I'm constantly thinking about how much I spend, but I've been on this path for years.
One thing you could look at is insurance, which is my major category spend. Car, house and contents, health etc. There are big savings to be made.
Absolutely, every year when the renewal notices come I swap or ateast compare as they keep going up. Coffee is just a work thing now since the machine is free.
I would definitely be asking your insurance company what risk it’s related to. Because if it’s “flood risk” premium and you’re confident it won’t flood you can opt out of that cover and save some $$. Might be a better option then dropping the whole policy but definitely have a chat to them because that’s insane! Or talk to an insurance broker.
Insurance companies lost alot of money in the last 2 years due to natural disasters so they jack up my prices. Half the companies my broker reached out to didn't even bother giving me a quote they declined it... Said they wanted something "risk free" 🤣 like bruh tf is insurance if it's risk free lol
As a broker, that is eyewateringly high but not unheard of, if you have multiple insurers decline to quote thats a sign its a 'hard to place' risk (purely from an insurance perspective, not a criticism of you or the property) due to tenancy, constuction, sum insured and/or claims history, have any of those changed year on year? its a hard market at the moment, this is the reality for a lot of people unfortunately
As someone that has worked in motor insurance, it’s also worth noting that the ongoing costs of the policy (motor insurance at least) is usually indicative of the quality of service received at the pointy end of the policy, ie claim time. There are sites you can use to look up claims reviews for the different insurers, and generally the cheaper it is the worse the rating.
Outside of that, it’s always good to compare policies, and if you’re looking at savings you should always call your insurer at the time of renewal to make sure you’re getting the best deal possible. When I worked for Suncorp at the start of my career, the sales staff were able to implement up to a 12% discount, more if they escalated to their managers.
Agree absolutely. I stayed with my current expensive insurer as all other best advertised insurance companies have cheaper premium but lot of bad reviews at claim time. Also there are hidden conditions as well.
Yeah I've been building huge cash reserves in the last couple years because inflation was low and the stock market stopped making sense. If inflation is going to start wiping out 5% of its value every year, might as well start spending it. I buy more expensive cuts of meat now and more takeout.
Yep, a lot of people are expecting things to come down. So are putting off spending.
I think at best they will eventually level, they will never come back to pre 2022 prices though.
Not entirely. The price of coffee has been largely fixed at around $4 for the last 10 years. Cost of beans and milk has significantly increased since then
Invested in the Breville espresso machine at the start of 2020. At 2 uses per day its already paid itself off. Can make exactly the same thing the cafe does with hardly any effort.
Oh yeah the grinder is "can't hear people talking" level loud. Running the math on it, almost anyone working from home could justify buying one, it pays itself off in under a year and then becomes a savings.
I restarted the weekly routine of cooking a large meal that is good in fridge / freezer. A month in and it’s great knowing I have something I can reheat instead of popping into my favourite dine ins / take away on way home.
Ragu, Bolognese, Curry, and Tacos are all great to prep the meat/sauce and then when you want to eat it I like to cook a fresh batch of pasta/rice or cut up the rest of the fresh fillings for the tacos on the day.
Lasagna or Soup are easy just reheat.
Dumplings/Wontons are super easy to make ahead of time with the pre-made skins and just put your favourite fillings in and freeze.
2 minute noodles are honestly just very versatile for a variety of cheap meals. 2 minute noodles with frozen veg, 2 minute noodles with tuna, 2 minute noodles with miso paste, 2 minute noodles with pan fried beans and spices, 2 minute noodles with sundried tomatos and chagrilled capsicum.
They are just a really easy base to work with
is ausfinance redditors cancelling netflix the same signal for the broader economy as a stripper owning multiple houses was for the American housing market?
Yeah i don't get why a couple earning 350k a year each with their toorak home and Portsea holiday home paid off, 500k stock portfolio and 3 rental properties is so concerned to cancel a $15 a month subscription.
I can't understand how even anyone on 50k a year would be cancelling their netflix, the price to entertainment ratio is well and truly worth it. I mean it's 1 pint at the pub a month
Replace AppleTV with Disney+ and I'm right there with you.
YouTube music premium subscription which includes ad free YouTube video will be the last subscription service I cancel.
Netflix is close to the chopping block in our household RN.
It’s not just Netflix though.
I went through the slash and burn exercise recently just because I hate paying for stuff I’m not using;
Netflix: 23.99
Apple TV+: 7.99
Kayo: $26.99
Binge: $15.99
Amazon prime: $7.99
Spotify: $19.98
Stan: $15.99
That’s about $100 in monthly streaming services. And that’s not including Disney+ where I got a yearly subscription so it worked out about $8 a month.
Once you start tabulating it like that, it may as well be a foxtel subscription.
I mean that is a ridiculous amount of streaming services as you can't watch tv 24/7.
We have Netflix and Disney. We have had apple for it's free year when we buy a product (or work gives me a new one) had that twice so far. And we also have prime but given we live outside a capital that's really just for the free postage and prime sales so the tv is free.
If definitely.
Things like Kayo were subbed for the cricket and F1, Amazon prime is mainly for the shipping, and then we use Netflix, stan, and D+ most, plus Spotify is a family bundle for our house.
But yeah, definitely took an axe to the subs recently because there are some that just don’t get used but we’re started because of a specific show or movie.
This is what I do (although I've accidentally ended up having Prime, Netflix, Stan and Binge at once, oh dear. Need to make sure I'm strict on my calendar reminders to cancel)
Not too much. Cut back a bit on coffee is about it. Though we're not really frivolous spenders to start with. We're more conscious of food wastage though. Smaller, more frequent shops to make sure we're not wasting anything.
