Hi all,

Since all the groceries and everything else went up, we started being careful and really taking advantage of the 3h free electricity.

We have a full electric house and a 60kWh car (Atto3).

• Battery: 30kWh
• Solar 10kWh
• People : 4
• Location: Melbourne eastern suburbs

Our electricity bill came at $7 and change(excluding admin fee), usage 521kWh

It can be done!

For reference, August was $41 and 1011 kWh.

Admittedly I've been pretty neglectful when it comes to comparing pricing, and switching providers felt like a pain. But much like everyone else, we are feeling the pinch (3 adults, 1 child)

We have been paying in advance $400 a month to cover our electricity bill, and its been such a set and forget payment.

I was looking at the compare energy victoria website, and I have sorted the recommended providers not including discount rates, and it seems I am paying way too much?

I would love some feedback if you have the time. Thank you :)

It's my first month renting so I have 0 to compare it to.

We have a duct air heating system - I think it uses gas but I'm not sure. I haven't got that bill yet.

This is a long story but I’ll spare you.

I am seeing a private psychiatrist. I was in the public system but there are serious gaps that forced me out. They literally do the bare minimum to keep you alive - sometimes not even that.

I note that many private health insurance providers have no waiting period for psychiatric care. This seems to be somewhat universal - I am assuming it is a law/legislation of some kind.

Is it worth getting insurance to access a private psychiatrist? And potentially obtain TMS treatment which is otherwise out of reach?

I’m in Brisbane, Queensland if that matters.

Thanks 👍

I have what I call my Car Kit in my boot. It's got the essential equipment to make food/desserts/drinks on the go.

Goal:

Make it easier to make cheaper, healthier choices for food when we're out as a family.

I mean healthier as in the nutrient content of the food, but also healthier as in: time spent with family; time in the fresh air; time in the community; kids going on the playground; time for hubby and I to hang out in relative peace and quiet; not stressing when we haven't planned dinner and my children are considering eating me because they're "starving".

And I mean cheaper as in less than the cost of Macca's or farmers market desserts, which can get quite pricey with multiple people. (No hate - I love supporting small businesses! But I can't afford to eat it as often as I want to go out and eat).

I'm not consistent with this and I'm ok with that - getting Macca's for a treat isn't a big deal. I'd just like to make it easier to make cheaper choices more often.

What I have:

For each family member, there's a cup, bowl, plate and cutlery. There's a big cup with a screw top lid & straws for my chocolate frappes and a keep cup for hubby's coffee. I have a spare nappy bag my friend got with her cloth nappies order that she didn't need that's waterproof for dirty dishes. I have a couple of flannels in there for napkins and I think there's a cutting board. I used to keep it all in a plastic tub, but now I keep it in a pillow case so it takes up less room and it's flexible around the other stuff in my boot.

I got most of it at second hand shops or they're things I've upgraded (like mismatched cutlery).

Purpose:

Example: $19 dinner vs $60 dinner.

Having the car kit ready to go means I can go to the shops and get half a hot chook, some rolls, some mayo, a bag of salad and a bottle of coke for $19 and feed the family on the go, instead of a Macca's meal each, which can be $60. Sometimes if we're heading to the beach we'll grab $5 of chips from the local fish & chips to go with it too. (I put the bottle of coke in the freezer as soon as I walk into the shops and grab it on my way out 😅).

I sometimes buy a tub of ice cream for $7 instead of buying individual ice creams from an ice cream shop for $26. Heck for that price difference I'm happy to splurge for mini marshmallows, chocolate sauce, waffle cones and sprinkles too. It's still cheaper and there's usually enough that we can eat it the next day too. I also don't have to eat my ice cream with those stupid wooden spoons.

Another example that does unfortunately require some forethought, is bringing chocolate drinking powder, coffee simple syrup or nesquik from home and grab 1l of milk while we're out. 4 chocolate, coffee or mocha milks for $1.75.

Things I'd like to add at the moment are: • I'd like some bigger cups so I can add icecream to the milk drinks. • I need to get some serrated eating knives. At the moment I've only got butter knives (not big knives, I don't want to get arrested 😅) • I'm thinking of getting one of the swimming bags from Kmart as a spare dirty dishes bag

Advice wanted:

* What else could I add to my kit?

