Steph's Weekly No Buy Spending Recap #23
Still here, still not buying anything and still stopping to notice the little joys... while also falling freshly in love with the library (hello free things) - plus how I save money while travelling!
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Previous recaps: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | #10 | #11 | #12 | #13 | #14| #15| #16 | #17 | #18 | #19 | #20 | #21 | #22
HAPPY WINTER to those of you in the Southern hemisphere! It’s hard to believe it’s the 1st of June and we’re now (if you’re in Melbourne anyway) in the 2.5 months of Winter that we usually receive before early spring hits and the cherry blossoms start blooming and I despair at how short winter was 😅
As always, this post is too chock-full of goodness to fit in an email so you’ll find it cuts off at the end. Make sure to view in your app/browser to get the best experience!
Once again with today’s recap I find it’ll be the most helpful to stick to subject based things rather than sharing the day to day stuff, because none of our fixed expenses have changed much in the last 22 recaps, so if you want to see what our regular bills etc look like, you can poke around in previous recaps!
It’s been a couple weeks since I posted my last update, I’ll chat about why further down… but one thing I didn’t want to skip over mentioning for transparency is that I did end up buying the game I mentioned in the last update 😅
It ended up being a well-timed purchase as we’ve had a pretty rough week or so here and it’s been a nice distraction not just for me but also for my husband, Matt. It’s felt very worth it as well because we did sit on it for a week and nothing else has come up since starting the no buy period otherwise that has been anywhere near this as far as wanting to buy it goes.
The game has been fantastic by the way! Truly a masterpiece, and it’s only in early access! I’m hoping they don’t take another 2 years for this early access (as they have in the past) but even if they do, the current version of the game has so much in it considering it’s early access. Way more than I expected!!
I am the opposite of loyal when it comes to any utilities - electricity, gas, internet, you name it! It used to be that simply checking you were getting a good deal once a year was good enough, but now it’s worth doing every 3-6 months… and I just did ours!
There’s a tonne of great ‘new customer’ deals out there, but there’s also so much changeability happening when it comes to energy providers. It seems like they’re always changing their rates!
We changed providers in October or November last year and got some really great incentives for signing up, but they only required us to stay connected for a few months which obviously we’ve now done. I just had a quick poke around and unsurprisingly have found a better deal - hooray! This will easily save us $20-40 a month I estimate.
We signed up with Globird, who we’ve been with before. I find them to have the cheapest rates (before incentives etc) around 80-90% of the time so we often circle back to them. If they turn out to be cheaper for you as well (always check!) you can grab $50 off your bill here using my personal referral link. Every Globird customer gets a referral link by the way, so it’s well worth checking with your family and friends to see if they’re getting the best deal as well!
If you’re not sure where to start with comparing your bills, most states have a government energy compare website. For Victoria it is: https://compare.energy.vic.gov.au
I have been freshly reminded recently what a godsend libraries are when you’re on a budget. I DO NOT SEE PEOPLE RAVE ABOUT LIBRARIES ENOUGH!!!!! Especially in the personal finance/budget-friendly community.
You can borrow so much more than just books from the library! Some highlights:
CDs (hello nostalgia vibes and free music)
video games (ours has playstation and switch games)
magazines
DVDs
seeds (you don’t have to give these back obviously haha)
and some even have toys!
You could, in theory, cancel your streaming subscriptions and music subscriptions and be perfectly happy! Especially because now, you can also access some music on library apps as well?
I know not every library is as accessible and well stocked as some others, but if you live even vaguely in the suburbs your library should have access to a whole host of wonderful things, and if they don’t have something they’ll likely be open to getting it for you! Ours emphasises the purchase request function.
Also, go online and look at your library’s catalogue. Just because they don’t have something physically there when you check doesn’t mean your library system as a whole doesn’t have it - and requesting items to be sent to your local library is free!
ANYWAY part of why I’m ranting about this is that I stumbled upon this book at the library the other day. I’ve seen it around but I usually struggle to love cookbooks so didn’t bother investigating further till it was right in front of me.
I’m in love! It’s simple but still full of flavour, the meal plans are genius for saving both money AND time. I’m pretty sure I’ll purchase my own copy once the no buy is over, but for now I’m using the library’s! It genuinely might be the best cookbook I’ve ever read.
We had to do a little bit of travelling unexpectedly this past weekend, I’ll chat about why in the life update below! I thought I’d share what we spent, and also how we save money where we can.
