Budgeting tips please

Maybe Auckland does have higher power bills, I also can't understand how you can spend $300 + on power.
In Dunedin, over winter we had the heat pump going most of the day (big arse variety too), heater on in the bedroom at night, lots of washing (mostly cold washes though). About $150 a month was the norm, we had a heart attack if it was more like $180!! There is no way we could make the power bill $300 if we tried, so maybe we are charged less for power than Aucklanders are?

We are on a daily composite plan with Genesis energy and get 20.38/c unit + 91.00 c/day

Looks like ours is cheaper than yours Linzy! Who are you with?

I have been tempted to go with contact for the flyby's points.

Woah, you guys do get charged a helluva lot more up in Auckland!! With Meridian in Dunedin, we were paying 37.50c per day on a low user plan, but they charged 22.82c per kw.

Has anyone bought a beast for their meat?
Has it worked out cheaper?

We don't really have the facilities to do the butchering ourselves. Guess we'd get cuts of meat we wouldn't normally be able to afford to get.

I've done both - the butchering and had it done by someone else. It does cost a bit to get someone else to do it (just paid $320 to process a steer - including some corned beef and sausages, basic cuts are a bit cheaper) but it's so much easier that way and right now easy is good! It would've taken DH and I ages to do it all ourselves, whereas this way we just had to leave Brownie in the yards and collect him in bags later. We just told the butcher how many people in our house and he packaged it up accordingly. It was 162 kg carcass - that included bones obviously, but not the guts/head etc and Brownie probably would have sold for around $600 if we'd sold him - so say $900 all up if you were purchasing the beast as well. We would have got over 100 kg meat, so less than $9/kg. I'd say if you usually buy cheap cuts it won't save you much, but you will get lots of *better* cuts that you won't usually be able to afford - so better meat for the same money. On the flip side, you do have to have the freezer space! We currently have the steer and a porker pig in our big chest freezer and it's full to the brim.
Last time we had a lamb done it was $95 to have him collect the live lamb and we picked it up packaged and frozen later. That was a different butcher though. The lamb probably would have cost around $100 to buy. I can't remember how much meat we got, but I think it about filled one of those big chilly bins and it was sooooo yum!!
The pig was about 60 kg carcass (and over 40kg meat), would have cost around $400 to buy and process, but that included quite a bit of bacon and sausages. So about $10/kg. Dunno how that compares to shop pork, but it was tasty!! And I know all my meat had a happy, healthy life. And neither the steer or the lamb had ever been treated with drugs of any kind.
Heh, sorry about the essay

Wow go your mum! Im too soft and pay someone to do ours, even the sheep.

just got my new power bill in & is it $219 so pretty happy with that....roll on summer

I wonder how much power electric blankets use as we have a bill of about $250 during the winter for 2 adults and 1 baby and apart from that, it seems pretty similar to you guys. It was only about $150 before winter when the heaters/blankets/dryer usage all went up.

We're probably on a pretty good deal too as it's only 18.478c per kWh. The day usage is 91.54 cents but that's the smaller part of the bill.

Edited by chelle

Soda stream - that's a good idea. We drink too much fizzy drink, but that would be a good alternative.