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Bigred

living on centerlink/min wage penny pincher thread

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Just starting a thread on living on a small budget and idea's on how to make ends meet in

this global hell hole . So my first post is heating i love kero heaters i have mine cranking

but my main problem is getting the bulk kero . So if any one in brisbane knows of a good source

would be great i also use a 9kg cylinder that i can refil at the pump rate so it holds 18 litres (lpg is 500g per/l) i use it for cooking and run a gas lantern to heat the place .My question is the amount of Co carbon monoxide it produce it burns 48g a hr but i live in a big qld'er .But back to kero heating browns plans does a new one for 300 and a barrel 20lt of kero for 60 .I use a old one that has a hotplate i put on it so i can heat water to add humidity to leat the heat catch so to speak .Also i make my own bread its a cob loaf im irish so i add potatoes NO ITS NOT FUNNY ITS FUCKEN AWESOME .So let the good ideas flow i use my pressure cooker for mycology but i do make some chutney and jame when i can .I use a food dehydator to make MRE (seppo term for dehydrated foods) .

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Great idea for a thread

Yep it is hard esp if your on newstart *shudders at the memory*

I would say

-growing and making your own food as much as possible

-shopping at op shops, 2 dollar shops, farmer markets, garage sales

-looking at websites like freecycle gumtree for free/cheap stuff

-there are charities out there that can help out with food bills etc when you need

sorry cant help you with the kero I have no idea. im lucky in that I have cheap rent and heating is included

I often just rug up with blankets and jackets anyway.

Edited by tangled
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One tip that I have continued to follow from my uni days is planning your weekly meals ahead of time, and then buying the exact ingredients you need for them. That way you don't buy more than you need, and you are eating relatively fresh food.

e.g.

Lentil soup

Kichardi

Pumpkin soup

.....

2 brown onions

red lentils

basmati

...etc.

Also calculating your expenses down to a weekly rate and saving that each week so that when the bills come it is no dramas, because you have the funds sitting there waiting.

Or not... :wink:

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if you are on a centrelink payment you can get your rent and bills automatically deducted each fortnight to go to relevant person so you don't have to worry about them

Edited by tangled

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In brisbane there is a fruit market at oxely on blunder road fruit and veg are so cheap

i just got a kg of sweet potatoes for 48c and onions 1kg 1$ rockmelons a 1$ .

Lentils are a must they are so versitile from dahl to lental burgers and my

favorite curied lental pasties .

This thread is a common cents approach to a dollar world . Even if you are well off its good to be

cautious how many own im lucky to .But that being said its up to you how you spend your money .

But from what i gather i don't think there are any 1%ers and millionare rich kids . But its also fun

and it can be eaisly achieved .

yougurt is super easy to make google recipes but its basically boiling milk anding a culture and keeping warm

for a short period .

I normally have mango chutney coming out the wazoo but the last there years many of my local tree's did not produce

on that note. There are heaps of urban fruit tree's in my area .That being said if any members in the brisbane crew want

to have a pickling/jam making meet

My solar system cost 4000 to build but i will only have a very small power bill and most of that is due to

my inverter can only produve 3000 watts any more is drawn from the grid i.e in need 7000watts

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Buy dry bulk goods, i.e: dried beans, lentils, spices.

By your spices whole i.e: peppercorns, cumin seeds, coriander seeds. (ground them fresh for each meal and it will taste 10x better than old powder which has leached it's flavour)

Buy local veg as said by everyone else.

Don't eat animal products, they are expensive, incredibly unsustainable (http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/) and mostly very unhealthy (http://www.healthline.com/health-news/food-high-protein-diet-increases-mortality-risk-030414).

Remember that improving health lowers costs due to medical costs.

If you smoke, switch to e-cigarettes.

Grow as much of your own food as possible, cultivate DIY skills to make your own things.

Use public transport as much as possible, walk/ride bicycle (free exercise, no gym costs, improves health which reduces medical bills)

As said before, wear warm clothes opposed to heating. I wear thermals almost every day under my clothes during winter, and mostly don't feel the cold. I can't say I would resist using a heater if i could afford to, but I have lived mostly on $200/week (including rent) since i was 17.

Barter your own produce (fruit/veg/magic plants/services/diy) with people in your community for their things.

Hitchhike/hop trains for travel.