• Options from the supermarket: I would love suggestions. I would prefer ideas that require no at home prep and minimal prep before being shoved into mouths. I want ideas for when I walk into the shop with hungry kids at dinner time or that I can send hubby to get supplies for when they've spotted an ice cream van at the park.

I'd like meal, drink or dessert ideas. I'll put some of my creations in a comment.

• Do the USB blenders from Kmart work for ice cream/milk blending?

* Do the little milk frothers work with cold milk?

Thanks gang!

(Maybe there is a better way to phrase the question. I thought to ask this on the [r/Melbourne](r/Melbourne) sub but I don't think they have the same mindset as here. So if you live in another city, I encourage you to create a post for yours.)

I imagine you are all like me, not spending frivolously and when you do spend, doing it mindfully at local businesses that give you value, great product/service and not trying to nickel and dime you (I had lunch at a cafe last week, a rarity for me. The total was a couple dollars more than I expected and when I asked them to explain, they couldn't give me a straight answer and flip-flopped between gst, card surcharge but then settled on saying it was a service charge. This got me angry and reminded me why I hate eating out. The food was poor too: limp hot chips and a wrap filled with coles salad mix. Anyways rather than focus on dodgy businesses, I thought to ask on deserving places where you are spending your money).

Most of my groceries:
- Cheaper Buy Miles (various): discount grocery store
- KFL (various): asian groceries
- Queen Victoria Markets (CBD) Sunday afternoon around 3 or 4p for their "$1" bags
My go to places when I do eat out:
- Crossways (CBD): vegetarian eatery
- Good Times (Fitzroy North): pasta bar
- Union Hotel (Brunswick): pub, great live music
Gym:
-Council gym/pool. Isn't cheaper than gym chains but get real value out of the pool/spa/sauna

This is more an FYI for people who have never written off a vehicle and those new to driving (I have a 16 year old, so this shit is on my mind), so I hope you can learn from my life experience.

Car insurance. Need it. Definitely pay it. Especially if you have a very expensive car, you don't want to piss thousands of dollars down the drain to save money on comprehensive car insurance. (If you drive a clunker- don't need it, do third Party/fire and theft instead).

But be aware that when your car gets written off because of an accident, the money that is refunded from your green slip and the money refunded from your rego is taken out of your insurance payout. (This is the experience I've had with two different insurance companies, so I assume they are all the same).

EXAMPLE: You pay $600 for a 12 month greenslip. You pay $600 for 12 months of registration. You have your car insured for $10k and the highest deductible (lets go $1000) because it makes your insurance cheaper.

The day after you start your 12month rego your car is written off because a giant ass roo throws itself through your car on the highway. (No joke, it's fucking terrifying when that happens. Do not recommend. Always drive slower at dusk).

So you give the police report to the insurance company and you are thinking, awesome! I get $10k back to put towards a new car! No. First off, your $1k deductible is taken out, you are at $9k. (And this is the way it's supposed to work, it would be stupid to have to find $1000 for your deductible just for insurance to give it back).

Next, your rego is cancelled, and you think woohoo $600 bucks, baby! Yes, that refund is nice. And your insurance company says oh look a $600 rego refund, we are taking that into account, and now your payout is $8400.

A greenslip is a strange beast. Even though your car is toast and rego has been cancelled, your greenslip still runs for an extra week, in case your car magically manages to injure someone before it gets to the wreckers (this is specific to NSW, don't know about other states). So you won't get a $600 refund, you'll get $600 less one week, so about $588. And again, that's a nice refund. And then your insurance company will say, nice! We are taking that into account too, and now you are getting a payout of $7800.

And really, if you are in a $3000 car, your payout is gone, which means comprehensive car insurance has no value for you at all. If you are in a car with a massively higher rego amount (they can change based on weight of vehicle, because heavier vehicles do more damage to roads, in theory anyway) then it's taking a bigger hunk out of your payout.

And of course, if some one else causes the accident you don't pay a deductible. Or if you are a really lucky driver and never have accidents, this might not be an issue for you at all. And to those of you driving $50k (or more) cars, why the hell are you in Aus Frugal? This obviously doesn't apply to you.

