Having a birthday at these prices!

If you happen to live in the Netanya area and you like various smoked fish, freshly cooked salmon, cheeses, salami, pastrami and other such delicacies, you are lucky.

Let me introduce you to PRO-DAG.

We recently celebrated my son's 50th birthday. After checking out home catering services and being completely confounded by the cost involved, I remembered PRO-DAG and took myself off to 23 Hakedar Street in the old industrial area of Netanya, the northern one, tel: 09 884 6555. Here I purchased a whole cooked fresh salmon ready to put on the table, a variety of excellent Israeli cheeses and other items at prices almost 50% cheaper than at my local supermarket. They are open from 8 am to 7 pm. At lunchtime and the late afternoon, be prepared to find this small shop crowded.


Our utility bills have certainly got bigger

Whilst clearing out a cupboard recently, I came across an old file from the 1970's containing old bills and other correspondence relating to our previous home. What amazed me was the size of the bills filed there, such as electricity and municipality bills. All the information necessary was printed on a single small sheet. Three of these different bills would fit onto one A4 size sheet of paper! So where are we today with every bill we receive using up two or three or more full A4 size sheets of paper? For example, each of my Bezeq bills is at least two and sometimes three sheets. Cell phone bills also use many pages, only they use half size A4.


High time the shops contained themselves on this packaging

Since the Herzliya Municipality has provided us with four different waste containers, I have been amazed at the quantity of waste I am carrying almost every other day to these various bins. The biggest quantity in size and volume is of plastic packages which the supermarkets provide when we purchase 200 gms or more of cheeses, pastrami and salami and other items. I try to explain to the assistant serving me that the simple greaseproof paper wrapping of the food plus maybe a small plastic bag is more than sufficient, but often to no avail.

I purchase a box of cookies in similar containers and about 40% is just extra space and air! What happened to simple paper or plastic bags? We all used to have cookie jars and tins at home.


This is a stick up – a great idea from Cecily

In my last article I wrote about errors occurring in using the various supermarket credit card coupons. A very useful hint I received from Cecily Shapiro, suggests putting a sticker on the card and writing the balance on it after each purchase. I recommend writing it at the same time as you sign the receipt for your purchases.


When 'cut price' can add 10%

I am sometimes bemused by the logic or lack of logic in the way the supermarkets calculate their services and prices. If I buy a whole fresh chicken, which costs between NIS 20 – 23 a kilo and I ask for it to be cut in half or in more pieces, the price then jumps by about 10% or more for this service. However, if I buy a kilo or more of fresh chicken wings, which can cost anywhere between NIS 6.50 (if on a discount) and NIS 15 a kilo, then the butcher is quite willing to cut the wings into two or more pieces and there is no extra charge!