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.

How not to break the bank when holiday shopping

It happens at least twice a year here in Israel: long lines at the supermarkets, shopping carts overflowing with goods, huge grocery bills...yep, the holiday season is about to descend upon us. The run-up to the High Holy days and Pesach tend to be the times when our shopping bills are the highest. We splurge on special foods, cook up huge amounts and have a larger variety of dishes at festive meals than we would on a regular Shabbat meal - after all, there are culinary skills to display and guests to impress! Not to mention that Son #1 needs some new white shirts and Daughter #3 needs a new dress...

Even though holiday shopping will almost inevitably make a larger dent than usual in your bank account, there are still tactics you can use to mitigate the damage, and possibly even save some money over the rest of the year: 

Timing your purchases for maximum savings

If you've ever read articles from the USA about saving money on groceries and other items, you may have noticed they talk about how items go on sale in a cyclical fashion, every 6 weeks or so, or how there are better and worse times to buy specific items - Broadway tickets in February, Christmas decorations after New Years, etc. Unfortunately, sales tend to happen in a much more haphazard way in Israel (pretty much like everything else here ;-) ). However, while there don't seem to be any hard and fast rules, there does seem to be a trend regarding prices of certain items at specific times of the year, often according to the Jewish calendar. If the item in question isn't perishable, it's a good idea to stock up on it for use in the next year - or at least until the item goes on sale. Even if it's a perishable, but you can freeze it, it can be worth it to stock up for the next several months.

So here are items I've found which can be had at lower prices at specific times of the year, which are worth stocking up on:

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.

A gift card with a twist

I was browsing my account at one of my favorite survey sites, the Midgam Panel, and was happy to note that in addition to allowing you to cash out on the Powergift card when you reach NIS 50 in rewards, you can now receive cash to your Paypal account, and another intriguing possibility - the Nofshonit Card.

You can't buy these cards unless you're a business, and like the Powergift they're only good for use in specific stores (not the same stores as the Powergift - see here for their list) - but the interesting thing about this specific chargable card, good for 5 years, is that you can spend 115% of the amount of money you upload to it. Namely, if you earn NIS 100 from filling out surveys on the Midgam Panel and upload it onto the card, you'll have NIS 115 to spend. Keep in mind that this doesn't include food or discounted items, but still, not bad.

For general information about making money filling out paid surveys, see here.

Enjoy!

Frugal sense (and scents)

Frugality is in style these days, especially in the English-speaking world. With a simple Google search, you can find oodles of recipes on a variety of for food staples, cleaning or other household supplies you'd normally buy - soap, washing powder, scented sprays...you name it. I've tried my hand at more than a few of these, and while the experience has undoubtedly enriched my life (not to mention my knowledge base), I've come away somewhat skeptical of the frugality of some of these solutions, both moneywise and in "real life price".