Computer Deals
There are two options for buying a computer: online or via a store
Often online can be much cheaper than buying from a store as you often need to subsidise the store. But going to a store can give you piece of mind that you can take it directly back to the store if you have any problems with it.
Find some of the best deals on computers & electronics at the following websites:
PriceSpy Finds the cheapest prices in New Zealand for computer hardware from smaller retailers
And if you have family in Australia you could use
Keep a notebook & pen in your kitchen ideally magnetic on the fridge. Make a note when you run out of something.
Check out sale items at the supermarket as they often save you alot of money.
You may be able to freezee them until you need them later. Plan meals around sale items. ie if minced beef on sale, can buy enough for 3 meals: chilli con carne one night, beefburgers another night, shepherds puy the third.
Aim to only visit the supermarket once a week. The more you go the more you’ll buy
Buy late in the day at supermarkets & market stall holders as they are often trying to sell things off cheaply.
Always look for own brands as often as good as branded food.
You can shop online for your shopping which may prevent impulse buysFoodtown online shopping
Try to downshift in quality to save yourself some money. Sometimes it doesn’t taste any different. In fact in a recent Target programme a family voted the value bread from Woolworths as one of the best tasting bread in a hidden taste test. Sometimes a brand name may even make the supermarket own brand product .
Sometimes with value products you’re not paying for the fancy marketing or packaging of the expensive brand products.
Compare prices of Brand name bread (eg Vogel) with Supermarket own brand bread or even Supermarket value bread
You could try it for only a week trying the a lower step in product to see if you notice any different. If you don’t with certain products but you do with some, only change the products you don’t actually like the taste. You will be surprised over time how much you can save.
Shop at the end of the day when products due to expire soon can be substantially reduced.
When you cook a meal make an extra portion, freeze it and when you’re feeling lazy you can just warm it up in the microwave rather than buying an expensive take away.
Reuse sandwich bags so you don’t need to keep buying them
Make your own lunches, sandwiches or salads.
We waste so much food that reaches it best before date before we eat it, fruit & veg, milk or bread that goes mouldy or off. Instead of running round the supermarket to buy food, go there with a list of what you’re going to prepare for a meal for the week and buy all the exact ingredients you need.
So meal plan, batch cooking & freezing are a great way to save costs.
So when cooking look in your cupboards to see what you can cook with whats in there.
Organise your cupboard so that you can easily find things otherwise you may buy the same thing over and over again.
A great website to find out what to buy with the products you’ve got in is www.cookingbynumbers.com Here you type in the ingredients and it comes up with a list of recipes.
This doesn’t have to mean making yourself miserable, its just about making you more aware of what you’re eating and spending on.
Beware of the bigger size value packs if you’re not going to eat it all. It’s better to buy a bag of what you’re going to eat then buy more just to throat it away.
Try to shop at local greengrocers as often have cheaper fruit & vegetables. Supermarkets often buy unblemished items of similar size to loook more attractive in packaging. Greengorcers & market stalls often buy less visually perfect produce. But remember to select the individual items with care.
I have seen bananas for $2.79 at pac n save & $1.49 at some of the cheaper fruit stores or markets!Also there can be local weekend markets that have even better deals. For example- Avondale market on Sunday mornings in Auckland. Find out where your local farmers markets are found. Always try to buy fruit & vegetables when they are in season as they are often cheaper. See Below for details of Farmers Markets.
How to shop at the supermarket
When shopping if you have only come for a few items don’t pick up a shopping basket as this is likely to make you buy more shopping.
Expensive items are often at eye level with the cheaper products above & below.
Ready made meals are often expensive compared to what you can make fresh yourself.
There are often impulse buys at the till so just try not to tempt yourself.
Never buy badly dented cans as the seal could be broken and the contents could be dangerous
Check out the supermarkets own magazine before you start shopping. There may be money off coupons or offers inside.
Collect your loyalty points at the supermarket.
Online Supermarket Shopping
Some stores are consistently known to be the cheapest so it is best to try and shop there if you can.
Wines
Cheaper wines can be poor value as most of the cost of these is in tax on the alcohol so choose carefully.
