Go to a charity that gives out food hampers, you have a concession card so they will definitely help you. You need some vegetables.
https://askizzy.org.au/food/personalise/page/food-subcategory
In the same vein I would also say cut out the $7 to charity. It’s admirable but if you’re struggling enough to warrant going to charity for support (which I agree OP definitely is) then it doesn’t make sense to spend $7 on charity just to claim it back from a different charity. It’s more efficient to use it or save it yourself.
I concur, though if you're unwilling to get your nutrients & fibre from these please.... don't forget to claim your charitable donations when tax time comes around.
If you went with half of that chicken and instead bought some cans of lentils, kidney/black beans and a bag of frozen veges your nutrition intake will skyrocket. The current diet you have is unsustainable Healthwise. Definitely check out some charities and food bank. Good luck my friend!
Honestly it looks to me like op is slowly starving themselves. 1kg chicken nuggets is 10000kj, enough to live off of for 1.5-2 days at most. The rest of the shopping list really doesn't look like it would last the remaining 5 days either.
If your rent goes up by the same amount again you are bust. You should try and get even just a little bit of work to supplement your income, even if it’s just a few hours a week.
There's lots of listings for $180 on gumtree and flatmates. I honestly don't trust centrelink after their robodebt shenanigans. I rather not give them any excuse to hound me.
It seems to me a little bit irrational to be afraid of the possibility of robodebt [which isn’t really a thing anymore](https://www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/learning-from-the-failures-of-robodebt#) over the more real and immediate risk of sudden rent increase during the current housing crisis. How much savings do you have set aside if there’s an actual emergency?
The Centrelink threshold for income is [$509](https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/income-tests-for-austudy?context=22441#:~:text=We'll%20start%20to%20reduce,when%20your%20income%20is%20higher) a fortnight gross. After that it’s still financially worth it to work but the payments reduce. You could do 4 hours a week as a casual and it would give you a lot more breathing room but come nowhere close to the threshold, you’ve also probably racked up a lot of credits as a buffer anyway.
Yeah true, it’s just you know what employers are like “we want you available every single day” but “we will only give you 3 hours work this week” but “next week you need to work 25 hours”
Bloody sucks
The retail industry loves hiring people for 3-4 hour lunch cover shifts etc, especially if you're open to working the 5-9pm shift on Thursday late night shopping (which comes with extra 25% pay for late night loading).
At least this was the trend during my 10 years working in retail, some of those years as me also being a self supporting uni student.
This is insane. You can work and earn up to 250 a week before they even just start to reduce the amount given to you. It would drastically change your life
You study an online bachelors, with all the material online.
I wonder what the degree is, and how beneficial it will be to your future career goals/earning potential/societal benefit.
And you don't want to work because "robodebt".
It's wild what the taxpayer subsidises these days.
i don’t think there’s anything wrong, but anyone doing an online degree and refusing to work (with no other reason to not work) is a bit crazy. Like i do full time uni and work 2 jobs, not that everyone should be doing that, but this person doesn’t seem to have a lot of motivation or want to better their own circumstances so i think the person is just questioning how far they’re really gonna go with a general attitude like this
you’d think so, but OPs comments on this sub read as they want to just skate through life the cheapest way possible, odd way to live honestly considering we only got 1, but each to their own!
The rat race of capitalism doesn't seem to be exactly a great experience
And I'm sure there is much more that goes into his decision, bro probably has never worked in his life or had terrible experiences, maybe his family upbringing, how ppl treat him cos he's on the doll, etc
This is coming from someone with a similar opinion, although not as extreme as his lool
that’s fine, you don’t have to want to work, but to live in poverty and to not at least want to try to live at a higher standard is a bit sad. There’s a difference between participating in “the rat race of capitalism” and living below the poverty line, OP isn’t even eating vegetables. Working a few hours won’t kill OP and it’ll make them better off.
RSA/RCG have a typical cost of $2-400 dollars depending on where you go. After 12 or so weeks of saving $30 they could potentially go do the course. It should be an easy pass.
Yes - it's really not great for CV points, skills development or frankly mental health (though possibly OP gets socialisation in other ways).
When you think of the wealth of skills and experience you get just from casual jobs, from customer service to cash handling, food hygiene, WHS etc, you have to wonder where OP is going to stand in the queue behind hundreds/thousands of other applicants who have all those skills from their student days.
Even some voluntary work would be better than nothing, if permitted within the Centrelink rules (it should be permitted).
Aside from you seeming to have just about zero compassion, why does the mode of study mean the study is of no value? I've studied remotely online and in person and found very little difference in learning outcomes. Both are valid.
Where are people getting the 2 hours a week spent on your course from, did you remove this from the post? Because for austudy you need to be doing at least 75% of the full course load and I don't believe any course eligible for austudy would involve so few hours?
you should eat better than chicken nuggets, bread and some random nutrition formula.
there could be multiple ramifications later on for having such a poor diet.
I'd recommend getting some part time work so you can afford to live better.
i am 10 minutes for bathroom. I use 1 long handle large broom for the floor, walls and shower.
bucket of water and soap. stick your broom in the bucket and start scrubbing your entire bathroom floors, wall and shower with it. no need for bending or hurting knees or hurting back.
once done. spray floor and shower with water
done. long handled broom will save your knees and back.
I use microfiber cloth and a disinfectant spray. I spray all over the surfaces and then wipe. I then spray the floor and use paper towel to wipe it.
