Baked beans are a great way to baffle the burglar

The mailbags have been full of great tips from the growing oily rag community. Here are some received last week plus our flour prices survey results.
D.H. from Howick: "Hide keys, rings and jewellery in an empty baked bean tin and place it up high on a shelf when you go away. Should anyone break in when you're away, valuables will appear to be part of the larder. Harder to find than easy places like the dressing-table in the bedroom."
Jeff Cameron from Te Awamutu: "Avast antivirus offer a free version that gives protection as good as the top brands but has no yearly renewal fee. Just Google avast and make sure you choose the free version."
S.M.P from Whangarei: "The local refuse centre has been a great place to buy books for our daughter. I have purchased Margaret Mahy, Lynley Dodd and Maori language books for 10c to 20c each. Some books I've seen in book stores for $20 to $40."
D.H. from Howick: "Plug all your TV, DVD, Sky, Freeview devices into a multi-plug adaptor. When you go to bed, turn the one switch off at the wall and all those annoying power-hungry devices that would normally be on standby 24/7 will be off when you don't want them. One flick of the switch when you want to use them will fire the whole lot up again. Say bye bye to standby."
We recently asked the oily rag community about the most economical way to buy flour. This is what we found.
The cheapest way to buy flour is in a 20kg bag. A reader from New Plymouth pays $15.60 for a 20kg bag of high-grade bakers' flour (that's 78c a kg). The next best price was 90c a kg for a 20kg bag bought at Gilmours in Tauranga. The only other place our readers found where they could buy flour for under a $1 a kg was a 10kg bag from New World in Oamaru.
For those buying smaller bags, 5kg bags averaged around $1.40 a kg. There was very little difference in the supermarket prices, which ranged from $1.35 to $1.43 a kg, with Pack'n Save coming in with the lowest price. Supermarkets offered better value than some of the bulk bin outlets. The average cost of a 1.5kg bag was $1.55.
Bulk is not always the best buy and there is quite a big price difference depending on the retailer.
Our pick? We reckon you can't go to far wrong buying a 2.5kg bag of plain Campion flour from Pak'n Save. It costs just over a $1 a kg and offers good value and a convenient size for most kitchens.
The most expensive way to buy flour was by the gram.
Frank and Muriel Newman are the authors of Living Off the Smell of an Oily Rag in NZ. Readers can submit their oily rag tips on-line at www.oilyrag.co.nz.