Is it worth the trip? Figuring out the extra costs of shopping far away

We Israelis are experts in finding the best deals on just about everything. We've got our apps and newspaper flyers, and we are determined never to end up freiers (hey, I'm a poet and I didn't know it!).

But what if that great deal is located far away - for example, in a town other than the one in which we live? Is it really still such a great deal in that case? How will we know if the trip is worth it?

10 items to buy in stock stores

I really love shopping in stock stores - by which I mean low-cost stores such as Max Stock, Hastock, or the Anglo-oriented Big Deal chain. They remind me of Dollar stores abroad, and carry much of the same merchandise your typical dollar store in the old country would. You may remember once upon a time (like 5-10 years ago), there were lots of "Hakol B'Dollar" stores around the country, in which everything really did cost $1 (+VAT; this was when the dollar was worth about NIS 5). The chain still exists (for example, this branch in Dizengoff Center), but the items no longer really cost $1 or whereabouts, though their prices are still quite cheap, and the chain falls into the category of stores I'm talking about.

This type of store will often carry either many items imported from China at a very low price, and/or overstocks bought from other retailers and sold close to cost (Big Deal stores tend to have US-made products of this sort as well). Thus, their merchandise is very variable, seasonal and you never really know what you'll find in advance. Which is pretty cool, in my book.

I typically walk into this type of store for things I need at the moment, but almost always stay longer than I intend to, ogling all the stuff I might need one day and maybe I really should buy it before it runs out, or would have bought years ago when my kids were smaller had the store been around then...and which I feel are really good value for your money in this type of store. So if you have yet to visit such a store, or before ordering similarly cheap items from China directly, here are 10 items I consider most worthwhile to buy in such stores.

If you have other items to suggest, feel free to do so in the comments!

Important things to remember when ordering goods from abroad

Here's a bit of Hebrew slang you may not have heard before: Shitat Matzliach (literally, "Succeed Method"). It's based upon an old joke, whereby a diner in a restaurant receives a bill with Matzliach (succeed) as one of the items listed. The diner asks the waiter what this means, and the waiter answers, "Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don't. In your case, we didn't."

(Yes, I know I'm a serial killer of jokes. It sounds a lot funnier in Hebrew, trust me).

Unfortunately, here in Israel, Shitat Matzliach is rampant. One of the more annoying instances of this happening is when you find this really good deal online, pay the price and shipping costs, and then your package gets stuck in customs for God knows how long, and then you still have to pay the ransom taxes and fees the post office or shipping company decides to collect from you. You might as well not have bothered and just bought it locally...

While the rules are, indeed, the rules, and sometimes you can engage in your own bit of Shitat Matzliach and not get caught even when you need to pay fees (I do NOT recommend you try this), sometimes the fees seem totally made-up and exaggerated. But they do it because they can.

And that's something you, the customer, need to consider before you order anything from abroad - what extra charges might be tacked on, and how - and if - you can deal with these.

Staying within a budget: limit price and unit price

One of the fundamental ways to keep your grocery bills down is to be mindful of items' prices. Knowing what a given item regularly costs will allow you to spot true bargains when they appear, and stock up on non-perishable (and to a certain extent, also perishable) grocery items in order to lower the average price you pay, both for these items and for your shopping jaunts in general. To help me determine what to buy and what to leave on the supermarket shelf, I keep in mind two concepts: The item's limit price and its unit price.

The 10 best shopping club cards in Israel, part 2

In Part 1, we discussed 5 of what I consider to be the best shopping club cards, many of which had their own credit card and covered more than one retailer and one industry. This post will concetrate more on specific store chains which, I believe, give good value for their club cards.

In the interest of full disclosure, I don't have all of the cards mentioned in either post - some don't have stores near my home, I don't like having too many credit cards and some stores sell wares I don't necessarily need at this point in my life. However, all the cards mentioned are a good deal if you're in the market for their wares.

As with all information I post, club rules may change from time to time, though I've made every effort to ascertain their accuracy at the time of writing; if you find any of the information is inaccurate, please let me know and I'll change it.

The 10 best Shopping Club Cards in Israel, part 1

As I've mentioned more than once, many if not most of us have a wallet full of membership cards to a variety of chain stores. There is hardly such a thing as a store with more than one branch that doesn't offer you deals and benefits in return for your loyalty. However, not all of these cards will actually save you money in the long term. In fact, between yearly fees, limited time periods in which to use accumulated bonus points and other rules and regulations tacked on to the card, some might even be an, albeit small, money drain.

