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What Lengths Have You Gone to to Save a Little Bit of Money?
bargainhunter87 on 24/08/2018 - 15:19
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And all the limits you mentioned are absolutely certain and tested, right?
Well they are agreed on by the USFDA, FSANZ and other regulatory bodies.
What is your basis for "anything above 0 is bad!"?
And yes, I do not drink water from bottles that were exposed to heat. No matter what.
I haven't seen a plastic bottle with an 'exposed to heat' indicator.
What brands have these?I do not trust your numbers at all
So when presented with factual information you choose to ignore it and continue with your own misinformed belief (they are not my numbers either) Do you also believe that vaccines cause autism, the earth is flat or NASA never landed on the moon?
I know a few people with PhD in chemistry and working in the industry - they would not refill plastic water bottles once they have been exposed to heat and if they would not do it being experts, I am certainly not doing it.
Are they like the scientists that did not think x-rays were harmful or the ones that thought smoking had positive impacts to health?
And again, how do they know a bottle has not been exposed to heat?
And as I said ALL plastic bottles have been exposed to heat. How do you think they are produced?One person can smoke one cigarette a day for 6 months and get lung cancer while another can smoke a pack for 30 years and then stop and not have lung cancer at all and live until 100. I would not take such risk at all.
Which can actually come down to genetics. Of people with CHRNA variations, two variations have resulted in a 70 percent greater chance of developing lung cancer and a 30 percent higher risk for those with only one variant.
would one gamble with health just to save 0.01 cent?
What is there to gamble?
We live in a developed world which burns coal for power.
When coal is burned it releases mercury, lead, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulates, and various other heavy metals. All of those are 100% unavoidable and much worse than any minuscule amount of chemicals that may transfer from a container to a liquid. Plus we live in cities with thousands of cars that burn petrol and diesel emitting pollution that we breathe in vast quantities of.
With new research we can now see that air pollution is responsible for a significant reduction in intelligence (several years of education)
You are talking about a plastic bottle that needs to sit for 145 years in a typical setting to give you the daily TTC intake.
You knowing a few PhD's won't add any weight to your argument with them.
Do you know what might?
Presenting an actual fact based argument that is built on more than what they read in the news.
Citing globally recognized figures (as I have done) to support the argument is much more meaningful than "someone told me so"
So, wait, it seems that the scientists who work for the same government that denies climate change are to be believed but independent properly qualified scientists are not? Both US and Australian governments deny such thing, among many other things, and that is who you believe. You probably also believe that government agencies do not cross check info and do not invade people's privacy.
The mere fact that I know independent scientists who go by mere facts rather than economic interests and those scientists say something different to what you believe is enough for them to be idiots?
While "your scientists" are employed by the government who have vested financial interests. Would you believe a study stating smoking is not harmful if the study was paid for or the scientists were employed by the tobacco companies or the government - both parties have huge vested financial interests.As I said, I can choose to drink bottles not exposed to heat. If unsure, I buy water in glass bottles - then there is no problem. Or alternatively, I bring my own glass bottle.
I will make it clear: there is nothing you can say, especially since you now become insulting and cranky which is a surefire sign your arguments do not cut it, to convince me otherwise and not use glass bottles. And to come back to the point of my reply, put McDs straws into a dishwasher and reuse them to save 5 cents a year.
Nothing. So I suggest you save your energy and stop your little "crusade" here. When it comes to health, my motto is to be "better safe than sorry", especially when it comes to kids whose health is in my responsibility.What you say about pollution is unfortunately right - however, I do try to minimise exposure to that as well and in fact might even move away from AUS to a country with stricter standards and control (obviously not China!). Australia, with its army of 20+ years old cars, a government lying about climate change because of money, and the general mentality of indifference, is not, as you say, the greatest or a model country in this respect. NZ is a lot cleaner and more sensible in that respect.
Please stop trying to convince people who have a different opinion than you.
This is a bargain forum. Do you want me to get stat decs from the research scientists just so some random person on a website starts believing me and stops believing government info (because the government has never ever lied, right?) without questioning?
To be honest, rather than believing anonymous news I do put more weight onto what people who are experts in the field and whose credibility I can assess personally.
Citing news articles really does not have much weight as you could easily put together an argument from certain websites that, for example, Donald Trump is a saint, is super intellgent, and that climate change does not exist. Would that make it true? No, of course not!Why do you think that those sources are often not permitted in PhD research, especially in the more serious and conservative subjects?
