Steph's Weekly Low Buy Spending Recap #15
The picture of a well-rounded week, no extremes but also no massive deprivation either. Just mindful spending and enjoying life š
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Hello my friend, how are you? Howās your week been?
(As usual, this email will likely be cut off so itās best to view this in your browser/substack app!)
I had a weird week last weekā¦ I took a week off! Well, sort of. Either way, thanks for bearing with me in my absence!
I donāt know if last week really felt like I took a week off, but I definitely learned some things about myself and what Iām enjoying at the moment so I do think that ultimately good came out of itā¦ But it still feels a bit weird to have taken a week off and not entirely feel like I didā¦?
I donāt know if youāll relate to this, but Iāve spent a lot of years in survival mode and not really knowing what I enjoyed and considered fun and feel like Iām on a bit of a journey of self-discovery now, figuring out what I care about and what I like when Iām not just surviving. Itās exciting and also very confusing š
ALSO I HAVE A DILEMMA!!!!
We said this year with our low buy rules that one of our exceptions would be concerts that felt unlikely to be repeated any time soon. So far, Mattās gone to see Dream Theatre (one of his favourite bands on their 40th anniversary tour - insane) and bought Hilary Duff tickets.
BUT I JUST FOUND OUT MUMFORD AND SONS WILL BE IN MELBOURNE IN APRIL!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Which they havenāt done since 2019 (I think).
Do we think itās likely theyāll be back in the next few years? Itās so hard to know! But Iāve loved their music for such a long timeā¦ But itās also another $300 on concert tickets š«£ But you also only live onceā¦ and whatās the point of saving money and being responsible and adult when you donāt let yourself enjoy the fruits of your labour? And we have been doing so well and our emergency fund is back to looking healthy.
I think Iām convincing myself as I type while listening to their new albumā¦ gotta find some brown lace up boots and go full 2013 hipster I think š¤£
This week has felt very well rounded when it comes to spending! A little bit of enjoyment, a little bit of prepping for the future, a little bit of taking care of ourselves. Nothing too drastic or sudden.
Monday was a public holiday here in Victoria so my husband, Matt, was home! We were able to go to an event we had been eagerly awaiting for the past year or so, the Newport workshops open day! We like trainsā¦ And old things. This is an event that runs in Newport every two years, and we enjoy it. You get to see a bunch of different steam trains, a bunch of different restored carriages from the past, some from the 80s but some much much older. You get to see where steam rail Victoria works on the engines as wellā¦ Thereās a lot of things to see!
We also got lunch out, we spent $14.30 at Red Rooster! Turns out they have a really great lunch deal, if youāre not after a drink (which I wasnāt) you can get a meal with a quarter chicken and chips for under six dollars! What a bargain!
This week was a quiet one in a lot of ways, I think I really needed the rest more than I needed anything else so not a lot happened on Tuesday and Wednesday. Though I did buy a detangler spray from ask that Iām testing out, Iām on a mission to find a good hair product for fine frizzy hair that will make my natural hair more manageable, so if you have a recommendation, let me know!
I went to an op shop! Thereās an op shop Iāve seen on TikTok that I really wanted to check out, a Salvosā¦ Outlet? I didnāt know they existed! My favourite pricing system at op shops is definitely when each type of item is the same price, so for example womenās dresses were all $7. It was a huge place, and almost half of it was furnitureā¦ A lot of furniture!
I found some items of clothing both for myself and Matt, and I found some great DVDs for our growing collection. I even managed to find a replacement for our firefly DVD that we loaned out to someone inā¦ Have forgotten who we learned it out too. And only for $2!
I have one of those flybuys four week spend offers at the moment, so I went in store to do our grocery shopping this weekā¦ I havenāt been in store to do grocery shopping, let alone by myself, for a really long time! Usually Matt and I do it together, and itās something we enjoy doing together, but I thought Iād go alone since I had the time.
Anyone else just really enjoy grocery shopping? I think itās something about the permission to spend money without feeling guilty about it, but also it seems like thereās always something new to see and I love hunting for a bargain as well!
Something that I am now working on is rebuilding our stockpile. I began a small stock pile back in 2020 when we were struggling to get the grocery items we needed, wellā¦ moreso after the grocery shortages eased. Either way, weāve had a small stockpiles since thenā¦ But during 2023ā2025 I was definitely operating in more survival mode than normal, and got quite lax with it. Weāve always continued to have some form of back stock, but it hasnāt been as intentional as I would like it to be and with everything going on in the world right now, I think itās a good time to try and (without panic buying) buy a little extra for the next few weeks especially, before food prices possibly rise.
