Legends, we meet again.
Righto - for the newbies:
What is Cheaper Buy Miles aka CBM?
It's a bunch of inner city melbs stores that sell best by or use by goods at heftily discounted prices.
Article from Kidspot about similar in Sydney, including the kinds of bargains to look out for:
https://www.kidspot.com.au/lifestyle/home/i-found-a-littleknown-supermarket-to-score-ultracheap-groceries/news-story/bf60f99d8db160e8844057ecc47e0446
Best by = usually can be ignored, because it's goods that don't perish eg: best by dates on dry goods such as rice.
No, we cannot tell you when whatever it is that you want is coming back in store, because your guess is as good as ours. We have no idea. It's the luck of the draw whenever you walk in. If you see something you *really want* + can afford that makes your brain go FUCK YES!!! - get it. For some people, that's a $1 packet of chips. For others, it's 3 wheels of cheese for $60 that would be closer to $600 at ColesWorth. You do you.

Use by = that's one I don't mess with. The sniff test is the winner, so I've been told. Smells weird? Time to chuck.
Best by, particularly with dry goods, is usually safe to go past, particularly if it's something that keeps forever like rice. Be aware though, that some things, like pasta - you wouldn't think a dry good could get weird, but I've got some supermarket angel hair that needs chucking.

Check 'em out for locations [footscray, flemington, brunswick, fitzroy], see their socials for what's in store: https://www.cheaperbuymiles.com

Why we love them: no automatic checkouts, lots of boxes to take your stuff away in, great deals. If you see something you want to try, there's no harm in deciding to buy the thing regardless, and testing it out on the spot. Folks have generously offered me a sample of goodness whilst in queue, only for me to go and track down my own piece of flavor town. If there's something good you want the world to know about, please do this if you can.

Someone *really* hates competition to the duopoly. Do mess with the haters, upvote comments and the thread, and give the middle finger to rich strangleholds on Australian society. The less you shop at colesworth, the better. We don't need Palantir, Wesfarmers, excess packaging, fucked over workers, and screwed over farmers in our lives. News article re: Palintir + Coles:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-09/coles-just-hired-us-defence-contractor-palantir/103443504
fyi Palantir is the company helping out ICE in the USA, just so you know what you're avoiding.

Props to CBM who are all prepared for this diesel fandango with inner city stores that are all so convenient to get to via PT. If you're in the burbs and wondering which one might be best, my money is on Footscray. With the new trains from the city, you can whip out there in no time, and it's a ruvly ride to read a book/knit/listen to choons/whatevs.
It's a large store, you also get a great bulk nuts/weird shit/deli store across the road that's been there around 20 years, and there's a huge KFL aka asian grocer, along with the footscray markets + the indian store. THEN, there's also the recommendations of where chefs eat in footscray (https://www.reddit.com/r/Footscray/comments/1rt96jt/melbournes_most_underrated_food_suburb_where/), so you can down a coffee/bahn mi/whatevs from the locals, AND the op shop isn't half bad either - scored a few things there. Make a culinary/cultural day of it, perhaps making cbm your last stop with a large backpack or trolley or somesuch.

CBM are *very* smart - there's a library close to every store, so for kids of all ages, you can go have a snacking/reading stop to take a break, go to the loo, read a book, peruse the papers, grab a dvd for a rocking catered night at the movies etc etc before going home. Great, huh?

ON WITH THE SHOW...
KOMBUCHA: I love the remedy stuff, and it's new in tonight at $2 a bottle, so you bet I got my fine self a case of the the YUZU/mandarin edition. There's also Crisp Apple 🍏, the very delicious Passionfruit 💜, Blood Orange, Ginger Beer 🍺 and heavens knows what else. Suffice to say, fans of the fizz, now is your time to SHINE.

To save your dentist yelling at you for fucking up your teef, knock it back with some water, and make sure you brush your teeth well. I cannot believe that TIL that you're meant to not rinse out your mouth, but leave the toothpaste on them. WHY WASN'T I TOLD?
BTW, if you're after such things, there's always a cornucopia of teeth cleaning products. Knock yourself out. I have a flavour for every day of the week for maximum dopamine + tooth happiness.

CHOCOLATE: There's gift boxes of Baci for $6. Old easter stuff is being trollied out asap, so if fancy chocolate in weird out of date shapes - bunnies in May type things - is cool by you, it's a good way to stock up/ go hot chocolate maxxing if that's your thang.

CHEESE: The CBM saving grace. I need to tread carefully here, as I can't promise you the almighty daffinois - ie: the fancy french cheese that retails at $90 a kilo at colesworth, where you can pick up a wheel for around $20. All I can say is keep your eyes peeled, pounce if you get lucky, and that stuff freezes just fine. I have my last wedge from months ago, and I regret nothing. Keep an eye out also for anything in those round...bamboo? balsa wood? Basically any cheese with fancy presentation, I have never done wrong with. Scored a Will Studd imported french cheese recently, and it was totally the business. They come and go with great frequency, so visit often and pounce. There is various fetta/halloumi/blue cheese in vast quantities including wheels of Daffinois blue. If you have future plans for a cheese cake (ie a structure that resembles a cake, made of rounds of cheese), it could be worth picking up a blue daff for your base to freeze, then you can get various other wheels of double cream/cheddar/whatevs at your leisure.

CHILL CASE/FROZEN GOODS: They have marinated whole chickens (steggles?) in the fridge for $10. Much seafood. I went all out for a ladies night at home on the fish and chips with the lil' mini potato cakes and the fish fillets along with a jar of mayo. Yes, I *know* how to party.
Much frozen veg. The cauliflower is always great, and you can knock up great caulflower rice, or cauliflower cheese with various parmesans/bries from the chiller to help you along.
Dog food. Much processed meat: salami, bacon, proscuitto and other fancy things. Soup may be in your future with those, some lentils, a soup pack and various flavourings.
You could also do a very kick arse toastie with your preferred meats + cheeses + whatevs, along with mayo on the outer bread side when oven/airfrying.

CHIPS: so many, so much. Miles treats you *very* well on this front, and worth a trip. Kudos to Byron Bay Chilli Co™️ for their corn chips, which are everything you want in a corn chip. Sturdy. Plant based. Cheese flavoured, and so delicious I ploughed through the whole bag, and am a better person for it, and looking forward to paying for it at the gym tomorrow.
Would do again in a heartbeat. The Cosmic Psychos chip of choice aka The Twistie is there in chicken + cheese flavours. On second thought I reckon Dr Ross would probably go another flavour in the classic ridged potato chip style - onion? BBQ? The twisties made for a lovely logo at the time.

If there's a particular brand/flavour/find that you rate, please do tell the world in the comments. Sharing is caring, etc etc.

ACCOUTREMENTS: hesistant to rave, because there's usually small amounts, and by the time you get there, it's not there, and I'll meet you in hell, I'm bringing wine. HOWEVER: I found a plastic squeeze bottle covered in japanese writing, and turned it over for the ingredients, and it's Kewpie Mayo with Teriaki. Hells yeah. That stuff over whatever savory pancake you're making is taking it next level. Get some onion rings and airfry them, and serve them with that stuff. It's worth taking a good look at the drygoods shelves for those things that make your day/food a tad more interesting for a buck or two.

That's enough raving from me - your turn. What have you found at CBM? What would you buy again in a shot?

PSA: Just a heads up that I found...*something* in my drygoods. I am very hesitant to blame CBM for this, but it's worth letting you know to keep an eye out for *any* creepy crawly in *any* drygood that you purchase from anywhere, particularly dry goods wholesalers like CBM. What I had was a little...bug? They're black, and they love burying themselves in flour/flour like things - any kind of powder - eg coconut flour, cocoa, cake mix, you name it.
I just got a bunch of pro cleaners in to give me a hand going through everything taking it out, cleaning all surfaces, putting safe stuff into glass containers etc etc. I've never had them before, so it may have been CBM, it may have been Royal Nut Warehouse...I don't know for sure. Check and use yr drygoods regularly, and store them in pest proof containers, y'all.

"The Allan government is working to devise new donation laws after the High Court last month found previous laws unconstitutional.

Ahead of the state election in November, there are no donation laws in place, meaning there are no laws banning foreign donations, no limit on donations, and no requirements to disclose them.

Labor sources say proposed laws will be brought before parliament next month.

Secret funding will continue to influence Victorian politics for weeks as the government struggles to devise a constitutionally sound donations regime, six months out from the state election."

"In short:

Owned by the Holmes à Court family, Heytesbury has locked into a deal to buy the world's largest fleet of purpose-built live export vessels.

Many of the ships already operate in Australia's live export trade with Indonesia.

What's next?

Exporters are expecting "business as usual" from the new owners"

Politicians who have voted in support of live export include Pauline Hanson, Bob Katter, Barnaby Joyce, Matthew Canavan + David Littleproud:
https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/policies/32

Applicants to a $500,000 program offered by Australian petroleum producer Santos to support flood-affected communities across the outback in mid-2025 were told they would only be given financial help if they said good things about the company in the media, campaign groups say.

In response to the unfolding natural disaster, Santos pledged $500,000 (USD$359,940) to assist residents in remote South Australia and in Narrabri, New South Wales, where the company has been attempting to develop a gas project despite community opposition for the last 15 years. Gallagher said in a media release at the time that Santos was working closely with state authorities to help respond.

The company did not outline the process to obtain this support, but applications were able to be made through a form accessible through the online portal Sponorium. Applicants seeking financial help from the company were advised on the form that, “from time to time, Santos and our community partners may be the target of activism related to our operations” and that organizations should “have considered and accepted the potential risk associated with activism”. Under a section titled “Sponsor Rights – Activation”, the company outlined the terms on which would provide support:

The form then instructed applicants to “please detail how you will promote the Santos brand through your event or program and what activation you have planned”. This was presented as a mandatory field and listed several options, including “Event/Program/Infrastructure naming rights”, social media promotion, advertising, hospitality and speaking opportunities, “access to VIPs such as ministers, key landholders or celebrity endorsements”, media interviews, and placement of Santos-branded merchandise.

"We hear you thinking, if Mr Forrest is so keen to help Australians with cost of living pressures, surely it would make more sense for his company not to claim $305 million (approx) each year in the first place? It’s not as though taking this obscene amount of money is compulsory.

Or, you know, Twiggy could contribute his company’s “fair share” by using these rebates to pay for us all to “unlock clean locally produced energy” by installing solar power for everyone who doesn’t have it, for example?

Perhaps if Forrest hadn't, as Kristina Keneally wrote in 2017, '...demonstrated an aversion to paying tax':

>

So many options for someone with Mr Forrest's means.

Maybe we would believe this sudden commitment to the environment if Andrew hadn’t actively and very publicly campaigned alongside one-time mate and fellow billionaire, Gina Rinehart, to “Axe the tax” in 2010, causing the demise of the carbon tax and the fall of the Rudd/Gillard governments. If he and Gina and all their one percenter mates hadn’t succeeded in doing away with the sensible and equitable carbon tax, we would arguably not be in a position where advocating for fossil fuel companies to “contribute their fair share” would even be necessary.

Possibly, if this billionaire with an estimated personal wealth of around $33 billion hadn’t opined that welfare spending was “out of control”, even though it wasn’t. If only Twiggy hadn’t then created a cashless "healthy" welfare card with Tony Abbott's blessing, known as the Indue card, to “fix” this imagined problem by controlling what the poor people could spend their money on, not allowing them to spend it on alcohol, cigarettes or gambling, but still allowing rich people – like himself – to spend on as much drinking and cavorting as their money could buy. 

If only how Andy spent the tax rebates and assorted subsidies his companies received from taxpayer funds could likewise be controlled by taxpayers?"