Saving while grocery shopping with smartphone apps

As a grocery shopper for almost all of my adult life, I've long since found out that here in Israel, at least (and I suspect everywhere), there is no such thing as one store with the lowest prices on everything. Some people get around this by shopping in several supermarkets every week, getting only the lower-priced products at each store. As I have neither the time nor the inclination for that, I keep a mental list of which stores tend to have lower prices on which type of groceries, and depending on the contents of my shopping list for the week, the coupons I have on hand and the sales advertised on Israflyer, I choose where I'll be shopping that week. But though old habits die hard (at least for me), there is a better and easier way to shop cheaply in the 21st century.

Not long ago, I introduced you to an app that enabled you to determine which gas station in your immediate vicinity was cheapest, even before you get into your car. Wouldn't it be nice if there was an app or a website that did the same, only for the supermarkets in your area? 

As luck, or rather technology, would have it, there are several. While all help you out with your comparison shopping, each comes at the task from a slightly different angle, so you might want to try them all before settling on one or the other. As with Fulltank, the information is 'crowdsourced' - prices at different supermarkets is relayed as close to real-time as possible by the site's/app's users. All apps mentioned are entirely free to download.

My 10 favorite items to buy at iHerb

I'm sure many of you are already familiar with iHerb, a large, California-based online retailer selling mainly nutritional supplements and foods, and also "natural" cosmetics and toiletries. If not, you can read more about it in my post discussing how to buy cosmetics and toiletries online for less. iHerb's large variety of quality products, their reasonable prices (both of the items and on shipping), and their great customer service have made me a repeat customer of theirs.

While obviously, my favorite items may not be your cup of tea, I'd like to show you some of the products I've sampled from the store and find myself repeatedly ordering because they're just that good. If there are others you'd want to recommend, feel free to do so in the comments.

Your shipping address abroad: Package forwarding services

If you're one of those people whose mother comes to visit from the US twice a year, bringing with her all the packages you've had sent to her house from American online retailers - you can skip this post. This one's for all the rest of us with no 'private shipping service' as described above.

As you probably well know, shipping items from the USA can be an expensive endeavor. Not only because the USPS's rates are fairly high to begin with, but also (as described in this post), I'm guessing because of the high demand for American goods, sellers take freedoms with extra shipping charges from their international customers they never would with their local ones. And those "free shipping on orders over $49"? For us international customers, they're as rare as hens' teeth (though not entirely nonexistent - check out my Facebook page). Then there are the retailers who just won't ship abroad, no matter what. The UK is closer and shipping costs are not that expensive, and there are also free shipping options where they don't jack up the price of the items to cover shipping, but there are still British retailers who won't sell to Israel.

That's how the various package forwarding services came to be.

They've arrived! Israeli cashback sites

 3% cashback for flying El Al? 4% for your purchases through Groupon?

You just knew this was going to happen eventually, didn't you?

So far, I've mentioned American and British-based cashback websites and how they can save you money on your online purchases abroad (and if you're unfamiliar with the idea of cashback, I highly recommend you go read the post about it before reading this one). It was only a matter of time before some enterprising Israelis decided to import the concept here.

Exploring the underworld: Saving (lots!) by buying lingerie online

Note: most of the stores mentioned, while they also sell men's underwear, are geared primarily towards women. Depending on your place of work and your/their personal sense of propriety, many of the sites may also be considered NSFW. Just don't say I didn't tell you :-) .

Possibly one of the more expensive items of clothing many of us women wear at any given time is our bra. This is especially true if you're the well-endowed type, are pregnant or nursing, or have had a mastectomy. Such bras purchased locally can each cost several hundred Shekels.

Women who need shapewear have a similar problem. Good quality shapewear, which, in my humble opinion, is the only type worth wearing, can also run you several hundred Shekels bought locally. Or you could take your chances with an as-seen-on-TV bodyshaper via Groupon. 

Fortunately, there are other excellent options with reasonable, fast shipping from abroad, so you shouldn't feel you need to compromise on quality at the expense of a decently-priced item.

Saving money online: SnapIn

One of the most worthwhile food coupon sites for me in the past has been Tnuva's Facebook page and website. They always could be counted on to have many coupons which were usable at most supermarkets and gave very nice discounts on their products, mostly yogurts and cheeses. However, since the beginning of 2015, Tnuva and Strauss abruptly stopped issuing coupons. Upon inquiry, Tnuva claimed this was in anticipation of a new food law; more details on this here. Strauss made a similar claim.

 Whatever the reason, there are now no coupons from either of those companies to be had. However, there is another way you can receive discounts (or rather, rebates) on certain Tnuva products.

Using Shopping Coupons in Israel

Going shopping with coupons here in Israel isn't quite the experience you may have become used to back in the old country. The market is much smaller here and the competition will never be what it is in a country with many times the population of ours. I don't expect ever to make out like the pros on Extreme Couponing do, where people manage to buy hundreds of dollars' worth of merchandise for a pittance. But as Israelis become savvier shoppers and more demanding customers, coupons have been slowly entering the market and it's possible, with proper planning, to shave quite a few shekels off your grocery bill each week.