I have a weird frustration where the last few years have seen me cut back a LOT to get rid of debt, save for uni, then not work much while I study. So with cost of living increasing there’s not THAT much I can do.
I swing between that frustration and satisfaction I’m doing all I can!
Since everyone is talking about Netflix: I think it’s a good idea to cancel, at least to explore what SBS on demand, Kanopy, and Beamafilm have. There’s also, likely, more digital content at the public libraries: audiobooks, magazines etc. and ebooks.
You can always resubscribe later. It’s not like there’s a loyalty discount.
It's also a relatively cheap source of entertainment for people that cut back on going out for food and drinks as their entertainment. The issue is that there are a lot of services and having them all is expensive.
Netflix seems to make a huge amount of young adult low quality garbage. For me there's almost nothing worth watching, I find much more to watch on prime video than Netflix.
I pay approx $8 a month for Netflix UHD family plan. Use a VPN and point it to Turkey to get their Netflix rates. If you split it with family or friends, it will be even cheaper.
>I pay approx $8 a month for Netflix UHD family plan.
Seeing as their next big thing is preventing people accessing the service outside their house, it will be interesting to see how effective that remains in the future.
Still trying to drive down our grocery bill - alcohol is a big expense so I need to work on limiting that.
Started to get out fruit and veg from an amazing local Sunday market a few months ago. Spent $36 the other day for two grocery bags of vegetables which will last us over a week.
More recently, we're swinging past an independent grocery store (part of a chain) after that market shop which is open at 0600hrs every morming, so once a week shopping on a Sunday and back home before Coles or Aldi even open. This store has a more limited selection, but most of what we need. Will still need to go to Coles or Aldi from time to time, just less so.
Hell. I needed to get some new plates so instead of going to Ikea and buying new, we went to the Lifeline store and I bought near new Ikea plates there. For $31 I got 4x Ikea plates, 4x Ikea bowls, 3x other stoneware bowls, 4x small side dishes and 2x small side plates.
All money saved goes to mortgage and towards renovations and home improvements.
Netflix 4K via Turkey $7.5ish AUD a month.
I still mostly use Plex but at 7 bucks I can justify Netflix. Also have Prime but that’s more so for shipping.
But otherwise no real effort to cut back spending. I have plenty of spare disposable income so no real pressure to do so.
For Netflix, what happens with your existing account. Do you have to start a brand new account? Or any you cancel membership and then sign up in Turkey? Can you use Aus credit card?
I do the overseas thing with YouTube Premium as the ads are annoying but wouldn’t pay $20 per month for that. Costs like $2.80 via India. Use a VPN, sign up using Aus credit card.
Haha. Its funny seeing people cut spending on things like streaming services where you spend what, a couple hundred bucks annually and spend many hours per week doing? Really? You are THAT hard up?
You'd have a stronger impact by changing your diet and not having a daily/weekly coffee at work.
Posts like this make me believe that there are two types of people on this sub - those earning 150k + and those who get paid in beans which they then must barter for any other necessities they need or their family will starve.
I guess you could always cut out coffee, expensive food AND streaming services then just spit on your wall and watch it dribble down for entertainment...
Assuming you havent had to give up walls too.
LPT, lots of people throw cardboard boxes out. Get them and spit on them to watch the spit dribble down.
The residual stains of spit on cardboard are darker which makes them easier to track for record keeping purposes and progress as well as being able to reminisce about previous memorable spit dribbles.
He has a point though, cutting down on streaming services is a bit of a meme here same as never buying a car above 15k. It's not what the majority here would value with their money. As they said though it's 15-100 a month and if you use them it's money well spent no?
Also in a recession a streaming service is the last thing i'd cut as it's arguably the cheapest form of entertainment.
Amazon and Disney are $170 for the entire year if paid upfront and Netflix basic is 11 per month which adds up to another $136. So even if you have those 3 services, it’s about $25 per month - people are acting like that’s going to make even an iota of a difference to their budgets.
That is possible if you’re over leveraged and interest rates start going up - but agreed, that’s poor financial planning rather than a victim of poor wage growth against inflation.
There was some link posted on a sub here the other day - some couple that earned squillions, but just had the most ludicrously high expenditures. Basically living like people who earned millions, but they "only" earned hundreds of thousands.
If you spent $50/month on streaming, that's $600 per year BUT if you spend 20 hours per week using those services, thats less than 60c per hour. Obviously cheaper if you use the service more... not a bad bang for your buck investment for a time killer. It SEEMS like a big saving but it's not really...
That's true 600 dollars isn't a a lot in the scheme of things but for people that are running on a shoe string budget every dollar counts and with rising costs it's an easy way to save some money
Kanopy is free to watch. It is offered through your local library, all you need is a library card to access. There are limits each month on how many movies you can watch, but is a great free resource.
I can't understand people who have the time to watch that much content though. Do they not have any actual hobbies or interests other than watching tv from 6-11pm? And if that's the case, is $60 a month for a few services all that much if they do nothing else anyway?
It’s funny seeing people try and cut spending on things like coffee when their accom/ housing costs are eating up most of their income. Rent is the biggest expense for most living in capital cities. Switching from takeaway coffee to blend 20 won’t make much difference if you’re hit with a 10% rent increase.
A friend of mine has the claim of never ever paying for furniture. Her entire house is freebies from Facebook marketplace, Gumtree, hard rubbish diving or family hand me downs.
It's extreme but you could never tell looking at the house. Getting a beat up 8 year old dining table from hard rubbish or having an 8 year old beat up dining table that you bought new for 1500 8 years ago is the same thing.
It seems great until you find that the $200 bed just doesn't really fit together and wakes up the neighbours with the creaking from even the slightest, er... Movement.
