home is nothing like the cinema experience"
True - I'm not surrounded by fuckwits explaining the plot to their retarded mates, rustling sweet packets, continuously moving from side to side blocking my view and coughing swine-flu germs over me. Nor am I being charged the GDP of a small African nation for a box of soggy popcorn and a cup of fizzy corn syrup.

I can also stop the film when I want a piss, drink beer and smoke whatever I like, and stretch out on a sofa that isn't sticky and doesn't smell of incontinent badgers.

So yeah, I'm really missing the experience there.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 11:26, closed)

A lot of people have not seen what you can actually get at home.
And not even for much money, really. I mean, a decent 1080p projector is about $2000. And that's perceptually at least as big as a cinema screen since you're in a smaller place. And properly calibrated and fed a good HD signal, it's better than a lot of film projectors I've seen. And games, oh man.

Anyway, these things are not very cheap, but when you have them, you enjoy them pretty much every day.
(Ladyfingers is in your wardrobe,, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 11:47, closed)

I agree
Mines "only" 720p, three years old and I'm still waiting for the bulb to go, but switch it on and you're instantly transported to cinema-land!
( P-MONKE We're all fucked, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 17:30, closed)

I drink Moccona.
Look it's not as good as proper coffee, but I drink coffee black, no sugar, and getting truly great, smooth coffee even with a barista (a coffee machine person) is actually rare enough that I can split the difference and just deal with instant's particular brand of mediocrity.
(Ladyfingers is in your wardrobe,, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 11:42, closed)

I'm savng my money for a deposit on a small home.
Property market in Australia is grotesquely overinflated. It's a bubble caused by tax breaks to protect banks and the investments of existing owners, but no-one can afford to enter the market to make those investments profitable any more. This means the prices will fall as people flee their debt, at which point I with my mountains of savings will get a small loan I can pay off in ten years instead of forty.
(Ladyfingers is in your wardrobe,, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 12:29, closed)

This is all good stuff
which won't all suit everybody.

I'm with you on the home theatre idea. Just for me and my daughter to go see a film, 2 tickets and the obligatory popcorn will set you back £25.

I can get a couple of Blu rays for that, and I'm quite happy watching a good film several times.

Overall, the idea that the little things add up is absolutely right.
(username failed moderation, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 9:11, closed)

I've got a little cafetiere and a bag of ground coffee on my desk
It's still not setting me back $2000 a year (or, you know, £1999, given the impending 1:1 exchange rate with Aus) and I get coffee that tastes better than the stuff from the cafe, and in a proper cup/mug. Instant is cheaper still, but a cafetiere or filter is a great compromise.
(sabre-tooth monkey, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 9:25, closed)

But all the mucking about
making it, then cleaning it . . . aghhh.
(username failed moderation, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 9:35, closed)

I value the time away from my desk.

(sabre-tooth monkey, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 9:46, closed)