Hi everyone,
With higher interest rates and core items such as utilities and groceries going up, are you cutting spend elsewhere? If so, where?
If not, are you just saving less each month or are you now tipping into savings? Or are you trying to earn more through extra shifts / side hustles?
Agreed, I'm earning and spending more than ever before, that's inflation for you. Spending has gone up a lot more than earnings though thanks to these ridiculous interest rates compared to last year. The only thing I can reduce is to minimise holidays.
No
Same. "No".
It's because the price of everything has gone up, despite me buying less and less. I'm saving even less, despite efforts. Stagflation.
And eating less coz of shrinkflation.
And going hungry because of starvflation.
A bit
No
You answer first.
Yes
No
Maybe
Selective grocery shopping so I don't have to increase my spend much. I guess I'm probably not window shopping as much but then I've never been much of a shopper anyway… unless it's a bargain.
Dr. Hibbert:
No.
Lisa Simpson:
No.
Chief Wiggum:
No.
Marge Simpson:
No.
Bart Simpson:
No.
Selma:
No.
Chief Wiggum:
No.
Reverend Lovejoy:
No.
Prof. John Frink:
No.
Chief Wiggum:
Yes. I mean, no.
Dr. No:
No.
Yes No 242
I still got to eat, so no.
I've decided to stop Uber Eats for good. Unless I'm feeling hungry and lazy.
Ditto! We stopped ordering last year with the only out being if we're all sick so lockdown rules apply.
I would have to be REALLY lazy, or REALLY hungry, to use UberEats again. The mark up is ridiculous
Walk into the kitchen and make a meal. And yes it's more than twice as expensive as home cooked and generally all junk food so not healthy.
@serpserpserp: You're doing shopping and cooking wrong. I suggest you go to the supermarket instead of 7 eleven to buy groceries to reduce your costs and follow the instructions and ingredients in a recipe step by step. Also not chucking out the leftovers of a dish also works so only a one portion doesn't end up being the full cost of the dish.
@serpserpserp: Spending $25 just for 1 laksa shows more money than sense. Buying initial herbs and spices does cost a little more but you then have it for every meal after that. Spending hours..lol comment like that I bet you've never turned on the stove.
@Geoff01: Spices hardly cost anything if you look. You can get a kilo of Majurah spices for 8 bucks at specific Indian convenience stores or even on Amazon. If you know how to read a book it'll taste better than what you buy in a restaurant, you'll have fresh ingredients rather than the stuff restaurants use that's left in some box on the floor.
Don't know how some people can come to the conclusion that a restaurant is cheaper than making it yourseld when you're actually paying for labour, rent, electricity, and every single overhead involved in running a business in one dish. Sometimes I wonder how people process information.
@Conformist: Playing devil's advocate though, you need to value your own labour, electricity, etc… as well, and also assuming you already have the equipment/appliances/etc that you need to do it.
Yes I'm aware that it's still probably cheaper than a restaurant, but for some, maybe the delta isn't that great.
(that all being said, $25 for a laksa is a rort)
@jace88: If you don't think long term you'll always be in a rat race. Every amount of progress requires some investment or another however you don't really need much if you stick to the basics anyway (hand blender, microwave, and a few pans and utensils?) Yes it's effort and that's why people pay for convenience. Unless you're working two jobs I don't see the reason someone can't drop Netflix and cook instead. Electricity to cook costs absolutely nothing. You're talking around a dollar for 4 Kilowatt hours.
No one here is on such a salary to devalue saving 8k a year. Except for that one guy here who was looking for a high yield that one time.
And that's not even considering how much you're damaging your health by eating processed restaurant junk food.
@Conformist: I think you’re making some broad assumptions about others posting here… my point was simply that some people may value their time and effort such that the marginal saving from cooking themselves vs buying takeaway is worthwhile. And that’s before factoring in the same overheads a restaurant might have into the cost of preparing a meal at home.
I’m in such a category but am looking at other halfway houses which enable the slightly healthier options and a little DIY cooking through meal kits which have already prepared the ingredients and portion sizes to avoid wastage. Just to be clear though not everyone does this because it’s cheaper (it probably isn’t) but it does seem slightly healthier than Uber eats.
@jace88: I don't think there are any assumptions to be made. It's cheaper or it isn't, if you pay for convenience you'll be at a loss. You can pay for a gardener, you can pay for a cleaner, you can pay for a lot of things. The reasons you don't is to save the cash for the most part, and that's either because you can't afford it or prefer keeping the cash. The instances this isn't the case is for people with much higher incomes which is less than 5% of people as their incomes far outstrip the costs of outsourcing.
