Whangarei - cost of living
#16
If u see Sid, tell 'im...
Joined: Apr 2007
Location: Ex of Hucknall and Mansfield, Notts and now in Manly, Whangaparaoa, just North of Auckland!
Posts: 973
Re: Whangarei - cost of living
Soulflour, thankyou. I feel I've just been given a lesson in life!
#18
Re: Whangarei - cost of living
Ths is a brilliatnt thread! I absolutely agree about the need to use less of things, too. You've given us some wonderful new ideas, thank you. so I'm offering my own 'bargain recipe'. Add here: any specialist clothing - eg ski kit - can be bought in (UK) charity shops immediately after the season ends - great for next year [I wish!]
Ultimate saver (used by really hard-up single Mum to feed 4 hungry children, 2 boys now over 6 ft tall and parents themselves, 2 girls, one mother of 4] - gently fry 4+ chopped onions, add 1lb lentils, chopped carrots, celery and leeks etc [and other vegs except potatoes or root vegs which go bad very quickly] top up with enough chicken-stock-cube liquid to cover [about 2 pints] and a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes, and simmer for as long as it takes to cook vegs. this is the base for up to a week's meals - on different evenings, add sliced smoked sausage, or other cheap meats. It is very nourishing, filling and tasty - if you add curry spices, etc it also rings the changes.
That sounds SO boring, but it is actually very tasty: and all children loved it - not being polite!!
Ultimate saver (used by really hard-up single Mum to feed 4 hungry children, 2 boys now over 6 ft tall and parents themselves, 2 girls, one mother of 4] - gently fry 4+ chopped onions, add 1lb lentils, chopped carrots, celery and leeks etc [and other vegs except potatoes or root vegs which go bad very quickly] top up with enough chicken-stock-cube liquid to cover [about 2 pints] and a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes, and simmer for as long as it takes to cook vegs. this is the base for up to a week's meals - on different evenings, add sliced smoked sausage, or other cheap meats. It is very nourishing, filling and tasty - if you add curry spices, etc it also rings the changes.
That sounds SO boring, but it is actually very tasty: and all children loved it - not being polite!!
#19
Forum Regular
Joined: Oct 2006
Location: Northland
Posts: 194
Re: Whangarei - cost of living
thanks guys but really, it's taken me all these years (34 of them) to understand that by saving in these ways you get to save money for GOOD stuff, like days out with the kids, or new septic tanks
We can all hang out with our homemade picnic & wine
currytiffin - that's exactly the sort of thing I do - sort of roll one day's dinner into the next... ad infinitum it's a bit like soda bread I suppose, always keeping a little bit back to start the next lot off..
I also think it's really important to let others know that you CAN live in NZ and have a fab life on not huge salaries... if we'd listened to some people on some forums we'd never have come here to live on a teacher's salary!! and that would have been so silly!
It's a bit like a bug though, even if we won the lottery tomorrow (unlikely since we don't play it!) i still don't see why we'd suddenly start splashing out loads of cash on food when we don't need to - based on this ideology it'd be better to feed some more hungry people *disappears in a cloud of thought*
xx
We can all hang out with our homemade picnic & wine
currytiffin - that's exactly the sort of thing I do - sort of roll one day's dinner into the next... ad infinitum it's a bit like soda bread I suppose, always keeping a little bit back to start the next lot off..
I also think it's really important to let others know that you CAN live in NZ and have a fab life on not huge salaries... if we'd listened to some people on some forums we'd never have come here to live on a teacher's salary!! and that would have been so silly!
It's a bit like a bug though, even if we won the lottery tomorrow (unlikely since we don't play it!) i still don't see why we'd suddenly start splashing out loads of cash on food when we don't need to - based on this ideology it'd be better to feed some more hungry people *disappears in a cloud of thought*
xx
#20
If u see Sid, tell 'im...
Joined: Apr 2007
Location: Ex of Hucknall and Mansfield, Notts and now in Manly, Whangaparaoa, just North of Auckland!
Posts: 973
Re: Whangarei - cost of living
People
Can we use this thread for all the tips on saving the money and making the most out of what we've got. Any little tip, passed on from parents or grandparents, share them all.
I'm off to question the neighbors, they're both in their 80's and must have tips a plenty!
Can we use this thread for all the tips on saving the money and making the most out of what we've got. Any little tip, passed on from parents or grandparents, share them all.
I'm off to question the neighbors, they're both in their 80's and must have tips a plenty!
#21
Re: Whangarei - cost of living
off at a tangent as usual:
any ideas on what could be made from crab apples as my tree is laden with them?
And yes, I expect a smart answer or two but a useful one would be really good
any ideas on what could be made from crab apples as my tree is laden with them?
And yes, I expect a smart answer or two but a useful one would be really good
#22
Re: Whangarei - cost of living
People
Can we use this thread for all the tips on saving the money and making the most out of what we've got. Any little tip, passed on from parents or grandparents, share them all.
I'm off to question the neighbors, they're both in their 80's and must have tips a plenty!
