Third part in the series for this Sunday night.
Parts 1 and 2
I'll start us off: I used to spend several minutes scrapping the inside of the jam jar for those very last traces of jam, until I realized that they comprised about 1/100 of the container, which at the price I pay, equates to about 1.7c
I still do it, but now I use a spatula: does the same thing in about 10 seconds.
What yours?
Whoops, forgot a decimal point.
AUDITED
Shoplifting.
Good way to ruin your back, shops are quite heavy…
eBay isn't. It weighs about 0.000000001g (it actually does).
Damn that is some impressive server infrastructure
Oh, Shakazaramash, will you ever learn?
Do you even lift bro
Paid $4 for 3L of (brand name) milk from local iga, vs $3 for the generic @ Coles. If I just need a couple of things, local iga is more convenient that I can deal with the extra $1
it usually cheaper for me to buy $2 for 2 litres at Caltex (woolies) or Shell (coles) than the supermarket as I nearly always buy something else at the supermarket.
If you're only buying milk, petrol costs and car maintenance exceeds that $1 saving. It's only worth if you're buying sufficient quantities.
At Woolworths petrol use your 4c voucher. Then spend $5 in store to save an extra 4c. I usually buy bread and milk. Total 8c off per litre
Don't forget the 2% payWave cash back with ING too ;)
5% off egiftcards
Don't bother with those, just go where is convenient (within reason). People queue up to save a few cents, when the servo down the road is nearly the same price, no queue
Stopped exclusively eating cheap nasty food.
Mi goreng is delicious but does not constitute a balanced diet.
Mi goreng is delicious but does not constitute a balanced diet.
The words that most uni students don't want to hear, but will continue for it to be a staple anyways.
It has been many years since I finished Uni and I am still eating Mi Goreng.
Yeah well I found a cheap office supply company so I literally have a 'staple' diet.
I add two soft boiled eggs, extra dried shallots, some sweet soy, chilli sauce, capers and even a tin of tuna.
Now it's a meal!
Great to see your diet has a lots of green :P
That joke aside - bok choy or anything from that chinese cabbage family is a good addition to mi goreng.
Although once you're adding all that stuff you might as well use good noodles.
I found the sticky sweet soy sauce in big bottles! I was cooking my mi goreng and a Korean lady was telling me I am doing it all wrong. I told her yes, I am westernising it, but it is yum my way too, I just wish I had more of this sauce. She pulled a whole bottle out from the cupboard. Best day ever!
Ketsup Manis?
Yellow lid?
I love it. That's the stuff I add.
It's 80% sugar if I recall correctly haha
Where are you cooking that Korean ladies are watching and commenting and pulling out out bottles of your favourite sauce on demand?
You were born to OzBargain.
Bloody tasty and convenient though.
Just had it last night, add baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, frozen mixed vegetables and grilled salmon. Makes for a healthy dinner for the entire family.
Signing up for all the freebies on ozbargain. Most of them were sample size and we never even bothered to open them. Now, I'm more selective.
Don't forget the bonus varieties of SPAM with every sample signup…I know I'll never need to search for viagra again! ;)
I'm about to say the same. Refuse freebie samples now. Hope AusPost will stop making losses.
True. I've never used those Sweax underarm shirt liners from a couple of years ago lol. They're still on my desk in case I have an occasion where I might need to use them though!
Going on OzBargain
Is this your last post?
I'm back
Growing carrots. Now I love gardening and growing my own food but have never had much luck with carrots and for the amount of effort I put in it was a lot easier to just buy them on special for a dollar a kilo
Quite right Tassgle. Some years ago I decided that if I was going to 'grow-my-own' of anything, it would only be stuff that was not already available very cheaply at the supermarket; such as carrots and potatoes.
I also decided that it was not really worth investing countless hours growing 'somewhat delicate' (occasionally 'hit-and-miss') veggies like lettuces etc., given that I could simply work for a single hour and use the pay earned to buy as many FRESH lettuces as I wanted.
That said, I have been trying for years to establish a productive avocado tree here in Melbourne (a 'Hasse' variety), without much joy. I love avocados, and those suckers can be very expensive here, even in the 'on' season.
Lots of mulch and liquid fertiliser in spring
Unfortunately you picked the most temperamental tree variety
Try sharwel on a raised bed and push it along with seaweed/fish emulsion a bit
A tree or trees?
Commercial fruiting Avo trees are grafted so it multiplys the complexity of variation.
Shame the govt. Defunded the DPI or you could just ask them what suits colder climate
On the bright side, you'll soon be able to grow tropical fruit in Vic
@altomic: plenty of plants can self-pollinate, either directly or with the help of insects or other animals to spread the pollen
Avocado trees take several years to mature before they first fruit. Keep persevering! They do self pollinate though.
Avocado trees take several years to mature before they first fruit.
That is only if you grow one from a seed niks… and doing that is a bit 'hit and miss' re whether they will EVER actually produce fruit at all. A grafted Hass avocado should be capable of bearing fruit in its second year, as long as it grows vigorously (or year three at the latest).
