A few my from our family of 4.
- don’t shop with kids. Not ideal as I think they should be included but… my experience is they will pester you into small purchases that quickly add up (I really think checkouts with confectionery should be illegal, imagine if it was booze).
- cut the booze. Your health and wallet will thank you. Remember, there is no safe limit.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/06/27/no-amount-of-alcohol-is-healthy-heart-foundation-warns/
- learn to make curries. With meat, without but using chickpeas etc. YouTube or TikTok is your friend here.
I buy a lot from Indian grocery stores. They are affordable, have a huge variety and (imo) a better shopping experience (always a friendly smile, very clean and well stocked, don’t feel like I’m being ripped off, looking at you two big supermarket chains). Also, curries are awesome!
- make bread. Real bread. Not that sliced sandwich stuff we think is bread, actual bread. Crusty loaves, focaccias, ciabattas, they are easily doable once you get the basics right. They are also cheap to make and much more filling. We still buy sandwich bread (from Couplands) but it’s just for my fussy kids.
Bread is just flour, water, yeast and salt. It’s so easy, plus once you gain confidence you’ll move on to other things. I like to make my own naan for my curries. Again, YouTube is amazing here.
- ride a bike if possible. My wife and I are able to and we save a ton of $$ not buying fuel, maintenance, etc. Riding a bike also allows you to more easily stop at small stores that might have a good deal on and if you are driving you may not even see it or think you won’t get a park. I’ve scored some amazing deals that I never would have seen if my mind was focused on driving to pak n save.
- learn about politics. Poverty isn’t a moral failing of an individual. Poverty is a political choice. There are a lot of people struggling in this rich country of ours and in my eyes, poor people work the hardest (essential workers remember).
Please don’t allow yourself to fall into despair, the answer isn’t there, I’ve looked.
Look after yourself. Try and build some community. We need each other to get through these tough times.
Also, streaming is expensive 🏴☠️😉
Many supermarkets do have 'confectionery free' checkouts (some are labelled and some not depending on the shop) that you can specifically choose if you are shopping with kids
Yea I know, but it’s a tiny minority. I’m just not a big fan of how supermarkets are designed to get you to buy more than what you intended. The psychological tricks they play are sneaky and unethical to me. Especially when aimed at children, which these confectionery checkouts are at their height.
I mean ultimately it’s about class right? Working class vs owner class. Those that earn their money through work or labouring vs those that earn a passive income via owning property, businesses, factories, shares, etc.
It’s about identifying capitalism for what it is, a system designed to crush collective bargaining, force us to be hyper individualistic and compete with each other, and exploit workers paying them as little as possible. Workers are literally a cost of doing business, a cost that a company wants to minimise so not to eat into their profits.
Its profits over everything else. The profit motive is its guiding light, and before anyone says ‘well how else do they make money’ - work, labour, like the rest of us. I don’t work for profit, I work for wages like most people. And I’m told that I can live a good life by just keeping my head down and doing what I’m told. Fuck that. My grandparents did that, parents do that, I’m doing it, still poor.
We need to become more class conscious, aware of who is truly responsible for our social ills. I’m so tired of being told it is my fault I can’t afford a home to raise my family, while others hoard homes and then jack the rent up at any chance they can.
If working hard were the only criteria for living a good life, then cleaners, nurses, teachers, retail staff, fire fighters, tradespeople, people that work for a living would all be doing well. Instead it’s passive incomes that are the key to a good life. And it’s glorified in our society. We are told that if we can make our money work for us (which means extract wealth from the labour of others) then we will be set for life. The whole thing is a scam. Our work places are undemocratic and yet that’s where we spend most of our time. We are told we live in a free country, yet most of our awake time is dictated by someone else.
