A little while ago I wrote an article about how New Zealanders should take advantage of the strong dollar and shop on overseas websites (here). DHL recently released some figures that show a 26.6% growth in deliveries to New Zealand between March and September. The main reason for the rise is the buying power the New Zealand dollar offers. Kiwi consumers who are becoming more aware of the fact that they can get a variety of items overseas for a lot cheaper are taking to the internet for their shopping needs.

The top 5 sites where Kiwi’s are shopping:

1. Amazon

Probably the largest e-commerce website that has a strong presence around the world. They offer a variety of items which include books, electronics and beauty products just to name a few. It is popular with Kiwis as a place to buy books, music, clothing and jewellery – Click here to visit Amazon.com

2. Shoebuy

As the name suggests, it is a site that has one of the largest selection of women’s, men’s and kids’ shoes. They stock over 1,200 brands and have everything from casual shoes to dress shoes and athletic shoes – Click here to visit Shoebuy.com

3. Shopbop

They are an online retailer of women’s apparel and accessories from a range of designers being offered at a very good price. Besides getting a fashion fix at for a bargain, if you spend over $100 your items are delivered for free – Click here to visit Shopbop.com

4. iHerb

A one-stop shop for your entire herbal health product needs. They stock natural products from over 600 brands at very competitive prices – Click here to visit iHerb.com

5. Wiggle

The UK’s number one online cycle shop offering deals on mountain bikes, road bikes, cycle clothing and cycle accessories from the worlds top cycle brands. This is sure to be a hit with Kiwi’s with their sport nature and love for the outdoors – Click here to visit wiggle.co.uk

All of the sites mentioned above not only offer great deals, they cater to a worldwide audience meaning you could take advantage of them wherever you are.

Are there any other sites that you would recommend for online bargains?

Last week, the shell for our Toyota Corolla key fell apart. Since all the internal bits and pieces were working just fine I saw it as a cheap, quick and easy fix. My first port of call for getting the shell replaced was Toyota but when I spoke to them, the notion of it being a CHEAP fix quickly vanished! The response I got was that it was impossible to replace the shell and that I would need to get a new key at a cost of $400 to $500!

As you can imagine, I took me a little while to get over the shock or trying to understand how something that should be a simple fix could cost so much. After I came to my senses, I listed out alternatives to getting the shell replaced.

One of the alternatives was to look for a replacement shell online and change it myself. This was the alternative I decided to explore first and the one that proved to be the best and cheapest solution. After a quick Google search I found that shells were available for purchase. This led me to TradeMe where to my delight shells were being sold and where I bought one for about $20 (they are also available on eBay – Toyota Key Shell. The shell just arrived and after replacing the broken half of the shell with the broken one, my problem has been solved. And, I managed to save myself $400+ if I had gone with the Toyota option.

Depending on what kind of damage has been done to the shell, it may cost a bit more. The replacement shell comes along with a blank key so if the internal bits of the key with the damaged shell are still working, they can be transferred into the new shell. This would mean you having to go to a locksmith to get the key cut which in itself would not be an expensive exercise and will still see you saving hundreds.

Morale of the story; don’t just accept quotes that you given. Have a think about other options and explore them. You may come up with something that is a lot cheaper and does the job you want it to do.

If you are like me and a lot of other people I know, then you will more than likely be in a situation where you want to keep as much of the hard earned money in your pocket. One way that I try to keep as much of my money on me and not throw it in the direction of retailers is by keeping an eye out for bargains on the things I need (note: things I need, NOT WANT!).

One easy way to get things at a bargain is the through the use of coupons. A lot of us spend a fair amount of money on our weekly groceries, which makes grocery shopping one of the areas where you can maximise on the use of coupons and shave a few dollars off the bill. That there sums up the benefits of clipping coupons, you get to SAVE money and in some cases you save a lot!! A couple of days ago I was reading an article online that mentioned how Kate Gosselin (of Kate Plus Eight) has become an avid coupon clipper and on occasion has managed to save more than 50% off a grocery bill. Something else she also mentioned was that she has never shopped at some stores without coupons.

Where To Find Coupons?

