Learn how to save money on transport, food, accommodation and leisure in Sydney!
According to the latest Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report, Sydney is the world’s 10th most expensive city. Especially for young students this can be an unexpected challenge when joining Lexis Manly. Most students want to make the most of their time in Sydney, but are on a budget – limited work hours for student visa holders and full time studies can often make it difficult to earn enough money to keep up with the costs for transport, food, accommodation or activities. Here are some useful tricks to save money, while still enjoying your time in Sydney to the fullest!
Transport
If you travel by public transport most days, there are some ways to save money on a daily basis. We recommend our students to get an Opal card. Instead of using your credit card when tapping on/off on busses, ferries or trains you can get an Opal card instead and benefit from it. Travel as much as you want on train, bus and ferry and you never pay more than $50 a week. All rides above the cap won’t get charged – don’t forget to still tap on and off! You will also enjoy a 30% fare discount on train, bus and light rail services when traveling on Fridays, weekends, public holidays and outside of the peak times on Monday-Thursday.
If you are traveling in your own car, you can save a lot of money by getting fuel at the right servo. The prices vary a lot, depending where in Sydney you are looking at fuel prices, to get yourself the best possible deal we recommend downloading free apps like Petrol Spy.
Food
Start saving when you go to the shops. While Australia is dominated by the supermarkets Coles and Woolworth, they are known to charge a lot for groceries. To save money when visiting these shops, we recommend visiting them in the late afternoon – they will have discounts on various items like meat, fish and salad. Save by shopping like a local! Many Australians visit shops like Aldi to get the majority of their shopping list ticked off for less money. There are also many small Asia shops along the Northern beaches, were you can buy fresh veggies and fruit without ruining the weekly budget.
Sydney offers some of the best restaurants worldwide and many students enjoy a night out with their new friends to discover the culinary range. To save money on your next dinner with friends use apps like EatClub, it will you help reducing the bill by up to 50%!
Accommodation
If you join Lexis Manly in summer, you will probably find the hostel prices are very high. Due to the high season and increase in tourism the hostels prices vary a lot between summer and winter. Generally finding a shared house or joining our Lexis homestay program is a cheaper alternative to hostels. Our lovely hosts are located along the Northern Beaches and open their homes to our students to not only book a room but also experience the Australian lifestyle and practice their English after class times, meals are included. If you are looking for a more private accommodation a shared house would be a great fit! To find the best options you can search on websites like gumtree or flatmates – to get in touch with locals who rent out their granny flats or rooms in their family home, you should browse through northern beaches facebook groups.
Leisure
Regardless of the season, Sydney has a lot of activities to offer that are easy on the budget, in fact they are completely free! The Northern Beaches offer 15 stunning rock pools for a swim, great surf and beaches, plenty of magnificent hikes or beach walks and free museums/galleries. If you do want to book activities, check out the Klook Sydney Pass, you can save up to 36% on several attractions and activities in Sydney. With one pass, you can visit up to four attractions out of the available fifteen – chose from zoo visits, pub crawls, boat adventures and many more. At Lexis Manly we also collaborate with a local travel agent, who gives discounts to Lexis students and can help you to plan your individual trip.
We wish you a great time in Sydney and hope you found some useful tricks to save money!
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Lexis English in Manly delivers academic excellence in General English, IELTS Preparation, Cambridge FCE and CAE. Download the 2023 Lexis English Brochure here or get in touch to enquire.
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