Find the things that you often compulsively spend money and use psycho-analytical techniques to find the cause of the desire, and try to resolve the habit/addiction. Systematically work through your consumption patterns and minimise them as much as possible.

This doesn't mean giving up fun things, but realising which things actually make us feel better (socialising, making art, nature exploration) and which don't (junk food, porn, consuming 40 standard drinks and waking up in an alleyway).

I've been trying to get on centerlink for years but my parents are farmers and have too much $ pass through their hands (even though they profit very little), so have always been turned down.

I think it's definitely do-able, and one can live happily, comfortably and frugally but it would take perseverance and discipline if you came from a heavy consumption pattern.

I've had the privilege of never having much, so I don't really have that lifelong addiction to goods/services.

Though when i was 18, i worked FIFO for 6 months and somehow spent 20,000 on absolutely nothing substantial. FIFO lifestyle makes you want to justify your work-induced depression/isolation with ridiculous spending.

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Also make your own soap, laundry, cleaning products, perfume, make up etc.

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hey i've been a vegetarian for a long time but i wouldn't be so quick to judge the healthfulness of animal products. fuzzily interpreted studies like the one you posted make great headlines but that's about all usually.

due to an amino imbalance it causes (from memory, glycine and leucin?) i would urge meaters away from the pure muscle meat and towards the fattier, more sinewy cuts. how does that fit into the thread? while the price of meat is never my concern, i believe the fatty cuts like oxtail might be cheaper since they've got everyone running around believing saturated is your ticket to the grave. on that matter, i'm told that bones for marrow are pretty much sold at dog bone prices, marrow is full of the good stuff, i can't tell you which stuff since it isn't my concern but i am also told it's delicious.

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Avoid buying meat if you are a carnivore, harvest it if you are able and can.

Not all animal products are unsustainable.

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Sorry, I was lazy with my references.

When i say *mostly* very unhealthy, i mean most, but not all animal products. If it wasn't for the huge environmental impact of the animal industry, and the disregard for animal welfare (I grew up in the animal industry), I would eat it very occasionally. Because most animal products are fucking delicious.

Here is some elaboration on my claim though.

Red meat, The meat from mammals such as cows, sheep, veal calves, lamb, pigs, horses is invariably considered red: (sourced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_meat#Human_health which includes study sources for all statements/claims)

  • Epidemiological studies have found that an increased consumption of processed and red meat is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer. The risk is not associated with white meat like chicken.[13][14] The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) classify red meat consumption as carrying an increased risk of contracting bowel cancer.[15] In the United Kingdom approximately 21% of bowel cancers are associated with red meat consumption.[15] The WCRF recommends limiting intake of red meat to less than 300g (11 oz) cooked weight per week, "very little, if any of which to be processed."[16}
  • Red meat consumption also increases the risk of lung cancer.[17]
  • There is suggestive evidence that red meat intake might increase the risk of esophageal, pancreatic, stomach, endometrial and bladder cancer.[18][19][20][21]
  • Those that eat more than 8 servings of red meat per month are 4.9 times more likely to have cardiac events than those eating less than four servings per month.[48]
  • A 21-year follow up of about thirty thousand Seventh-day Adventists (adventists are known for presenting a "health message" that recommends vegetarianism) found that people who ate red meat daily were 60% more likely to die of heart disease than those who ate red meat less than once per week.[49]
  • The risk of coronary disease due to high cholesterol can be mitigated by switching to a leaner red meat. According to one study, funded by the beef producers advocacy group, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, eating lean meat (both red and white) produced nearly identical cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in both groups.[50][51]
  • Red meat intake has been associated with an increased risk of type II diabetes.[52][53][54]
  • A 1998 survey of about five thousand vegetarian and non-vegetarian people found that vegetarians had about 30% lower BMIs.[62] A 2006 survey of fifty thousand women found that those with higher "western diet pattern" scores gained about two more kilograms over the course of four years than those who lowered their scores.[63]

I'll organise some more research later on dairy, poultry and fish. Tho imo some fish are pretty damn close to healthy.

I do think it is relevant to this thread as i'm still trying to prove that eating most animal products creates unnecessary costs in life.

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Avoid buying meat if you are a carnivore, harvest it if you are able and can.

Not all animal products are unsustainable.

Which sustainable animal products are you referring to?

