• melbaboutown
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    5 months ago

    Just tried to give Gardening Australia a shot in the arm. Ignore the weird moon phase planting stuff in the growing guides, I picked the Local Food Connect link because the June planting list was simple and the site also has info on food resources + community gardens.

    I think I might prefer to keep using Aussie Frugal Living because it’s part of Aussie Zone and I’m familiar with the mods. Also aside from Seagoon’s recent post and my reply the other place hasn’t been active in 11 months :(

    Does anyone have any ideas on what content they’d like to see? I can do cheap low fuss recipes, clothing repair tips, cleaning tips etc. Also would you want to have a random discussion thread in there for anything not warranting its own thread?

    • CEOofmyhouse56
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      5 months ago

      You can post whatever you like on there. If you want to start a weekly thread go for it.

      • melbaboutown
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        5 months ago

        Lol if I remember.

        Also I have this weird fear of getting made fun of for my tight fistedness/povness (despite the fact that it allowed me to save an emergency fund from very little)

          • melbaboutown
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            5 months ago

            Thanks. It’s silly, living conditions being what they are, but poverty and frugality are still quite stigmatized and some might turn their noses up

          • TinyBreak
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            5 months ago

            Thanks. It’s silly, living conditions being what they are, but poverty and frugality are still quite stigmatized and some might turn their noses up

            Hard agree. I’ll admit I havnt had a lot of time for the community lately. I will try put some more time in.

            • CEOofmyhouse56
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              5 months ago

              You do what you can.

              I probably shouldn’t have spoken on your behalf so I apologise for that.

        • Duenan
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          5 months ago

          No shame here.

          I’ve had to do really cheap meals myself such as 2 minute noodles and peas or frozen veggies or Devon sandwiches for a week at times.

          • melbaboutown
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            5 months ago

            Wait until I break out the meals to use Spam ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

            Or the Vegemite pasta. Perhaps even sketti

            • Duenan
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              5 months ago

              I’ve also done pasta. 89c for a packet of 500 gram pasta with a bottle of pasta sauce 1.89 a jar spread over a few days.

              Add some cheap stuff like frankfurts and some veggies which are cheap.

              That might have been my cheapest frugal eats that I’ve made.

              I don’t mind spam!

              • melbaboutown
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                5 months ago

                I’ve got a one pot pasta that uses generic tomato sauce, broth from a cube, UHT milk, cheap mince, and frozen veg or whatever veg is in season

                The inexpensive sausages and franks are also good, you can even cut leftovers into coins and put them in a casserole

                • Duenan
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                  5 months ago

                  Ah cool.

                  I think best per volume bottles might be from woolworths for pasta sauce but they’re sort of I don’t know, tasteless?

                  Been doing the aldi sauces which I do like and are cheapish, pasta is of a good consistency there too which cook really nicely aldente so that’s a super bonus for me.

                  Sometimes I mix it up between franks and sausages and cut them up into it. Tuna also works if you like it, mince at Coles is down to 9 dollars a kg for the 1kg pack so you can buy one and split it up for multiple meals at the moment.

                  Peas are sort of a staple for me but green beans frozen can be gotten cheaply as well which works too.

                  Thank god I love pasta

                  • melbaboutown
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                    5 months ago

                    Tuna mixed with mashed potato and baked with cheese on top is awesome. Steamed veg and dead horse to serve

        • dumblederp
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          5 months ago

          I think I spent about $3.50 on food today. Porridge, lentil curry, beans on potato, two eggs on toast. Maybe $5 with trimmings. e: $6, some pear and feta for desert.

          • melbaboutown
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            5 months ago

            That actually sounds quite tasty. I wish my stomach would stop being a jerk

            • dumblederp
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              5 months ago

              I had jerk stomach for about five years after I got back from India. I did the fodmap routine over about six months and it seemed to restore my gut somewhat. I still get heartburn with too much white flour.

              • melbaboutown
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                5 months ago

                I’ve done it all and have now discovered it may be something related to disability

        • TinyBreak
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          5 months ago

          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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            5 months ago

            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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              5 months ago

              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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                5 months ago

                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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                  5 months ago

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

    • imoldgreeeg
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      5 months ago

      They aḷl sound good. I have some DIY food things I have been meaning to post but haven’t had capacity. I will get there.

    • SituationCake
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      5 months ago

      I’ve just put a comment in there. I saved $400 recently by swapping to a different car insurance provider. It’s a boring task, but a worthwhile reminder to shop around. I’m just mad I was probably over paying for years.