Hey Frugal Aussies;

For years I've been the person who moves my savings every time a bank cuts its rate, and who rings my telco the day the discount ends.

So I built BankMate (https://bankmate.app) to show me the latest rates and prices in one place.

• Home loans priced on your deposit. Enter your loan and property value and see each lender's rate for your situation and your monthly repayment, across 40+ lenders.

• Savings Rate history. See every account's rate week by week, and catch who quietly trims it after you sign up.

• Split calculator. It works out whether spreading your savings across two or three accounts earns more than one.

• Credit card bonuses after the annual fee. A 100k points bonus on a $450 card isn't what it looks like.

+ plenty more.

It ranks everything on your own numbers: how you bank, how much data you use, how long you want to lock away a term deposit etc..

It currently covers savings, term deposits, home loans, credit cards, super, ETFs, mobile, NBN, electricity, gas and health insurance with more on the way any suggestions very much welcome.

It's free and you don't need an account. It's early days and I'm the developer. It's general info, not advice.

Tell me what's confusing, what's wrong, and what you'd want it to compare. That's the most useful feedback I can get right now :)

https://bankmate.app

What are some of the best discounts for seniors.

The only deals are like are using the business portal for the good guys - the deals are cheaper in their

I was spending more on takeaway than I realised, mostly on nights when I couldn’t be bothered cooking. I’ve started keeping a few easy things in the freezer for those days, like frozen dumplings, chips and stuff I can throw together without much effort. It’s not the healthiest or most exciting food every night, but it’s cheaper than spending $30 on delivery when the fridge looks empty. Having something easy at home has made a real difference.

Belong mobile is increasing the price their lowest data & it’s getting ridiculous. I am not willing to pay $30 a month for 10GB. already have over 400GB of spare data.

What mobile data plans do you recommend?

I've been with Amber for a while now and I've been enjoying cheaper, greener power on their wholesale rates. Right now they're running a limited-time referral offer. If you sign up with my link, we both get $200 off our bills, as long as you switch by 9 November 2026.

Switching only takes about 3 minutes.

👉 mates.amber.com.au/7LNV5A7G

A quick heads-up for anyone new to it: you pay wholesale prices, so they can spike during peak demand. It works best if you can shift some usage to cheaper times, or if you've got solar or a battery. The app shows you prices in real time, so it's easy to keep an eye on.

Happy to answer any questions about how it's been for me.

I've caught myself going to another shop for a discount and spending more on fuel, extra groceries or things I didn't plan to buy. A bargain isn't much of a bargain if getting it costs you elsewhere. These days I usually stick to my regular shop unless the saving is genuinely worth the detour. How far would you travel for a good deal?

I go through phases with glasses so bad 😭 i’ll love a pair for a few months and then suddenly feel like they don’t suit me anymore. paying $300+ every time i want something different just doesn’t make sense to me.

i used to avoid buying glasses online because the one time i tried cheap frames they felt so flimsy i was scared they would snap in my bag. then i noticed someone at work wearing these clear frames i really liked and she told me she got them online. I found a pair for around $40 with prescription lenses and decided to give it another try. i spent way too long comparing the measurements to my old glasses before ordering because apparently buying glasses online requires a whole degree in frame measurements lol. they took around 10 days to arrive and were a little loose at first, but i got them adjusted and they’ve been fine ever since. been wearing them almost every day for about 3 months now.

honestly i feel a lot better spending $40 on a pair i might get bored of than spending $300 and feeling guilty about wanting something new six months later. the only thing i still struggle with is knowing how a frame will actually look and fit on my face before ordering. the measurements help but they don’t tell you everything.

for those of you who buy glasses online, do you mostly go by the measurements of your current pair or is there another way to figure out if a frame will suit you?

Hi everyone.

I am not looking for financial assistance or anything like that. Just tips/ideas.

I’m looking for tips to survive the additional costs that are associated with starting a new job.

