The BIG thread of financial tips and tricks

[snlmommy]

This is the BIG thread of financial tips and tricks to optimise your spending and stretch our dollars as far as possible while not affecting our quality of life too much.

Please note that these tips can apply to a relatively wide array of people but some may not be doable for others. E.g. There may not be a Pak n Save in your town or you may not have the money to purchase a hybrid vehicle.

Please leave your hints and tips in the comments and I will update them into the thread periodically based on number of upvotes from the community.

Shopping:

• Buy Store Brands like Homebrand/Pams rather than big brands as they are often the same/similar quality and are made on the same manufacturing line. Particularly true for canned foods and many basics like cheese, milk and butter.
• Try to shop at PaknSave - it is considerably cheaper than other chain supermarkets and will save you 10 - 15% over a year which on a $10k a year shop is $1000 - $1500 straight back in your pocket. There is no difference in packaged manufactured products of the same brand (not including meat and produce) and the store brands are very comparable to those from Woolworths. Only shop at Woolworths/New World for deep specials.
• Try the Grocer app which lets you check pricing for the same food items across your selection of local supermarkets.
• Use Asian fruit and veg stores - they can be far cheaper than the main supermarkets and the quality is comparable.
• Shop seasonally - fruit and veg not in season is crazy expensive. Check what grows and when on the NZ produce website.
• Take into account weight when you are purchasing anything. Most supermarkets have a cost per 100 grams on the label. The classic example is that the typical Cadbury chocolate is 160 - 180g while a Whittakers is 250g. When you take into account the weight you are not paying a whole lot more for the Whittakers but getting far better quality.
• Use shops like Reduced to clear and Why Knot - Best Before dates are not expiry dates and the food is still perfectly fine to eat. Often expiry dates are almost entirely arbitrary. Your eyes, nose and common sense will tell you if food is off.
• Use cashback websites like Kiwiwallet - Shopping through these guys for example will give you 2% back on all Countdown spend and 5% on all Aliexpress purchases.
• Use Aliexpress for some items if you are ok to wait a few weeks as often they can be found for half the price on trademe or a retailer here. However make sure the store is reputable, the item has plenty of orders and high reviews.
• Use Pricespy if you are shopping locally

Vehicles:

• If you travel more than 10,000km a year see if you can invest into a hybrid vehicle. They will often halve your fuel bill and save you thousands every year. These days they are just as reliable as petrol vehicles. The batteries are no longer particularly expensive to replace (for basic Prius models) and are unlikely to cause you issues. However in saying so avoid purchasing hybrids that are very old (over 10 years) or that have high kms (150k's+) as batteries have limits.
• Never purchase a vehicle on credit, always use cash. If you don't have the cash you can't afford it. If you are desperate try to top up your mortgage rather than paying the extortionate interest rates the dealers charge.
• Use a good checklist to check out a vehicle before purchase such as the one on ChrisFix's website.
• Do not skip servicing because you are lazy or to save money - big nono and will bite you ten-fold later down the line.

Bills:

• Shop around. Has your broadband contract expired? Spend 20 min on the phone with retention and get a new contract for a better price. If their offer is not competitive, move on - use websites like broadbandcompare to find a better deal - this includes everything like home/car/life insurance, electricity and mobile. Doing the sums and looking over this stuff one Sunday per year can easily save you between $500 and $2000.

Eating out:

• Learn to cook well. You will save so much money and often realise that some takeaway food is not as good as you think. Not to mention that it can be good fun and a great way to get family/kids involved.
• If you eat out often use websites like Grabone, Firsttable and Bookme to both try out new places and often save considerable amounts of money.

 

[kayc]

@snlmommy A few my from our family of 4.

• don’t shop with kids. Not ideal as I think they should be included but… my experience is they will pester you into small purchases that quickly add up (I really think checkouts with confectionery should be illegal, imagine if it was booze).
• cut the booze. Your health and wallet will thank you. Remember, there is no safe limit.

https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/06/27/no-amount-of-alcohol-is-healthy-heart-foundation-warns/