So, wait, it seems that the scientists who work for the same government that denies climate change are to be believed but independent properly qualified scientists are not?
Did you even read what I said?
I said "agreed on by the USFDA, FSANZ and other regulatory bodies." not that the government came up with the numbers.
I could have linked to the peer reviewed journals however without a subscription you are not going to be able to read them.
independent scientists who go by mere facts rather than economic interests
I would much prefer independent scientists who go by double blind peer reviewed facts rather than their own "independent" facts.
As I said, I can choose to drink bottles not exposed to heat
As I have kept asking, how?
Where is the heat indicator on bottles?
How is a plastic bottle made if it is not exposed to heat?Do you eat tinned food or drink from cans?
You know they are lined with plastic too?is enough for them to be idiots?
I dont remember calling them idiots.
I will make it clear: there is nothing you can say,
Unwilling to listen to a fact based argument, or evidence based facts. Got it.
especially since you now become insulting and cranky
How have I insulted you? You are the one calling me cranky.
I'm not cranky at all, you are the one writing long rants rant without any facts to back it up.
So I suggest you save your energy and stop your little "crusade" here
What crusade?
You're the one trying to scare people about reusing plasticHere is what you initially said
"ave fun drinking the toxins from the plastic which are released due to temperature in the dishwasher.
Maybe do some research on why plastic water battles should not be reused if they have been exposed to heat."And I did some research which which you are not even willing to listen to because it does not support what you want people to hear.
I even provided facts about the levels of BPA in water when heated in a plastic bottle.my motto is to be "better safe than sorry", especially when it comes to kids whose health is in my responsibility.
Be sure to vaccinate them then.
Please stop trying to convince people who have a different opinion than you.
Please stop trying to scare people with baseless arguments.
This is a bargain forum.
And reusing a plastic bottle or straw is a great bargain because it saves money and more importantly the environment!
Citing news articles really does not have much weight as you could easily put together an argument from certain websites that, for example, Donald Trump is a saint, is super intellgent, and that climate change does not exist. Would that make it true? No, of course not!
So then why did you link to 4 news articles with click bait headlines to try and support your argument?
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/6301765/redirDoes that make it true that plastic bottles are bad? No, of course not!
I guess double standards are okay when you can use them to support what you want?
They were not meant to convince and pressure the poster it was in response to -unlike your posts/responses- but merely to draw his attention to the fact that there are issues in this regard.
Do you want me to post studies? Scientific studies? Statutory Decs?
This is a website and for all I know you could be a crazy person with too much time on their hands, one of those that solved all the riddles of the world but is misunderstood as no-one wants to listen despite you being hyperintelligent so really any time investments like that is wasted.
You will NOT convince me. That is it. Even if you put a gun to my head, you simply would not. In my personal and professional experience people who are as pushy as you are normally like that as they know their arguments carry little or no merit.
Maybe if you stop that, people would be more inclined to listen.
And to conclude: it is NOT a bargain to reuse plastic straws (put them into dishwasher) when you (a) can get new ones for free from McDonalds, and (b) you or your children get sick resulting in thousands of dollars of bills for doctors and potentially getting cancer. That is a false economy for me but by all means you can do it. Please do it - I would be happy with that.
Hungry Jacks shake and win app for free drinks/food.
When using self checkouts, I split the payment so I pay for all but $0.02 and then pay that separately with cash. The machine then rounds down and returns my cash, saving a total of $0.02 per transaction.
Go to uni for free aircon (and charging I guess)
When buying things from online stores that have physical stores near me, I always make sure it goes above the free shipping limit and then return what I don’t need.
Pimping?
This has been bashed to death before in another thread
Everything I do to save a buck (or less) always seems worth it, so nothing particular comes to mind…
But. Ive always worked Mon and Fri purely for the public holidays…and have days off in a public holiday week to save leave…
Tried to eat on under $60 for a month. More to see if I could than to save money.
It's doable. You get most of your calories from flour or rice based dishes.
It sure is! Been doing this for years ongoing. Only achievable when you're shopping for yourself. Difficult if you have partner to feed.
really great nutrition too…..
The cost to my health is the real issue….
