Illustration by Denis Shifrin

RECYCLING
Herzliya Municipality has recently added new recycling containers for metal -  large bright yellow bins with openings for different sized metal containers, such as coffee, corn, peas, beans, aluminium foil, cleaning and insecticide metal containers , old saucepans, etc.  Congratulations Herzliya.  Just wonder when they will get round to the collection of glass jars and bottles, other than those with the 30ag deposit which we can return to the supermarkets .
ODDS & ENDS
I keep in one strong plastic bag all those odd items for home repairs, such as spare parts for taps, spare hinges, door and cupboard handles.  Whenever we have something repaired and there is a piece or spare part left over it goes into this plastic bag.  You never know when a wheel comes off the computer chair, or the rubber tears on the support on the leg of a chair, and it is usually on a Friday afternoon or Saturday or some other holiday.
HEARING AIDS
Two interesting pieces of information on hearing aids:  as of January 2011, for senior citizens over the age of 60, the Ministry of Health is participating in the cost of hearing aids up to NIS 3,000 per aid.   This is in addition to any sum you may receive from your own Health Fund.   The company that I use made these two deductions directly from the cost of the hearing aid and all I paid was the small balance.  I also recommend checking out if your audiologist is working with your own Health Fund.  The original cost of my new digital hearing aid was almost NIS 12,000. As my audiologist's company is recognized by Maccabi (my Health Fund) the starting price was only NIS 9,000. From this they deducted the NIS 3,000 participation of the Ministry of Health and the NIS 3,100 from Maccabi itself, so my final bill was only NIS 2,900.
There is a special test that can be taken that checks the correlation between the hearing test results that have been entered via the computer into your hearing aid and what you are actually hearing whilst wearing the hearing aid.  This is called a REM test – Real Ear Measurement test.  A company called Hedim (*2254), which has branches in the country, carries out this test, and it costs NIS 200. Maybe your own audiologist can do this as well. 
RENEWING SERVICE DEALS
You need to be 'on the ball' regarding renewal dates of deals that you have made with companies to which you are paying a monthly fee via your credit card.   They are supposed to advise you on your bill when the renewal date occurs.  Usually this is in the smallest of print somewhere tucked away on an earlier bill.
I found on a recent Bezeq bill two extra charges of nearly NIS80 each (without VAT) backdated two months for internet services.   I was told by Bezeq that this was my new deal till the end of 2012.  As my current internet service deal is with Netvision, including Bezeq's modem service, I assumed (wrongly) that my Netvision arrangement had come to an end. However, Netvision advised me and gave me their reference number ("pni'a" number) that my deal with them is till January 2012.  When I wanted to write a letter by post to Bezeq with "avis de reception" requesting them to remove the NIS160 from my current bill, believe it or not, I could not get any postal address, only a fax number!