Can we use this thread for all the tips on saving the money and making the most out of what we've got. Any little tip, passed on from parents or grandparents, share them all.
I'm off to question the neighbors, they're both in their 80's and must have tips a plenty!
A few basics we live by:
cut your cloth according to your income and never ever go into debt (mortgage aside) unless it is to one's fiscal advantage (eg using credit cards but paying them off in full every month, taking 0% finance on something and paying it off before higher interest rates apply - all other things being equal)
consider an offset mortgage (any credit balance, no matter how small, is effectively earning your mortgage rate of interest NET since tax is not due on the savings balance)
review insurance & key household suppliers (elec/water/phone etc) regularly to ensure the best prices are paid for these throughly dull necessities
reuse & recycle (the soap granny gave you for xmas that you don't like/need is perfect for other granny next xmas!)
buy second hand - ebay is great! although I don't know why some people seem happy to pay 'new prices' for old - ggrrrrrr!
lift share if possible (school runs etc)
shop online and to a shopping list without deviating off it - apart from special offers that one would buy anyway (I'm about to start meal planning to save some money). And don't take the kids into the supermarket! In fact, just stop going shopping helps!
let children make birthday cards for their friends and buy gifts for children (how many children's birthday presents a year do we get through?!!) when on half price offer or in january sales
I buy most of my children's stocking pressies for xmas and other gifts in the january sales
I think that's all for now - not from the older generation sorry - just 'good things' we do.
couple of good websites - frugalliving.com and motleyfool.co.uk as well as moneysavingexpert.com that sourflour recommended and I am currently reading! (SF, I had to chuckle to hubbie last night as I was reading this but bidding on ebay as I did so - second hand Boden clothes - bargain )
and an important thing that I don't do at the moment, but have done, is live to a budget.
'Richer' times ahead everyone ....
#24
Re: Whangarei - cost of living
No tangerines in our house! It's a Terry's chocolate orange at the bottom, as it was (still is, thanks to hubbie) for me! Yum.
You have a good point, hence 'most' of the stocking stuff is bought in the sale so that a couple of last minute favourites can be added. Would hate to deprive the children!
Our children are fairly young (7 & 5) and have been trained to 'ask' for a maximum of two items for Xmas in their letters to Santa, which we will continue, which invariably come from us or grannie since Santa brings the stocking only. So a request for something like a Nintendo ds lite (popular choice last year) or the latest England footie top would come from us (if they were lucky) and not from Santa. We don't do the write a huge long endless list of everything you could possibly want for Xmas in our house, but I know we all do these things differently.
Stockings in our house contain small (cheap/ish) items like toiletries, stationery, funky/favourite sweets, a book maybe, a DVD etc. Not highly expensive or time critical items such as sportwear!
Sadly I have learnt since having children that possessions feed materialism so the more kids have the more they want.
Apparantly I found out last year that readers of The Times newspaper in England spend on average £10 000 on Christmas!!! All inclusive obviously, but bloody hell. I find it hard to believe (I even read the Times) and totally shocking. But the one thing I think is really sad is the pressure, seriousness and things people do (eg big debt) for this one magical day of the year known as 'Christmas'. It's a real shame, as delightful as Christmas is.
Oh which reminds me that this year, the kids are getting a charity donation in their stocking (and no, I haven't bought it in the sales!! )
#25
Re: Whangarei - cost of living
Hi Louise
We live in Waipu, so Whangarei is our 'big' town that we go to for big grocery shops, cinema, clothes etc...
We have a mortgage and two kids, so i'd imagine out budget priorities are slightly different than yours but i can give you ours if it helps at all?
Firstly booze - i only ever buy the $6.99 specials on wine and they're all yummy (to my budget-deprived palate anyway). Generally they're the same wines I used to buy in the uk - banrock station or hardy's or whatever... so no worries there.
We pay around $16 for a big box of beer.
Our monthly expenses, most of which you won't have are:
Food/groceries: $480 ($120 per week)
Petrol: $200
Elec: $120
Phone: $70
Broadband (uncapped): $54
Health ins: $80
Rates: $50
You won't need to know about the mortgage!! I'm not very 'good' with cars i'm afraid... but i know it costs around $70 to fill ours up...
Will you be working up here?
SF
We live in Waipu, so Whangarei is our 'big' town that we go to for big grocery shops, cinema, clothes etc...
We have a mortgage and two kids, so i'd imagine out budget priorities are slightly different than yours but i can give you ours if it helps at all?
Firstly booze - i only ever buy the $6.99 specials on wine and they're all yummy (to my budget-deprived palate anyway). Generally they're the same wines I used to buy in the uk - banrock station or hardy's or whatever... so no worries there.
We pay around $16 for a big box of beer.
Our monthly expenses, most of which you won't have are:
Food/groceries: $480 ($120 per week)
Petrol: $200
Elec: $120
Phone: $70
Broadband (uncapped): $54
Health ins: $80
Rates: $50
You won't need to know about the mortgage!! I'm not very 'good' with cars i'm afraid... but i know it costs around $70 to fill ours up...