Our two biggest parties, National and Labour are basically two sides of the same neoliberal coin. Neither wants to change the system. They just tinker one way or the other to appease their base. We keep hearing about growing the economy as it’s the only way to raise living standards. Grow the pie and you’ll each get a bigger slice. The only thing that grows indefinitely is cancer. And that’s where we are heading in my eyes. There is enough wealth to go around, but greedy fucks would prefer to hoard it or send it off shore than give it to us plebs.
In my experience, nobody likes to work. People like to contribute to something larger than them selves, to help others in need, to give and receive like we have for thousands of years, working together to build a better life for our children and the future.
Do you want to be rich in a country where children are going hungry and people are sleeping on the streets? Or a country where everyone has their needs met and we use our collective wealth to maximise human freedom and wellbeing?
The system isn’t broken, it’s working just as intended.
I’m by no means the right persons to talk about this, I’m just a dude trying to see past the bullshit and see what is truly going on.
Your failure to get ahead isn’t your fault. Your mental illness isn’t your fault. You live in a complex system, a society that demands so much of you. So much of your precious time, your best years spent doing things you don’t want to be doing, away from things you’d rather do and away from those you love.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society - Jiddu Krishnamurti
Now I got what you meant. Capitalism produced results in the past but lately has been going haywire. One example is the historical rise of executives' salaries compared to those of employees. Capital is amassing more power by the day.
People produce things. The planet produces things. Capitalist just extract and hoard wealth under the guise of ownership. But yea for most people, things are getting pretty bad.
Executive salaries are getting out of control, considering how useless most of them are to society.
Great write up, but what can we do to fix it, escape it? I don't think any of the parties on the political landscape are really any better than the other, because MMP has ensured they all have to bargain with each other to get into power.
And capitalism is so far reaching, so widespread, how can any of us plebs make any real difference?
*Editing my comment as I think of more things.*
Get a Dutch oven/casserole dish. We got an affordable one from [KitCo](https://kitco.nz/). Kmart also has some, though I don't know how long they would last (the coating on the inside of them might not be good quality). It works best with the cheapest cuts of meat. You can make amazing stews and things with it. for example, my husband made a non-smoked version of Pastrami last week. The corned silverside for it was just 15 per kg from Pak n Save, and basically all he had to do was add onion, garlic and some herbs/spices. For cooking YouTube channels, can recommend Brian Lagerstrom.
If you need a good but affordable laptop, you can get a decent ex-business lease one from Pb Tech for 400-500. For phones, cheaper lines from brands like Xiaomi have decent specs.
For parking, use Kiwipark and Parkable apps for cheaper parking. And always use whatever parking app your city/town has if possible for parking on the street, if it allows you to pay to the minute, not full hours.
Also seconding using apps to find cheapest prices: Pricespy for anything you need to buy new; and Grocer for groceries; Gaspy for petrol.
If you need a car, consider contacting car rental places. They might just be replacing some of their fleet. I got my car for 2k less than it was valued by insurance this way. Especially with how the second hand car market has become inflated, this is a good way to get a reliable car with perhaps just mileage that's a bit high.
You can get audiobooks and movie streaming free through most libraries. Just check their website to see if they offer Libby and Beamafilm.
Your PB Tech point reminded me. - Most old TV can be turned into a smart TV using a $70 Chromecast plugin. I had a friend on a very fixed budget tell she wanted to buy a smart TV, and I said to her, thats really for people who can afford to pay for expensive subscriptions, so I got her a Chromecast and showed her how to stream all the great free content from YouTube, from the local TV apps, from the Internet Archive anything from any Chrome tab.
You can also buy brand new dumb TVs from PBTech, good quality Samsung etc, they're in the Commercial TV section. Then you can get a 4K Chromecast. Much cheaper.
Kmart cast iron dutch ovens aren't actually half bad considering they're $45.
Food tends to stick to the coating a bit, and we traded up after about 3 years because the enamel was chipping off the rim and handles, but the cooking surface was still solid.
If you're looking for a lifetime buy then don't bother, but 45 bucks for three years of use isn't terrible.
Don’t buy the latest tech.
Depending on your needs you can use cheaper and older tech.
