Hi guys,
My name is John.
Quite frankly, I think my wife's first review was quite disappointing.
So I will be introducing a posting format to you that I will be adhering to for my reviews.
I hope my wife takes it up, but if she doesn't,... well you know what to expect from me.
My reviews will be in the following format.
1. Introduction.
This section will contain information about the venue. The name of the venue, the location of the venue, and other generic information I may have about the venue.
2. How I went there.
This section will contain information about how I became aware of the venue, the coupon offer in question, and why I chose this coupon vendor as opposed to any other.
3. Primary offering
The primary offering is food for restaurants, and the room for accomodation.
Food will be a major component in my post... because I am quite picky about the quality of the food. An overall score out of 10 will be given, relative to other vendors in the same segment. That is... a 10 for a sandwich stall and a 10 for Vue De Monde should not be treated the same because they are obviously in different segments of the market!!!
4. Secondary offering
For restaurants, the secondary offering is Service and Ambience.
I will be lumping these together, as I believe they are part and parcel of the experience, but not individually as important as the primary offering. Hence, this will also be given a score out of 10.
5. Value
There will be 2 scores given to value. One for the full priced menu, and a second for the coupon offering. This section will also contain strategies to maximize value if there are any available.
6. Coupon experience
This section will note any variances we experience for coupon users versus the full price paying counterparts. We will carefully monitor the institution for any variances we note in booking, service and other aspects specifically directed at couponeers. A 10/10, which we believe should happen quite frequently - but doesn't, means that the experience of a coupon user is identical to that of a non-coupon user, but at a fraction of the price. It does not mean that the service is fantastic or anything else, although we've found that it is usually the good service institutions that treat coupon users and full priced customers the same... and the smaller vendors that were treating coupon users like unwanted nuissances.
7. Overall recommendation.
Again, this section is to be divided into full priced, and coupon user reviews.
I hope you enjoy this new format.
Please post your recommendations for further improvements to posting format.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Cultured Salad on Collins
I had late shift for work today. I woke up late but didn't want to eat anything.
but when I arrived in city, I started to feel hunger.
I was thinking what to eat in the car....
pancake? .. too far from the work... the Japanese cafe next to the office? ...I don't have enough time....mmmmmm
Suddenly Cultured Salad came to my mind. it was on the way to work, and was easy to take-out.
But I hesitated to made a decision to go there.. I remembered their bad service for couponeers.
I used to go there using coupons. one day a staff (I think she was an owner) furrowed her brow when I say I will use a coupon. so I stopped go there for years. (by the way, they publish coupons every year, even this year too)
Thought... well it has been years already, may be I go there and check if everything changes..
I rummaged my coupon book and found 2for1 deal coupon of Cultured Salad.
the location was very convenient for me.
I arrived the place... well..it looks like the owner changed! the owner was elderly lady now and she hired young Asian students( may be) and was supervising on them.
I said to one of staff "I want to use coupon" and then she advised to choose two sandwiches.
I ordered two Turkey Sandwich at AUD9.50 and it was the most expensive sandwich of all.
most of them was AUD7~8.50.
when I got the sandwich in my hand, I found Roti Rolls...Damm I should have one Roti Wrap instead..
well it's too late.
Taste: Normal (not too good/not too bad/nothing special)
Address: 260 Collins Street MELBOURNE 3000
Written by ES (decide to use my initial ha ha)
but when I arrived in city, I started to feel hunger.
I was thinking what to eat in the car....
pancake? .. too far from the work... the Japanese cafe next to the office? ...I don't have enough time....mmmmmm
Suddenly Cultured Salad came to my mind. it was on the way to work, and was easy to take-out.
But I hesitated to made a decision to go there.. I remembered their bad service for couponeers.
I used to go there using coupons. one day a staff (I think she was an owner) furrowed her brow when I say I will use a coupon. so I stopped go there for years. (by the way, they publish coupons every year, even this year too)
Thought... well it has been years already, may be I go there and check if everything changes..
I rummaged my coupon book and found 2for1 deal coupon of Cultured Salad.
the location was very convenient for me.
