Bloomin' generosity

I've spoken a lot about saving money on THRIFTerrific, but as they say: you can't take it with you to the grave. I believe that generosity is an act that doesn't have returns that can be measured in dollars; it's an investment in your own humanity, which some might say has spiritual benefits.

Far be it for me to tell you how to spend your time and money, but I would occasionally like to use this blog to highlight various charities or non-profit organisations that I feel are worth contributing to, especially in this season when you're likely to be thinking a lot more about giving and receiving than usual.

Today's spotlight is on Bloom:

Bloom assists and empowers women at risk through vocational training and employment. We work in partnership with aftercare shelters that rescue and house victims of trafficking in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to offers students valuable skills that lead to gainful employment, breaking the cycle of trafficking and restoring dignity and value.

A bunch of guys from Australia recently donated their time and efforts to build the Bloom Café, which has just recently opened and where the girls bake the beautiful (and I'm sure very tasty) cakes like the one pictured in this post.

You often see the third worlds' needs in terms of human suffering, so it's delightful to see it expressed as something so creative and colourful for once, and hope that it inspires you to think about others this holiday season!

Visit the Bloom Website to learn more.

Conjure up the savings on foreign exchange

Need a break? I certainly do. Luckily for me I'm going on holiday next week, and as part of the trip we'll be visiting a couple of the major Asian destinations, Hong Kong and Korea. Of course shopping will be very high on the list of things to do, but of course there's that little problem of changing currency. Seasoned traveller's will know the drill: use your bank credit, debit or ATM card and get ripped off on hefty withdrawal fees and foreign exchange fees, or buy travelers' cheques and suffer their crappy exchange rate.

No more! Thanks to the Australia Frequent Flyer forums, I've discovered the Wizard Clear Advantage Mastercard. This nifty little card is not much to speak of. It does have no annual fee, but the interest rate is pretty average, the balance transfer deal is no better than most other banks, and there's no rewards scheme to speak of. Where it really shines is when you take it with you overseas.

Firstly, they don't charge withdrawal fees. While most banks would slug you with several dollars per transaction, the Wizard card don't charge a single cent. Nada. That means you can withdraw as much or as little as you like, as often as you like. No more playing the "paranoid tourist" carrying around wads of cash hidden in a cache down the front of your pants, or looking everywhere and failing to find a place where you can cash your cheques. Just look for any ATM that has the "Plus" symbol (which you shouldn't have any problem with in all but the most undeveloped countries) and you're good to go.

Second, you know how the exchange rates that the bank or bureau gives always differs significantly from the ones you see on the news by a fairly wide margin? Well the travel gurus at the forums have also figured out that Wizard offers one of, if not the, most competitive exchange rates, varying only very slightly from the published ones. So not only are you paying no fees, you're also getting a better bang for your buck.

Damn good so far, right? But wait, there's an even better trick: you can pre-load the card so that you're spending own money and not have to pay interest on a cash advance. You can put your credit card into credit by paying more than what you owe, so that the balance goes into positive. Then you simply withdraw any amount of funds at your destination up to your daily withdrawal limit and/or credit limit. This isn't an advertised feature mainly because of the implications for money laundering, but unless you're planning on bringing the whole country home with you, it won't be a problem.

Brilliant, eh? Include apply for Wizard Clear Advantage Mastercard as part of the planning for your next holiday - you can't go wrong.

Further reading:
Answers to a bunch of Frequently Asked Questions by one of the AFF forum members, FL360

Going out of print

With the recent announcements from both Murdoch and Packer camps about charging for Web content, it looks as if print is finally conceding defeat to online media. I'm sure there are folks out there who count this as a triumph for the environment, but ironically, reading news on the Internet may not be as eco-friendly as they think; the environmental cost of making the computer plus the electricity required to run it probably far outweighs the impact of cutting down a few trees (which are renewable anyway). However, far be it for me - a geek - to harp on too much about the ills of the Internet, so let's get back to bashing the amount of paper waste that is produced on a daily basis by the news :-)

On an average day, I might read about 15% of the Sydney Morning Herald so in a sense, 85% of that printed material is going to waste. I'm pretty sure very few people will read the paper cover-to-cover, classifieds and all, which makes it conceivable that a large amount of wood pulp and ink are being consumed for nothing. Notch that one up as a win for the Internet, where what you don't read, you don't click.

After I'm done reading a paper, it will of course go into the recycling. But on the odd occasion we'll also use them to wrap vegies for storing in the fridge, and cleaning windows (non-colour newsprint is great for soaking up window grease). OK, so you can't do that with the Web. Even Stevens.

Jenny used to bring the paper home from work, so while I'd always get the news late I still got the satisfaction from doing a teeny-weeny bit for the environment. But now that that her works has stopped getting the paper, my source has been cut off and I've simply stopped reading news. I don't think I miss it, so maybe that's the most efficient method of all... overall winner: me.

Around the house: saving water

I realised that my last few articles have all been about shopping, so let's take a break and look at other ways in which you can make a difference in your world for a change :-)


You probably already know this, but Australia's climate follows a cyclical weather pattern influenced by various winds and ocean currents, which scientists have dubbed El Niño and La Niña. A friend of mine recently "predicted" that we're heading towards another drought because of El Niño, which, according to studies by the Bureau of Meteorology, means that we can expect less rain.

