The Art Of Being Cheap

Being cheap (or frugal if you prefer to sugar it up) is an art. Obviously like anything else practice makes perfect. Australia is an expensive place, and I’ve already gone over how to stretch that Aussie dollar. Last week I also covered getting some cheap eats while in St. Kilda which although not really “on a shoestring,” it’s an affordable luxury while on that budget! I’ve had a learning curve here as well, having realized that you can’t necessarily be cheap with everything. Honestly sometimes it’s worth paying the extra 25 cents! At the same time however, if you see a good deal there’s no shame in jumping on it. I’ll give you an example of both extremes where I messed up and succeeded.

sigh...

#27 of my 50 things I’ve learned in Australia was that ALDI is a lifesaver if you’re on a shoestring budget. Seriously this place is the shit, with cheap everything! Even the $8.99 six packs of beer aren’t bad at all. But here’s where I made the mistake... I went cheap while at ALDI! I needed sandwich bags to pack a lunch to go volunteering. Here I had the choice of the 99 cent pack or the 69 cent pack of plastic bags. Of course, why pay 99 when you can pay 69 right? What’s the difference? Well it turns out that the 69 cent bags are “snack” bags, and hence you get the result from the picture above... I’ve succeeded in making myself look like an anal-retentive dork packing my sandwiches individually. In retrospect, I should have just spend the damn 30 cents, it would have made my life a whole lot easier! Thankfully I’m almost done this set of bags...

This is the most amazing thing I've discovered!

Recently, now that I’m working, I’ve decided to cut down on my coffee expenses as they add up quickly here in Melbourne. It’s particularly expensive since you can’t get the regular stuff at a coffee shop. This past weekend I bought a travel mug at Coles in the hopes of making my own coffee in the morning and saving the $3 for a small coffee that I pay every morning. While at the grocery store I came to the realization that I need both milk and sugar on top of getting coffee... This was getting get bulky, expensive and inconvenient. Like magic I saw the following product on the shelf which was an answer to my prayers. That’s right folks, instant coffee with milk and sugar in a toothpaste tube! Just add water! It looks ridiculous but I’ll vouch for it. This is probably the closest I’ve gotten to the taste of a double-double since I left Canada. Instead of $3/day it’s now $3/week yeaaah!

As you can see, the art of being cheap is one learned through trial and error. I got greedy with those sandwich wrappers and I pay for it every day... (and no I won’t let them go to waste either! - see article title!). Then again on the flip side I had the coffee which was a BIG risk as I’ve never seen such an invention. Like every other skill, practice makes perfect. Although far from perfect I have become much better at the art of frugality.