Potential Saving: $4526.40 per annum – or more

Toll roads in Australia are a complete rip-off. In particular during peak periods, Sydney’s toll roads deliver no tangible benefit to the motorist, yet toll roads cost a bomb. Traffic just grinds to a halt on the major toll roads (and the major free roads) - only the drivers stuck on the toll roads can't get off or try an alternative route. Everyone stuck on a toll road in peak-hour is trapped in a linear car park - and paying through the neck for the 'privilege'. The only group benefiting from toll roads are the companies that own them.

Incredibly, the toll road trip below – common enough for people who live in the north-west sector – costs more than $4500 annually.

We tested what happens when you slash that cost to zero using established free roads.

Above: Castle Hill to the Sydney CBD via toll roads - 34km

Alternatively, try this larger version of the map

TOLL ROADS: NEED TO KNOW

Castle Hill to Sydney CBD via the following toll roads:

• M2 Hills Motorway (toll road): $4.95
• Lane Cove Tunnel (toll road): $2.89
• Sydney Harbour Bridge (toll road): $4.00 (in peak periods) 

Return Trip via the same toll roads:

• Lane Cove Tunnel (toll road): $2.89
• M2 Hills Motorway (toll road): $4.95
• (Note: no north-bound toll on the Sydney Harbour Bridge)

Potential Saving: $800 Annually - Just by Driving Differently

Cutting your car's fuel consumption costs nothing. Cutting fuel consumption could save you – effectively – about 30 cents per litre on petrol, at the time of writing. If you reduce your fuel consumption to a reasonable extent, you could save up to $800 annually. All you need to do to reduce fuel consumption is modify your driving behaviour.

Here's the detail on cutting your fuel bill by changing how you drive:

Need to Know:

1. Headlight restoration works on cloudy, discoloured headlights.
2. Headlight restoration is an easy, one-hour job.
3. You can do headlight restoration in the driveway at home, with essentially no tools or training. All you need for headlight restoration is a $30 self-contained kit, some masking tape, and elbow grease.
4. To restore your headlights you don’t need to remove them from the car (we just did that for the video above).
5. Headlight restoration could save you thousands (think: old European prestige car). It will certainly save you hundreds of dollars compared with the price of two replacement headlamps, even on a basic car.

Here's the detail on restoring those cloudy headlights:

As if the cost of living needed to be under any more pressure: The price of petrol is out of control – again.

Basic unleaded petrol looks like smashing through $1.50 a litre before the weekend – and you’ve got to wonder where all that money goes. Not to you and me, that’s for sure.

If you took a litre of petrol – let’s call it $1.50 – what’s the breakdown? Who pockets the lion’s share? Who’s getting rich? Because someone is.

Here’s how it works out.