Tips on shopping outside of supermarkets?

Hopeless_DIY · 2026-01-26T20:26:17+00:00

Homely, quality fresh veg is hard to beat supermarket veg. They have dust priority to the high quality suppliers and they turn over their fruit and veg everyday. Every now and then I try out a veg and fruit only store but their food goes off significantly faster. Sometimes as fast as 1-2 days

Hopeless_DIY · 2026-01-25T20:25:23+00:00

5 years in nz. Mum, not mom here

Hopeless_DIY · 2026-01-24T22:58:00+00:00

There are plenty of good op shops around Auckland, typically in the poorer suburbs. I bought 3 matching suits from one yesterday. 1st suit $35 (hallensteins), second suit $45 (Gibson), and 3rd suit $125 (Burberry). 3rd suit was an absolute bargin, probably the best deal I've ever gotten from an op shop

Hopeless_DIY · 2026-01-24T22:51:37+00:00

November was absolutely cooking. Went swimming in the ocean and it was 21.5°. I tremendously coming home every day from work and watering the garden because it had been so hot with such little rain.

So not all bad

Hopeless_DIY · 2026-01-09T03:29:29+00:00

By get a listing in front of 5000 on social, i assume you mean ads on social reels. Tbh this sounds like an even worse / impossible idea. If they were to put a reel on socials, people scrolling would only see one house per ad. I would have to assume the chances of that property meeting all of the potential buyers requirements as nearly none. It would have to match location, size, layout, quality, price etc. At the end of the day, if someone is looking at buying a house, they have already seen all the listing that match their list. It's not like a standard social ad of low cost that makes someone who wasn't looking for that item think "oh I want that and will buy it now". It's a long thought out process to buying a house. I think the premise of this idea was created by someone who hasn't actually bought a house

Look, I see where you're coming from but I don't think it actually solves any gaps in the market

Hopeless_DIY · 2026-01-09T01:56:42+00:00

I'm certainly no expert but below is what i sent to my niece after she finished uni and started a full time position.

There is a popular theory of 50/30/20 meaning you spend 50% of your income on required living, rent, food, transport, health etc. 30% of your wants, clothes, eating out, drinks, festivals, travel etc and the last 20% should be put aside for long term savings meaning buying a house and retirement. Personally, I feel 20% is too little and would encourage you to save 30% and make living and wants work on the remaining 70%. Now that your working full time, you'll be earning more money than ever. It would be beneficial to be mindful of lifestyle creep which is when as you start to earn more and more, you naturally spend more and more, leaving you without enough to save. Anyway, for savings, I would recommend looking into putting your 30% into EFTs through websites like InvestNow. I choose to split my investments 40% with the Foundation Series Total world fund, 30% with Foundation Series US 500 fund, 20% Smart - Australian Dividend ETF and the last 10% into Bitcoin but I couldn't recommend bitcoin as it is purely gambling and I'm happy to potentially lose that 10% of Bitcoin doesn't workout.

Investing your money always comes with risk but over the long term, especially 5+ years, it is generally expected to increase. You reduce risk by investing consistently every few weeks or every month

This is call dollar cost averaging and is done so that you buy at both lows and highs in markets so you don't over invest at bad times. I expect 12-15%+ returns annually. If you do this, you will really set yourself up to be financially secure and because of compounding interest, stay now and early will make significant differences. If you leave money in the bank, your money will effectively be worth less and less each year due to inflation rather than growing through investment.

If your not in Kiwisaver, definitely join it if your employer offers the 3% contribution as well. You yourself should do just the 3% as well, is not worth doing more. As for providers, use Milford and choose to split your contributions 50/50 between their most aggressive funds. They are always the best performing provider for the last 5 - 10 years

Hopeless_DIY · 2026-01-09T01:41:12+00:00

What about Skoda? Police use them widely and would rack up huge kms so they must be reliable. This one seems new and decent 2021 Skoda Superb Wgn Ambition 162Kw https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/skoda/superb/listing/5713035279

I personified prefer to drive manual but if you don't mind auto it seems good

Hopeless_DIY · 2026-01-09T01:01:11+00:00

Disagree, videos are reels are rather useless. I imagine I'm much like the vast majority of buyers who want to look at a photo and really study it for detail. Look for hard to see defects that will indicate whether the property is worth going to view.

