Thanks nanuk and bargainbaby for posting this deal on the forum 🙂

12-16 March, Empire Theatres will be offering selected movies for $2 at selected Empire Theatres to celebrate the upcoming March break for students.

More details on this Empire Theatres Offer here

If you were part of the referral chain I setup for Shoppers Drug Mart 20X event you should see your “total points earned” now. I got 39,000 points.

Logon here to see how many optimum points you’ve earned

Thanks bcteagirl for pointing out this article 🙂

MyMoneyBlog has a very helpful article on how to get out of your cellphone contract early:

WikiHow has a good article on How to Get out of a Cellular Service Contract. While most of the methods involve smooth-talking your way out of the contract, they do point out my favorite way to get out of a cellphone contract: Wait for them to change your contract terms. This actually happens quite frequently, and I’ve done it successfully myself. In my case they raised the late payment fee from $25 to $39 or something like that. They’ll bury this in your statement in tiny print, sometimes on the back of page 6 of 7 or something.

But the law says if they change your contract, you can either accept or cancel within 30 days. Cancel! This is perfectly fair as they are changing the rules on you! Note that they may cancel you that very second, so be prepared. In fact, I remember my conversation with Verizon Wireless like it was yesterday:

Me: Hi, I’d like to cancel my contract.

Verizon CSR: That’ll be a $300 cancellation fee, sucker. (okay, she didn’t say “sucker”)

Me: It says with my statement that you are changing my contract so I can cancel without any fees.

Verizon CSR: Let me check. [pause] Yes, we raised the late payment fee. Have you ever had a late payment?

Me: Umm… maybe…

Verizon CSR: Let me check. [pause] No sir, you have never made a late payment. This change will not even affect you. Do you really think it’s fair that you are breaking your contract for something that doesn’t even affect you?

Me: Hey, I wasn’t the one who wanted to change the rules.

Verizon CSR: But you never pay late.

Me: Please cancel my contract without a fee as the law requires.

Verizon CSR: But blah blah you’re a bad person blah blah may god have mercy on your soul blah blah

Me: Please cancel my contract without a fee as the law requires.

Verizon CSR: Okay your account is cancelled as of immediately. Your phone will no longer work. Your number is gone. Your last bill will be prorated. Goodbye. [click]

And true to her word, my cell phone was dead that very second. No problem, I put it on eBay and got me a better deal elsewhere

Some of the other tricks seems more like long shots. Here are the two I think are the most likely to work:

Get off the grid. Study your provider’s coverage map and find a town (maybe in Alaska?) with absolutely no service. Then tell the company you’re moving there. They’re not legally required to cut you loose, but frustrated consumers have reported success.

Get a lemon. Get a known problematic phone, complain 3 times, be let out of a contract due to your local lemon law.

sunkissedmoon posted a cool photo of the freebies she received in 1 week:

If you didn’t already know, you can order loads of free stuff daily by going through the forum’s free stuff section.

Companies and products like Tropicana, L’Oreal, Tylenol, Nestle Baby, Olay, Zantac, Chapman’s and many more offer free samples, trials and sometimes full products for free. It’s one kind of marketing that leaves consumers satisfied and helps companies advertise their products for free. So basically it’s a win-win situation for both parties.

Thanks Katherine for emailing me this info 🙂

Gamers have the chance to win a trip to France in the “Answer the Call on Xbox Live Tournament”. All gamers need to do to qualify is play Call of Duty 3 on Xbox Live during the tournament which runs from May 4th to 6th, 2007.To enter the tournament, simply download the “Answer the Call” gamer pic from the Xbox Live Marketplace between March 1st and May 4th. For complete rules and details on the “Answer the Call on Xbox Live Tournament”, please visit www.xbox.com/answerthecall as of March 1st.

Visit daily for your chance to win. Some forum members did win 🙂

Click here to enter the L’oreal Natural Match contest

Ends April 1, 2007

Thursday March 8 and Friday March 9, 2007:

Redeem 40,000 optimum points and get 10,000 points back
Redeem 75,000 optimum points and get 20,000 points back

No coupon is required

These points are worth:

At Shoppers Drug Mart (all of Canada except for Quebec Atlantic provinces only):

Update: this is for Atlantic customers only

Who hasn’t read the “no purchase necessary” sentence on “Roll Up the Rim to Win” Tim Hortons cups? Have you ever wondered how you can roll up a rim without buying a hot beverage?

