Pennies for thought

Most of us will generally work out reliability of a product by price scales or staying safe with household brand names. With the rising incentive of unbiased online product reviews we can also get a general overview of the product quality but not the reliability.

A good tip to find out the reliability of a product is to go instore and ask about certain products at the counter. Each product has a log of how many have been sold and how many have been returned.

It is always worth checking out reliability of a product as the false economy of unreliable products is not a worthwhile saving. When you spend out the extra you also get the additional quality of the product over the time.

In past experience I have found a good, cheap source of quality items have been bought in army stores on the high street or online. Army shops do not just sell second hand clothes, they also sell ex-issue goods aswell.

There is a respectable limit to what army garments can and can’t be worn in everyday situations and common sense dictates that!

Things like camouflage trousers can be bought for very little money and easily turned in to hard wearing camo shorts. Winter accessories like scarves are also cheap and fit with most styles of clothing. Army scarves like shemaghs have recently come in to fashion and people seem to pay twice the money for replicas. Why not just buy the real thing for less as it is going to last longer.  Overalls can also be bought for very little which have countless uses.

Three practical applications of things I have bought are -

- I use a scrim scarf to cover my mouth whilst cycling to stop dirt and insects from getting in. A scrim is a netted scarf  that allows you to breath easily through it.

- I have used cheap flight overalls to drain the oil pan on my car and paint several rooms.

- A pair of camo trousers were used for a fancy dress night and then I cut them off and used wonder web to make them in to shorts. I find them great for cycling as they are warm and have plenty of pockets.

Although we are all generally tired, bloated and a little hungover by the time Boxing Day rolls round it is worthwhile hitting the shops.

Almost all stores have Boxing Day sales to bring in customers to spend all their Christmas money there. Lots of products are greatly reduced but there is always a main deal to bring people in to the stores, in the case of electronics this will usually be televisions.

Televisions are the main product worth buying in Boxing Day sales as they are genuinely reduced substancially in price. TVs hold their price well, because once a standard is introduced they are only ever slightly modified from model to model.

Once you buy one it will last you years so long as you pick a good brand and all the features you need. I can recommend Samsung, Sony and if you are looking to spend little less then LG sell reliable and good quality products.

Go for an LCD over a Plasma TV as companies are slowly discontinuing Plasma lines. Although Plasma screens can often look better, the price jump is certainly not justified with the recent quality of LCD and this is starting to show.

3D television is our next big jump but the things to look our for on the current LCD standard apart from picture are multiple Scart inputs, VGA input and speaker quality. Multiple Scart inputs will allow you to plug all your equipment in and not have to constantly unplug things behind the unit. VGA will allow you to connect from any computer or laptop to watch your pictures, video or digital films  on the big screen. Speakers can be tinny and meak on some LCD TVs and buying additional speakers is often an expensive business (see ‘budget soundbars over surround sound’).

You are likely to save up to a few hundred pounds by waiting until Boxing Day sobe patient and in the meantime just keep your eye out for roughly what you want.

Many companies find that a good way to drum up business cheaply is to offer online vouchers. These are great for online shopping but also if you are not an online shopper then in most cases you can obtain printable equivalents.

Most printable vouchers are usually for money off at certain restaurants, travel services and sometimes clothes. These can come in really handy when you are having a hard month for money but still want to take your partner out for a nice meal.

You can check out a good selection of vouchers at myvouchercodes, there are also many other sites out there that do the same thing. Well worth a look if you are looking to get out the house and not spent too much money.

If you have read the memory card post you are basically looking at the same thing.

This blows my mind! HDMI Cables in Currys cost upwards of £40! Maplin the electronics specialist offer probably the best selection and pricing of parts and still charge around £20. The quality of cable is important but you can get a cable of the same spec and length for £10 on Play and £5 on eBay.

I know I use the same retail names a lot but I am just trying to get the point across using general household names. I know you can get things cheaper all over the Internet but I am only looking to promote 100% reputable traders.

I have only used a HDMI cable as an example here, this mark up is applied across everything including audio setups.

So again you can save up to £35 here on something as simple as buying a TV cable!

When buying a digital camera you will quite often realise that it has the memory to take about 5 pictures. SD memory is your standard compact camera memory and can be expensive if you don’t buy them online. The store markup is ridiculous on cables and memory cards!

Ok this will charge constantly for memory sizes but the price gap will always stay roughly the same. This is based on a Sandisk 8gb card which in my opinion is the best brand to go for.

Currys – £39.99
Play.com (free p+p) £12.69
eBay.co.uk (free p+p) £11.69

Thats right your paying £27 over the Internet markup price!

Companies like Sony now create SD cards and the prices are obscene, especially considering they are new to the market.

So quickly do the Internet research before you go out and start spending money excessively and you will save considerably.