Kids been bugging you for all the new shiny toys in-store and on tv? Nows the time to get them to finalize their essays on what they’d like and send them off to Santa!
The Santa Letter-writing Program brings joy to children from across Canada and around the world. In addition to giving many children their first introduction to letter writing, this program is also a very important part of the holiday season for thousands of Canada Post employees and retirees.
Currently, more than one million children write to Santa at his ‘NORTH POLE H0H 0H0’ address. Each letter that includes a return address receives a reply from Santa.
More than 11,000 current and retired Canada Post employees, affectionately called Postal Elves, help Santa to ensure that every child’s letter gets an answer in the language in which the letter was written, including Braille (emails are answered in English or French).
Encourage your children and students to write to Santa. It is a fun learning experience that helps teach kids how to write and send a letter. To ensure that children will receive a reply from Santa before Christmas, they should write as early as possible. Remember to include your return address. Teachers are urged to send their classroom letters by December 3.
Although Santa loves to receive letters and drawings, putting cookies and treats in your envelope is not a good idea as they will get crushed and damaged by the time they reach Santa. Santa much prefers to eat his treats on Christmas Eve, so please have your children save them at home for the big day!
Ok so this isn’t really a “deal” but I absolutely loves me some Dane so I thought I’d share. Starting tomorrow the 23rd simply enter the presale code “SUFI” here to get your tickets first! He also has an act on November 2nd in Kingston. That means you have no excuse not to go Mr. Boo!
Click here for Dane Cook’s website, mature audiences only. Don’t know who Dane Cook is? He’s an actor and comedian who is very funny and rauncy at the best of times. He’s also not hard on the eyes 😉
Last night when I read Watergirl73’s post on the forum I was absolutely astonished! This Smart Canuck has been furnishing her home completely by scoping out Kijiji deals and steals for quite sometime. Her house is nothing less then gorgeous, and you would never be able to tell that she paid a fraction of the price for the high end furnishings in her home. It’s still a work in progress as they are renovating but nonetheless breathtaking. This member deserves to be featured in Chatelaine!
I know that most of us here use coupons. They are awesome – but some people don’t want to deal with the “hassle”. You CAN save money without using coupons (although it isn’t as much fun!) by following these tips:
Make a shopping list and stick to it.
Before hitting the store(s), check your local flyers and jot down the best deals. Try to only buy what is on sale (although this is sometimes not possible, I know!). Once you get everything on your list, get your butt out of the store!
Make a weekly menu.
After you have noted what is on sale at the stores this week, plan your meals around the sale items. Are ground beef and pork chops on sale? Looks like you’ll be having burgers, pasta and pork chops for dinners. See oatmeal and Shreddies on sale? Guess what’s for breakfast?!
Shop alone.
Bringing your kids or spouse with you will only lead to unneccesary purchases (trust me on this one!). If you MUST bring your kids, make sure that they know you have to stick to your shopping list and buy nothing else.
Stock up when things go on sale.
Set aside a certain amount in your budget each month for stocking up on sale items. Then, when things like meat or cereal or juice go on sale for super cheap, STOCK UP! Purchase as many as you can afford/store/use before the item goes bad.
Eat less meat.
Let’s face it, meat is expensive. Delicious, but expensive. Try having at least one meatless meal per week to save yourself some money. When you do have meat, try making your other dishes the main course, and the meat the side dish so you do not eat a large portion of it.
Stop buying convenience items.
Grated cheese, chopped garlic, and pre-cut fruits/veggies are all items you should avoid if you want to save money. Stop being so lazy and just do those things yourself!
Buy the store brand.
I understand that there are certain items some people would NEVER trade for store brand (mac and cheese for me – I LOVE YOU KD!), but most things you can. We use store brand honey, crushed/diced tomatoes, nuts, spices, crackers and many other things and they taste just as good (sometimes better) than the name brand! Store brand items are almost always cheaper than name brand, so try them out if you want to save some serious cash.
Shop AROUND the store.
Produce, meats, dairy and bread are all located around the store. The center aisles are filled with things like chips, pop, cereal, crackers, condiments, etc. – and many of those things are not necessary. Shop AROUND the store for the freshest, cheapest foods.
Only buy produce that is in season.
There is always something in season. Check your flyers to see what the cheapest items are (using on the front or back page) – those are the items that are in season!
Don’t shop when you’re hungry.
Please tell me you knew this rule already. Right? Shopping while you are hungry always leads to very bad things. Impulse buys will just KILL your grocery budget. Eat something filling before you head out to go shopping.
Look high & low.