I guess when i said animal 'product' i'm referring to what can be purchased through mainstream avenues.

If you are raising and slaughtering your own animals, then I see little room for environmental problems there other than methane production, which depends on the animal's diet.

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blackfellas supermarket...lol...thats when its not been fckd by agriculture or urbanisation :wink:

rabbits is one classic example..... freshwater eels ..wallaby...I could raise others but the harvesting some find contentious.

One deer lasts my family a while.

EDIT - when you have a flock of chickens, little roosters go to pot.

did i mention insects?

Edited by waterboy 2.0
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shop-lift, lol just kidding

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No ones raised the dumpster dive yet

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I've been trying to get on centerlink for years but my parents are farmers and have too much $ pass through their hands (even though they profit very little), so have always been turned down.

If your over 21 it shouldn't matter what your parents earn. Even if you are living with them, you should still be entitled to newstart. But even if you are under 21, just tell them your homeless and give them your local post office for an address. Then they'll have to pay up.

Anyway, don't have much crafty little tips. But I do always buy like 15 packs of those homebrand Mi Goreng noodles when I can, they cost $1.20 for a 5 pack with 418 calories each. There not very healthy, but they taste awesome and ensure you'll not go hungry when you run out of real food. Screw getting stuck a week from payday with nothing but salt and pepper in the cupboard, it's a horrible feeling! Then you got the dollar a litre milk from woolies, which is just a life saver when your broke and craving some protein.

Can't really tell ya how to eat healthy when your on newstart and got bills and rent to pay, but I can tell ya how not to starve.

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.My question is the amount of Co carbon monoxide it produce it burns 48g a hr but i live in a big qld'er

Dunno how to calculate but you can buy CO detectors to warn you & just install them like smoke detectors. Not leaving it running overnight while you're asleep is a good plan too - get some longjohns & a hot water bottle & huddle down under a feather doona - cheaper & less risk of suffocating in your sleep.

Insulation - your heating bills will be a fraction of what they were if you just insulate your house & yourself. Buy some good thermals & wear them all the time, at night put thick curtains over windows & any doors that open outside or to an area you don't want to heat (like the spare bedroom or laundry). If you can't afford thermal stuff, go to the opshop & buy some thin woolen jumpers (make sure they're 100% wool) - doesn't matter how daggy they are as you'll be wearing them under your other clothes like a superhero outfit that gives you the power of not feeling the cold - you can walk around in your reindeer-cardy-underlayer being all like "what are you whining about you wusses, it's not cold at all" and no one will know your secret.

Dahl & rice have most nutrients you need - buy in bulk & learn how to cook. A few greens (malabar spinach, silverbeet & wild rocket are nice long-yielding ones) grown in the backyard or window boxes will help with variety. Then just supplement with some other veges, nuts, eggs & meat when you can. Spices make most food taste good. If you're living mainly on dahl & rice (or stale-bread sandwiches, or whatever other basic blandness) a few jars of pickle/chutney/sauce really help to add some flavour - you can make these yourself when you have surplus chillies/fruit/veges, but even if you buy them, a $3 jar will last for many meals.

Buy a $20 slow cooker from kmart to cook dried beans or tough meat & bones into succulent stews & curries - you can also bake bread in one I've heard, so it's good if you don't have an oven.

Stay out of supermarkets. They're just there to make you want to buy things. Figure out what you actually want to buy, then go get it somewhere else - from the produce market or the local butcher or someone else who's not going to try to sell you 2-for-1 marshmallow biscuits. Or if you do have to visit big shops, make sure you check their specials bins (& their actual bins, if you're not squeamish) too - you can get stuff 90-100% off just because it has a torn label or is dented. Treat expiry dates as a guideline only & trust your nose instead. If you're making your own yoghurt look for short-dated discount milk - this way you can make 2L of yoghurt for a dollar or two. If you have trouble keeping a starter culture alive & don't want to keep buying fresh tubs to use as starter, consider buying powdered culture online - it's expensive because you're buying a bulk amount, but it'll last for years in the freezer.

Befriend someone at the local bakery or cafe who can keep old bread & pastries for you (you need to be pretty reliable or they'll stop doing this) - alternatively just go around near closing time & ask if they have any leftovers to give away. Sometimes they are more willing to give you food if you say it's for your pets (chickens, rabbits, whatever) - I have no idea why this is, maybe just to cover their arses as far as food safety goes, although sometimes I get the impression that some folks are happier about helping out an animal than a poor person. But hey, whatever - when you've been living on beans & rice all week, a sackful of croissants is worth whatever wheedling is required to obtain it.