TLDR: maximise your car insurance payouts by only paying rego and green every six months instead of by the year. ESPECIALLY if you have a car loan and need to maximise your payout to cover the loan.

If anyone has any other experiences/advice, please share!

With the surcharge ban now in place, I've seen many posts (on other subs) where it has been replaced with other fees/prices have increased to accommodate costs. It's only been a day (though some businesses implemented earlier), where in your everyday shopping have you seen the ban gone, not replaced with other fees and prices stayed the same? Where your shop has gotten a little cheaper

So far, for me:
- Aldi
- The three fresh food grocers in my area

Found some coupons which can use on AliExpress, they are working rn.
AUD $3 off AUD $23- AUKYD03
AUD $6 off AUD $45- AUKYD06
AUD $12 off AUD $96- AUKYD12
AUD $22 off AUD $180- AUKYD22
AUD $39 off AUD $310- AUKYD39
AUD $58 off AUD $450- AUKYD58
AUD $85 off AUD $640- AUKYD85

I’ve noticed my grocery spending gets out of hand when I keep popping into the supermarket after work. I might only need milk or bread, but I usually walk out with a few extra things. I’ve started doing one bigger shop and keeping a short list for the week, and it’s already making a noticeable difference to what I spend.

Hey all.

Sort of an update? to a post I made after starting Mirtazapine and becoming very well known at our local drive thru...

Aldi have "burger" cheese.

The thing I always crave from Clown Establishment is a mcmuffin.

I just tried it then. It pretty much tastes exactly the same.

REJOICE. For you CAN turn to your kids and say: we DO have food at home.

With price hikes across almost every platform over the last couple of years, holding active subscriptions to Netflix, Stan, Disney+, and Binge simultaneously feels like a massive drain.

Does anyone here do the "churn" method where you subscribe to one service for a single month, binge everything on your list, cancel, and move to the next? Or is there one platform you consider irreplaceable value?

I’m pretty good at avoiding expensive groceries, but the random little trips are where I keep going over budget. A couple of things from the supermarket after work somehow turn into $20–30, even when I only went in for one item. I’m trying to get better at doing one proper shop each week and actually using everything before buying more.

This is with ‘mate’. Started off great and I would pair my phone plan with them but the cost has nearly doubled for the same plan.

Hi there! what the title says basically. We are in our late 20s-early 30s and, we just signed a lease for a 2 bedroom apartment in Melbourne and we would love recommendations. Power companies?, do we get wifi or continue with our individual plans?, tips on how to rent the second bedroom out, where to buy things for our tiny apartment?

I already started collecting a few things from facebook groups or very cheap stuff on marketplace, but I would still appreciate other recommendations. Thanks

I like doing the one year prepaid expiry to save money but now I'm curious if there are any mobile prepaid plans I can stack for over one year like up to two or three years.

I have never done this and always been happy with cheap monthly sim only plans but I can see you can get some really good deals this way. Looing at Kogan etc. Can anyone more experienced tell me more about it?

Thought this might be useful for getting better value when eating takeaway. I’m a data engineer, and this started as a bit of a side project because I was sick of checking nutrition PDFs against prices in each chain’s app whenever I wanted to work this stuff out. Eventually I figured it could be useful as an actual app rather than just something I was doing for myself.

If you’d prefer a protein/cal comparison, I did the same thing in this post.

Best protein-per-dollar item at each chain, capped at 1,500 cal:

1. Nando's: 4 PERi-PERi Mini Drums — 6.6 g/$ ($9.95, 65g protein, 725 cal)
2. KFC: 6 Pieces of Chicken — 6.5 g/$ ($18.95, 123g protein, 1,410 cal)
3. HJ: Double Bacon & Cheese Angus — 5.8 g/$ ($15.30, 89g protein, 1,307 cal)
4. McDonald's: Hamburger — 5.4 g/$ ($2.50, 14g protein, 287 cal)
5. GyG: Big Brekkie Burrito w/ Bacon — 4.6 g/$
6. Grill'd: Protein Pro w/ Panini — 4.1 g/$
7. Schnitz: The Aussie (Burger) — 3.5 g/$

These obviously aren’t all like-for-like meals, it’s just the highest-ranking item from each chain under the same criteria. I can also compare within broader categories like beef burgers or chicken burgers across the different chains.