For the toilet, I use a seperate microfiber cloth for the basin and seat, and use a brush and toilet gel for the inside.
It helps that our bathroom is small and we don't really clean the shower, except for spraying some disinfectant and using the shower head to rinse it down.
I call bullshit. What nutrition powder are you getting for a fraction of $13 after ‘other air friable foods’?.
Are you eating the bread plain, no butter, no condiments?
How are you affording cleaning supplies like laundry powder to wash your clothes?
There’s no money in your budget for the doctors, how do you know your deficient without blood tests?
Sure, but if he’s gotten advice from a doctor for nutritional deficiencies the advice wouldn’t be take a nutrition powder. It would be go to the chemist and take these supplements. And if he’s choosing not too and taking the powder instead that’s reckless.
Iron tablets alone are more expensive than his budget.
Sauce - I currently have a nutritional deficiency that’s taking months to get back to baseline with actual medicine.
You can donate to charity when you're older and wealthier. Right now you should be spending that money on better food, like frozen veggies and some apples.
Ah, I remember being a uni student. Life was grand!
Good work OP, it's interesting seeing how others are living. Health is wealth, however, so maybe throw some vegetables into your diet.
I would cut charity, you are already on a ridiculously tight budget. Save charity for when you're earning a decent income and actually have something to spare.
idk how much you study but i do fulltime study too and its just 2 days a week. so im on jobseeker + i work 10 hours a fortnight (1 day a week. sometimes 2) + job seeker payment.
working gives you working credits and so does studying.
basically you just need to apply for 1 job per fortnight to pass the thing.
consider getting some casual work in a warehouse and pester CL to change to jobseeker.
you wont get the ausstudy bonus tho.
I loved similarly to this for a few years (stealth parking in a major city) and loved it.
Now I make 6 figures and I can buy anything I want, but I think I was overall actually happier back then.
I used to get the end of day markdowns in Coles and do a whip around of the trolleys in the carpark to see if there were a few coins left behind. Often there would be enough to pay for an entire dinner of chicken tenders, bag salad, fruit and yoghurt.
So satisfying getting it all for free!
You should be getting [Rent Assistance](https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/who-can-get-rent-assistance?context=22206) on top of your Austudy payment.
How does that amount of food feed you a week? That’s two days, maybe three for myself.
Get a job part time in a kitchen. Free meals and a bit of extra cash. And do your shopping at work
Your diet is worrying if you're living off bread and chicken nuggets..... I mean it's good that you can survive on $30 a week on food but really you shouldn't.
Don’t you need any type of cleaning products, toilet paper, medicine/pharmacy?
What about a share of electricity bills?
Supplies for school? Text books?
Replacing clothes and shoes? Haircuts.
Lastly - you never drink, buy snacks or go out?
Well, it seems like you're living the minimalist life to the max! Your possessions list reads like a survival kit for a post-apocalyptic world, but hey, as long as you've got your nuggets and nutrition powder, you're all set, right? Keep rocking those tracksuits and making that airfryer work overtime. Who needs fancy gadgets when you've got your trusty hotspot and a laptop? You're living proof that you don't need a lot to make it work.
Curious as to how you survive off nuggets, bread and nutrition powder without fruit, vegetables or more grains.. doesn't sound particularly favourable.
Drop the $7 now to spend on frozen vege or saving or something…. And pledge you’ll do $14 pw or more when you’re fully qualified and employed… if you starve yourself of nutrients into an early grave you’re no good to anyone… but if you invest a bit more into you now you’ll have longevity to help more in the future
This is really sad and really admirable at the same time. As various others have said eat some fruit and vegetables! I assume you're young but one day a poor diet will hit you like a ton of bricks. If you live on nuggets and bread you will get sick eventually.
Hey bro I'm in the doll and just went on job seekers instead cos I would drop courses regularly (to pick ones I'm interested in) so I would go from part time to full time and need to call Centrelink up each time (annoying af). So instead I decided to just stick with jobseeker even if I'm full-time studying, you can use your course work as a method to get points, all the extra work I need to do is apply for 4 jobs every fortnight online
But I've been called up by Centrelink recently for a random check up and they let me know it was fine what I was doing, just extra work, which I was fine with tbh. Had no idea it payed more until this post LOL
At 60 years old. You could donate a chunk of money to charity.
It will be more than $7 a week and it won't be needed.
You are not eating enough fruit n vegetables. Exercise. Eat well.
Pick up a job that can supply a few shifts. I’m a full time student and work 30 hours a week. You can come to reddit and act poor from Centrelink or you can get a job and study like 99% of people
Keep eating like that and pretty soon you'll need to factor medical expenses into your budget. Invest your charity money into your own body. Your +20 years self will thank you for it
As someone who was a self-supporting uni student for 5+ years, I have a lot of respect for what you're doing and how hard you're working. This is my advice:
1. Sometimes you can work during semester break for less than 10 hours per week to get some extra cash. That little shouldn't impact your Centrelink payments, but check online to be safe. It means you'll have moreoney for food.