• learn to make curries. With meat, without but using chickpeas etc. YouTube or TikTok is your friend here.
  I buy a lot from Indian grocery stores. They are affordable, have a huge variety and (imo) a better shopping experience (always a friendly smile, very clean and well stocked, don’t feel like I’m being ripped off, looking at you two big supermarket chains). Also, curries are awesome!
• make bread. Real bread. Not that sliced sandwich stuff we think is bread, actual bread. Crusty loaves, focaccias, ciabattas, they are easily doable once you get the basics right. They are also cheap to make and much more filling. We still buy sandwich bread (from Couplands) but it’s just for my fussy kids.
  Bread is just flour, water, yeast and salt. It’s so easy, plus once you gain confidence you’ll move on to other things. I like to make my own naan for my curries. Again, YouTube is amazing here.
• ride a bike if possible. My wife and I are able to and we save a ton of $$ not buying fuel, maintenance, etc. Riding a bike also allows you to more easily stop at small stores that might have a good deal on and if you are driving you may not even see it or think you won’t get a park. I’ve scored some amazing deals that I never would have seen if my mind was focused on driving to pak n save.
• learn about politics. Poverty isn’t a moral failing of an individual. Poverty is a political choice. There are a lot of people struggling in this rich country of ours and in my eyes, poor people work the hardest (essential workers remember).
  Please don’t allow yourself to fall into despair, the answer isn’t there, I’ve looked.

Look after yourself. Try and build some community. We need each other to get through these tough times.

Also, streaming is expensive

 

[gd3001]

@kayc In Croatia the checkouts do have little 100ml bottles of booze lol. Brandy, rum, vodka, whiskey, gin, rakija. All there next to the candy

 

[howgullibleru]

@gd3001 Slivovitz.

 

[terica]

@gd3001 Just got back from Mexico where there were full size liquor bottles at the checkout at supermarkets

 

[chewy]

@kayc Many supermarkets do have 'confectionery free' checkouts (some are labelled and some not depending on the shop) that you can specifically choose if you are shopping with kids

 

[kayc]

@chewy Yea I know, but it’s a tiny minority. I’m just not a big fan of how supermarkets are designed to get you to buy more than what you intended. The psychological tricks they play are sneaky and unethical to me. Especially when aimed at children, which these confectionery checkouts are at their height.

 

[ella1838]

@kayc Mind throwing a couple of more words about learning about politics? If it reduces my bills, I am on board.

 

[kayc]

@ella1838 I mean ultimately it’s about class right? Working class vs owner class. Those that earn their money through work or labouring vs those that earn a passive income via owning property, businesses, factories, shares, etc.
It’s about identifying capitalism for what it is, a system designed to crush collective bargaining, force us to be hyper individualistic and compete with each other, and exploit workers paying them as little as possible. Workers are literally a cost of doing business, a cost that a company wants to minimise so not to eat into their profits.

Its profits over everything else. The profit motive is its guiding light, and before anyone says ‘well how else do they make money’ - work, labour, like the rest of us. I don’t work for profit, I work for wages like most people. And I’m told that I can live a good life by just keeping my head down and doing what I’m told. Fuck that. My grandparents did that, parents do that, I’m doing it, still poor.

We need to become more class conscious, aware of who is truly responsible for our social ills. I’m so tired of being told it is my fault I can’t afford a home to raise my family, while others hoard homes and then jack the rent up at any chance they can.

If working hard were the only criteria for living a good life, then cleaners, nurses, teachers, retail staff, fire fighters, tradespeople, people that work for a living would all be doing well. Instead it’s passive incomes that are the key to a good life. And it’s glorified in our society. We are told that if we can make our money work for us (which means extract wealth from the labour of others) then we will be set for life. The whole thing is a scam. Our work places are undemocratic and yet that’s where we spend most of our time. We are told we live in a free country, yet most of our awake time is dictated by someone else.

Our two biggest parties, National and Labour are basically two sides of the same neoliberal coin. Neither wants to change the system. They just tinker one way or the other to appease their base. We keep hearing about growing the economy as it’s the only way to raise living standards. Grow the pie and you’ll each get a bigger slice. The only thing that grows indefinitely is cancer. And that’s where we are heading in my eyes. There is enough wealth to go around, but greedy fucks would prefer to hoard it or send it off shore than give it to us plebs.

In my experience, nobody likes to work. People like to contribute to something larger than them selves, to help others in need, to give and receive like we have for thousands of years, working together to build a better life for our children and the future.

Do you want to be rich in a country where children are going hungry and people are sleeping on the streets? Or a country where everyone has their needs met and we use our collective wealth to maximise human freedom and wellbeing?

The system isn’t broken, it’s working just as intended.