Will you be working up here?
SF
#27
Re: Whangarei - cost of living
Well, it's taken me a year or so to figure it all out, i'm not naturally very good with money... but we HAD to live on a low budget at home when dp was doing his post grad and I had two babes, no income and a big mortgage, so we got really good then!
When we first got here though I was spending about $800 a month, which i knew was crazy, but it took a wee while to get it all sorted...
Firstly, I don't buy any cleaning products at all except for washing up liquid, white vinegar, bleach (which i use in TINY amounts) and bio washing powder. I use bio washing powder in my dishwasher (a friend of ours has a phd in chemistry and was the first to tell me that it's basically the same stuff, then i found out lots of people do it), i use about a third of the recommended amount in my washing machine.. i use the vinegar, bicarb & tiny bit of bleach for everything else. This all started when babes were tiny and we wanted to get all the chems out of our house.
Secondly, i've learnt (and trust me, it's taken time!) that if I ever throw out a food item, then something's wrong. Stuff can ALWAYS be frozen/made into soup/saved for 'left over's night' etc. That was big learning thing for us. So if we have fruit collecting it's pension in the fruit bowl, for instance, it becomes a crumble or icecream or a cobbler and goes in the freezer.
Um, i batch cook for the freezer so when i'm at work (3 days a week) i have 'ready meals' to use so that i don't buy takeaways.
I make all our lunches (4 packed lunches) each day so we don't buy food - but again in my freezer i have HUGE tubs of mini pizzas, quiches, sandwiches, cakes, tarts, cooked chicken drumsticks, cheese biscuits, humus, tubs of soup, lasagnes frozen in individual portions - lots of stuff (all homemade) so that each night or morning all i have to do is open the lid and pull out a few bits each and then add some fruit or yogurt (home made )
I have a breadmaker, a slow cooker and a pressure cooker and i use them all constantly (we make all our bread). The slow cooker means that you can use cheaper cuts of meat and also get in from work to dinner all waiting for you! I make things like pitta breads too, and once you do you realise how much you're paying over the odds buying them ready done.
Um, we only have meat say twice a week? We eat a lot of fish and pulses - tonight for instance we had falafel with humus and salad in wraps, and the falafel, humus and wraps were all homemade - works out SO much cheaper. Night before that was a huge homemade pizza and garlic dough balls, there were two slices left (it was massive!) so of course they're now in the freezer for lunches next week.
Do you know, thinking about it, i very rarely go to supermarkets - i'm sure that makes the difference. I buy flour in bulk and have a big tub for it in my pantry, so i buy that. I keep a supply of things like butter etc in my freezer... but once you start making everything yourself you realise how little 'stuff' you really need.
We use that $120 for anything else that we need too - so last week for instance we drove down and took the kids to auckland zoo ($40 + $17 on icecreams and stuff) and still had tons of food left!
This week i've spent $100 already - it's swings and roundabouts really.. but we never go over our $120 - it's like a challenge - we have a savings account for the first time and watching that go up is a bigger high than spending it all (it's taken me some time to realise this ).
I did have to cut down on booze - but tbh that's no bad thing - we were drinking silly amounts when we first got here (woo-hoo! barbies, sea, sun DRINK! ha ha) so now I try to stick to weekends... (i say try).
I use the boards here
for help and recipe ideas (i've learnt loads from there) and it helps that dp and I are both a bit anti-logo anti-corporation... i'd rather eat sawdust than buy anything connected to nestle, for example...
It also helps that my boys are both really good eaters that eat everything and anything (something i made sure of) - both love curry and olives and 'spikey' food (spicy!). They both start the day with 1. cereal 2. porridge and then 3. toast! I don't know how they do it - but it does seem to set them up well.... the most i can manage in the mornings is a smoothie!! (h/m of course...)
If I think of anything else I'll let you know. But really, it's a question of starting small and gaining confidence and realising how much you can do (and trust me, i don't spend all day in the kitchen). That thing about never throwing anything out is my biggest tip, from an ideological perspective too really (in these anti-consumerism global warming days!). Oh, and yes, try to buy fruit and veg IN SEASON... this is even more important in NZ than in the UK where food travelling thousands of miles and still costing pennies has obsured it somewhat - it's a shock to realise that you can't buy 'salad' all year round here... without exploring 'salad' and learning about winter salads etc. of course.
good luck!
x
#28
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 2,813
Re: Whangarei - cost of living
For my family of three I do the weekly Pak 'n' Save run and usually spend around $75. My wife picks up stuff at her favourite Asian supermarket and spends somewhere around $25 to $35 a week. We eat really well. Food isn't that expensive here.
#29
Re: Whangarei - cost of living
I found it was expensive but then maybe my kiwi husband eats a lot and has expensive taste!!! he likes min of two courses in the evening. Good farmers son. He grew up on three course meals at night so he likes his food.
#30
Re: Whangarei - cost of living
Sorry but pak 'n' save gave me utter depression. New World was ok as was woolworths but I only managed pak 'n' save once.