The joy of a $5 bookshop
Filed under: Cost of living, Hubby's Views, Life in New Zealand
Along with hideous (for us) quantities of money being spent on stuff in Melbourne, I also spent some time hunting down cheap books.
As you’ll be aware, this is one of our pet peeves with NZ – a ‘cheap’ book is only $30 for a normal fiction paperback. ’only’ $50 for a fiction hardback. When compared to the whole 3for2 at Waterstones, reading becomes an expensive dalliance. It’s also no wonder that Borders & Whitcoulls in NZ have gone bankrupt. Try selling over priced stuff, just because you think people will pay for it? Nope – that’s the magic of internet shopping.
Even second hand books are pretty pricey, which probably reflects the retail price of new books. Arty Bees in Wellington – an emporium for booklovers and stockist of impressive quantities of Sci-Fi and Fantasy will charge $15 – $20 for a second hand novel. Up a bit from the 50p we would be paying at a UK Car Boot Sale.
So it was with some pleasure that in Melbourne I spotted a $5 bookshop.
Now its set against Minotaur, where I spent the best part of an afternoon just oggling books. And that was before I looked through all the other merchandise; or Of Science & Swords, with too many cool t-shirts too! I wasn’t expecting much in the way of Sci-Fi at the $5 shop. So I wasn’t disappointed on that score. They did have a large selection of general fiction though. So it was nice to browse around and wander through a bookshop that had more books than we do at home.
My bargain for the day – Jonathan Stroud’s Ring of Solomon. UKP5 at Amazon, NZD30 in the shops here. AUD5 over in Melbourne. So that’s one thing off my Amazon wish list.
Why DVD’s are so expensive on Trade Me.
Filed under: Cost of living, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ, Life in New Zealand
{Rant on} Because only DVD’s that have be bought and paid for in New Zealand (at hugely overinflated retail prices) and thus have a New Zealand Classification sticker on them are legally allowed to be sold on Trade Me.
So if you buy a cheap DVD from the UK or US, and them resell it on Amazon at an equally cheap price -
you are breaking the law.
The Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 states that a film, video, DVD, or restricted game must not be offered for supply to the public unless it has a New Zealand label affixed to it. The words “supply to the public” include sales, hires, exchanges and loans. A seller who breaches this obligation is liable to a fine of up to $3,000 (or up to $10,000 if the seller is a company).
We found this out after some Arsehole reported my brother – who sells a lot of Dr Who DVD’s on Trade me. So now – thanks to said areshole – Dr Who Fans can join everyone else in New Zealand in being right royally screwed by being forced to pay 2-3 times the correct price for the DVD. Because one of the really big issues is that here in New Zealand – you cannot use an EftPos card to buy over the internet. So an awful lot of people who do not have access to credit cards or the “new fangled” debit cards which are just being rolled out here, have to buy in-country and pay over the odds.
And people wonder why downloading is so popular here. Even with that I continue to be amazed at how willing people are in New Zealand to be ripped off and overcharged. It’s kinda like it’s something to be patriotic about.
So what do you have to do is you want to sell a UK dvd on Trade Me?
Pay. Lots.
$27 + Gst to the Film and Video Labelling Body for each title you want to list. Then you have to pay 7c for each lable. So if you want to sell 100 copies of Dr Who and The Daleks (which for some truly perverse reason is not yet classified in New Zealand) it might make it worth it. But if you are selling the one copy you have – forget it unless you want to charge $50 for it on Trade me.
Sometimes I dispare of the utter futilty. This is not about DVD regions, its not about trying to prevent Pirating – its just another excuse to gouge more money off people for absolutley no reason.
Congratulations Arsehole whoever you are – line up to get screwed. You deserve it.
{Rant off}
Pharmacy Savings (Updated)
Filed under: Cost of living, Exchannge Rate & Currency Transfers, General Budgeting
So after the debacle trying to buy some Ibuprofen without having to take out another mortgage, we finally put together an order at on online UK Pharmacy. It took us a while because we had some concerns about ordering from OneClickPharmacy as they get a lot of bad reviews (and the good reviews are classic sock-puppet reviews like the crap that Woburn International wanted to paste on here.) Most of the problem seems to be in the length of time it takes for people to get their orders (which lets face it isn’t so much a worry – its gonna take a few weeks anyway), and crap service (when compared to getting ripped off here and getting bad service – ill take bad service and not getting ripped off as an improvement.