Also, 'the enforcer' is right alto, avocado trees can self pollinate; so you do not need a male tree and a female tree to get fruit.
avocado do take a few years to get right I have 4 of big boys at home avocado for all who come. thank you to aunt pass on last year gift that keeps on giving. she also gave me lemon and lime tree.
Passionfruit vines are easy to grow and again are quite expensive instore. Just need the room for them to grow.
Stupid mesclun lettuces. Figured they'd be awesome for salads and looked cool growing…
They taste like crap, the possums destroyed them and they took ages to grow.
Never again mesclun.
Grow garlic, bought one bulb from the organic food store, pulled it apart and planted them a few weeks back. I put in 18+ little bulb things altogether.
If that gives me a dozen or more full garlics I will be so far ahead!
It just takes forever.
I used to be a bit fanatical about turning off lights that were on 'unnecessarily' for extended periods of time (for example, overnight). But that was when even a 'weak' (lumen-wise) bulb was churning through 60 watts. I.e. in the days of incandescents. When the 'energy saving' mini-fluoro-type bulbs came out, I relaxed this policy substantially … because I was now getting the same lumens, for about a third to a quarter of the cost.
With the recent advent/availability of LED bulbs, I now NO LONGER WORRY AT ALL (just about) about what lights are on or off, and for how long. They use such little power that it seems inconsequential compared to the 'old-school' bulbs that my initial mind-set was formulated in the context of.
In my humble opinion, the emergence of LED 'downlight' globes that can fit into the standard fittings that formerly housed a halogen globe is also very awesome. I sleep more soundly at night knowing that I now have NON-HEAT-GENERATING (pretty much) LEDs fitted in the ceiling, where I used to have halogens that ran pretty hot.
YAY for LED bulbs/technology!!!
In an aside, I also worry a lot less about leaving my TV on for a while even if it may go 'unwatched', because the LED TV uses less than half of the watts than the plasma it replaced.
I was going to make this exact point!
Yes, I came to that conclusion to. Why worry about things of such small consequence, when an extra 5 minutes in the shower can eviscerate any savings. Better to focus on the bigger picture stuff first, like HVAC and laundry.
I went a little overboard, removing extra globes from chandeliers and turning off lights while people were watching TV. However those actions belong to a previous paradigm, where I was worried if I made even tiny mistakes like spending a dollar too much on lighting, it would ripple through my future and have devastating consequences at a critical moment. That's no longer a concern.
Is it just lights for you? What about exhaust fans, dryers, air conditioners?
Mainly just lights, as new technology has reduced the cost of running them so dramatically. Air conditioners/heaters still use quite a lot of power, so I am careful not to have them on unnecessarily. I don't have a dryer.
This exactly.
Aircon, heating I don't care about. Sure it's a little more expensive, but the comfort is worth it. The wall furnace has been getting quite the workout this month. That said I don't particularly notice a huge increase in my expenditure from extended usage.
I'll also use my dryer all year round, I'm busy enough that I'd rather just throw the clothes in rather than fuss with hanging them up. Time is money.
What can you with hvac and the laundry?
I guess wash cold or just warm is one.
Avoid the dryer.
What else?
Stopping drafts?
Any tips?
I am not sure if true, but I was told it takes more power to start a bulb than it does to power for an hour so turning lights on and off constantly was inefficient.
I was told it takes more power to start a bulb than it does to power for an hour …
That is basically a 'wive's tale' (a fallacy / incorrect) that got widely spread about in the 1980s. It was based pretty much on fluorescent tubes, which do in fact require a bit of a 'burst' of power to get them started, but apparently nothing like the amount of power that is required to run the tube for a whole hour.
I am no electrician, but I am 'almost certain' that such considerations do not apply to LED bulbs (or even the old-skool incandescents, not that that is of any relevance these days). I think that both of these types of bulbs simply use the wattage written on the bulb; there is no 'start-up' surge required to turn them on.
It would be great if an electrician could confirm this here for us.
Not sure if you saw scupper's post below, Mythbusters say an LED start-up uses the same amount of power as running it for 1.3 seconds .
I'm an electrical engineer - and although I can't be bothered testing it, but it sounds about right. Some small amount of energy is used to charge up capacitors in the power supply.
Funny that, I was told this in the late 80's when me and all my friends had fluros, with dicky starter motors.
Mythbuster episode on this
"Based on the amount of energy consumed turning on the bulb, they were able calculated how long the bulb would have to be turned off in order to make it worth the energy savings, i.e. "It's best to turn off the bulb if you are leaving the room for":
Incandescent: 0.36 seconds
CFL: 0.015 seconds
Halogen: .51 seconds
LED: 1.28 seconds
Fluorescent: 23.3 seconds"
i used to be tight when they were halogen. Only had 3 of the 6 downlight globes in LOL
now i have all 6 with LED bulbs
Eating Purina catfood. Soon we started getting fluorescent diarrhea (including the cat).
I used to stay under the download limit for my ADSL connection but I realised my ISP doesn't even charge me for going over and I don't even notice any speed difference.
