What has fashion got to do with frugal? Nothing probably. It’s just that I’ve been feeling daggy lately, tired of wearing the only two tops (maternity tops at that) that fit me over and over and wanting a wardrobe makeover.

As a frugal writer, it’s here that I’m supposed to extol the many virtues of op-shop clothing. But I have a confession: I don’t like shopping for clothes in op-shops. Firstly, let’s be honest, they’re smelly. Secondly, I don’t like rummaging through a tangle of odds and ends looking for that one great buy. Thirdly, I really don’t like clothes shopping altogether so the quicker the better, which is why I shop like this:

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Do you haggle over the price of goods? My dad was a great haggler. We were always so embarrassed to go shopping with him when we were kids, but he rarely paid full price for things and often walked out with a few bonus freebies thrown in.

Now I have no qualms about asking for a discount. It can actually be fun bargaining. Here are some key tips to getting a better deal.

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How much do you pay for appliances? When you’re in the market for new white goods, it pays to consider the running cost as well as the upfront cost of the item. At least that’s the standard advice and what I would have said also. Well, I’ve crunched some numbers comparing three top brand washing machines to see just how much running costs affect the overall cost of purchasing appliances.

For this example I have looked at two front loading and one top loading washing machine. I have compared their initial purchase price and the energy and water consumption of each product.

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It may seem a little premature with Christmas still looming, but now is the best time to start preparing for the January sales.

And yes, despite my anti-consumerism, I think that the January sale is a great time to bag a bargain. Having worked in retail for 11 years, 6 of those in Grace Bros (now Myer), I’ve seen some great bargains during the sales.

To ensure that what you’re getting is actually a bargain, a little pre-sale preparation is needed.

When is a bargain not a bargain?

Firstly, if you don’t need the item, and you’re just buying it because it’s cheap, then it’s not a bargain, it’s money wasted.

Secondly, if you’re using credit and raking up interest, the interest will wipe out at least part of the bargain discount.

Thirdly, if you’re buying on impulse without doing the legwork, you may not be getting your bargain at the cheapest possible price, or the item may not be what you really wanted.

There are a few tactics to employ to get the most out of the January sales:

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You may already know that we’re in the market for a baby cot. The price of a brand-spanking-new cot is 3 times more than I paid for our queen sized bed, so we’ve been looking at buying second hand.

We found an ad in the paper for a cot that seemed suitable. As the ad mentioned the brand, we jumped online to find out what other people thought of this particular cot.

What did we find?

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Last week I wrote about handmade gifts, but what if you’re saying, “that’s all well and good, but my teenager wants the iPod not the iPod cover!” or “I don’t have the time to do handmade.” Well I found a few tips and tricks for saving money when buying Christmas gifts. This was inspired by a terrible article about doing Christmas on the cheap, some of the comments to this article are good though.

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One of my favourite Australian online sites for buying reusable cloth nappies is Nurture Nappies. They have a large selection of those new-fangled nappies, as well as a whole array of other useful bits and pieces like liners and covers.

A couple of my favourite things about this site is that they offer an introductory package so that you can try out different brands and work out which ones that you like best, they give personalised advice as to what type of nappies might best suit you depending on babies age and your family’s personal circumstances and information about washing and care.

While their nappies aren’t the cheapest options around, they offer some top brands, product specials and packages, and their site offers plenty of info, advice and customer service.

By the way: I am not affiliated with this site nor do I get anything by writing about them. It’s all about passing on the great resources that I find to you.

Photo by 404

A little while ago, I had a conversation with a friend about saving money. She told me that she didn’t believe “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

This kind of threw me. I had to think. When would a penny saved not be a penny earned?

When it costs you more in the long run.

Rather than always looking for the cheapest option, sometimes we need to look for quality and value.

These are actually pretty ambiguous terms. What is quality? How do you define value? It will depend on your own set of values, needs, wants, likes, dislikes and lifestyle.

So can we get quality and value cheaply? I think so:

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More and more people are going online for shopping bargains. With lower overheads than your regular retail stores, online stores can give you some significant savings. For this week’s link reviews, I thought I would look at a few of the more popular Australian online bargain stores.

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