I discovered on the weekend that THRIFTerrific has competition! Haha… it was probably naive of me to assume that I’d be the only blogger in Australia to write about saving money, particularly in this climate, but while browsing through the Womens’ Weekly magazine I came across an article which mentioned it. Simple Savings has been around since 2005, and contains an extensive collection of posts about the many ways one can save money. The only thing is, you have to subscribe (for free) to see most of it. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to turn a buck from this site but I probably won’t go so far as to start harvesting e-mail addresses, create mailing lists, etc. But that kind of stuff does works, so good for them.

Anyhoo, just linking it up for you guys in case THRIFTerrific isn’t enough of a thrifty fix, and also to support a fellow Aussie blogger and miser.

MasterChef is finally over, and the Julie-rage is slowly subsiding. So what’s for dinner tonight? Coming up with tasty meals that are also easy on the hip pocket can be hard (who can afford to splash out on a bottle of Moet for cooking with like they were doing on MasterChef!?) I personally find it difficult to get inspiration from recipes books, because there’ll almost always be at least one ingredient that you don’t have.

I used to live in an apartment that was right upstairs from a supermarket so I could just pop down and grab something, but who has that kind of luxury any more? That’s where 4 ingredients, by Aussies Kim McCosker and Rachael Bermingham, comes in. This clever little book (and its sequel) compiles of dozens of recipes that use only 4 main ingredients. They do cheat a little bit and assume that you’ll have the basics like water, salt, pepper, etc. but very few kitchens would lack these (and if you do, you can nick some from a food court or something!) While they won’t win you any MasterChef challenges, the recipes do cover a wide variety of ingredients, and can be a good starting point to expand upon if you’re feeling creative.

The books also contain little humorous snippets of poems, quotes and the authors’ anecdotes to give it a casual, fun feel, like how cooking should be. Overall, a highly recommended addition to your kitchen library.

Compare prices on booko | Buy from Book Depository (Book 1, Book 2)

If you thought Frequent Flyer programs were only for travel, think again! Many of the more popular schemes now also include options for spending reward points on everyday products and services, which means that you can redeem your rewards much sooner, and more often.

With Qantas and Woolworths joining forces recently, and Coles and Flybuys looking at ways to reinvigorate their partnership, an epic battle is being fought over our wallets, with free pies and deep discounts on petrol promising to be just the beginning. Here’s a quick overview of the players*:

Woolworths and Qantas
The Woolworths everyday rewards program started out as just a fancy way of doing petrol discount vouchers: instead of having to carry around bits of paper, the vouchers would be stored and accessed electronically on the card.

Then on the 22nd of June, Woolies announced that they’d joined forces with Qantas, and you could get free membership to the Qantas Frequent Flyer (QFF) program and also earn 1 point for every dollar you spend over $30. In other words, the first $30 spend still goes towards getting that petrol voucher, but the rest of it will earn you QFF points.

On their part, Qantas revamped their reward redemption, launching a new online store which focuses on non-flight travel options, household goods, and “experiences” instead of the usual flights and flight upgrades.

Coles and Flybuys
Until recently, Wesfarmers (the owners of both Coles and FlyBuys) had let its reward program become neglected to the point of being pointless (har har). It’s earn rate of 2 points for every $5 was far less competitive than other reward schemes, and the bonus points promotions were becoming few and far between.

But the Woolworths and Qantas deal lit a firecracker under their butts, and Coles kicked off a huge campaign, which also included rebranding and a new slogan: “it all counts”. They also embarked on a recruitment drive for FlyBuys with their gift card giveaway, but it remains to be seen if after this promotion finishes at the end of the month, whether they will improve the earn rate of FlyBuys to match that of the Woolies/QFF alliance.

MyerOne
The MyerOne card is the quiet achiever in this group, created after Myer stopped accepting FlyBuys as a result its being split from the Coles Group. They’re currently offering 2 points per dollar, and they send you a $20 voucher for every 2,000 points earned.

They run regular (usually monthly) promotions, often with some quite compelling offers, which has made them a favourite with the Internet bargain hunters.

So that’s just a quick round-up of the major cards. Which one should you get (or should you even bother at all)? It depends mostly on how much you buy, and where you do most of your shopping, but it’s probably not worth your time if you only pop in for the occasional milk and sugar. If you’re feeding a family, have a couple of cars, and shop regularly (at least once a week) then you’ll probably get a lot more out of it.

It should probably come as no surprise to you to know that I have all three: I find that Woolworths tends to have more of the products that I like, but Coles has better specials. I only signed up for MyerOne to take advantage on a deal on a Dyson Vacuum cleaner.

But really, I’m doing it for you, THRIFTerrific fans! Hee hee…

* I’ve deliberately chosen to exclude schemes that are attached to credit cards, since that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish!

I went to refill my car today, while claiming my free pie, it hit home just how complex this one little transaction had become. In the act of paying for the petrol, I:

• Paid with my credit card, accruing reward points with my bank
• Got my FlyBuys card scanned, earning yet more points
• Used a discount voucher from spending over $30 at Coles
• … and of course let’s not forget the pie, which was offered to give people incentive to visit Coles Express (i.e. Shell) instead of their regular petrol station.

This is not unique to Coles either; Woolworths has their Caltex branded petrol stations and Everyday Rewards card program and fuel discount scheme. When you think about the tiny margins involved in petrol retail, the mind boggles.

But of course, it’s not about selling petrol is it? It’s about building brand loyalty, which means that petrol stations are really just big, huge, corner-block advertisements. Oh well. I got my freebie, so can’t complain…

By the way, if you don’t want to miss out on freebies like free pie, follow me on Twitter.

You know how you always hear about how so-and-so got this great bargain on the airfare/movie/perfume/etc. that you’ve had your eye on? Well now you don’t have to be the last to know.

There are a number of Web sites where people post bargains that they find, both online and offline. By checking them regularly, or even subscribing to them, you’ll never miss out again! Here’s a couple of the most popular ones that I use and recommend:

OzBargain – http://www.ozbargain.com.au
Buckscoop – http://www.buckscoop.com.au

Both of these sites also have methods of helping you to get cashback deals on purchases – I’ll be explaining how those work in more detail in a future post, so don’t forget to visit THRIFTerrific regularly, or better still, subscribe!