My wife and I probably spend $60 on fruit and veg alone a week….blue berries are like 3-5$ a pack
Charging me 2x 20k power banks to use at home
My dad does this after I bought him a power bank
I told him to stop, because the money saved from constantly recharging at work, to use at home was not worth the replacement cost of the power bank
Discarded pizza boxes are an inexpensive source of cheese
Drove 10km more to avoid $3+ toll on M2 today.
well you said $1.50
use the green tea tea bag twice
Most tea can be used more than once.
If you are making loose leaf tea it's a common thing to do.
How much extra does the green tea tea bag cost? Can you only use a green tea bag once?
$350 per hour in-call, $2650 if overnight. out-call taxi charged as well.
i can also accompany during special events as companion, $5000 for the weekend plus transport.
How long have you been doing this for? (I've got a feeling there would be a lot of interest if you did an AMA!)
how does that relate to the op?
i get free food.
Don't understand what you are even talking about.
yeah right. just call me baby ;)
Slept in airports, slept on beach, etc. But in hindsight had no sleep so false economy.
you never sleep well in an unknown area the first night, as your body is unsure if the area is safe. as time goes on if there are no incidents, your body knows the area is safe and will therfore let you sleep well.
I work in a coffee shop, some people come in and ask for a macchiato but instead of having it in an espresso cup, having it in a small cup and topped up with milk. The result is a small latte for $3 instead of $4.5. Same works with a long macchiato topped up in a small cup. You basically get a double shot latte for $1 cheaper than a normal small latte.
I get coffee for free when I work so I always take a couple of espresso shots home with me and make iced coffee in the mornings.
sidenote, any idea how much a typical cup of coffee costs to make? I've always wondered what the actual cost might be.
I would guess around 95c-$1.10 including the cup, lid,beans and milk for say a medium cap.but then you have to factor in all of the expenses of running a business, staffing costs, rent, machine maintainable, it all adds up and it is often not a very lucrative business.
considering you're charged 50c extra for a large… I doubt that
I remember the raw costs being something like 26c years back
@Baghern: that's interesting, where did you get that figure from? The difference in the cost of a medium and a large would literally be a few ml of milk (if that), that's why they can get away with only charging an extra 50c. It uses the same amount of grind as a medium and the cups are only a cent different.
I guess the quality of coffee you're making, type of coffee and whether you dine in or take away plays into it as well. We pay $35 a kilo for our beans and get roughly 120 shots out of a bag, that alone is more than 26c a shot. I asked my boss today and he told me that the raw cost to make an average coffee are ~$1.50, but that factors in wastage.
My rough calculations are below,
Milk - 35c (200ml)
Cup - 26c
Lid - 3c
Grind - 58c (2 shots)
Water <1c
So say ~$1.23 for a medium (or large) cap.On the other hand, a dine in espresso will cost around 29c because it is only one shot of coffee in a reusable cup.
How long would the coffee last for? We have a expensive machine at work to use how we want.
I just take the espresso and put it in the fridge til the morning, then add cold milk. It tastes fine but not sure how long it would last. I considered taking one of those thermo cups that keep your beverage hot for 18 hours but didnt know how an 18 hour old warm milk would taste.
my mate drives his Tesla to the salvos for free bread!
I snap the unnecessary storks of some vegetables (i.e. eggplant) to save a few cents. Especially if the fruit/vegetable is expensive. Then I realised how stupid this was…..
Actually I see a lot of giant broccoli stalks that have been snapped off at my local Coles. Considering it's probably half the weight of the broccoli itself, it seems like a good idea? Are the florets (is that even the correct use of the term?) more nutritious than the stalk?
I have a friend who only eats the florets but I always eat the stalk to.
It tastes fine and adds a different texture.Gram for gram, the stems contain slightly more calcium, iron and Vitamin C.
The dark green florets only provide more Vitamin A.You know you can eat those yeah… cut like carrots and stir fry.
Dumpster diving.
Where I live there are a lot of new houses being built and i go for a walk in the afternoon after work and see what people or the builders have thrown into the skips
I have build 99% of my shelves around the house with the wood from them and even picked up a couple of picture frames as well
I make my own smashed advocado toast at work. I get aldi turkish bread toasted, hass advocado and cracked pepper.
Get a bottle extra virgin oil to drizzle over it…
or go the extra mile and boil an egg after you wake, then take with you to work to put over your smashed avo, then drizzle the extra virgin oil over it…
For some strange reason it really impresses all the girls at work…
At IKEA:
1. Buy drink at the Exit Cafe, fill up.
2. Enter, take shortcut to Ikea Restaurant, fill up, and go back to the start again.
3. At mid point, you reach the cafe, fill up.
4. At exit… you know what to do.
Free pencils!
