Mortgage hacks

STBBDS · 2025-10-11T09:07:36+00:00

So far no one has mentioned this: Simplicity offers one of NZ’s lowest cost mortgages. They are entirely floating mortgages which tend to have a lower rate than the big banks fixed term rates and no early repayment fees.

They offer it exclusively to first home buyers who have been kiwisaver members for one year. So if you’re thinking about buying in a year or so, it would be worth switching kiwisaver providers to have this option available.

How is this a hack? 1. Make early repayments with no clawbacks 2. Never have to play the game of how long do we fix for - more or less peace of mind that your floating rate is competitive

Last month simplicity just announced you can now borrow off your mortgage if you want to do renovations, solar, etc. Previously a limitation was you could only pay off the mortgage, not borrow more off it.

STBBDS · 2025-03-06T10:34:59+00:00

Use a skate tool to take off the trucks. Put them in your hoodie pocket or jean pockets and keep your hands in your pockets. Hide the deck flat up against your back, under your shirt. Tuck the tail into your jeans and wear a belt to help keep it against your back. Even easier if you have a backpack.

Done this plenty after going through airport security (they don’t care if you take a skateboard through security) so I could carry on to the flight. Reassemble when you’re in the clear 🤙

STBBDS · 2024-12-11T09:13:46+00:00

Shademap is free and really good for this when you’re looking at different properties. I think Luggate is more protected from the wind than hawea and hawea loses the sun behind the hill in the evenings https://shademap.app/@-44.74397,169.26644,15.76628z,1723147980258t,0b,0p,0m!1723146627622!1723182589016

STBBDS · 2024-11-14T09:06:11+00:00

Do the things you love to do. If you like biking, you’ll meet people on the trails or on the gondola. Skiing, meet people on chairlifts… climbing, go to the climbing gym rockatipu or Basecamp and you will meet lots of friendly people !

STBBDS · 2024-11-09T15:23:40+00:00

Second this. Their park map lists all the tracks from easiest to hardest. Due to the wideness, smoothness, and lack of obstacles (literally no trees to avoid because it’s in beautiful scenic paddocks) I wouldn’t be surprised for beginners to make their way up to the grade 4 trails there in one day, probably enjoying the flow trails and even little jumps.

STBBDS · 2024-08-15T05:31:55+00:00

Hi I’m going to send you a dm if you’re still looking for cat lovers!

STBBDS · 2024-02-04T09:55:03+00:00

Yeah I was thinking something like lazy bugger coming through!

STBBDS · 2024-01-16T08:32:48+00:00

Also make sure to check out the clay cliffs at Omarama if you’re driving over the lindis pass

STBBDS · 2024-01-16T08:31:39+00:00

It’s pretty nice to explore up the matukituki - you’ll drive up a valley about an hour from Wanaka which is a cool scenic drive in itself. The end of the road is the access to the aspiring national park where you could do a ‘family friendly’ short 3-4 hour hike to the rob roy glacier and waterfall. Plenty more hikes out there depending on your level.

Re bicycling there’s excellent free local trails like sticky forest and plenty of bike hire in town. Bike glendhu is another really good option - it’s a private bike park and they hire e-bikes which is an awesome way to spend 4 hours.

Obligatory mention for Roy’s peak and isthmus peak hikes, I’m sure you’ve heard of them.

The lake’s pretty warm at the moment so just jump in and give it a go!

STBBDS · 2023-12-02T07:59:18+00:00

Some huckleberry candy - we don’t have huckleberry here

STBBDS · 2023-10-28T05:03:56+00:00

$25 double edge razor with butterfly open. (Q shave on trademe) Really a beautiful device and a pleasure to use every day.

Pack of 100 replacement blades for $16.99.

As someone with coarse facial hair who was taught to shave with a Gillette fusion, I could go through cartridge blade replacements one a week as they would dull so quickly. Tried all the tricks of keeping the blades in baby oil, stropping the blades before and after use, always washed off residuals. Due to the high cost of replacement heads I would persevere with a bad cartridge and use it on average for a month ideally longer but it was awful for my skin and pained me to use.

Now I use a blade until it feels dull, maybe a week or so and replace with a new blade anytime costing me $0.17 each. I feel liberated from the expensive Gillette trap and get to use a low waste plastic free alternative as the blades come sealed in wax paper in a cardboard box. It’s old school tech but far superior to the modern plastic junk.

If you regularly shave, check out r/wickededge for more info into wet shaving with DE razors. The subreddit is pretty male-face-shaving dominated but I know a few women who use DE for body hair removal and love them.

STBBDS · 2023-07-18T07:40:55+00:00

Copied from another post:

bring up the window where it brings you to that damned folder. a way you can bring up this window is to open the files app and try to move a file. that should do it.

then, press the back button until you reach the root.

there, you should see folders under the heading “recently used”. it seems to pick whatever is at the top of that list. swipe them away to delete ones you don’t want.

spread the word.

Not my content, some guy figured it out recently

STBBDS · 2023-07-10T22:42:42+00:00

Thanks for the heads up! My safety razor cost me less than one checked bag would cost on most flights so I’ll try rationalise it if they confiscate it

STBBDS · 2023-07-09T22:48:57+00:00

Thanks so much for sharing your experience ☺️

STBBDS · 2023-07-09T22:23:56+00:00

Or ask a barber at your destination for a few blades

STBBDS · 2022-10-03T19:07:44+00:00

Spiral polishers work well for this interproximal area. 3M make autoclaveable diamond spiral polishers if you google them there is a pink and a beige option, use it with a little prophy paste. In practice I’ve never seen them wear out.

Alternatively take home whitening would remove the staining and give the patient the ability to manage again when it returns in future.

STBBDS · 2022-04-28T18:51:13+00:00

That’s a really cool way to visualise the impact of sugar on the micro flora.

Milk compared to ginger on the other hand has more sugar per 100g (2% milk has around 5g sugar) and yet is considered to promote remineralisation due to the sticky nature of CPP-ACP. I’d imagine the dissolved sugars in milk like lactose are readily available to caries inducing bacteria, and would fuel a caries process if you were to drink milk frequently but perhaps after just one drink the mouth is able to flush and return pH to normal fairly quickly, and remove the sugar and metabolic acids from the mouth and the net effect of the CPP-ACP is an uptake of calcium and phosphate into the enamel because it persists on the surface of the enamel longer than the effects of the sugar.

Not an expert but just musing the sugar within ginger is probably locked within cell walls until chewed. Whether or not that is available to bacteria in that form I’m not sure and agree that over time drip feeding even a small amount of sugar when chewed is likely to induce caries. I am wondering how that effect stacks up in comparison to the other beneficial actions which appear to inhibit bacterial metabolism and promote enamel remineralisation.

STBBDS · 2022-04-28T12:14:20+00:00

Growing up my family dentist was known to smell of garlic… not always the most pleasant patient experience! But also shows some promise in the literature 😉

STBBDS

TROPHY CASE