Tessa beams with pride when she explains everything in her house is either a hand-me-down or a find on Facebook Marketplace.
She's even more boastful about her sartorial steals – all of her clothes are from local op-shops.
To round it out, she says all of her food for the week will be cooked from scratch from mostly discounted ingredients.
It's all part of her motto to "make it happen" in a bid to "get ahead" of rising interest rates.
"I do not want to live pay cheque to pay cheque," she tells 7.30.
"It's a struggle. It's stressful if you have not put money aside for a rainy day.
"You've got to make it happen, you have to be realistic with your expenses if you want to achieve things down the line."
In addition to her staunch frugality, Tessa — who's a single mum — works two jobs she calls side hustles.
During the lunch break of her day job, she'll often rush off to clean an Airbnb, and on weekends she works as a volleyball coach.
"As a single parent, I realised I didn't have enough money for a house deposit, so I needed extra money. I needed a side hustle," she says.
"[The day job] would be enough, but I'd pay my mortgage off in 30 years, and I don't want to do that.
"I want to live better than the bare minimum."
Growing trend
Economist Angela Jackson says Tessa is part of a growing trend of workers who have found extra work on top of their full-time pay packet.
"The people who are doing those casual jobs are changing, so we're seeing it move from something younger people do to people who are doing it to make ends meet," she says.
In the latest labour accounts from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it was reported that 900,000 people now hold a second job — about 6.5 per cent of the Australian workforce.
Ms Jackson says the surging demand for workers has provided an opportunity for people to pick up additional hours in casual jobs and earn some much-needed extra money.
But she says the data also shows people's full-time jobs are often not providing sufficient salaries as the cost of living increases.
"People aren't being able to access one full-time job to make ends meet, they're having together two, sometimes three jobs to make ends meet," Ms Jackson says.
'We need to have better pay'
While jobs are plentiful, and picking up extra cash is relatively easy, Grace Gbala, an aged care worker in Adelaide, says "it's a slap in the face" that she's required to work two jobs to pay for her rent and living costs.
Ms Gbala says she's paid so poorly in aged care that getting a retail job was the only way she could keep herself financially afloat.
"It's a slap in the face, it's just a constant reminder that we need to have better pay," she tells 7.30.
"Why would I come in to do aged care when we can do retail [and] get paid more there?
"I am a very compassionate supporter, I want to keep giving, but I can't keep giving if I have to keep working another job to support myself."
Aged care workers are among the highest proportion of Australian employees who have sought out secondary work.
Tessa says working multiple jobs isn't for everyone and agrees it's unfair that many jobs aren't paying enough — but she says it's something she's more than willing to do.
"I have a lot of energy that can be used towards a second and third job," she says.
"I was ready to do extra work. Not everybody wants to do that so you have to figure out what works for you."
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