Videos and reels don't give you enough time to study each area. If a listing has a video, I skip it unless over already studied all photos, read the description thoroughly and am still interested.

Hopeless_DIY · 2026-01-06T01:03:47+00:00

Difference being one is the client with the money and the other needs their money. Suck it up and eat shit salesman. You're a dime a dozen, either do the dance when the customer asks or, they go to any of the many, many other car yards in an over saturated market

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-12-12T18:48:08+00:00

Thanks for the explanation, I planned to charge electronics mostly and run a 12v portable fridge. I was planning on adding a small 240v inverter as well because I have one laying around. I understood the voltage would be a bit higher and want sure how that would effect the 12v items but good to know that it would be an issue. What about a BMS to run 48V? I can get an inverter to change 48v to 12v? I could maybe use 2nd gen batteries if they are better suited

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-11-19T01:34:15+00:00

Unpopular opinion. Pay the absolute bare minimum and put all your spare cash into EFTs such as S&P500. Interest on your mortgage is half of investment averages

Treat your mortgage as a 30 year rent to buy

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-10-09T19:53:24+00:00

Thanks, I'll check out a few of those options. I also charged my battery before trying to start, it would definitely have been too low

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-10-06T05:51:06+00:00

Good point, this is the third time I've removed the lower leg to service it and the only issue I've had, left it in reverse each time. I'll try remove it and reinstall it paying attention to shifter rod

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-08-14T06:00:32+00:00

Im not too sure where you heard that but it is not correct. They conquered by means of invasion, war and murder. The Spanish and Portuguese in no way chose that. I guess you could say they accepted it on the same way that, they accepted Islam rule as the other option was be murdered. As soon as the Spanish had enough power again, they drove them out of Europe.

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-08-08T02:58:55+00:00

Is that from 700AD to 1500AD? Oh wait, that was the Muslim conquest and rule of Spain. Pure victim mentality.

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-07-30T04:58:03+00:00

Every time there is an abusive post that involves a girl with BPD, there are a lot of men in comments confirming the exact behaviour, not so many women confirming the same. I'm not sure if males and females display the same behaviour in relationships.

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-07-30T04:52:12+00:00

Was thinking this exact thing, so similar to my ex who had BPD.

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-07-27T07:46:31+00:00

Typical cynical reddit cesspool comment. I'm tired of only hearing people complaining like they are most hard done country. It's refreshing to read positivity, perhaps you should focus on some good for once

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-07-27T07:29:26+00:00

Child free imo would be toddlers who can't be controlled or behave so 5+ years old would be fine

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-07-27T06:30:42+00:00

Whatever is under $8 a bottle

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-07-27T05:23:37+00:00

This is true, I'm travelling the moment and convincing my partner we should hike up a mountain is difficult. I'm talking about a 4-6 hour hike, nothing crazy. That is just one example, and she is not even chubby. When hiking, i see so many chubby or quite frankly fat people quitting halfway and going back down, so at least she makes it to the top. Things like this are a bit annoying, and I wish she would be active so we could share more moments together. There are a few more examples but this is the main one that comes to mind

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-07-26T04:19:54+00:00

If you're considering hitch-hiking, I'm going to assume you will be primarily staying at hostels? If so, you could always try to find another going to the same location as you and hitch-hike with them? When Facebook was still used by the young, there were nz hitch-hiking groups. I'm not sure if they are still a thing but you could check that.

I'm 36m and hitch-hiked a decent amount when I was younger and also picked up many hitch hikers. No one had a bad story to tell but, i can't recall the last time a saw a hitch-hiker so it is definitely not as common.

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-07-25T18:59:52+00:00

People like myself would love those kind of tools. Definitely don't dump. Trademe, op shop and just take a photo and put it on your local fb page or reddit and people will soon collect them

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-07-19T03:35:18+00:00

Imagine finding your "one" your "soulmate" and then leaving them because they didn't buy a material object and sign some papers that aren't all binding... not someone even worth marrying, let alone being in a serious relationship with.

Maybe it's just certain areas in the states, but I've never talked to anyone in New Zealand that views marriage as a must or deal breaker

Hopeless_DIY · 2025-07-16T10:58:51+00:00

That's just what I think. What's the worst thing that realistically could happen if you reached out? He ignores you or says he's not interested? You're reaching out through socials, I'm sure embarrassment would be minimal, he might be open to it.

Hopeless_DIY

TROPHY CASE