For the accomodation we spent $180 for one night. A little more than strictly needed, but accomodation is something I won’t skimp on because it’s the difference between good sleep and a chance at nervous system regulation or, well… a very frazzled me. Worth the extra $20-40!
For food I just got a frozen meal the first night (Matt wasn’t hungry so didn’t get anything) and then we got Subway for lunch and Schnitz for dinner. SINCE WHEN is Subway so expensive!?!?! I got a super basic sub with just turkey and somehow we still spent just over $30!? I swear they used to be a cheap option. That said, I do love that I do love that I can get a footlong, eat half and keep the rest for later.
And then Schnitz, never a cheap option… but my word do I love their nuggets!! I’m having a bit of a moment with their nuggets 😅
So in total we spent around $80 on food which honestly was a bit more than we’d usually spend in the space of a day, but I just took it from the grocery budget as usual. Other than filling the car with fuel, which we were due to do anyway, we didn’t spend anything else.
There’s a few things we do every time we travel, whether we’re travelling just for fun or for a specific reason as was the case this time that I find saves us a tonne of money so I thought I’d share!
I always book our accomodation through booking.com, but I always use the phone app, even now in my dumb phone era. For some reason, the mobile app gets better rates on some properties. I also always always always use Shopback. They have really great cash back offers for booking.com and if you’re able to wait a few days to book you’ll often be able to get an upsized rate as well. For this recent trip I earning almost $10 of cash back!
If you haven’t looked into Shopback it’s a cash back website. I’ve used it for years and it really is a great option for saving a little money. If you’ve not signed up yet you can use this link to get $35 added to your account on signup!
I use the same packing list every single time we travel. I store it in Notion and it’s nothing fancy, but because I use the same list every time it’s always comprehensive, always has all the staples and if I need to tweak it a little I can do that too. Some trips won’t require certain things, for example I don’t take much in the way of hobbies for quick trips, but it’s easy to cross things off that aren’t relevant for a trip.
Having this list saves us money time and time again because when you forget something you need you and you’re in the middle of a trip not only do you often need to purchase a replacement, but you often are a little more limited than normal on where you can purchase the item from. It’s a lot more likely you’ll end up overpaying. I also make sure to take basic medicines with us! These don’t take up a lot of room, I just make sure I’ve got basic pain killers, bandaids, an antiseptic cream and some antacids as well as some essential oils I find helpful. Buying any of that stuff on the go or from a service station often means overpaying!
I take a lot of food with us! Eating out is one of the fun parts of travel and our goal is never to eliminate that entirely, but more to confine it a little. We most often bring breakfast and snacks along, because those are super easy meals to have in your hotel room or on the go and can save you so much money. We also sometimes will just get some preprepared meals from the local grocery store for some meals, so we aren’t having to cook or prepare anything but it’s still cheaper than takeout. For this reason I always try and book a hotel room with a microwave.
Fill up on fuel before you leave the city if you’re heading to the country! Having the petrol spy app can also help with this. If you’re doing a lot of driving you’ll often find fuel prices to be a little more expensive in the country. Make sure you fill up at the cheapest station you can find along the way, this alone can easily save you $10-20.
Look around for free activities. There’s often so so many things you can do that are either cheap or free especially if you’re heading to a tourist spot. There’s no harm in splurging on an activity that looks really amazing or one of a kind, but also don’t underestimate the power of a free/cheap activity to keep you entertained as well. If we’re going to invest in something we tend to limit it to one big thing per trip.
Is there anything you’d add? Anything you do that saves you and your family money while travelling? Let me (and everyone else) know in the comments!
Well, when it rains it pours friends! I finally got a blood test done to follow up on my health. I got the results today and other than some mildly raised inflammatory markers, nothing is out of the ordinary except a little low vitamin D. My GP said there’s not really a whole lot of point checking anything else at this stage and to just see how I go. I think we’re putting it down to a post viral/CFS flare up which means I just have to bide my time and look after myself. Gosh, why is that so hard?!
I’ve been looking more into the Chinese medicine view of some of my symptoms and will be adjusting some diet and lifestyle factors accordingly. It’s looking like I should cut dairy for a while (which honestly, I’ve know I needed for months but I just love dairy so much…. cheese!!) as well as chocolate, so I really need to grab some carob powder as a substitute. I also really need to cut out my breakfast smoothies too… another thing I’ve been putting off frankly for years. I’m going to be opting for porridge/oatmeal but I’m going to be trying out this method of preparing it - soaking the oats overnight!
I’m also working on my nervous system a lot, I’ve got some resources from a membership I used to be a part of that I’ve been aiming to revisit daily.
Next step is to attempt a little more movement throughout the day. Even if I can manage a 5 minute walk outside I’ll consider that a win at the moment.
In other sad news, my mother is in hospital again. If you’ve come over here from my short form socials, especially Instagram, you might know that we’ve been doing this with my mum every 4-6 months for the past few years. Sadly, things just aren’t getting better. She’d also just recently moved out to the country which has made this admission a lot more complicated logistically, but we’ve finally managed to get her back down to Melbourne. That’s why I didn’t have a newsletter for you last week!
I was sitting at my friend’s dining table and we were having girls night when my phone started to blow up! Call after call, it was a very chaotic and emotional hour but my friends were absolute legends. It really pays to have good people in your corner and while I’m always grateful for the people around us I’m extra grateful recently.
Having an aging parent with multiple health issues really is a tough thing, especially at my age. My mother keeps saying ‘I didn’t think I’d be here at this age’ (she’s 71), but I also didn’t think I’d be here at this age, already having tough conversations and taking over my mother’s care at times. It’s weird when all I’ve heard of friends mentioning this kind of stuff is when they’re talking about their grandparents. For a lot of them, dealing with this with their own parents is a very very long way off - and thank goodness for that.
But it can feel kind of isolating and weird. I often feel like my mother is slowly fading away before my eyes. She isn’t who she used to be anymore. There’s still a lot of her there… but there’s so so much that isn’t. It’s also something I didn’t expect and that we don’t have proper words or diagnosis for exactly. She doesn’t have dementia at the moment so it’s not as bad as all that, but she does have a significant amount of precursor problems that mean I’m grieving the mum I grew up with, the whip smart lady who was always pretty switched on and vibrant. I just feel too young to be doing this, even though I know there are other people out there facing this type of stuff or worse at my age too.
This is also what had us travelling this past weekend. We were almost chasing my mother from hospital to hospital as they transferred her twice in the space of 48 hours! We also needed to go down to get her some clothes etc. At first it was looking like us having to do 9ish hours of driving and stay 2 nights to manage it but thankfully it ended up only being 6ish hours of driving and one overnight stay, much better for the budget!
That said, if you ever happen to want to visit Wonthaggi in Victoria, I HIGHLY recommend the MJ McMahon Hotel, it was such a good place to stay! Extremely comfortable bed, just the right amount of amenities, really nice staff. I’d like to go back under better circumstances!
I’ve got a TV show recommendation and a movie recommendation for you today! The movie is super heartwarming, the TV show is more action-oriented.
Rescued by Ruby is a great movie about a man who’s desperate to get into the K9 unit. I won’t spoil the plot, but it’s a really beautiful movie if you just want something cozy with a happy ending… and a gorgeous rescue dog!
The Night Agent is a show I’m surprised I liked so much. The reviews are a bit mixed especially for the second and third season but I actually really enjoyed them! A guy who was an FBI agent but has been relegated to the phones ends up answering a phone call that changes everything and sends him back into the action.
I enjoyed the character development, the story moves at a good pace and it’s action without being too much action if that makes sense? It’s not blood and gore and fights just for the sake of it.
I’m currently watching Sex and the City for the first time, though I’m not sure if I’d recommend it or not. It’s definitely a product of its time for sure and I am thoroughly enjoying the nostalgic vibes, that much I can say for certain. I can’t believe I haven’t seen it before honestly. I thought I’d only make it through a season, if that, but here I am starting season 4. I can see why it was popular at the time, it’s got a good pace to it at least and while the characters definitely have their neurosis and there’s some things that clearly haven’t aged well… ultimately I’m not minding it! I don’t know if it’ll be one I rewatch after I’ve finished, but I’m glad to have watched it.
What are you watching or reading at the moment? Do you have any recommendations?
Ya know, when I started this recap I thought I’d have almost nothing to write about, it’s funny how things just start flowing when you sit down to write.
I know this still isn’t my usual style of recap but in some ways I’m really enjoying this a lot more than the standard ‘Monday we did this, Tuesday we did this’ style. This feels more creative somehow, less boring. I’d really love to know what you think!
Take care of yourself, friend. You matter and your feelings matter! I’ll speak to you next week.
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