Linda Hall: Remorse of a buy-now junkie

Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.

We live in a throw-away-world. These days if something breaks we don't bother fixing it - it's usually not worth it.

Far easier to just bin it and buy another. This is even true of some big-ticket items such as televisions and washing machines.

People think twice about calling in the repairman. What if it costs $200 to fix it and then it breaks down in another six months?

No wonder our landfills are piling up with unwanted and outdated appliances.

The same goes for smaller household and personal items such as clothes and shoes. There are constant sales - 20 per cent off this, 50 per cent off that.

Going shopping has changed so much over the years. Once upon a time it was only done, by me anyway, as a necessity, if the kids needed something or the stupid vacuum cleaner finally took its last suck.

These days shopping seems to be more of a pastime. I've gone shopping because I'm bored, or more likely because I'm putting off doing the housework.

I've bought things I don't need just because they've been on special. I even bought a king-size valance once because it was a lovely colour and it was so cheap. I was sure it would fit on the spare bed. It didn't - you should have heard Mr Neat.

He's always giving me grief about my "bargains" that usually end up in the recycling clothing bin or at the Sallies.

So it was really nice to hear a young girl give me some advice about looking after my new boots. They weren't cheap but they certainly weren't outrageously expensive. She asked me if I wanted to buy some leather care.

I know she was just doing her job and upselling but she made a good point. She said if I was going to buy decent shoes I should look after them. How very true.

So yes, I paid an extra $12 and bought the leather care. Next winter and hopefully the winter after that I won't have to buy any black boots - unlike the past two winters when I have bought cheapies and ended up throwing them out the following year.

That brings me to grocery shopping. An article I read recently said that "$470 worth of food was being thrown away per person, each year".

That's a whole lot of food. A good proportion of it is binned because it has reached its "best before" date, not to be mixed up with "use by".

Food past its "use by" date should not be eaten but "best before" is a guideline and mainly refers to the quality of the food. So it simply means it may not be as good as it should be after the best-before date.

This month it is likely that a proposal will be put to the European Union to do away with best-before labels.

I hope this proposal gets the nod. I have thrown out food that was past its best-before date, thinking it would be off. I won't be doing that again.

Maybe it would be best to add packed-on or canned-on dates, so consumers can decide before buying something if they think an item is outdated, instead of relying on guidelines that end up costing us money.