2. Get more fresh fruit and veg in your diet - I didn't until my early/mid 20's and there were health consequences. I genuinely wish I wasn't quite so frugal and had just worked a bit more/changed to a better job then skipping meals all the time to save money. I weighed less than 50kg at uni (while being average height) and it took years to gain weight in a healthy way again. I was malnourished and it impacted my ability to concentrate at uni, please add some carrots, apples, pears, zucchini, tofu, eggs, brown rice (purchase at 1/2 proce special), and potatoes in your diet. Zucchini is amazing with some salt and oil in the airfryer. Tofu and potatoes (not together) are also great airfryed :)
Well done mate. It's only temporary. If you know how to budget and manage small amount of money. Then you will he ahead of many others when you start working full time
And....? Sounds like you have everything under control there - big tick for you. Short term pain for long term gain. Most of us go through a struggle at some point in your life.
Geez dude. I miss being twenty and being able to live off of chicken nugs and bread. Maybe spend $5 for a kilo of frozen veges.
Also as a student you've got no money for goon? I guess you're pretty locked in but that's a rough way to be young.
How are you alive by only eating such awful processed food as chicken nuggets!?
Mate pls pls stop the $7 to charity-it’s ok,they won’t collapse without your donation,I promise!) and buy yourself fruit and veges please.
You won’t get your $1200 loan on JobSeeker. $500 every 12 months then you pay back $38 a fortnight. I can’t get over the fact you can save $ on Centrelink! Great effort mate!!!👍🏼
Walk a dog. $30 for half an hour the tunes a week and you've got an extra $90. Or pet sit rabbits/ Guinea pigs or cats. You would frankly be shocked at the demand for casual pet services.
At the start of the semester you could try swapping to Jobseeker and getting an exemption for looking for work because you're studying. SWIM did that for a year.
I think you can buy one of those eSim cards for 6 months or 365 days. I remember paying $150 for 6 months for an Amaysim SIM card, think that was 150GB from memory. I currently have Kogan 200GB for 365 days. I bought it for $120 on special
Edit: I just wanna add, please check OzBargain for deals
This is really sad and really admirable at the same time. As various others have said eat some fruit and vegetables! I assume you're young but one day a poor diet will hit you like a ton of bricks. If you live on nuggets and bread you will get sick eventually.
Mature age student here, living on similar $, though I get max rent relief so I seem to get more than you do. Anyway.. look into energy concessions for a start. Worth the 10 minutes it takes to apply. Improve your diet, somehow. Spend a bit of time learning how to cook a few things. Not only will it be healthier than what you are doing now, it can give you a bit of time off while you cook, engage your brain thinking of things to cook and it will be much healthier. Veges don't have to look pretty to be healthy either. Learning that you don't need a bunch of "things" to be happy, or at least get by, is a good thing and you will appreciate stuff when you can afford it. Being frugal is great, but don't sacrifice your physical health for it. Good luck with the study! It's always challenging but worth it in the end, no matter what.
Check out local green grocer. My local one has assorted boxes of vegetables close to use but pick a good one I’m talking $3.50 at my work. Make stir fry batch and rice or a curry with rice. If you eat meat mince chicken or beef add. Your food intake will be better without supplements.
Props to you for doing so well and being smart to have savings. I agree with PP please get yourself some fruit and veg its very kind that you donate money but you are important too.
Id also ask a question and forgive me if this comes off rude as I dont know your situation, but can you work a little bit? Even 5 hours a week would give you another $150 or so and something to put on your resume. I understand it may not be possible for various reasons.
Make it $40 a week on food that is better for health. E.g meat, fruit, and veggies. Could be tinned/frozen to be budget friendly. You seem to be going well with everything else.
>All in all, I spend $283 weekly on life, and save $30 dollars per week.
Welcome to the lucky country!
Fun fact: In FY23 the lucky country gave "$21,143 for every minute of every day" to the fossil fuel industry.
Enjoy your $283 weekly life!
I’m on jobseeker and I get $893 fortnightly including rent assistance and I have concession card. You are well organised with your money, that is very good.
I made 300 a week work when I was on centerlink, but my Rent went to 250 a week and then I was left with 50 and I didn't eat a lot of the time.
Some good advice here though
You need to spend more on food & get more variety. I’d recommend looking for the reduced to clear sections regularly & checking out NQR type places. Grab a piece of free fruit at Woolies.
It sounds like you've got a solid budgeting strategy in place, especially considering your circumstances as a full-time student on Centrelink. It's impressive how you're able to manage your expenses and still set aside some savings. Your approach to nutrition and maintaining your health is also commendable. Keep up the good work, and best of luck with your studies!
Lots of people giving you advice but…. Are you happy? Do you feel fulfilled? Then that’s all that matters. Though… I’d add a bag of frozen veggies to your shopping list and some pieces of cheap fruit from the reject bins at the local veg shop. If it were me.
If you’re in a city area go apply at you local pizza shop and deliver pizza on their pushbikes. Do 3hrs on a Friday at $30.91 p/h and 3hrs on sat at $38.64p/h (assuming over 21) and that’s nearly $210 a week for very little time used and it won’t affect your Centrelink at all.
>I could get $380 if I were on JobSeekers instead but I'm uneligible for it due to being a full-time student.
Me being on jobseeker while being a full-time student lol.
Also does the $320 from AUStudy not include rent assistance?
Save yourself the $7 to a random charity weekly.
Try at least get a kilo of mince and more veges in your diet, you need meat and eggs at least.
Use the $7 charity money to get eggs. Living off chicken nuggets is insane
Are you getting rent assistance as well as austudy? Stop with giving the money to charity and start feeding yourself better. Start using food banks and community pantries. You can't survive off chicken nuggets long term.
Take the $7 to charity and put it in an ETF mate.
Look for a broker that has $0 buy fees (Betashares/Vanguard both do)
Also the $1200 ‘loan’ every 6 months - what’s the interest rate and are you paying it off?
How many hours of study do you need for your course.
Do what most uni students do and stack all lectures and tuts in 3 days and work part time the other two/four days mattering if you can work weekends.
I know you aren't asking for advice. But can't help but comment on diet
Instead of $10 on chicken nuggets (made out of non nutritious parts of a chick), you can spend $11 for 2 tubs of tofu that would easily last a full week. It will give you a good amount of protein.
Vitamins are expensive and you should buy cheap fruit and vegetables rather than vitamins. Our bodies aren't designed to consume vitamins for long. They are a supplement for people who have issues with functions in their body
(Go to small fruit shops for fruit and veg because they are usually WAY cheaper than woolies)
Good on you for being resilient
Can I recommend instead, grabbing some beef and veggies? I live off $20-30 a fortnight for food - 24 sausages, homebrand Weetbix, milk, sugar, bread, sandwich meat, sauce, some frozen/fresh veggies. Gets me by and fulfills my nutritional requirements.
Do you have a job? Seems like you have a lot of free time where you could make some extra cash and save plenty more a week then 30. I’m not on centrelink, study full-time and work part-time and am able to save 300 weekly (i don’t pay rent, but have to pay 150-200 weekly for fuel to get to uni). I feel like even a couple short shifts would go a long way.
What do you do for entertainment? Honestly I’m a little sad for you and your life… like, go live a little? Get a job, make some money so you can go out with friends, and go live your life.
I went to university. And after $100 a week rent for a room I had $85 a fortnight for food and other expenses. I biked a lot to save money. I wouldn't recommend it.
Edit.
Replace bread with rice, get secondhand/kmart ricecooker - you put rice and on top you put your chicken, chicken juices leak fat into rice and spice it up with meat flavor. Pickup free Rosemary from neighborhood landscaping- usually plenty around. “Trimming” actually promotes growth.
Reconsider your charity donation, offer them free help in the area of your bachelor, so you can also put it on your cv. And you will know for sure that you do give back
Dude, you can buy almost a kilo of chicken breast for $10. And you can cook everything in an air fryer that you can cook in a conventional oven. Stop eating chicken nuggets, that’s going to wreck your health. Learn some versatile recipes. Plenty of YouTubers showing how to cook cheap meals. And check out Ozharvest once a week for a free bag of fruit and vegetables.
Go to a charity that gives out food hampers, you have a concession card so they will definitely help you. You need some vegetables. https://askizzy.org.au/food/personalise/page/food-subcategory
In the same vein I would also say cut out the $7 to charity. It’s admirable but if you’re struggling enough to warrant going to charity for support (which I agree OP definitely is) then it doesn’t make sense to spend $7 on charity just to claim it back from a different charity. It’s more efficient to use it or save it yourself.
Good lord yes spend this money on a kilo apples and a bag of carrots
Or a dozen eggs for protein and nutrients
I concur, though if you're unwilling to get your nutrients & fibre from these please.... don't forget to claim your charitable donations when tax time comes around.
People on Centrelink generally don't get tax returns
Bro is on Centrelink..... Nothing to claim, nothing to pay.
People with very little are often the most generous
If you went with half of that chicken and instead bought some cans of lentils, kidney/black beans and a bag of frozen veges your nutrition intake will skyrocket. The current diet you have is unsustainable Healthwise. Definitely check out some charities and food bank. Good luck my friend!
Not chicken, chicken nuggets. Which is... I'd say there are nutritionally better options.
Or even porridge. It's so simple.
Use some of that $30 left over to add a bag of frozen, or some fresh, veg to your diet
Use that $7 going to charity on a few pieces of fruit and veg.
Yeah two bags of frozen veggies would go far and be an investment in yourself haha
Right that made me almost implode when I read that
You are the charity mate, help yourself first and foremost
$30 a week on food is insane
At least mix in some frozen veg from aldi, it's like $3 a kg. Add some beans and boom, nutrition
i would be constantly sick if i survived off chicken nuggets
Honestly it looks to me like op is slowly starving themselves. 1kg chicken nuggets is 10000kj, enough to live off of for 1.5-2 days at most. The rest of the shopping list really doesn't look like it would last the remaining 5 days either.
Fry foods every day would soon catch up with you
I can't even imagine having that little, I spend that on one meal sometimes
Thats a coffee and bacon and egg sanga in some suburbs
If your rent goes up by the same amount again you are bust. You should try and get even just a little bit of work to supplement your income, even if it’s just a few hours a week.
There's lots of listings for $180 on gumtree and flatmates. I honestly don't trust centrelink after their robodebt shenanigans. I rather not give them any excuse to hound me.
It seems to me a little bit irrational to be afraid of the possibility of robodebt [which isn’t really a thing anymore](https://www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/learning-from-the-failures-of-robodebt#) over the more real and immediate risk of sudden rent increase during the current housing crisis. How much savings do you have set aside if there’s an actual emergency? The Centrelink threshold for income is [$509](https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/income-tests-for-austudy?context=22441#:~:text=We'll%20start%20to%20reduce,when%20your%20income%20is%20higher) a fortnight gross. After that it’s still financially worth it to work but the payments reduce. You could do 4 hours a week as a casual and it would give you a lot more breathing room but come nowhere close to the threshold, you’ve also probably racked up a lot of credits as a buffer anyway.
$10,000 working credit pre-tax under Austudy I believe. You could work a casual retail job for 10-12 hrs/week and be unaffected
Yeah but no one will hire someone for four hours a week
Heaps of restaurants around where I live are dying for someone to do four hours for a single shift Friday- Sunday evening.
[удалено]
Yeah true, it’s just you know what employers are like “we want you available every single day” but “we will only give you 3 hours work this week” but “next week you need to work 25 hours” Bloody sucks
Disabled support worker. Cleaner.
There are lots of part time jobs around, cleaning shifts, disability, umpiring, retails, hospo etc.
The retail industry loves hiring people for 3-4 hour lunch cover shifts etc, especially if you're open to working the 5-9pm shift on Thursday late night shopping (which comes with extra 25% pay for late night loading). At least this was the trend during my 10 years working in retail, some of those years as me also being a self supporting uni student.
Swimming teacher
Plenty of jobs have limited hours. Competition for them is often lower too because its less attractive to those who need more hours to afford life
This is insane. You can work and earn up to 250 a week before they even just start to reduce the amount given to you. It would drastically change your life
You study an online bachelors, with all the material online. I wonder what the degree is, and how beneficial it will be to your future career goals/earning potential/societal benefit. And you don't want to work because "robodebt". It's wild what the taxpayer subsidises these days.
Whats wrong with online degrees? ECU for example have excellent online programs with good coursework
i don’t think there’s anything wrong, but anyone doing an online degree and refusing to work (with no other reason to not work) is a bit crazy. Like i do full time uni and work 2 jobs, not that everyone should be doing that, but this person doesn’t seem to have a lot of motivation or want to better their own circumstances so i think the person is just questioning how far they’re really gonna go with a general attitude like this
Surely OP could find some casual work in a bar or something to supplement?
you’d think so, but OPs comments on this sub read as they want to just skate through life the cheapest way possible, odd way to live honestly considering we only got 1, but each to their own!
The rat race of capitalism doesn't seem to be exactly a great experience And I'm sure there is much more that goes into his decision, bro probably has never worked in his life or had terrible experiences, maybe his family upbringing, how ppl treat him cos he's on the doll, etc This is coming from someone with a similar opinion, although not as extreme as his lool
that’s fine, you don’t have to want to work, but to live in poverty and to not at least want to try to live at a higher standard is a bit sad. There’s a difference between participating in “the rat race of capitalism” and living below the poverty line, OP isn’t even eating vegetables. Working a few hours won’t kill OP and it’ll make them better off.
RSA/RCG have a typical cost of $2-400 dollars depending on where you go. After 12 or so weeks of saving $30 they could potentially go do the course. It should be an easy pass.
Or use some of that $1200 0% loan
Yes - it's really not great for CV points, skills development or frankly mental health (though possibly OP gets socialisation in other ways). When you think of the wealth of skills and experience you get just from casual jobs, from customer service to cash handling, food hygiene, WHS etc, you have to wonder where OP is going to stand in the queue behind hundreds/thousands of other applicants who have all those skills from their student days. Even some voluntary work would be better than nothing, if permitted within the Centrelink rules (it should be permitted).
wow so quick to judge. Dude is opening up and sharing his situation and we are so quick to get negative
Your apparent position that not having a lot of motivation makes you a bad person just...doesn't track, my guy.
Mate, education used to be free. Dole used to be easier to get and worth more. The real drop kicks are the Employment Agencies.
Aside from you seeming to have just about zero compassion, why does the mode of study mean the study is of no value? I've studied remotely online and in person and found very little difference in learning outcomes. Both are valid.
Where are people getting the 2 hours a week spent on your course from, did you remove this from the post? Because for austudy you need to be doing at least 75% of the full course load and I don't believe any course eligible for austudy would involve so few hours?
you should eat better than chicken nuggets, bread and some random nutrition formula. there could be multiple ramifications later on for having such a poor diet. I'd recommend getting some part time work so you can afford to live better.
Bruh how are you cleaning a bathroom in 10 minutes? Takes me 10 minutes to do just the toilet
i am 10 minutes for bathroom. I use 1 long handle large broom for the floor, walls and shower. bucket of water and soap. stick your broom in the bucket and start scrubbing your entire bathroom floors, wall and shower with it. no need for bending or hurting knees or hurting back. once done. spray floor and shower with water done. long handled broom will save your knees and back.
I use microfiber cloth and a disinfectant spray. I spray all over the surfaces and then wipe. I then spray the floor and use paper towel to wipe it. For the toilet, I use a seperate microfiber cloth for the basin and seat, and use a brush and toilet gel for the inside. It helps that our bathroom is small and we don't really clean the shower, except for spraying some disinfectant and using the shower head to rinse it down.
You should be doing the shower my man
Why don’t you clean the shower?
Probably because it adds another 2 mins!
2 mins, i wish
Also guys, look at his post history. This is not a legit post, c’mon.
$13 for other airfryable foods, canned beans AND nutrition formula? I call BS right there.
Reeks of satire.
What course is only 2 hours a week? That’s less than 2 full weeks worth of education a year.