I’m by no means the right persons to talk about this, I’m just a dude trying to see past the bullshit and see what is truly going on.
Your failure to get ahead isn’t your fault. Your mental illness isn’t your fault. You live in a complex system, a society that demands so much of you. So much of your precious time, your best years spent doing things you don’t want to be doing, away from things you’d rather do and away from those you love.

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society - Jiddu Krishnamurti

 

[kayc]

Think ants vs grasshoppers in the movie A Bugs Life.

 

[ella1838]

@kayc Now I got what you meant. Capitalism produced results in the past but lately has been going haywire. One example is the historical rise of executives' salaries compared to those of employees. Capital is amassing more power by the day.

 

[kayc]

@ella1838 People produce things. The planet produces things. Capitalist just extract and hoard wealth under the guise of ownership. But yea for most people, things are getting pretty bad.
Executive salaries are getting out of control, considering how useless most of them are to society.

 

[resjudicata]

@snlmommy Don’t buy the latest tech.

Depending on your needs you can use cheaper and older tech.

Laptops: If you just want email and Facebook and YouTube, a $400 Chromebook could be a good option.

Printer: Most people don’t need to print in colour very often. Get a brother black and white laser printer. If you need colour printing once in a while, pay per page at a print shop.

Cellphone: The iPhone SE is half the price of an iPhone 15pro. An Oppo phone is half the price of an iPhone SE.

Streaming services: Pick only one.

 

[ashpk]

@resjudicata Streaming services, pick one yes, it doesn’t mean you can’t switch every couple of months though!

 

[themrs1965]

@ashpk Also checkout Plex! Free service and you might have a friend who hosts/shares their movie and tv library.

 

[jwilson7020]

@resjudicata

Streaming services: Pick only one

You don't even have to pick one. Freeview + torrenting is free

 

[magnum44xl]

@snlmommy Editing my comment as I think of more things.

Get a Dutch oven/casserole dish. We got an affordable one from KitCo. Kmart also has some, though I don't know how long they would last (the coating on the inside of them might not be good quality). It works best with the cheapest cuts of meat. You can make amazing stews and things with it. for example, my husband made a non-smoked version of Pastrami last week. The corned silverside for it was just 15 per kg from Pak n Save, and basically all he had to do was add onion, garlic and some herbs/spices. For cooking YouTube channels, can recommend Brian Lagerstrom.

If you need a good but affordable laptop, you can get a decent ex-business lease one from Pb Tech for 400-500. For phones, cheaper lines from brands like Xiaomi have decent specs.

For parking, use Kiwipark and Parkable apps for cheaper parking. And always use whatever parking app your city/town has if possible for parking on the street, if it allows you to pay to the minute, not full hours.

Also seconding using apps to find cheapest prices: Pricespy for anything you need to buy new; and Grocer for groceries; Gaspy for petrol.

If you need a car, consider contacting car rental places. They might just be replacing some of their fleet. I got my car for 2k less than it was valued by insurance this way. Especially with how the second hand car market has become inflated, this is a good way to get a reliable car with perhaps just mileage that's a bit high.

You can get audiobooks and movie streaming free through most libraries. Just check their website to see if they offer Libby and Beamafilm.

 

[resjudicata]

@magnum44xl Kmart cast iron dutch ovens aren't actually half bad considering they're $45.

Food tends to stick to the coating a bit, and we traded up after about 3 years because the enamel was chipping off the rim and handles, but the cooking surface was still solid.

If you're looking for a lifetime buy then don't bother, but 45 bucks for three years of use isn't terrible.

 

[texasmustang]

@magnum44xl Your PB Tech point reminded me. - Most old TV can be turned into a smart TV using a $70 Chromecast plugin. I had a friend on a very fixed budget tell she wanted to buy a smart TV, and I said to her, thats really for people who can afford to pay for expensive subscriptions, so I got her a Chromecast and showed her how to stream all the great free content from YouTube, from the local TV apps, from the Internet Archive anything from any Chrome tab.

You can also buy brand new dumb TVs from PBTech, good quality Samsung etc, they're in the Commercial TV section. Then you can get a 4K Chromecast. Much cheaper.

 

[skittles]

@snlmommy For an office worker lunch, get one apple and cut into very thin slices. It must a crunchy apple. Serve them on a plate. Eat in the lunchroom. Eat one slice at a time. It takes time and feels like you're eating more. One apple a day is good for your wallet, and your waistline. Also, it's true, An apple a day keeps the Doctor away; In 18 months, I've lost around 20kgs and am becoming less pre-diabetic. Saving money on Medical expenses in the long run.