Some of my favorite recent purchases

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You probably know I'm a pretty price-conscious shopper. I really try hard to make my shekels go as far as possible, so I'm a pretty picky shopper. I try to pair great deals with coupon codes (don't forget about the mastercard savings you can get on the 10th of the month) and save as much money on my purchases as possible. I'm posting some of my favorite recent Amazon purchases:

5-pack of 64GB flash drives for a great price! (right now over 30% off the regular price)

Box of 90 Gallon-size freezer bags (I can't find these for anywhere near this price near me!)

Pimple patches. The reviews are in - these seem to work miracles. And the price is awesome!

Second Skin patches. These are THE BEST thing for blisters. And right now, they have a great price!

Allergy medicine. I stocked up on this Kirkland brand version so that I could save a little money (it works out a little cheaper than what Kupat Cholim charges me for this number of this kind of pills)

Bamboo toothbrushes. Eco-friendly AND super affordable!

Get all the deals in my groups: Israel Deals Made Easy and Live in Israel. Shop Online, and my new public group, Kosher Frugal)!

Things to know about ordering from Israel: Shipping takes time, but lately, my orders have, for the most part, arrived well ahead of schedule - they seem to be building in a lot of extra delivery time to cover worst-case scenarios, but most packages arrive much faster.

Amazon's prices change frequently but they're really great about letting you know if an item in your cart has changed price - so if you found one and deliberated about it, you'll know if something changed when you decide to complete your purchase.

Sometimes free shipping offers disappear, so please check carefully before you order. Just remember - you can avoid VAT and other import fees by staying below the $75 tax threshold for any single order! If you do go over, as you will if you're buying a computer, you will see exactly what you'll pay in taxes at checkout. I only do this if I'm actually buying a product that costs more than $75. And I don't add any other small things to these orders, because once you're over, you're over and you'll pay fees on the entire order.

For smaller purchases, I place separate orders that each total under $75.

If you're in the USA and buying a gift for someone in Israel, please follow those guidelines, too - or be prepared to prepay all taxes and fees. You'll see them before you checkout, so don't worry about surprises. You will need to enter the recipient's ID number at checkout too, so the package can clear customs.

Hope you found this helpful!

New Prices for Price Controlled Breads

I'm sure you're familiar with the list of foods that price controlled in this country - for better or for worse, certain products have maximum prices set by the government.

The list includes breads, milk, cheeses, eggs, salt, and more
I'll post the whole list at the bottom of this post.

I wanted to let you all know that BREAD prices will be going down.
(It's unclear to me if this is in effect already or not, the articles I've read state the lowered price was approved, but do not state a start date!)

Products:
Challah (500g)  old price: 5.31; new price 5.15, in Eilat 4.36
"Achid" bread (dark), sliced old price: 7.30; new price 7.08, in Eilat 6.00
White bread (sliced) old price: 6.49; new price 6.29, in Eilat 5.50

Full list of Price Controlled Groceries

The price listed is the MAXIMUM price for the specified item - in theory, a store can discount it further, if they want to.
If a store is selling price controlled items for a higher price, they are in violation of the law. You can (and should) report these violations to the regional supervisor. 
Here are the items that are supervised, and the maximum price to consumers:

(The prices shown below are for the entire country, excluding Eilat. Eilat is exempt from Ma'am, so prices there will be lower.)
Lechem Achid (I believe this is about 65% whole grain) - 750g loaf, 5.11
White bread, 750g loaf, 5.11
  Challah or yeast cake, 500g, 5.15  (don't ask me what kind of yeast cake this is referring to, I have no idea!)
  Lechem Achid, sliced and packaged, 750g, 7.08
  White bread, sliced and packaged, 500g, 6.29
Regular Kitchen Salt, Fine Kitchen Salt, Fine Table Salt, and Coarse Table salt, 1 kg, 2.09 
3% milk, 1 liter, bag, 5.15 (was 5.30)
1% milk, 1 liter, bag, 4.80 (was 4.95)
3% milk, 1 liter, carton, 5.95 (was 6.30) 