The most expensive items are ALWAYS placed at eye level. Look at the top and bottom shelves to find cheaper items (and sometimes you will get lucky and even score some CLEARANCE items – clearance is your friend. I call him Clarance.).
Compare unit prices.
See which size item has the lowest cost per unit – that’s the one you want to buy! Of course, make sure you are actually going to use the whole thing. Saving money on something you just end up throwing away is not actually saving money at all.
I had a nice little surprise sitting in my inbox today. As a thank you from Harvey’s for entering the name your burger contest they are giving all participants a free premium burger! This coupon is only available to those who entered the contest and each link has a unique id number otherwise I’d share. Anyways check your email I almost deleted mine thinking it was just the announcement of the winner. The subject of the email is “Burger With Your Name On It Contest.”
Thank you Scott M for sharing this info with us! It appears like Shoppers Drug Mart will be reducing the value of its Shoppers Optimum Points 🙁
Effective July 1, 2010 Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix are changing the Optimum Points program. The new rewards chart shows 8000 points for $10, up from the current 7000 points. All other tiers are “more expensive” as well, though they have changed the value of the money back to help obscure the change.
This happens coincident with the changes to Ontario’s laws prohibiting kickbacks to pharmacies from generic drug manufacturers… coincidence?
Which loyalty card offers the best rewards?
by MoneySense staff originally posted on Yahoo Finance
Here are the cards to use — and avoid
A lot of retailers want you to carry their loyalty card in your wallet or purse, but how much are their mysterious points actually worth? We crunched the numbers for seven major Canadian retail loyalty programs to find out.
To come up with our ranking, we calculated how many dollars worth of points you get after presenting your card at the check-out for purchases totalling $100. We excluded special promotions and loyalty programs that are linked to credit cards, and we just looked at easy-to-price items, such as gift cards, to evaluate the redemption value for points.
What did we find? The rewards vary wildly, with Shoppers Drug Mart offering five times the bang for your buck as Petro-Canada. Here’s the list, from best to worst.
Shoppers Optimum
Dollar value of the points you get for spending a hundred bucks: $1.70
Value of one point: 0.17¢
Point redemption offer: 15,000 points gets you a $25 credit at Shoppers Drug Mart
Best Buy Reward Zone
Dollar value of the points you get for spending a hundred bucks: $1.25
Value of one point: 1.25¢
Point redemption offer: 400 points gets you a $5 credit at Best Buy
Air Miles
Dollar value of the points you get for spending a hundred bucks: 67¢
Value of one reward mile: 13¢
Point redemption offer: The most common earning rate is one reward mile for every $20 spent. We based the redemption rate on 150 points for a $20 dollar Rona gift certificate
HBC Rewards
Dollar value of the points you get for spending a hundred bucks: 63¢
Value of one point: 0.0125¢
Point redemption offer: 200,000 points gets you a $25 HBC gift card
Esso Extra
Dollar value of the points you get for spending a hundred bucks: 56¢
Value of one point: 0.56¢
Point redemption offer: 1,800 points gets you $10 worth of gas at Esso
Canadian Tire money
Dollar value of the points you get for spending a hundred bucks: 50¢
Value of one Canadian Tire dollar: $1
Point redemption offer: You get half a cent in Canadian Tire paper money—and now coins—for every dollar you spend, and you redeem them at par
Petro Canada’s Petro Points
Dollar value of the points you get for spending a hundred bucks: 33¢
Value of one point: 0.07¢
Point redemption offer: 15,000 points gets you a $10 Petro-Canada fuel credit
So tomorrow I’m in charge of bringing the dessert to our first Easter get together. Now I love to bake, and it always tastes great but when it comes to artistic abilities and making it look “pretty” well… I suck. So I was looking around and I found these cute little cupcakes
(Source Flickr) Anyways I thought these little “robin’s egg nest” cupcakes looked so darling. How hard can they be to decorate. Baked cupcakes butter pecan and swiss chocolate, made some butercream vanilla icing (you can use store bought) toasted up some sweetened coconut and threw on top some Hershey eggies in my own combinations and Voila! I am so happy with the results! Its definitely a hit. Let me know how they turned out for you if you decide to make them as well.
Heres mine: (The kids to try with less icing haha)
Happy Easter everyone (who celebrates) or Happy Weekend!
Avoncallingu has started a great thread in the Deals and Flyers Section of the Smart Canucks Forum, listing the March 31st expiry coupons. What a great idea to remind us all! There seems to be quite a few great ones expiring this month, so nows the time to be using them all up!