The joys of crappy ADSL. Used to live near the exchange and it was great. Now am 5km away and it sucks so bad :(
My internet is slower than it was 10 years ago because I'm further from the exchange :( But I'm moving soon and getting Nuskope fixed wireless, which should be much faster.
yeah mine has gone downhill big time.
when i first moved here i got 6 meg a second. 3 years later it's deteriorated to 3 meg a sec. we are scheduled to have HFC NBN in december so i'm putitng up with it for now
Dialup.
TRS line is the worst. Ugh
Especially when there are several Asian flights :-(
I recently flew to nz from sydney and the airport was so empty i thought something was wrong. When i went to go get my refund from trs i was like 2nd in line. Couldn't believe it. When i came back same thing airport was empty…weird.
Try booking for TRS online. Apparently my friend booked and got to skip the queue, just a scan, similar to how they scan your passports on the way out of an airport.
Yes, I just used the app from PlayStore. Sorted the refund in less than two min.
There is a separate queue in Sydney airport for TRS online or via App.
I worked for a certain telco and got free staff internet. It was good for a time, but over the last couple of years I became painfully aware of the low download limit and increasingly heavy congestion. I got sick of it and decided to go with someone else and pay for my internet, right around the time they revoked the free plans anyway. That first night using my uncapped, fast (it's no NBN but in comparison) internet I just about cried tears of joy. I spend a lot of time online, downloading and streaming files, and I realised when something is important to you and you use it often there's no harm in spending some money because it greatly improves your quality of life. Now I can't get off the internet though. :/
Driving an extra 10+kms to save a few cents on fuel. Even over a full tank the savings are probably under $5, not to mention the extra fuel and time used to travel the extra distance
Now thats a good one. I used to that too, until I found the RACV fuel price tracker website.
On the fuel topic, I used to fill up to $xx.02 and pay by cash.. Just to get that free .02 cents fuel……..
I used to cheap out on my internet plans, but now I have a fast and unlimited plan from a reputable telco and my online life is literally 5 times faster for 30% more :)
I'd be interested in knowing who you were with that wasn't "fast". Your speeds should really be limited by your distance from the exchange assuming ADSL. That is unless you're on NBN or….switched to cable?
I have FTTB now.
Well that makes sense, I'm jealous lol.
I stopped buying those generic woolworths and coles milk. I now only buy farmers own. Aussie owned, the cheap stuff is foreign owned. Happy to support our aussie farmers
fyi murray goulburn is australian and all fresh milk here is australian made :)
In the Australian drinking milk market the two major players are multinationals, Japanese-owned Lion (with the Pura and Dairy Farmers brands) and French-owned Parmalat (with the Pauls brand).
murray goulburn does private-label/house-brand fresh milk :)
Private label milk is also sourced from Australian farms. The contract price paid by the processors is mainly the same as for branded milk but in some cases is lower than for branded milk (which is a decision by the processors), which makes sense as there's no additional margin coming from marketing (branded milk basically being the same thing but in a jazzy bottle). When the ACCC last looked into the matter they determined the generics were basically acting as a loss leader style product with the decreased margin being absorbed by the supermarkets.
The dairy industry is suffering at the moment because the global price of milk solids has collapsed (partly due to Russian embargoes and partly due to the EU removing its production quotas. The vast majority of Australian milk production is exported and profits are subject to global trade.
Murray Goulburn coop farmers are suffering right now because the coop heads (that the farmers appoint) completely misled them as to global conditions and what could be expected. The coop is currently under ACCC investigation.
We used to make our own almond milk …and then the shine wore off.Now we just stock up when they are half price.
Toilet paper.
Couple of dollars more for that soft stuff is so worth it.
I used to buy ground coffee on special and refill my capsules. Way cheaper but a real PITA. It dawned on me that although I was saving about 50% it was about equal to 18 cents a cup. So not worth the hassle - but the back of my Ozbargain brain still isn't comfortable that there is a cheaper way and damnit I'm not using it!!
you could get yourself a cheap espresso machine. i used to have an aldi one that cost around $80, and made better coffee than my $200 basic breville. the really expensive machines make it seem like you need to spend a lot of money to make a decent coffee, but you dont need to. i think they come out better than capsules too, which always seem just a bit watery to me. stovetop makers are even better, great coffee and much cheaper, but too much hassle for me
I already have an espresso machine as well. But in the mornings I love the convenience of just dropping a capsule in when I'm half asleep and bang, coffee. Too many steps and mess with the espresso machine for my morning zombie state.
But I hear you about the quality. One advantage of refilling the capsules was that on the whole it tasted better than most of the store capsules.
Just grab a bottle of caffeine pills and take 1 or 2 of those each morning. ~16 cents/pill equivalent to about 1.5 capsules.
Now that's OzBargaining
if you have a NQR close by they always have really cheap pods - $2-3 per pack of 10. Good stuff with close-ish expiry dates. Tastes the same to me. From memory there were a few different types, however I've only looked nespresso ones.
Flybuys. And most other mostly useless points systems.
You pay $17 for a jar of jam? Seems bloody expensive.