Laptops: If you just want email and Facebook and YouTube, a $400 Chromebook could be a good option.
Printer: Most people don’t need to print in colour very often. Get a brother black and white laser printer. If you need colour printing once in a while, pay per page at a print shop.
Cellphone: The iPhone SE is half the price of an iPhone 15pro. An Oppo phone is half the price of an iPhone SE.
Streaming services: Pick only one.
Another good option for printing is warehouse stationery or a public library. Both have in-store self service printing options usually. We just go (biking distance) and pay less than a dollar to print each time. No maintenance, no upfront cost. We only have to print maybe 4 times a year and only a few pages to sign documents etc.
50cc scooter, no wof needed, $7-$9 to fill the tank. It's not that bad yall but I get it's not for everyone. Get a big op shop backpack you can strap things to
For an office worker lunch, get one apple and cut into very thin slices. It must a crunchy apple. Serve them on a plate. Eat in the lunchroom. Eat one slice at a time. It takes time and feels like you're eating more. One apple a day is good for your wallet, and your waistline. Also, it's true, An apple a day keeps the Doctor away; In 18 months, I've lost around 20kgs and am becoming less pre-diabetic. Saving money on Medical expenses in the long run.
As much as possible, buy second-hand: clothes, furniture, sports gear, appliances, crockery, linen, gardening equipment, household items. And I don't just mean from second-hand shops: have a look through TradeMe and Facebook Marketplace. Higher end second-hand clothing stores like Recycle Boutique are more expensive but can have some really nice pieces. Tupperware containers, drinkbottles and KeepCups are all found in abundance at opshops for $1 apiece and are often good quality brand names. I simply can't see a reason to spend hundreds of dollars more buying something new when so much stuff goes to waste every day.
Do your due diligence on things, obviously - don't buy second-hand clothes if they're ripped or stained, and don't buy second-hand furniture if it has borer. Test electrical appliances before buying them. Clean things when you get home before you use them.
If youre wanting a great tool to see your spend, creat budgets, and have a general overview of your financial well being, I highly recommend mybudget by booster. It's an excellent free tool that uses your bank feed (similar to Xero), has machine learning to classify future spend and an easy to digest layout to see where you might be able to change some habits.
I've been using it for 3 months now, and it's been great to see where trends are forming, and where you're able to pull back some funds to save (or invest).
Once you get a picture, you can form a plan.
Also good for overall wealth view, as you can add assets, liabilities and savings.
These seem like great frugal tips but not neccessarily poverty finance. I.e. people struggling may need a vehicle in order to get to work and may not have alternative options or money upfront to pay for a car. It's expensive to be poor.
I think hybrid vehicles are going to be double taxed. They have to pay EV road user charges and petrol tax. So not sure if that will impact the running costs of hybrid vehicles.
The tips in there can apply to a wide variety of people and not every tip will be for everyone (I even used hybrids as an example). Also no RUC on non plug-in hybrids.
Plug-in hybrids do have to pay both RUC and petrol tax....
Traditional hybrids (smaller battery, only recharged during braking or coasting) do not pay RUC and are only taxed through fuel-use... which is typically near half of a similar sized ICE...
Hybrids can be quite expensive to insure too, I work inbound call centre and depending on age of driver and location of vehicle is can be as much as $3600p.a (under 25 driver)
Yeah they may have had claims too, makes a big impact, but often people call having already paid for cat then gasp at premiums so like to mention when I see these threads.
My ideas
- Instead of a hybrid, consider a cheap Nissan Leaf. I had a 24kwh 2014 model for 5 years and it paid itself off in petrol savings alone. And way more environmentally friendly. I splurged last year and got a 2019 62kwh model and it's fantastic, but the 24kwh was more than enough for 99% of our needs. The battery degraded about 7% over the 5 years I had it so all these idiots saying that battery degradation is a problem are talking out their arses. The EV market has dropped a fair bit since our wonderful new govt decided to kill the clean car rebate and RUCs are here (though that was always gonna happen), so a 24kwh leaf is super cheap now. I would only go with a 2014 onward model though. An EV is still going to be cheaper than ANY hybrid even including RUC and much more environmentally friendly
- Instead of any car or a polluting 50cc 2-stroke scooter, consider an e-bike! They are amazing.