I don't understand why people buy multiple cups when they can just refill the one! Same in Costco!
One time UBANK had a promotion when they first started, something along the lines of 'Buy a herald sun on Sunday and use the coupon to receive $20 in your bank account + the chance to win 1Million +'
So I drove around all the servos and bought all of their news papers while ringing home to the missus to enter the codes online. Scored just under 2K.
This is pretty smart
Surprised they didn't cancel the credit…
They tried with a mate of mine who also did the same thing to say that they wouldn't pay out the money, but we checked the TC's and C's before hand and couldn't find anything that would stop you from doing it multiple times. He ended up getting the cash in the end.
It always shocks me when things like these aren't curtailed early on, or even before it started, kinda obvious
@Baghern: Yeah it was even more ridiculous because the terms and conditions stated that X amount will be paid out on the Sunday and X amount will be paid out on the Monday (Sunday paper, so not many people would be trying it on the Monday) We only got a few to work on the Sunday before it ran out, so when the clock ticked over to Monday we just spammed all the news papers we had and they worked. My only regret was not organising a delivery of 1000000+ news papers, but I wasn't sure it would work lol.
But did you win a million? You surely had good odds?
I wouldn't be on ozbargain if I did lol.
Probably the cheapppppest thing i did was when IGN had the 2% cash back i'd always pay with my card get the others to give me cash and transfer money back to me for a dinner
if there was 4 or 5 it would usually be around $80-100 since which i'd usually get about 1.80~ cash back giving me a 3-7% discount on my meal but that was awhile back….
Bit shameful but it didnt hurt anyone and no one knew…
I do similar but for points.
Went to buy some Chicken Stock at Woolworths. Shelf price said $2.89 (can’t remember exact price but something like that), rang up at $2.99 at the register. Paid and went to service desk - waited 5 mins to be served only to be greeted with attitude from the staff member - “really? It’s only 10 cents”. Stood my ground and got full refund as per their scanning policy 😄
I thought scanning policy is one free plus one at ticket price?
got full refund as per their scanning policy
yea, I love this about them. Especially on items that are on reduced. There was this time (2 years ago) where this happened to me. Customer service said that they would refund the difference but not give me a refund+product. I pointed out their price scan promise & both managers shook their heads at me saying 'this only applies to full ticket priced items'. 'Your website says ALL ITEMS', I persisted. Nothing. I got my refund, walked away, rang customer service, logged a complaint. Jennifer, the regional manager rang me that very day. I had a chat and over the next few weeks, all the stores in my area had the coles price promise sticker plastered all over the place. Staff were re-trained including managers. I was pivotal in educating their employees on a process that they should have all known to begin with. So now I can buy 20% off meat & if it scans incorrectly, I get it for free! (quite rare but when it does, its a treat!)
I feel you need to run for PM. You're the hero Australia deserves right now.
Flown from Auckland to Sydney then to Bangkok with a connection to Macau and the ferry to HK - in a 24 hr period - because it was cheaper than flying direct.
Surely Air Asia or China Southern to Guangzhao would be cheaper and much easier? Or even flying to Shenzhen?
This was in 2006 and I was a broke ass student with more time than money.It was actually three separate airlines with AA being one. I just got lucky that they all arrive on time.
Bringing in dirty dishes to wash at work
Accelerate car very gently.
Drive reliable old bomb. (Saves $1000s on depreciation)
Don't buy corporate insurance. Be "self insured" instead.
You actually burn more fuel accelerating slowly vs quickly to the speed limit. (This has been tested multiple times, google it)
Fuel economy
Smart driving techniques and a little planning can significantly improve fuel economy- For best economy, drive smoothly and avoid accelerating harder than required
Look ahead in traffic and drive as smoothly as possible - Try to maintain a steady safe speed. Accelerating, slowing, and accelerating again wastes fuel
- Use the gearbox sensibly. Driving in a lower gear than necessary and revving the engine hard wastes fuel. Change up through the gears as soon as practical, but not so the engine labours
Source: https://www.racq.com.au/cars-and-driving/cars/owning-and-mai…
- For best economy, drive smoothly and avoid accelerating harder than required
- 7/11 $1 coffees
- dispute any fine.
- pay bills on very last day (with extensions), leave money in offset account.