We looked at using Chemist4U – but they don’t list NZ as one of the countries they ship to. I emailed them to ask and got the annoyingly unhelpful reply “It depends on what you want”. So in the end we went with One Click.
I have had a questionnaire come through about one of the items – they Syndol Tablets – which I’ve answered and they have confirmed that it’s all ok, and the order is now being processed.
I will let you know if it all gets to me ok.
In the meantime – I thought it would be worth posting just what I bought and how much it cost.
(And yes – I’m a fake redhead – and yes I really do use different hair dyes depending on which particular shade of red I fancy being at the time.)
I’ve used the exchange rate as it was on the day I placed the order – but also thought it was worth looking at how much the order would have cost if the exchange rate had been at $3 to the £1. Even then – its still cheaper to buy abroad and ship it.
Let’s see if the order goes smoothly.
RESULTS:
Order Placed 9th October
Pharmacist questions recieved 12th October
Responded to 13th October
Email to say order shipped 15th October
Credit to CC – email sent to ask why 17th October
Responce that splenda out of stock (with apology for not letting us know) 17th October.
Order arrived 20th October.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that’s a fantastic result!
Rip offs and lies from NZ Pharmacies.
I tried to buy some painkillers today. And failed. I went into the Radius Pharmacy on Lambton Quay to buy some generic Ibuprofen 400mg tablets. Now you have to ask for these as here in New Zealand pharmacists do not want to sell you generics – they want to sell you expensive brands. Well screw that – I don’t want to buy Nurofen – I want to but the cheap version.
I was asked if I needed any help, and asked the young girl for Generic Ibuprofen. I was told they only have Nurofen. This is bollocks – no pharmacist would dispense a brand – its too expensive – so they will have buckets of the stuff in the dispensary. I was offered Maxigesic instead – which isn’t Ibuprofen – as I pointed out to the staffer – its Ibuprofen and Paracetamol combined. It’s also expensive. Having got past that piece of crap – I then explained that I wanted 400mg tablets. Apparently that’s not sold in New Zealand. Which is also bollocks.
Having been told now 3 outright lies in about a minute – I stormed out in professional disgust before I got all uppity and started coming out with the line about me being a pharmacist and could we please dispense (pun intended with all the crap. (I used to hate being told when I was working “I am a nurse, doctor, vet, dentist, whatever – I know what I’m talking about” and swore never to utter such a phrase in my life.
This isn’t new. I have yet to find a pharmacy that doesn’t try and spin this line. UK Pharmacists tend to try and put people off buying brands – here they force you to pay over the odds – and woe betide of you know they are lying. I have been able to buy generic Ibuprofen 400mg tablets here before though - so it’s definitely not true that you can’t do it. Its just more effort as they pharmacist has to be involved – but that is only because they refuse to sell it over the counter. It’s not a prescription medicine and there is no (legitimate) need not to have it on the shelf.
In fact when we first moved here there was a news item in which this was discussed. A representative of the Guild Of Pharmacists came on TV and outright lied, saying that the reason pharmacists did this was because Generics were not as good as branded medicines. Now IF that were true (it’s not) that means that pharmacists all over New Zealand are dispensing substandard medicines on prescription – which I highly doubt.
It’s all about the money.
I have flicked the Guild an email about this – as I am curious as to their take on pharmacy staff lying to customers to try and convince us to pay more for medicines than we should.
In the meantime – some searching shows that online pharmacies here in New Zealand suffer the same issue – only allowing you to buy Nurofen. However – after some digging around - One Click Pharmacy in the UK will ship here with a shipping fee of £13.99 (which is a flat fee). Now that’s a lot of money – but then they are only charging £1.35 for 48 Ibuprofen 400mg tablets – which is equivalent to 96 200mg Nurofens. So because of the postage you need to bulk buy – you can buy a maximum of 3 packets.