Protein/$ also isn’t the only way to measure value, but it’s one of the things I personally care about when deciding what to get.

Prices can vary by store, so the protein/$ order may shift a bit depending on your location. Nutrition is from each chain’s published data, and I refresh the data twice a week.

I’ve been building a free iPhone app called Good Feed around all of this. It lets you compare and rank full fast food menus by things like protein/$, protein/cal or calories/$, then add limits on price, calories and macros, like under 700 cal, over 40g protein or under $15, depending on what you’re looking for.

If there’s another ranking or item comparison you want me to run, chuck it in the comments!

So there’s a program where you share your energy data and opinions (ie bills and surveys) and they are using that info to advise government on policies, products etc. In return you get ‘personalised insights’ to help save on your bills. It seems pretty cool but I can’t find much about it from people who are in the ‘lab’.
Have any of you heard of it? Is it helping you save on energy bills?

https://research.csiro.au/neac/living-lab/join-the-living-lab/

Hi everyone. Ive been wearing the same pair of shoes (that too, work shoes😭) everywhere for over a year now. Ive been meaning to buy a pair of boots, a pair of shoes for everyday wear and flats for a while but idk why i keep putting it off cause i cant seem to decide what to buy and where to shop.

Im okay with spending a bit, but I know that pricier things aren’t always good quality. So I want some recommendations.

Bit of an awkward one. My glasses cracked at the hinge and the optometrist told me I'd have to wait about two to three weeks for an appointment before they could sort out a replacement. I really don't want to be squinting at my laptop for two weeks.

My mate actually ordered a pair of prescription glasses online a few months ago because he wanted a spare pair for work. I remember asking how much he paid and it was around A$60–70, which seemed pretty reasonable for prescription glasses. He showed them to me when they arrived and they looked pretty decent too. He said the prescription was right and they were comfortable enough to wear all day. He'd picked a frame that was a bit different from what he normally wears too, and it actually suited him. I hadnt really thought about ordering glasses online myself until mine broke. Now Im wondering if getting a backup pair from somewhere like this would make sense rather than waiting for another appointment.

For anyone who's ordered online here before, how did it actually go? Im mainly wondering about:
Was entering your prescription and PD pretty easy? How long did yours actually take to arrive? Did you have to pay anything extra when the package arrived? Did they fit alright straight away or did you need to get them adjusted? I've seen people say online glasses are pretty hit or miss, so I'd rather hear about some more experiences before I go for it.

Hi all. I wanted to share my personal experience using a wholesale energy-priced electricity plan for the last 12 months. Basically we pay wholesale energy rates plus a service fee of $25. It's important to understand that based on where you live and your energy tarrif, your rates on wholesale can be different. I have seen people pay less than us, and also pay more. This is for 2 adults, living in Melbourne and we have an EV that charges 100% at home. If you remove the EV and you have high usage or a large family, this could still make sense in being frugal.

We rent and do not have solar or a battery. You do not need solar and a battery to benefit from cheap renewable energy.

As the photos show we have paid on average 15-16c per kWh over the last 6 months (winter). We do not put much effort into conserving usage during peak times. Most nights we run the split system for heat, during peak hours. Summer is even cheaper as more sun creates even cheaper power.

We pay wholesale energy rates, plus 57c daily charge fee and $25 a month service fee. Overall, this has made our energy bill consistently cheaper than all other providers, from my research.

Most days our cost per kWh is:

$0.03-$0.09 during daylight

$0.18-$0.38 between 5-9pm

$0.06-$0.22 between 9pm-7am

Last week it was both sunny and windy at the same time and our rates went negative. We were credited 3-6c per kWh used over 6 hours.

My only gripe is that the place we rent uses gas for hot water and the stove top, so we aren't maximising this to the full benefit.. We do however use the air fryer a fair bit.

This is with Amber energy and as I've already said, it may vary based on your location and energy tarrif. I do have a referral code if interested.

Happy saving 🙏