- car tires at 40psi all around.
- fill up petrol only when on cheaper end of cycle. Top up only if desperate.
- use all work freebies/ facilities.
- breakfast lunch prepare at home and eat during work hours.
- byo food on planes ✈️
- byo wine/ food to wineries and sit on their lawn.
- public transport free before 715am in VIC. Discount after 6pm/ weekends.
- washing car at coin operated- use soap brush for longer than duration coz it spits out plenty. Chuck another $1 in to rinse.
- car cruise control when possible.
- shopping center fruit/veg free bags instead of 15c bags.
- ditch ADSL connection and use mobile data/ tethered connection.
car tires at 40psi all around
This is very dangerous especially if the road is wet or slippery. Unless 40 psi is the recommended pressure for your car. Much better to spend the little extra on fuel in the interests of safety.
car cruise control when possible.
Cruise control has actually been found to burn more fuel.
Cruise control has actually been found to burn more fuel.
Any modern car, cruise control burns less fuel. This is unless you're that guy on here that drove from Syd->Mel and was talking about letting off the throttle just before a hill because you know that it's downhill afterwards.
Haha, I do this too, drop it down about 10kmph if its a steep hill.
How do you define modern?
Here is one real world test where they found much better economy with cruise control off… https://youtu.be/92YIA_FiDi0?t=4m29s
I smuggle my own popcorn and coke bottles into cinemas.
I don't take food and drink to the cinema. I go to watch, and my body can survive just fine without sustenance for a couple of hours.
My girlfriend likes watching that show Wentworth, so I sign up for a Foxtel Now trial every 2 weeks with a different email address so she can watch it as soon as it comes out, then cancel it before being billed, rinse and repeat
Do you use the same card number?
just torrent it, no different
Except that one is a beach of copyright and the other isn't.
the other is a breach of the terms and conditions.
@Sage: Although some copyright violations amount to criminal offences. So in a sense you may be trading a criminal offence for a non-criminal offence
This post makes me remember the ozbargainer a few months back with the forum post where neighbours were complaining about him because he cooked all meals on a public park BBQ to save money on gas. I can't remember if it was a hoax or not.
I waited in line for 2 4 1 at jackpot noodles for so long that it really wasn't worth it
I fold over the same wad of toilet paper - can manage about four wipes, more than that then you’re pretty much all hand/no paper.
I actually saved a pretty decent amount but still a good example of going to lengths to save…
- Ordered 2x sets of dinnerware from David Jones. In order to make the order total for the AMEX deal, i also ordered a couple loose dishes
- Paid $201 total, split $100 gift card and $101 regular Amex spend, which then earnt me a $25(?) cashback from AMEX + the gift card I had used was a gift + I also got a $25 gift card from David Jones for spending over $200
- The dinnerware sets then came on sale for about $120 total, which was a pretty big discount
- So I took the (still boxed) online order back to David Jones, who gave me the discount AND an extra discount on the loose dishes. They also refunded me the difference onto my credit card, not in the form of a gift card
- I then returned home to find the $25 gift card from before (didn't realise it was in the box), and still got the AMEX cashback
So all up, instead of $201 for the dinnerware, i ended up paying something like $40 and converted my original gift card back into cash essentially. Just by lugging the box back to the local store
that's very lucky. I paid $24 in credit card and $1 in giftcard, took them back to David Jones and the girl just gave me a giftcard of $25
I'm considering booking a cheap return holiday to New Zealand (literally a 1 day turn around) prior to purchasing an engagement ring, so I can claim the GST back on the ring.
If you are travelling alone, then legally max $900 value or repay upon reentry. IE you save approx $82 under TRS.
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/ente/tour/are-you-a-trav…Bah, I knew it was too good to be true.
If you propose in NZ, then she can take it back
They don't need to know you brought it back in with you. If they ask, LDR and she lives in NZ.
My neighbor used to send her daughter to come play at our place some time before lunch time so she could get fed for free.
My uncle aunty often come over to have dinner at my place. We have to cook more food for them. Sometimes uncle take away for his work next day
oh my, I kinda glad you have it worse than me hahahahaa :P
out of curiosity though, why often? you guys have a set days for family dinner?
@Lysander:
You are wasting your breath. There are literally real doctors on these forums that tell these type of people that they are wrong when it comes to medical conditions and posters will tell them they are wrong. You knowing a few PhD's won't add any weight to your argument with them.