With the average Australian spending around $4,250 a year online, cashback sites offer an easy way to save money while shopping. ShopBack is the newest kid on on the cashback block, offering users a one-stop platform to cut the costs of those indulgent internet purchases across fashion, electronics, homeware and even travel bookings.

Without doubt it’s a smarter way to shop, so how does it work?

I'm very good at wanting to buy things. I want to buy a new sound system, for example. This would mean ripping five speakers out of my walls, patching up the holes, and buying a $900 soundbar. My wife points out that the current system works well, and asked me why I want to replace it. And I had to admit why: I have to control the sound system with a second remote, which I hate. My wife pointed out that solving this is not worth $900 and a weekend project. So instead I'm buying a $60 universal remote. This is a better way to reach my real goal, which is feeling in control of my gadgets.

Amazon and Microsoft have been locked in a pitched battle in the enterprise. Their AWS and Azure cloud services have, respectively, been duking it out over corporate cloud infrastructure for a while. That's been a good thing for businesses as the power and flexibility on offer have improved while costs have fallen. Now Microsoft is preparing to go toe-to-toe with Amazon in a another market - the supermarket. They're planning to introduce their AI capability and other systems to make grocery shopping easier.

Most of the time, saving money is more about knowing what not to buy then it is about squirrelling cash away. If you're an impulsive shopper like me, that can be a problem. That's why I recommend you shop at one particular store before all the others: Your own.

In the hallowed words of Kramer on Seinfeld: "RRP" is for suckers! Here are eight proven ways to score a "double whammy" discount - whether you're shopping in-store or online.

Last week brought terrible news to Japanese whiskey fans: Suntory plans on halting sales of the wildly popular, and fairly affordable, Hakushu 12-year-old single malt and the Hibiki 17-year-old blend. But fear not oh, drinker of smooth spirits, there are other great options out there. These whiskeys may not be the exact same when it comes to flavour and aroma, but they will definitely appeal to your palate in a similar fashion.

The true strength of a relationship isn't tested when circumstances are easy, but when they are dire. Over the weekend, my partner and I embarked on a journey that would test our mettle. Our ability to communicate, compromise, and show patience toward one another is what held us together through the trying ordeal, but one thing is for certain: Going to IKEA with your significant other ain't no joke.

It's an annual tradition for parents all across the country. The Christmas holidays start to wind down. They get a letter from school about their student's enrolment. They start seeing hints of "back to school" at the store. The kids are dressed in clothes that are almost too small and worn from a summer of play. It's time to start thinking about going back to school.

So you're in your brand-new apartment or house. Some of the boxes are still waiting to be unpacked, but you're so excited about making this space into a home that you're spending hours at IKEA comparing couch pillows and loading up shopping carts to see how much everything you might want is going to cost.

The next time your Instagram feeds up an ad, check the brand. Chances are, it's actually a third-party reseller using Insta's algorithm, content marketing and good-old-fashioned arbitrage to get you to buy cheap stuff.

My boyfriend and I are pretty horrible grocery shoppers. We always attempt to hit the grocery store to buy "meals for the week" but that meal planning quickly takes a complicated turn when we end up in discussions on what food might still have available in the house to contribute to that meal.

If, like me, you research every gadget purchase to the Nth degree, it can be super depressing when said product arrives and it's perfect... except for one, tiny thing. Usually that thing escaped detection because it only rears it head once you actually use your new shiny. In my case, it was a set of SoundMagic E10 earphones to replace my busted EarPods. The problem? They vibrate.

When you're in a grocery line that seems to be going nowhere, you shouldn't make the switch to another queue. Unless that cashier just opened up next to you with no waiting, researchers say skipping from one line to another is actually counterproductive.

When you find a bit of mould on food, it might seem like it's OK to salvage some of it because the mould doesn't cover the whole thing. That seems like the logical step, right? It turns out that's not true for a lot of foods, like bread, because the mould can hide deep in the surface where you can't see it.

Website VinylHub catalogues record stores around the world, an increasingly useful tool for crate diggers as vinyl sales keep rising. Launched in 2014 by music database Discogs, Vinyl has identified over 6500 record shops, along with details like hours, storefront photos, and featured genres. Users can "follow" stores and mark which ones they have visited or hope to visit.

Self service checkouts are a great invention. Sure, they may have taken a few jobs away but gone are the days where you have to make idle chit-chat with a not so fresh-faced teen while they slipped groceries into a planet-destroying plastic bag. Now, you can do it all yourself! Scan, bag, pay and leave.

Which means the system is rife for exploitation.

Nobody wants a car that falls apart the moment you drive off the lot, but nobody wants a car that requires nonstop maintenance throughout the course of its life, either. If you're in the market for a new car and hoping to avoid a lemon, these models seem like they will go the distance.

Searching eBay requires faith -- faith that the seller listed their item with the same keywords you'd use to describe what you want. Sometimes you have different ideas of what constitutes "turquoise." Sometimes you have a picture of what you want but don't know the name for a certain style. Well, now that picture is all you need.

IKEA products have a wide variety of interesting names. Some are Swedish words, others are named after places, and some are just made-up names made from mixing other words. This dictionary lists them all.