- 3 x 48 Ibuprofen 400mg £4.08 (That’s equivalent to 288 Nurofen 200mg Tablets)
- Postage £13.99
- Total £18.07
- Total NZ$ (2:1) $36.14
- Cost of 96 Nurofen 200mg $20.99 (Cheapest price I have found in NZ)
- Cost of 288 Nurofen 200mg $62.97
- Saved $26.83
Now since its a flat fee postage – I thought I would look at other items I want. Paracetamol ( you can buy a maximum of 32 tablets at a time – that’s UK law) – 35p or 70c. The cheapest you can find here is $2.99 for 20. Syndol – which I use for really bad headaches is £4.50 or $9.00 whereas here it’s $16.99 (I would also recommend buying heayfever tablets from here as well if you need them and know what you want).
That takes our total savings on one order to a whopping $37.11.
May as well make the most of the exchange rate and refuse to be ripped off.
Is it worth $10 a month to watch some decent TV?
New Zealand TV. It’s Crap. I don’t think I know Kiwi’s who think otherwise – let alone any expats. The channel that used to be Sky One (called Box and now Vibe – why I have no idea but I guess it’s better than Dave which is what the UK version of Sky One is now called) shows crap that is years old – repeat after repeat – rinse and (you guessed it) repeat.
TV1 and TV3 show “new” stuff – we are talking about US shows like CSI versions 1-277, The Good Wife, Criminal Minds versions 1-277, Bones, Law and Order versions 1-277, House. Plus Coronation Street, Shortland Street and new seasons of whatever crapola reality TV is in vogue this week. Vibe shows all of that from years ago.
Prime is the gem for us. This is where Dr Who lives, Torchwood, True Blood. Geeksville in fact. As well as goodies like Broadwalk Empire – after it screened on Sky Movies.
Now we pay for TV. Where we live in the Wairarapa we could not get a terrestrial TV signal (which is exactly the same situation we were in in rural herefordshire. Sometimes moving round the world does not actually change your life that much!) FreeView doesn’t work in our area, and besides – the choice of channels is pretty pathetic – and wouldn’t give us what we want.
We only buy the basic Sky package – I have seen what is offered on the movie channels in hotels here and I don’t think its worth it – a few hours of good movies , several hours of crap movies, - rinse and repeat ad nauseum all month. We use Sky Box office instead in the rare case that there is a movie we actually want to watch – at $6.99 a movie its cheaper than the cinema and cheaper than buying the movie packages at 23.80 a month or more ($36.66 if you want Rialto channel as well).
If you want sports channels – that’s gonna cost you as well, about $20 a month.
My Sky – which is the version of sky that means you can record to a built in Hard Drive and will now cost you an extra $15 a month on top of the standard sky box, or you can get it free per month if you pay a whopping $599 up front installation. When we bought it – it was no extra per month and $99 installation- which is why we went for it. $599 would have made that a hell of a lot harder. But to be honest – for my family – MySky is a must.
The upshot of all that is that we pay about $120 each month for TV here. That is for 2 MySky boxes, one normal sky box, the basic channels, HiDef, and sky sport.
But now we have a dilemma. There’s a new channel coming – SoHo – which will cost an extra $9.99 a month. Now normally it would be a straight decision – no – I am not paying more money right now for more crap TV. except SoHo looks like its gonna be showing the good stuff – the kind of thing that should get shown on Prime but isn’t. This is the channel that will be showing my current favorite TV show – Game Of Thrones, as well as a loads of other Emmy Nominated TV shows – and stuff produced by HBO. Ive already seen Game of Thrones – because who the hell wasn’t to wait for NZ TV to get with the 21st century. (And no – I did not illegally download it!) Still – a lot of the shows SoHo is showing are repeats of what has already been shown on NZ TV before, but they are saying that the most of their programming will be new US TV that we either won’t get on other channels or will get in about 5 years time.
Looks like a re-jig of the budget is in order.
Cool Wellington – The Parking Angel.
Wellington City Council recently changed the parking rules in the city. You used to be able to park on-street free of charge after 6pm. Now – only on Fridays mind you – you have to wait till 8pm to park free. Apparently this has absolutely nothing to do with increasing income to the council. Nothing.
And its catching people out – which is what it was designed to do.
Step in the pissed of business owners fed up with their customers getting screwed by the council:
Sporting large fluffy wings, a parking angel has been floating around Blair St handing out spare change to motorists to help them feed parking machines.
