DVD bonanza

I have a policy never to spend more than $10 on a single DVD. I also only buy DVDs I'm happy to watch repeatedly. This means my DVD collection is surprisingly small for a professional film reviewer. Luckily for me and any other cheapskates, there are some good DVD bargains around until 16 January.

At Big W, TV shows on DVD are 2 for $50. These mainly include mainstream commercial procedural shows such as Rush, NCIS, Supernatural, Castle and The Mentalist, plus such guilty pleasures as Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Jersey Shore and the truly lamentable Geordie Shore. These same shows are either $29 or $35 at Kmart, so Big Dubs is your best bet if you're a fan.

However, the Big Dubs deal also includes some upscale costume dramas, such as Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Downton Abbey and Rome. Meanwhile at Kmart, such cult shows as Mad Men, Smash, The Walking Dead and Once Upon A Time are $35 for the most recent season.

Kmart's TV selection is depressingly Kardashian-heavy, but you can also pick up the original BBC Pride and Prejudice (essential comfort viewing; I start to relax even hearing the theme tune), the grim fourth season of Breaking Bad or season one or two of Community for $16.

For kids, and just fans of great animation, excellent films including the Toy Story cycle and Puss in Boots (which contained one of my favourite running gags of 2011) are just $16 at Kmart. It's also well worth forking out an extra $4 for Tangled at $20.

Kmart has relatively recent release movies for $16. These are mainly horrible crap such as The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, Cowboys & Aliens and The Five-Year Engagement, but I wouldn't mind getting The Grey (aka Liam Neeson Punches Wolves). Also at Kmart are movies, including multi-packs, for $13. There are quite a few stinkeroos, but my picks include The Hunger Games and Abduction (the most inadvertently hilarious film of 2011!).

If you want to get cheaper, Kmart has movies for $9, my favourites of which include 21 Jump Street, Burlesque, Point Break, Step Up 3 (not Step Up 3D, as it was marketed in cinemas) and Easy A.

Big Dubs also has some fairly decent movies at 2 for $15. The ones that caught my eye – that I totally recommend as 'classic' investments – include GoodFellas, Mean Girls, Pride and Prejudice (the one with Keira Knightley – surprisingly great, even though I loathe Knightley as an actor), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, 10 Things I Hate About You and Black Hawk Down.

If even $7.50 sounds like too much to lash out, there are even more movies at Big Dubs for just $5. The ones I like include The Crow, Lawrence of Arabia, The Virgin Suicides, Being John Malkovich, Boyz N The Hood, Secretary and Sleepless in Seattle.

Mother's Day

Junk Mail Bargains, vol. 1. As regular readers of this blog would know, I love reading the junk mail. From time to time I like to tip off people I know about the interesting products on sale at major retailers, and today I thought, "Maybe I should do this in a more organised way."

But if you know me, you know that an irregular blog post on the subject is as about as organised as I am prepared to be.

Anyway – Mother's Day is coming up soon, which is great because it is a rich source of Freelance Work Clothes, or as other people might call them, 'sleepwear'. Here are some other interesting bargains this week:

A while ago I realised Garnier has a BB cream. This stands for "blemish balm" and is some next-level tinted moisturiser that also contains a primer and sunscreen. I associated BB creams with insane Korean makeup – my book club buddy Helen gave me a sample of a brand she uses and it made me look as if someone had run an airbrush over my nasty pink skin, which as you know is a great source of angst to me.

Anyway, if you would like to try this kind of moisturiser for a low-stakes price, Garnier's Miracle Skin Perfector is currently on special at Coles for $9 and at Kmart for slightly less, $8.50. Woolworths also has it on special with 30% off, but that only works out to $9.76 so Kmart wins.

Also at Coles (BUT IMPORTANTLY: NOT ALL COLESES) you can get two pairs of women's leggings for $8. That's cheaper than tights, and as Ned Stark liked to say, winter is coming. They come in full length, lace trim or 3/4 length, but importantly you can only get them at the deep-suburban barn-like stores. They are not available at the following stores that you may actually visit: Melbourne Central, Spencer Street, Fitzroy, Richmond, Port Melbourne, St Kilda. However they might be at Barkly Square, South Melbourne or Prahran.

Julian Fellowes' Titanic miniseries, just screened in the UK and US to mediocre reviews and nicknamed Drownton Abbey, will be available from next Monday at Kmart for $29.95. This may only interest me, as I am still in the grip of Titanic Re-Obsession 2012.

Women's freelance work pants (aka pyjama pants) are at Big W for $3, an even better price than $5, which is how much I paid for two pairs back in March. They probably only have them in boring colours such as grey and black now, but they are great pants and I wear them every day.

There are also women's "sleep sweaters" at Big W for $9.94, which would be a nice long-sleeved work top for winter, and men's or ladies' fleece-lined boots at $7.48, which I highly endorse as I bought some this time last year and wear them all the time. My pro tip: if they get a bit stinky you can put a tablespoon of baking soda in there, rub it in, leave for a while and then shake or even vacuum out. These are not actual sheepskin slippers, but Big Dubs also sells real leather ones for $25 – a saving of $9.96.

Big W has men's flannies for $7 but hold off, because they are actually cheaper at Ray's Outdoors, where they are $5.99.

Myer has a decent Revlon gift-with-purchase if you spend $40 – which is easy to do on a foundation or something. The 'Sweet Look' option is my favourite: you get a black eyeliner pencil, a four-colour eyeshadow palette (mid-brown, chocolate, beige and pink), a mascara, a lipstick in a berry-pink colour and a candy-pink nail polish, all in a beige zip-up makeup bag. With the 'Intense Look' option the bag, eyeshadow and nail polish are purple and there's a lip-liner and lip gloss instead of the lipstick and eyeliner.

There's also a nice range of teacups at Myer – with 25% off Maxwell and Williams their 'Kimono' teapot is now $29.95 and a cup, saucer and plate trio is $18.65. There's also an introductory offer on Royal Albert where the 'Country Roses' trio is $34.95 (it'll be $49.95 after the offer ends).

And there are some seriously jaunty retro-inspired Kenwood kitchen appliances that come in agreeably bright colours including yellow, orange, magenta, aqua and green, and have rounded deco lines.

At Dick Smith you can get a Belkin jogging armband for your iPod or iPhone (useful if you like to listen to music or are doing Couch to 5K) for $19.95, which includes a bonus set of sports hook earphones designed not to fall out.

A turntable and radio with a built-in speaker is half price at Dick Smith – $34. This probably won't satisfy audiophiles but is great for the casual vinyl listener. Probably cheaper than most records.

Also, if you are paranoid about security at your home and would like to deter burglars, at Dick Smith you can get a fake dome-mounted security camera for $19.95 (save $5!) It has a realistic look and a flashing red LED light.

At Autobarn, you can buy – and I wish I were joking – eyelashes for your car's headlights to make it look like a GIRL CAR. Allegedly they are "the latest craze in car fashion" and cost $19.99. "Also available: car eyeliner." Why do I feminism?