• Flyers, newspapers, store entrances – your local supermarket or retailers may chose to distribute their coupons via these methods
• Coupon sites – there are a number of online coupon sites such as Coupons.com where you can find coupons for all sorts of products and services
• Twitter – and example of how I use the social network: from time to time I might buy a domain name or need to renew my domains with GoDaddy. At these points I always turn to Twitter and do a coupon search. The reason I turn to the social network is because it provides real time information. I never fail to find a coupon code that is worth my while
• Google – the search engine is also a good place to search for coupons. The only issue I have with it is that now and then the results point me towards expired coupons and it gets annoying trying to find valid ones in all the ‘noise’
• – yes, you can buy coupons on the auction site starting at under $1. Simply search for “” or narrow down your search using terms based on the type of coupons you are looking for

How Not To Use Coupons

One thing that coupons can do is to entice you to buy something that you don’t need. As I’ve already mentioned above it’s about making savings on things that you need, not want. From time to time it may take some will power to not be swayed into buying something you don’t need simply because you can make a saving on it.

If you haven’t tried coupon clipping, give it a go and see if the savings are worth your while.

Over the weekend, I drove into a Shell service station to fill up on what I thought was going to be a good deal on fuel. I paid for a predetermined amount of fuel and just when I started to fill up, I noticed that the price at the pump was a little higher than what I thought I was meant to be paying. It read 209.9 instead of 205.9!

What happened?
As I was driving along I looked at the fuel prices on their price board and saw 205.9 and below that 209.9 (see photo below). I automatically assumed that they were selling 91 Octane for 205.9 with 95 Octane being 4 cents more.

How it happened?
One of the things I put it down to is conditioning! I think what went wrong was that my brain had been conditioned to seeing prices being listed in a particular manner which in most cases is 91 Octane at the top, 95 Octane in the middle and diesel at the bottom. That being said, all other details around the price list have become non-existent as I am focused on the numbers being presented to me.

That there is how I think I managed to miss out on the detail to the left of the numbers which read “Ultra Discount Voucher”.

(The flip-side of the coin is that the marketers over at Shell are aware of this and use it to their advantage to pull in more customers)

Lessons Learnt?
The lesson I learnt from this was, I need to pay more attention to detail because it could be costly!

When you look at the short-term gains in dollars and cents, it may not seem like a big deal. But, if you look at it long-term (over a one year period for example), those dollars and cents add up and that money could be put away in a high interest bearing account or some other investment and become worth your while.

Photo taken with an HTC Desire S Smartphone

The current economic situation in the U.S. is kind of scary on a number of levels because of what could happen to not just the U.S. economy but the global economy if a resolution is not reached soon. Seeing the world sink into another recession so soon after last one (if it really ever ended) could cause more stress to a world that is already trying to deal with a lot.

All of that said, there are people (including myself) living outside the United States who are looking to the U.S. to snap up bargains. The US Dollars (USD) to 1 New Zealand Dollar (NZD) has shot up from about 0.76 at the beginning of the year to almost 0.88 today (31 July 2011), which is it post float high.

With that exchange rate, it only makes sense for New Zealand consumers to look around and maybe even shop online for all sorts from books to electronics to cosmetics to clothing and so on and so forth. The reason being, you will more than likely find whatever it is for a lot cheaper than the recommended New Zealand retail price. For example, my wife has been thinking about getting her hands on an Apple MacBook Air. If she were to get it in the U.S. she could save herself up to NZ $459 as follows:

Apple New Zealand NZ $1,549
Apple USA US $999 (approx. NZ $1,146) (NZ $406 saving)
Amazon $950 (approx. NZ $1,090) (NZ $459 saving)
In this case though, she would need to find someone travelling from the US to get the notebook over because of Amazon’s shipping restrictions on electronics. This however isn’t a problem for her because she has a friend visiting soon who offered to bring it over for her. If this is not an option for you, there is a work around for online retailers who do not ship internationally. I will write about this in the near future.

There are a number of retailers who do ship internationally and even with shipping fees included, turn out to be cheaper than New Zealand retailers. I picked a couple of random items available from NZ retailers to compared their prices against online retailers to find out how much could be saved. The results were:

Book: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [Paperback] by Stieg Larsson
Amazon.com – US $12.99 (approx. NZ $14.90) [shipping included]
Whitcoulls – $24.95
Saving of NZ $10.05

Make-up: Wonder Volume Mascara – #01 7ml/0.25oz
Life Pharmacy – NZ $55.00
StrawberryNET.com – NZ $29.50 [free shipping]
Saving of NZ $25.50

These were just an example of a couple of things that people may want to get their hands on and how much could be saved by buying them online. The main point that I want to get across is that with the current USD/NZD exchange there are plenty of savings to be made for New Zealand consumers. All it takes is knowing what you want to get, it’s retails price so that when you do your online search you will be able to calculate what kind of a saving you will make and whether it will me worth your while.