I spent about $15 extra at the grocery store and got a few things to put away in the cupboard, and I chat more about how I am approaching it and what got me thinking about this in the first place in my grocery hole for the week, Iāll post that below!
Saturday was such a fun day for me, I feel like I finally balanced things well š¤£
I have a YouTube video that will be coming out either this week or next week showing me re-organising all of our cupboards so that I have a dedicated spot for a stock pile, and thatās what I spent most of Saturday afternoon doing. We got pizza for dinner, yay!
We also went and got a few more things for our stock pile while we had the time. I realised that chicken breast specifically is still only $8.50 a kilo at Woolworths so I think Iāll continue to buy a few kilos a week, or at least a little bit more than I need for the week, wallet is still on special. At $8.50 a kilo I feel like you canāt really pass that up, and we have the free space!
On that topic though, I am thinking it might be worth getting an additional freezer. More of a chest freezer, that we can put bigger things into. I buy flower by the bulk bag, I have been doing that for a few years now, but Iād like to do that with other things as well like rice, but itās always good to freeze items like that for a week or so to kill any bug eggs that could be lurking insideā¦ Which sounds really gross but it is completely normal. At the moment, weāre running out of freezer space to be able to do that efficiently. We can still manage itā¦ But with a lot of Tetris shuffling and having to decant items into smaller bags to get them into the freezer. Iām thinking just a small chest freezer could be good? It would also mean that we could order more bulk meat at once.
Iām hoping Iāll be able to find something on Facebook marketplace for a really good price. The current extra freezer we have is a bar fridge sized one with drawers in it, I love drawers in a freezer. We got it for free in 2018 and it still runs fantastically! Iām hoping maybe I can find another freezer bargain. Especially because weāll need to hire a Ute from Bunnings to pick it up, so Iād like to keep the overall cost as low as I can.
I do wonder though how much it costs to run a chest freezer. I find running our small bar fridge sized one to be almost negligible cost wise, if you have a chest freezer and can shed some light on this that would be amazing!
Sunday we got to babysit one of our favourite kiddos! I knew we wouldnāt have a lot of time at home to prep for the week, so I got up a little bit earlier and made a big pot of chilli in the pressure cooker for lunches for the week.
It feels like such an autistic thing to say, but I didnāt realise until I found a new chilli recipe this past week that I could make chilli without capsicum in it and still call it chilli. I do test capsicum, and it absolutely ruined chill for me.
I found this great Frito mix at Coles this past week as well, and that worked so well for this! It was also only $2.50 a bag!? I bought an extra one when I did my groceries but Iām thinking I might go back and buy another few to put in the freezer, because it was absolutely perfect and would be great for so many things. Iām such a fan of frozen vegetables.
Then we went and spent the day with an adorable little one, it was quite a chill afternoon for us really just hanging out with her and each other. Toddlers so fascinating to be around, the way they view the world and the way theyāre constantly learning. It also feels like a big honour and privilege whenever anyone trusts you to look after their child!
And with that, the week came to an end! Really, it sped by now that Iām thinking about it! While it wasnāt as great of a week as I expected, it was still a good one and really surprisingly eye-opening in a quiet, pensive sort of way.
2026 is feeling really different to me than previous years. Iām not mad about it though, as much as the world is crazy right now every day life feels like itās improving day by day. That doesnāt mean itās easy, if anything itās harder than itās been in previous years because I feel like Iām actually dealing with things now because I have more capacity to do so, but Iāve always found that doing the hard work with growth, sitting in the discomfort of processing emotions, as much as it feels icky in the momentā¦ Thereās so much beauty on the other side of that.
Oh also, I started watching Buffy this week for the first time!!!!!! Feel free to obsess in the comments. Neither of us had ever seen it before, we watched the first three episodes together. But weāre already watching Big Bang theory together and we just do not have the time to be watching two shows togetherā¦ At least not with my patience levels. I also needed a new show to watch, and Buffy is filling that void nicely. Wow, the 90s nostalgia! I love how cringe it is. š¤£ I think Iāll be watching episode 12 of season one today at lunchtime and I think Iām hooked!
I hope this week treats you kindly, Iāll see you back here next Monday ā¤ļø
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