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No ones raised the dumpster dive yet

I eat animal products sometimes from dumpsters, but only heavily processed stuff so that contamination risk is low.

But yeah, groceries and baked goods are plentiful from the right dumpsters! Very good tip for low cost living.

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Seymore

Cooking on the cheap. Granted it was built for dying but it cooks stirfrys perfectly :)

Edited by shortly
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Pigeons are an excellent source of meat in the cities. When I lived in the suburbs at uni I lived off pigeons. Easy to attract to your yard if you feed some seed or better yet move in next to someone who already does such a thing. If the animals look healthy they likely are, city pigeons often dont look healthy and as such likely are not. You could even build a dovecote or cages for them and let them out to forage each day.

As far as foraging for other animals or plants goes there are often easily accessible areas loaded with food at certain times of the year. I have a theory I call the front door theory, people are blind to whats right in front of them. Often the best oysters are found at a popular jetty, or there are loads of mangoes in a central city park yet no one picks them, or a central creek/drain might be full of cassava, bananas or taro. People dont see these things as food, especially when the park is seen as a common homeless hangout. Timing for a lot of things has to be perfect as one wants maximum yield for minimum time and $ invested so keep mental notes of when to find/ catch things. The next thing is to preserve or stores such things for the rest of the year.

I could provide loads of examples for where I live now, Townsville and Cairns, also random other places Ive been and just noted all the food.

A good alternative for diesel or kero would be biodiesel, not so much in the cities but in rural areas one can often collect lots of waste vegetable oil from takeaway shops.

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Try to group up with some like-minded households for bulk-buying endeavours. There is a lot of stuff that is easy to buy in bulk and split a few ways, like rice, nuts, dried fruit & legumes, herbs & spices, also fresh things like crates of apples or tomatoes from the growers market. A few packs of clean strong bags (eg. Aldi-brand snaplock bags) for divvying up the drygoods, and you're sorted. You can save a goodly amount of money this way, for example:

*lentils 500g bag from supermarket = $2 ($4/kg)

*lentils 10kg bag from Indian grocer = $12 ($1.20/kg)

*basmati rice 1kg bag from supermarket = $4 ($4/kg)

*basmati rice 10kg sack from Indian grocer =$19 ($1.90/kg)

*tomatoes (seconds/cooking quality) 1.5 kg tray from supermarket = $3 ($2/kg)

tomatoes (seconds/cooking quality) 10kg box from produce market = $7 ($0.70/kg)

*cumin seeds 50g pack from supermarket = $2 ($40/kg)

*cumin seeds 500g pack from Indian grocer = $8 ($16/kg)

This is also good for things like olives, pickles & oil - although these are harder to divide between your group they'll keep very well, so you can just stock up for yourself when you're flush. I try to wait until I've got a bit of cash & buy the big tins of olive oil from the big deli shops, for example - these run about $28 for 4L of nice extra-virgin cold-pressed oil, versus about $6 for 500mL of mediocre oil from the supermarket, so less than half the price, for better quality. Likewise they have 2kg jars of olives, sundried tomatoes, etc that work out less than half the price per kilo compared to the little jars, and keep a very long time.

Buying bulk garden supplies can save a lot of money too. Often it only costs 2 or 3 times as much to get a cubic metre of potting mix or sand or whatevers delivered to your house, as it would to buy one little sack from the nursery.

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Also if you can get enough households together, buying from wholesalers/importers is the way to go.

If ordering by the pallet your rice will drop from $1.90/kg to about $0.95/kg. Some places will do mixed pallets, so bags of rice, lentils & beans etc on a single pallet.

Or if you are friendly with the storeman you may get the bags that were sampled for their import clearance, on the cheap?

They are under weight by a few grams & have holes in the bags so are not supposed to be sold.

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Yup. Bulk up on household stuff if you can see a hard time coming too

Sucks to run out of shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, bog rolls, cleaning products and laundry detergent when you're trying to look good job hunting. Especially if a few of them run out at once

All that suff lasts a long time. If you know the next few months will be unwaged or hard, go to a cleaning products place and stock up

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