Hi all.

I am new to this forum and new to NZ having only been here 6 weeks.

I have come from the UK, the land of cheap unlimited uncapped data.. oh how I miss my Three One Plan of unlimited 4G for $60 month! Moving on though because that's about all I miss.. 

I have been using a Skinny Data Only Sim since I got here believing this would be the best sim for me.. I use Skype video and voice calling a lot, stream netflix and YouTube video and spend a lot of time surfing the web particularly right now as I am constantly using Google Maps and browsing through sites like Trade Me.

I am going through around 8GB of data per week so is costing me around $100 every week, ouch! :-(

I am moving around from hotels and short term rentals right now while looking for a permanent place to call home so getting a fixed broadband connection is no good. I keep an eye out for free Wi-Fi spots when I can but haven't yet been in a place where I can make good use of one.. I've noticed a lot of cafe's and free wifi areas have 100M data or 30min time caps to them so don't really cut it for my usage.

I cant complain about the Skinny network (or should I say Spark) in terms of coverage and 4G speeds but looking back at my bank statements this past 6 weeks shows my biggest expenditure by far is Skinny, I've topped up $720 since I arrived on the 29th July.

My questions is, am I on the best mobile data plan for my usage? Are there any better (or should I say cheaper) alternatives? Just to give a little background, my current visa has 11 months remaining although I do expect to have this extended next year and hope to stay here for good however the 11 month term means no telco is willing to allow me to agree to a 12+ month contract.

I expect my usage will drop significantly once I settle into and able to get a fixed line but I dont think this will be for a few months still so any way that I can reduce my data costs would be great!

Thank you in advance for anyone that takes the time to read this and respond! :-)