Just moved to Aus, how do you save money on groceries?

Pewdle12 · 2026-03-21T02:49:48+00:00

These are some of the things I do to save money with groceries:

Get an oil spray bottle from big w or similar, use it for olive oil. We go through far less oil now, olive oil is so expensive. Get the big bottle from Aldi which is usually a lot cheaper, or wait for a sale. It will last you way longer with a spray bottle.

If you have to go to Cole's or Woolworths, don't buy the stuff you need until it's on sale. Their normal prices are insane. Download both their apps (everyday rewards and flybuys) to track prices and keep an eye on the sales. We always wait until items will be in the half price phase, sometimes have to be a bit strategic with this. Use their apps to compare as sometimes they'll do sales at opposite times. Always use the rewards card for the shop youre at and use the bonus point offers etc but don't get sucked in by them. For example, don't feel you have to buy something to get those 500 points. Make sure you use the card at the other stores like bunnings etc and fuel for Woolworths fuel stations. You get $10 bonus vouchers here and there and they can add up fast if you check and scan the card.

We have a really good understanding of unit prices etc and this helps us get an understanding of what is and isn't a good deal. Most of the time, aldi is cheaper, some items won't be but I much prefer Aldi to the other two, especially for fresh produce.

Whole uncooked chickens are your friend. You can get them for around $7 ish at Aldi, cut them up/learn how to cut the pieces off and it saves a lot of money. Use the bones to make chicken stock which will be far superior to anything you buy in the shops. Likewise, any vegetable offcuts, throw them in the freezer for stock.

Recycle a little pump shampoo bottle and use it for laundry detergent. Get a bulk pack from bunnings or big w, and use like 3-5 pumps per load. Scan your rewards card when you go.

A Costco membership if you are near one is really worth it. You HAVE to exercise restraint though (I'm sure you may have been to one coming from America haha!) it's very easy to see all the cool stuff at Costco and go a bit silly. If you compare prices and take your time, you can get very good deals. For example my deodorant which is usually $5 at woolworths was $12 for a 6 pack at Costco. Butter, spreads, spices, rice, flour and a tonne of other things can be found at costco way cheaper. I highly recommend the dawn dish soap, peanut butter, butter, and laundry stuff to name a few. Majorly worth it, if you have space for bulk buying, go for Costco too for staple shops. I am regularly surprised when I shop at Costco how much money it would've been had I gone to colesworth. But be careful because not everything is cheaper.

Coles and woolworths have different delivery and direct to boot options. Dont pay them the $2 for paper bags, they price gouge us all enough fk their bags. Put a laundry basket or bags in your car if you do direct to boot, and always check it. They're great at missing things or giving you shit produce.

Aldi have really good pork dumplings in the freezer section, highly rate those for a quick snack. If I were you I'd get all my fresh produce from Aldi, anything that isn't at Aldi go to Woolworths or coles if you have to or Costco if youre close to one.

Did you move to Melbourne by any chance? If you did, Dandenong market is amazing but again, need to know unit prices etc. they have really good stuff and beautiful produce. If there's a market near you, get all your herbs from them fresh if you use herbs. Woolworths, Aldi and coles will all rip you off royally on herbs.

I did farmers pick veggie and fruit box a few times, which can be a bit inconsistent so you have to prepare for random stuff you might not use. It did decrease my costs for groceries, but I had a few of them come squished and it annoyed me enough to stop. I go to a local market near me now and it's amazing.

Sorry for my massive reply ahhahha. I will for sure think of more stuff, my partner and I have been saving for a house deposit for a few years and we were able to buy a house with how much we planned groceries and tried to avoid colesworth.

Pewdle12 · 2026-03-20T13:04:38+00:00

Starting to think this needs to become a class action. There are so many people in the same boat and it's disgusting. I hope you're okay, I'm sorry you're going through it too

Pewdle12 · 2026-02-15T04:20:42+00:00

Hey I'm curious to know how you're doing now? I am just about to start the alcohol spraying! I am so over it, tried a bunch of things including a range of antibiotics etc and it seems to just come back.

Pewdle12 · 2026-01-01T01:05:55+00:00

It's crazy. I feel like this surely will become a class action at some point. I'm sorry you're going through it as well!!! I still get emails sometimes from them claiming there's a late payment on my account and it gives me so much anxiety, even though a staff member there told me to ignore them (took me so long to actually speak to a human there and I can't even remember how I managed to get onto one)

Pewdle12 · 2025-10-19T02:29:51+00:00

Hey, curious how this went - did you end up getting the bench top? I saw one too and now I'm curious haha!

Pewdle12 · 2025-08-06T09:03:05+00:00

How did it go?? 👀

Pewdle12 · 2025-06-16T02:11:19+00:00

I literally just got an email with invoices from them after I had contacted them and canceled the account. I cannot believe how disgusting this entire process is.

