I have a few people to buy for this year and once again thinking how to do this frugally and sustainability (I get a bit sick when I see mountains of plastic crap in the shops). Any ideas?

Some things I have done in the past:

• Little plant cuttings in jars (got some on the go again this year)
• Op shops and second hand gifts - look for unusual things from the op shop. This works well for some but not unless they are a bit quirky themselves
• Buying a bunch of treats/snacks and doing my own hampers up.
• Baked goods - I always make a big batch of spice cookies and a couple of slices. I am crappy at packing them nicely tho, but I can cook.

I am not great at crafts but I will try anything!

Posting this a day early while I remember.

Have you found a good bargain lately, made a repair, or figured out something that works for you?

This is also for any topic requests, suggestions, or tips that might not require their own thread.

Another reminder for end of month

If you have a kid/grandkid who loves footy, this is the time of year to take them. A single adult can take three kids to a game for the price of one ticket.

For me today, the adult ticket was $58. With two kids, that worked out at less than $20 a ticket.

Take your own snacks. Prices at the footy are actually offensive.

If like me you've always wanted in on the cheap coffee ($2 for a regular, $3 for a large and a 50c discount for bringing your own cup OR app scan) but couldn't because of the milk good news! 7/11 now have oat and soy options. Their website even provides locations. $1.50 for a half decent regular oat flat white is a heck of a deal!

If your a little hesitant abut the quality of the coffee I have to say it wasnt bad! is it Barista level? Course not, but its better than passable-but-bland effort maccas baristas manage.

You may have noticed most, if not all, basic monthly prepaid SIM plans have had a price hike within the last year. For example, mine went from $10 a month to $15 a month. I've been shopping around for an alternative and, with the EOFY sales on currently, the annual prepaid plans are a significantly cheaper alternative than the monthly plans (often with more data too).

The cheapest I have found so far is Catch Connect's 60 GB plan which is currently discounted to $89. That works out to ~$7.42 per month, with 5 GB of data per month on the Optus 4G network. If that's not enough data, their two higher tier plans work out to ~$9.08 and $12.50 per month over a full year with way more data.

Other options you may want to look at are Kogan (Optus 4G network) and Lebara (Vodafone 4G network), though neither have an option as cheap as Catch Connect. There may be differences in how your data allowance is provided (up-front or monthly) and whether rollover is included so check that out as well.

There are also free community meals. Please double check that the info in the links is still valid though as this seems to be from pre-pandemic. The Local Food Connect site seems to focus mainly on the North East suburbs Melbourne.

For other suburbs and states you may have better luck with sites like Foodbank.

If you're food insecure don't be ashamed to seek help and take what you need. The system has let us down.

Edit: Added community meals link

I think I missed the boat on the 30 dollar sneakers, but work setting up a ozbargain account and registering for alerts for the adidas store.

I've got a couple of pairs of sneakers I got for like 30-40 bucks for about 12 months now and they're still going strong! Seems to be really good quality, doesnt look terrible either and if you can get it for under 50 bucks (which they seem to do every few months) its a frigging steal! Theyre socks are pretty great too!

Have you found a good bargain lately, made a repair, or figured out something that works for you?

This is also for any topic requests, suggestions, or tips that might not require their own thread.

Maybe you just moved out of home or don't have a lot of space, maybe your jaffle iron or sandwich press broke, or your ex took it. You can still have a cheap easy hot meal with minimal washing up.

Some fillings like baked bean or spaghetti jaffles do need a special jaffle iron to seal the crusts and keep it inside but plenty can be done in just a frying pan + a multipurpose lid or even a plate to cover.

1. Butter an even number of bread slices on one side.

2. Place as many slices as will fit in the pan, butter side down, and put the filling on. Keep it a little more to the middle.

Options include plain cheese or any variations like ham/cheese/tomato, Hawaiian etc. Shredded leftover chicken with cheese or BBQ sauce. Leftover/tinned meat sauce or stew as long as it's thick enough to quickly flip without spilling out. Leftover pasta bake or scrambled eggs. Anything you have leftover.

Or you can do a sweet version like Nutella or the Elvis (banana/honey/peanut butter).