The argument of 'valuing time' is a just an out. Let's not forget we're not talking about a small sum of money, we're talking 10k of savings for each person in a family per year for someone ordering uber eats this often. How does the average person or even above average even save up for anything or pay off a mortgage doing this before things go pearshaped.
Ive cooked enough to know the concept of wastage isn't a thing, there's a reason staples like meatloaf and casseroles and omellette exist. And it's to get rid of the leftover ingredients you can't manage to mix in a more traditional dish. Also there are plenty of vegetables that can be frozen before getting to the edge of rotting.
If diy cooking with mealkits is something you're trying out, good for you, it means you're thinking about options and finding something that works. My advice is to find 40 recipes with common ingredients and have them in a file, whether you do batch or not is up to you, I prefer to save the time by doing batch, some others prefer the freshness of daily meals.
@Conformist: You've made assumptions here that for some people, cooking at home is a viable option. I'm not saying your suggestion isn't valid that it is one way of saving money but there could be any number of reasons why this isn't feasible for some whether it be time constraints, lack of kitchen/appliances, work commitments, lack of skill, etc… and like many other things, sometimes it is cost-effective and rational to outsource to someone who specialises in a particular task whether it be cleaning, cooking, etc…
For me personally, I'm cutting down from daily uber eats primarily for health reasons. But I also acknowledge that it'll probably take me double or triple the time to prepare a meal, and I'm somewhat time poor with family/work commitments.
Skimming through the comments, https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/13663075/redir resonated with me. I appreciate not everyone will feel the same way but for me, what limited free time I have, I'd want to prioritise doing certain things over others even if it means I'll save less.
@serpserpserp: You're downvoted but for elaborate meals you don't make often it can often be more expensive to actually make it.
My example is pizza, love making it.
However - If I want to make a home made pizza, by the time i buy all the toppings I want (I'm vegetarian and fresh veg adds up) it's no cheaper than buying a pizza or 2. If I'm cooking for 10 people it's very different. Sure it's nicer than the cheap and dirty pizza you'd get for $15, but it is still more expensive.
But yeah, day to day cook things that aren't overly expensive or batch cook.
You may as well slap the food straight out of the Uber driver and line cook's children's mouths.
That's right, much cheaper than hiring an award-winning chef for example.
I mean, that's a lot of negs. If using Uber Eats isn't hurting OP financially, then let them use it happily.. why not! It for sure doesn't need so many negs. In many situations, convenience of getting food delivered is a preferred choice.
He's or she's likely not counting the money coming out of their account. You're talking 40 to 60 dollars a day assuming no breakfast. That amount of cash hurts anyone.
@Conformist: I'm a single person ordering Uber Eats every day for just over $20, I can't really cook that much cheaper that it's worth the effort. It costs $1 just to buy a tomato or potato at supermarket. BBQ chicken for supermarket may be $12, but $20 delivered fresh on demand and usually better size/quality. If I purchase ingredients at supermarket, is always at least serving for 2, so half ends up in freezer, then often becomes dog food at some point. Plus I just waste too much supermarket food as I just can't plan work or even how hungry I'll be in 3-4 days time. Would be different feeding a family I think, when there's always a meal needs to be prepared.
@tonka: Who said I'm in a family. It's called batch cooking. I cook for less than 5 bucks a meal with proteins. Half of the cuisines can be frozen without much difference in quality after freezing (unless you leave it there frozen for over a month, there are solutions to freezer burn however) and it's going to be healthier than the dog can quality you get from a restaurant. Anything else that can't be frozen requires little to no work, youre paying for every other overhead in your meal so to think you're getting something just as healthy or equal in quality is ridiculous. You're prioritising convenience over cost (20 dollars a meal) and health. Simple as that. 40 dollars a day is then over 14k a year. And that's without breakfast.
And picking the most expensive vegetables and fruits as a example to prove your point is just cherry picking (no pun intended), and also there's plenty of fruit markets that are half the price or even less than woollies. You're doing your grocery shopping wrong. Woollies charges 30 a kilo for ginger, and you can find the same ginger at markets for 10 dollars a kilo. Cheaper than the jarred or dehydrated crap they used at restaurants
Also no one does BBQ chicken at home, that's one of the very few items that make no sense in buying and making yourself at home unless you want to foil wrap it in the oven to avoid the mess.