This is the list she has compiled so far:
MEDS & HEALTH
$2 off any BENYLIN product
$2 off ANY VICKS CUSTOM CARE product
$1.50 off ANY VICKS CUSTOM CARE product
$2.00 off ANY 2 VICKS products (excluding Vicks Throat Drops)
$1.50 off ANY VICKS DAYQUIL SINUS OR VICKS NYQUIL SINUS products
$1.50 off ANY VICKS DAYQUIL MUCUS CONTROL product
DAIRY PRODUCTS
.60 off any NORDICA COTTAGE CHEESE product
.75 off any ARMSTRONG CHEESE
.50 off any 4x88ml YOPRO BARS or 500ml YOPRO products
.30 off any GAYLEA REAL WHIPPED CREAM (Regular, Light, Chocolate)
MEAT AND FISH
$2.00 off ANY VARIETY OF PRIME STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS (426g) or
CHICKEN TENDERLOINS (550g)
$1.00 off any 2 BLUE WATER PRODUCTS
DRINKS
$1.00 off any bottle of OCEAN SPRAY DIET beverage
CEREALS
$1.00 off MULTI-GRAIN CHEERIOS (265 g-560g)
Please feel free to add to her list. Thanks Avoncallingu
It’s almost that time of year again when the kids get to take a week off school to enjoy the winter and pack in some exciting activities. A lot of people take this opportunity to go down South for the week, but if you’re like me you need some ideas closer to home that wont break the bank.
That being said there are a lot of activities going on in most communities that can get your family active and out of the house. Here are some of the activities I found:
1. YMCA March Break Day Camps-check your local YMCA because most of them offer day camps throughout the march break that have fun activities for kids. It’s getting them active and it’s a chance to meet new people.
2. Local Libraries offer a ton of activities for kids all year round and even more activities during the March Break. A lot of the activities provided by your local library are free and are worth checking out!
3. Check your local Community Center for events during the break. Most offer more public swimming, skating or drop in times for team sports. It’s a great way to stay active this March break.
4. Volunteer in your community. It’s a rewarding experience to help someone out and there are tons of places you can volunteer your time with your family this March Break.
For more great things to do with your family this March Break check your city’s local website.
If you have any additional ideas please share them so everyone can take advantage of their March Break.
I was reading through the ways to save money thread, and thought about how we missed out credit scores and credit reports!
Credit scores and reports are such a big part of our lives, and I strongly believe that learning about it, and knowing how to manage your credit score is going to help us save a tonne of money in our lifetime!
So, I am starting this thread to talk about credit scores.
First, what is a credit score?
A credit score is mathematically calculated by all the information found in your credit report, and translated into a 3-digit number between 300 to 900, and lenders use this number to gauge your credit history.
An average credit score is around 650, and a score of 520 is generally required to qualify for a mortgage.
Why is credit score important?
Think of the credit score as a report card on how you are doing financially in your life. J
All lenders based their decision on whether to extend credit to you on your credit score. All lenders, from your bank, to your car dealership, to your department stores credit application to your landlord, they all rely on credit scores to help them access whether you as a credit applicant will be reliable in making your payments, and if it is worthwhile for them to take on the risk of lending you money.
And most importantly, the higher your credit score, the better chance of you negotiating for the best rates you can get from a lender. I think this is where you will find that you will get the most savings over the course of your lifetime financial activities.
Consider this simple example:
For a $100,000 mortgage at 5% interest rate, paid over 25 years, you will be paying $75,377.01 in total interest to the lender over a span of 25 years.
For a $100,000 mortgage at 3.25% interest rate, paid over 25 years, you will be paying $46,194.87 in total interest to the lender over a span of 25 years.
That’s a savings of $29,182.14 over 25 years, which translates to $1,167 a year!
I’m not sure if you think that is much, but for me, I’d much prefer to have that $1,167 in my own pocket, than in the pockets of my lenders!
So, hopefully, I have managed to convince you that your credit score and report is a very important financial tool that you should learn to manage. J
I will write about ways to improve our financial report card in a future post.
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner I thought I’d offer some suggestions for a fantastic day with out breaking the bank. After all Valentine’s Day is about Love and not expensive gifts!
If you haven’t already gotten your special someone a gift you don’t have to break your budget in order to say “I love you” because there are plenty of options out there… (more…)
Well… I just called Canada Post ( 1-800-267-1177 )to confirm the bad news. Sorry to say but it is time to stock up on stamps, because Canada Post is increasing the prices of postage stamps from $0.54 to $0.57 in the new year. Good thing I have lots but for those of you who use or trade stamps better add them to you shopping list!! The price increase will be being on January 11,2010. Click here to go to the Discussion Thread. Click here to go to Canada Posts Website.
Thank you jadedragoninbc for writing this article and emailing it to me. This article was originally published by her at eHow.
