VENT: Food & petrol prices
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Category: Support
Forum Name: Budgeting
Forum Description: Want to save before baby arrives? Struggling on one income? Found some great ways to make your dollar go further? Share your thoughts & tips here.
URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=38460
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Topic: VENT: Food & petrol prices
Posted By: Sez26
Subject: VENT: Food & petrol prices
Date Posted: 18 March 2011 at 1:47pm
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Really need a vent... just filled up my car and it's $90! When I bought it 2 years ago, it cost $60 max to fill. Great, now I feel guilty using the car. Also, went to the supermarket, everything that we need to buy has increased in price. DS loves bananas, probably has a couple of large ones per day, but at $2.50 per kg, I found myself thinking that we can't have him eating so many anymore, which is awful! Providing our family with healthy food is our priority but at these prices we will be very stretched.
No savings for us, all our income will be chewed up by essential living expenses. Poor DH works so hard and he never sees any money. These price increases are really freaking me out now. ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Replies:
Posted By: lilfatty
Date Posted: 18 March 2011 at 3:17pm
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Fruit will be cheaper in a fruit and veg shop than in a supermarket.
------------- Mummy to Issy (3) and Elias (18 months) I did it .. 41 kgs gone! From flab to fab in under a year  http://www.femininefitness.co.nz/category/blog - LFs weight blog
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Posted By: Bizzy
Date Posted: 18 March 2011 at 3:40pm
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i hate buying bananas at the supermarket - they are usually a minimum of a $1 more expensive than the fruit and veg. rising prices are just a fact of life now.
I never pay full price for my gas. i either use the pak n save fuel voucher or go to the local gull and use their discounted pump. i think i paid $2.10 a couple of days ago. a couple of weeks ago i went into New World and they didnt even have any canned fuit salad for under $2. i know i can get it cheaper so i just refused to buy it at that price. ------------- http://www.myfitnesspal.com/weight-loss-ticker"> 
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Posted By: jazzy
Date Posted: 18 March 2011 at 7:02pm
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I have started doing the fruit/vege shop at pns. I can not be bothered going to the vege shop any more, unless I am near it. I do buy big when it comes to fruit & veg. I buy what I have to but check out specials. I stock up on meat when on special.
I have stopped using the car so DH just runs his to work & I walk to kindy/school so 12-15kms a day, we save heaps on gas. DH uses it to work which is about 10 mins in car. I use it to shop with once a week so saving there by not going to the shops so often, & we go out in the weekends, sometimes walk to the parks. So I think what I save by cutting my shopping trips down & not running an extra car helps me do all my shopping at pns. The fruit maybe a bit more expensive but I am not driving an extra few kms to the veg shop. However I don't agree with GST on food especially fruit & veg & think if they axed that of drop it down people would be able to eat better. |
Posted By: snugglebug
Date Posted: 05 April 2011 at 2:28pm
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I hear you. I have had to alter my budget for food shopping by $30 this year and petrol is costing $45 more for a full tank than it cost me last year- $145 for a full tank and my husband needs a full tank each week to get to work (public transport not an option as he works far away). We don't have a second car and couldn't afford to run a second one anyway. It is really depressing me as Ive had to alter our budget and now between the rise in petrol and food and DS having a milk intolerance and reflux, he needs special formula and medication, we hardly have any spare money left anymore. I feel for DH also as he works so hard and never gets any money for himself.
I dont understand why the government dont step in and do something, I keep thinking if we struggle to make ends meet with DH on a reasonable wage and me doing some casual work here and there, how do people manage to even eat with less income than we have? It really concerns me as it keeps going up, will it get to a point where we can't afford things anymore? We are trying the fruit and veg and butcher shop this week, will see if it makes a difference. ------------- Me 28, DH 29 DS born 20 Nov 2010 (4 years old) #2 due October 7 http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: pudgy
Date Posted: 05 April 2011 at 8:05pm
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The increases are insane. We stil have the same budget but it buys far less than this time last year.
The vege shops really are much cheaper ( and usually ahve better quality vege) than the supermarket. Are you able to limit the amount you use your car ? ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Sez26
Date Posted: 05 April 2011 at 9:16pm
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I'll need to find a good vege shop near us or even look at having a vege garden.
I watched Campbell Live earlier and there was a woman on trying to lose weight. She has cut all junk food out of her diet and her food bill is now 3 times more. She said that there was no way she could afford to give her family the recommended 5 fruit and vege per day. She worked out that she could get 12 big packets of chippies for the price of 12 apples or something insane like that. It costs her $20-$25 for chicken breasts for her family of 5 plus the cost of some vege, when she could feed them at the fish and chip shop for $13. They also talked about coke and other crappy drinks being cheaper than milk. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Sez26
Date Posted: 05 April 2011 at 9:22pm
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DH's commute to work is 100km. Unfortunately when we bought this house we didn't factor in petrol prices increasing. I worked out that in a fortnight he has to work two full days to pay for his petrol. How terrible is that! We have our house on the market so we can move closer to his work. Until the house sells, I'm trying not to use my car much at all. It's a hard one though, I definitely need a car for my sanity mainly and because you pay so much in registrations and warrants, it's annoying to have it just sitting there a lot of the time. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: AandCsmum
Date Posted: 06 April 2011 at 1:33pm
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Can he take the train? ------------- Kel http://lilypie.com"> 
A = 01.02.04 & C = 16.01.09 & G = 30.03.12 |
Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 06 April 2011 at 2:51pm
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I don't buy from a supermarket if I can avoid it but in saying that you do have to be careful at the markets and do your homework as some are cheeky and charge the same or more than the supermarket!
Re the car and petrol - I try to take public transport where I can but it definitely makes you think twice about going out and only going if you need to in the car etc. But I feel that if you choose to have a car that these are just expenses that come with it - sorta like it or lump it. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: Sez26
Date Posted: 06 April 2011 at 2:52pm
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unfortunately public transport doesn't work for DH because he's a shift worker and there's no public transport available for the time that he needs to start and finish work. Even if he could use public transport occasionally when he does a day shift, it would mean 4 hours travelling each day, instead of 1.5-2 hours in a car. He does try and car pool with a guy from work but they never seem to get the same shifts. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: AandCsmum
Date Posted: 06 April 2011 at 5:03pm
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Wow that is a long way to work! Can you shift closer to his work? ------------- Kel http://lilypie.com">
A = 01.02.04 & C = 16.01.09 & G = 30.03.12 |
Posted By: Sez26
Date Posted: 06 April 2011 at 7:35pm
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We are hoping to move closer ASAP. Just waiting for the house to sell, it's been on the market for nearly 2 months with not a lot of interest.
It will be nice to have DH for an extra 2 hours a day. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: snugglebug
Date Posted: 11 April 2011 at 1:04pm
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Yeah its hard, my DH works ages away but when he got the job, he had a company car so it didnt matter, now they changed his role and he doesn't so we have to pay the petrol. Sucks as he never would have taken the job in the first place without the car. Public transport would take 2 busses and a train to get to work, and a fair few hrs. He likes his job so doesn't want to change but if petrol keeps going up he'll have to.
Sucks aye. How is anyone ever supposed to get ahead. ------------- Me 28, DH 29 DS born 20 Nov 2010 (4 years old) #2 due October 7 http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: Sez26
Date Posted: 11 April 2011 at 1:59pm
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wiggly_jiggly, that's a shame that your DH doesn't have the company car anymore. I bet a lot of organisations aren't including a car in the rem package anymore.
I realised today that we spend more on petrol than on food. Awful really. My car is parked up for a while because we just can't afford to run it. Depressing being housebound though. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: AandCsmum
Date Posted: 11 April 2011 at 5:23pm
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Cross fingers it would sell soon Sez26, especially to have DH around more.
We spend more on petrol too than food. ------------- Kel http://lilypie.com">
A = 01.02.04 & C = 16.01.09 & G = 30.03.12 |
Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 11 April 2011 at 5:49pm
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God I'm thankful we spend really quite little on petrol by comparison. I get $50 of diesel a fortnight.