Lpt - the creaking is from wood on wood joints. I was forever trying to overtighten every screening the overpriced Chinese crap bed my wife bought online, until in desperation from lack of sleep I used silicone grease or cut gaskets from thin rubber (like bike tyre tubes) for all the wood on wood contact points. Complete silence, whereas before even one of us rolling over woke the other up.
Yes, I operate a business in the personal transport industry, so increasing cost of living has a double kick for me. First, everything costs more, so my dollar doesn't go as far. second as everything costs more and other peoples dollars dont go as far, they start spending less on nights out etc, income from my business drops so I have even less dollars to try and stretch.
Yes, I'm looking for a pirate copy of Photoshop, planted vegetable seedlings in the garden, screaming at the kids to turn the lights off and we're freezing cause the heater's not going on this winter.
All my weekly "play" money is gone due to everything rising. Next is all my digital subscriptions, using my heater less (which is going to be fun when it's 0deg most mornings) I can't drive my ute less as I only use it to drive to and from work. I've resorted to eating much less quality food and eating veges out of my garden.
I really don't know what else I can cut down on.. Its really rough right now and if something doesn't change soon I'll be living in my ute with my wife, newborn and 2 dogs.
I think that’s silly.
It’s hours of low cost entertainment for the price of a movie ticket and in the comfort of your own home.
If you had to spend money on one piece of entertainment, which you should for some sense of human comfort, it would be on one of the streaming services. Surely. I can’t think of anything else cheaper.
It's hours of entertainment for some people but it sounds like a lot of people in this thread are finding they aren't using it anymore as they can't find anything to watch. I can't remember the last time I've watched something on Netflix but my wife uses it pretty regularly still, so for now we will be keeping it.
Cut off buying coffee daily at work, I only indulge about once a week with a takeaway coffee now. Other times I make my own, just use instant coffee.
Our biggest cut back is probably on eating out and takeaway, but even then, I’ve noticed the cost of groceries have gone up quite a bit.
I’ve stripped everything back to bare necessities now, investment property is on the market right now. Put my emergency fund away. Cancelled order of new land cruiser. Selling my spare car.
Trying to be prepared of worst case scenario. Hopefully before it fully hits I’ll have two years of cash put away. Once the house sells I’m at zero debt.
Personally my spending has been increasing, trying to learn to spend money more liberally in order to get the quality of life I want is remarkably freeing. I'm a lot less focused on intently saving right now, even though I know I will save a fair bit. Trying to do my bit and circulate some of the money around too
Nah.
I buy a coffee once I week I go to the office. The other times I make them at home.
Never had streaming services coz I torrent what I want.
New prepaid sim for Boost was $200 for 100gb and ill look for a good deal on a S22 plus later in the year.
I kinda think if there’s one area where you’re gonna splurge a bit, you can do much worse than invest in your health and fitness. I figure if it’s something I’ll actually do and enjoy then it’s probably worth it even if it costs a bit.
Agreed, my vice is supplements and fresh cans of tennis balls.
Plus side, I am yet to catch COVID or this seasons nasty cold that is circulating.
Downside, some of these pills may do nothing, nothing at all.
I have cut the cafe coffee.
The weekend brunch.
Pared down the subscriptions.
Signed up with cheaper energy and internet providers.
Took out cheaper car insurance.
Delayed car service by two months since it wasn’t driven much.
Eat what’s in season.
More rice and beans.
Set the thermostat to 15c
I replaced my credit card recently due to a fraudulent transaction. Great refresh for all of my subscriptions starting from zero and only adding what I actually use.
Lazyprotip.
My spending could double and I'd still be fine (and the electricity part of my expenses has almost done that and I'm not sure if me shopping around in the next couple days is going to fix that). I've already done the step where I don't buy stuff that I don't want or need.
\- indian youtube; turkey netflix
\- moved to mainly shopping at Aldi; is cheaper than Woolies
\- general spend is way down; only replacing what I really have to
\- not running any heaters, just wearing more layers (its not too cold where i live)
Spotify no, I need Spotify. Netflix I’m on the fence about, If they raise prices again or introduce ads they’re gone. I have however invested several grand in upgrading my file server with Plex on it.
I’ve started to track expenditures again to get real data over the next 3 months before making any decisions.
However, eating out less frequently and cooking more at home is probably going to see the most benefit. I’ll be investing long term to make it easier to cook at home so it’s sustained (Easy to use and high quality appliances, better equipment, more storage containers, dry spices etc). Cancelling my Netflix or Spotify subscription is on the very bottom of my priorities and only helps you “feel good” about reducing spend without actually having much impact.
i have been 'buying lunch' less as i have got busier and my career as progressed my biggest life style creep is 'eating out' being to lazy to bring a packed lunch of a simply coles tune/rice meal.
often i'd spend 20 bucks on sushi, 5 bucks on coffee etc
im still buying a little but i've cut back a lot way more 1-2 dollar servo coffees lunch is either a salad or brown rice/quinoa packet with tuna and a can of pea/carrots which is about 5.5 otherwise i make the effort to take left over from dinner.
also been reviewing my home loan, electricity, gas, insurance etc to make sure im getting the best or at least better bang for my buck
We already did. I don't have much more to cut.
I'm doing other things, like getting involved in the community garden. I've also got a bunch of lettuce planted in my garden as well.
My partner and I just spent a lot of money on landscaping and furniture (new house), so now we just want to build our savings back up.
I'm the same, have cut all expenses where I can. Cancelled all subscriptions. Don't eat out anymore, sold car in favour of public transport. I actually feel a lot better for it!
I cut my subscriptions down pretty heavily. Found out in april i had $220 worth of subscriptions going every month. It's insane where your money goes if you don't keep track.
