Grown-up lunch bags

Don't head off to work with your lunch in an old takeaway container in a plastic bag. What are you – a hobo?

Until 6 February, Kmart has some pretty jaunty neoprene adult lunch totes for $10. They zip up securely and have a carry handle. As well as being easy to carry should your work bag not be large enough to fit lunch in, they'd also be good for preventing those disastrous food-to-paper and food-to-fabric spillages.



There are also more rugged, manly-looking insulated lunch bags for $9 that look like miniature versions of those soft eskies you can get. They look as if they're meant for tradies to take onto construction sites. But I personally think they look pretty ugly.

Storage boxes for under $25

Some real talk, people. You probably have a lot of stuff. Why not invest in some giant plastic boxes to store it properly?

I've stored my towels and bedlinen in wheeled plastic boxes since I moved into a house that had no cupboard storage. I also have more that I use for socks and tights, sleepwear, stuff I'm putting away to see if I do well enough without it to donate it to charity, and stuff for craft projects.

My bed is high enough off the ground that I can store the boxes underneath and wheel them out when needed, but such boxes are also useful to keep if you have to store things in damp or dusty conditions such as roof lofts, garages and sheds – for instance if you're going away and giving up your house.

At the moment, Officeworks, The Reject Shop and Big Dubs are duking it out as to whose boxes are cheapest. It really depends what size you want.

Officeworks has 9L boxes with white lids in colours including yellow, tangerine (pictured), white, green and blue for $5.97. These are 33cm long, 27cm wide and 14cm high, making them a good size to store books, CDs, DVDs and documents. (Storing books in small boxes is important when it comes to moving them, I have discovered over the years.) You could use the various colours to code the contents.

But you'll pay $6 for a 15L clear roller box at The Reject Shop, and $8 for a 30L box. The Reject Shop also has a wider, flatter 38L underbed box for $12, designed to fit under low beds (not everyone has an old-fashioned high bedstead like me).

For a smallish but still quite roomy 55L box, Officeworks is your best bet – they have clear wheeled boxes that are 54cm long, 31cm wide and 39cm high and cost just $5.97. These are the sort where the handles snap closed against the lid – important when the box is full and you're struggling to get the lid on.

If you'd like coloured rather than clear plastic, Officeworks also has stackable periwinkle blue or red 52L boxes (56.5cm long, 40cm wide and 32.5cm high) for $7.97. Compare this to Big Dubs' 48L clear box for $7.47, and The Reject Shop's 60L clear box for $9.

But when you start to get into larger boxes still, Big Dubs becomes better value. They have an 81L clear(ish) box for $15.86 (compare to Officeworks' equivalent for $20), and a 100L box for $20 (compare to Officeworks' $24.98).

But at The Reject Shop, a 90L box is $15, an a whopping 140L box is $25.

Back to school… for adults

Back-to-school season is now in full swing, and let me tell you, I've never felt better about not having to go to school any more. However, we can still take advantage of the bargains! If you like to wear polo shirts, grey, black or navy pants or white ankle socks, this is your time to shine.

Schools have made a massive move towards 'nude food' policies: kids have to bring their lunches in individual plastic containers that eliminate the need for lunch bags and wrap. I'm pretty sure this is because teachers hate having to supervise kids picking up litter in the playground. But you can use them to take your grown-up lunch to work.

At Kmart you can get Smash Nude Food Movers snack boxes and sandwich boxes, triple snack tubes or double snack tubes for $3 each.

Woolworths has all the Smash Nude products at half price. The sandwich box is the same price as at Kmart, but the snack box is only $1.99 and the double and triple snack tubes are only $2.49.

Woolies also has other products in the range, including a cube-shaped salad box for $3.99, a large meal box for $3.49, an "ice melt with chillout socks" for $3.49 and a hilarious "muffin pod" for $1.99.



Kmart has a range of aluminium drink bottles for $6. Good to have on your desk, clip to your bike or slip into your gym bag. Available til 16 January.

Are you a creative type who enjoys sketching or keeping a visual diary? Aldi has A4, 120-page visual diaries with covers in five different colours for $2.99. I'm not sure what quality the paper is, but for $3 I'd be happy to risk it.



Also at Aldi is a 200-sheet pack of coloured copy paper for $3.99. Officeworks probably has it cheaper, but what I like about this one is that each pack has 20 sheets in an assortment of ten different colours. It's perfect for small craft projects, or printing off just a few documents, or even – gasp! – writing a letter to someone.



The good thing about back-to-school footwear bargains is that the stores know parents prefer leather school shoes over synthetics, so you can get some decent shoes really cheaply. Big Dubs has some cool-looking Bata Scouts black leather sneakers, styled a bit like Chuck Taylors in men's sizes 6-12, for $30.

The ladies' ones are styled like hipster plimsolls; they look a bit too much like jazz-ballet shoes for my taste, but they're $30 too.

If you prefer good old Dunlop Volleys, but in a more durable material than canvas so it doesn't make a hole where your big toe sits, Big Dubs has men's and ladies' leather Volleys for $35.

And since 'back to school' clearly means fine literature, Big Dubs also has some hilariously titled books that almost seem to parody themselves – Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus ($27.99); Man Drought by Rachael Johns ($29.99); and The Girl in the Hard Hat by Loretta Hill ($32.95).



I am not especially into 'farm lit', or 'rural romance' as I hear it is more properly called, but I was curious about Snow White Must Die. Turns out it was not based on a fairytale but is a fairly standard-sounding detective novel, whose characters include Pia Kirchhoff, Oliver von Bodenstein and Tobias Sartorius.