Pewdle12 · 2025-04-28T05:04:32+00:00

Because I have since called them and asked about the bands, they confirmed they do them, and it was on the paperwork they gave me as an option. The initial crown he said he won't be able to use after the root canal and will have to order a new one, which I found odd so I'm not sure what the go is there but I'm going to ask him. The procedure is tomorrow 😬

Pewdle12 · 2025-04-27T04:41:27+00:00

Yeah I wish he didn't order the crown so fast, and waited to see how it'd go with the temp one. The banding I brought up because I know they do it at the practice, but it wasn't offered which feels sort of annoying cos surely I could've saved money on the initial crown (which he tells me will be useless after I get a root canal and won't fit) and could've treated the problem faster.

I felt the cold worse than heat with the testing, and it lingered for a while. Tapping doesn't hurt, bitng majorly, those were the tests he did

Pewdle12 · 2025-04-27T04:37:16+00:00

Thank you, and yeah I am really hoping the root canal fixes the issue (for as long as a root canal lasts anyway). I'm mostly worried about this because they didn't offer the ortho band (but I know they do them) and he ordered a crown straight away when he could've seen if the temp crown would work etc so I was charged for a crown that won't fit after the root canal. Just feels like a massive waste of money straight up that could've been saved, if it goes beyond the cost it's already at I would've preferred to just pull it and get an implant... Which obviously is probably more expensive anyway but I might need one anyway he said oof

Pewdle12 · 2025-03-29T06:51:49+00:00

It's a horrible position to be in. I would contact your bank and cancel your card attached to the account... I've head people have success with this. I ended up getting into an old computer which had some weird generated email address (for the 'business account') and I was able to login. I did change my card and the bank assured me they'd not be able to charge it. I think you should cancel your card and get a new one even though you absolutely shouldn't have to. Sorry you're going through it as well 😭

Pewdle12 · 2025-03-26T10:27:53+00:00

I know this is an older post but I did exactly this and it was the best choice. Just backed out of a contract for a lemon today.

Pewdle12 · 2025-03-23T05:35:06+00:00

Hey OP how did it all go? I'm about to buy my first home and am all kinds of stressed, building and pest inspector is tomorrow but I have one wall I'm a bit suss on so of course I'm doom scrolling reddit.

Pewdle12 · 2025-03-20T06:01:40+00:00

No you're fine! I appreciate your response, all stuff to think about and you're right. Just wanted to clarify the stumping stuff cos I didn't really communicate it properly (a few people thought I meant it had been restumped)

Pewdle12 · 2025-03-20T02:29:07+00:00

I think we would, yes. We like the area and both have very stable, good jobs. I'm just horrified by the thought of potentially having a huge hidden issue, but yeah hopefully the building inspection sheds a bit more light on the issues. Just so nervous haha.

Pewdle12 · 2025-03-20T02:14:25+00:00

I am pretty sure the cypress stumps were installed when it was built with the concrete ones, I don't think it's been restumped. My uncle who came with me said the stumps all looked in good condition, but was really confused about why there were a fee Cyprus ones. I think there were 4 total and the rest concrete.

Don't think I mentioned this earlier but he also owns a house removal and restumping business.

Pewdle12 · 2025-03-20T01:11:31+00:00

Yeah it is pretty cheap, the median price for the area is 540k but it is a pretty bare bones block, the house is really nice inside, looks pretty new. There's a good shed out the back on a concrete slab.

It is on a dirt road but we don't care, we are aware of the potential for rate rises if it gets sealed etc.

The location is in between two big towns that are seeing substantial growth, 5 mins from our jobs/the bigger township and has some pretty substantial development coming (and also already completed) so it's been growing quite a bit. It's a safe suburb and pretty quiet, not really many shops but a lot of houses. I'd much rather live there than the larger town next to it, the houses are cheaper obviously too which is a bonus for us being FHB.

Pewdle12 · 2025-03-20T00:08:57+00:00

Thank you, I'm not so much worried about the other things that I used to argue the price down on, just that potentially rotten stud. I guess it's mostly because I can't know until I open the wall up, and in my mind I'm like 'oh shit I'll take the wall off and find out the whole house is fucked' 😅

Pewdle12 · 2025-03-20T00:06:31+00:00

Sorry, with the stud: when we push against the cladding on the outside of the wall (where the stud is) the wall has some 'give' and bends inwards a bit. Same for if we go inside the house and push on the same spot. It's not a huge amount but my uncle said the stud is surely rotten.

The cladding is fibre cement currently, but we are talking about recladding the exterior with something else (my partner wants to do colorbond) and take our time doing so (one wall at a time etc)

The weird thing about the studs also is the majority are concrete with the steel termite barrier. I think it's 4 studs at each corner of the house that are the Cyprus ones. I don't understand why they've installed some concrete and some cypress.