But blink and you’ll miss her – this angel only appears on Friday evenings.
The angel is the initiative of restaurant owners fed-up with seeing their patrons get ticketed since parking rules changed. While free parking starts from 6pm Monday to Thursday, on Fridays drivers have to pay until 8pm.
”After seeing around $400 in parking tickets given out to people who had parked on Blair Street last Friday, it was obvious that people don’t know paid parking is until 8pm on Fridays,” Monsoon Poon owner Mike Egan said.
With the support of other restaurants on the street, Little India, Fratelli, One Red Dog and Edison Superette, a Park Wiser initiative has been launched.
The angel traverses the street, reminding motorists of the new rules and handing out change to those who are caught short. Posters have also been put up along the street.
I am just so impressed.
Short lived moneysaving at Powershop
Back at the end of August, I decided to do some money saving, and used the Powerswitch website to change electricity suppliers from Meridian to Powershop. As of last Friday – I am no longer a powershop customer.
So what went wrong?
Well, my previous bill from Meridian had an estimated read on it – with a meter reading of 4612 units. When the switch occurred they sent me a final bill with the final read on it. Of 4612 units. Now because I live in an apartment – I do not have direct access to the meter – so I asked the building manager if he could get a read for me. He did that on the 2nd September and the read was 5684 – so considerably more than meridian had billed us for. We also found out that we have a smart meter – which means that power companies should be able to read the meter remotely so I was a bit confused.
The problem arouse because Powershop took Meridian’s final incorrect read as their start read, and then when I went online and altered it to the new read and let them know the problem they straight away sent my account with them into the red – at something like -900 units while at the same time lodging a “disputed reading process” with Meridian. (At powershop you can buy in advance and the website shows you how many days of electricity you have at the rate you generally use it).
I emailed Meridian to ask them to alter the final bill. I was told they could not do that as they were in the switching process. I emailed that response to Powershop and confirmed that the Building manager had looked again at the meter – checked it was the right one and that the latest meter reading (5th Sept) was 5705.
(as an aside, Meridian actually tell me that they cannot read the smart meter – it seems that smart meters can only be read by the company they belong to, and that all the electricity companies are working on fixing this. I had also asked them to look at why – when we moved apartments – we have been taken off the low user rate and put on the higher standard rate. I was told that this would have been asked when we moved. It wasn’t – and for reference I really do not like companies telling me that their staff would definitely have asked us if wanted the cheaper rate when they patently did not. The correct response was that your staff should have asked us. If they had asked us – then we would have chosen the low user rate! However – that annoyance aside – they very kindly worked out the difference and are crediting the account – even though on one month we would have paid more for the low user rate. I’m quite impressed with that to be honest!)
Anyway – by the 9th I still hadn’t heard anything – but Powershop still had the wrong start read and my account was still showing a large negative electricity balance. Now in itself this is not necessarily a huge problem – expect that I had already spent money with them buying advance electricity – and because of this I had basically no idea where I was or how far in advance I had purchased. Given that the whole ethos of Powershop is to make your electricity supply more transparent – it really wasn’t working. I emailed as was told to be patient – that it can take up to 10 days. I was also told – unhelpfully I though that:
You were under billed by Meridian by approx. 1000 units and when they change the start read you can expect to get a large bill off them.
You don’t say – I know that. I know full well that I owe Meridian a lot of money – I also know full well that I do NOT owe Powershop for nearly 1000 units of electricity and I object to their website not having the correct number. Bearing in mind that Powershop can and were reading the meter daily and recording the usage remotely and it clearly showed that unless I miraculously used that 1000 units in one day (against us usual usage of 20 units a day during the week) – then read was wrong.
I hit the roof.
I had already spent $164 with powershop and because they hae some silly system going on the background I cant get an accurate picture of what is going on – but at this point I still “owe” them for electricity I didn’t buy off them. I told them I wanted the reading changed now, and if they didn’t want to do that I would make a compliant to the commerce commission – or they could switch me back to Meridian.
At this point – I was told that Powershop have no option to change the number – that it is a “system” and their hands are tied and they are at the mercy of Meridian. And they have refunded my money and asked Meridian to take me back.
