Canadian Dollars Blog

In our area, grocery store sales begin on fridays and end on the following thursdays. A bag of flyers is sent out in the mail usually around thursday highlighting what is for sale. When the flyers come, we go through them very carefully to figure out what is for sale in the upcoming week. What we used to do is just make a mental note of which store had the most sales and just get most of our groceries from that place. Unfortunately we found that this was a real time waster because having to remember grocery lists was never a good idea. We'd get most of the items we wanted to buy, but in doing so we also bought a lot of extra junk that we didn't need. So we needed a better way. We know use an electronic list. I just open up my favorite text editor and input all the items that we want to buy. Once that is done, I just send the list to my phone and we're off shopping. By making a set list, I am able to visualize where I need to go and get in and out of a grocery st...

Less than 48 hours after the budget was revealed, there are already many criticisms of the proposed Tax-free Savings Account. Some argue that the amount is not enough, while others argue that all it does is make the wealth middle class richer. In today's Toronto Star, there is an article which compares the proposed system with the British Individual Savings Account (ISA) in which the critic writes: "But almost invariably, the only people who participate are the ones with lots of spare cash – the sort of people who already do save and who would have saved anyway. So it ends up being a giveaway to the wealthy middle class." This sort of thinking would also poo poo on the idea of RRSPs as well. What the author is failing to see is that in an age where the average Canadian saves next to little what they earn, there is a merit to programs like this. By sheltering the first $5000 every year, the policy clearly helps and gives Canadians an incentive to save up their money. ...

Twice a month, on a Wednesday, Hart House serves up a delicious multi-course meal for just $5! Note that this is not limited only to students. You should get there early as line ups for this amazing deal become insane very quick! Here is a list of upcoming dates: March 5th March 19th April 2nd All Five Buck Lunches occur on a Wednesday, from 11:45am - 2pm. For more information, contact the Hall Porters' Desk at Hart House. 416.978.2452. http://www.food-beverage.utoronto.ca/food/news/Five_Buck_Lunches.htm

With the average person spending more than they make, it's important to identify which areas of your spending are needs vs. wants. Narrowing down all the wants that you're spending your money on may reduce your spending, but believe it or not, there is still a way of cutting back. You can look at your needs, and look at ways to specifically cut back (without changing your lifestyle) Here's a few quick tips. Heating is a necessity especially in those cold months when you can't just leave your pipes unheated. Doing so may cause your pipes to freeze which will cost you more money in repairs in the long run. So how does one save on heating (which is a need)? Try lowering your thermostat 3 degrees in the winter. Put on an extra sweat shirt or sweater to give yourself the much needed warmth. With the cold winter months here, we opt to eat out much less than usual. Instead, we invest more time in doing grocery shopping so that we can make wholesome meals at home to ea...

A payment that is often overlooked by many that have mortgages is the sneaky little bugger known as the mortgage life insurance premium. If you were pressured into signing up for this emotionally, as most people are, don't feel as though you are alone. The way mortgage life insurance works is it automatically pays off your mortgage in the event that you die. While on the surface this sounds good for your dependents, probing deeper you realize that this insurance can often cost upwards of $50 a month per 100K of mortgage principle. If you do the math, you will find out very quickly that after 15 years, you've paid regular monthly insurance premiums and your mortgage may have been reduced to 25,000. While the principle has obviously dropped, the monthly premium has not. What does this mean? Well, when and if you die, it will generate a relatively small payout to your dependents or heirs. The other sad part is that you've lost the opportunity to invest that money. So wha...

Coupons are everywhere these days. You get them in your mailbox. You get them in your newspapers. You can even get them on the Internet. With all the choices available to us, how do we maximize our savings with coupons? In today's post, I will discuss some great strategies for helping you to lower your food bill through coupons. Tip #1: Organize your coupons If you're like me and get tons of coupons from multiple sources, you really have to organize them thoroughly. Some might laugh and say why are you organizing coupons for $0.50 off? What's the point? Here's the point. Each individual coupon may not save much in the grand scheme of things, but think about all the coupons you use in your lifetime. If you use tons of them, you can get some serious cost savings. As soon as coupons come in, I organize them as such: If it's a coupon I can definitely use, I will keep it. If it's a coupon I don't need (eg. cat food) I usually toss it. This is what ...

