Eating out for less

Going out to eat is not normally considered an especially frugal activity. And you know what? It isn't.  The (usually American) hobby of going out to eat at McDonald's twice a week because nobody in the house could be bothered to cook, or frequent ordering of a latte and a sandwich on your lunch break at the café near your work, can be a huge and unnecessary financial drain (even if said café is Cofix. Those 5-Shekel coffees really add up over time!). And that's without even mentioning the negative health ramifications of eating fast food on a regular basis.

However, there is definitely a time and place for eating out even for frugal people, assuming you're not currently in serious financial dire straits. Meeting up with friends from out of town occasionally, celebrating a family member's birthday or your wedding anniversary - all those are great reasons to dine out in a nice restaurant, enjoying the food and the ambiance. Doing it at at a discount ? Even better.

Frugality with food (online and offline)

My eldest son likes to eat tomatoes the way others eat apples - straight from the refrigerator, in huge bites. Since I also like having the odd tomato around for salads and sandwiches, I usually buy a lot of tomatoes. However, last time I got some, I'd forgotten that Eldest was going to the US for the summer and our family's tomato consumption rate would be dropping drastically. As a result, I found myself with several soft-ish tomatoes which weren't compeltely spoiled, but really wouldn't do for fresh dishes. Then I remembered that there was a discussion on my local email list not long ago about how resek agvaniot (tomato paste) is full of sugar, and thus a potential stumbling block for diabetics and followers of low-carb diets. So I decided to carry out a culinary experiment and see if I could rise to the challenge of making tomato paste with no sugar that would be every bit as good as the store-bought. I think I succeeded, and I promise to share the recipe below.

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.

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.

Buying clothing and shoes online for less, Part 2

In Part 1 of how to save on clothing and shoes, we discussed local Israeli and British websites where you can find clothing at a significant discount and at equal, or even superior, quality than what's offered in the mall. Now we'll discuss a few American stores with similar qualities.

Unfortunately, many US-based apparel websites like to play petty games with their international shoppers. When they offer international shipping, it's often quite expensive, the Dollar /Shekel exchange rates they use can be significantly higher than the Bank of Israel's, and you often can't take advantage of online coupons and special offers available for Americans. There are a few US sites, however, which are, in my opinion, worth shopping at.

The price is right - freebies

Who doesn't like getting something for nothing? While free samples aren't quite as common as we might like in Israel, they do exist and, as far as I can tell, are becoming more common as Israeli society becomes more Americanized - as least in its shopping habits.

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.

Saving Money Online for Shopaholics: Cashback Programs

I've already mentioned that I'm a bit of a shopaholic. Not too much, but there are always things I need (or want) and the vast opportunities for spending money online, both in local shops and internationally, are...well, vast. We'll be going into exactly where and how to shop so as to not empty your bank account in one fell swoop in a later post, but in the meantime, let me introduce you to a concept that will help you recoup some of your losses in the long run.

The Basics

So you're an Anglo-Israeli like me, loving the weather and the people here in Israel, but hating the high cost of living and the lack of access to cheap, quality products like you were used to back in the old country. Maybe (also like me) you have a bit of the shopaholic in you, or even just need to put food on the table and keep your kids in decent clothing, but don't feel like going into debt for the privilege. You may have heard about all these fantastic ways of making a little extra money online, but when you try to sign up for the programs, find they aren't open to Israelis. Or they *say* they're open to people from all countries, but in practice, you'll rarely if ever hear from them again.

That's where I and my blog, Save Our Shekels , come in.

I'm not rich by any means. Both my husband and I have day jobs, but over the years I've been online (over 15) I've looked into various ways of saving and making money online from Israel, and have gained some experience doing so. I'm happy to share that experience with you. It may not make you rich (or it may, and if so I'd like to hear about it!), but a little extra for the small luxuries in life never hurts.

To start saving and earning online, I suggest you do the following 3 things:

1) Open a new free email account. Unless you want your primary email address at risk of being swamped with spam or promotional offers, I strongly recommend you open a new account just for your money matters at Gmail, Hotmail or a similar free email host. You can forward the address to your primary email if you like, but at least have the option of detaching it if the account is compromised in some way.

2) Open a Paypal account. Paypal is a reliable, safe method of paying and getting paid online without revealing your credit card details. It's supported by thousands of online businesses, in Israel and internationally. An added bonus is their arbitration system - if you don't receive your item or it's not in the condition you expected, you have a good chance of getting your money back (though you may be expected to return the item and pay return shipping. We'll go into how we can make this cheaper in a future post).

Registration is easy and entirely free, so go and register for a Paypal account ASAP if you haven't done so already. Here's a video detailing how to open a Paypal account even if you don't have a credit or debit card:

3) Open a Facebook account. Many coupons, free samples and online contests are available on Facebook, so you definitely don't want to miss out.

Are you anti-social and don't want to be found online? While Facebook doesn't allow you to create a profile under a false name, there is no rule that says you can't use an uncommon nickname of yours, your maiden name only, or an alternate spelling of your name. They don't ask for ID, and you don't have to post your status every day, or even at all. So if you have yet to create a Facebook presence, do it right here . Then go to the Facebook pages of companies you like and "Like" them to receive regular updates.

Now that you've done those 3 things, you're in a position to save and make money online. Best of luck!