@Conformist: Sure I respect you wanna cook , Don't really respect people poo pooing on what works for others though. You call me out saying I said you're in a family, which I didn't. But you're making assumptions all over the place about what I eat and others eat and spend. Personally, every time I order delivery I make more money than I spend as I work unlimited paid hours at home. I end up eating more healthy as I get a greater variety of food than I could shop for. I'm certainly not driving the 25 km round trip to go to a fruit market for veges for one person and I freaking hate ginger. What you're doing here is being self-righteous about your own lifestyle and trying to beat me up with it. Perhaps I choose my own high value activities according to my own preference rather than batch cook meals. Tell me how many meals do you batch cook in a week and how long have you been doing it. Every single person I know who has done that, it is as part of an unsustainable diet and ends up a short term fad. And I do doubt your creating a better quality meal for $5 than the $40 restaurant meal you claim to be comparing to. $5 in a supermarket gets you a tin of Tuna, $40 in a restaurant will get me steak and veges delivered or a couple of Japanese or Thai dishes.
@tonka: 8 dollars (home brand) gets you a kilo of canned tuna, that's a lot of tuna. Not sure where you're getting your numbers from. I said fruit market which are everywhere not a farmers market. I don't mind your assumptions, everyone makes them. I've done it for 5 years, not planning to stop. And I'd prefer paying 15 bucks for 300 grams of scotch fillet (or less if you know where to look) than paying 30 to 35 for a restaurant rump steak any day. Not sure, my five dollar meals are a comparison to your 20 dollar meals, normally you're talking a 75% savings. You'd be paying a lot more than 30 to 40 dollars for a scotch fillet at a restaurant. Would be surprised if fine dining appear on uber eats to begin with. But happy to been shown I'm wrong.
It's not really about lifestyle, it's about whats logical. If I criticise the use of pokies, they aren't going to come back tell them its a lifestyle choice and I shouldn't judge. We are talking facts and it's discussion. There's no judgement. Happy for people to mention things I'm doing wrong, I'll either admit to them and say I cant be bothered changing or I'll ask for their advice on how I can improve, and many have done it to me. Taking something like this personally is just silly.
It's simply a waste of cash and toll on health. Unless you are making a hundred an hour there's no way to substitute home made food with restaurant. If you get into batch cooking you'd even have to make more than 100 to justify it dollar wise. If you batch cook you hardly waste any time, you're talking an 60 to 90 Min for four days worth of food. It's harder to do bigger portions unless you have a gas stove. Then you have pressure cookers and other appliances to make a big load of goulashes and stews. There are a few dishes you'd always prefer buying because the time they take to make are ridiculous and unfreezable (I.e. Sushi) or BBQ chicken as you mention as it is a mess to roast. I reserve those meals on the nights you don't want to cook as a leisure item or treat like Friday and Saturday nights.
@Conformist: No I said fruit market. They're not everywhere, for me a 25km round trip. For my oldies, its a 100km round trip. I think you're placing everyone in your own circumstances. Things to take into account. People can have very different Uber Eats menu options depending on where they live. For me I don't have as many 'fast food' options as I'd like, they are mostly quality dine in restaurants that do take out. You can bargain hunt on food delivery services, why I'd rarely pay more than $20-25. I don't eat much so the meal I buy almost always lasts me a couple of days. I can get a family meal from the chicken shop, large chicken and salads around $30 ($20 last week) and I'm fed half the week. I'm not adverse to cooking myself, (it wasn't possible for me last year I was working 3 jobs), but doing so is just a luxury for me at the moment as I have other priorities. And now with inflation the prices at the supermarket make it not much worth it. I could go shop, prep, cook, freeze, clean up, then serve & clean up again. Maybe I'd save $5. Tonight I got a chicken and salad delivered for free, just on various bonus points on a loyalty account. That's me fed 3 days. But the other thing to take into account is we all have strengths and weaknesses. Some people have discipline to do things they don't like some don't. I can't think of food unless I'm hungry, so cooking that big batch meal all at once is just gonna seem ridiculous to me at the time however logical it may be and if I do get half an hour spare well it will cost more to get the lawn mowed, house cleaned etc than get some quick food delivered.
@tonka: Sorry quick add for me it's 35km round trip to the closest fruit market, the old one closed. 5 supermarkets in a 5km radius though.
@tonka: I do question if ubereats even exists where you are if a fruit market is 25km away. Most regional towns I've been to don't even have uber let alone uber eats.