One thing that comes with the purchase of a device such as an iPhone is the need for a good data package. Getting the most out of your phone’s functionality as well as using a lot of the apps that you will eventually download will chew through your data plan. Some mobile operators provide data services at a premium and being the data addicted consumers we are, we pay for it even though we wish it was cheaper.

That said, there is an app out there that will help you save on mobile data charges. Onavo developed a system that compresses data before it reaches your phone. They claim that their technology can shrink data by as much as 80% which for you could mean big saving.

How it works:

How it all works can be summed up in the image below:

Features:

In addition to shrinking data, the application also provides iPhone user with insights into which apps are consuming the most data. This serves to help you get a better understating of and manage your data usage better.

The application also gives you control over what data gets compressed, such as image quality or not having emails data being compressed at all.

The Onavo is free at the moment but will come at a cost in the future. So, if you plan on giving it a go, download it now and see if it is worth it. Android users will also be able to enjoy the benefits of saving on their data as Onavo plans to release an Android version soon.

One thing that is definitely happening in New Zealand is that the cost of living is going up yet there doesn’t seem to a similar rise in wages to match it. Gas and electricity bills are already high enough and are also on the rise. One thing that a lot of us, including myself are doing about the rise in power bills is just accepting them for what they are and not shopping around for alternatives. A recent news article stated that Kiwi households could save up to $240 million a year on power if they took the time to find the cheapest alternative.

My guess is, the thought of looking around for the cheapest alternative can be a bit daunting which may be one of the reasons that people don’t bother. In actual fact, this task is really not that hard thanks to a savings calculator put together by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Consumer NZ, Powerswitch. Powerswitch is a site that consumers can visit to search for and chose the best power company for their needs.

How it all works is pretty simple and will only takes a few short minutes. To calculate the savings that you could make, you need to fill out a short questionnaire about your energy consumption. This can be done with or without a bill but, using information from a previous bill is recommended so as to come up with the best possible estimate. After you have filled in all the required information, a comparison report is generated and from there, the decision is yours on what to do with the information you are presented with.

Even if you think you aren’t paying too much for your power and have the best deal around, it doesn’t hurt to take a look at Powerswitch to see if there is anything better. You never know, you may be in for a pleasant surprise that could result in you keeping more of your hard earned money.

New Zealand already has it’s share of daily deal sites which include GrabOne, Spreets and very recently, Treat Me by Trade Me just to name a few. At the moment it looks like GrabOne is winning the race and covers more regions around New Zealand other than the main centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. If you take a look at a newspaper or billboards around Auckland it is plan to see that they are putting a lot into marketing themselves. But, the big daddy of deal a day sites Groupon is setting up shop in New Zealand and this may mean that sites already established over here may need to change the way the do things in order to compete with Groupon who have a lot more money to play with which could give them more reach.

With the introduction of Groupon to a New Zealand daily deal market that already seems quite saturated given that it only has a population of about 4.3 million it does make you wonder how successful they will be? Whatever the case may be, it will still mean even more deals for people to choose from. On the odd occasion, one of these sites may have a deal on something that you have really wanted to eat, see or do. With them offering up to 90% off whatever it is, this for you will mean a huge saving on that item. It doesn’t hurt to sign up to these sites and stay up to date with what they have to offer because you are bound to come across a deal too good to pass up.

Click here to sign up to Groupon New Zealand

A friend of mine is taking his family overseas in a few weeks and it has been a bit of a while since they have travelled far afield. One thing that he was concerned about was how much he would have to pay on excess baggage. For various reasons he will probably go over his baggage allowance and look into paying for excess baggage or sending off some of the items as unaccompanied luggage.

What I noticed after discussing this issue with him was that he had already put himself at a disadvantage with the luggage he intended on using. He was going to use, for lack of a better phrase, ‘old school’ suitcases which were not ideal simply because they weigh quite a bit. What we did was weigh all of the suitcases that each family member was going to use and what we found was that they weighed about 6.5 Kg (approx. 14.33 lbs) on average. This meant that each suitcase alone was taking up just under one third of the checked baggage allowance of 23 Kg (approx. 50.71 lbs) per person on the airline he and his family are travelling on.

