How to save money on your trip overseas

Dreaming of a trip overseas?

Who isn’t?

Something that has taken me by surprise recently was seeing just how cheap airfares are in Asia and Europe. It’s staggering.

I had a friend get back from England recently. She flew from London to Geneva, and then from Rome to London. Guess how much she paid? 40 pounds. There and back. Including all taxes and charges.

These were sale fares but I encourage you to visit Jet 2 or Ryan Air to find out just how cheap it can be. Yep, very cheap. Obviously these cheap flights are more scarce during their summer but a little ferreting around can net some great deals.

Airfares are just the beginning. Avoid expensive hotels and stay at someone’s house courtesy of Couch Surfers.

There’s heaps more. Just check out the cheap travel section of the site.

Jonk.

Holy cow Batman! Could it be true!?

Jajah is a VOIP company offering free landline calls to Australia, USA, UK and a bunch of other countries. This is a very easy to use application — it seems. I haven’t tried it yet as my computer has no microphone.

You can also call mobiles – in some countries (USA, Canada, China, Singapore, Hong Kong,Thailand) for free, in others for a rate. Calls through the site to mobiles cost $AUD0.24 per minute.

If your phone runs Java you can also use it from your mobile and instead of paying voice rates when you call landlines, pay data rates instead. I’m not sure which is more expensive, I would assume voice rates.

Little known ways to save on eBay

Ever wondered where all those $50 iPods are?

That’s the promise of eBay and really, it doesn’t deliver. While there’s good deals available, the most popular categories of eBay – such as fashion and entertainment gizmos – have been swamped with excited buyers which really kill of any potential bargain.

However, a little scratching at the surface of eBay reveals that a world of genuine bargains exists for someone who looks hard enough.

Three immediate examples cross my mind:

1.) Stamps. If you write lots of letters or run a small business, you can regularly buy rolls of stamps for prices cheaper than the post office.

2.) Movie ticket vouchers. Sometimes there’s vouchers to specific movies but those Village cinema passes pop up a lot, and generally go for $10 each – a $5 saving per adult. Very creditable.

3.) Krispy Kreme vouchers. There’s a guy on eBay who sells a card for KK that allows you to buy one dozen and get one free. Great idea if you are hosting some sort of gathering.

Tell me readers, what are some great but less obvious bargains to be found on eBay that YOU have found? One rule: it can’t be a freak occurrence. It must be a product reliably available on eBay for good prices.

This is a bit of a project post to go on the front page of the website in a week.

How to bid like a pro on eBay

ahh.. eBay. Hundreds of thousands of people have discovered the sheer delights of bidding on things they haven’t got sold by people they have never met.

As is apparent to even the most novice user, using eBay is fraught with danger but by following a few simple tips, you can bid like the best of them.

1) Set your final price before your first bid. This sounds simple but everyone knows it gets more complicated when you’re watching the final seconds tick down and the frenzy begins. Do it like the pros! Use an auction-sniper such as Auction Stealer. Auction-snipers come in at the last second with your pre-determined bid level. If it is high enough, you’ll win the auction. If not, stiff cheese. But you won’t wake up the next day with a severe case of buyer’s remorse.

2) Check the country of origin. Beware any items being sold from Asian destinations. I know it sounds racist, but eBay is crawling with pirated goods being sold from Asian countries with the main culprits being Hong Kong, China, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand. You are basically guaranteed that the item you are buying is fake and you will pay through the nose for shipping as well.

3) Check the feedback Just because someone has a low feedback score doesn’t mean you can’t get a good deal! In fact, sometimes the opposite is true. Sellers with little experience attract fewer bids. Nearly all of my best purchases have been from mom-and-pop sellers looking to dump a toaster or an overseas student selling out the apartment before heading home.

Some tips on a sellers reputation:

Check the percentage. If someone has a feedback score below 98%, go and read the comments to find out why. In some cases, they have obviously been screwed by a dodgy customer. In other cases, they deserve every negative comment they receive.

Check the nature of the comments. In this way you can gauge the nature of the operator. I find that the every-day Aussie types are much more pleasant than your everything-automated approach of the power sellers.

Check their previous transactions, ie. what the feedback has been left for. I nearly bid on a cheap lap-top once only to discover the seller had just bought the same item a month prior on eBay!

4)Make sure the item actually exists. Run a search on Google or something. Is the price commensurate with the value of the item? Commensurate.. big word.

5)Check the return policy This generally works in the case of high volume sellers. Another word on buying from overseas – good luck on returning your item.

6)Check if you can pay by Paypal and if so, do they have the Paypal trustmark. It’s much easier this way to engineer a chargeback if you have problems.

7)Check if you can pay cash-in-hand. If you’re buying something bulky and/or local find out if you can pay cash-in-hand. You can trust the seller as they’re so happy with the item they’re selling they’re willing to give it to you face-to-face.

8)Read the item description closely It may look like a brand new television but the auction says it is refurbished. Look for any hints that the item is used, returned or damaged. Read between the lines.

I’d also like to hear anyone’s eBay stories.

Jonk.

5 things you didn’t know about me

I’ve been tagged over at Oz Bargain Blog so here I go.

1.) I splurged a little on my phone plan this year. Picked up a Nokia N70. Four months later, I left it on a train and haven’t seen the bugger again. But the cap is good.

2.) I started Jonk’s Bargains as a personal website just for myself and whichever friends were interested. But so many of them forwarded it off to strangers… that I had to make it presentable in an extremely quick amount of time. In fact, more than 75% of my hits are still coming from people forwarding the site via email.

