A whole new world of money saving tips to net those savings

Get in bed with Trade Me
For someone looking to buy something, Trade Me has to be the ultimate money-saving, or money-spending website, depending on how you look at it and your level of self control when shopping online.
If you can't afford a new one, buy it second-hand.
Even if you're not looking to buy online, Trade Me is useful as a guide to the highest price you should be paying at your local store.
Either way, you are likely to find new goods that are much cheaper than what you'll find in a shop.
A good tip for rookies is to search locally, in areas that are within an hour's drive, especially for big-ticket items such as cars or expensive electronics.
This way you can go and check it out, you won't have to pay a postage fee, plus you will know where to go in case you have any issues after the purchase.
Personally, I've found Trade Me is particularly good for used cars, musical instruments and surprisingly, clothing.
The back and forth and near-constant attention an online auction requires is not for everyone, myself included.
If a simple, no-nonsense purchase is what you're after then narrowing your search to"buy now" items only is the way to go.
This set price also gives you a good indication of the market price of whatever it is you're after.
No more what ifs
If a trip away is just what you need the best accommodation website is probably www.wotif.com
This site is a wee gem and if you haven't heard about it you must have had your ears closed for the past five years.
If you visit between 9am and midday on a Wednesday, you may be able to find some ridiculously cheap Australian deals.
One of wotif.com's best features is the option of being sent emails about deals to specific locations, this way, you are only notified about the deals you're likely to be interested in.
They also have a team of staff who suss out the best deals based on who is offering the largest discount, listing them in a separate category.
Time to get it sorted
If you're more interested in coming up with a realistic and workable budget for yourself then www.sorted.co.nz is hard to beat.
Probably the best thing about this site is you can send an email with a specific question regarding the management of your finances and receive a response, usually within 24 hours.
This is a personalised service compared to what other financial management sites offer.
The "sort me" function is designed to tell you how well you are currently managing your cashflow.
Once you've done this there are all sorts of other tools to help you come up with a good budget and savings plan.
The "budget calculator" is useful, easy to use and quite helpful because it cuts out the nonsense by simply calculating your current spending versus your income.

More for the moneymaker inside us
If you feel you need to take a more in-depth look at your personal finances www.fullbalance.co.nz could be of use.
This site has one of the coolest features I've seen in a financial website (not that that's saying much).
It offers a free and interesting financial personality quiz.
The outcome for this reporter was rather depressing, but eerily accurate.
The site was created by the self-professed financial success story that is Shula Newland and, aside from some tired quotes from books on monetary mastery, is both useful and well structured.