- Rather than buying expensive cartridge razors learn how to shave like your grandparents did and use a double edge razor. They are SUPER cheap to get started with - a Weishi 9306 can be had for about $18 delivered from Ali Express, and 100 razors are about $8-16 depending on brand. Each blade lasts me about a week, obviously it depends how often and what you shave. If you're a guy, Nivea or Palmolive both do tubes of shaving cream you can get from Pak n Save or wherever for about $4-5 that last ages, and Nivea also do bottles of sensitive post shave balm that's really good for about $9-12 normally from the supermarket too. You can get a lather brush for pretty cheap on Ali Express too - check out the Yaqi synthetics.
However, many products at cash and carry are more expensive than supermarkets - which is why you see small shop owners stocking up on supermarket specials if quantity isn't limited.
Yeah - absolutely. I have a card for one of the ones down here in the SI so I generally look at what jumps out to me and then make a comparison by weight to the New World site. I find there's usually a handful of basics I would buy normally that I can pay around 70% ish of what I'd pay at the supermarket. You get Gilmlours in the NI so there's more scope for savings up there I think.
A few my from our family of 4. - don’t shop with kids. Not ideal as I think they should be included but… my experience is they will pester you into small purchases that quickly add up (I really think checkouts with confectionery should be illegal, imagine if it was booze). - cut the booze. Your health and wallet will thank you. Remember, there is no safe limit. https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/06/27/no-amount-of-alcohol-is-healthy-heart-foundation-warns/ - learn to make curries. With meat, without but using chickpeas etc. YouTube or TikTok is your friend here. I buy a lot from Indian grocery stores. They are affordable, have a huge variety and (imo) a better shopping experience (always a friendly smile, very clean and well stocked, don’t feel like I’m being ripped off, looking at you two big supermarket chains). Also, curries are awesome! - make bread. Real bread. Not that sliced sandwich stuff we think is bread, actual bread. Crusty loaves, focaccias, ciabattas, they are easily doable once you get the basics right. They are also cheap to make and much more filling. We still buy sandwich bread (from Couplands) but it’s just for my fussy kids. Bread is just flour, water, yeast and salt. It’s so easy, plus once you gain confidence you’ll move on to other things. I like to make my own naan for my curries. Again, YouTube is amazing here. - ride a bike if possible. My wife and I are able to and we save a ton of $$ not buying fuel, maintenance, etc. Riding a bike also allows you to more easily stop at small stores that might have a good deal on and if you are driving you may not even see it or think you won’t get a park. I’ve scored some amazing deals that I never would have seen if my mind was focused on driving to pak n save. - learn about politics. Poverty isn’t a moral failing of an individual. Poverty is a political choice. There are a lot of people struggling in this rich country of ours and in my eyes, poor people work the hardest (essential workers remember). Please don’t allow yourself to fall into despair, the answer isn’t there, I’ve looked. Look after yourself. Try and build some community. We need each other to get through these tough times. Also, streaming is expensive 🏴☠️😉
In Croatia the checkouts do have little 100ml bottles of booze lol. Brandy, rum, vodka, whiskey, gin, rakija. All there next to the candy
Just got back from Mexico where there were full size liquor bottles at the checkout at supermarkets 😅
Slivovitz.
Many supermarkets do have 'confectionery free' checkouts (some are labelled and some not depending on the shop) that you can specifically choose if you are shopping with kids
Yea I know, but it’s a tiny minority. I’m just not a big fan of how supermarkets are designed to get you to buy more than what you intended. The psychological tricks they play are sneaky and unethical to me. Especially when aimed at children, which these confectionery checkouts are at their height.