1% milk, 1 liter, carton, 5.60 (was 5.90)
Eshel, 4.5% fat, 200ml, 1.60 (was 1.65)  
Gil, 3% fat, 200ml,  1.45 (was 1.52) 
Sour Cream, 15% fat, 200ml, 2.30 (was 2.44)
Sweet Cream, 38% fat, 250ml, 6.25 (was 6.60)  
Butter, regular, 100g, 3.95 (was 4.13) 
Emek Cheese (at the cheese counter), per kg, 43.30 (was 45.45)  
Gilboa Cheese (at the cheese counter), per kg, 41.15 (was 43.14) 
Gvinah Levana (white cheese), 5% fat, 250g, 4.85 (was 5.11) 
  XL eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 13.20
L eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 12.10
M eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 11.20
Do you ever see stores overcharging? Have you ever made a report to the supervisory board?



The old price list can be found here.

Price Controlled Foods - UPDATED PRICES

New prices for (price controlled) milk products went into effect recently (July, 2015). I decided to republish the entire list with the new prices for your convenience.

Here's a quick rundown of what you need to know about government price controls on food in Israel:

--- Retrieved from http://www.kosherfrugal.com/2014/09/updated-list-of-price-controlled-foods.html ---

--- Retrieved from http://www.kosherfrugal.com/2015/02/price-controlled-foods-price-update.html ---
The price listed is the MAXIMUM price for the specified item - in theory, a store can discount it further, if they want to.
If a store is selling price controlled items for a higher price, they are in violation of the law. You can (and should) report these violations to the regional supervisor. 

Here are the items that are supervised, and the maximum price to consumers:

(The prices shown below are for the entire country, excluding Eilat. Eilat is exempt from Ma'am, so prices there will be lower.)

Lechem Achid (I believe this is about 65% whole grain) - 750g loaf, 5.11

White bread, 750g loaf, 5.11
 
Challah or yeast cake, 500g, 5.31  (don't ask me what kind of yeast cake this is referring to, I have no idea!)
 
Lechem Achid, sliced and packaged, 750g, 7.30
 
White bread, sliced and packaged, 500g, 6.49

Regular Kitchen Salt, Fine Kitchen Salt, Fine Table Salt, and Coarse Table salt, 1 kg, 2.09 

3% milk, 1 liter, bag, 5.15 (was 5.30)

1% milk, 1 liter, bag, 4.80 (was 4.95)



3% milk, 1 liter, carton, 5.95 (was 6.30) 


1% milk, 1 liter, carton, 5.60 (was 5.90)

Eshel, 4.5% fat, 200ml, 1.60 (was 1.65)  


Gil, 3% fat, 200ml,  1.45 (was 1.52) 


Sour Cream, 15% fat, 200ml, 2.30 (was 2.44)

Sweet Cream, 38% fat, 250ml, 6.25 (was 6.60)  


Butter, regular, 100g, 3.95 (was 4.13) 


Emek Cheese (at the cheese counter), per kg, 43.30 (was 45.45)  


Gilboa Cheese (at the cheese counter), per kg, 41.15 (was 43.14) 


Gvinah Levana (white cheese), 5% fat, 250g, 4.85 (was 5.11) 
 
XL eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 13.20
L eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 12.10
M eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 11.20

Do you ever see stores overcharging? Have you ever made a report to the supervisory board?

Lower Rx Prices Coming Soon!

Misrad HaBriut announced that prescriptions that cost more than 16.00 shekels will benefit from the recent changes in the Euro-Shekel exchange rate.

In short, the cost of prescription medications is regulated by the Ministry of Health, and prices will be reduced by 5.37% on June 15, 2015. - changed from June 1 to allow time to update databases.

Hope this change will help some of you out there. If you have a script due for a refill and can wait until June 15th to fill it, doing so could save you some money. Obviously, I am not advocating skipping doses. I just know a lot of people refill scripts early to be sure they don't run out. This may be the month to wait, however.

Best of health to all of you!