Over the past few years we have seen a great increase in the amount of fair trade products available which is great. What bothers me though is when business just takes advantage of the whole fair trade concept and uses it to milk their own customers. Oh I know that the majority of businesses have ridiculous markups on their products but when the Fair Trade card is played it annoys me.
It just irks me when something can’t be sold with Fair Trade on all sides. If they pay the producer a fair price they often then over charge the consumer so
Continue reading Fair Trade Or Rip Off?
I thought I would share my recent good fortune with the Coles Omo competition. Consumers had the chance to win cash when they purchased specially marked Omo. One day it became apparent that the instant win element was ‘going off’ so I took the punt and purchased approx 25 packs at a cost of $200. Except for one of them, all packs were winners. I ended up collecting $275 in Coles vouchers. But the buzz didn’t stop there. A friend was having a garage sale so I decided to sell most of the laundry powder for a very cheap price. I
Continue reading Smart Comping
It’s been a few days since I posted and while I have been meaning to – I just haven’t gotten around to it. I feel like I have so much stuff to do but never enough time to do it. I am sure you can relate! Recently though I have changed the way I think and react. No matter how I set things up there is always going to be times when I just don’t get time to do everything or more importantly don’t have the energy to. I have recently had tests confirming that despite taking a maximum does of
Continue reading Time Chasing
As requested by one of my readers here is the recipe that I used to make these bread rolls
50/50 Wholemeal Bread Rolls
Continue reading 50/50 Wholemeal Bread Rolls
As part of our lifestyle, saving money is part and parcel of day to day living as is eating healthy. So when it comes to G’s work lunches there’s no exception. He takes a home-made lunch. I generally make everything a week in advance so that there is always something for him to grab. I usually bake a dozen bread rolls and roast some meat. G loves roast meat rolls with a bit of cheese and a variety of different sauces. I freeze the rolls and G reckons they taste exactly the same as fresh daily. I will admit when I
Continue reading Frugal Lunches
With so much financial uncertainty in the last few years the number of compers trying to stick to a budget has grown. Others, like myself have other reasons for wanting to watch their spending on comps. Whatever your reason there are ways to make sure you don’t go overboard and still enjoy our wonderful hobby.
First you really do need a budget and you need to stick to it. There is no point having an ‘on paper’ budget but then blowing it each time you go to the supermarkets. There are so many great options to sort a budget for yourself such
Continue reading Comping On A Budget
If you take a look around at the squillion blogs spouting out statistics about our consumer culture you’d have noticed that many are assuming that mainstream consumers are all a pack of sheep being dumbed down by slick advertising. Is this really the case though? Hasn’t the counter culture done exactly the same (become consumers) while trying to ‘enlighten’ us lesser beings? How many times do you see people wearing t-shirts with slogans like ‘make poverty history’ or with pictures of Che Guevara (and countless many wouldn’t have a clue what they are actually wearing!). When did the issue of consumption
Continue reading Consumption Conundrum
I was among those who braved the cold at midnight on July est to see the movie Eclipse. K wanted so badly to attend the midnight session and who was I to argue? They’re only teens for a short time and some things are just cool to do. It scored me brownie points with her anyway LOL
Well we decided to wing it and not book tickets. Figured it is Toowoomba and very unlikely to be sold out in four cinemas. How wrong could I be?! We got there and I knew I was in a spot of bother when we struggled
Continue reading Random Freebie
I decided to try my hand at making taco seasoning mix rather than buying it with all the additives. Well let me tell you – there really is a HUGE difference between hot cayenne pepper and extra hot! Boy oh boy was my mouth burning when I made the meat sauce up!
I frantically rang a friend (thanks Eddy!) and was advised to either double my meat content or add some tomato puree. So I doubled the meat content and then added more water. Once that was done it was very tasty indeed. It was really easy to make and much better
Continue reading Taco Seasoning Mix
Some of you may have read in previous posts or in the forum that I purchased around 50 bottles of Pepsi Max for their latest comp (Top Gear 2010 promotion) to win $1000 a day or $50,000. Well ok the main prize is a choice between some bullocks about taking your mates on a holiday OR take the cash. Hmmm yeah hard choice!
Anyway we had recently welcomed our son back home after falling on hard times and he was more addicted than I to needing to have something to drink at all times (mine was a leftover habit after giving
Continue reading Pepsi Max To The Max!
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