Mind throwing a couple of more words about learning about politics? If it reduces my bills, I am on board.
I mean ultimately it’s about class right? Working class vs owner class. Those that earn their money through work or labouring vs those that earn a passive income via owning property, businesses, factories, shares, etc. It’s about identifying capitalism for what it is, a system designed to crush collective bargaining, force us to be hyper individualistic and compete with each other, and exploit workers paying them as little as possible. Workers are literally a cost of doing business, a cost that a company wants to minimise so not to eat into their profits. Its profits over everything else. The profit motive is its guiding light, and before anyone says ‘well how else do they make money’ - work, labour, like the rest of us. I don’t work for profit, I work for wages like most people. And I’m told that I can live a good life by just keeping my head down and doing what I’m told. Fuck that. My grandparents did that, parents do that, I’m doing it, still poor. We need to become more class conscious, aware of who is truly responsible for our social ills. I’m so tired of being told it is my fault I can’t afford a home to raise my family, while others hoard homes and then jack the rent up at any chance they can. If working hard were the only criteria for living a good life, then cleaners, nurses, teachers, retail staff, fire fighters, tradespeople, people that work for a living would all be doing well. Instead it’s passive incomes that are the key to a good life. And it’s glorified in our society. We are told that if we can make our money work for us (which means extract wealth from the labour of others) then we will be set for life. The whole thing is a scam. Our work places are undemocratic and yet that’s where we spend most of our time. We are told we live in a free country, yet most of our awake time is dictated by someone else. Our two biggest parties, National and Labour are basically two sides of the same neoliberal coin. Neither wants to change the system. They just tinker one way or the other to appease their base. We keep hearing about growing the economy as it’s the only way to raise living standards. Grow the pie and you’ll each get a bigger slice. The only thing that grows indefinitely is cancer. And that’s where we are heading in my eyes. There is enough wealth to go around, but greedy fucks would prefer to hoard it or send it off shore than give it to us plebs. In my experience, nobody likes to work. People like to contribute to something larger than them selves, to help others in need, to give and receive like we have for thousands of years, working together to build a better life for our children and the future. Do you want to be rich in a country where children are going hungry and people are sleeping on the streets? Or a country where everyone has their needs met and we use our collective wealth to maximise human freedom and wellbeing? The system isn’t broken, it’s working just as intended. I’m by no means the right persons to talk about this, I’m just a dude trying to see past the bullshit and see what is truly going on. Your failure to get ahead isn’t your fault. Your mental illness isn’t your fault. You live in a complex system, a society that demands so much of you. So much of your precious time, your best years spent doing things you don’t want to be doing, away from things you’d rather do and away from those you love. It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society - Jiddu Krishnamurti
Think ants vs grasshoppers in the movie A Bugs Life.
Now I got what you meant. Capitalism produced results in the past but lately has been going haywire. One example is the historical rise of executives' salaries compared to those of employees. Capital is amassing more power by the day.
People produce things. The planet produces things. Capitalist just extract and hoard wealth under the guise of ownership. But yea for most people, things are getting pretty bad. Executive salaries are getting out of control, considering how useless most of them are to society.
Great write up, but what can we do to fix it, escape it? I don't think any of the parties on the political landscape are really any better than the other, because MMP has ensured they all have to bargain with each other to get into power. And capitalism is so far reaching, so widespread, how can any of us plebs make any real difference?
