It’s safe to say that the majority of kitchens across the westernised world have some form of microwave. Yours may be a standard microwave or you may have one with slightly more capabilities. Whichever type you have I can bet you don’t know all of the following microwave tricks that can actually save you both time and money.

Heating food and the odd drink is mainly what we use those little electromagnetic radiation waves for. Here’s how to take your your microwave skills to the next level though. These tips will help you accomplish tasks quicker, allow you to get more out of certain products and ultimately re-kindle your love for this dependable kitchen appliance.

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Wicked Wednesday is here again and hopefully after last week you’ve managed to gather your bargain thoughts in preparation for this week. Australia Day was a great success and we all hope you had as good a day as we did. So, to help keep the momentum of good vibes going, here’s Buckscoop’s roundup of some of our top vouchers and promo codes from the past week.

In this lineup you’ll see the likes of Tuffy and Tuffets, Fashion Bunker, Universal store, Lite N’ Easy, SurfStitch and Quiksilver. Unfortunately, the pickings are rather slim this week as far as the level of discounts is concerned. However, don’t despair as we’ll be showing you which specific items these vouchers/promo codes can be used on to get the best value for money.

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Whether you’re living alone, with a partner or a family, the supermarket run can be a daily or weekly occurrence for most people. If you are regularly the person visiting the store to pick things up, knowing what products are over-priced can really not only help you navigate the supermarket floors more efficiently but also spend far less.

Supermarkets in most cases provide a variety of the same product, whether that be different brands or different quantities and packaging for convenience. However, even though it’s sometimes easier to grab those more convenient items, that convenience comes at a price. And if you’re not careful, you may end up paying as much as 300% more. To test just how savvy you are, see if you know all eight of the below savvy-shopping tactics.

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McWilliam’s Wines is not only known for producing premium wines, but are also the proud owners of other high end wineries such as Mount Pleasant, Brand’s Laira and Evans & Tate. With these labels in its portfolio covering several distinct regions (the Riverina district and the Hilltops region in New South Wales, Mount Pleasant in the Hunter Valley, Margaret River and Coonawarra), McWilliam’s is offering a diversified selection of reds and whites to suit any wine lover’s palette. From this assortment, I have cherry picked wines which are bargain buys at McWilliam’s cellar door using their current coupon code offering a generous $50 discount on all purchases over $100.

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The great thing about learning a couple of new hacks for the New Year is that they can really help improve your day-to-day life. I really enjoyed finding these hacks because I genuinely believe they are extremely useful and practical. Wish I had known about them sooner.

Whether you stay at home, work from home, have an office job or work within a manual labour type job, these hacks should help simplify some of your daily tasks. Prevent yourself from having to buy additional tools or making simple mistakes that require you to start over again by using these DIY tips that are bound to save you both time and money.

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As part of our weekly blog posts, each Friday we will be showing you a list of our top freebies in Australia. If you’re still unaware of what to expect, keep your eyes peeled for product samples, games, free tickets, memberships and redeemable vouchers from across the country.

Freebie hunters of all levels can expect to find a condensed list to fill their pockets once per week or are a little more for the greedy ones. Freebies are often available for a limited time only so for a full list of all our freebies you can visit our freebies page here.

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Supermarkets are known for always having fresh looking vegetables on their shelves to help them sell. But, you may know that there are certain things even supermarkets do to prevent spoilage within their stores. A trade fact is to never store Banana’s near other fruits because of the chemicals they release that make other fruits turn.

To be fair to supermarkets, it’s not always about how good their fruits look though, as can be see with the recent ‘Odd Bunch Campaign’ at Woolies (who are offering disfigured/oddly shaped fruit and veg at a discount). However, whether you’ve bought pristine looking or somewhat oddly shaped items, there are plenty of things you can do to continue preserving them once they get home. Spoilage equals money wasted, equals bad value for money, equals time wasted trying to find good deals in the store. So let me tell you about various ways that you can add value to your purchase after you get home.

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It’s Wednesday again and this week we are bringing you another set of the top weekly promo codes and vouchers.  For all those bargain hunters who have been sitting on the edge of their seat since last Wednesday, well now you guys can relax. This week you’ll see codes from the likes of some in-house favourites as well as some new guys on the block who very rarely issue promo codes. Included in the line-up are eBay, Catch of the Day, Fashion Bunker and McWilliams Wine, all helping us achieve that important bargain-hunting objective of saving more or getting better value for money.

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Westernised society is known for its indulgent behaviour, but with increasing health and obesity scares, what are we doing in response? Schools across Australia and indeed the world have stopped providing certain soft drinks to help tackle the rising obesity levels in children.

Yet, adults at the supermarket do not have the same kind of restrictions. The big companies like Coke and Pepsi as a result are now promoting smaller cans containing lower amounts of calories. The psychology behind this marketing tactic is to induce less guilt in customers. What many don’t realise though is that this comes at a price to the customer, which in some instances can actually mean you end up paying between 5 to 10 times more per litre than you would on other sized containers.

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Society and inflation are constantly making our daily lives more expensive. Although the recent dip in Brent Crude Oil prices has helped our wallets to some extent, prices are still rising all the time. The resulting increase in pressure to try and save where possible, is something that frequently plays on most of our minds. Especially when we see deals that require us to spend more money to potentially save money.

‘Spaving’ is a new amalgamated word that combines spending and saving together. Large retailers notoriously use this tactic to lure us in with special offers and incentives for buying in bulk making us believe that we’re truly ‘spaving’. But are we really?

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The latest stats show that around one in five regular wine drinkers in Australia have bought wine online recently, making online sales more popular than direct purchases from the cellar door. And the reason? Price.

“The growing use of the online world for wine in Australia was primarily based on a consumer need for pricing transparency” said Natasha Rastegar, country manager for Wine Intelligence Australia.

Nevertheless, if you’re on the lookout for good value wines, a thorough search online will almost undoubtedly help you save significant amounts. And who wants to spend more money than necessary, when in this day and age you can find the lowest price in a matter of minutes where that price, on occasion, will be even lower than that of water.

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Everybody loves a good freebie, so for the next couple of months we will be running a series of posts each Friday featuring the top freebies listed on Buckscoop. Expect the see everything from free product samples and games to tickets, memberships and vouchers from across the country.

Whether you’re the ultimate freebie hunter or just fancy getting your hands on something free each week then the wait is over. Don’t forget though, if you need to get your freebie-fix during the week, feel free to visit the Buckscoop Freebies page for the latest posts.

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The kids should be back to school after the Christmas holidays and those shackles may be releasing some more freedom. Yet, those little terrors will still find a way to invade your “me time.” New school terms mean new adventures for the kids, and with new adventures come new battle wounds such as trouser holes, scuffed shoes and ripped shirts.

Today I share secrets on where super-mums go to buy their affordable clothing and what super powers they use to keep the costs down and the kid’s spirits high. Say no to evil and expensive clothing retailers by fighting those sky-high prices with your partner in crime, Buckscoop.

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This is the first of a series of weekly posts that scour the vast expanse of the coupon and voucher code universe to bring you only the best of the best. Each week we’ll be rounding up and sharing the top active codes with a justification of why they’ve made it onto the list.

These “Wicked Wednesday Weekly” roundups are intended as much for the hardcore bargain hunter as they are for the average Joe online shopper. My goal is to hopefully save you a lot of time as well as money by using our collective coupon experience on Buckscoop to shortcut your journey to finding the biggest discounts and best value offers online.

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The smartphone battleground is already extremely competitive, but as big brands release ever more powerful handsets at increasingly discounted prices, it really starts to get interesting. If you like having a smartphone but aren’t too fussed about having top of the range, the following mobiles will certainly be worth considering: the Huawei Ascend Y550 and Nokia Lumia 630.

The two phones we’re looking at aren’t the best in the world, nor are they attempting to be. However, when we consider the value for money that they offer, these handsets certainly are in a league of their own. Costing less than $100 each, customer demand has prompted retailers to put together some interesting combo offers around these two handsets. So not only will I be looking at what deals you should be keeping your eyes open for, but also how these two stack up against one another. This will allow you judge which one suits your needs more accurately.

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