One of the values of setting out goals in ‘public’ on-line is that you are more likely to stick to them. Our financial literacy month goal would probably have come to nothing if I hadn’t committed to writing it down. Getting to the end of November we have made a decision and started our second superannuation scheme. Our paperwork has all been organized and gone to the accountant for our yearly tax return. For November every weekend I have taken out books on financial literacy from the library as my weekly reading. Even if you only learn one thing from every book you read that can make a difference in the long run. A couple of times a week I now get up early so that I can watch NZI business review from 6:00am to 6:30am before heading out to work at 6:40 a little more educated . It was interesting this morning to hear the discussion about extended warranties on products that shops offer for an extra price when you buy purchases such as TVs, fridges etc. Seemingly there is no point buying them as under the Consumers Guarantee Act you are entitled to take the product back if it does not last for a reasonable amount of time which for something like a fridge would definitely be more than two years. I have never bothered to buy an extended warranty as I figure probability wise I will risk it. I know some even shops send you out letters when your normal guarantee expires encouraging you to purchase an extended warranty. For more info on extended warranties here is the Ministry of Consumer Affair’s take on it Extended Guarantees – Ministry of Consumer Affairs – Media Centre.
Mama Mia
It was with interest that I read the article in Saturday’s Dominion Post regarding people who had booked seats and weren’t able to see the performers. According to the article a Commerce Commission spokesman said if you can’t get satisfaction from the ticket agent you can complain to the commission if you asked at the time of the purchase whether you would be able to see the show! If you buy a toaster you don’t have to ask “Will it toast my bread?” in order to be able to take it back if it doesn’t work, surely the ability to actually see the show would seem to be the basic minimum that buying a ticket should include in terms of the Consumer Guarantees Act? So I guess the advice is always ask when you buy a ticket to performances no matter how stupid you feel asking it – oh and don’t forget to record the name of the person who gives you the assurance. And if they refuse to give you the assurance??? Stay at home and hire the DVD.
Scrutinising health articles
I was sent this link yesterday from a colleague with guidance on how to read the kind of hyped up health articles that appear in newspapers with sensational headlines. Pretty basic stuff but a good reminder about the importance of scrutinising the information that we are fed through our media. http://www.bazian.com/pdfs/HowToReadANewsStory_vers03_26Nov08.pdf
Grey Days
I haven’t written for a while. Someone in my life experienced a big down patch and the side effect of that was to throw my life slightly off the tracks for a while while I dealt with their problems. It’s taken a few weeks to realign some things and get things back in order. The World Health Organisation predicts that depression will be one of the leading causes of disability in the world by 2020. The Ministry of Health has launched new practical information on their website to try and support people getting through tough times Depression – home.
Unit pricing
I popped into Woolworths yesterday for 5 mins to pick up a few items on special – Earth care toilet paper at 39c a roll and 2 x 6 burritos for $6 (cost me $4.74 the week before at Pak n Save for 6). It was so lovely to have unit pricing to check the best deals. At Pak n Save it’s the comparison that takes us the longest when shopping, even with a calculator. The Consumer Institute has been asking Foodstuffs to introduce unit pricing and they have agreed to introduce it in mid 2010 Foodstuffs introduce unit pricing – consumer.org.nz so am looking forward to that – might be able to get our weekly shop down to 20 mins!
Slow cookers
I was given a slow cooker last year as a present but hadn’t got around to using it. I decided last weekend that it was about time it got trialled. I’m not into recipes that take a lot of ingredients so found this one for beer beef stew on the internet. The house smelt amazing all afternoon…..mmm. Hubby doesn’t like any meat stewed, reckons it’s a waste of meat but he kindly donated one of his beers. I used about 650g of stewing steak for about $6 and adjusted the recipe slightly. Tasted yum, then went into the freezer for dinners later on.
Beer Beef Stew
1 tsp salt
2 cups beer
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
1 onion sliced
1/8 tsp pepper
2 lb Stewing Steak cut in 1 inch cubes
Coat beef cubes with the 1/2 cup flour then brown in melted butter and drain off excess fat. In crock pot combine browned meat with onion, salt, pepper and beer. Cover and cook on low 5 to 7 hours until meat is tender. Turn control to high. Dissolve remaining 1/4 cup flour in small amount of water and stir into meat mixture then cook on high 30 to 40 minutes. Serve with rice.
A good info site for making sure you are using your slow cooker safely in terms of food hygiene Cooking safely with slow cookers and crock pots
You’re not going to rip me off!
I read this article a while back regarding a research project being done in NZ to determine the % of customers who are overcharged by supermarket scanners http://www.nzherald.co.nz/consumer-information/news/article.cfm?c_id=164&objectid=10560545.
The preliminary study showed that less than half of customers check their bills. Translated into monetary terms the overcharging could run to millions of dollars.
I decided last week to see if my supermarket was ripping me off. I took a graphics calculator shopping – it allows me to enter the prices easily into a stats menu and all the information is held in the memory. The only draw back was hubby and I couldn’t split up to shop because we had to enter the prices so shopping took a little longer. ‘Disappointingly’ it all added up perfectly.
However tonight my day was made at The Warehouse when I checked my receipt and realized I had been overcharged by $2! It has inspired me to keep taking the calculator to the supermarket for a few more weeks to see how accurate the bar coding really is at my local supermarket. How does your local supermarket stack up regarding ripping you off?
Food Safety Website
This is a site I often use run by the NZ Food Safety Authority. Has a consumer section with lots of good information about ‘hot topics’ of the day. http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/consumers/