I arrived the place... well..it looks like the owner changed! the owner was elderly lady now and she hired young Asian students( may be) and was supervising on them.
I said to one of staff "I want to use coupon" and then she advised to choose two sandwiches.
most of them was AUD7~8.50.
when I got the sandwich in my hand, I found Roti Rolls...Damm I should have one Roti Wrap instead..
well it's too late.
Taste: Normal (not too good/not too bad/nothing special)
Address: 260 Collins Street MELBOURNE 3000
Written by ES (decide to use my initial ha ha)
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Welcome to Couponeers
Welcome to Couponeers,
In our introductory post, I feel we should be introducing the posters and the purpose of this blog.
We're an ordinary married coupon without kids, dual-income, not earning any fantastic dollars or anything. I have been in Australia for 8 years, and my husband has been here for over 20 years. My english isn't that great, so my initial posts will contain bad English. My husband will be fixing my grammar for some of the posts he feels is more important. We live in Melbourne, so most of our articles and reviews will be based around Melbourne institutions.
With the blunders of the Labour Government for the last 4 years, cost of living, and more specifically, the cost of food, electricity, gas and water have skyrocketed. Our electricity bill used to be a monthly average of $80 just 4 years ago, but now our monthly averages are exceeding $200 (my last bill for 2 months of electricity was over $700!!!). Furthermore, we both work late, and my husband works very long hours. So we've hardly got time to cook at home during week days. To save in living costs, we've been using coupons for some of our necessities since 4 years ago.
However, 4 years of coupon usage has taught us that experience can be extremely varied for us coupon users. Entertainment book coupon users have only had to suffer the post-bill service difference... but the advent and rise of group purchase coupon sites have changed the scene dramatically. Service may be flakey for coupon users at a particular institution, whereas at another, we may be treated the same as full-price paying consumers. This has prompted us to share our experiences, tips and suggestions on how to maximize your experience in using coupons to shave off those rising living costs.
I hope that publicity of our blog will prompt Melbourne institutions to stop offering coupons if they are going to treat coupon users like 2nd class citizens, and start only offering deals that they can honour. I also think coupon sites shouldn't take the kind of % I've heard them taking (up to 50%?... come on... I think 15 - 20% is what we can reasonably expect).
To celebrate our opening post, I'll post a couple of tips:
Tip #1: Coles and the Entertainment book
If you shop at Coles often, you should definitely invest in an Entertainment book. It gives you access to 5% off giftcards. We've been shopping at Coles (which is the closest supermarket to our home) with these gift cards for the last 2 years... We're treated the same as any other card-paying customer, and there haven't been any issues buying stuff with these cards. My husband says we save about $100 / year from the 5%, which he calculated as: (Average monthly spend * 5% - payment time difference * applicable interest rate)... this more than pays off the Entertainment book.
Example:
- It is January the 1st.
- My credit card billing cycle is on 15th of each month.
- I purchase a Coles gift card for $500 today.
- I receive my Coles gift card on 14th.
- I go grocery shopping on the 17th for $300.
- I go grocery shopping on Feb 28th for $200.
- This means I pay $475 on 15th of January to my bank, rather than $300 on 15th of Feb, and $200 on 15th of March.
- So the saving is $25, less the lost interest on $300 for 1 month (at 6% per annum, this is 0.5% per month), less the lost interest on $175 for 2 months... equating to a total saving of $21.75 from using the Coles voucher + Credit Card as opposed to just using your credit card.
If you don't shop at Coles, we don't suggest you change supermarkets or grocers just to make use of this offer. If you don't know where to buy an Entertainment book, please contact us with your location, and we'll find out for you. The 2011-2012 Entertainment book is going on sale soon, so I suggest you pre-order quickly to maximize your usage of the book.
Tip #2: Your credit card as a source of savings
My husband loves his credit card. We pay an annual fee on it, and I've always wondered why he likes it so much... since he's the most frugal person I've ever met on the planet!!! I don't understand his reasoning, but he says that since we spend over $20,000 a year on basic necessities... food, petrol, bills, etc... the 0.5% interest savings is worth a lot more than the annual fee. Furthermore, most credit card reward programs rebate about 0.6% of the transaction value to the customer. We pay with credit card whenever the surcharge is less than or equal to 1% based on these 2 factors.