If you look carefully and arrange your life the correct way you can actually turn a profit from shopping using the AIR MILES Reward Program in Canada. AIR MILES are redeemable for many travel, merchandise and gift certificate rewards. Depending on how you use the rewards points they are worth between 10 cents and 15 cents each for gift certificates, more or less on items that are harder to price like flights and merchandise.
Sure, follow the advice to always carry your AIR MILES card and shop at AIR MILES sponsors, but if you want to take it to the next level, here is exactly how.
Your goal is to earn a combination of AIR MILES Reward Miles and Tax Deductible Donation Receipts that together have a value above what you spent.
Air Miles – Step 1
Identify which grocery stores in your area are part of the AIR MILES program. The AIR MILES program offers exclusivity to each sponsor in each region so this part is easy. In Western Canada the grocery sponsor is Safeway Canada and this article will use Safeway as the example. Same principles apply at other stores in other regions of Canada.
Air Miles – Step 2
In order to get the best sale prices at Safeway you will need a Safeway Client Card, available free from Safeway customer service. Once you have the card issued you can just quote your phone number to get the discounts.
Air Miles – Step 3
Collect AIR MILES coupons and watch for promotions for bonus miles. These can be found online, in the paper, on the shelf tags and in the in-store fliers. You should also sign up for e-flyers from the Safeway website.
These promotions come in three main categories:
Dollar Amount Spent for Bonus Air Miles Deals – Safeway regularly runs coupons for 100 or 250 bonus AIR MILES with a $100 or $200 purchase.
Bonus AIR MILES coupons for specific products.
Buy X get Y Bonus AIR MILES type promotions found in flyers and on the shelf tags. (hint read the fine print on the shelf tags because not all eligible products get the shelf tag.
Air Miles – Step 4
When the store is running one of the Dollar Amount Spent for Bonus AIR MILES deals, go to the store with your coupons and look carefully at all products offering bonus AIR MILES. Especially look at products that generally have some or all of these characteristics
low priced/low ticket items
ON SALE and
Offering Bonus AIR MILES
Maybe something you can find a coupon for online or in print
Bonus AIR MILES are just like all other AIR MILES, you just earn them in addition to or as a bonus to the regular AIR MILES awarded for shopping
Air Miles – Step 5
Calculate how many Regular and Bonus AIR MILES you would earn by buying each product meeting the Step 4 criteria. For ease of calculation you might want to calculate based on buying 10 or 100 of the item.
Here is the Math for a 10 units of a can of soup sale priced at $2.00 each:
Cost of product 10 units X $2.00 = $20. There are no taxes.
# of bonus AIR MILES from buying the product (say 20 miles X 10 units = 200 miles)
# of AIR MILES from Safeway regular program = 1 per $20 spent, so 1 mile.
# of AIR MILES from your participating BMO MasterCard or AMEX Card = 1 per $20 spent so 1 mile.
Spend $200 and get 250 Bonus miles promotion = 1.25 miles per $1 X $20 = 25 miles.
Total AIR MILES = 227 Miles
Times 12 cents each Mile = $27.24 of value in miles on a $20 purchase.
You just found that select product that is worth more in AIR MILES than it costs you.
Air Miles – Step 6
Purchase a large quantity of the product or products you have identified. You may be able to get the manager to order in more of an item (maybe a pallet full!).
Use your AIR MILES credit card, you grocery store loyalty card, and your AIR MILES collector card plus the appropriate coupons.
If you are using a spend $100 get a 100 miles coupon you will want to maximize your bonuses, so run the purchases through in separate transactions of $100 each, making sure that each purchase includes an appropriate multiple of items to get the full bonus on the item.
You do not have to worry about the credit card and base miles from the store as they accumulate across multiple transactions anyway.
Keep the receipts for the next step or buy one product at the regular price to establish fair market value. (edited for clarity)
Air Miles – Step 7
Call an appropriate local charity, set an appointment and pay them a visit. The Salvation Army or local food bank are your best bets for food donations. The animal shelter will love your pet food donations.
Ask the charity for an “in kind” charitable gift receipt or receipts (if they have dollar limits on individual in kind donation receipts). You will need to establish the fair market value of the product you are donating, which is where having a receipt showing the fair market retail value comes in handy.
Air Miles – Step 8
Reap the Rewards of your Efforts:
-Enjoy the thought you just helped feed hundreds of people or animals
-File your donation receipts with your income taxes for a approximately 40% credit on your income taxes (exact value varies by Province)
-Enjoy a nice trip (where my honeymoon came from), give great gifts from your miles, or use the miles to get that riding lawn mower you always wanted (seriously this is exactly where the writer’s John Deere mower came from).