The cycle sure seems to come around quick! It wasn't all that long ago that we were on severe water restrictions. Maybe if we get the jump on this one early it won't be so bad, so here are a few water saving tips that to try:

... in the shower
The best way to save water in the shower is by installing a low-flow shower head, which reduces the amount of water required without sacrificing the "punch" of a regular shower head. Better still, a quick google will help you to locate businesses that give these away for free (with some even offering free or heavily discounted installation).

Shorter showers will also help save water, but if you're really looking for extreme water savings, then you could also try using a bucket to collect water while waiting for it to heat up, and using that to water the garden or flushing the toilet with!

... in the kitchen
Before I met my wife Jenny I used to wash the dishes with running water, but she helped me to see the light. The best way to wash dishes is to soak the dishes in the sink first, which both helps to reduce water use as well as the amount of scrubbing required. If you have an extreme kitchen with two sinks, use one for soaking and one for rinsing.

... in the laundry
Wait for a full load of washing before you run the washing machine. Apparently each load uses around 17 buckets of water depending on your washing machine, so less washes means less water. An extreme tip here would be instead of letting the dirty water run down the drain, keeping it for flushing toilets. I don't think it'd be so good for watering the garden, to be honest :-)

I'm sure you know of many more ways to save water around the house. Share them with us in the comments!

Lastly, just for a bit of fun, here's a video IBM created about how technology can be put to use to make water "smarter" (Disclaimer: I work for IBM). Check it out!

Per unit pricing

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that Coles and Woolies have started introducing per-unit pricing. That is, the price tag for products won't just show how much the product costs, it'll also show in smaller print how much it costs according to a standard unit of measure.

For example, for a 500g jar of Brand A peanut butter costs $6.49, and the price tag also shows you that it costs $1.30 per 100g. This becomes useful when you start comparing different sizes in the same product range. Say the 200g jar of the same brand peanut butter costs $2.99, but because that works out to be $1.50 per 100g it means that the smaller jar is more expensive in terms of bang-for-buck. It's also useful for comparing prices between different brands, as well as figuring out whether discounted prices are really all that special.

Unit pricing has been standard practice at Aldi, and European supermarkets in general, for a long time. Australian retailers have been slow to adopt it though, due to disagreement between the major parties about how things are measured. Chief amongst their concerns is what constitutes a "standard unit", because not all products are equal.

Take toilet paper rolls for instance (my pet topic) - because not all rolls from all brands are the same, should you give the price per roll or per sheet? You have 2, 3 and even 4-ply tissues now, with 190 sheets per roll or 200 sheets per roll. Which measure, from sheets, rolls or even weight, is the most relevant information to help customers make a choice?

That aside, unit pricing is otherwise a very useful tool to help you shop economically.

That's so last season

Yesterday my wife and I went to Birkenhead Point, where we paid $200 for something that used to cost $420 at retail. It was from the designer's winter range, but because her spring collection is already out it's considered out of date, and winter isn't even over yet! (Although we have been having some unusually warm weather in Sydney lately.)

If you're not after the absolute latest styles (but without sacrificing fashionability!) then it pays to shop at factory outlets. You can get perfectly good stuff at significantly-less-than-retail prices. If you're lucky you might even find something in one of the seconds shops that you can fix simply with a bit of glue, a quick bit of sewing, or even just a bit of a wash.

Here's a couple of factory outlet franchises that have branches in most capital cities:

Harbourtown
DFO

For everywhere else, the Factory Outlet Directory site has a pretty comprehensive list of Factory Outlets in Australia.

Happy bargain hunting!

For discussion: what's the best bargain that you've ever picked up at a factory outlet?

Pay less and get more by bulk buying

The American retail icon, Costco, recently launched a new store in the Melbourne docklands area, and will soon also open a store in the Sydney suburb of Auburn. While it could be considered similar to your Coles or Woolies in that they sell groceries, the Costco shopping experience differs from the traditional supermarket model.

Consider these two types of shoppers: "hoarders" (like me) who buy up big when things are cheap, and "grazers" (like my wife) who buy what's needed when it's needed.

The pro's of being a hoarder are: convenience - when you run out of toothpaste, you just go to the cupboard and get another one; and not having to go shopping so often (but you spend more time there when you do). Being a hoarder is a good way to earn rewards too, since most schemes have a minimum spend before you receive the benefits - e.g. spend $30 to get a fuel voucher). The con's are: it has a bigger up front cost (not good if you're out of food, down to your last few dollars, and desperately waiting for the next payday); and finding room to put everything.

The pro's of being a grazer are: flexibility - you pop down to the shops and get what you need - in and out - instead of spending hours trawling through every aisle; and being able to buy fresh - there are simply things that you can't store, like fresh fruit and veg. The con's include: being more expensive in the long run; and having to go shopping a lot, which can be very inconvenient if you don't live close to the shops.

The Costco model tips the balance in favour of the hoarders by offering everything in bulk. That's how they make money while still having lower prices than the supermarkets, by shifting a high volume of goods. You also have to sign up for their annual membership, which costs $60. Therefore Costco will be of most benefit to people who buy in bulk often (if only to get back the cost of membership in savings), particularly non-perishable goods: nappies, canned and/or processed foods (pet food, soft drinks, etc.), confectionery, and things that you can buy to freeze (e.g. meat).

What type of shopper are you, a hoarder, grazer, a combination of the two, or another kind that I've missed altogether? Post your thoughts in the comments!