What have you changed about your lifestyle to deal with the cost of living increases?

This might overlap a bit with what you've said, but:

• Just one streaming service at a time. Get netflix, binge watch the shows we want. Cancel netflix, get Disney+, binge watch the shows we want. Etc. Don't have them all running at once. Or if you want to save even more money, NZ laws are pretty generous for pirates really.

• Use Libby to borrow ebooks from the library and read on your phone (I prefer white text on black background - i.e. dark mode).

• Normally I would say to sign up to power/internet on 12 month contracts to get good deals, then change company every 12 months. It's pretty easy to switch. But recently I've found it hard to find the really good deals that there have been previously.

• We go to the farmers market for fruit, veggies, and eggs every week. But if you buy a doughnut or coffee or fancy bread then you're undoing your savings 😆.

• Use the Grocer app. You put in your shopping list, and it tells you the cheapest places to get things out of the big supermarkets + the warehouse. It also tells you different options, like the cheapest might be to go to 4 different stores, but it will tell you it's $1 more total if you go to just these two stores, or here's the cheapest store that has everything you want, and tells you the total so you can compare how much you save vs going to all the shops. My biggest complaint is probably that you can't just say "Milk", you've got to pick a specific one. So then if you pick a store brand, that's normally cheapest, it won't be available at other stores.

• Growing veggies is fun but you've got to be dedicated to make it financially viable. In general, growing your own veggies is not cheaper than just buying them (some exceptions, e.g. if you buy broccoli seedlings then it's probably best to just buy broccoli from the store, but if you buy a courgette seedling for a couple of bucks, you'll probably get a KG of courgettes off of it, worth like $10). The problem is that the times you are growing them also happens to be when they are in season, which is when they are cheapest in the shop. Plus you have to deal with pests and provide nutrition.

• If you commute a decent distance to work each day, there's a good chance an electric Leaf will pay for itself. Best as a second car, where you have another for longer distances (longer distance Leafs exist, but generally there are other cars more recommended when you get up to that price range).

• Plan your meals out for the week before going to the supermarket. Cook big, and plan to freeze leftovers when suitable, or plan to eat multiple days of the same thing to save effort and get discounts buying bulk. Planning out your meals helps keep you focused at the supermarket, and helps reduce food waste. Write the date on them so you can use the older ones first. Old stuff from the freezer won't kill you, but tastes better if it has been frozen months not years.

• Also try to plan meals that use fruit or vegetables that are in season. They will be a lot cheaper.

• Clean your heat pump to make it work more efficiently (just open the top, pull out the filters, and vaccuum them).

That's all I can think of right now. Except don't get a pet. Old pets cost a lot more than young ones 😆

Wife and I changed our mind about having kids.

Learn to fix things. Basic sewing, basic car maintenance, basic home maintenance. I’ve learned a lot over the years just trying to fix things myself. There’s a wealth of information on almost anything on the internet. Yes there will be a small upfront cost if you need to buy tools or supplies, but the ability to extend the life of things is worthwhile. E.g. I’ve managed to get a few more months or years from being able to fix my kids clothes or school shoes.

For me, don’t go to sites like cheapies too often. Too easy to get sucked into buying a deal of something you don’t need or had any intention of ever getting.

Basically what Dave wrote + no more unnecessary purchases (inc. cutting down on junk food), buying in bulk where possible, and keeping an eye out for deals and offers.

I've also switched to a cheaper mobile provider + plan (Skinny), turns out that I don't really use that much data, given how I'm almost always in a place with WiFi. That and halting

Coincidentally, I've also stopped drinking alcohol (which was for health reasons), so that's been saving me a decent bit of money (considering many a regretful monetary decisions were made whilst drunk). On the flip side, I haven't been to karaoke in a long time, and I'm not sure if sober karaoke would be any fun...

I changed to a super cheap mobile plan recently, since I'm usually on wifi and don't actually make calls so I really don't need much in that regard.

I've also just cancelled my kobo sub and have been going to the library. I mostly used kobo for indie authors so the library is a nice change of pace.

We don't buy things when we feel that the price has crossed the reasonable threshold. This means we rarely eat out anymore, I've stopped buying several food items that I enjoy at the grocery store, and we've cancelled all of our streaming services since they're so fragmented and expensive now. We usually spend a lot on entertainment, but companies have become so greedy that we don't spend anything with them now. Like Netflix when they decided that they won't let families share accounts anymore. I've had a Netflix subscription for over a decade. The only reason we were keeping it is because my mom and my son use it. Neither of them would subscribe on their own. But since we can't share with them we cancelled. Great plan, Netflix!

Switched part of our mortgage to revolving credit. With higher interest rates, saves quite a bit, as long as you offset it.

We have, but not specifically because of the cost of living. More that we had an expensive holiday, and now need to focus on savings again. So I've been pretty insistent that we cut the thoughtless spending and the treats, at least for the rest of the year and then can re-assess.

Most of this has manifested in food budget. I've limited us to $15 a day each max on food spending, and that includes going out for dinner or work drinks. So if I'm going to get a few wines on friday night that's a couple of days of making sure lunch comes from the grocery budget. So on that front I'm cooking up a weeks worth of curry or rice and beans or doing a roast if it's on special.

I grow spinach/broc in winter and tomato/kale in summer which takes the edge off veggie shopping prices.

My nearest Pizza Hut has always been one of the good ones, so their $5.50 ham and cheese pizza is excellent value. If I wannt pig out I'll grab one of those and put Baby Ray's or hot sauce on it.

Petrol is a non-issue for us as we both live in our CBD close to our offices and drive a hybrid anyway. We spend like, 20 bucks a month on gas.

Another one for us is reviewing our insurance options at least once per year. This has probably saved us at least $1500/year so very worthwhile. Currently have house and contents insurance with AMP, car insurance with cove and tower (as they are cheaper depending on the car), boat insurance also with tower, life insurance with Chubb and health insurance with NIB.

I also find it varies from year to year so I go through and recheck. The multi policy discounts don’t really seem to make up the difference.

This year our old house insurance provider was going to put us up to $320/month from $200/month. I ended up getting the same level of cover through AMP for $190/month.

Here are mine:

• I don't buy fresh greens anymore, only frozen

• almost no meat

• food shopping more at Reduced To Clear

• no visiting the op shop or Kmart

• trying to always use my energy to mix a drink of oral rehydration salts or salt instead of sometimes grabbing a juice box

• no occasional sushi

• try to keep coffee to just one instant decaf coffee a day

• cut dental hygienist visits down to 1 in the past 2 years (this one's actually bad, I'm hoping to reverse it)

• not visit family as often (this one's bad too)

• get people to buy me moisturiser from the supermarket for birthday and christmas

I know unless something radically changes things are going to get worse so my future ideas are:

• maybe cut out the instant decaf altogether? (This one feels hard for some reason, but that stuff is so expensive)

• plain oats instead of oats and pumpkin+sunflower seeds for breakfast

• halve my vitamin supplement again

• get the energy to gather receipts so I can try to update my disability allowance to today's prices

I don't know what else. Getting a bit scared tbh.

Everyone out here counting crumbs rather than dragging the rich from their homes.