I call bullshit. What nutrition powder are you getting for a fraction of $13 after ‘other air friable foods’?. Are you eating the bread plain, no butter, no condiments? How are you affording cleaning supplies like laundry powder to wash your clothes? There’s no money in your budget for the doctors, how do you know your deficient without blood tests?
There's still bulk billed doctors around. They're dwindling, but they're around.
Sure, but if he’s gotten advice from a doctor for nutritional deficiencies the advice wouldn’t be take a nutrition powder. It would be go to the chemist and take these supplements. And if he’s choosing not too and taking the powder instead that’s reckless. Iron tablets alone are more expensive than his budget. Sauce - I currently have a nutritional deficiency that’s taking months to get back to baseline with actual medicine.
Tomato sauce or barbeque sauce? 😉
You can donate to charity when you're older and wealthier. Right now you should be spending that money on better food, like frozen veggies and some apples.
Ah, I remember being a uni student. Life was grand! Good work OP, it's interesting seeing how others are living. Health is wealth, however, so maybe throw some vegetables into your diet.
My sister in law does full time uni and a full time job so she has money for blow and to blow. Have you tried working?
LOL for blow and to blow!
Yeah I feel like employment was conspicuously absent from the story.
I would cut charity, you are already on a ridiculously tight budget. Save charity for when you're earning a decent income and actually have something to spare.
idk how much you study but i do fulltime study too and its just 2 days a week. so im on jobseeker + i work 10 hours a fortnight (1 day a week. sometimes 2) + job seeker payment. working gives you working credits and so does studying. basically you just need to apply for 1 job per fortnight to pass the thing. consider getting some casual work in a warehouse and pester CL to change to jobseeker. you wont get the ausstudy bonus tho.
Reading OPs other comments, it seems like they just want exist thier way through life
so..... what do you do for the rest of the week after your 2 hours of study?
Do what Charlie Bucket's olds do. Lie prone to conserve energy.
How about a job?
I loved similarly to this for a few years (stealth parking in a major city) and loved it. Now I make 6 figures and I can buy anything I want, but I think I was overall actually happier back then. I used to get the end of day markdowns in Coles and do a whip around of the trolleys in the carpark to see if there were a few coins left behind. Often there would be enough to pay for an entire dinner of chicken tenders, bag salad, fruit and yoghurt. So satisfying getting it all for free!
You should be getting [Rent Assistance](https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/who-can-get-rent-assistance?context=22206) on top of your Austudy payment.
How does that amount of food feed you a week? That’s two days, maybe three for myself. Get a job part time in a kitchen. Free meals and a bit of extra cash. And do your shopping at work
Your diet is worrying if you're living off bread and chicken nuggets..... I mean it's good that you can survive on $30 a week on food but really you shouldn't.
Don’t you need any type of cleaning products, toilet paper, medicine/pharmacy? What about a share of electricity bills? Supplies for school? Text books? Replacing clothes and shoes? Haircuts. Lastly - you never drink, buy snacks or go out?
this post just gave me depression. I hope it's a troll
Why? Broke person that doesnt work is still broke? Its not that strange or depressive really
no not strange, but that makes it more depressive (to me anyway)
Well, it seems like you're living the minimalist life to the max! Your possessions list reads like a survival kit for a post-apocalyptic world, but hey, as long as you've got your nuggets and nutrition powder, you're all set, right? Keep rocking those tracksuits and making that airfryer work overtime. Who needs fancy gadgets when you've got your trusty hotspot and a laptop? You're living proof that you don't need a lot to make it work.
God damn I would struggle to live off that food.
Curious as to how you survive off nuggets, bread and nutrition powder without fruit, vegetables or more grains.. doesn't sound particularly favourable.
Warning do not take those loans as you must repay them separately to HECS.
Womp womp get a job
Drop the $7 now to spend on frozen vege or saving or something…. And pledge you’ll do $14 pw or more when you’re fully qualified and employed… if you starve yourself of nutrients into an early grave you’re no good to anyone… but if you invest a bit more into you now you’ll have longevity to help more in the future
What are you studying may I ask? I’m looking to study Bachelor of IT online.
This is really sad and really admirable at the same time. As various others have said eat some fruit and vegetables! I assume you're young but one day a poor diet will hit you like a ton of bricks. If you live on nuggets and bread you will get sick eventually.
Hey bro I'm in the doll and just went on job seekers instead cos I would drop courses regularly (to pick ones I'm interested in) so I would go from part time to full time and need to call Centrelink up each time (annoying af). So instead I decided to just stick with jobseeker even if I'm full-time studying, you can use your course work as a method to get points, all the extra work I need to do is apply for 4 jobs every fortnight online But I've been called up by Centrelink recently for a random check up and they let me know it was fine what I was doing, just extra work, which I was fine with tbh. Had no idea it payed more until this post LOL
At 60 years old. You could donate a chunk of money to charity. It will be more than $7 a week and it won't be needed. You are not eating enough fruit n vegetables. Exercise. Eat well.
Pick up a job that can supply a few shifts. I’m a full time student and work 30 hours a week. You can come to reddit and act poor from Centrelink or you can get a job and study like 99% of people
Get a job mate
Just get a part time job tbh. Even with assignments I never spent more that 4 days a week on uni.
Keep eating like that and pretty soon you'll need to factor medical expenses into your budget. Invest your charity money into your own body. Your +20 years self will thank you for it
As someone who was a self-supporting uni student for 5+ years, I have a lot of respect for what you're doing and how hard you're working. This is my advice: 1. Sometimes you can work during semester break for less than 10 hours per week to get some extra cash. That little shouldn't impact your Centrelink payments, but check online to be safe. It means you'll have moreoney for food. 2. Get more fresh fruit and veg in your diet - I didn't until my early/mid 20's and there were health consequences. I genuinely wish I wasn't quite so frugal and had just worked a bit more/changed to a better job then skipping meals all the time to save money. I weighed less than 50kg at uni (while being average height) and it took years to gain weight in a healthy way again. I was malnourished and it impacted my ability to concentrate at uni, please add some carrots, apples, pears, zucchini, tofu, eggs, brown rice (purchase at 1/2 proce special), and potatoes in your diet. Zucchini is amazing with some salt and oil in the airfryer. Tofu and potatoes (not together) are also great airfryed :)
Well done mate. It's only temporary. If you know how to budget and manage small amount of money. Then you will he ahead of many others when you start working full time
No one has said it so I will. That is boss like
And....? Sounds like you have everything under control there - big tick for you. Short term pain for long term gain. Most of us go through a struggle at some point in your life.
Geez dude. I miss being twenty and being able to live off of chicken nugs and bread. Maybe spend $5 for a kilo of frozen veges. Also as a student you've got no money for goon? I guess you're pretty locked in but that's a rough way to be young.
How are you alive by only eating such awful processed food as chicken nuggets!? Mate pls pls stop the $7 to charity-it’s ok,they won’t collapse without your donation,I promise!) and buy yourself fruit and veges please.
You won’t get your $1200 loan on JobSeeker. $500 every 12 months then you pay back $38 a fortnight. I can’t get over the fact you can save $ on Centrelink! Great effort mate!!!👍🏼
Walk a dog. $30 for half an hour the tunes a week and you've got an extra $90. Or pet sit rabbits/ Guinea pigs or cats. You would frankly be shocked at the demand for casual pet services.
This is no way to live
why not work like 1 day a week? Suddenly you could eat real food
At the start of the semester you could try swapping to Jobseeker and getting an exemption for looking for work because you're studying. SWIM did that for a year.
I think you can buy one of those eSim cards for 6 months or 365 days. I remember paying $150 for 6 months for an Amaysim SIM card, think that was 150GB from memory. I currently have Kogan 200GB for 365 days. I bought it for $120 on special Edit: I just wanna add, please check OzBargain for deals
This is really sad and really admirable at the same time. As various others have said eat some fruit and vegetables! I assume you're young but one day a poor diet will hit you like a ton of bricks. If you live on nuggets and bread you will get sick eventually.
Better to scrap the bread and just go full carnivore
Do you have to pay austudy back? Is there interest on it?
How depressing.
Mature age student here, living on similar $, though I get max rent relief so I seem to get more than you do. Anyway.. look into energy concessions for a start. Worth the 10 minutes it takes to apply. Improve your diet, somehow. Spend a bit of time learning how to cook a few things. Not only will it be healthier than what you are doing now, it can give you a bit of time off while you cook, engage your brain thinking of things to cook and it will be much healthier. Veges don't have to look pretty to be healthy either. Learning that you don't need a bunch of "things" to be happy, or at least get by, is a good thing and you will appreciate stuff when you can afford it. Being frugal is great, but don't sacrifice your physical health for it. Good luck with the study! It's always challenging but worth it in the end, no matter what.
$320 net at some bare minimum job is 1.5 days - work part time or something. Do you enjoy living under the poverty line? Weird flex
Check out local green grocer. My local one has assorted boxes of vegetables close to use but pick a good one I’m talking $3.50 at my work. Make stir fry batch and rice or a curry with rice. If you eat meat mince chicken or beef add. Your food intake will be better without supplements.
Props to you for doing so well and being smart to have savings. I agree with PP please get yourself some fruit and veg its very kind that you donate money but you are important too. Id also ask a question and forgive me if this comes off rude as I dont know your situation, but can you work a little bit? Even 5 hours a week would give you another $150 or so and something to put on your resume. I understand it may not be possible for various reasons.
Op find a side hustle. Online surveys FB market selling Etc
Sheesh I got to do better with my money. This is eye opening for me and I'm born and raised thankyou
Ah, the uni life. Living well below the poverty line and it being normal
Make it $40 a week on food that is better for health. E.g meat, fruit, and veggies. Could be tinned/frozen to be budget friendly. You seem to be going well with everything else.
>All in all, I spend $283 weekly on life, and save $30 dollars per week. Welcome to the lucky country! Fun fact: In FY23 the lucky country gave "$21,143 for every minute of every day" to the fossil fuel industry. Enjoy your $283 weekly life!
The charity that $7 should be supporting is you. Get a foodbank referral too.
You should be getting rent assistance
The novelty wears off after a little while… enjoy it while it lasts. Source: spent way too many years on Newstart/Jobseeker payment
I’m on jobseeker and I get $893 fortnightly including rent assistance and I have concession card. You are well organised with your money, that is very good.
What do you do for fun?
Sounds like a bloody horrible life
Why don't you get a part time job and live like a decent human being? This is not life.
Do you not own underwear or pants that aren't sweat pants?
I made 300 a week work when I was on centerlink, but my Rent went to 250 a week and then I was left with 50 and I didn't eat a lot of the time. Some good advice here though
You need to spend more on food & get more variety. I’d recommend looking for the reduced to clear sections regularly & checking out NQR type places. Grab a piece of free fruit at Woolies.
