I had a hissy fit in the Warehouse this week. I’d gone there to buy Coverseal for my kids books. As the assistant started to ring up my children’s choices, I realised that the 1 metre packs were $4.99 each.  I stood there and said: That’s daylight robbery, to the embarrassment of my children and the shop assistant.  After what seemed like an age wondering what to do, I decided not to buy the stuff.  We walked around the corner in the mall and my daughter got the same brand of Coverseal from Whitcoulls for $3.29 a roll, still a rip-off, and my son got his from the $2 shop. It just shows that it’s never a good idea to assume prices are cheap.

An email from a work contact:

Hi Diana

I’ve been looking at buying a Dulait toaster for several years but despite the weak Pound the retail price in NZ never changes.

I’ve looked on-line and virtually all the outlets charge the same price:

Milly’s Kitchens        $499
Pantry Magic            $499
Choice Catering $403
Award Appliances        No price, but I think they are the importer so its propbably close to $499.

Then I look on-line at O’Gormans in the UK and its GBP 102 or NZ$214, and for UK customers they do a next day delivery serive for GBP4:60.

It’s another example of NZ consumers getting a raw deal.

So what does “Bargain Betty” have to say??

Jeff

Bargain Betty says: yet another example of the classic Kiwi rip-off. You really do need to shop around – worldwide for things.

I’ve always been a bit cynical about the one-day-sale websites that have started popping up here there and everywhere. My first impression was that they were selling a lot of cheaply priced Tat that people didn’t need to buy. There’s certainly an element of people getting too excited over these sites. Grabone.co.nz has more than 50,000 people who “like” it on Facebook.

I have, however, seen the other side of them. I’ve noticed that some of the sites like DailyDo.co.nzoffer services (eg dental work and beauty therapy) and tourism days out at really cheap prices. I went on a Kayak Fishing expedition, which I have written about for the NZ Herald. The other customers had bought their tours from DailyDo.co.nz at half the face price.  If you want to do something like this it’s a great bargain.

My article from the Herald on Sunday:

Bargain Betty: Breadmaker adds to culinary mix

I love good bread. In fact, a great baguette or fresh Turkish pide pretty much top my list of favourite foods.

The trouble is that I get indigestion at the thought of spending $5 or more on a loaf, which in reality contains little more than flour, water, yeast and oil/fat.

If I acceded to my children’s demands I’d be buying MacKenzie bread at $5.11 a loaf – just for half of it to be left uneaten in their lunchboxes.

Read more:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10681061

I wrote this originally for my MSN column:

Does beauty care need to cost a fortune? And will a $500 moisturiser really make you look 10 years younger than a supermarket brand?

Some weeks ago I wrote about the phenomenal cost of fashion. This week I’ve got the beauty industry in my sights. But it’s going to be a difficult task. Many women would rather cut back on food than save money on their beauty regime.

Newsweek has just published some must-read research on the cost of a lifetime of cosmetic maintenance for the modern diva. The authors estimate that the average American woman spends $449,127 on hair and beauty over her lifetime. Ouch.

Keeping up good skincare is important. But it needn’t cost an arm and a leg. Once, in my early twenties, I asked a consultant dermatologist to advise the best moisturiser to buy — and I didn’t care what it cost. The answer, to my surprise, was E45 Cream — one of the cheapest on the market.

I wouldn’t deny any woman her $50 lippies, La Mer moisturiser, or a trip to the hairdresser for “the works”. If you budget, these can be included as special treats. What you shouldn’t be doing is treating them as everyday purchases if you want to get ahead financially. Try to use up what you have first and then decide which of these items you could save on and which you should splurge on.

Can you, for example, splurge on eye shadows and save money on supermarket-brand mascara, lip gloss and eye pencils?

One area of beauty care where you can save enormously is by doing your own beauty treatments. There’s nothing in a facial or pedicure, apart from the pampering, that you can’t do at home. Try checking out some of these DIY beauty treatments for more ideas.

And it’s possible to shop around and get your beauty treatments done for less. For example, where I live, in an expensive suburb of Auckland, eyebrow threading costs $18. Instead, I get it done for $5 a time when passing through modest Mount Roskill, which I do on a regular basis.

Even better, get your hair or beauty done cheaply or for free at a beauty school. There are heaps of listings in the Yellow Pages.

Thinking outside of the square can save you an awful lot of money over a lifetime. Just lately I’ve started making my own organic shampoo and conditioner thanks to the fact that my children developed mild allergies to soaps and shampoos, and my wallet is severely allergic to the cost of “eco products”. Making my own is both easy and satisfying and the raw ingredients are available over the Internet from websites such as Go Native.

Finally, remember that a big part of the cost of your miracle creams is the marketing, advertising and packaging. Can you do without them? Your wallet would be happier if you did.

Have your say: Do you save or splurge on beauty care?

Shoppers are often confused by sell-by, display-by and use-by dates.  I saw a programme on TV last night that discussed these dates and really put it into perspective.  Sell-by and display-by dates are dates used by retailers to ensure that the stock is correctly rotated. It’s only the use-by date that really matters. That’s the date when the goods may start deteriorating.  Having said that, many dried products (such as vacuum packed coffee), can last for years past that date. The presenter found, prepared and ate a packet of chowmein that was six years past it’s sell-by date and couldn’t detect any difference to the same product that was within its dates.

Sometimes I’m quite happy to buy short-dated products. You can save a fortune. Nor do I throw out food that is getting near it’s dates. I keep an eye on this in my fridge and simply cook and eat things rather than let them go off.

Check out these links below for more information on product dates:

http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/consumers/food-safety-topics/food-processing-labelling/food-labelling/fact-sheets/fs-2003-02-date-labelling.htm

http://www.consumer.org.nz/reports/use-by-dates-on-food

Shop around for gadgets at bargain basement prices.

My latest article in the NZ Herald:

Drop me in the back of a Dick Smith store and I can wile away an hour or two.

Dick Smith and its cousin, Jaycar Electronics, are jam-packed with useful bits and bobs for your camera, phone or computer. But they’re not cheap. If you’re smart you can pay 50 per cent less for many of those widgets and gadgets.

Read more

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10671121

Thanks to my journalist friend Tracey Barnett who did a big investigation into the evils of BPA in plastic,  I’ve been out this morning and spent $45 on three BPA drink bottles. One each.
If anyone has been similarly affected by Tracey’s writings  Kathmandu has a sale this week (posted Aug 26, 2010) on BPA-free drink bottles. Two of its normally overpriced BPA-free bottles are now $29.98, which is an acceptable price. I convinced the store to let me have the third bottle for half price as well.

The awful thing is that I feel that I should upgrade all of my old plastic and my Bargain Betty alter ego is in shock.  Why can’t ASB or BNZ or Vodafone or someone start distributing branded BPA-free bottles to customers? I’d advertise the organisation by carrying around the bottles if they sent some freebies my way. Most of my kids water bottles up until now have been branded corporate freebies. Now thanks to Tracey I’m having to spend real money on plastic bottles.

Finally had the baked bean cassoulet last night, that was recommended by Virgil Evetts over at Foodlovers.co.nz

for my pantry project. You can read more about my experiences of not shopping for four weeks here: http://www.bargainbetty.co.nz/2010/07/16/how-to-cut-your-grocery-bill-1/

It was a budget meal to say the least. Only expensive ingredients were bacon and four small chorizo.  I do have to say that chorizos are pretty reasonably priced in the deli at Third World Devonport.

The dish was a real hit. Even with me – the great baked bean hater.  Definitely worth doing again. And I might cook some regular cassoulets in the near future. Bean-based meals usually go down reasonably well in this household.