Most table wines sold in supermarkets & bottle stores are designed to be drunk within 1-2 years. After this they will often dry out, let air in and spoil.
Pour leftover wine into a smaller bottle and seal with tight fitting cork. Or use apump that removes air from half finished bottle.
Opening an inexpensive bottle of red by letting it breath for 2-3 hours before drinking.
Check out the 12 bottle for the price of 11 if you’re having a big party & bottle stores may lend you wine glasses.
For everything you need to know about whisky check out Scotch whisky
Heat spoils wine so always keep it cool.
Sell by dates
Try to shop at local greengrocers as often have cheaper fruit & vegetables. Supermarkets often buy unblemished items of similar size to loook more attractive in packaging. Greengorcers & market stalls often buy less visually perfect produce. But remember to select the individual items with care.Also there can be local weekend markets that have even better deals. Find out where your local farmers markets are found. Always try to buy fruit & vegetables when they are in season as they are often cheaper.
Credit Card Deals
Some credit cards offer discounts on your shopping!
American Express have a Shopping discounts Page
Giving up smoking
20 cigarettes/day ($10/pack x 365 days) $3650/yr or $36500 over 10 years!
What better excuse could you have for giving up smoking?
Never rush when shopping as that’s when you impulse buy
Only take a shopping basket if only need a few items.
Only buy items you really need even if they are on sale, as many people are tempted to buy these just because they are on sale!
Bulk buy milk and bread when on offer as can store in the freezer.
Make things go further
You can snap dishwasher tablets in half unless its really dirty.
Water down shampoo, liquid soap, shower gel etc
Stand empty bottle upside down to get last bits out of them suggest as tomato ketchup bottles, shampoo etc.
Swill out cooking sauce jars with a little water to make it go that little further
Reuse
Cut the tops off large milk containers and use for plants or as a watering can
Tubs of icecream or margarine can be used to freeze sauces & leftovers
Old tea bags can be good for the soil
Old cans can have the labels soaked off and used as pencil holders for kids
Reuse Junk Mail
Reuse back of envelopes & letters for scrap paper or lists
Save bubble wrapping, polystyrene chips or bubble wrap to send out precious parcels
Cut out bits with your name & address to use as preaddressed labels
Reuse other things
Aluminium can sometimes be sold for cash.
You could sell good quality second hand clothes to shops that sell these on your behalf and give you a cut of the profits. They often however demand designer labels.
Refill your printer cartridges. Save up to 60% on the cost of a new one& it helps the environment.
You could reuse old Christmas cards to turn into gift tags or decorations.
Sell old books on auction websites
Mobile phones sell on auction websites
Big Stuff
Furniture www.gumtree.com or local salvation army or other charity shop are likely to want this
Swap stuff at your local FREECYCLE
Farmers & Regular Markets
There are numerous markets going on around the country mostly at weekends that can save you money. Here a number of farmers & other retailers get together to sell items directly to you be they food or other produce.
Farmers Markets
AUCKLAND
Orewa Beach
Orewa Sq, Orewa
Sundays 8am-12.30pm all year
Albany Farmers Market
Albany Hall, cnr Old Albany Highway, Auckland
First Sat of month 9am-1pm (1st & 3rd Sats in Dec)
Devonport Farmers Market
The Wharf, Devonport
Sundays 9am-1pm
La Cigale
69 St Georges Bay Rd, Parnell
Saturdays 8am-1pm
City Farmers Market
Cnr Galway & Gore Sts, Auckland
Saturdays 8.30am-12.30pm
Parnell Farmers Market
Jubilee Building car park, 545 Parnell Rd (behind library)
Sat 8am-12pm
Clevedon Village
Showgrounds, Monument Rd, Clevedon
Sun 8.30am-12noon
Franklin
Town Squar, King St, Pukekohe
Sat 9am-12.30pm
Hobsonville
Hobsonville Plant Mart, Hobsonville Rd, West Aucklad
Every 2nd Saturday of month, 8am-1pm
Regular Markets
For crafts, produce & more.