3. Put more slices of bread on top butter side up, and cover with a lid or a plate to cook it on low for a while. (5 minutes? Ten? I never actually timed it.) The combo of low heat and a lid will allow the sanga to steam a little, get heated through and let any cheese melt without quickly burning the outside.

4. Check it after a while by removing the plate/lid and lifting a corner of a sandwich with a utensil. Be extra careful not to burn your fingers if using a plate, it's not ideal for the purpose. If the sanga looks hot and melting and the bottom of the bread is golden brown then carefully flip it, replace the lid and cook the other side to the same done-ness.

Put them on a plate then let them cool a bit before you cut them in half and bite in. Cook more if your pan was small.

A 6 pack of Nexgard Spectra for large cats is $84.99 there while the same at Petcircle is $102.99. (Both without autodelivery.) There also seem to be discount codes on dry food with a discount up to $20.

Definitely shop around as I've seen products vary wildly in price between sites.

This is probably common knowlege but try Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive for free e-books and music. There's the option to view in browser for no downloads.

The art books are limited and be mindful that there might be copyright issues with the Internet Archive. But there may be some good finds.

Edit: I think there might also be audiobooks available

I don't have a recommended recipe (I'm not big on smoothies and haven't tested this out) but there are heaps of recipes out there depending on what you have.

Apparently using full fat coconut milk or Greek yogurt helps the icypoles stay a bit softer, as will adding cornstarch, and blending in pre frozen fruit.

You could even chuck some protein powder in and have a frozen smoothie on a stick for dinner when it's too hot to cook.

The freezing container is a bit awkward without dedicated equipment but depending on freezer space you could freeze it onto teaspoons in small cups or muffin tins.

Or freeze it as small icecubes and blend it again into something thick and semi-frozen like soft serve or a thickshake. Make sure your blender is up to handling ice though. I'm not liable for puffs of smoke.

Ps. Yogurt by itself is also ok to freeze this way. Warning: It's kind of hard so you might have to chip at it slowly, and the texture will change into something gross on defrosting though. At least Greek yogurt did when I ate it. It doesn't freeze smooth and soft like froyo from the shop.

This is probably something you already know but a reminder doesn't hurt on such a hot day.

You don't need syrup or real coffee to make an iced coffee or Big M style drink.

Stirring instant coffee and sugar into a very little hot water first dissolves the crystals, avoiding the grittiness and unsweetened taste of throwing them straight into cold milk. Ice cubes or icecream optional.

If you have any icecream toppings or another kind of syrup those can also be a milk flavouring.

I have no idea if anyone here would be interested, and it's only a few dollars off.

But if your kid wanted some beginner paints what you get for this set isn't too bad.

Stumbled across https://www.bulkbuys.com.au/ earlier today, has some good stuff if anyone's interested.

Not all of them are half price. The Wonka Chocolate and Cotton Candy are not, at $15. The Chocolate is also milder but not free of mint.

I haven't personally tried them (I wanted the chocolate but was too tight fisted) so can't say how true to life the flavours are or how it feels. But for $6.50 there are options like vanilla, red velvet, mango sorbet, peach ice tea, banana, strawberry, coconut whip, watermelon, grape bubblegum etc.

If there's someone in your life who can't stand the burn of mint or needs extra motivation to brush perhaps one of the half price flavours might be a good gift.

One caveat though: The amount of fluoride in it seems comparable to children's toothpastes so may be intended for kids and not be enough to protect adult teeth quite as well.

Edit: Sorry the brand is Hi Smile

Edit 2: Correction. From a really quick Google - the amount of fluoride in these is equivalent to 1100 ppm fluoride when the standard adult toothpaste is 1000 ppm fluoride, so it's actually fine. In that case maybe don't use it on kids under 6 due to risk of swallowing

The 'advanced care' roll ons are currently $2.75, and some of the aerosol cans are down to $4.

I haven't tried these particular ones (and Coles are still a price gouging duopoly). But if you're game or like them and want to stock up now's the time.