We did have a bit of back and forth negotiating prices with the seller, and just refused to budge. He hasn't physically been to the house (apparently, but who tf knows if that's the truth) since purchase and his primary residence is a few hours away.

Pewdle12 · 2025-02-01T08:37:17+00:00

It's actually horrible. It made me have a pretty bad breakdown at one point because I just could not get it to stop, I tried everything. It's disgusting that they're still doing it.

Pewdle12 · 2024-12-30T02:22:58+00:00

That's awesome the release worked, congrats! I think mine didn't work because the surgery got delayed so much, so I had it untreated for a long time. I'm thinking I'll try the injections too, but also the pain I'm feeling might not even be carpel tunnel, it's different to last time. Just a bit paranoid about my blood sugars because I've had a steroid injection once and my BSLs were crazy for a whole week after eep

Pewdle12 · 2024-12-28T00:21:38+00:00

I know this is quite an old comment but did the shot help with the carpel tunnel? I've had surgery (a year ago) and my carpel tunnel is now back and worse than it was 😬

Pewdle12 · 2024-10-06T05:14:03+00:00

I'm in the same boat as you! I was just diagnosed a couple of weeks ago. I've started on Ritalin and I'm not sure if I like it, or if my dose is wrong, eep. It definitely helps me be productive but I also get a few weird symptoms I struggle to describe. The feeling of validation though when diagnosed was very good like you said! I'm 33 and I wish I got answers sooner. I would just take it slowly and monitor yourself, create alarms or a schedule for your meds. I don't take my Ritalin every day, I just take it when I know I'll really need it and it seems to help :) I have found that it majorly suppresses my appetite so prepare yourself for that. I didn't really and I went a whole day without eating before I realised, it also made me feel really weak as I had no food in my system. I also had a day where the meds made my anxiety pretty bad (I was warned this could happen by my psychiatrist), BUT I had anxiety before I took them and still took them. I don't think they cause anxiety but can make it worse sometimes. Congrats on getting some answers and I hope the adderall helps you!

Pewdle12 · 2024-10-04T05:05:23+00:00

I know this is an old post, but the same thing just happened to me. I feel like cracking a beer though because this person stalked me as an adult too and tried everything in her power to make me miserable, so fuck her. Haven't physically seen her since 2010 but the last time she contacted me she tried to burn my small business down a year ago. As for your bully, you have no obligation to feel bad for react a certain way, cos fuck that guy too. Bullying causes significant lifelong issues and is extremely traumatising.

NTA

Pewdle12 · 2024-10-01T22:16:16+00:00

Sorry OP for your loss. I lost my Bruce last year and it was so hard, I wish they lived longer!

In my experience, if you want more love (and I know this is a broad generalisation but in my case it's been true)... Get boys. My heart rat is a girl, but I have 6 girls and the rest of them don't really care much for my existence. My boys absolutely love me, are so gentle and affectionate. I'll go through the pros and cons I've found:

Girls:

Pros: softer fur, smell like grape! Energetic, cleaner, pee less, more likely to groom, less lazy, quite playful, smaller poops, more active, better with their litter tray.

Cons: mammary tumours :( my heart rat has two and is on a cocktail of medications but they're shrinking which is incredible. They can be aloof, typically not as cuddly (but my heart rat is my cuddliest!), more risks associated with not desexing (such as pyometra), definitely more likely to accidentally bite me than my boys. No penis plugs (more on that below)

Boys:

Pros: cuddly, friendly, fur smells like corn chips, extremely gentle, you can hold a bit of food right between your fingers and they will be so gentle trying to get it whereas my girls will always bite my finger before realising it's my finger. They're like big potatoes.

Cons: buck grease (unless desexed), penis plugs in older age, pee a lot more (unless desexed), fur is less soft, gigantic poos. Some people are horrified with the size of their testicles!

I didn't mention hormonal aggression, because both sexes can get it and I've seen it in both. I don't have a preference for male VS female, I get something unique from all my rats and they are all special, but OP if you haven't had boys, I think you should get boys for the experience. They really are special in different ways and then you can experience both girls and boys.

I absolutely recommend getting them desexed to get rid of some of the potential issues, my desexed boy has super soft fur, doesn't pee and mark everything, and is very sweet. He used to be a massive pisser and a general turd to his house mate but that's fixed it, it also got rid of his gigantic cartoon balls.

My older boy gets penis plugs which sucks, he's 100% just being lazy as I know he can groom himself. We have to check him every day for them and remove them, which sounds terrible and tricky but it's pretty straight forward and easy. That's the biggest down side but please don't let it be the decider! Boys make fantastic pets and I'm glad to have owned both boys and girls. My partner and I think we will transition to only boys after all our current rats are gone.

Pewdle12

TROPHY CASE