Which4U Australia – Money Blog

Aussies are putting a new spin on the old British expression “spend a penny” after it was revealed that a former award-winning employer has been financially penalising its staff for taking comfort breaks.

Aegis Australia, which won a best-employer award in 2011, deducted the pay of a number of its employees at its Werribee call centre for using the toilet.

The centre’s strict electronic system triggers alerts when staff members are away from their desks for longer than 90 seconds, requiring them to explain their absence.

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For those of you in South Australia, there’s a new smartphone application available that will removed the need to get your wallet out when you’re paying for a drink.

The OneTab application was developed by Queensland-based team Paul Wyatt and Scott Cross to allow hotel customers to set a limit for their food and drinks tab at selected venues – removing the need to hand over a credit card to make their payment – through their point-of-sale system.

All patrons need to do is located the venue within the app, open up a tab and set their credit limit. Once this has been completed and their card balance has been verified, a code is generated by the app which just needs to be shown to the bartender. It’s really as simple as that.
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How soon things change. No sooner had Europe appeared to settle down, promising better conditions for a slowing Australian economy and lower costs of funding on international wholesale markets, when the chaos kicks off again.

Cyprus has dominated international headlines this week, after an unprecedented move to impose a one-off tax on savings worth up to 10%. Banks were closed as people rushed to withdraw money, and are to remain closed until next Tuesday.

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You have probably noticed the signs going up all over the place. You know the ones; they advertise the big holiday and year-end sales.

Retail stores and online sellers are putting their holiday marketing engine into full gear trying to get you to spend some money on their “bargain”. You might be tempted to “get it while it’s hot” but if you can actually wait until after the holiday shopping rush is over and get it “while it’s cool” so to speak, you might find that you will end up saving a lot more money in the long run.

There is a misconception that the best deals for shopping happen immediately before the holidays. It’s not untrue that there are some good bargains to be found before the holidays but the best ones happen afterwards, following Christmas, into January with some of the best savings not coming until early March. Read the rest of this entry »

We recently wrote an article about a great new mobile home that’s available – read more about it here – but today we bring you an even outrageous place to live.

With the announcement of Star Wars VII last week, it’s only fitting that South Korea have decided to create a city that wouldn’t look out of place amongst the cities that Luke Skywalker would visit.

In an attempt to boost tourism to the country, South Korea have started a project that could rival that of Dubai for it’s beauty.

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There’s motorhomes and campervans. And then there’s this: a mobile home with a difference (if not quite so mobile any more).

Bruce Campbell, an American engineer captivated by planes, has spent a total of $220,000 creating his dream home inside a decommissioned Boeing 727-200 jet.

The retired Olympic Airways jet was bought for $100,000 in 1999, and has since been converted into a mobile home. The fuselage has been stripped of its seating and now comprises a living area, bedroom and office – a renovation job which ended up costing $117,000.

It’s been an exhilarating project, the engineer decrees. The 727 jet now sits modestly tucked away in the woodlands of Oregon, and is becoming quite the tourist attraction.

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