What I suggested to him before he started looking into excess and accompanied baggage was to think about investing in lightweight luggage. We took a look at my luggage of choice, Samsonite which is very lightweight, durable and comes in all shapes, colours and sizes. The biggest piece that I use when travelling long-haul weighs about 3.5 Kg which if my friend were using would give him about 3kg-4Kg extra per person to play with. In the best case scenario, this would give them a total of about 14 Kg (approx. 30.86 lbs) more weight. In airline baggage terms, that can translate to a huge saving in excess baggage charges.

So, the next time you travel and are concerned about the weight of your baggage, take a look at the luggage you are using and see if you could save yourself on excess baggage costs by investing in a new luggage.

The other day a colleague was complaining about the amount of change that he always ends up with in his pockets or wallet and how much of a frustration it is to him. His solution to his little problem is to buy something small just to get rid of it and most of the time it turns out to be something he doesn’t need.

His little annoyance of too much change is actually an opportunity to save money. What I suggested to him was that instead of spending it on something he doesn’t need was to go back to basics and do something most if not all of us have done in the earlier years of our lives, have a piggy bank (some people chose to call it a collection jar or coin bank or coin jar or coin box – for this post I will stick with piggy bank). After making the suggestion I instructed him to just empty out his wallet and pockets of any spare change on a regular basis and when the piggy bank gets full, to exchange the coins for notes at his bank or deposit it into his savings account.

This in my opinion is something that is so easy to do and if you are someone who always has change that you just want to get rid of, it could amount to hundreds of dollars over a period of time.

As far as setting up something to deposit your money into, you can either go out and buy something or be a bit more frugal and tape up a shoebox like I did and cut a small hole in the top and bob’s your uncle!

One thing that can be a bit annoying about living in a country with only so many airlines servicing domestic routes is that airfares to some destinations can be expensive. A couple of weeks ago we had to fly down to Dunedin at short notice. With Air New Zealand being the only domestic airline servicing the city, the fares were what I would call ridiculously expensive. I don’t like spending more money that I need to so I spent a bit of time trying to come up with a way of getting from Auckland to Dunedin without paying more than what Auckland to Sydney return flights would cost.

After looking at the Auckland to Dunedin options where fares started around the $400 mark per person one way we looked at options of flying out of cities close to Auckland. We ended up finding flights out of Hamilton via Christchurch (for those of you who do not know where it is, it is a 1.5 hour drive south of Auckland) for $200 per person one way. Even though we had to drive to Hamilton early in the morning to catch our flight, doing that saved us about $400.

With that part of the journey sorted, next was finding a way of getting back to Auckland. This time around flights from Dunedin to Auckland were around the $500 mark per person which is just crazy! Once again, we looked at flying out of cities close to Dunedin. Queenstown seemed like the best option and we managed to got really good deals on Jetstar for $120 per person. This meant having to take a shuttle to Queenstown for $30 per person and spending a night there. We got a good deal at the Copthorne Lakefront Resort for $100 through Expedia.co.nz. As you can see, for the two of us to fly out of Queenstown plus spend a night there, it cost even less than the Dunedin – Auckland fares that Air New Zealand was quoting for one person.

Being willing to travel to/from cities close to Auckland and Dunedin cost around $800 which still is a bit pricey. But, if we had gone ahead and booked the Auckland – Dunedin flights we would have had to part with an extra $1000. The point of this post is not to take a dig at Air New Zealand because in think they are a fantastic airline. What I am trying to get across is that the next time you are making travel arrangements and the fares are a little steep, do a bit of thinking outside the box for cheaper options.

Note: when searching for flights I turn to Webjet.co.nz to see what options are out there. Once I have found something suitable I go to the particular airlines site and if they have the same fare available I make the booking directly through them. By doing this I avoid paying Webjet’s $20.90 fee for domestic flights.

If you are one of those people that are always on the look out for discount offers to save you money you need to take a look at Groupon if you haven’t already done so. Groupon is a service that features massive daily discounts (50% to 90%) on goods and services in your city ranging from restaurants to stores and even special events.

How it works is that you check in with them on a daily basis or sign up for email alerts to see what deal is on offer for the day. They also have iPhone and Android applications which with the use of GPS make searching for Groupons in your locale that much easier.

The only catch that I can think of is that in order to take advantage of the daily deal a minimum number of people have to sign up for it. Once the required number has been reached, the deal is activated for everyone to enjoy.

