The Resourceful Renter
When everything costs more, it’s easy to start feeling like you’re the problem. You’re not. Food is expensive. Power is expensive. Fuel is expensive. Insurance is ridiculous. Even butter now comes with a luxury price tag.
And when you’re renting, it can often feel like there’s a whole extra layer of ‘not my call’ sitting over the top. You can’t always make big changes like putting in a vege patch, adding solar panels, installing water-saving fittings or making the place run cheaper in all the ways you’d like. But you can get smarter about the everyday stuff - with small, doable changes that help you save.
Here are some ideas to get you going.
Tame the grocery bill
Food costs hit every week, and the supermarket is very good at turning ‘just a few things’ into $120. You don’t need to become a perfect meal planner overnight. You just need to stop your hard-earned money quietly disappearing into the bin, the back of the freezer or another emergency trip to the dairy.
- Check the pantry first: Before you buy more, commit to making one meal this week using what you already have. Then make it a weekly habit.
- Consider cheaper protein: Build a few meals around eggs, lentils, beans, chickpeas, canned fish, tofu, chicken thighs or mince stretched with grated veg. Meat can be hugely expensive, and dinner doesn’t have to revolve around it every night.
- Stick to the season: Out-of-season produce can quietly blow the budget, so make sure you buy your fruit and veg in season (bonus: it tastes better too).
- Shop online to eradicate impulse buys: Filling your trolley from home helps you see the total before you pay. You can edit as you go and skip the supermarket trap of walking in for milk and leaving with snacks, batteries and a ‘special’ you didn’t need.
- Know what’s in the freezer: You can add a quick ‘contents list’ on the freezer door so food doesn’t vanish into the back and get forgotten.
- Grow the pricey little things: If you have a windowsill, balcony or sunny step, grow herbs, spring onions, salad greens or chillies. You’re not trying to feed the street. You’re simply refusing to pay $4.99 for a bunch of coriander that gives up before Thursday.
Take the power back (literally)
Even with Healthy Homes standards, power bills can easily get out of hand. You don’t need to completely change your lifestyle - you just need to change how you manage the energy you actually use.
- Trap the daytime warmth: Close your curtains before sunset to lock the heat inside before the temperature drops outside.
- Keep heat where you need it: Use door snakes, rolled towels or draft stoppers on internal doors to help keep warmth in the areas you need it most.
- Clear the damp air: Open doors and windows to let fresh air move through. Regular ventilation helps reduce moisture and mould, and makes your home easier to heat.
- Zone your heating: Shut the doors to hallways and unused rooms.
- Layer up first: Make putting on a jumper or grabbing a blanket your automatic first move before you turn up the heat.
- Timing is everything: If your power company offers cheaper off-peak rates or a free power hour, don't let it go to waste. Use the built-in delay timers on your washing machine, dryer or dishwasher so they run during those low-cost windows.
Put the brakes on your travel costs
For most of us, a car is a necessity. Fair enough. But sometimes we reach for the keys before we’ve really thought about it. With fuel prices being what they are, now’s the time to make every trip count.
- Batch your trips: Stop running individual errands. Combine the supermarket run with the school drop-off, sport practice or your commute.
- Ask yourself, can I walk this one? If it’s close enough, leave the car at home. Those quick “I’ll just drive” moments can quietly add up over time.
- Check your tyres: Low pressure acts like a dragging brake. Keep your tyres pumped so your engine isn't working harder - and burning more petrol - than it should.
- Use public transport where it works: If there’s a bus, train or ferry option that gets you where you want to go, use it. Save on petrol, parking and traffic stress too.
Subscribe to free
The sneakiest costs are the ones that stopped asking permission. Streaming, apps, kids’ platforms, audiobooks, fitness subscriptions - all quietly clipping the ticket each month.
- Do a subscription audit: Check your Apple or Google subscriptions, then scan your bank account for any repeat payments your phone won’t show. Keep what earns its place, pause what doesn’t and cancel anything you’d forgotten you were paying for.
- Rotate, don’t stack: You don’t need every streaming service running at once. Keep one or two, pause the rest and swap them around when there’s something you actually want to watch.
- Leverage the free stuff: TVNZ+, ThreeNow, RNZ, YouTube and a decent library card can cover a surprising amount.
- Put your library card to work: eBooks, audiobooks, magazines, movies, kids’ activities and school holiday programmes can all take real pressure off the entertainment budget.
Borrow before you buy
You don’t need to own every useful thing. Before buying a drill, carpet cleaner, ladder, sewing machine, cake tin, camping gear, costume, garden tool or kids’ sports item, ask around.
- Tap into local pages: Check Facebook or Neighbourly for your area's Buy Nothing groups, Pay It Forward pages, and community noticeboards.
- Look for sharing networks: See if your neighbourhood has a local tool library, toy library, Freecycle network, or repair café.
- Ask your neighbours: A quick text or a chat over the fence can save you a costly trip to Bunnings or Mitre 10.
Resourcefulness isn’t about doing everything perfectly. It’s about noticing where the money is going, and plugging the gaps you can. One meal. One trip. One cancelled subscription. One borrowed drill. Small moves still count. Especially now.
Have questions? Get in touch with your local Barfoot & Thompson branch, or talk to your dedicated property manager today.
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