I'm doing a food shopping challenge for the next fortnight of only spending $50 a week and in that I have to get formula and nappies. I realised I can make quite a lot with what we already have in our pantry. |
Posted By: AandCsmum
Date Posted: 11 April 2011 at 9:12pm
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Ohh I could do that now, instead of my formula being half of that Stacey :)
I'm keen to do the 21 challenge but need to confiscate Dh's eftpos card. ------------- Kel http://lilypie.com">
A = 01.02.04 & C = 16.01.09 & G = 30.03.12 |
Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 12 April 2011 at 6:45am
| Mine basically works out to be $21 when I take formula and nappies out of it |
Posted By: Nikki
Date Posted: 17 April 2011 at 9:05pm
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$50 thats crazy - we struggle to get down to 200!
My petrol cost 120 this week .... very scary to think its that far over 100 now!!!! ------------- DS (5yrs) and DD (3yrs) |
Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 18 April 2011 at 10:06am
| One of the benefits of living in Palmy and having a diesel vehicle. Even though its a big 4wd its still way cheaper to run than a petrol car even with road user charges |
Posted By: bun_in_the_oven
Date Posted: 18 April 2011 at 11:31am
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with the km i travelled and road user charges it really didnt work out that much cheaper for us..
I have recently gone back to petrol and its painful.. put $60 in the other day and it was barely 1/3 a tank !! something has to change. we would like to Try for number two and i get so overwhelmed and stressed out about the finances... DH pays the mortage and i pay all the utilities.. take away my income and the math just dont add up !! |
Posted By: Sez26
Date Posted: 18 April 2011 at 12:52pm
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I find doing our finances very depressing but at least we have children to show for it. I have friends and family that are struggling financially and they don't even have children yet or mortgages. I really feel for them.
Money used to be so important to me, but now just seeing DS smiley face everyday is much more important. Mortgages are tough, in this economy one partner basically works to pay the mortgage, so it's so difficult for a mother to stop working altogether to have children. Houses are so darn expensive and what you get for your money isn't much. Renting can sometimes be just as expensive. Especially in the main centres. I suppose it makes me feel a bit better, that everyone else seems to be in the same boat ;-) ------------- http://lilypie.com"> http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: jazzy
Date Posted: 20 April 2011 at 6:51am
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Sez26 we lived in the country & had to commute 80km each way it was not a bad trade off living in the country & working a distance away till the price of petrol keep going up....& because of petrol prices everything else goes up too.
Buying good food is so much more expensive it is easy to buy the crap food to keep the $ down. (on a side note Sez26 your ticker is a bit to long & stretches the page so I can not read a couple of words on your post...if you drop one ticker under the other it will solve it) 
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Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 20 April 2011 at 9:51am
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I think some of the financials comes down to your lifestyle.
DH's income pays for it all and I'm managing to put away quite a bit into savings every pay. But I have a great budget. Our meals are cheap but tasty and we buy where its cheapest. Theres a dairy in town that has alot of spices in it as theres an indian couple that own it. We get all our herbs and spices from there for about 1/10th of the price in the supermarket because its in bulk. We buy very very little crap and eat really healthy and even with formula, nappies and protein powder for me (thats $35 a tin) we only spend $320 a fortnight on groceries all up which isn't bad for a family of 4 with those expensive extras. Daniel and I do baking 1-2 times a week, usually muffins. I have a healthy muffins cookbook and we make those and its pretty cheap, no butter and uses 1/4 cup of oil instead which makes it cheaper and those get eaten for morning/afternoon tea and lunches. They are full of fruit etc and are yum and I freeze them so theres always a selection in the freezer. When I need to go into town I think do I need this right now? If the answer is no, I save up all those things and do it all in one trip later in the week. We do tons of free/extremely cheap activities. I've made some pants for Alex. Merino and fully lined. $2 a pop in total. Beats the hell out of paying what between $20-40 depending on the brand and most aren't even lined. |
Posted By: jazzy
Date Posted: 10 May 2011 at 1:13pm
that's a great idea, I need to do that. Did not even think about freezing them. Since I am walking & not using the car I don't go shopping much so not spending $ on impulse buys & using what is in the cupboard. Also cutting the crap out is saving $ even thought we are spending a bit more on fruit & veg but it gets eaten & not thrown out. |
kebakat wrote: