A report conducted by the Australian Automobile Association (AAA) has shown that the average retailer profit margin on oil has grown by 35% since February 2012. That growth in monetary terms is between 8.9 to 12.3 cents per litre. This news comes as the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) plan to release its first quarterly report on petrol prices this week.

It’s a great relief for many customers to see the price of oil drop to its lowest since 2008. Everybody across the world, let alone Australia, deserves the right to cheaper oil which has been a very welcome change. Yet, seemingly greedy retailers have decided to use the drop to line their own pockets somewhat greedily, by seemingly taking advantage of the situation.

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Today I want to introduce you all to a company, which I believe to be great brand and a unique place to shop. In line with our Buckscoop ethos, Shopbop has been fighting money saving battles behind the scenes since the year 2000. It has successfully won the hearts and minds of millions of people, so I believe it’s now time you hear about them to.

Part of their massive growth and success has to do with being bought up by Amazon.com back in 2006. Shopbop offers numerous loved brands such as Calvin Klein down to boutique online styles. Whilst we all love to look good in clothing, I also believe the shopping experience can really define a brand too. I may believe they have a great customer service record, but don’t take it just from me, especially when The Wall Street Journal stated that Shopbop are known to have “the best customer service” around.

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Oak is a fundamental ingredient when ageing premium wines as it adds aroma compounds to both red and white varieties. But not only is it tasty, oak aged wines could essentially give you all the health benefits tied to ellagic acid.

Our body converts ellagitannins (which besides certain berries, nuts and green tea is also found in oak aged wines) into ellagic acid, much like beta carotene into vitamin A. Research suggests that ellagitannin helps in preventing the formation of cancer cells and aids in the destruction of existing ones. According to a study done by the Oregon State University, ellagic acid also slows the growth of fat cells, so it could be beneficial for those who are fighting obesity as well.

But ellagitannin is not the only active element in oak. Lactones, for example, have coconut aromas along with many other components which also contribute to the spicy, sweet and smoky tasting notes – adding flavours such as vanilla, clove, caramel and char to the wines. Some oak used for barrels are also toasted to increase aromas like vanilla and butter.

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Its that time of year again folks and as the autumn season approaches we can look forward to the AFL. If you were with us last year you will know that Telstra was giving away 4 free weeks of streaming on all AFL matches. That’s already sounding like a pretty good deal with ‘Telstra’ and ‘Free’ in the same sentence.

Below you will find information about what you need, where you need to get it and how you can get the 4 weeks free streaming at home (or out and about) for you and the family to enjoy.

Telstra delivers the live AFL streaming so the first thing you need to get is a Telstra account if you don’t already have one. If you don’t fancy becoming a customer purely for the AFL, a quick and cheap way to achieve this is to buy one of Telstra’s many prepaid $30 sim start kits which regularly going on sale for $15. The great thing about this is you get double the amount of call credit for half the price, plus a route into creating an account with Telstra.  Right now, there’s an offer like this available at Coles as per this deal on the Buckscoop Deals board. Read the rest of this entry »

Time has flown by as we not only approach the end of another week but also the end of February 2015. As it not uncommon in the final week of the month, that availability of freebies has slowed somewhat meaning we come to you today with one less than our usual in the lineup. Don’t let this deter you, however, from checking out all of our previous freebies if you’re a new comer as many are still active.

In today’s lineup it’s a mixed bag of toys, foodstuffs, technology and lotions. Punching in for the foodstuffs we have Parampara, whereas this week the lotions are from Soodox. Microsoft is showing their face again for a second week in a row and Toys R Us have also thrown in something to the mix for funs sake.

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Australia’s Cricket match against Bangladesh may have been cancelled over the weekend, but you don’t have to wait until this Saturday for more excitement. Australia may be playing New Zealand, but in the mean time here’s something to keep things at bay with another innings from our wicked Wednesdays voucher and promo code roundup.

Coming in swinging their bats this week to save us money we have Woolworths, RatestoGo, Asos, General Pants and a Buckscoop exclusive from JeansWest. So as you can see, not only do we bring you the latest and greatest promo codes and vouchers from across Australia, but we also battle behind the scenes to secure our Buckscooping community unique and exclusive discounts too as a way of saying thank you.

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Ruslan Kogan, now aged 32, has decided to take on Coles and Woolworths. He has promised Australians that his new online grocery store will halve our weekly and monthly shopping costs. Originally renowned for selling cheap electronics, Kogan has decided to expand into groceries appropriately naming its website, Kogans Pantry.

Some may be surprised, others may be thinking why the hell… but so far so good in many people’s eyes. The non-profit organisation ‘Choice’ has supported the new site, saying certain products were comparatively 40-50% cheaper than their equivalents at Coles and Woolies.

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Household cleaning is a chore no matter which way you look at it. It has to be done and it has to be efficient so that it takes up as little time as possible. Most of us work so the less free time spent on cleaning the house the better in my opinion. So whilst scouring the man made universe of the Internet I started to think about how the hell could I keep my place clean in the most cost and time efficient manner possible.

The more I began to dig around the more I found some marvellous tips and tricks that would help me accomplish just that. During my search I compiled a list of some of the best techniques that I could find to help me. But, because Im a nice guy, I thought I’d share them with you to help claw back both money as well as precious free time to be spent on the things in life that you love instead.

[Related: Check out my previous post covering awesome ways to save money and avoid toxins with Buckscoop's A-Z Guide of cleaning using 7 ordinary household products]

Remove hard water stains with vinegar and paper towels

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Although Dan Murphy’s free shipping voucher to metro and regional areas has expired, there’s absolutely no need to panic as these codes tend to pop up on a regular basis. The other good news is that they also regularly issue a separate free shipping code specifically for metro area deliveries too.

A voucher for the latter is issued at the beginning of each month and is valid for the duration of that month on orders over $15 (excluding RTD’s and beer). Alongside this, about twice a month Dan releases another free delivery voucher which is valid for regional addresses as well. These vouchers have the same restrictions, but are usually only active for three days, typically around weekends. You’ll find all the of them listed on the Buckscoop Vouchers page with any additional details included for each one.

Those in metro areas will save $7 on standard shipping charges, which can easily give you a bargain when buying single bottles. The same of course also applies to regional folks who in fact end up saving an additional $5 since their regular shipping costs are $12. As such, this can be put towards the purchase of an additional bottle of wine considering that there’s plenty of choice of bottles for $5 or below at Dan’s – like this highly rated Lindeman’s Cawarra Merlot.

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Week three of February is here and its been a long week for most, so what better way to finish it off than with some freebies. If you are going to spend this whole weekend relaxing and want to check out some of the previous freebies we’ve had on the site, you can do so here.

In our lineup for you today though we’ve got an interesting mix on display. Microsoft are offering large amounts of free storage space, there are two varieties of free moisturising creams up for grabs, free calls from Vodafone to East Asian countries as well as Krispy Kreme giving away free donuts.

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It’s a well-known fact that Australia is paying up to 21 times more for 19 of the 20 most common prescription drugs. This comes eight years after the government was supposedly meant to resolve the high costs issue in our country. The continued expense means that Australian taxpayers are throwing away at least $400 million per year on generic medicines.

How can the government be wasting so much money compared to other countries and why are general consumers having to put up with paying more for their medical treatments. It’s under the Australian pharmaceutical benefits subsidy scheme that the government agrees the price it pays chemists for medicines. However, drug companies sell the pills much cheaper to chemists who then make profits of up to 80%. So is this right?

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Buckscoop is back for another innings of its Wicked Wednesdays Voucher and promo code roundups. Valentines has been and gone and I hope all of you out there had a romantic time with your loved one. If there are any of you who fell short of the mark last weekend and have something to make up for, then fear no more because Easter is right around the corner.

This week we’ve got just the thing to get someone out of a tight spot with their loved one, or to continue the roll of good times. There are some great deals from Hotels.com so you can get away, Dominos are offering super cheap pizzas for a cosy movie night in, whilst for all those fashion retail addicts Boohoo, Mamaway and J.Crew have some promotional discounts here for you as well.

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The latest findings within the market suggest that February is probably best month of the year to go holiday shopping. As such, why not double the satisfaction of getting away by bagging a bargain on your flights at the same time by simply booking during the cheapest month of the year. This claim is based on data compiled by Skyscanner.com.au who looked at 250 million flights over a three year period to draw its conclusion around February being the most affordable time to make your overseas ticket reservations.

The results also suggested that on average the best way to get the lowest price on a flight out of Australia was to book 12 weeks in advance. While February was shown to be the cheapest month to book, the second week of November was actually found to be the cheapest week of the year. So get your diaries out and make a note guys because if you want to travel somewhere specific, I’ll show where and when to get the best prices.

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This weekend is all about love, so I thought I dedicate this blog to one of my biggest passions & love, wine. It is hard to put feelings into words, so here’s a collection of some of my favourite images and quotes instead.

My “Ode to Wine” :

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Buckscoops weekly line-up is here again and we will be looking at the top Australian freebies available this week. As we mentioned previously, if you are just joining us you can have a look at what I wrote about in previous weeks with a good chance of still being able to redeem some of those offers.

This week we see another freebie given from Google, who must be feeling really generous at the moment to give out two freebies in as many weeks. Plus we have a variety of health and beauty products  for both men and women to keep you all looking younger for less.

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