My husband has a Bachelor of Commerce and an MBA both from the University of Melbourne, so I think you can trust his money calculations!
In our introductory post, I feel we should be introducing the posters and the purpose of this blog.
We're an ordinary married coupon without kids, dual-income, not earning any fantastic dollars or anything. I have been in Australia for 8 years, and my husband has been here for over 20 years. My english isn't that great, so my initial posts will contain bad English. My husband will be fixing my grammar for some of the posts he feels is more important. We live in Melbourne, so most of our articles and reviews will be based around Melbourne institutions.
With the blunders of the Labour Government for the last 4 years, cost of living, and more specifically, the cost of food, electricity, gas and water have skyrocketed. Our electricity bill used to be a monthly average of $80 just 4 years ago, but now our monthly averages are exceeding $200 (my last bill for 2 months of electricity was over $700!!!). Furthermore, we both work late, and my husband works very long hours. So we've hardly got time to cook at home during week days. To save in living costs, we've been using coupons for some of our necessities since 4 years ago.
However, 4 years of coupon usage has taught us that experience can be extremely varied for us coupon users. Entertainment book coupon users have only had to suffer the post-bill service difference... but the advent and rise of group purchase coupon sites have changed the scene dramatically. Service may be flakey for coupon users at a particular institution, whereas at another, we may be treated the same as full-price paying consumers. This has prompted us to share our experiences, tips and suggestions on how to maximize your experience in using coupons to shave off those rising living costs.
I hope that publicity of our blog will prompt Melbourne institutions to stop offering coupons if they are going to treat coupon users like 2nd class citizens, and start only offering deals that they can honour. I also think coupon sites shouldn't take the kind of % I've heard them taking (up to 50%?... come on... I think 15 - 20% is what we can reasonably expect).
To celebrate our opening post, I'll post a couple of tips:
Tip #1: Coles and the Entertainment book
If you shop at Coles often, you should definitely invest in an Entertainment book. It gives you access to 5% off giftcards. We've been shopping at Coles (which is the closest supermarket to our home) with these gift cards for the last 2 years... We're treated the same as any other card-paying customer, and there haven't been any issues buying stuff with these cards. My husband says we save about $100 / year from the 5%, which he calculated as: (Average monthly spend * 5% - payment time difference * applicable interest rate)... this more than pays off the Entertainment book.
Example:
- It is January the 1st.
- My credit card billing cycle is on 15th of each month.
- I purchase a Coles gift card for $500 today.
- I receive my Coles gift card on 14th.
- I go grocery shopping on the 17th for $300.
- I go grocery shopping on Feb 28th for $200.
- This means I pay $475 on 15th of January to my bank, rather than $300 on 15th of Feb, and $200 on 15th of March.
- So the saving is $25, less the lost interest on $300 for 1 month (at 6% per annum, this is 0.5% per month), less the lost interest on $175 for 2 months... equating to a total saving of $21.75 from using the Coles voucher + Credit Card as opposed to just using your credit card.
If you don't shop at Coles, we don't suggest you change supermarkets or grocers just to make use of this offer. If you don't know where to buy an Entertainment book, please contact us with your location, and we'll find out for you. The 2011-2012 Entertainment book is going on sale soon, so I suggest you pre-order quickly to maximize your usage of the book.
Tip #2: Your credit card as a source of savings
My husband loves his credit card. We pay an annual fee on it, and I've always wondered why he likes it so much... since he's the most frugal person I've ever met on the planet!!! I don't understand his reasoning, but he says that since we spend over $20,000 a year on basic necessities... food, petrol, bills, etc... the 0.5% interest savings is worth a lot more than the annual fee. Furthermore, most credit card reward programs rebate about 0.6% of the transaction value to the customer. We pay with credit card whenever the surcharge is less than or equal to 1% based on these 2 factors.
My husband has a Bachelor of Commerce and an MBA both from the University of Melbourne, so I think you can trust his money calculations!
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