I’m interested to hear everyone’s gift ideas, or the best gift they’ve been given! I really dread the admin of gift giving, but I have thoughtful/generous friends and when their birthdays roll around I don’t want to be empty handed. I hate the feeling go frantic gift hunting last minute and I try to look for sales where I can, and keep it around $50-$100 max.

I love gifts that are meaningful/purposeful or can be used. I’ve previously got movie vouchers or scented candles or fancy hand cream.

I’m not very crafty so don’t go handmade, but open to suggestions!

Hey everyone, I'm Emily Stewart — you might know me as "Sensible Emily" from ABC News.

I'm an award-winning business and finance journalist with almost two decades of experience across ABC national news and current affairs programs on television, radio and online. I also edit the ABC's personal finance newsletter, Your Money Explained with Sensible Emily, and I'm the author of the book Sensible Money (2025).

Alongside my reporting, I have a Master of Business Administration from Melbourne Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce and Arts from the University of Melbourne.

Most of my work focuses on helping people understand the cost of living, from groceries and rent to budgeting, saving, and what government policies (including the federal budget) actually mean for your day‑to‑day life.

Keen to have a chat with this community, especially since you're all very across the reality of stretching a dollar.

Ask me anything:

• saving and budgeting
• navigating rising costs
• making smarter money decisions
• or what recent policy changes might mean for you.

Drop your questions below and I’ll be online from 4–5pm (AEST) on Thursday, 21 May to answer as many as I can.

Trying to reduce my spending while saving for a home.
Took a couple of hours out of a day to do some searches and make calls to my providers and saved quite a bit.

Internet: fought a bit and managed to get a discount of $35 a month for a faster NBN plan from $110 to $65 month (also dropped a fetch box from plan)

Phone: changed from Optus to Everyday mobile 250/ 365 plan. From $60 (paid out phone that still works) to $20 month. Also got $20 off $250 price plus 4000 points ($20) for Xmas. I checked my data usage and the Gb per month won’t be an issue because I am on my home wifi more often than not (WFH)
Change over was fast and simple and I kept my number

Car insurance: changed from RACQ comprehensive to Everyday drive less pay less.
From $106 month to $38 including roadside assist.
Also got 15000 points over next 12 months and 10% off a shop each month.

All up around $140 saved a month plus a couple of refunds from payment credits. Pretty happy with the results.

If anyone else is struggling with cloudy glass shower screens I thought I’d share this “hack” I just discovered by accident. I’ve tried a bunch of stuff, including an expensive cleaning thingie that didn’t really do much.

Anyway, I had some super fine (0000) steel wool to polish the shower frame and figured I’d try it on the glass as well. I tried a small area first and it worked really well! I just used a little spray and wipe and wet the steel wool.

It got almost all the water stains and soap scum off and didn’t scratch at all.

I got the steel wool from Bunnings for less than $5. The expensive cleaner cost almost $100 and didn’t do as good a job.

My plan is ending soon and hoping to find a cheap plan.

Wondering if this is a good deal? Or if I should wait for Black Friday for a better (and likely) deal.

My only requirement is a minimum 2gb of data p/month.
Thank you in advance!

"Exclusive: Analysis shows in some cases the switch from promotional to full price happens almost simultaneously in Australia’s two biggest supermarkets"

(Which most of us knew already, but nice to have confirmed, and the graphs illustrate it well)

Apparently the $2 sim kit now requires a recharge, is it still the cheapest way to get access to Telstra Plus?

With the rising cost of living how much is reasonable for a weekly shop. I'm just finding each individual item is costing above $5 ... What are people doing to survive ! How much are you managing to get your weekly shop in with essentials... Ie toothpaste, soap, washing powder... I'm seriously getting more and more confused as how to keep managing

I'm moving into a rental that does not come with a dishwasher, any suggestion on a benchtop dishwasher that is idiotproof (me) and will not require any modification. Preferably one that I can just plug and wash ie one that I can just pour water into a container and stick the hose into the sink to drain.

Been on marketplace around my area and the ones there look like they need to be connected to some sort of inlet valve.

My husband cooked a meatloaf from Aldi on Saturday night, following the instructions on the packaging, and it turned out blackened on the outside and very dry on the inside. Instead of throwing it out, today I chopped up the leftovers into small chunks and made it into my favourite curried sausage recipe (substituting it for the sausages, obvs.). It was delicious and would also have worked with a bolognaise recipe.

I saved something that most people would toss in the bin, because I hate waste - and my family came back for seconds! Has anyone else got a good meal-rescue story?

Other than physical music (cds and records), are there any decent free music streaming services?

#music #streaming

Paul’s 2L low fat high protein milk goes for $5.60(full retail) in Coles and Woolworths and Bulk Nutrients WPC goes for $49.

Paul’s nutrition label is 6g of protein per 100ml and 2 litres of milk will be 120g of protein.

Bulk Nutrients has 33 servings per 1kg bag and each scoop is $1.48 with 23g protein(unflavoured).

Cost per 100g of protein is $4.67 for the milk and $6.43 for Bulk Nutrients.

Why isn’t this more popular? What am I missing?

EDIT - Paul milk calories are 68 cal for 6g of protein and Bulk Nutrients WPC is 32 cal for 6g of protein(1,700 KJ for 100g = 406.31 calories and protein per 100g is 76.8g per label). Calories difference on drinking 1L milk or 78.125g protein powder(60g of protein) is 340 cal.