Why was this the first time I was told that Meridian were the problem? Why are people incapable of explaining “systems” they they know and understand but that we as customers wouldn’t have a clue about? I was obviously a bit pissed off at people wasting my time.
So I have emailed Meridian and asked them what is going on. At the end of the day it feels like we got caught in the middle of a pissing contest between 2 suppliers and neither of them acted professionally – though if Powershop are telling the truth (and I have no reason to doubt them) then the main issue in fact lies with Meridian – who appear to be making life difficult for people who move away from them. Which means Powershop are just guilty of bad communication and being unhelpful to people like me caught up in this.
Either way – not impressed with either of them at the moment – and no idea who I’m paying for my electricity – but it isn’t Powershop. Powershop has it’s advantages sure – you can see how much electricty that you are using – and I can already tell you that that alone is a big incentive to swich lights off and not be lazy. But there then comes a balance between saving $$$ and saving time and effort and getting a good service. But the bottom line is that this changeover has been a disaster. And from some comments from other customers of thiers on thier facebook page – it looks like the moneysavings are getting less and less as time goes on.
A humourous interlude at the bank :)
Much needed after the past few blogs. ASB advertise that they will change foreign currency notes commission free. Having just recently returned from Fiji with a small bit of cash left, I thought I would try it.
So I toddled off to ASB on Lambton Quay clutching $6 FJD (three $2 notes) in my mitts and asked if they could change them an account of it may just get me enough money to buy a cup of coffee.
Bless the girl behind the counter – we had a laugh about it – and lo – my $6 FJD turned into a whole $3.80 NZD.
Which we agreed, that with some shopping around – I may actually be able to buy a cup of coffee.
Mitre 10 Mega coming to Masterton.
Filed under: Cost of living, Property & General Investing
We were invited today to the Open Day for the sparkly new Mitre 10 Mega in Masterton. Friends of mum and dad want to know how come we got an invite. Basically because I have a business account with them for the rental business. Currently we have 2 stores in the area – one on the main high street in Masterton, and one on the bypass. The site next to that one is where they are building the Mega Store.
Currently – if we want the selection of good available at at Mega store rather than a normal Mitre 10 – we have to travel to Petone near Wellington. Now the small stores we have in Masterton are good – the staff are really top notch – and they the service they provide is excellent. I found them invaluable when I was renovating my trashed rental – many of the staff have also been through the mill with bad tenants and problem property managers – so they know the feelings well. The main difference we are going to see is in choice – and easy availability. Previously they could get me stuff they don’t have in stock – but now we will actually be able to browse a massive warehouse of DIY goodies.
I think there could be some budget blowouts coming up if I’m not careful.
Now the place isn’t stocked yet – though they have started. It has taken a few weeks just to get the racking and shelving in place to put the stock on – with the help of some short term contractors they took on just for the job. Apparently it normally takes 10 weeks full time work to stock up a Mega Store – and they reckon they have 6-8 weeks to get it done before they open – though they will not yet commit to an opening day.
Smart move!
Some people have complained about the effect that opening a big store like this will have on the area – now I don’t know what I am missing here – but I have always thought this was bloody good thing for the Wairapapa. For the owners to have the guts to build a massive megastore in a small town says they think the area is growing. Which is what I reckon is happening. There’s actually a lot of money in the Wairarapa – the problem is there’s not so many places here to spend it – so the money ends up being spent in the cities: Wellington or Palmy for instance. Really – we wont be spending any more money on DIY – but we will be spending it in Masterton rather than in Petone. Surely that’s a good thing?
I cannot wait till it is really open for business. And just in time for Christmas it looks like. So good luck to the team – and from my family at least – thank you for (if nothing else) the lighting section! And thank you for inviting us today!
Where to save some money.
Filed under: Avalon's Money Thread, Cost of living, General Budgeting
2 things have happened in the last month which have actually changed the way I need to handle our money – after 6 years of doing the same thing:
- We have a small issue this month with a new contract which pays on a different day to normal – so our income projections and bank balances are skewed – which means we can’t pay ourselves at the end of the month as usual.
