snaps

Maybe if we all posted a simple method of making those dollars go further we can all have an even better time in NZ.

I always find those ghastly rolls of plastic bags a real pain, so if at all possible I resort to using and re-using cereal box content bags. They last for ages and are so much stronger than the rolls. Environmentally better too.

A Rush And A Push

Go to https://www.powerswitch.org.nz/powerswitch to check if you are with the best provider for your electricity. We switched to Powershop after doing this and in the first year paid over $300 less for our electricity, compared to what our old provider would have charged us.

bearskin

A must-do would be to spend your holiday time in NZ. There's a good reason why tourism is big business here - NZ is gorgeous. Borrow a tent and enjoy some of NZ's amazing camping opportunities. Make the most of what's on your doorstep. And, no it doesn't have to be expensive - DoC huts, camping etc... Rather that than spend 1000s on trips overseas.

bourbon-biscuit

Menu plan. Very boring to do but if you shop to a list created from a menu plan you can save hundreds and hundreds annually, as well as eating more healthily and wasting less.

pippalonghorn

You took the words out of my mouth there! great minds think alike

BigStuey

I didn't understand hunting or fishing in the UK, why go to all that effort when you can just go to Sainsburys? Hunting and fishing was just a pastime for the aristocracy and assorted psychopaths for the sole joy of killing....
But here any extra protein that can be hunted, fished or forgaged goes a long way to feeding the family and easing the tight budget. I was talking to my mum (in the UK) on the phone about possibly going on a hunting trip and she said...are things that bad can't you afford meat?

Bo-Jangles

Indeed Big Stuey, it took me a while to get to grips with the stampede that ensues whenever there's mention of a 'free feed'.

My tip, don't pay 10cents for each bag in Pak N Save - do it the Kiwi way and pack your groceries in the council rubbish bags you just bought.

bourbon-biscuit

Ugh, I have never seen that! Just use cloth bags, innit.

bourbon-biscuit

I thought of another one - give up cheese. It's all shite here anyway but expensive shite.

Pom_Chch

Plant your own herbs in small pots instead of buying them in the supermarkets. You don't need heaps of space, just a few pots on the window ledge will do

Bo-Jangles

Cloth bags costs money, innit. I was reminded by some blokes I saw doing shopping yesterday, one of them ripped into the roll of black bags to pack the food into. I have seen others doing the same but maybe they is copying innit, a bit like balancing the yoghurts on the side of the trolley thing and ripping the husks off of corns on the cobs in the shop, innit. What's that all about? It's not like they are sold by weight or nuffink.

bourbon-biscuit

Ha, I have long marveled at the bit of ingenuity that is hanging the yogs* over the side of the trolley - I looked most carefully when back in Blighty but it seems this practice has not yet made an appearance over there.

*technically dairy based desert thickened with gelatine.

I live in Cambridge - there's no way I could start packing my shopping in refuse sacks There's something depressing about the thought of that.

bourbon-biscuit

Get AA card for fuel savings or make use of supermarket ones.
Use a veg shop if you have a decent one nearby and check out your local Asian store.

BEVS

Buy your cereal in bulk from Bin Inn .

BigStuey

Nobodies mentioned the obvious one...veggie and potato patch in the garden.