Products: Harvest Box weekly snack box subscription
Price: $6.95/week
Shop: Harvest Box
Rating:  *****

Comments

I just received my first Harvest Box! Sum up in one word: YUM.

Harvest Box is a subscription to a weekly snack box which consits mainly nuts and dried fruit. It may sound ordinary but trust me, it’s not.

They mix nuts, dried fruit, seeds, and sometimes little bits of chocolates and spices to create a whole new experience of eating them. I love nuts and dried fruit but when you buy them from supermarket, they’re either too salty or too sweet. Harvest Box products are nothing like that. It’s perfect. It leaves a nice aftertaste in your mouth. They make use of the natural flavour of the ingredients to create different feels and flavours.

When you subscribe, you get to rate their mixes, so be sure to do this to avoid disspointment! They have everything ranging from conventional mixes to adventureous (there’s one with coffee beans in it!). Everyone has individual taste, there’s no way they can guess what you like/dislike unless you tell them.

For my first box I get HB Power Mix, Mont Blanc, Spiced Up, and Souk. Honestly, when I first received it, I didn’t expect much. The box actually was smaller than I imagined (it fits into my mailbox easily) but I was probably excan’t even pick which ones are my favourites! They’re all so different yet equally good.

You know the sick feeling after you eat too much of something? I usually get that after I eat a lot of nuts or dried fruit. But Harvest Box contains just right amount to eat in one go, leaving you satisfied, not sick, and looking forward to the next box next week.

On top of all of these, it’s actually healthy and full of nourishments!

If you’re interested to try, they’re offering first box free using this code: 42BSE8LL. You have nothing to loose by trying. You do need to provide credit card details, although, it looks like it’s simple enough to cancel. You can even pause your subscription whenever you like and resume at later date.

Bought myself a rice cube yesterday from http://ricecube.net/

I’m excited to try it. I hate rolling sushi, I’m too clumsy for it. My little one loves his rice and loves feeding himself, so hopefully this rice cube will help!

I may be biased, but it was an amazing album. Every single song can well be a title song.
I don’t really see the point of the pop up thing on the box, but eh, it’s kpop.

I wish the poster would be more on the cute side than sexy side so I can paste it on my walls. I have a little toddler, don’t want him to be exposed to sexy girls pictures too early. So the poster will just sit in its tube. I thought of giving it away, but I can’t part with it just yet.

The shirt was pretty cool. I love black and white and the size is pretty generous, too! I’m a size 12, it fits perfectly. Would probably fit up to size 14. That’s pretty good considering Korean sizes are usually tiny.

After so much contemplation, I finally decided to subscribe to Glossy Box. I heard about these beauty boxes for awhile and has been trying to stop myself from subscribing. I failed obviously. I don’t put make up much, I don’t do my nails, I barely even have time to put lotion on my hands, I must be crazy to subscribe to this. But I love getting packages and trying different stuffs, I used to have a day where I wash my hair and pamper myself with nice smellng stuffs.

I thought, what the heck, I think I deserve to spoil myself with this, it will ‘force’ me to pay attention to myself and take care of my skin. So after checking all the different boxes, I went for glossy box for the sole reason that they have clinique in their brand list. The only thing that I’ve been using religiously in the past, at present, and still going strong is my clinique products. I’d love to try their other products but they’re always so expensive which put me off so I stick with the basics.

To my delight, the first box I receive contains just what I need from clinique! I’ve be searching for a night cream, my usually oily skin gets really dry with the heater on at night! My clinique day moisturizer just doesn’t help because it’s designed for oily skin. My wish came true.

The box contains sample of Clinique Turnaround Radiant moisturizer, or in a simpler term, cream that you use at night aka night cream. I tried it on tonight and loving it already. If this works I will definitely get the full product. Here’s hoping it won’t be too expensive but chance is it will be. It’s Clinique

Anyway, the rest of the contents didn’t really register in my brain (I’m beauty products challenged!) so I’m not even going to attempt to talk about them. I don’t even know how to use them so I’ll be giving them away to my more beauty product aware friends, There’s this nail thing, hair thing, lip pencil thing, and oh a candy cane! I know what to do with that last one.

And oh, I love the box, it’s so pretty!

I’m taking my baby overseas and has been stressing out on how to carry the stroller on the plane. I’m not keen of carrying my heavy 4 month old around while we’re overseas. I have a Peg Perego Pliko P3 and after searching around, I found that the travel bag specially for it is not available in Australia. After more searching, I found Bebe Care stroller bag which has the perfect measurement. I checked with Baby Kingdom and thank goodness they have it in stock for $49.95 plus $14 delivery. Quite reasonable price I say. I think babyzonedirect has it for much cheaper,  but they’re famous for having items out of stock without telling you  so I wasn’t willing to chance it. I couldn’t be bothered checking with their offline store either. I just wanted it now. I’ve had good experience with Baby Kingdom so I gave my business to them.

It just arrived today and it’s a perfect fit! The bag looks quite tough and has boarded part to protect the wheels. I’m happy now!

Shop: Baby Kingdom
Products: Baby items
Pro: Fast and reliable, great customer service, reasonable shipping cost, wide range of products
Cons: may not be the cheapest out there
Payment Methods accepted:  credit cards

Comments:

While baby kingdom may not have the cheapest price out there, but if you need certain items in a rush, it’s a good shop to go to. I usually would email them to ask if the items I’m after is in stock. I usually get a reply within the same day, even during weekends. Once my order has been posted, I also receive a personal email from their staff saying it has been mailed. The goods are posted within the same day or at the latest the next day.  It arrives very quickly. At the maximum two working days.

