• TinyBreak
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    1 个月前

    Yeah nah bro, not in this economy no ones gonna be making fun. My mortgage is +1k greater when I moved in, power bills through the roof, council is knocking on my door for rates. I’m about to propose to the mrs we introduce 1 or 2 “Pov” nights for dinner, where we see what we can make for a capped price.

    We all get it! Though I am gonna raise an eyebrow if you’re reusing teabags for the 4th time 🙃 I legit have been wondering about reusing some of the expensive tea bags a second time. 47 bucks for a box of tea is taking the piss!

    • melbaboutown
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      1 个月前

      Heh, I use generic instant coffee, and generic teabags. I don’t tend to reuse teabags but… if it’s still sitting in the cup from having been left in there… 🤔

      There might be more tolerance now, sure. I just see people who are uh, perhaps a little new to being skint. I think what’s been happening is that working class (and underclass) have been forced to be frugal for a very long time so people’s expectations are lower and adaptability is higher. But conditions are now getting so bad that they’re starting to hit the middle class and it’s causing a real culture shock.

      Like you suggest an occasional treat that can be made with leftover amounts of stuff you already have/buy in bulk - so they go out and buy large sizes of new ingredients they don’t have any other use for, just to try it, and then tell you that it’s not working out heaps cheaper than bought :|

      Or this weirdly rigid handholdy article about recipes you can use if you can’t afford olive oil anymore… It’s like darls, those aren’t the only recipes you can use now. There may be specialised uses like animal fat or peanut oil for extremely high heat/deep frying but for general cooking you won’t explode if you substitute a more affordable oil for olive. It’s usually just a spoonful or spray anyway. Even if you don’t want low quality ‘vegetable oil’ the canola and sunflower oil are high in essential fatty acids so there is still a little bit of a health benefit there.

      Or news articles will come out with the most obvious cost cutting tips presented like nobody has ever thought of them before when… it’s something everyone you know has been doing forever.

      It makes me feel weird to say stuff like I haven’t bought olive oil in years, have never had a Netflix subscription, I don’t buy coffees or takeaway, grew up wearing op shop and hand me downs, I would always darn socks and replace zips or elastic rather than buy new clothes, I would use dried or tinned foods, never buy body wash - only shower with bar soap and cut own hair…

      Poor shaming and class divides have been such a thing for so long that something very normal for me (even preferred to ensure more financial stability) might be a bridge too far for someone who hasn’t quite adjusted to ‘the new normal’.

      • TinyBreak
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        1 个月前

        Poor shaming and class divides have been such a thing for so long that something very normal for me (even preferred to ensure more financial stability) might be a bridge too far for someone who hasn’t quite adjusted to ‘the new normal’.

        I also LOVE that its a way to stick it to the man! Cause fuck coles and woolies for screwing us for years. Screw fast fashion. Fuck the economy that requires us to buy buy buy. The planet is dying and society is too stuck in the status quo to see it. Being cheap is a great way to “fight back”. Kind of.

        • melbaboutown
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          1 个月前

          That too, that too 😏 There’s even a perverse pleasure to deliberately being a povo gremlin sometimes.

          I’ll see the price go up on something I can do without and be like, ‘you know what, I’m good.’

          Oh, your sales are falling? Less discretionary expenditure? Nobody’s buying as much stuff anymore? Well maybe it’s because the workers can no longer afford to buy the goods they produce, mf. Between low wages and inflated prices you killed the golden goose and nobody can afford shit anymore. I will proudly wash my hair with bar soap and pay my cat’s vet bills rather than pay you shysters any more than I have to.

          Unfortunately physical disability = needing delivery (always the cheapest slot) otherwise I’d have long switched to a supermarket that wasn’t Woolies or Coles. But my genetics fucked me over there

          • TinyBreak
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            1 个月前

            yeah that makes it tough as heck. Woolies and coles just end up taking advantage of battlers doing it tough.