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?
Nope. Still spend the same, still save the same, still eat the same.
Turns out I'm sick of saving so I'm going on a massive spending spree this year.
Australia is not the lucky country to live in anymore sadly 😢
That book that phrase originates from wasn't saying it earnestly at the time either
Why do you say that? Seriously.
Open your eyes and take a look at the opportunities out there. Theres heaps of work. Unemployment has been at record lows and job vacancies at record highs. The government is paying for people to upskill for free. Cost of living is going up, sure. But theres opportunities to increase your income so you dont have to be a slave to it.
Compared to a lot of other countries, we are still lucky.
Not necessarily. It seems we're lucky but that's because we are more indebted than most countries at a household level and also a government level. Once we don't have that luxury we go backwards compared to most other countries.
Also our most essential items have gone up in price more than any other country (I.e. Rent). Employment numbers don't mean much if wages are decreasing every year relative to inflation.
As a millennial I can see both sides to this. It's true that when compared to a lot of other third world countries we are very fortunate and I myself get annoyed when people excessively complain about being poor when they have no idea what it's like to be actual poor in a third world country with no safety net and when most of it is due to their poor spending habits. However Australia and the western society as a whole seems to be on a never-ending gradual decline in regards to the economy. Just look at the decline in bargains on this site compared to 10 years ago. Young people are finding it more difficult than ever to be hopeful about anything in the future
Sure go and live in North Korea or South Africa for a year and then come back here and tell us all what it’s like .
Don't complain about being waterboarded, some people are having toes cut off.
Yeah, sure.
Those aren't the only two countries in the world believe it or not.
My income has gone down in the last year so I'm saving less and spending around the same :-(
I've cancelled Britbox as I wasn't watching much on it. Still have Acorn TV and Netflix so I can play Knittens. But I've seen 2 good movies on Netflix recently. Emily the Criminal and Mr Malcolm's List. And Indian Matchmaking s3 is starting tomorrow night.
I've swapped salmon fillets at $29kg for salmon fins at $15kg at Coles.
I've swapped my coffee beans from OzB specials to $18-20 half price 1kg bags at Woolies and now the $9 250g bag from Tas Roasters because I didn't want to be stuck with 1 kg for 2 coffees per day but now have gone down to Coles $12 1kg bag which has a money back guarantee.
I am very very fortunate and privilege that I own my own home.
However rising cost of living ( Energy (Gas and electricity) , insurance, rates etc etc ) and pay rises well below inflation means that even fortunate people like me have to cut back. Also my partner is to lazy to get a job so that does not help with the finances
And of course the price of many luxuries like eating out and take-a-ways is going up faster than my income.
So cutting back on take-a-ways and eating out
Eating less beef and more cheaper meats
Less holiday road trips away in my vehicle.
I have never been able to afford an overseas holiday anyway, but at lease I managed to pay off a mortgage
I drive an older car and any plans to buy new one have gone.
I was hoping to buy a new caravan but the prices of new caravans have gone up well above inflation so are not longer affordable
I rotate through streaming services so only subscribed to one or 2 at a time.
Buying a new gravel bike I have been lusting over ..
Upgrading tablet and phone.. both are near end of software support life
Really anything more than a few hundred $$ that is optional
Cheaper cask wine :)
Things I will not cut back on. Quality insurance. Health Insurance, fast NBN as I need that for work
Upgrading tablet and phone.. both are near end of software support life
Not saying this is silly, but it's not something that many people actually need. Most people could be using 5 year old androids with a replaced battery.
Ditched Ing for Rabo,
Opened a Prison Saver at the big one,
Took ALL the NAB cash they threw at us
Even Mystate rewarded good clients.
Life is good!
Never been ones to eat out a lot or get a lot of takeaway, so haven't changed that much.
Have cut back on snacks and unnecessary stuff that they've jacked the prices on (and try to shift spend from Woolies to Spudshed etc where we can)
Still buying too much stuff I dont need thanks to this site I'd say :)
The real pain will come next year though when loans come off fixed rate. At the moment haven't been directly affected too much by the interest rates as far as home loans go.
