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Worthy Wednesday Savers #7

Over the weekend I was out and about painting the town red! To be honest I haven’t done this for a while and my ears were ringing with pleasure with all these different genres of music that made me nostalgic of my youth! The next day I was adamant that I was going to start listening to music again and not just leave it on the radio. I was on a mission – buying cd’s is so last decade, so below are a few sites I came across that allows you to download, stream or just listen to whatever makes your ears happy. 1. Music Solutions If you’re a music junkie, you probably download the latest and greatest songs from iTunes without a second thought. A dollar here and another couple of bucks there add up quickly. There are plenty of free apps and websites delivering free and streamed music - here are a few: Spotify - https://www.spotify.com/au/ Grooveshark - http://grooveshark.com/ Pandora - http://www.pandora.com/ 2. Happy Hour (You can definitely save a few $$ during happy hour) Take advantage of what Australia is so good at – mingling with friends and having a few drinks. Plan ahead and check out your local pubs, bars for happy hour. Who doesn’t want a cocktail or 2? Especially at a discounted price…. But don’t forget to drink responsibly! 3. Calculate the Value of your Time Before buying something, calculate how many hours of work it takes to earn the purchase price. This is a very simple way to sort the impulse buys from the needs! A quick example; New Purchase: $450 Net Hourly Rate: $30 (this is what you receive after tax) Hours Required: 15 ($450 / $30) For some of us there is only 30-40hrs available in a week to earn an income. The decision is as simple as can I afford to allocate 15 hrs. towards the new purchase. Makes you think twice doesn’t it? 4. Quick Fact? Australian households spend almost $1 billion per year in standby power. It’s around 10% of the average electricity bill.* “Regulating standby power consumption has been recognised as one of the most cost effective potential end-use energy efficiency measures.” A couple hundred here and there, its all starting to add up!  
* Reference: http://www.energyrating.gov.au/products-themes/standby-power/about/