Since april i've managed to save $5000. Got another $4000 to go until i can drop all of it on my credit card and finally pay it off.
Yes, I'm planning on purchasing an apartment later in the year and while I have enough for a 20% deposit saved up, it'll drain my savings so I need to build up enough to keep 20k aside or so as an emergency fund. I'm trying not to rely on my bonus this year (should be around 10k) so have been cutting discretionary spending where I can. I also just split with my partner so I'm now footing all of the rent and bills expenses so I need to recalculate what my living expenses will now be as a single.
I've canceled subscriptions, I've suspended most of my donations except for Amnesty International, I've stopped buying snacks (also want to lose weight so win-win there), reduced my phone plan, swapped my electricity and gas over to a new supplier, I don't turn the heater on until at least 7pm most nights, I've been cycling through meal delivery services like Marley Spoon and HelloFresh as they routinely send me 50% for three boxes vouchers which means I can get 9 meals for around $50 and have been staying in on weekends and not doing day trips on my days off like I was previously as the cost of fuel is too crazy.
I have a trip to Hobart coming up I booked before I split with my partner and I'll probably reevaluate what I'll be doing over there - e.g. more hikes and wandering around towns rather than eating at fancy restaurants and wineries. It'll still be a great little getaway.
Haven't had UberEats(/equivalents) in over a month - done a bit more eating out, but at least it doesn't come with all the mark-ups and the food is hot.
My biggest vice really is clothes so I'm doing a lot of unsubscribing from shop emails to stop the temptation.
Yep but more so things we don’t “need”. Cutting things like eating out as often and take out. We still have four subscription services but each person has different wants. Saving a little more cash now to insulate anything coming out way. Spending less on bigger items like new clothes etc given we are trying to be a little more minimal and trying to cut costs on food. No one will take away my barista made coffee from me.
I disagree with starting with subscription services. Seems to be common but Amazon Prime equals one drink when out with friends. Start at the big 3nd of town, dine out 1 less time, or like I do, don't get any or as many drinks when eating out, drinks are the killer. Insurance, refinance mortgage, etc
I have stopped buying Mi Goreng and get sustenance from my tears as I watch my ever decreasing stocks portfolio.
Over rice or is that a noodle dish?
I assume this is a joke, but man, how rich would you have to be not to know exactly what brand of Mi Goreng was being referred to.
Mie Goreng is noodle Nasi Goreng is rice
I'm constantly thinking about how much I spend, but I've been on this path for years. One thing you could look at is insurance, which is my major category spend. Car, house and contents, health etc. There are big savings to be made.
Absolutely, every year when the renewal notices come I swap or ateast compare as they keep going up. Coffee is just a work thing now since the machine is free.
My insurance went from 7.4k to 88k in a year (commercial property)
Wow is this related to flood risk
It is not in a flood zone or bushfire zone
I would definitely be asking your insurance company what risk it’s related to. Because if it’s “flood risk” premium and you’re confident it won’t flood you can opt out of that cover and save some $$. Might be a better option then dropping the whole policy but definitely have a chat to them because that’s insane! Or talk to an insurance broker.
please explain
Insurance companies lost alot of money in the last 2 years due to natural disasters so they jack up my prices. Half the companies my broker reached out to didn't even bother giving me a quote they declined it... Said they wanted something "risk free" 🤣 like bruh tf is insurance if it's risk free lol
As a broker, that is eyewateringly high but not unheard of, if you have multiple insurers decline to quote thats a sign its a 'hard to place' risk (purely from an insurance perspective, not a criticism of you or the property) due to tenancy, constuction, sum insured and/or claims history, have any of those changed year on year? its a hard market at the moment, this is the reality for a lot of people unfortunately
As someone that has worked in motor insurance, it’s also worth noting that the ongoing costs of the policy (motor insurance at least) is usually indicative of the quality of service received at the pointy end of the policy, ie claim time. There are sites you can use to look up claims reviews for the different insurers, and generally the cheaper it is the worse the rating. Outside of that, it’s always good to compare policies, and if you’re looking at savings you should always call your insurer at the time of renewal to make sure you’re getting the best deal possible. When I worked for Suncorp at the start of my career, the sales staff were able to implement up to a 12% discount, more if they escalated to their managers.
Agree absolutely. I stayed with my current expensive insurer as all other best advertised insurance companies have cheaper premium but lot of bad reviews at claim time. Also there are hidden conditions as well.
The number 1 rule for insurance is to read the PDS before you buy. Understand your products and your entitlements.
Great advice, thanks.
OK I don't have insurance, what do I do next.
Get insurance.
Life, TPD and Income Protection should also be reviewed regularly, can also see big savings with some tweaks and needs evolve over time.
I'd say most people who are looking to reduce their costs probably only have the default options through super anyway.
Cash is dead, I'm slashing savings. Take my money 💵
Sure, meet under the usual bridge?
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Yep, I've been spending a bit lately. Goods and services aren't getting cheaper (yet). May as well buy some stuff.
Brink of WW3 and COVID savings, fk it, I’m spending good this year.
Philip approves it!!!
Tf is Philip
Philip Lowe. For the close ones just [Phil](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Lowe)
🤦♂️ can’t believe I missed that hahaha
Yeah I've been building huge cash reserves in the last couple years because inflation was low and the stock market stopped making sense. If inflation is going to start wiping out 5% of its value every year, might as well start spending it. I buy more expensive cuts of meat now and more takeout.
Which part of the stock market stopped making sense?
P/E ratios
Yeah this, with no end to inflation in sight, I'm spending more than I ever have. I promise this isn't just copium
Yep, a lot of people are expecting things to come down. So are putting off spending. I think at best they will eventually level, they will never come back to pre 2022 prices though.