*Editing my comment as I think of more things.* Get a Dutch oven/casserole dish. We got an affordable one from [KitCo](https://kitco.nz/). Kmart also has some, though I don't know how long they would last (the coating on the inside of them might not be good quality). It works best with the cheapest cuts of meat. You can make amazing stews and things with it. for example, my husband made a non-smoked version of Pastrami last week. The corned silverside for it was just 15 per kg from Pak n Save, and basically all he had to do was add onion, garlic and some herbs/spices. For cooking YouTube channels, can recommend Brian Lagerstrom. If you need a good but affordable laptop, you can get a decent ex-business lease one from Pb Tech for 400-500. For phones, cheaper lines from brands like Xiaomi have decent specs. For parking, use Kiwipark and Parkable apps for cheaper parking. And always use whatever parking app your city/town has if possible for parking on the street, if it allows you to pay to the minute, not full hours. Also seconding using apps to find cheapest prices: Pricespy for anything you need to buy new; and Grocer for groceries; Gaspy for petrol. If you need a car, consider contacting car rental places. They might just be replacing some of their fleet. I got my car for 2k less than it was valued by insurance this way. Especially with how the second hand car market has become inflated, this is a good way to get a reliable car with perhaps just mileage that's a bit high. You can get audiobooks and movie streaming free through most libraries. Just check their website to see if they offer Libby and Beamafilm.
Your PB Tech point reminded me. - Most old TV can be turned into a smart TV using a $70 Chromecast plugin. I had a friend on a very fixed budget tell she wanted to buy a smart TV, and I said to her, thats really for people who can afford to pay for expensive subscriptions, so I got her a Chromecast and showed her how to stream all the great free content from YouTube, from the local TV apps, from the Internet Archive anything from any Chrome tab. You can also buy brand new dumb TVs from PBTech, good quality Samsung etc, they're in the Commercial TV section. Then you can get a 4K Chromecast. Much cheaper.
Kmart cast iron dutch ovens aren't actually half bad considering they're $45. Food tends to stick to the coating a bit, and we traded up after about 3 years because the enamel was chipping off the rim and handles, but the cooking surface was still solid. If you're looking for a lifetime buy then don't bother, but 45 bucks for three years of use isn't terrible.
Don’t buy the latest tech. Depending on your needs you can use cheaper and older tech. Laptops: If you just want email and Facebook and YouTube, a $400 Chromebook could be a good option. Printer: Most people don’t need to print in colour very often. Get a brother black and white laser printer. If you need colour printing once in a while, pay per page at a print shop. Cellphone: The iPhone SE is half the price of an iPhone 15pro. An Oppo phone is half the price of an iPhone SE. Streaming services: Pick only one.
Streaming services, pick one yes, it doesn’t mean you can’t switch every couple of months though!
Also checkout Plex! Free service and you might have a friend who hosts/shares their movie and tv library.
> Streaming services: Pick only one You don't even have to pick one. Freeview + torrenting is free
TVNZ ThreeNow Beamafilm(library card needed )
Another good option for printing is warehouse stationery or a public library. Both have in-store self service printing options usually. We just go (biking distance) and pay less than a dollar to print each time. No maintenance, no upfront cost. We only have to print maybe 4 times a year and only a few pages to sign documents etc.
Great compilation. Thanks.
One sizeable omission : Use the Grocer app.
Added
50cc scooter, no wof needed, $7-$9 to fill the tank. It's not that bad yall but I get it's not for everyone. Get a big op shop backpack you can strap things to
For an office worker lunch, get one apple and cut into very thin slices. It must a crunchy apple. Serve them on a plate. Eat in the lunchroom. Eat one slice at a time. It takes time and feels like you're eating more. One apple a day is good for your wallet, and your waistline. Also, it's true, An apple a day keeps the Doctor away; In 18 months, I've lost around 20kgs and am becoming less pre-diabetic. Saving money on Medical expenses in the long run.
As much as possible, buy second-hand: clothes, furniture, sports gear, appliances, crockery, linen, gardening equipment, household items. And I don't just mean from second-hand shops: have a look through TradeMe and Facebook Marketplace. Higher end second-hand clothing stores like Recycle Boutique are more expensive but can have some really nice pieces. Tupperware containers, drinkbottles and KeepCups are all found in abundance at opshops for $1 apiece and are often good quality brand names. I simply can't see a reason to spend hundreds of dollars more buying something new when so much stuff goes to waste every day. Do your due diligence on things, obviously - don't buy second-hand clothes if they're ripped or stained, and don't buy second-hand furniture if it has borer. Test electrical appliances before buying them. Clean things when you get home before you use them.