When I need baby items, I usually look around at other online shops to check the price but I always end up buying from baby kingdom because I know it will arrive when I need it. The price may not be the cheapest but the difference is minimal. They also have great range of products. I can almost find what I need there.

Overall, it’s a shop you would go for a fast, reliable, and hassle-free experience.

Shop: Doubleday
Products: Books, CDs and DVDs
Pro: Fast and reliable, stock newly released titles
Cons: limited range, more expensive compared to other online bookstore
Payment Methods accepted:  credit cards

Comments:

I only bought from doubleday because I bought a coupon from cudo.com.au that gave me $50 worth of purchase for $19. I wanted to buy a particular book then and when I checked the price on doubleday, it’s so much more expensive compared to other online shop but because of the coupon, I can buy another book so I decided it was worth it. Without the coupon, I definitely wouldn’t buy it because the book I was after was priced $28.95 there while in bigw.com.au the same book only costed $18.74. That’s $10 difference!

The range of books they’re offering is also quite limited to newly released title. Although this also means, they’re very fast in shipping because they only sell what they stock. Although if you buy in-stock items from other shops, it will also be as fast.

So in my opinion, double check with other online bookstores such as Big W, Borders, or Booktopia before buying. Although doubleday seems to be cheaper than your local bookstore because they sell below RRP, most of other online stores sell even cheaper with the same quality of service.

Coupon Code:  CM2010NOV

Condition: place an order of $50 or more, enter the coupon code  at the order review page.

Validity:  December 1, 2010,  midnight, GMT – 8

Comments: Good discount if you’re thinking of buying from yesstyle.

Okay, I have decided I like Deals Direct…when they give me vouchers and coupons hehe.

I bought the vacuum bags on the day when they’re giving away $10 voucher. So using that voucher, I bought a stroller net which costs $14.95 + $6.95 shipping. I found a coupon that gives me $6 off. So in total I only paid $5.90. What a bargain

I received the item today. I love it. Especially for the price I paid. I would have still loved it otherwise but I probably would just buy it from the shop to save on shipping.

The net bag you can attach on your stroller. Very handy. I can already see myself using it a lot. It seems to be of a good quality. Looks strong.

Processing + shipping took 3 days straight. That’s the best about Deals Direct. Super fast!

The net bag came with a tag that says the brand is Minene, a UK brand.

It came in a cute bag

hangs nicely on the stroller. You can actually shorten the strap. I didn’t do it in this picture.

Closer look

Closer look at the strap

PS. The $6 coupon I used is DD6BDAY. Valid until 15 Dec 2010, one per customer. Doesn’t seem to require minimum order.

Shop: Catch Of The Day
Products: one deal a day shop selling random items.
Pro: Cheaper than RRP
Cons: Shipping can sometimes make items no longer cheap, processing time is very slow, there’s usually a ‘catch’ when something is too good to be true.
Payment Methods accepted: Paypal, credit cards

Comments:

This is another site I have love-hate relationship with. Everyday it offers a deal that only lasts for 24 hours so once you miss it, you miss it. It entice you to check the site every day and for me, it’s very exciting. It feels like Christmas every day. Because of the time limit, you tend to rush in buying and unfortunately it usually leads to disappointment.

I have bought a couple of small things from Catch Of The Day and I must say I’m neither impressed nor unhappy. But I must say I wished I hadn’t bought them. I usually end up buying useless items because of the adrenaline rush and at the end they ended up not that cheap because first, I don’t really need them and second, after further research, I could have gotten similar item with similar price from somewhere else.

A couple of things you should pay attention before buying from Catch Of The Day

1. For electronics and big items, check the condition stated on the listing (it’s there but it’s very small so it’s easy to miss). Sometimes they’re not brand new. Often it sells items that was sold to someone but was returned because of many reasons including faults with the product. They’re then fixed and resell with cheaper price on Catch Of The Day. I’m not saying they must be bad products, but you should be aware of this and weigh the pros and cons before buying to avoid disappointment. I’ve also read from other people’s experience, warranty can be a complicated matter. You will have to deal with Catch Of The Day rather than the manufacturer directly. So look into it carefully before deciding to buy.

2. They often sells bulk food items like chocolates, lollies, and biscuits. While the price may seem really cheap, pay careful attention to the expiry day. This is usually written in the specification. Most often than not, they’re expiring in the next few weeks. This makes me wonder about other items like cosmetics. They’re probably not fresh either although they don’t need to list the expiry date for cosmetics.

3. Processing can be very slow. I think they’re understaffed. My items don’t usually get shipped until about a week after purchasing.

4. Often they sell something of an unknown brand. I would be very careful with this. Do your research first and weigh the pros and cons.

5. They often sell random small items that you would find in markets or stores selling cheap chinese-made items like Reject Shop or two dollars shop. While they may seem cheap, the quality is often questionable and they’re usually end up not that cheap considering the low quality and you can probably get them in the shop with similar price.

In conclusion, while it is a safe shop, you still need to do your research before buying to make sure it is really a good deal for you. Unless, of course, if you’re willing to risk the money.

After three times experience buying from them, I don’t think I will buy anything again.