Same here with fixed rate coming off next year. Currently locked at 2.19%.
In terms of cutting back, stopped buying as much games and making progress through my backlog. Stopped going for once a week coffee and just moved on my own Aeropress coffee which I much prefer as well as cutting down on junk food.
I don't think there is anything else to cut back on but better to start saving now than next year when the interest rates hit hard
I now empty the ashtray in the rolls royce rather than just buying a new one.
go back to whirpool :)
They sell the ashtrays separately. You don't need to use a used ashtray like some peasant.
You should consider a gofundme, would be a far more worthy cause than most of what goes up their.
We have always been thrifty cant cut anymore. But saving less.
Ozbargain's bogan name, Thifty cant!
No, i havent been cutting down, but i’ve been saving less. Pre rate rise, i was putting x3 min repayments into home loan. Now im putting x2 - 2.5 repayments instead. Hasn’t changed my lifestyle, just slowed down savings rate and delayed me from getting another home.
delayed me from getting another home
Why? Is there something wrong with your current home?
Nah, was hoping to get an investment home. These rate rises have pushed back my goal by another 1-2 years.
Where's the guy that posted they just go to park to cook all their meals on the public BBQ and does number 2s in shopping centres only and haven't managed to use a full roll of TP in a year
least frugal ozbargainer
next level stuff
That BBQ was legendary.
Too crazy to be a troll post as many would believe.
I've always wondered how the meeting between the OP and landlord went down.. haha
hahaha nah this one is better the bloke wanted to do a meet up
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/495934
If was in Adelaide I would so be there to meet the guy
As would I!
Wouldn't bring my own risotto to cook.
I'm thinking 12 hour beef brisket in a dutch oven on the BBQ. Just gotta set my alarm to press the BBQ button every 15 minutes. Hopefully no one else wants to use the BBQ to cook sausages or risotto.
They weren’t joking when they said higher house price do nothing good for the economy since it sucks in disposable income. Evidence by thread like this appearing everywhere online.
I thought the rate rises were meant to curb spending to try and reduce inflation. Aren't they having the desired effect in that case? People spending less in many instances to be able to afford their home/rent payments?
that is exactly what they were hoping for and it is good for the economy. spending when inflation is high fuels it like a bushfire, people lament the extra costs now but it would be far worse if they let inflation continue to rise unchecked.
They weren’t joking when they said higher house price do nothing good for the economy since it sucks in disposable income.
I've said this multiple times and people just call me a commie and that I expect free housing.
People don't realise the damage high house prices are doing to the economy now and into the future. The people who don't care the most are the ones who want to get rich quick by owning property, thinking they're some sort of genius entrepreneur when it's all because the world has got addicted to easy money the past decade.
Yes. Cut back in thoughtless spend. Takeaway coffees, lunches/snacks just because too tired to eat what’s at home.
Everyplate for dinners. Not the best quality but cheaper and feeds 4 of us (2a 2c) on the 2 person box. Saves the mental thought of meal planning and either one of us can cook.
Partner saw the light and cancelled some excess sub services I.e eBay plus and nfl game pass.
We just are thinking twice about spends now.
Spending more.
We've been in our (new) house for about 2 years now, and still living with 'standard' finishes, and pallet furniture; which frustrates my wife to no end. We really need storage, but prices to do fit-outs like kitchen/laundry cupboards, walk-in-robe, extra storage, landscaping, etc. just goes up exponentially. I've noticed people now who quoted a year ago, are coming back and asking if we still need work completed; if they could do a better price; so things must be slowing down. I've managed to DIY a lot, but a lot will have to wait for a recession when demand / prices of labour and material drop.
Best quote I've had is $40k for a SINGLE walk-in-robe fit out (we need 3); from what I gather it was nothing more than a few shelves, drawers, and racks. Did it via IKEA which cost more than it would have done pre-COVID, but got away with it for much less than having a trade.
We need a pool shade cover ($25k), and some external blinds for the alfresco (4 sides - $22k), but they're just way too dear right now - I'd only be willing to pay 1/2 that amount for what it really is.
My DIY has improved a lot lately! It's just an unfortunate time in our lives that we're spending a lot for our forever home, and prices are incredibly high. Allergy Baby Formula has gone from $30 to $50 in the space of a few weeks; a midwife joked that at the cost of increased groceries etc. we'll all be back to BF'ing in the near future.
Our spending has increased; and what we get out of it, has decreased. Bank balance (offset) is slowly rolling backwards each month.
A pool shade cover cost $25k??? Surely its cheaper to top up the evaporated water or just drain it until next summer and just go to local pools?
SOOOO many things to cut down spending.
Now when Im too busy and lazy to cook rather than eat uber eats I cook 2 packets of mi-goreng with 2 packets of Tuna, some cut up tomato and Spicy mayonaise.
When I date I go for dog walks.
When I go out for drinks with friends I pre-drink at home and take a hip flask
Second Job
Have not bought a full priced game in over a year.
Me and my mate signed onto eachothers playstation so we have access to each others online game library.
No longer bulking for Gym, cut down calories for about a year.
Only drink instant coffee at work.
your lazy meal is what i do when I'm feeling the motivation to cook up a nice meal :P
I have been doing dating wrong dog walk is an excellent idea 💡
Helps if you have a dog haha but generally women love it.
I have been going to auctions in Hills Area in NSW last few weeks. Still selling for 3-400K more than what the ANZ report says. No idea where the money is coming from. Ordinary people pushing their kids in Kmart Strollers bidding in the 1.5-2 mil range is very confusing.
Those r desperate renters turning to buyers
yes, I have a house build in the planning, financially fine but playing it safe and cutting back. Wife added a couple of weeks between hairdresser appointments, cutting back on some of the luxury food items like caviar, premium cuts of steak and sticking mostly with the clean skin wines for home consumption, also being more cautious when we run the washing machine and drier and have knocked 1 degree off room temp for this winter.
We've always been pretty thrifty on groceries so not much to cut. Lucky our landlord isn't hurting for money and only put the rent up $30/wk in line with market. We'll cut back on vacations this year though as mortgage costs on whats now an investment property will go up soon - we moved for work and pay less rent than we charge.
Cutting back on 'niceties' spend but its costing the same or more now.
Refusing to spend $6+ on Kettle chips. This has been replaced by the occasional $2.99 Aldi Blackstone chips. same with other things that one might occasionally buy. And no more buying anything just because it's on special.
All food ordering off apps has ceased - No uber eats, menulog. Have cut out just about all fast food consumption entirely too.
These cuts have basically offset the increase in cost of groceries, so financially i'm spending about the same, with a net loss to overall enjoyment.
Debating whether or not driving to work for the mandated 2 in-office days will be the next thing to go: 1hr round trip commute by car, roughly $5 fuel, $17/day parking vs 2hr round trip by PT, $13/day. If anything i'll go back to cycling into the office for $0, but no guarantees as the weather gets colder and rain becomes more frequent.
One thing i refuse to cut back on is car maintenance: just spent $3k on shocks, F/R brake pads and lower control arm bushings, all done with genuine Honda parts. To my knowledge none of these items have been done in 12 years/175k kms, so at least with the genuine parts I shouldn't have to do them again for the remainder of the life of the car.
Haven’t needed to cut spending and still saving the same. Increased rent on my investment properties (proportional to rate increases) and got a sizeable rate increase in my day job.
I'm retired with more than enough so am learning to spend More
(P.S. I was very frugal during my paid-work life which got me where I am today
- work colleagues who scoffed at my frugality - strangely all seem to still need to work …)
work colleagues still working mine job 20 plus broke and still in debt well i am live the dream
I'm doing everything in my power to crash Australia's economy.
If that's what they want I'm happy to oblige.
Basically just means I get everything possible from overseas.