- I have actually swapped the last of our personal mortgage onto the business (which means the interest is now a business expense) so instead of making sure as much money as possible stays in our personal account to reduce interest – I now need to keep the money in the business accounts as long as possible.
I have to admit – its all taking a bit of thinking about and planning.
But ho hum – needs must when the devil calls round for tea!
Because of this, and the fact that I really do want to get some more emergency funds behind us, I have decided it’s time to refresh the budgets and look at some cost savings:
1/ Changing the power bills.
I’m a huge fan of saving money without cutting back on things – and items like electricity bills are a perfect example. I wont actually be using less electricity (though that helps obviously) I’m just intending to pay less for it.
Now, there’s a newish website out called What’s My Number. Its being advertised on TV with people looking a tad daft with post-its stuck to their foreheads – showing how much they could save by changing electricity suppliers. I tried that and got:
Well, that’s not a bad start. The thing is the fine print relies on you being on the cheapest plan for your supplier. And you can do a better calculation by clicking through to the parent website: Powerswitch. Now it helps to have a current bill, but according to that I discovered that a/ I am not actually on Meridian’s cheapest plan, and b/ Powershop could be cheaper, by about $109 a year.
So I have used the switching service provided, clicked and signed up for Powershop. Now they are slightly different from normal power retailers in that you can buy electricity up front, and buy cheaper electricity in the summer. I am kinda looking forward to seeing how that works in practice. I quite like the thought of being in control of electricity supply – rather then getting a bill at the end of the month – and from what I understand this could be a good plan for people like me who are happy to spend time actively managing money.
2/ Printer Cartridges.
Jeeze are these the world’s biggest extortion or what? For anyone utterly frustrated by the sheer gob-stopping magnitude of the cost of printer cartridges (and the printers refusal to let you actually empty the damn things) have a look at The Oatmeal: Why I believe printers were sent fom hell to make us miserable.
Now I have had to do a lot of printing lately – and have a number of (not) empty cartridges that lasted all of 5 minutes. I decided in the interest of environmental concern (and tightfistedness) to get them refilled at Cartridge World. Where I rapidly stormed out of in disgust at the whole $4 per cartridge saving on something that costs nearly $30 brand new. This to me is not a suitable discount for refilled cartridges.
So I looked at both Inkpost and NZ Consumables. Now we actually have 2 different printers (Just. Don’t. Ask) both of them are brothers but – you guessed it – use different cartridges. One uses LC57′s which retail at $27.99. Cartridge world want to charge $24.99 to refill them, NZ consu,bales charge $6.84 for a compatible generic. Kachingg!
(I am at this point totally ignoring the dire warning that printers now display about the terrible and deadly (and expensive) consequences of not using proper branded cartridges as being as pointless and absurd (not to say expensive) as Kiwi pharmacists trying to insist using unbranded Ibuprofen will fail to cure my headache. Utter bullcrap!)
Now NZ consumables don’t sell generics for our other cartridges, but I found in that case that InkPost came out cheaper by refilling my old ones or buying their own brand. The new own brands came in at $15.39 instead of a $22.69 for the branded version. Or if I sent in 3 colours I could get them all refilled for $38.39. Considerable cheaper than the snotty lady at Cartridge Wold insisted was a fair price.
So while I have spent a fair amount on new cartridges – it is WAY less than I would have spent in Warehouse Stationary – or at Cartridge World. I’m rather a happy bunny.
3/ Coffee.
Ok – don’t all faint – but I have actually drastically cut down what I spend on coffee.
Now this isn’t a conscious choice to spend less on coffee. I still have a budget for it, and we can actually still afford to cover that. Instead – I just refuse to pay the current cost of buying a coffee in a cafe. A few weeks ago I actually ended up paying $5 for a cup. Now given that I drink Americano’s (with cream – and usually decaf) there is no steaming of milk to do, and its actually pretty straightforward. But now places are usually charging 50c for decaf and I am now getting charged for the cream more often.
Even the cheaper places are at $4 or $4.50 – and I actually don’t think it’s worth that.
So I now tend to save having a coffee out for when I am with friends – rather than because I just want one – and I make my own and chill with a book.
This month – I have so far spent $27.70 on coffee, out of a budget of $100.
And I am kinda having fun doing all this!
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