r/AUfrugal

Hi everyone!

Seeking info/advice on cancelling an international shipment. TL;DR at the bottom.

I posted a 14kg parcel via sea, untracked (cheapest option) on May 30th 2026 from southeastern Queensland to my parents’ home address in Ontario, Canada before travelling abroad. I’ve shipped a few parcels via sea/untracked a few times over the years and it usually takes 2, max 3 months. It’s a hiking backpack full of sentimental stuff like old uniforms, clothing and mementos, not valuable or vital for my trip/life but it would have been a burden to check and drag through several countries (shoutout to r/onebag community). 

In the parcel is also some spare (but good!) diving gear that I would have ideally used while in North America, but wouldn’t be gutted if it didn’t get there in time. I put an AirTag in the bag, paid the nice lady, and flew out a couple days later for an extended multi-continental trip, with my final destination visiting family in Canada by mid-August.

I’ve been checking on it periodically, and it got to the Aus Post Sydney gateway facility 3 days after I posted it. I’m in Canada now and as of 13 minutes ago it is STILL IN AUSTRALIA, a whole 3 months later. I knew it would take a while, and I accepted the risk, but at this point I will be coming home to Queensland in a few weeks and I’d rather try to cancel and have the dive gear for friends/spares. The MyPost portal does not have options for canceling/redirecting for obvious reasons, so I’ll need to contact them within Aus business hours (I'm 14 hours behind).

Sooo in the meantime I’m appealing to the fine Redditors of Australia. Has anyone successfully cancelled an international shipment due to delays (or any reason really), or have any resources/advice on how to get help from Aus Post contact center? If you don’t have any personal experience, feel free to entertain the group by sharing your most frustrating AusPost lore.

Thanks for reading my first world problem post! Wishing everyone a pleasant day without delays.

TL;DR: posted a bag internationally on May 30th via sea cargo without tracking, from southeast Queensland to Ontario, Canada with an AirTag. Usual delivery time ~2-3 months. FindMy app shows the parcel still sitting in Sydney, but I’m coming home to Queensland soon so I want to try and cancel before it gets on a ship. Any advice or Auspost anecdotes welcome!

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https://preview.redd.it/t64pdsx0ndkh1.png?width=1179&format=png&auto=webp&s=3d7cd4c352b598963984e011700177e1b1aa7120

Hi everyone. Not too long ago (just 2-3 weeks prior) i used to feel so lost going to aldi and used to just walk around mindlessly since I was used to eating out frequently (buying fast food/ take away, buying lunch while going to work/uni). And this habit added up quick cause eating out is expensive, even if you go to the cheapest place.

Now that Im paying attention to how much i spend in terms of eating, and I do some meal ideas in my head and shop accordingly, Im honestly having fun buying groceries, cooking and storing it and it makes me feel so productive lol.

Also since im from a culture where eating rice atleast once (or even twice) a day is a must, it has been so much easier. 2kg rice lasts me 2-3 weeks. If you havent included rice in your grocery list, please try!! So easy to cook and very filling. A 2kg bag of rice is like $3-4 in aldi. (Cook some chicken, or veggies to go with it. Traditionally, we have it with dal which costs about $4-5 per kg and you can get it at south asian grocery stores, and some veggies or meat item)

My this week’s grocery was under $75 yayyyy ( also this post was all over the place and kind of like a world salad lol sorry for that! Im just happy)

This has probably been asked here multiple times but I'm curious to how people shop for groceries at the moment.

Used to shop with coles for flybuys. This year, I've switched to woolies for everyday reward points that I have been converting to Qantas points. However, they've removed the x3 points for everyday gift card for qantas points which I don't think is worth it anymore.

I check the catalogue weekly but noticed that both Coles and Woolies half priced specials aren't as good as they used to be and just considering going with Aldi.

Has anyone who used to shop from Coles/woolies made the switch to Aldi? Is it better?

Currently also signed up to Everyday Extra Subscription where I get 10% off one monthly purchase. I used to have the same for coles.

Also considering signing up for Coles again as well. Do one shop each from Coles and Woolies each month to make the most of 10% monthly then just but the rest from Aldi.

Really curious on how people do their grocery shopping. Thank you!

Checking catalogues every week

Checking aisles where essentials are not listed in catalogues

Planning checklist for black friday or whatever big sale events

... how do you make it easier?

The hamburglar is alive and well, hiding in plain sight .. he’s just stop stealing the burgers, and now he’s just stealing our $.

I love a cheeseburger. Who doesn’t ? And used to polish them off when they were $1 or $2 each.

But $4.80-$5.75 each is robbery (and don’t get me started on different prices at different maccas).

Nothing more frugal than cooking at home, and we all know those delicious McD patties of beef come frozen …. So ausfrugalites, where can I buy some frozen small thin burger patties that don’t taste like cardboard (yes, I’m talking about you colesworth own brands) ??

I went through my bank transactions recently and realised how easy it is to forget about small recurring payments. A streaming service here, cloud storage there an old trial you forgot to cancel. Individually they do not seem like much but together they can add up pretty quickly. I am thinking of doing a proper subscription check every couple of months now. Basically going through the last few months of transactions, writing down every recurring payment and asking myself if I actually used it recently. I also think annual renewals are the easiest ones to miss because you might not see the charge again for another year.

How do you guys keep track of this stuff? Do you just check your bank statements every so often use reminders, or have another system that works well?

TL;DR: I reranked all movies on SBS OnDemand based on ratings and vote counts, making it actually easy to find something good to watch. You don't even login to use it.

website https://sbs-movies-ranked.vercel.app/

Saw a post recently on here recommending free streaming with public library cards, which reminded me there are still some good movies on SBS OnDemand .

Sure, there are ads, it's still a free service.

Main problem? A normal personal won't sort movies from A-Z when deciding which one to watch. Expiration date and update date? Why do I care about that?

Since IMDB is a popular for movie ranking, so I re-ranked these movie by IMDB. Technically, TMDB and OMDB are not real IMDB. But IMDB is actually a commercial service, using alternatives are acceptable.

Enjoy!

So my family doesn’t eat sausages and we don’t buy the expensive cuts of red meat. Tend to buy things bulk like rump whole/steaks when on special at Foodland and Costco mince. So when I look at buying whole/half a cow it doesn’t seem like it’s cheaper. But I’m aware my brain isn’t always good 😅 am I missing something?

I can go into the supermarket intending to spend $80 and somehow walk out having spent $130. The annoying part is that none of the individual extras seem particularly expensive. Has anyone found a shopping system that actually stops the random extras from creeping into the trolley?

I spent the last 2 years obsessing over half-price woolies specials and saving maybe $15 a week. Meanwhile real estate agents will literally try to hide 50k worth of termite damage under a fresh coat of bunnings paint

Almost bought a place in november that looked perfect. Thankfully pulled out at the last second after finding out the retaining wall was basically held together by hopes and dreams. It would have ruined me financially

kinda realised being cheap on the actual big stuff is the exact opposite of frugal. I got so burnt out dealing with lying agents that I just used some property buyers to vet things and actually filter out the garbage for me

tl;dr - keep buying the homebrand beans and freezing your leftovers, but for the love of god don't cheap out on due diligence when buying a house. spending a bit extra upfront to avoid a massive lemon is the ultimate money saver. worst stress of my life tbh

I find their body wash pretty close to Dove.

We've had some success saving money recently by substituting brands that are well known in the West with ones that are popular in China. For example, when my Philips diamondcare toothbrush died recently, instead of paying $279 for a new one, I got an oclean X pro elite for $105.

So far, it's more successful on expensive electronics and going with a popular-but-unknown-locally brand has avoided getting poor quality. (I've tried with batteries and some other goods classes but their equivalents are hard to get, even on AliExpress and ebay)

I’m trying to work out which Costco bulk buys are actually worth it once you look at the price per use. Some things seem cheaper until you realise you’re buying way more than you normally need. I’m mainly looking at stuff like toilet paper, cleaning products, pantry basics and anything that doesn’t go off quickly.

I have been buying Australia-made ones for a long time, but then I realise they are over three times the prices of basic home brands!

Shampoo and conditioners I'm probably not willing to risk, but soaps are soaps... right? Unless it is skin irritation otherwise aren't we just paying for the smell?

I have a Bosch 8kg front loader for sale and I’m getting rid of a wooden tall boy and bedside tables for cheap too, other household items, Samsung smart tv, clothes, shoes kitchen stuff etc. struggling to sell so will let it go cheap. Thought some here may be interested as long as u offer more then the cheapskate pawn shop it’s yours. St Albans location. Cheers

Kids are eating way too much yoghurt and I'm trying to save some expense on it. Luckily they are eating plain ones I don't need to worry about sugar.

I have looked up basic methods but I don't have yoghurt maker, thermos, or termometer. Honestly there are too much information around the topic it's getting confusing.

I have a very old slow cooker, the ceramic probably hold some heat. Also a cast aluminium pot from Aldi - from experience they hold heat quite well but I don't by how much.

I would like to avoid investing too much in equipment and keep failing.

How should I approach this?

For a bit of context, I have been working remotely at my new job since 2 months, and it involves a lot of screen time. And for that I was looking at blue light blocking glasses that will help me with the eye strain. I did check out how much glasses will cost and after checking a few optometrists and they are very expensive for me and not something I can afford right now because I have just started work, and I would rather be mindful of my spendings at this point and be careful about my expenses. So I was searching for much cheaper and affordable pair of glasses at the moment.

I have been searching online and came across a lot of recommendations of online stores that have glasses. Anyone else tried online glasses or sunglasses here?