Capitalism!
lmao
Don't worry about it, more than half the aus population have immigrated from overseas too.
Cancelled:
Coursera $51.5 per month
Disney+ $14
Moving:
Turkey Netflix from this month ~8 savings per month
Different insurance provider ~50 savings per month
Less eating out and more conscious around spending.
Hold off on buying new games and wait for them to come out on PS Plus Extra.
I'm cutting back a little, mainly eating out less
Would dine out maybe 3-4 times a week (lunch and dinner). Last year would be 7-8 times.
Don't worry my wife is keeping people employed and spending like we have a bottomless pit of money.
My car reversing camera is loose.
a) I could .. pay the mechanic to fix it.
b) Or I can try fix it myself - and potentially break it more.
I pick B this time.
we exchange money for time.
if you want to save time, you can pay a professional to fix in in 10 minutes - that'll be $200
if you want to save money, you can spend time (6 months?) learning how to fix it - for $0-200
I could be a millionaire and I still wouldn’t pay a mechanic to tighten a bolt/screw on a reverse cam. This is basic maintenance.
Started home brewing/distilling, although it will take ~6 months to make the upfront investment back.
Cycling to work a bit more.
Cutting back on sports.
Renewed my VPN connection & got rid of streaming apps.
Cooking at home a lot more.
I got a home brew beer kit from a garage sale for about $10
then brewed about 130 batches over about 25 years
I forget - maybe like 15 litres like 45 stubbies costing about 25c each
but finally decided the hormone disruption of ethanol in 2 low alcohol beers a day was undesirable
and gave the kit away on freecycle
I now buy beer at like $20 for 6 stubbies, about once a month
we have more space in the laundry which used to be stacked with 3 boxes of stubbies.
meh - mostly sleep better methinks
Lol. No one's doing shit.
Some people might be cheaper versions of particular brands of things or complaining about the cost of things. But then the same people are still over borrowing for $1.5M houses, buying designer clothes, unecessary electronics, or going out on the weekends or overseas holidays and enjoying themselves
If people were actually doing anything different, inflation wouldn't be continuing to go up.
If people were actually doing anything different, inflation wouldn't be continuing to go up.
Is this why monthly CPI has been falling since Dec-22 and is back to mid-22 levels?
The percentages imply that CPI is still growing, just at a lower pace. Still quite high at 6.8%.
It would be correct to say CPI GROWTH RATE is falling, but CPI itself is growing.
Don't let the truth get in the way of the sky falling.
@serpserpserp: nearly got hit by a speeding CPI the other day - luckily I stepped out of the way just in time - that was a close shave ;-)
Honestly if this month's inflation figures don't come in hot I'll be so disappointed. A lower figure does not reflect at all what I'm seeing when I'm out-and-about.
Yes.
so the poll is 200 with a yes vs 100 with a no - i guess that means the RBA's interest rate hike is yet to do its work - because the intention of interest rate hike is to dampen spending which then reduce inflation pressures.
Another side of the story, approx 2.9 million people own their home and don't have any mortgage, they will not be significantly affected by the RBAs rate rise.
Another side of the story, approx 2.9 million people own their home
Also there are homeless savers too.
Yeahnah
I'm cutting back. Mainly because I've run out of things to buy.
No, I matched bet :) Screw the RBA and their hikes.
Cutting back but more because I'm cutting back on subscribing to rampant profiteering in general.
Yes, but I have always been a massive tightass. I am currently living like I did as a below poverty line university student & dumping almost 100% of my income into my mortgage.
I am on track to pay off my townhouse within 2.5 years of buying it.
The banks dont deserve my interest.
I too was mocked for being a frugalista during my paid-work life - now retired with more than enough while those who mocked me still need to work
glad you've made a focused effort to pay off your presumptive home
dunno nowadays with falling real estate values, but I benefited from a nudge to investment property over 40 years ago, where my rental income was balanced by tax-deductible expenses and mortgage loan interest.
and leveraged growth - where e.g. gearing with 80% loans might multiply your net capital growth 5 times so at times I saw nearly 90%pa returns on my cash investment
but yeah gearing can also multiply losses in downturns - I remember my parents lived through the 1930s Depression when bank loans were seen as a risk of losing your home to foreclosure.
same here got job but it job i like own a house and few rental and big in stock market landlord to me feel not good every think pay for cash in the bank time to enjoy life in middle 40s now
Not really. I have always been a tight-arse. I only buy what I need.
