One of the more curious phenomena on the Internet bargain scene is the proliferation of “daily deal” Web sites. The premise is usually that each day a new item, or sometimes several items, is offered. These are usually significantly cheaper than their regular retail price and have limited availability.

They offer a wide variety of products, ranging from clothes, electronics, perfumes, toys, sporting memorabilia and occasionally even mystery items – lucky-dip style. Many of the products are mass-produced goods sourced from low-cost countries, and I reckon that most of the “limited offer” items are end-of-life or overstocked items that wholesalers and manufacturers couldn’t get rid of through retail, but you do find the occasional gem: for example, around Christmas last year, Catch of the Day offered the 120GB version of the Playstation 3 console for $399 plus shipping, which in conjunction with a Paypal $50 cashback, resulted in a price that has yet to be matched anywhere else on or offline.

If you’re a keen bargain hunter, it pays to keep an eye on these sites:

• Catch of the day (http://www.catchoftheday.com.au)
• Zazz (http://www.zazz.com.au)
• One day, three deals (http://www.1-day.com.au)

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.

Australians suffers from Tall Poppy Syndrome – we love to back the underdog – and when it comes to the telecommunications market, they don’t come any taller than Telstra. A quick browse through the popular Whirlpool Forums will reveal the depth of hate over the vice-like monopoly grip that the company has over the Australian communications infrastructure. By most accounts, we’re paying more for our phone and internet services than should be.

Once again, technology comes to the rescue! Most people think of the Internet as just simply a vast hard disk full of music, porn, movies, porn, useless information, porn and porn. Actually, that’s just what’s on the Internet. The computers that support the Internet don’t actually care what kind of information they’re carrying, so one day some clever dudes thought “well why can’t it carry telephone calls too?” And Voice over Internet Protocol – more commonly known as VoIP – was born*.

So by now you’re probably thinking “if you can make phone calls on the Internet, I shouldn’t have to pay for both a phone line and the Internet, should I?” and you’d be spot on. Many Internet Service Providers (ISP) now offer what’s called “naked” broadband, meaning you don’t have to pay the “Telstra tax” (a.k.a. line rental). Some ISP’s includes a free VoIP service, and others offer it as an optional extra. The call rates are quite competitive compared to traditional phone plans as well.

Then of course, you could always just grab Skype. If both you and the person you want to talk to has Skype installed, then the call is completely free! (They make money by charging for calls made back to the old-fashioned telephone network).

Save money. Get naked now! Compare naked DSL plans (the site is not affilliated with THRIFTerrific).

* This is not a completely accurate historical account, so if you’re doing school work, go check something slightly less dodgy like Wikipedia :-)

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!

The ingenuity of people never ceases to amaze me. It might not seem like much, but I recently saw this in the AdSense block on my other blog:

See what they did there? They used their URL to communicate a message. When you see it, it’s so obvious! I mean, when you own and have full control of your domain, why not create a redirect from the contrived URL to the page that you want visitors to arrive at? It’s brilliant!

When you only have one headline, two brief lines of text and the URL to make an impact, every little bit counts, and this inventive way of “working the system” gets my stamp of approval!