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RNZ's money correspondent Susan Edmunds. Photo: RNZ Send your questions to susan.edmunds@rnz.co.nz I am currently selling my house and plan to spend a few months overseas for family reasons, before returning to NZ and buying my next house in a new town. I am mortgage-free. My living costs overseas will be negligible, while I will be paying $100 a month to store my furniture in NZ. I am looking to earn a bit of interest on my house money in the meantime. Are non-bank lenders safe enough to entrust my life savings with, or should I stick with banks? What about Rabobank? With housing prices relatively flat at the moment and interest rates still relatively high, should I consider investing for longer - say six months - and extending my time overseas, or is there a reasonable risk that hous...

Tupperware is in bankruptcy but containers like these can still be found in your grandmother's pantry Photo: eBay In spite of the lifetime guarantee, Tupperware hasn't been able to push its quality products through the barrier of quick, cheap storage solutions online. The swish of air as the seal sticks fast. The multi-coloured, stackable storage in a fabulous new product - plastic! Gadgets made very much for specific purposes - the celery keeper, the lettuce drainer, the orange bowl that mum always used as a spew container. That last one not such a good example, perhaps, but you've probably realised by now we are talking about Tupperware, the 75-year-old company that invaded kitchens via parties where these wares were demonstrated over cheese and pineapple sticks. Now, Tupperware is b...

Smithfield meatworks plant in Timaru. Photo: RNZ / Tim Brown The proposed closure of a Timaru meatworks "exacerbates" the risk that more of these announcements could be made around the country, Beef + Lamb New Zealand says. About 600 workers at Alliance Group's Smithfield meatworks face the loss of their jobs after the company revealed its plan to close the Timaru processing plant. Staff were told on Friday they would be offered jobs at the company's other processing plants - but a significant number of redundancies were expected. Beef + Lamb New Zealand chair Kate Acland said it had been a "challenging time" for farmers and processing companies "due to the significant decrease in sheepmeat prices in the last few years, and spiralling costs on farm and along the supply chain". Beef +...