3.) My number one personal, non-work, goal is to learn Spanish. I have an under-utilised language learning gift but I strongly intend to use it. I have found the course, I have found the program where I can tutor English for free board (yesss..!). Now to get the time (and I actually am working on that!) and the fare.

4.) In March last year I was told I could have a tumour, MS or have had a stroke. What a day… In July I had finally finished the gauntlet and was declared healthy. It had a net positive effect on my life though.

5.) My first job was doing door-to-door surveys on behalf of a contractor to Chubb security. They went broke after one month of me working there… and I didn’t get paid a cent for the whole time!!

Cool. I tag…

Raja at Save as U spend, a voucher website trying to get established. Mark with his 5 word coffee shop reviews. Sarz. Chunks. Neilo.

Ain’t the internet great?

Some deals have been submitted through the contact form on this site.

A Laddies Cave have a deal on Peak boxing gloves.. get a free Peak skipping rope as well. Thanks Bev for this one. Here

Daily Deals is a site that has some awesome deals. One that caught my attention was a two person tent for $29 , and Elizabeth Arden 5th Avenue $40.95. Must… resist… putting… links… to… every… great… deal… Thanks Gabby.

Two kinds of New Year’s hangovers

A happy New Years to the readers.

If you’re like most Australians, you woke up today with a hang over. Again, if you’re like most Australians, you just woke up with the ‘Where’s the $100 I had in my wallet? Don’t tell me I spent it on grog’ hangover.

Never fear, cheap alcohol is here!

Home Made Alcohol

In the past few months, I have really become latched onto the idea of home brew. But most people don’t realise that you can make far more than beer at home. Wine, cider, ginger beer, and even spirits can be made safely and successfully.

I’m currently using Liquor Craft. So far I have made bourbon, coconut rum and melon schnapps. I then broke a part…. Very embarrassing, this system is very hard to break, so let’s move on. Once I buy the replacement part for my distiller (I’m going with the 25L boiler which will set me back $200) I’m going to pump this stuff out like it’s no tomorrow. Think of any kind of spirit and you can make it… Jagermeister the only exception.

For Christmas I received an Oztops kit which looks incredibly promising. They cost $25, which in my book is an out-and-out bargain and help make up to 50 litres of fruit cider, any juice you care to name. You can also make wine but I’m only interested in the fruit cider. Add to this the fact that their system requires almost zero effort and I think we’re onto a winner.

Buying cheap alcohol online

If you don’t have the effort to use Liquor Crafts system – let’s face it, it can be time consuming initially – there’s some fantastic websites to save your bacon.

Wine lovers rejoice – Cleanskins.com sell clean skin wine at bargain basement prices.

Winemaker’s Choice also do their bit.

I can’t yet find any websites good for cheap spirits. If you can help me out, just leave a comment.. Thanks!

Jonk.

Using the contact form

In the past couple of weeks lots of people have used the contact form to pass something along to me… a website here and a website there. If you watch the site closely you’ll see new listings popping up around the place, and 100% of them are submitted through that contact page.

Someone just spotted a site dead link which they told me about and this is just as important! Thanks to the anonymous person.

I’m sure there’s HEAPS of websites that deserve to be on here that are not on here yet!

A couple of examples

: Cheap second hand cars
: Cheap fashion (of a reasonable quality)
: Cheap accessories (ditto)
: Cheap accommodation

Get submitting, homies.

Thanks to the Mouse Man

Well someone has left a comment in support of 22 percent off and I thought I may as well reproduce that here:

“i love 22 percent off…do not badger it for it’s god like status.”

– edit — I have just been informed that this was a prank which I should have picked up on… apparently.
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Levi’s

On Wednesday I was in Myer in SE Sydney lining up to buy a pair of Levi’s Jeans. There were two queues. One with a girl putting large amounts of customers through quickly, and the one I stood in….

After thirty minutes it was apparent why online shopping is so much better. You can sit and have a drink or a snack. There’s no sales people, opening hours or queues.

And there’s no idiot at the checkout who has to reverse and re-do a transaction on eight business shirts……. Van Heusen as well. I was tempted to step forward and tell the customer not to bother because Van Heusen.. well.. buy one shirt, learn your lesson and don’t buy another….

You can’t yet buy Levi’s – or Van Heusen for that matter – through stores listed on JonksBargains.com. But you can buy pretty much everything else.

You Beauty.

Stickybeek

I’m in NSW for Christmas right now. I am only a reluctant visitor, trust me. On Friday I travelled up to Sydney to celebrate Christmas with my parents which I had only done once in the past three years, so you can forgive me. Looking at NSW simply confirms to me that there must be a merciful God. How could such an undeserving populace live amongst such glorious scenery otherwise? Victoria deserves it so much more. I have often said it, and it is true: if you were to transplant the city of Melbourne onto the physical features of Sydney you would have the perfect city. For now, we make do with the Yarra and fairy penguins. But when the technology becomes available….

We were driving up Newcastle way and I saw a store which had their Sticky Beek site emblazoned out the front. I know it’s just for Newcastle but if you live in the area it’s very much worth it. Lots of information and some exclusive discounts…

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Celebration – today is Christmas Day and what better Christmas present than the 10,000th hit to Jonk’s Bargains. A lot of that is courtesy of Oz Bargain Blog (cheers Scott) but the most direct hits have come from Melbourne Victory Forum.

A huge majority of visitors however are typing this into their browser window. I wonder how they are hearing about it? Oz Bargain Blog again, but I understand that some people have been forwarding the link around in their emails. Good stuff. Keep on doing it. Watch your boss/sister/insert-here giggle.