Not really although feels like coles and woolworths are blatantly profiteering so have been favouring the local veg shop
Spend more but also save more.
Continuing Colesworth 20-25% points offers - I calculate to meet the minimum spend without any extra.
Continuing Friday/Saturday/Sunday outings: but with lower costs:
- taking the bus into the city instead of driving+SecurePark.
- fewer $10 craft beers at bars, more predrinks.
- live heavy music shows have generally gone up from $15 to $20 but still cheap. Going to more free shows.
Cut out solo eating out - cook during WFH is cheap & healthy.
Buying the same so spending more.
Less money put in Super.
Public BBQ risotto is the solution!
No but slowly heading to yes.
Second guessing spending now and looking for cheaper options.
Trying to reduce energy usage, moved from a honking big Xeon 12c24t 128GB server to a NUC for services and NAS for file storage.
Looking at the poll results, i say good! Its what the RBA wants to happen to reign in inflation.
We are working harder and cutting down a little bit but end up the same same.
I’ve cut back on coffees… mainly because a medium coffee has gone up to $5 and the quality/taste at the cafes near my work can be variable. If they were consistently nice, I’d probably still go there more often than not… but as it stands, I’m probably going about 20% of the time and it’s more about having a quick catch up with someone than the coffee.
I’ve been using those coffee bags as a substitute.
when I make my own pour-over drip filter coffee for like 40c as I did at work for decades (my boss used to wander by when it was brewing and say 'ah – that smells like good coffee !' - he liked the smell)
I'm always bemused by seeing people standing in line waiting to buy coffee for $5 - ah, luxury !
that category of people that feel rich when they spend money ?
Look - my shiny new Mercedes - means I'm rich, right ?
uh - no - it means you DON'T have that $1-200K you just spent.
I once read that most real estate salesmen in shiny suits driving shiny new cars didn't own them as they were leased, and in fact had a net worth of like MINUS $5K
but then read psychology research that found that people feel more warmly towards others if they are holding a warm cup in their hand - so when I see people proudly parading with their warm takeaway cup (after queueing) I think OK if that's what you need to feel better about another day at the office, then all good
and if you catch up for a chat - all good social networking (claim it on tax)
and if you're a paid employee goofing off on work time like cigarette breaks used to be (don't know where they hide these days), then sticking it to the man, alright !
My income has decreased and expenses increased so I have been cutting back.
Sold my 2nd daily beater car
No more Ubereats
Takeaway vastly reduced to almost eliminated
No more alcohol
Not buying much junk food from supermarket anymore
Not buying lunch as much.
Not buying video games ( I want dead Island 2 but resisting the urge)
No change in our spendings. I hope wife would buy less stuff
If not, are you just saving less each month or are you now tipping into savings?
Is it tipping into savings or dipping into savings?
That’s the real question OP needs answered.
Never spent too much in first place. Instead of giving my dog nice shower through a groomer I try and give nice shower at servo myself. Than try clean our place ourself as much possible instead of giving money to someone else. Than when doing shopping try go for things on special. These days grocery with 20% special are so expensive it seems. Like a pack of cereal even on special costs you $6 or $7 easily these days. So can't really spend any less than this. We still try enjoy eating outside every few weeks as that's the only luxury for us at the moment
TBH i think the RBA rate rise is underdone, we need at least another 1-1.5% to control spending. The media shouting at Lowe to raise it and now blaming them on an impending recession is really hampering their efforts.
House prices are still too high relative to how healthy the economy is.
Agreed but not that much maybe by 0.5 - 1.0% should be enough.
Definitely cutting back on eating out.