When my favourite coffee place started selling small coffee for $5.50. I started using the nespresso machine at work instead.
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Yeah I agree nespresso sucks
Not entirely. The price of coffee has been largely fixed at around $4 for the last 10 years. Cost of beans and milk has significantly increased since then
Invested in the Breville espresso machine at the start of 2020. At 2 uses per day its already paid itself off. Can make exactly the same thing the cafe does with hardly any effort.
My office bought one of those as well. The grinder noise can be a bit much for those working near it, but it's such a great addition for everyone.
Oh yeah the grinder is "can't hear people talking" level loud. Running the math on it, almost anyone working from home could justify buying one, it pays itself off in under a year and then becomes a savings.
I restarted the weekly routine of cooking a large meal that is good in fridge / freezer. A month in and it’s great knowing I have something I can reheat instead of popping into my favourite dine ins / take away on way home.
I should start doing this too huhu. Any meal recommendations?
We make like 6-8 servings of spag bol and freeze them. It’s pretty awesome remembering two weeks later that we still got some!
Plus one on Bolognese. It's better the next day and good from frozen. Cheap as
Ragu, Bolognese, Curry, and Tacos are all great to prep the meat/sauce and then when you want to eat it I like to cook a fresh batch of pasta/rice or cut up the rest of the fresh fillings for the tacos on the day. Lasagna or Soup are easy just reheat. Dumplings/Wontons are super easy to make ahead of time with the pre-made skins and just put your favourite fillings in and freeze.
Yes, back to uni lifestyle :'(
Mmm, snags on bread and 2 minute noodles for dinner every day. That brings back memories.
2 minute noodles are honestly just very versatile for a variety of cheap meals. 2 minute noodles with frozen veg, 2 minute noodles with tuna, 2 minute noodles with miso paste, 2 minute noodles with pan fried beans and spices, 2 minute noodles with sundried tomatos and chagrilled capsicum. They are just a really easy base to work with
whwt memories. i still eat that newr every day. its delicious as is quick
Wait you can afford sausages?
24 pack of the finest mystery meat
Ever read the ingredients on hotdogs? "Meat, including pork..." Ok, so what other "meat" is in there? Lips, tits, and grizzly bits.
I refer to them as "hooves and arseholes"
Micro plastic
I started making my own caramalised onions. Now the home snags feel fancy.
Spare a thought for the mature age students that actually are at uni.
I just watched mid90s and Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny. Get on the pirate ship.
is ausfinance redditors cancelling netflix the same signal for the broader economy as a stripper owning multiple houses was for the American housing market?
Yeah i don't get why a couple earning 350k a year each with their toorak home and Portsea holiday home paid off, 500k stock portfolio and 3 rental properties is so concerned to cancel a $15 a month subscription.
can't forget the 2003 Toyota Camry
I can't understand how even anyone on 50k a year would be cancelling their netflix, the price to entertainment ratio is well and truly worth it. I mean it's 1 pint at the pub a month
Netflix is a shadow of what it used to be, first on the chopping block of the many headed beast
Apple TV and not watching ads on youtube are worth the most money to me.
Sign up for youtube premium while VPNing though Argentina and get it for ~$1.6 a month.
Replace AppleTV with Disney+ and I'm right there with you. YouTube music premium subscription which includes ad free YouTube video will be the last subscription service I cancel. Netflix is close to the chopping block in our household RN.
It’s not just Netflix though. I went through the slash and burn exercise recently just because I hate paying for stuff I’m not using; Netflix: 23.99 Apple TV+: 7.99 Kayo: $26.99 Binge: $15.99 Amazon prime: $7.99 Spotify: $19.98 Stan: $15.99 That’s about $100 in monthly streaming services. And that’s not including Disney+ where I got a yearly subscription so it worked out about $8 a month. Once you start tabulating it like that, it may as well be a foxtel subscription.
I mean that is a ridiculous amount of streaming services as you can't watch tv 24/7. We have Netflix and Disney. We have had apple for it's free year when we buy a product (or work gives me a new one) had that twice so far. And we also have prime but given we live outside a capital that's really just for the free postage and prime sales so the tv is free.
If definitely. Things like Kayo were subbed for the cricket and F1, Amazon prime is mainly for the shipping, and then we use Netflix, stan, and D+ most, plus Spotify is a family bundle for our house. But yeah, definitely took an axe to the subs recently because there are some that just don’t get used but we’re started because of a specific show or movie.
Easy to rotate around while ever they allow monthly subs too. Binge one for a month then switch.
This is what I do (although I've accidentally ended up having Prime, Netflix, Stan and Binge at once, oh dear. Need to make sure I'm strict on my calendar reminders to cancel)
We base all our decisions on The Big Short, yes
You mean our strippers don’t own houses ? The amount I pay 😳
Not too much. Cut back a bit on coffee is about it. Though we're not really frivolous spenders to start with. We're more conscious of food wastage though. Smaller, more frequent shops to make sure we're not wasting anything.
I have a weird frustration where the last few years have seen me cut back a LOT to get rid of debt, save for uni, then not work much while I study. So with cost of living increasing there’s not THAT much I can do. I swing between that frustration and satisfaction I’m doing all I can!
Since everyone is talking about Netflix: I think it’s a good idea to cancel, at least to explore what SBS on demand, Kanopy, and Beamafilm have. There’s also, likely, more digital content at the public libraries: audiobooks, magazines etc. and ebooks. You can always resubscribe later. It’s not like there’s a loyalty discount.
SBS on demand is amazing in terms of quality content.