A number of services such a Groupon are usually only limited to the United States but the good thing with them is that they are available to users in cities across the world. Another bonus is their referral program where you get $10 Groupon Bucks when a friend you have referred gets their first Groupon. Groupon Bucks can be used towards future Groupon purchases and best of all, they never expire and there is no limit as to how much you can earn!

There you have it, another great way to save yourself a few dollars and if you play your cards right and get lots of people to sign up you could be saving even more!

Learn How Groupon Works! from The Point on Vimeo.

I went to a Sony retail store the other day to take a look at the Sony α NEX-3 Digital Camera with an 18-55mm Lens. I was blown away by its features and I want to get my hands on one. I usually go into stores to have a feel of whatever it is I am thinking of buying and then turn to the internet to see if I can get a better deal. More often than not, I am able to get a better deal on that item online.

I am a fan of web browser add-ons because they make a number of tasks that much easier. I came across InvisibleHand a while ago and I am loving it because it makes the process of searching around for good deals from trusted retailers a lot easier.

Lets take the camera I want to buy for example;
The list price for the Sony α Nex-3: $599.99
Amazon price: $598.99
InvisibleHand: $549.99

Without you having to do anything, InvisibleHand searches through its list of retailers for better deals. In this case it found the camera for $49.00 cheaper at Newegg.com where it is being sold for $549.99.

InvisibleHand not only has a large number of reputable retailers through which it searches for deals, it negates the need for you to go to price comparison web sites or even worse going from site to site. The add-on is unintrusive and the tab only appears when it needs to. As far as I see it, it is well worth it having this free add-on when searching for deals online.

I am not going to go into the whole thing about the health benefits of giving up smoking. What I am going to go into is the financial benefits. That is not to say that the health benefits aren’t important. There is enough information out there already that outlines the health benefits of quitting.

I came across an anti-smoking commercial on TV last night that caught my attention because the people in it were focusing on the financial benefits. Cigarettes are expensive in this part of the world and people may not realise just how much money they are spending on them. The Quit Group which runs quit smoking programmes here in New Zealand put up an online calculator to show you just how much you can save.

I have a friend who wants to quit smoking who I directed towards the calculator. He goes through about a 20 pack of Benson & Hedges (RRP $12.70) a day. After plugging these figures into the calculator it came up with the following:

He was really surprised to see just how much he is spending on cigarettes. He like a lot of people out there is not in the best position financially. The few thousands he could save a year would ease some of his financial pressures and now he is working on the hard task of quitting!

Besides the health benefits of quitting does ending up with hundreds or even thousands more per year give you more of an incentive to QUIT?

Recession or no recession, one thing that is good to know is the art of haggling. Last weekend we made some big purchases for some very much needed household items. We were lucky enough to find the items at what was literally a steal and my wife had the audacity to ask for even more of a discount and without much negotiation, she got one. Thinking that was just a fluke, we stopped by a big retailer for one more item and she did the exact same thing and got yet another discount on a sale item.

A lot of the time, haggling is not a long drawn out process, it is simply a matter of asking for the price you want and sticking to your guns. If the salesperson is willing to lower the price you may or may not get whatever it is at the price you want but at least you will have been able to save yourself some money if you do get a discount. That being said, what have you go to loose by asking for a better deal?

When it comes to what you can and cant negotiate the price of, I say anything goes. A lot people will for example say or think that there is no way that it can be done with a big retailer but it can. Having that mindset is just limiting yourself and taking yourself out of a position where you could save big!

One more thing to point out is that the whole process can work out a whole lot easier if you are cashing rather than financing whatever it is you want. I guess that there is going back to the notion that cash is King!

Last weekend my wife managed to save us a thousand or so dollars by simply asking. The next time you are out and about shopping for something give it a go and see where it gets you. You too could end up saving big. Remember, EVERYTHING is negotiable!

I am going home to Zimbabwe next month for a nice and long 7 week vacation which I am excited about but at the same time a bit apprehensive. I left home more than 10 years ago and just about every single visit since then has been a short 2 to 3 week stay and I don’t know if I can handle 7 weeks with all the changes in the country.

Anyway, on our way home, my wife, daughter and I are stopping over in Hong Kong for a few days with a quick side trip into China. The last time we were in China, language was definitely a barrier and in a couple of situations like when the cab driver dropped us off at God knows where, my cell phone came in very handy. A quick call to the hotel concierge who spoke to the store keepers and got us back on track made that experience a little less daunting. Having my cell phone and activating roaming was our saving grace but roaming is not cheap. It can cost a fair penny to not only make calls but to receive calls as well but that also depends on where you are travelling to.

If you are not too bothered about not receiving calls on your own number when travelling abroad, the most logical way of saving money on calls is to buy a local SIM card. I have put together a little comparison chart to show just how much I could save by buying a PCCW Mobile SIM card in Hong Kong instead of roaming on my Vodafone card.

I came up with a hypothetical situation of where I make 30 minutes worth of local calls and receive 30 minutes of calls, send 50 international SMS messages and use 5MB of data, this is how much it would cost:

As you can see, I will save myself a considerable amount of money by buying a local SIM card instead of roaming and that may very well be the same case for you too; when you travel abroad.

You can buy a prepaid SIM card when you arrive at your destination (in this case, a PCCW card costs HK$48 or $78) or if you want to have everything set before you depart, can buy one off eBay – eg. Hong Kong Sim Card. There are some sites that sell SIM cards from around the world but from what I have seen it looks like it would be cheaper to get them on eBay (if available) or when you reach your destination.

To be able to roam you do need to make sure that you have a cell phone that will work wherever you are going. If don’t have one, there are a number of places online where you can get unlocked cell phones for really good prices that will work with a number of international carriers – Cellular-Blowout.com is a good start. The only downside I can think off about getting a local SIM card is that you won’t receive calls on your own at home number. Considering that I could save myself a good amount of money, I would be more than willing to let go of my number for a little while. Would you?

Our printer ran out of ink quite a while ago and I must admit that during that time if I really needed to print out anything I would use the printer at work. At the moment I am still home bound with due to my ruptured Achilles tendon. And what do you know, a time comes around when I really need to print some stuff out.

This brought on the need for ink so I called a couple of places for prices and that left me scratching my head. I haven’t been in the cartridge market for a while and was a bit surprised at how expensive new ink cartridges have become. So, with me being one to always try and look for a bargain or cheaper way of getting what I need, I came across Cartridge World where I didn’t buy new ink cartridges but got the old ones refilled and that worked out a lot cheaper than getting new ones.

For the particular type of cartridges I needed I would have had to pay a total of $109.98 (that’s New Zealand Dollars by the way) compared to the $54 it cost to get them refilled at Cartridge World. That is an almost 50% saving of $55.98 and in my books that is pretty significant.

Whilst I was searching around for deals on cartridges I did come across a couple of people selling refill kits on TradeMe (also available on the likes of eBay – Ink Refill Kits on eBay) and it looks like DIY refills would be an even cheaper option. There are a lot of videos on YouTube that show how to do the refills yourself and it doesn’t look hard at all. That being the case, that is what I will probably do next time around.

So, next time you run out of ink you should look around to see if there is anyone close to you who can refill your cartridges for a fraction of the cost of new ones of just get a kit and do it yourself.

Lexmark 16/26 82/83 17/27 cartridge Ink refill kit US $8.99 Auction Ends: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 4:19:28 PST   | Watch this Item

Canon #30 #40 #50 Black cartridge Ink refill kit 17oz US $13.23 Auction Ends: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 4:45:46 PST   | Watch this Item

HP 121 121XL BLACK INK CARTRIDGE REFILL KIT(2oz) US $2.25 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 5:00:25 PST   | Watch this Item

CANON PG 210 210XL BLACK INK CARTRIDGE REFILL KIT (8oz) US $4.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 5:07:30 PST   | Watch this Item

A few years ago I used to travel to North America or Europe and on the odd occasion home (Zimbabwe) at least once or twice a year. Living in New Zealand, that meant spending a lot of time on planes and covering huge distances. It only made sense for me to sign up to a frequent flyer program and with the destinations that I travelled to the most, the Qantas Frequent Flyer programme was the best programme for me to join.

Over the years I accumulated a lot of frequent flyer points which I eventually redeemed and got a few reward flights for my wife and I. I still had quite a few points left over after that my wife and I used them to get a few things for our baby girl. By converting our frequent flyer points to gift cards from various stores, we were able to get a few things for our daughter without having to shell out the hundreds of dollars that we would have otherwise had to pay.

What I am getting at with all of this is that it may be a good idea to consider using your frequent flyer points to save yourself a bit of money. You may have frequent flyer points sitting in an account somewhere and some which may even have an expiry date. If you are not going to redeem them for award flights you may be able to use them to get gift cards or make purchases with the points directly from the particular frequent flyer store (if they have one). If the particular program you are part of does not have such programmes available for you to take advantage of, Points.com may just be your answer.

About Points.com

It is a site that brings a certain flexibility to points from various programs and gives it users a range of options for what to do with their points.

They allows users to:
- Trade points and miles with other people on GPX (Global Points Exchange)
- Exchange points and miles between your programs
- Buy points or miles so that you reach the required level to get the flight or reward you want
- Share points between the same programs with family or friends
- Redeem your points for gift cards from more than 200 retailers and restaurants

It’s free to join and really doesn’t hurt to give them a go. You would be surprised just how much you may get out of becoming a member.

Our children are the future and it only makes sense to impart as much useful knowledge as we can onto them. Earlier in the week my wife and I were working on a budget and I looked over at my daughter and just thought how good it would be if she a good sense for money from an early age. A couple of days later I can across Amanda van der Gulik on Twitter – @Amanda_vdGulik who knows just how to teach children about money. This is what she has to say:

Do your kids have any concept of what money is and how much it represents?

Our kids didn’t.

They knew that money existed and that you can exchange these shiny coins for things you really want. Our kids used to get really exited when they received any amount of coins. They had no idea that each coin could represent a different value. A coin was money to them and the more coins, the more money they had, so they thought.

Until kids can count or know their numbers, it doesn’t really matter. But as soon as they can count, you can actually make them aware of what each coin represents and teach them to appreciate the value of money.

This is how our daughter at age 6 came to understand what the value of money really means.

She would fold plastic shopping bags for her grandmother to save space and she would get 1 penny (1ct) for each folded bag. When she folded more than 5 bags, she would get a nickel (5ct) and however many cents she earned.

At first she was not too happy with it because she only got a few coins instead of the number of bags she folded. Then we showed her that the one coin had a 5 on it and that it was as much as five of the other coins.
The first little while she would exchange the nickels for pennys because this made more sense to her.

With a little persistence, we finally got through and now she actually looks at the coins differently. She now knows that 5 cents makes a nickel and 10 cents make a dime etc.

Then, when she got money from the tooth fairy, she knew exactly how many bags she would have had to fold to get that much (the tooth fairy gave her a quarter) and appreciated it so much more.

Over the summer she started her face painting business and for each face she did (or tattoo for adults) she would receive a dollar and a half.
After one day she earned about twenty three dollars. She could not believe the amount of bags she would have to fold for that.

She told us that she likes the face painting much better than folding bags for grandmommy, it was much easier and much more fun. She also realises that this would take her to her goal, a waterbed, much faster.

Make it fun and make it mean something for them!

An easy way to get started is by taking a look at the FREE mini-course: 50+ Fun Ways For Kids To Earn Money.

If you shun OEM packed or refurbished products when you are hunting around for electronics or appliances don’t! Why? Because you could save yourself a lot of money. My 2 year old daughter just completely destroyed my cell phone and I am looking around for a replacement. To that effect I have been doing a bit of research to see where I can get a good deal on a good cell phone and I was a bit surprised to see the difference in price between phones selling for the RRP, those in OEM packaging and refurbished ones.

What is OEM Packed and Refurbished?

OEM Packaging

Some products are sold without all the shiny and fancy retail packaging and come in packaging that is not visually appealing. This packaging is more economical for the manufacturere since it uses less paper, plastic, ink and cardboard. That for you as the consumer means that the manufacturer is able to offer the products at a discounted rate. Another upside to OEM packaging is that it is better for the environment due to less waste. One thing though about some OEM packed products is that some things such as accessories, software and documentation may vary so you need to pay attention to what you are getting.

Refurbished Products

When it comes to electronics this does not necessarily mean that the item had to pulled apart and be completely rebuilt. Refurbished products can fall under any of the following; customer returns, damaged to the packaging during shipping, cosmetic damage, demo units, open box or overstock items. In essence, there really is nothing wrong with the product itself. It may have been used very lightly or not at all. The fact that it was returned to the manufacturer for inspection, repair (if need be) and repackaged classifies it as refurbished since it can no longer be sold as brand new.

Given that OEM packed or refurbished goods come with warranties and have been checked over by the manufacturer and in almost all cases have nothing wrong with them, I would be more than willing to spend my money on then than on those in shiny new retail packaging. I am going to save about $150 on the cell phone I intend on getting by buying one in OEM packaging.

Would you buy OEM packed or refurbished?