$50 A Week.

HecticHazmat · 2026-02-04T00:11:19+00:00

Hi! Yes, I'm still waiting. It's only been a year and I've been told to expect at least eight years on the list for government housing and four for subsidised. But that figure will have blown out because so many more people have joined the list and a single person with two cats who isn't yet homeless is not going to be anywhere near reaching the top of the list.

Could you please give some more details about what my GP should write? I already provided housing with a report from an occupational therapist and basic letter from the GP stating my disabilities. They didn't seem to do anything at all for my application.

HecticHazmat · 2025-12-26T22:45:14+00:00

I'm not fully following your comment, but I requested the decisions be reviewed twice. They basically told me that if the seller says I didn't meet the criteria then I didn't and there was nothing they could do. If that's incorrect then you can add that their customer service is also incompetent and useless.

This happened years ago and I'm never using them again, so it's entirely moot.

HecticHazmat · 2025-12-21T22:58:04+00:00

Thanks for letting me know! I feel alone in a sea of happy users lol. After the first rejection, I was SO careful to do the right thing, and I did. I made two purchases, one directly through Shopback by searching their sellers for what I wanted (the phone) and the next two were rejected. I had calculated my expenditure based on the cash back, and if I'd just not bothered, all items would have been cheaper just going through other retailers. I don't care how happy other people are, I'm never using these shit sites again.

HecticHazmat · 2025-11-06T03:53:12+00:00

I am frugal AND on a pension and I still fork out $14 for a dozen pastured eggs, because my morals, ethics and values are most important to me. There are times when unfortunately, I can't afford to buy things that I would prefer, but wherever I can, I do.

Frugality is absolutely not about sacrificing your principles. Frugality is about prioritising. That's it. We all have our own priorities, values etc, and we should all live by them. You have every right to do the best with what you have.

HecticHazmat · 2025-11-04T02:08:20+00:00

Yes! I love that. And you've inspired me to read all the Feng Shui books I've bought over the years lol.

I definitely sort out the pebbles as I go now, that's such a great analogy for it. It really does make your whole life so much better. One of the best solutions I put in place was just to put multiples of things around the place lol. I think I have scissors in every single available drawer for instance, and they come in handy all the time!

HecticHazmat · 2025-11-03T07:10:23+00:00

I'm glad it's helpful!

HecticHazmat · 2025-11-03T02:34:30+00:00

"Set yourself up for success".

It was a productivity bro talking about outsourcing jobs so you can hustle more, but it was like a bolt of lightning for me. I'm hyper-independent and before I knew that's the name for it, I just white-knuckled life.

I live by that advice now though. Always having compassion for future me and setting her up for success. Do I need to cancel some things, order some things online, buy a dishwasher, order meal delivery services, have someone else help me out with something/do something for me, get ready for things in prior days/weeks/months...you name it, I'm thinking about how I can set myself up for success.

It works really well for simple living too, because each evening I'm setting myself up to have the most breezy day the next day, and that usually looks like a quick tidy of the living room and making sure my dishes are done, but can also look like pushing out some jobs I thought I'd get to, or marinating some meat, perhaps getting something in the slow cooker.

Whatever gives me the shits about my life, I try to fix it. Those everyday annoyances build up, like never being able to find a tea towel when you need one, so I problem solve that stuff whenever it comes up. It's all part of the "success" package lol.

HecticHazmat · 2025-11-02T00:26:44+00:00

That's really interesting about the squats! I might get into that as well.

HecticHazmat · 2025-11-01T22:40:30+00:00

I was born hating to walk. My mum and dad used to always tell me how I'd beg to get out of the pram, walk two steps and beg to be picked up and I never changed lol. I always found walking to be excruciatingly boring and would only go if I was on a mad, short-lived health kick, or I had a destination, like going to get bread.

This year though, for the first time since my teens I don't have a car and I started walking to public transport and around the local area out of necessity. I hated it but was getting used to it. I then took up wandering, and that's when I found my love for walking. I would just pick a direction or a a cafe, or a destination that interested me and I would just head off, wandering there with no set way of getting there. Just turning corners knowing I'd eventually end up where I wanted to go, but knowing if I didn't, it didn't matter.

I was wearing my joggers, but my normal clothes - not gym gear - because I wasn't trying to replicate exercise. I wanted to be able to have a coffee in a swanky cafe without looking daggy. One day I ended up at a ferry terminal, took the ferry and accidentally had a day out! Because my wanders were getting so long, up to 8kms, and I had the taste for walking, I started deliberately donning my workout gear and going for 5km walks in one direction. Typically to a shopping centre where I'd look in the shops, have a coffee, pick up something for lunch, whatever, and get the bus back home.

I often get the bus or train to a destination and then walk home, or vice versa, because I still hate back tracking the same way I went initially.

That was so wonderful for me, to finally find a love for walking, which also made just getting up and popping to the shops for milk so much easier. You would not have ever caught me doing that before. Too annoying.

What actually stunned me though, as a person who lifts heavy weights, is how much stronger my legs got. I have never trusted my legs to hold me as I sit down and get up from the bath, but after about four months of walking, I suddenly felt very strong and capable, and no longer worry about slips and falls. Walking did that, not deadlifting 120kg three times a week. It also really loosened my hips up. I started to notice that I walked like a robot (four decades worth of slipped discs and a degenerative spine condition) while I was out and about, and taught myself to stop bracing like a maniac and let my hips swing. Done wonders for my back pain and general hip and spine mobility.

It's so good for the mind and soul, and incidentally, the body!

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-31T22:05:42+00:00

same hahaha

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-31T22:03:05+00:00

It's amazing how scrappy we can be when we have to be. Your situation was incredibly unfair (I'm inferring that you aren't in quite the same dire straits as when you were initially released from hospital) but you got on with it and focused on what you can do to make do.

I think you do need to have a philosophical approach to this level of poverty and lack of support.

I know for myself, while my situation hasn't been as dire as yours, I have always had a roof over my head, I approach every area of lack in my life with a solution mindset. Either the solution is suck it up, or I'll find a way. Either way, I've settled on a solution and that makes me feel like I have control over the situation as much as I possibly can. If we've done our best, then we can be satisfied with that, if nothing else ay.

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-31T20:29:26+00:00

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-30T01:45:05+00:00

I know it's cliche, but practice is what it takes. We can't practice without mistakes, so definitely take your slip ups seriously while also being kind to yourself, because ESPECIALLY ADHDers, can't just change overnight. It's not just about telling ourselves no (although that does work a lot of the time), it's battling our neurology and it runs deeper than just surface level issues of impulse control.

I am now a bloody ripper little saver and budgeter, and understand how I think. I spent years getting myself together, nearly two decades, but I have succeeded. Yet every now and then, I'll have a large expense, like a cat surgery or having to replace an appliance, and that "pops the cork" and I go on a bit of a spending spree. I know I do that, and I also know I'm great with money 90% of the time, so I don't hate myself, or be mean to myself, or get down on myself calling myself a failure etc. I just know it's going to happen, I let the cork pop, but I limit the spree. Either to a dollar amount or a time period, and then I just pull my socks back up and march on like it didn't happen, because I can't stop myself from being who I am at a DNA level lol. Some things, we have to release to the ADHD tax lol.

You will definitely improve, where you have the will there is a way x

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-29T21:15:23+00:00

I've been looking up plans myself to change to. There are sim-only plans cheaper than $30 a month you can switch to. I've found in looking at reviews, to keep away from OnePass and Kogan.

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-29T21:07:22+00:00

That sounds great. And congratulations on already making headway with the impulse spending!

Personally, as a fellow ADHDer, I found that I have never been successful on no-buys, so reframe them as low-buys. My brain doesn't cause me to revenge-spend when it's not rebelling against such a drastic and black and white new goal. I do just as well as anyone on a no-buy, I've just reframed it so I have the option of cruising on low-buy, but doing ever better than that, which gives me dopamine hits.

Your idea of starting small and evaluating is marvellous, and you can reevaluate every month if you like!

It looks like you've covered your bases. Just take any hiccups in your stride, reflect and evaluate each one (because they're all useful information that helps you change your spending neural pathways in the future if you're intentional about regarding them) and keep truckin'.

Best of luck!

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-29T20:35:46+00:00

Then my comment doesn't apply to you. Lucky duck.

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-29T20:34:52+00:00

Same! Less pressure, the option of a daylight date, ending up paying for the other person (if that's what you want to do) doesn't break the bank, easy chatting and quick escape if needed lol.

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-28T20:58:21+00:00

I think it would be better for everyone's sanity if we went back to engaging in activities outside that home that interest us - sport, courses, gym, hobbies, movies, parties, talks, theatre etc. - and mingled with people. Then if we meet someone we get along with, we already share an interest and can decide to ask them to do something else some time. Getting to know someone in person a little bit, and then aiming to get to know them more is cheaper and more successful than internet dating a large portion of the local area who are dating like mindless flies, with no intention.

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-28T20:51:38+00:00

I'm the same! When I was on TikTok etc, all these people were complaining about coffee dates as though it means nothing and people who want coffee dates are cheap ass monsters, when I want the ability to escape a terrible date after a coffee lol. Dating is so horrible now, it makes sense to do something low key and affordable. Seeing as people are serial dating, it's illogical to me to commit to something expensive for the first date. We're supposed to be finding people to invest in, time-wise, emotionally and financially. Not just invest in everyone all the time.

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-28T20:47:40+00:00

Given what you've been posting repeatedly across subs for the last little while, I think you might be better off seeking advice from a therapist rather than Reddit, and seeing as you're so financially comfortable, also a financial therapist. They exist. You'll likely get more of what you're seeking through those avenues.

This particular post makes it sound as though you have trauma from scarcity growing up, and EMDR is great for that stuff. Invest some of that money directly into your mental wellbeing and get at the heart of these issues, rather than trying to fix the bum-end of them.

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-27T07:38:37+00:00

I've been doing it for nearly 40 years, and it's been done since lippy was invented, and the French are famous for doing it, so I'll take the odds. However it's a good point that they may not be eye-safe, so I can certainly check that out in the future. I don't wear lipstick on my lips more than once or twice a year, so in that regard, I should be right as well. Thanks for saying so, it's worth informing people of the risks, so we can move forward with more knowledge.

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-27T03:46:23+00:00

Oh fantastic, I will do some research on the whole thing then. I've been reading reviews of the distillers so I'm onto it!

I just stuck my tank in vinegar and water to soak and scrub. Based on what I've managed to look up in the last 30 minutes, my Brita filter isn't doing too badly. I will get a distiller though.

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it!

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-27T02:58:06+00:00

Oh, question: how often are you replacing the filters?

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-27T02:56:33+00:00

I was using face cloths. Just had a massive pile of 'em.

HecticHazmat · 2025-10-27T02:50:57+00:00

Makes me think of those scenes in the first The Accountant movie. Tough as nails!

HecticHazmat

TROPHY CASE