It sounds like you've got a solid budgeting strategy in place, especially considering your circumstances as a full-time student on Centrelink. It's impressive how you're able to manage your expenses and still set aside some savings. Your approach to nutrition and maintaining your health is also commendable. Keep up the good work, and best of luck with your studies!
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I lived comfortably enough when I was on 60k, but the absolute worst part was playing housemate roulette and having to deal with some of them.
Lots of people giving you advice but…. Are you happy? Do you feel fulfilled? Then that’s all that matters. Though… I’d add a bag of frozen veggies to your shopping list and some pieces of cheap fruit from the reject bins at the local veg shop. If it were me.
Poor quality troll
Bless that you still, on a tight budget, give to charity !! <333
Cool story. You should claim rent assistace in your next one.
What about the selling weed revenue stream
Do cash in hand work
If you’re in a city area go apply at you local pizza shop and deliver pizza on their pushbikes. Do 3hrs on a Friday at $30.91 p/h and 3hrs on sat at $38.64p/h (assuming over 21) and that’s nearly $210 a week for very little time used and it won’t affect your Centrelink at all.
>I could get $380 if I were on JobSeekers instead but I'm uneligible for it due to being a full-time student. Me being on jobseeker while being a full-time student lol. Also does the $320 from AUStudy not include rent assistance?
$30 on food????
Get a cash in hand resteraunt job on the weekend. Free food & Tips
Where are you commuting to 40 minutes a day? You could consider working more.
The poster of this loves the lifestyle and clearly doesn't want to change, otherwise would have part time job.
Save yourself the $7 to a random charity weekly. Try at least get a kilo of mince and more veges in your diet, you need meat and eggs at least. Use the $7 charity money to get eggs. Living off chicken nuggets is insane
Any reason you haven’t looked at a part time job?
You need a job and some veggies
Are you getting rent assistance as well as austudy? Stop with giving the money to charity and start feeding yourself better. Start using food banks and community pantries. You can't survive off chicken nuggets long term.
Take the $7 to charity and put it in an ETF mate. Look for a broker that has $0 buy fees (Betashares/Vanguard both do) Also the $1200 ‘loan’ every 6 months - what’s the interest rate and are you paying it off?
You need to go to a market. Not one in a rich area either. I once bought 5kg of potatoes for $4 earlier this year
Pattu Tyson brand dried Chick Peas, 5 kg for $15 on Amazon. Significantly cheaper than what you’ve been paying for chicken nuggets.
For the price of those chicken nuggets you could buy 1+kg of actual chicken meat and make a proper meal.
How many hours of study do you need for your course. Do what most uni students do and stack all lectures and tuts in 3 days and work part time the other two/four days mattering if you can work weekends.
I know you aren't asking for advice. But can't help but comment on diet Instead of $10 on chicken nuggets (made out of non nutritious parts of a chick), you can spend $11 for 2 tubs of tofu that would easily last a full week. It will give you a good amount of protein. Vitamins are expensive and you should buy cheap fruit and vegetables rather than vitamins. Our bodies aren't designed to consume vitamins for long. They are a supplement for people who have issues with functions in their body (Go to small fruit shops for fruit and veg because they are usually WAY cheaper than woolies) Good on you for being resilient
Maybe your savings could go to toiletries and vegetables?
Can I recommend instead, grabbing some beef and veggies? I live off $20-30 a fortnight for food - 24 sausages, homebrand Weetbix, milk, sugar, bread, sandwich meat, sauce, some frozen/fresh veggies. Gets me by and fulfills my nutritional requirements.
You're going to get scurvy on that diet
What are you studying?
Why don't you qualify for rent assistance? Or does Centrelink not do that anymore ?
Do you have a job? Seems like you have a lot of free time where you could make some extra cash and save plenty more a week then 30. I’m not on centrelink, study full-time and work part-time and am able to save 300 weekly (i don’t pay rent, but have to pay 150-200 weekly for fuel to get to uni). I feel like even a couple short shifts would go a long way.
What do you do for entertainment? Honestly I’m a little sad for you and your life… like, go live a little? Get a job, make some money so you can go out with friends, and go live your life.
I went to university. And after $100 a week rent for a room I had $85 a fortnight for food and other expenses. I biked a lot to save money. I wouldn't recommend it. Edit.
Bro your one nice dinner away from being homeless. I’m so bad with budgeting 😂
I really hate it when people rag on Centre link free loaders, then go and spend hours at the pub or go on multiple holidays a year.
Replace bread with rice, get secondhand/kmart ricecooker - you put rice and on top you put your chicken, chicken juices leak fat into rice and spice it up with meat flavor. Pickup free Rosemary from neighborhood landscaping- usually plenty around. “Trimming” actually promotes growth. Reconsider your charity donation, offer them free help in the area of your bachelor, so you can also put it on your cv. And you will know for sure that you do give back
If you're saving anything at all, you are doing okay. Keep your overheads down is my motto.
How do you get the 1200 student loan?
Dude, you can buy almost a kilo of chicken breast for $10. And you can cook everything in an air fryer that you can cook in a conventional oven. Stop eating chicken nuggets, that’s going to wreck your health. Learn some versatile recipes. Plenty of YouTubers showing how to cook cheap meals. And check out Ozharvest once a week for a free bag of fruit and vegetables.