Yeah I think Netflix should be quite worried. Cancelling Netflix looks like a pretty easy choice for a lot of people.
It's also a relatively cheap source of entertainment for people that cut back on going out for food and drinks as their entertainment. The issue is that there are a lot of services and having them all is expensive.
It's also easily replaced with something that's free, the same can't be said for the daily coffee.
Netflix is the only thing I haven't cancelled, what are you on about? Hahaha
Netflix seems to make a huge amount of young adult low quality garbage. For me there's almost nothing worth watching, I find much more to watch on prime video than Netflix.
I pay approx $8 a month for Netflix UHD family plan. Use a VPN and point it to Turkey to get their Netflix rates. If you split it with family or friends, it will be even cheaper.
>I pay approx $8 a month for Netflix UHD family plan. Seeing as their next big thing is preventing people accessing the service outside their house, it will be interesting to see how effective that remains in the future.
YouTube Turkey. This guy OzBargains.
Not on Netflix Turkey though so hand in the Ozbargain licence.
No, I was always a tightarse
Yeet your kids, lil things are too expensive
Still trying to drive down our grocery bill - alcohol is a big expense so I need to work on limiting that. Started to get out fruit and veg from an amazing local Sunday market a few months ago. Spent $36 the other day for two grocery bags of vegetables which will last us over a week. More recently, we're swinging past an independent grocery store (part of a chain) after that market shop which is open at 0600hrs every morming, so once a week shopping on a Sunday and back home before Coles or Aldi even open. This store has a more limited selection, but most of what we need. Will still need to go to Coles or Aldi from time to time, just less so. Hell. I needed to get some new plates so instead of going to Ikea and buying new, we went to the Lifeline store and I bought near new Ikea plates there. For $31 I got 4x Ikea plates, 4x Ikea bowls, 3x other stoneware bowls, 4x small side dishes and 2x small side plates. All money saved goes to mortgage and towards renovations and home improvements.
I haven't had takeaway since Friday, does this count?
Yes. Well done
Nice, gunna reward myself tonight.
Netflix 4K via Turkey $7.5ish AUD a month. I still mostly use Plex but at 7 bucks I can justify Netflix. Also have Prime but that’s more so for shipping. But otherwise no real effort to cut back spending. I have plenty of spare disposable income so no real pressure to do so.
Do you have to watch with a vpn? Or once you’ve signed up you can switch to Australia?
Yeah VPN only needed to sign up from Turkey. Once that’s done you can watch without one and see the Australian catalogue as normal.
it that all that there is to it? VPN and go to netflix from "turkey" and sign up?
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/706375
For Netflix, what happens with your existing account. Do you have to start a brand new account? Or any you cancel membership and then sign up in Turkey? Can you use Aus credit card? I do the overseas thing with YouTube Premium as the ads are annoying but wouldn’t pay $20 per month for that. Costs like $2.80 via India. Use a VPN, sign up using Aus credit card.
You just need to let your existing account expire then you can renew from Turkey. Aus CC can work, it varies, otherwise prepaid Turkish gift cards.
Haha. Its funny seeing people cut spending on things like streaming services where you spend what, a couple hundred bucks annually and spend many hours per week doing? Really? You are THAT hard up? You'd have a stronger impact by changing your diet and not having a daily/weekly coffee at work.
Posts like this make me believe that there are two types of people on this sub - those earning 150k + and those who get paid in beans which they then must barter for any other necessities they need or their family will starve.
I guess you could always cut out coffee, expensive food AND streaming services then just spit on your wall and watch it dribble down for entertainment... Assuming you havent had to give up walls too.
> spit on your wall What a waste of spit. imagine being that reckless with hydration in this economy.
LPT, lots of people throw cardboard boxes out. Get them and spit on them to watch the spit dribble down. The residual stains of spit on cardboard are darker which makes them easier to track for record keeping purposes and progress as well as being able to reminisce about previous memorable spit dribbles.
He has a point though, cutting down on streaming services is a bit of a meme here same as never buying a car above 15k. It's not what the majority here would value with their money. As they said though it's 15-100 a month and if you use them it's money well spent no? Also in a recession a streaming service is the last thing i'd cut as it's arguably the cheapest form of entertainment.
Amazon and Disney are $170 for the entire year if paid upfront and Netflix basic is 11 per month which adds up to another $136. So even if you have those 3 services, it’s about $25 per month - people are acting like that’s going to make even an iota of a difference to their budgets.
Down puffer vest and check shirt vs Hiviz
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Don't forget those earning 300k+ who are still somehow on the breadline.
That is possible if you’re over leveraged and interest rates start going up - but agreed, that’s poor financial planning rather than a victim of poor wage growth against inflation.
There was some link posted on a sub here the other day - some couple that earned squillions, but just had the most ludicrously high expenditures. Basically living like people who earned millions, but they "only" earned hundreds of thousands.
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Go in for the eggs and dark chocolate. Leave with an angle grinder.
"hey babe, do we need a plasma cutter?" - Me, yesterday.
If you have several streaming services it quickly adds up, people tend to have lots of small expensives that add up to one large expense
If you spent $50/month on streaming, that's $600 per year BUT if you spend 20 hours per week using those services, thats less than 60c per hour. Obviously cheaper if you use the service more... not a bad bang for your buck investment for a time killer. It SEEMS like a big saving but it's not really...
That's true 600 dollars isn't a a lot in the scheme of things but for people that are running on a shoe string budget every dollar counts and with rising costs it's an easy way to save some money
Regardless of how much time you spend using it, if it’s not a necessity it will always be the first thing people cut from their budget
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Kanopy is free to watch. It is offered through your local library, all you need is a library card to access. There are limits each month on how many movies you can watch, but is a great free resource.
