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myfullhouse
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Joined: 29 July 2007
Location: West Auckland
Points: 2944
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Posted: 18 September 2010 at 2:43pm |
I think Auckland prices for electricity are alot higher
ETA: out of interest then what do you guys get charged for electricity? Ours is 20.59c/kWh and 101.92c/day fixed charge
Edited by Linzy
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whitewave
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Joined: 04 July 2008
Location: Raetihi
Points: 2220
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Posted: 18 September 2010 at 2:51pm |
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?
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HoneybunsMa
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Joined: 01 February 2009
Location: NZ
Points: 1724
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Posted: 18 September 2010 at 10:21pm |
Without looking at the bills we get charged
133.21c day fixed and 20.770c kWh thats come from Mercury site. We do get the discount for having our gas and power with Mercury
I think the consumer site has a price comparison for the different companies
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xLUCKYx
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Joined: 30 September 2007
Location: Waitakere
Points: 2340
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Posted: 18 September 2010 at 10:29pm |
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.
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myfullhouse
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Joined: 29 July 2007
Location: West Auckland
Points: 2944
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Posted: 18 September 2010 at 10:32pm |
We are with Mercury. Might do a bit of shopping around
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whitewave
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Location: Raetihi
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Posted: 19 September 2010 at 10:17pm |
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.
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amme_eilyk
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Joined: 30 September 2009
Location: Feilding
Points: 978
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Posted: 20 September 2010 at 6:43pm |
wow those power bills are scary. for the two of us we pay a max of $80/month and that is with me home all day and during winter before we had a woodburner so were using heaters.
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caliandjack
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Joined: 10 March 2007
Location: West Auckland
Points: 12487
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Posted: 20 September 2010 at 6:49pm |
Has anyone bought a beast for their meat?
Has it worked out cheaper?
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[/url] Angel June 2012
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kebakat
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Joined: 01 January 1900
Location: Palmy North
Points: 10980
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Posted: 20 September 2010 at 7:01pm |
Buying a beast usually does work out cheaper per kg.
The more you do yourself the cheaper it works out to be. My parents for example do most of the butchering themselves (well my mum does) and the only thing they get done is the mince because they only have a tiny mincer and it just doesn't cut it for a whole beast. My mum won't allow my dad to kill a beast cause hes just not skilled enough to do it cleanly so they get another farmer to do that.
For a sheep they do the lot, kill, skin, gut, butcher so its very cheap
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caliandjack
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Joined: 10 March 2007
Location: West Auckland
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Posted: 20 September 2010 at 7:06pm |
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.
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[/url] Angel June 2012
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kebakat
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Joined: 01 January 1900
Location: Palmy North
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Posted: 20 September 2010 at 7:15pm |
You actually don't need as much space/tools as you might think.
This may gross some people out but..
My parents will hang the beast in the garage. Mum uses a couple of different butchering knives and a saw. She sharpens the knives herself as they have a decent steel but gets the saw sharpened by a guy in bulls that does it.
If you don't wanna do that you would probably have to ask around to get the best price for butchering services. But when my parents do it they like doing it because they choose what sizes of cuts they want packed. How much steak per bag etc
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T_Rex
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Joined: 07 March 2007
Location: PN
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Posted: 20 September 2010 at 7:55pm |
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
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caliandjack
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Location: West Auckland
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Posted: 20 September 2010 at 8:03pm |
Might look into it when we move north and see if my Dad will go half with us, they've got the freezer space so can always store some of it with them and grab it as we need to.
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[/url] Angel June 2012
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palomino
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Joined: 27 July 2008
Location: North Island
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Posted: 20 September 2010 at 8:04pm |
Wow go your mum! Im too soft and pay someone to do ours, even the sheep.
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jazzy
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Joined: 16 January 2009
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Posted: 21 September 2010 at 12:49pm |
My IL's did it with a cow a yr, they bought calves & raised them & killed 1 a yr. They when halves in the butchering with friends which I think last time was approx $250. They gave us a few packs & it was lovely meat. If they did not have a standing arrangement with friends we would of gladly gone halves.
So it would cost them the cost of the calf they bought 7-10 yearly & the cost of the kill/butchery.
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jazzy
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Posted: 21 September 2010 at 12:50pm |
just got my new power bill in & is it $219 so pretty happy with that....roll on summer
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myfullhouse
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Joined: 29 July 2007
Location: West Auckland
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Posted: 21 September 2010 at 2:09pm |
I think it depends regarding a beast. Bro and SIL have done it a few times and one time they got great cuts etc for a very good price and another time they were not happy with the cost or what they got.
I asked our local butcher and he doesn't do beasts for people, he said it doesn't necessarily work out cheaper. He also said that some butchers don't always give you all the meat . I would suggest getting a butcher recommended to you in the hope of getting the best deal
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tiptoes
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Joined: 05 November 2007
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Posted: 26 September 2010 at 3:42pm |
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
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flakesitchyfeet
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Joined: 23 March 2008
Location: A cute wee place in the SI
Points: 1564
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Posted: 26 September 2010 at 7:41pm |
This has been a useful thread, our income is dropping 10k for the next two years, freaking out a tad!
We wanted to do the beast thing for meat but
1 - I don't have room for a chest freezer and
2 - It'd become a pet and an expense instead.
We have swapped from Meridian Energy to powershop, which seems to be saving us money so far, but the weather is getting warmer too.
We have swapped from Telecom to Slingshot. Internet isn't as super, but bills are cheaper.
I've been too lazy to meal plan for awhile. Will start again soon.
I bake the biscuits and cupcakes for lunches
We run totalmoney with BNZ. And have visas linked to flybuys. Everything goes on the Visa, flybuys are used to buy gifts whenever possible.
We have, and use, the soda stream, bread maker and esiyo.
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http://eggsineachbasket.blogspot.com/
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tiptoes
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Posted: 27 September 2010 at 8:08am |
Soda stream - that's a good idea. We drink too much fizzy drink, but that would be a good alternative.
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