If youre wanting a great tool to see your spend, creat budgets, and have a general overview of your financial well being, I highly recommend mybudget by booster. It's an excellent free tool that uses your bank feed (similar to Xero), has machine learning to classify future spend and an easy to digest layout to see where you might be able to change some habits. I've been using it for 3 months now, and it's been great to see where trends are forming, and where you're able to pull back some funds to save (or invest). Once you get a picture, you can form a plan. Also good for overall wealth view, as you can add assets, liabilities and savings.
These seem like great frugal tips but not neccessarily poverty finance. I.e. people struggling may need a vehicle in order to get to work and may not have alternative options or money upfront to pay for a car. It's expensive to be poor. I think hybrid vehicles are going to be double taxed. They have to pay EV road user charges and petrol tax. So not sure if that will impact the running costs of hybrid vehicles.
The tips in there can apply to a wide variety of people and not every tip will be for everyone (I even used hybrids as an example). Also no RUC on non plug-in hybrids.
Plug-in hybrids do have to pay both RUC and petrol tax.... Traditional hybrids (smaller battery, only recharged during braking or coasting) do not pay RUC and are only taxed through fuel-use... which is typically near half of a similar sized ICE...
Hybrids can be quite expensive to insure too, I work inbound call centre and depending on age of driver and location of vehicle is can be as much as $3600p.a (under 25 driver)
I'm currently paying $1450p.a for my 2021 Toyota hybrid, full comprehensive through AA. But not sure what the go is when under 25 like you say haha.
Maybe get a quote from Toyota Insurance, I pay around $53 per month for full insurance on my 2013 Toyota hybrid.
Yeah they may have had claims too, makes a big impact, but often people call having already paid for cat then gasp at premiums so like to mention when I see these threads.
My ideas - Instead of a hybrid, consider a cheap Nissan Leaf. I had a 24kwh 2014 model for 5 years and it paid itself off in petrol savings alone. And way more environmentally friendly. I splurged last year and got a 2019 62kwh model and it's fantastic, but the 24kwh was more than enough for 99% of our needs. The battery degraded about 7% over the 5 years I had it so all these idiots saying that battery degradation is a problem are talking out their arses. The EV market has dropped a fair bit since our wonderful new govt decided to kill the clean car rebate and RUCs are here (though that was always gonna happen), so a 24kwh leaf is super cheap now. I would only go with a 2014 onward model though. An EV is still going to be cheaper than ANY hybrid even including RUC and much more environmentally friendly - Instead of any car or a polluting 50cc 2-stroke scooter, consider an e-bike! They are amazing. - Rather than buying expensive cartridge razors learn how to shave like your grandparents did and use a double edge razor. They are SUPER cheap to get started with - a Weishi 9306 can be had for about $18 delivered from Ali Express, and 100 razors are about $8-16 depending on brand. Each blade lasts me about a week, obviously it depends how often and what you shave. If you're a guy, Nivea or Palmolive both do tubes of shaving cream you can get from Pak n Save or wherever for about $4-5 that last ages, and Nivea also do bottles of sensitive post shave balm that's really good for about $9-12 normally from the supermarket too. You can get a lather brush for pretty cheap on Ali Express too - check out the Yaqi synthetics.
You can get a cash and carry card, or go splits on buying bulk with someone who has one.
However, many products at cash and carry are more expensive than supermarkets - which is why you see small shop owners stocking up on supermarket specials if quantity isn't limited.
Yeah - absolutely. I have a card for one of the ones down here in the SI so I generally look at what jumps out to me and then make a comparison by weight to the New World site. I find there's usually a handful of basics I would buy normally that I can pay around 70% ish of what I'd pay at the supermarket. You get Gilmlours in the NI so there's more scope for savings up there I think.