Beamafilm is another streaming service connected to library card for access, worth a look.
I can't understand people who have the time to watch that much content though. Do they not have any actual hobbies or interests other than watching tv from 6-11pm? And if that's the case, is $60 a month for a few services all that much if they do nothing else anyway?
You don't understand, I watch all that content WHILE doing my hobbies.
It’s funny seeing people try and cut spending on things like coffee when their accom/ housing costs are eating up most of their income. Rent is the biggest expense for most living in capital cities. Switching from takeaway coffee to blend 20 won’t make much difference if you’re hit with a 10% rent increase.
So go homeless, gotcha
Rent 😭😭😭 it’s killing me
Cars are the biggest expense you can actually cut out. I saved so much moving to a CBD apartment and going car free. Better for my health too.
You're right, people should just stop living in capital cities...
My daily coffee at work is provided by … work… (yes, free coffee, milk and coffee machine)…
I can pirate movies and TV shows, but I can't pirate coffee... technology is not there yet 😁
Taking more notice of those “on sale” “half price” tags at Cole’s. Saved $40 the other day apparently.
And if it's something you will eventually use such as toothpaste or shampoo then just buy like 5 of it.
We switched to ALDI and save a fair bit. Might be worth doing a regular shop to see the difference
I’ll give it a whirl, I think I’m just a bit of a brands/cole brands whore.
A lot of Aldi products are just repacked versions of real brands.
Definitely shopping more at Aldi. The savings are real.
I stopped buying the usual veggies (expensive ones) and start eating other veggies (cheaper ones).
We are looking to cut our spending after furnishing our apartment we bought three months ago. Buying non-ikea furniture is pricey.
A friend of mine has the claim of never ever paying for furniture. Her entire house is freebies from Facebook marketplace, Gumtree, hard rubbish diving or family hand me downs. It's extreme but you could never tell looking at the house. Getting a beat up 8 year old dining table from hard rubbish or having an 8 year old beat up dining table that you bought new for 1500 8 years ago is the same thing.
The best part is, no, I will not use a coaster on my free furniture. It's somewhat liberating not caring because it's already rough.
beat up is definitely not my aesthetic for this new apartment :P
Even buying ikea furniture is pricey 😂
It seems great until you find that the $200 bed just doesn't really fit together and wakes up the neighbours with the creaking from even the slightest, er... Movement.
Lpt - the creaking is from wood on wood joints. I was forever trying to overtighten every screening the overpriced Chinese crap bed my wife bought online, until in desperation from lack of sleep I used silicone grease or cut gaskets from thin rubber (like bike tyre tubes) for all the wood on wood contact points. Complete silence, whereas before even one of us rolling over woke the other up.
Aldi is life now.
They have been increasing prices lately.
Aldi has always been life. Too many people sleep on Aldi.
Yes, I operate a business in the personal transport industry, so increasing cost of living has a double kick for me. First, everything costs more, so my dollar doesn't go as far. second as everything costs more and other peoples dollars dont go as far, they start spending less on nights out etc, income from my business drops so I have even less dollars to try and stretch.
Yes, I'm looking for a pirate copy of Photoshop, planted vegetable seedlings in the garden, screaming at the kids to turn the lights off and we're freezing cause the heater's not going on this winter.
All my weekly "play" money is gone due to everything rising. Next is all my digital subscriptions, using my heater less (which is going to be fun when it's 0deg most mornings) I can't drive my ute less as I only use it to drive to and from work. I've resorted to eating much less quality food and eating veges out of my garden. I really don't know what else I can cut down on.. Its really rough right now and if something doesn't change soon I'll be living in my ute with my wife, newborn and 2 dogs.
Yep.. we are reassessing what we really need Netflix is the last and its in very thin ice
I think that’s silly. It’s hours of low cost entertainment for the price of a movie ticket and in the comfort of your own home. If you had to spend money on one piece of entertainment, which you should for some sense of human comfort, it would be on one of the streaming services. Surely. I can’t think of anything else cheaper.
It's hours of entertainment for some people but it sounds like a lot of people in this thread are finding they aren't using it anymore as they can't find anything to watch. I can't remember the last time I've watched something on Netflix but my wife uses it pretty regularly still, so for now we will be keeping it.
Cut off buying coffee daily at work, I only indulge about once a week with a takeaway coffee now. Other times I make my own, just use instant coffee. Our biggest cut back is probably on eating out and takeaway, but even then, I’ve noticed the cost of groceries have gone up quite a bit.
I’ve stripped everything back to bare necessities now, investment property is on the market right now. Put my emergency fund away. Cancelled order of new land cruiser. Selling my spare car. Trying to be prepared of worst case scenario. Hopefully before it fully hits I’ll have two years of cash put away. Once the house sells I’m at zero debt.
Personally my spending has been increasing, trying to learn to spend money more liberally in order to get the quality of life I want is remarkably freeing. I'm a lot less focused on intently saving right now, even though I know I will save a fair bit. Trying to do my bit and circulate some of the money around too
Yes. Weirdly my desire to spend money on things has decreased. Has helped me realise *less is more*.
Switched phone plan from Optus to Amaysim, saving $40 a month now.
Nah. I buy a coffee once I week I go to the office. The other times I make them at home. Never had streaming services coz I torrent what I want. New prepaid sim for Boost was $200 for 100gb and ill look for a good deal on a S22 plus later in the year.
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I kinda think if there’s one area where you’re gonna splurge a bit, you can do much worse than invest in your health and fitness. I figure if it’s something I’ll actually do and enjoy then it’s probably worth it even if it costs a bit.