For those of you that drive a lot in winter, there are a lot of myths and misconceptions out there about what the best configuration for winter tires is. Some people with front wheel drive cars claim that one should optimize their winter driving by only replacing the front two wheels with winter tires. People with rear wheel drive cars have also suggested only replacing the rear two wheels. Well, you know what? Both these theories are wrong. While the idea of only replacing two of the four tires may sound desirable in terms of storage and saving money, it is a bad idea in practice. This is because if you use two dissimilar types of tires on your vehicle, you'll have a vehicle that has a "split" personality. One end of the vehicle won't react and perform the same as the other in the dry, wet, slush and snow conditions you'll encounter before the end of winter. The biggest danger comes in emergency situations. With different tire configurations, your vehicle wi...

One of my readers, Josh recently sent me an email asking for my advice. Here's what he wrote to me: I'm a self-employed male in my mid 30's, no kids and no debts. RSP is already maxed out. Currently, my major assets are as follows: House is worth $330K RSP portfolio is $65K Non-RSP portfolio is $40K Savings is 35K Total of RSP and Non-RSP portfolio is $105K, which is composed of 25% bonds, 25% Cnd. Index, 25% S&P 500 Index and 25% International Index. I gross around $70K a year from my job. However, I don't see myself working in the near future since it is really a dead end job. I don't have a company pension so I'm trying to create a nest egg on my own. What I like is to have some sort of investment that will provide a steady stream of income once I stop working one day. $20k a year would be the minimum. Any ideas? So what Josh is looking for is a minimum of 20K a year. For those that are totally risk adverse, I would say one would need to save about 5...

I'm paying about $30 a month for my gym membership. I had thought about canceling it and just using the mini gym in my apartment more, but decided against it because I love the gym that I go to and everything that it offers. While some people may say that some gyms are big type scammers, I disagree. They are only scammers in the sense that they make or encourage you to sign up for a year long contract. Unfortunately most people that join in January stop going after February. These are the people that usually complain that the gym is scam. To everyone out there that is thinking about signing up for the gym, make sure you read the fine print. In addition, make sure that you are only signing up for the plan that you need. If you don't plan on using the personal training sessions, don't pay extra for them. Alternatively, if you don't plan on using the tanning machine, why pay extra for that? Make sure you know all your options. Most gyms will give you a week o...

It's the beginning of the new year and what better way than starting off the new year than to fulfill one of my new year's obligations immediately. I just filled out my credit report request and have mailed it off. Today I will talk about the benefits of obtaining one's credit score/report. There are two major credit bureaus that will do this for you in Canada: TransUnion and Equifax. Provided that you fill out the correct form and provide two pieces of identification (the details are specified on their websites), you can obtain your credit report for free. Not that if you wish to receive your credit report online, there is a nominal fee for this service. If you're like me, and love a good deal, just submit your request through snail mail. It'll only cost you a postage stamp. So what is a credit score and why does it matter? Credit reports are important because of what's listed. If your credit score is really low, this could be the result of an unclean cre...

When neighborhoods and streets are glittering with lights, it's very important to keep saving energy in the back of your mind. A simple way of achieving this is to use LED lights instead of the more traditional decorative lights. Aside from lowering your energy bill, LED lights generally have a longer life than typical bulbs. For example, the average LED light will last approximately 200,000 hours while normal bulbs last between 1000 to 2000 hours. In other words, the average LED light will last 100-200x longer. The only drawback is that these LED lights cost signficantly more than typical bulbs. Fortunately if you use them year after year, you will definitely recoup the initial purchase. All this being said, now that the holidays are almost over, you should start thinking about taking down your xmas lights (to save electricity of course!)

When corporations go private, investors face really high capital gains taxes. The capital gains are often times even greater for stocks that have been owned for decades. For example, stocks like Bell (BCE) may have been purchased at a relatively low adjusted cost base. Unfortunately, investors have no say when corporations go private. The only thing that is certain is a large tax bill. In this post, I will discuss a great technique that will help lessen the tax bill. A recent change in the Income Tax Act now makes donating shares instead of cash a much more worthwhile endeavor. Specifically, I will examine how many shares a person must donate to wipe out the tax on the capital gains on the other shares that one is selling. For example, if a donation is valued at over $200, you can use the following basic formula to determine what fraction of shares should be donated in kind to 'zero out' the tax liability. I will begin first by defining two ratios: g = Gain in shares divi...

I've been recently contemplating purchasing my TTC ( Toronto Transit Commission ) Metropass using their monthly Discount Plan . How it works is the TTC will automatically debit your account for a 12 month cycle and mail you your TTC monthly pass (which is good for unlimited rides with the majority of the Great Toronto Area). So you might be asking, what would I save in doing this? I'd have to give my chequing account details to the TTC. Do I really want to do this? Well, when you sign up for the Discount Plan, you save approxmiately 10%. Which after a 12 month cycle, means you basically buy 11 months and get 1 free (roughly). So it sounds like a really good deal right? Well, being the frugal person I am, I decided to research the topic a little more and wondered what would happen if a pass is misdirected in the mail or never sent. How would their customer service deal with it? Well it turns out the first time a pass doesn't arrive, the TTC will offer you a replace...