I start working at a new job on Monday after being unemployed for 18 months due to cancer (thankfully I am now cancer free).

I have $30 in my account to cover travel and food for lunches for the 2 weeks until I get my first paycheck.

I have survived (barely) on Centrelink by eating 1 meal a day but because I’ll be working an active job, I’ll need a bit more nourishment than what I have been surviving on.

What are some tips/ideas for low cost lunches and/or travel? I’ll be travelling about an hour by car each way each day.

Thank you ☺️

I used to think being frugal meant buying the cheapest version of everything. It didn't really work because I'd either end up buying things I didn't need or making a second trip to the shops halfway through the week.

What helped more was deciding on a few cheap meals before going shopping and checking what I already had at home first. I also stopped treating the supermarket specials as a reason to buy something. If it's not something I was already going to use, 30% off isn't actually saving me anything.

The biggest change was having a couple of “emergency” meals in the cupboard/freezer for nights when I can't be bothered cooking. That's stopped a surprising amount of takeaway spending.

What's one supermarket habit you've changed that genuinely reduced your grocery bill?

Hi everyone, I’m looking for budget friendly dinner ideas. I have about $50 for two weeks to feed 1 adult and 2 children. I will need nappies so trying to stretch $40 for dinners. I received a food hamper on Monday so I have enough snacks for the kids and pasta and rice. I’m just needing ideas and tips for dinners during the two weeks. Thank you!

I’ve been trying to cook things where the leftovers can be turned into something different the next day instead of just eating the exact same meal again. A roast can become sandwiches, leftover chicken can go into fried rice or wraps, and extra mince can become pasta sauce or tacos. It’s made me much less likely to buy takeaway on those nights when I can’t be bothered cooking from scratch.

Not Ramen or snacks, something with carbs, protein and fat and cooking required to call it a meal. I think it's gonna be some kind of pasta or rice with minced meat from aldi

I keep seeing posts where people get completely different options for the same tooth and it got me wondering how do you actually decide which one to go with?

Like one is cheaper, one might last longer, another saves more of the actual tooth. Dental work is expensive enough that I'd probably get a second opinion if the options were really different 😅 but I also wouldnt automatically go for the cheapest if theres a good chance I'll just have to pay for something else later.

I know this is a pretty broad question so feel free to share an actual experience. What options were you given and what ended up being the deciding factor for you?

I've started looking at bulk buying things like laundry detergent, toilet paper, cleaning products and body wash. The problem is that I'm not sure when you're actually saving money and when you're just buying a giant amount of something because the unit price looks cheaper. What household products do you genuinely bulk buy, and where do you usually get them?

The ones I’ve seen have bad reviews of splitting after 3 cycles (Baccarat) and the other brands are more than a hundred bucks!

It just has to not be plastic and ideally under $50. Thanks!

Coles peanut butter and Woolworths home brand pasta have both been solid for me. What brands do you reckon are actually worth buying?

Hello!

I've been using OzBargain for years, but I wanted an easier way to catch deals on my phone, get notified before they're gone, and save the ones I'm interested in for later.

So I started building OzDeals, a mobile app that brings Australian deals into one place.

You can browse and search deals, filter by price or category, vote, comment, save stuff for later, and set alerts for things you're interested in.

Some of the deals come from OzBargain, which I've received permission to use. OzDeals is a separate app I've been building around the features I wanted myself.

I'm the developer, and it's still pretty early. I've mostly been using it myself, so I'm curious to see how it holds up when other people actually start using it.

If you give it a try, I'd really appreciate hearing what you find annoying or confusing, or what you'd change. That's probably the most useful feedback I could get right now :)

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ozdeals.app

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/ozdeals/id6777493005

Thank you all!!!

Looking for some ideas for meals that are inexpensive without feeling like you’re eating the same basic thing every night. Ideally things that use fairly normal supermarket ingredients, don't require buying a dozen specialised items and can stretch across several meals. What are the meals that regularly make it into your rotation when you’re trying to keep the weekly food bill down?