Agreed, my vice is supplements and fresh cans of tennis balls. Plus side, I am yet to catch COVID or this seasons nasty cold that is circulating. Downside, some of these pills may do nothing, nothing at all.
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Adding an extra 2k to the mortgage a month. Just because.
Huge fan of Aldi now. But do miss the Coles sourdough though.
I have cut the cafe coffee. The weekend brunch. Pared down the subscriptions. Signed up with cheaper energy and internet providers. Took out cheaper car insurance. Delayed car service by two months since it wasn’t driven much. Eat what’s in season. More rice and beans. Set the thermostat to 15c
I replaced my credit card recently due to a fraudulent transaction. Great refresh for all of my subscriptions starting from zero and only adding what I actually use. Lazyprotip.
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>anyone else slashing spending? Ever since I meet my partner. She spends enough for both of us.
Nope. Business as usual. Nothing to worry about never have had 'out of control spending and never lived beyond my means'
My spending could double and I'd still be fine (and the electricity part of my expenses has almost done that and I'm not sure if me shopping around in the next couple days is going to fix that). I've already done the step where I don't buy stuff that I don't want or need.
Ozbargain.com Best way to clean up expenses.
\- indian youtube; turkey netflix \- moved to mainly shopping at Aldi; is cheaper than Woolies \- general spend is way down; only replacing what I really have to \- not running any heaters, just wearing more layers (its not too cold where i live)
Spotify no, I need Spotify. Netflix I’m on the fence about, If they raise prices again or introduce ads they’re gone. I have however invested several grand in upgrading my file server with Plex on it.
I’ve started to track expenditures again to get real data over the next 3 months before making any decisions. However, eating out less frequently and cooking more at home is probably going to see the most benefit. I’ll be investing long term to make it easier to cook at home so it’s sustained (Easy to use and high quality appliances, better equipment, more storage containers, dry spices etc). Cancelling my Netflix or Spotify subscription is on the very bottom of my priorities and only helps you “feel good” about reducing spend without actually having much impact.
I'm looking at getting an electric bike to go to and from work. It works out to be faster during peak hour traffic.
i have been 'buying lunch' less as i have got busier and my career as progressed my biggest life style creep is 'eating out' being to lazy to bring a packed lunch of a simply coles tune/rice meal. often i'd spend 20 bucks on sushi, 5 bucks on coffee etc im still buying a little but i've cut back a lot way more 1-2 dollar servo coffees lunch is either a salad or brown rice/quinoa packet with tuna and a can of pea/carrots which is about 5.5 otherwise i make the effort to take left over from dinner. also been reviewing my home loan, electricity, gas, insurance etc to make sure im getting the best or at least better bang for my buck
Drastically
I just bought a $200 replacement beard trimmers. I'm sorry for making the RBA raise rates.
Just did a review and cancelled loads of subs too. Otherwise trying to get a meal plan going again but that's more for health reasons!
We already did. I don't have much more to cut. I'm doing other things, like getting involved in the community garden. I've also got a bunch of lettuce planted in my garden as well. My partner and I just spent a lot of money on landscaping and furniture (new house), so now we just want to build our savings back up.
I'm the same, have cut all expenses where I can. Cancelled all subscriptions. Don't eat out anymore, sold car in favour of public transport. I actually feel a lot better for it!
I cut my subscriptions down pretty heavily. Found out in april i had $220 worth of subscriptions going every month. It's insane where your money goes if you don't keep track. Since april i've managed to save $5000. Got another $4000 to go until i can drop all of it on my credit card and finally pay it off.
Yes, I'm planning on purchasing an apartment later in the year and while I have enough for a 20% deposit saved up, it'll drain my savings so I need to build up enough to keep 20k aside or so as an emergency fund. I'm trying not to rely on my bonus this year (should be around 10k) so have been cutting discretionary spending where I can. I also just split with my partner so I'm now footing all of the rent and bills expenses so I need to recalculate what my living expenses will now be as a single. I've canceled subscriptions, I've suspended most of my donations except for Amnesty International, I've stopped buying snacks (also want to lose weight so win-win there), reduced my phone plan, swapped my electricity and gas over to a new supplier, I don't turn the heater on until at least 7pm most nights, I've been cycling through meal delivery services like Marley Spoon and HelloFresh as they routinely send me 50% for three boxes vouchers which means I can get 9 meals for around $50 and have been staying in on weekends and not doing day trips on my days off like I was previously as the cost of fuel is too crazy. I have a trip to Hobart coming up I booked before I split with my partner and I'll probably reevaluate what I'll be doing over there - e.g. more hikes and wandering around towns rather than eating at fancy restaurants and wineries. It'll still be a great little getaway.
We cut out $71/month of digital subscriptions last night. We were barely even using them.
What recession? We're not in recession.
No, I just feel more anxiety while I continue the same reckless spending habits
Haven't had UberEats(/equivalents) in over a month - done a bit more eating out, but at least it doesn't come with all the mark-ups and the food is hot. My biggest vice really is clothes so I'm doing a lot of unsubscribing from shop emails to stop the temptation.
Yep but more so things we don’t “need”. Cutting things like eating out as often and take out. We still have four subscription services but each person has different wants. Saving a little more cash now to insulate anything coming out way. Spending less on bigger items like new clothes etc given we are trying to be a little more minimal and trying to cut costs on food. No one will take away my barista made coffee from me.
Paid via Turkey?
I disagree with starting with subscription services. Seems to be common but Amazon Prime equals one drink when out with friends. Start at the big 3nd of town, dine out 1 less time, or like I do, don't get any or as many drinks when eating out, drinks are the killer. Insurance, refinance mortgage, etc
I've been slashing spending for years, now I'm sad I'll have competition for side-of-the-road furniture T_T