AUCKLAND
Aotea Square Markets
Queen St, Auckland
Fri/Sat 10am-6pm
Office programs
There is now alternatives available instead of your expensive Microsoft Office Software that is available free for download on the net compared to up to $600+ for full version of Microsoft Office!
Open Office
Is the most widely used free office like program with built in word processor, spreadsheet, presentation , database & design software.
Version 2.4.1 is the best version to download as it is the most tested version.
PHOTO MANIPULATION
Gimp.org provides a great free image manipulation program, instead of having to buy expensive Adobe Photoshop!
Good sites to find other free software include
Download.com Has numerous programs to download some freeware (free), Shareware (costs money) or demo (if you want to try before you buy)
If you used to liked an old version of a computer program better than the larger new version you can often download it from:
Oldapps.com
PRINTERS
The most important thing when buying printers is checking out the cost of the ink.
The printer may be sold off cheaply but this price can soon be overshadowed by the ink refills.
Canon & HP frequently offer the cheapest prices for inkjet and sometimes it can cost up to 8 times more to print a photo on one printer than the other.
Lexmark frequently have more expensive cartridges but sell their printers very cheap to encourage you to buy them.
Free eBooks for your iPhone or PDA
There are now numerous books that can be downloaded for free online for your iPod touch, iPhone’s or other PDAs or home computer.Ebooks are great as when they are on your PDA it means you can carry round hundreds of books store with only the weight of your PDA to carry in your pocket.
There are numerous sites that offer free downloads but also some that you have to pay for. As these are online it doesn’t matter where they are based so you can get books from UK, USA anywhere especially fi they are free.
Always check that the site is reputable before downloading anything from them. We have heard of problems where some sites have been a scam. The software that you need, to download the ebook, is a virus and they can abuse your credit card if entered. One culprit we have heard about is marketbill.com but this is from a forum report.
Otherwise here are a list of the more reputable sites:
Stanza (Very popular app for iPhone & iPod touch)
Allows you to download numerous free books and even more that you have to pay for.
Check it out in the App Store
Project Guthenberg
Has over 30,000 free ebooks to read in numerous different formats. Can be found on Stanza as well.
Book Depository
Offers over 11,000 free titles. Based in UK but
Google Books
Has numerous titles to offer, some are free, some only abstract.
Well you wouldn’t be looking here if you didn’t want to go out but always remember it is much cheaper to cook at home. Look at ideas for keeping down these costs at the bottom of this page. A dinner for two rarely comes in at under $45 if you eat out.
If you’re going to be drinking wine, try to go to Bring Your Own (BYO) Restaurant as bottle of wine from supermarket $20, often costs $40 upwards in a restaurant
There are a number of places to get deals on eating out.
Entertainment Book
If you live in one of the main centres (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch) you may be able to get hold of an Entertainment Book.
These books are sold ($65 at present) each year from June. They last a year and give numerous savings in each book. They can easily save you far more than the $65 price if you each out often. They also have entertainment offers. Offers include 2 for price of 1 meals, 50% off & 25% off
Discounts available at best restaurants, hotel accommodation, attractions, sports and leisure activities.
Credit Card Deals
If you have an American Express or Diners Club card there is often deals available from your credit card. To find out the latest discounts go to:
Money Off Vouchers
Vouchermate & EzyCoupons offer numerous money off deals fast food stores etc.
Check out Money Off Vouchers page for more information.
Entertainment Offers
Always try to make the most of discount nights at your local cinema or DVD rental store.
This are usual on tuesday nights for both cinema and DVD rental.
Take advantage of cheap seats at the theatre too!
Another option if you go out to the cinema frequently is you can buy a book of cinema tickets at reduced prices and join their cinema club where you may get discounts or deals.
Credit Card Deals
American Express offer deals on entertainment
Check it out on their Amex Entertainment Offers page
Students Deals
Always carry your student card as you never know when you might get money off. Always ask especially in cinemas or Fast food restaurants etc as they often have deals for you.
Student Books
Check out the Nile Bookstore, NZ’s largest online bookstore for a great range of textbooks at great prices, often cheaper than the campus bookstore: