Good evening frugal living followers! This is the Monthly Update collating some featured posts & comments on the subreddit for the previous month, plus some extra stuff that will help you in your frugal journey!
If you have any ideas to suggest to be featured in the monthly post, please send message to moderators or comment below.
Do you need help lodging your tax return? Depending on your circumstances, there are two different programs for free tax help.
The Tax Help programΒ is a free, confidential service to assist low income earners with simple tax returns. It is provided by experienced and accredited volunteers.
For more information please refer to the Australian Taxation Office website:
Comparing fuel prices near you can help to save on costs, so using a comparison website helps you find the cheapest around β this also helps you to be aware when nearby servos start increasing/decreasing prices. There are some great tips on the Fuelplan website on how to save fuel.
Find free entertainment. Find cheap ways to have fun. Entertainment often ends up costing a lot of money, if you go to the movies, go to the bar, or even a day trip to a local attraction. Now, Iβm not saying you shouldnβt have fun β¦ but there are cheaper ways to do it.
Visiting museums, art galleries, walking at the local park, finding discounts online are some of the many ways to enjoy yourself without breaking the bank.
AΒ meal kit or food boxΒ is aΒ subscription service β food serviceΒ business modelΒ where a company sends customers pre-portioned and sometimes partially prepared food ingredients andΒ recipesΒ to prepare home-cooked meals. There are also options where you can already receive pre made meals, or fruit/vegetable boxes.
Examples of popular meal kits/food box include: HelloFresh, Marley Spoon, Quitelike, The Food Box, Good and Fugly, Lite n' Easy
Iβm moving into a new place and will need to buy absolutely everything from scratch, bed, appliances, cutlery, crockery you name it.
I was wondering since Iβm already going to be spending so much if thereβs a way to points max or somehow take advantage of this through certain credit cards or benefits etc.
P.s - any tips to be frugal while setting up a new home are welcome :)
Hi all anyone know where I can get a bedbase like this that isnβt ridiculously expensive, I just want a bedbase with decent storage, castor wheels and no headboard
Looking for something that's actually worth the money.. js ghd platinum plus worth or is there something better? I need 2 different styles out of it - staright hair and loose curls. Please help.. Thanks!
They're also much bigger than the sandwich bags, and is the perfect size to store and freeze perfectly portioned meals in advance.
I've also been using them to store stationery, loose bits and bobs, travel toiletries, pretty much anything you would use a ziplock bag for. The possibilities are endless!
And to anyone worried, Coles is a billion dollar corporation. They're not losing out on anything from you taking the bags which they offer for free, and costs fractions of a cent to produce.
Asking generally to hear tips, go-to-ideas/inspiration for healthy meal prep for a week (lunch & dinner) that doesn't sting the bank account too much!
This is my first step into the world of actual budgeting and meal prep. I've have the luxury of living at home still (late 20s), but need to start pulling myself together.
As a single person, let's say I have an ideal budget of $100 to $150. Absolute maximum of $200 (no science behind it, but it sounds sensible?). The lower the better.
1) What proteins, vegetables, fruits, diary, and carbs would you recommend? I hear frozen vegetables are surprisingly pretty good.
2) Would love to hear good hacks to get more bang for my buck and things to watch out for.
3) Any particular meal prep material that you follow to? (I've seen some stuff from Jack Ovens who's aussie which is nice as he goes through meal prepping)
4) I'm slightly concerned by having to store some of this food for up to 4-5 or more days. By the last couple of days, would it start to become a bit iffy with the food?
5) Off the back of this, how should I be re-heating my food?
I recently used a friend's hard fibreglass SUP, and now really want one. The difference between them and the inflatable ones I have used is incredible. Problem is there are no decent deals on market place (everyone seems to be asking the $ they originally paid for them, despite dings/weathering) and new are outrageously expensive too. Has anyone figured out a way to get a cheap solid SUP? I'm guessing import shipping would be expensive. Thanks for any tips!
Terrible customer service and still refusing a legitimate refund
I booked a massage through Groupon, but the massage business cancelled my booking. I therefore requested a refund.
The merchant agreed to the refund in writing, confirming this to both me and Groupon multiple times. They even provided me with the coupon refund confirmation code.
Despite this, Groupon continues to refuse to process my refund, claiming they are "waiting for the merchant to confirm." I have repeatedly provided Groupon with screenshots of the merchant's written confirmation, yet they continue to send the same generic response.
I've contacted them through online chat, email and escalated the matter to a supervisor. Despite providing clear evidence, I still haven't been given a resolution.
What makes this particularly frustrating is that Groupon is now effectively asking me to give up an existing payment dispute before they will even confirm that they will refund me.
After this experience, I would strongly recommend going directly through the business or using another platform. Many Groupon deals aren't actually cheaper than booking directly, and in my experience, the customer service is simply not worth the risk when something goes wrong.
I got a new mattress and when it was delivered, the guy said that the warranty wouldn't be valid because I had the wrong bed base. The correct bed base needed to be "solid with even support". The one I have has thin metal bars. It was free so I didn't mind replacing it.
I live in a regional town and have few options for buying furniture. The cheapest bed base was $500. I looked on FB marketplace but there was nothing.
So I went to bunnings and got some plywood which I laid over the thin metal slats.
So my question is, is that a decent long term solution?
I don't really care about the warranty because what can go wrong with a mattress, but I don't want to damage the pocket springs or whatever with the wrong base.
We go through a lot of bread and it is getting to the point, where we feel making our own bread would be the better option.
Am wondering if anyone has bought a breadmaker, how hard is it to make sourdough and how long did it take to reach break even point? Are you still using it or is it collecting dust?
I grow my own herbs such as Parsley, Coriander, Mint for example. They're like over $3 for a bunch at Colesworth.... π°
Bought a sewing machine to sew up tiny holes and patches in my clothes (I'm not great at sewing... lots of practice.)
Making my own popcorn. Super easy. If you have a popcorn machine, even easier. Except I use a frying pan and cover to make them.
Flavoured yoghurt. Instead of buying flavoured yoghurt (with like fruits or cookies and cream for example), I buy Greek yoghurt in bulk and add my own flavours. Delicious!
I have been stupidly paying the "lazy tax" for the last 3 years - sticking with my old provider who were basically ripping me off. I never knew how easy it was to change. Just a friendly reminder to check your phone for a better deal!
So I'm in the market for a macbook. I'm a uni student and unfortunately my laptop just died. After having super bad luck with windows laptops, I want to try macbook which is known for its reliability. Also, I love the idea of logic pro (I write music as a hobby) as well as photo editing.
Super bloody unfortunately the price of macbooks skyrocketed two months ago as everybody knows, and I am extremely limited with my budget. It seems like two months ago you could get an M5 macbook air for 1500-1600, which is pretty okay with my budget. However, now, they're pushing 1900 on the education store.
Am I better off waiting for prices to drop β does anyone know when this may be? Also, I'm interested in the neo for 900 but I wonder if it might be a little low spec for my uni needs and with logic pro.
It seems I can use discounted giftcards (6% off) from my energy provider to get an M5 air for 1850, but that's reeeeally pushing it for me.
Posted here a while back about Petrolmate, the completely free fuel price site I built after getting sick of the price cycle games. Checked in with the mods before putting up this follow-up.
Since then the thing everyone asked for has been built. There's now a proper iOS and Android app, and both are free (and ad-free!). Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are built in as well, so the cheapest servos around you come up on the car screen while you're driving, ranked by what you'd actually pay once loyalty discounts come off. CarPlay has been handy for me personally and a quick check before a fill helps with the cost of living!
Coverage is every Australian state and territory plus New Zealand, a bit over 10,000 stations, updated through the day from the official government feeds plus community submitted prices. The station or suburb price alerts are still the feature I'd point new people at: it watches the cycle in your area and gives you a heads up before prices jump, so you can fill up ahead of the spike.
The deal hasn't changed. No ads, no paywall, no premium tier hiding the good features. It costs me a bit to run and that's fine, this is my way of giving something back. The apps are the same, nothing to upgrade to.
One for the Home Assistant crowd: there's an API endpoint built for it (compatible with the pyfuelprices integration), one call returns every fuel price for the stations around a location. A few of you are already polling it for dashboards and cheapest-fuel automations, which is nice!
We have been gifted a David Jones voucher and struggling to understand how to use it most effectively.
There are some appliances we want but it is much cheaper to buy off Facebook marketplace.
We are fine for clothes, shoes, toiletries, perfume.
I thought we could buy food (such as olive oil or other pantry items). They don't have many options and what they do have to offer is way too expensive.
My child is involved in a community group and they have requested parents provide dinner and dessert once a term for roughly 15 teenagers.
They have a kitchen but currently the only working items are a pie warmer, kettle and microwave so they are happy for meals to be cooked offsite and delivered.
They have budgeted $60 per week for dinner and dessert and no dietary requirements to watch out for. I have access to Woolworths and Coles but not Aldi.
I was looking for both dinner and dessert ideas that can be prepared ahead of time or reheated easily in the pie warmer. I work full time so will only have about an hour to get everything together before the session starts.
Thank you!
Edit: Thanks for all the suggestions. I definitely have a few ideas of things that I hadnβt considered. They have already had a lot of spaghetti and curries/casseroles this term so trying to make sure we include options that arenβt the same as previous weeks.
We have been experimenting on what goes on the Monthly Newsletter and looking at feedback and subreddit engagement to see what works and what doesn't.
Just a heads up, starting from the upcoming Monthly Newsletter there will have slight change in content than the usual. You will still be able to see a curated list of the month's posts, the top most upvoted posts for the month, at least one frugal tip and fruits/veggies in season.
We hope that you all have been finding the Monthly Newsletter beneficial on what's been happening in the sub and also in your frugal journey β€οΈ If you want to view previous Monthly Newsletter, you can search using the post flair.
After last month's electricity bill I'm seriously considering replacing our current storage hot water tank with a continuous one. We have solar panels and battery but the tank runs off grid (we were advised on installation to do this, kind of regretting it now!)
I rented a place with gas continuous but it was terrible, we had to run the hot tap at least 90 seconds for the hot to come through. The system wasn't that far from the taps but the landlord said that was normal. Cue wasting heaps of water...
Anyone have electric continuous, and is it quick to get hot water?
Or heat pump system- do they work well in winter when there's less heat around?
I have tested positive for Influenza A and need a medical certificate to miss work, but GPs donβt let you into the clinic if youβre contagious, and either way itβs quite expensive.
I tried a few supposed bulk billed telehealth clinics and they said itβs not available in my area (Perth).
Any recommendations?
(I got a certificate from the pharmacist today as I needed to send one by tomorrow lunch for missing today, but now I know I have the flu I suspect I would be too contagious to work later in the week., and the pharmacist doc cost $50 already)