Normally loath to suggest these sorts of thing, but recently discovered maccas has the best coffee in my suburb (C'mon melbourne get your shit together!) so every other day I'm grabbing a coffee. A mate recommended the app. I wouldnt suggest going there to get a deal, but IF your already buying stuff from maccas doing it through the app gets you points you can trade in, jut scored a free medium coffee with a non standard milk! It takes a few purchases to build up the required points, so again not a deal. But if you're doing it anyway may as well get the free stuff from it.

Everyone has an opinion on Costco but I'm curious how this community feels about it, considering we are probably more budget and value conscious than most.

Annoyingly I was quite late to seeing that the Meals For Meows cat food range was affected as well as the Meals For Mutts. (It's expensive but my cat needs very specific food.)

And the article announcing it repasted the expired dates of affected batches for the dog food instead of providing the appropriate info for the cat food. All other sources were the same inaccurate info.

However. If you bought Meals For Meows dry cat food after June 6, 2023, check your email for an email from Petcircle announcing the recall and giving you a discount code for $50 that can only be redeemed on food.

I initially missed seeing it because it was buried in amongst all their marketing spam.

You may also be eligible for a refund on the food in addition to that. I don't know, haven't heard back yet.

I couldn't find the affected expiry dates online (due to inaccurate reporting), don't have an account and for some reason Petcircle did not give me an order number on my confirmation email?? But due to the time of purchase and my cat refusing to touch it have asked for one anyway. I provided them with the batch number, the expiry date on the bag and the barcode number instead. I'll forward the confirmation email to them if I have to.

So. If you bought MFM in or after June check your email and get your $50 voucher to help you buy something else!

Unfortunately there is no 'reverse vending machine' near me but here are the locations with an interactive map to check if you have a local. You can apparently get refunds through different methods including Paypal or cash vouchers

Hey all, been looking at YouTube slow cooker recipies on YouTube and I know meat over here is super expensive, but does anyone know if some of these cheaper cuts exist? Colesworth never seem to have any these days, and I think I’ve only seen gravy beef once at Aldi which I’m guessing is the best thing. Any idea where I’d get something that’s happy to site in the slow cooker for 8 hours that won’t cost me a kidney?

Rent 4 Keeps is being sued by ASIC over avoiding protections for the vulnerable. But beware of rent to buy in general.

Also watch out for OpenPay, I almost signed up to cover my cat's vet bills but was thankfully able to manage.

I haven't personally used No Interest Loans from Good Shepherd so I can't speak to how safe and legit they are, but if you're in some unavoidable difficulty they don't charge interest and on the face of it do seem a bit less predatory.

https://news.nab.com.au/news/nab-and-good-shepherd-20-years/

I saw a news article going around recommending that people grow their own vegetables to stretch their food budget and thought people might also consider foraging, which is why I’ve been posting resources for how to do those things with lower risk.

(I’m not fully confident in plant identification, in fact I’m a bit shit at it, it’s just a casual interest. So I don’t give advice or actually forage. I have just been linking known public fruit tree maps where you won’t gather something inedible or get in trouble, and resources for soil safety testing.)

However - while I think I did mention this before it’s probably important enough to get its own post.

Don’t trust every foraging guide off Amazon.

That recent Melbourne mushroom poisoning case was charged as murder but it’s a reminder of how risky inexperienced foraging can be, and the fake ai guides recommendations of tasting mushrooms to identify them could be deadly.

Please please, if you find yourself in food insecurity and want or need to turn to foraging because the food bank can’t help then please buy reputable guides with known authors, stick to well known plants only or link in with experienced local foraging groups. Preferably all of the above.

Some of them charge like a wounded bull for ‘tours’ but as community gardens and seed libraries exist I’m sure there are groups that would help you for free.

Also try to get onto organisations like FareShare or Food Not Bombs if possible.

Edit: Mushrooms are fantastic nutrition though if you can’t afford to buy much meat anymore. Protein, chewiness, umami, B12. If you don’t have any issues with FOD MAPS they can help keep you well fed.

I can’t guarantee that homegrown would be cheaper than buying them (kits can get a convenience markup) but if you have your heart set on picking mushrooms and don’t have an expert to show you the ropes, consider buying a kit.

This will come with known safe varieties of mycelium and as they come in a flat compact growing box and prefer low/indirect light they can potentially be grown in a small spot inside.