Okay just got back from shoppers drug mart just now and noticed that they have an awesome promotion going on. Basically they have milk at 3.99 regular price (which is cheaper than everywhere else in toronto). But get this, if you use your optimum card, they reduce the price by another dollar making the deal even SWEETER: $2.99!! Limit 2 per customer. The deal ends this friday! This is easily the cheapest milk I've seen in a long time. Bought two bags. Check it out, I posted a message on RedFlagDeals and suddenly all these anti-milk people come out of the wood work. Hilarious! Good times!

With temperatures in Toronto hovering around -5, I prefer staying indoors as much as possible. This is where brown bagging your lunch has another advantage in the winter - you get to avoid the winter cold. While my friends are out searching for where to buy their lunch, I get to enjoy my home made lunch (very cost effective too) in the comfort of my lunch room without having to brave the cold every time I want a bite. I also try to brown bag all my snacks as well to avoid the temptation of buying candy and snacks from those candy stores. Sure the candy at those stores is cheap - but the problem is those snacks add up. A chocolate bar here, a bag of chips there, next thing you know your snacks are costing you more than your home made meal! It's the same with cookies, I brownbag them from home. We love to back so we bake a batch of cookies and bring them in reusable containers to work.

I've recently received tons of coupons in the mail. My coupon stash had accumulated to the point where I was clearly receiving more coupons than I was using. Worst than that was all the useful coupons I had accumulated and hoped to use were expired. This past weekend I went through my coupon stash and threw out all coupons that had expired or were about to expire. (Eg I just purchased 24 rolls of toilet paper at Shoppers Drug Mart last weekend and this extra coupon for $1 off expiring Dec 31, likely won't be used unless I literally have a crappy holiday). Jokes aside I took all the coupons that I knew I could use in the near future and organized them. I took all my free coupons - free kashi cereal, free live active cheese, $1 off toilet duck and took em all to my grocery stores, zellers and drug stores to redeem. In the end I was able to use a total of 10 coupons. Sure I got a lot of odd looks from cashiers. Note - the younger cashiers are usually better because they don...

From the Globe and Mail recently : In an about-face yesterday, the Harper government offered an amnesty to 1,100 U.S.-purchased vehicles whose owners had been forced to ground them because they failed to meet new Canadian requirements for anti-theft features. It also said it would allow imports of U.S. cars even if the anti-theft immobilizer they're equipped with only meet less-strict American standards, removing an obstacle that had discouraged Canadians from cross-border shopping for vehicles in recent months... This is actually very welcome news.  It means that as Canadians it's one less obstacle to purchasing a car from the states if the deal is right.  I have a few friends that have recently purchased a car in the states.  They said that they amount of money they saved totally eclipsed the 'hassle' they encountered with filling out the paper work and legal details.  With the Canadian dollars at recent highs, it seems like buying a car from the...

While it may seem that being green is the new 'in' thing, it also has the added bonus of usually saving one some money.  It's the simple things that one can do to be green and save money at the same time. For example, when brushing your teeth or shaving, make sure you turn the tap off.  In the past, I used to be notorious for doing this.  It's so easy to just accidentally leave the tap on while you're brushing your teeth, but if you think about it, it's a lot of unnecessary wasted water.  Sure one could argue that water is very cheap in our developed nations, but there's no reason to waste it, even if it does cost you literally pennies.  Turn that water off while you're brushing your teeth, it's better for the environment. How about household cleaners?  Did you know that if you create your own household cleaners using a lot of home made ingredients (eg. baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice etc) you can create some really po...

This morning I stumbled across a link from Zen Habits that gives 30 frugal gift ideas to show that you appreciate someone. With the holidays about to roll around, this is probably the best time to start thinking about gifts for that special someone before the madness of December rolls around. A lot of the ideas presented in the article are really nice and inexpensive which is perfect for the frugally minded such as myself. For example, you could bake some homemade cookies or give that special someone a framed picture with you and them in the picture. For the other excellent frugal 30 gift ideas, check it out here .

If your only interest in organic is for its health value, then Consumer Reports has a quick list of which products you should dig deep into your pockets for: Apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach, and strawberries. For all other fruits and vegetables, it doesn't make much sense. For example with Bananas there is hardly any pesticide residual on the fruit so it doesn't make a huge difference whether you buy or organic or not.