Also if you checked one of my prior comments in another thread I said cooking doesn't make sense if you're working two jobs. And it seems like you're right in that category. The prices that you also mention seem quite odd, you can't get those prices in any of the capital cities in Aus and I've been to them all. I'm jealous.
@Conformist: Far out mate you're calling me a liar over this, that's pretty rude. btw, Round trip does not mean 'distance from' and I live in a capital city. Why the hell would I check your previous comments? And how are you an expert on pricing of a product you've already said you know little about. Maybe if you start listening and stop lecturing you'll learn how to get a better price. What you waste your money on, sport, gaming, make up, streaming subscription, computer stuff, we're all free to spend on what works for us, should be without being shouted down (or called a liar).
@tonka: Being surprised doesn't mean I'm accusing you of being a liar (like I'm surprised I may be wrong? Which is what I was). You're taking offence over stupid online comments. Best we stop discussing and apologise for anything else.
Same, I only use them on rare occasions where I'm too busy to cook
You seem to get more significant discounts/offers when you use it infrequently anyway.
I've decided to stop Uber Eats for good. Unless I'm feeling hungry and lazy.
But then I am hungry and lazy quite often so it's all good.
I found UberEats expensive because if you pick it up yourself, you are likely to save 10-20% off plus the saving of delivery fee.
Areas that I order my food from usually don't have ANY parking space.. it's a big challenge to find a parking anywhere nearby. So while pick up can save me some dollars, it's not as easy as you would imagine. It's not just my area - you can list 10s of such places in Sydney and Melbourne where finding a parking even for 10 mins is a nightmare (thanks to council planning). Hence, using a delivery service tends to be the only viable option, unfortunately. That's also the very reason why a lot of Uber delivery folks use motor bicycle.
All you need is one parking ticket and any savings accumulated throughout the year are gone.
Never used Uber Eats, what's it all about?
The Uber Eats app is like an ordering, payment, and delivery system all in one for any restaurant or food shop that wants to join up. iirc the fees are like 30% plus delivery, but if you're making or buying food at wholesale then it can still barely be worth it. Plus you don't need to pay overheads like a dining room or even be in a nice building in a nice area to serve a lot of customers, it can really suit certain operations selling in volume.
I was pulling your leg (except for the bit about never using it, I haven't).
Hadn't thought about the no need for a shopfront angle, I guess at industrial scale their crazy fees maybe worth it. When I think about this replacing the local Chinese/Thai joints 'Free delivery over $50' or whatever, I don't see who wins except Uber.
@BartholemewH: Another thing to consider is that in the past it was only ever really pizza places and Chinese food that mastered the art of delivering food, with chip shops maybe being okay at having a go at it. But from what I can see the task of hiring and managing drivers was too great for other restaurants and shops. KFC had a go at it years ago in Adelaide but stopped, only starting again with Door Dash doing their deliveries. So Uber Eats and others kinda levels the playing field.
Yes no
our biggest expenses are mortgage, childcare, and rent. why mortgage and rent? because covid and inflation and rba keep on derailing our foreverhome hopes.
so … me spending less on groceries to reduce the joy in life further literally is incomparable to the uncontrollable other big items.
but we try.
for example, ill to-fro woolies/aldi more. ill check Amazon and woolies and aldi as i shop to buy/order from cheapest
ill get car serviced at local guy vs dealer, etc.
Are you a landlord?
yes
as a tenant, our rates went up $100
as a landlord, we put our rates up $30
not quite in the spirit of inflation
Move back into your house.
Then why wouldn't you live in your own house
@deme: we bought it and planned on a renovation/extension before moving in
except that got derailed
in the meantime it got leased out.
in its current form it would be a very tight squeeze to fit us all in.
@deme: we're at the planning stage for the third time now. hopefully third time lucky.
once things are planned and approved then we give the tenant notice to vacate. they're on a periodic lease. ie: no fixed term
Is that "per week"?
@suzley: yes. our LL bumped us ours by 100 - per - week.
I had a look around for similar rentals around our area, or a bit further away - and unfortunately, it seems, indeed, that is the new market rate. sadface.
What?!? How do I get this? Gov pays 50% of our child care and we earn less than $180k as a household.
Lol this is so incorrect it's no funny. They pay up to 90% starting 1 July, but that's only for a combined household income under 80,000.
You can see here, the before and after labor's most recent changes in subsidy by household income but this takes effect 1 July.
https://www.childcaresubsidycalculator.com.au/ALP-Child-Care…
Most child cares are about $120-160 a day. Noting that you pay for days you are enrolled whether the child attends that day or not. I believe you also pay for public holidays which fall on days your child would be in care, but obviously the centre is closed on those days.
