Choice Magazine : My go to guide

The following post is sponsored by Nuffnang.  Disclaimer can be found here. For as long as I can remember, my mother deferred to Choice Magazine. Need a new car?  Go to Choice Magazine to find out which one has the highest ANCAP safety rating and a radio that won’t short circuit within days of the warranty expiring. Need a new fridge?  Go to Choice Magazine and find out which one has the highest energy efficiency rating. Got a nasty rash?  Go to Choice Magazine and find out which cream has tested most successfully by a panel of impartial experts. Got a school project on guinea pigs?  Go to Choice Magazine and find out who’s been exploiting small fury animals.  Not necessarily guinea pigs, but hey, you don’t question the great and powerful Choice Magazine. Busted smoking in your cubby house? *ahem* Go to Choice Magazine and read about the dangers of smoking. Flash forward 20 years, and I’m a bit like my mother, only I defer to the great and almighty Google for all of my parenting research requirements. When Nuffnang offered me the chance to write a sponsored post about Choice Magazine subscriptions, my mother was supremely jealous and beside herself, and I was also quite looking forward to it.  My Mother is bragging about this as if they’ve asked me to take over as Editor.  Which I’m totally available for, by the way. So, what did I think about Choice Magazine, 20 years since I last perused the pages to read about why I should not be smoking in my cubby house? I loved it.  Which, to be honest, surprised me.  I was expecting it to be all yawny factual articles full of scientific data and statistics.  But it wasn’t yawny at all (yawny being my official unit of measurement for the boredom factor). The article that most caught my attention was about The Shonky Awards. The Shonky Awards are run by Choice Magazine, in the same impartial way that their product testing and reviews are carried out. I love it when Choice waves their finger in the face of various industries, and outs them for their crimes against consumers. Take the iPhone and Android app that was named and shamed.  I had a friend stung by this very game.  She thought it was free, and got a nasty surprise when suddenly she found out that her son’s continual use of the game was most definitely not free. The Mummy Tummy sucking evil underpants.  I am acquainted with these bad boys.  Anti-cellulite?  My dimply ass…. Go4Green energy.  Something I was actually looking into – until it received a Shonky Award.  I will be forever grateful that I didn’t blow $299 that I don’t have, on something that doesn’t do what it claims to. This was my absolute favourite article in the current issue of Choice Magazine. If there’d been an article of coffee machines, or which vodka gives you the most bang for your buck, then I would’ve been all over those too. A lot like the shift from hating current affairs programs when I was a kid, and now relying on them to keep informed – I have also come full circle with Choice Magazine. Now I’m off to raid the extreme fire hazard that is my Mother’s loft, and pore over the 10 years of Choice Magazine back-issues, and more Australian Magazine Subscriptions.  She has even promised to gift them to me in her last will and testament, along with the argyle diamond. Are you looking for the perfect Christmas present? Give your loved ones a magazine subscription this year and you can win a tropical escape to Hawaii with Magshop’s Christmas competition. Treat your family and friends to a magazine subscription  today - it’s the gift that keeps on giving all year round! This post was sponsored by Nuffnang, and I sincerely hope they give me something alcohol or coffee related to review next.  Or a Nanny service.  Or a holiday.  See, I’ve even given you options, Nuffnang.  You’re welcome.