Let's say you had a household income of $160k, two people in 80k jobs, or someone in 120k job plus someone part time earning say 40k. And lets assume the child is in care 4 days a week, with 1 day with a part-time parent or relative, at $140 a day. You'd be getting a 55% subsidy and paying just over 13k a year out of pocket. So about $1,100 a month out of pocket for a single kid. Even in the best case scenario (i.e. two equally earning 80k each, rather than one party earning 120k) it's about 11% of your combined after tax pay a month. Assuming 80k salary doesnt include super but you have a hecs debt.
My situation is different than the above, but for us, after our mortgage its our single biggest line item in our budget.
and .. we have twins.
so x 1.7 (because we get 30% off more for the second)
@FoxJump: I was surprised by how big the discount was for 1 July. It'd put about $300 a month back in our pocket. However, we were planning to move to 5 days in care, which would wipe that out.
@FoxJump: I'm in the same boat with two kids in daycare.
And they don't even offer sibling discount in my area. Nor the discount for the kids getting older.
And free public holidays were removed when they got bought out by a bigger daycare operator :(
@jace88: sucks
change childcare then? we changed and our pre ccs went from $170 to $135, and the service improved!
@FoxJump: We didn't realise what was happening until it was too late when a new private operator bought up all the daycares in our suburb and then aligned with their new pricing policy and there was no competition left :( They also closed the centre my daughter was in forcing us to move to one slightly further away too!
ermm should you be having kids if you cant afford them seriously!!???! and then EXPECT OTHERS to have to pay for them if you can!!??!?! what a FKING country we live in, what a bloody people we have here!
And you wonder what's wrong with the west.
Oh wait for all the hate now……. simply for telling the truth…
honey we cant afford to eat… lets have children more kids that will solve the problem… when they get famous and become an AFL or NRL star.
@T1OOO: Yep, subsidies in general are corrupt bullshit and childcare is no exception. I have kids and we're a below-average income family, but since we decided to spend time with our kids and work less, we're paying tax for other wealthier people to get subsidized child care. Taxation is (mostly) theft.
@ssfps: Yup. Same boat. Pisses me off but I try to remember why I do it - our kids benefit big time…you can’t say it doesn’t make a difference to the child’s mental health etc. my kids eat all healthy home cooked foods, 30 mins tv per day max etc etc…
@GourmetFoodie: Absolutely. We decided we wanted to fully parent our kids as much as possible, rather than subcontract out large portions of their care and most of their daily interaction to others in order to focus on career goals. I understand some people need child care for certain reasons, but on the whole the current culture is disappointing IMO.
@ssfps: Yes, meeting childcare workers, knowing the quality etc…crazy how people happy to let them raise their kids!
@T1OOO: Even though I don't get any CCS (even under the new regime), I still appreciate and acknowledge the role of the subsidy in mitigating the disincentive for people to have kids, and the need for population growth in order to fuel the giant pyramid scheme known as life.
@T1OOO: You guys are nuts (T1000, ssfps, GourmetFoodie). No where did anyone say we couldnt afford it, just that it was very expensive.If you are dual income home, you are almost certainly a tax positive for the government even with the subsidies (i.e. its basically a tax refund). I guess its possible some dual low income earners would be paying less tax than their subsidies, but its only a few years in childcare, staying in the workforce keeps workers engaged developing and improving further improving their value and contribution to the economy and tax. These subsides literally make the government money in the long term.
Also you do understand that in developing countries, they literally have more kids for economic reasons, more hands and labour to help out, more people to get jobs and contribute to the family. It's the developed countries with massively declining birthrates as the economic basis for having them is a negative rather than a positive.
Hell yea. Cut down snacks and bs at the grocery store, only get what I need and one treat. I only have one takeaway coffee a week. Eating out or Takeaway once a week too. Cancelled Kayo because stuff paying $30 a month. No longer buying games on the regular as well.
oh yeah we cancelled take away except for toddlers. downgraded Netflix, negotiated cheaper phone plan … and it's all really insignificant unfortunately
Hence why we are here, so we don’t pay retail. Not OzRRP
Yes just spend to save. It's a top strategy.
Trying to reign in the wife's spending so I don't end up in the poor house but that is a pretty normal occurence.
any tips?…..
Does any other person be it male or female have a partner that every time you make a saving / reduce a cost will then just find away to delete it?
Not unless I'm in a relationship with Governer Lowe.
Yeah nah
No