I dug into Timmie’s “Roll Up the Rim to Win” Rules and Regulations and here is what I found. Under “How to Play” it says:

2. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO PLAY: In Canada, obtain a FREE Tim Hortons contest cup and/or a copy of the official rules, by writing to: Tim Hortons Contest Cup, P.O. Box 9296, Saint John, New Brunswick, E2L 4Y8.

Interesting! So Timmie’s will mail out an empty contest cup if we request one. Of course you’ll have to pay the postage for the letter you send, but it’s a fun experiment. I’ll write to Timmie’s requesting a free contest cup and will keep you posted. If you want to try this as well let us know!

Has anyone tried this before?

Apple Canada’s Refurbished section is now selling current generation of iPod videos, nanos and shuffles including the iPod nano red.

Current generation

Refurbished iPod shuffle 1GB – Silver $69.00

Refurbished iPod nano, 2GB – Silver  $139.00
Refurbished iPod nano 4GB RED Special Edition $199.00
Refurbished iPod nano, 4GB – Silver  $199.00
Refurbished iPod nano, 4GB – Green $199.00
Refurbished iPod nano, 4GB – Blue $199.00
Refurbished iPod nano, 4GB – Pink $199.00
Refurbished iPod nano 8GB RED Special Edition $249.00
Refurbished iPod nano, 8GB – Black $249.00

Refurbished iPod 80GB – White $349.00

Previous generation

Refurbished iPod shuffle 1GB $59.00
Refurbished iPod nano 1GB – White $95.0
Refurbished iPod nano 2GB – White $119.00
Refurbished iPod nano 4GB – White $155.00
Refurbished iPod nano 4GB – Black $169.00

Click here to start shopping for refurbished iPods at Apple Canada store

Days Inn changed its ugly logo to a better looking one. But no matter what the logo looks like, Days Inn hotels are one of the cheapest and crappiest hotel chains out there. A lot more than a logo change is needed for Days Inn to improve. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never had a single good experience with them.

Old logo:

New logo:

via brandnew

bcteagirl is starting a Canadian coupon train 🙂

Thanks for the dazzling idea bcteagirl 🙂 and sorry for stealing the title 😉

Click here for more info on bcteagirl’s train

If you don’t know what/how a coupon train works, families.com has a clear explanation:

A coupon train is a great way to get coupons you can use and pass along the ones you can’t use.

How does a coupon train work?

When someone decides to start a train, this person is called the Conductor. The Conductor will set all the rules for the train — name of the train, how many passengers, how many coupons, and what type of train it is going to be (see below for types of coupon trains). The Conductor will make a post in the Train Forum setting the rules, and if you are interested in joining their train, you will send them your NAZ and they will add you to the list.

Once the list has the set number of passengers, the Conductor will make up an envie of coupons and send them out to the first person on the train list, with an enclosed list of all the other passengers. When the first person on the train receives the envie, they will take out all the coupons they think they can use, and take out any expired coupons, or soon to expire coupons. Then they add any coupons they can’t use and send it off to the next person after them. This continues until the last person on the train sends it back to the conductor and the train is complete. Usually then the conductor will ask if all the passengers would like to go around again.

There are many different types of trains people create:

*Baby Train – This train only involves baby coupons

*Pet Train – This only involves pet coupons

*Non-Insert Train – This train only has coupons that are not found in the Sunday paper inserts

*Food Only Train – This train contains only food coupons

*Potluck Train – This is a train that has a little bit of everything.

There is also a Round Robin train, which is a bit more complicated, but a lot of fun. The way this works is the Conductor will gather a list of people who wish to join the train. The conductor will assign everyone a NAZ, and instead of just the conductor mailing out one envie to the first person, everyone will mail out an envie on a set date to the NAZ assigned to him or her. When you receive your envie from the person who was assigned your NAZ, you will take out the coupons you want, take out all the expired coupons, and add any coupons you don’t want and send it to your assigned NAZ. The result of this is everyone on the train will be receiving and mailing out coupons every couple days, as opposed to a regular train where it might take several weeks to make a round because it has to wait and go to each person one at a time.

If you are new to the whole coupon train idea, then I suggest being a passenger on a couple of them first, until you get the hang of how they work.

Click here to join the Canadian coupon train or ask bcteagirl questions regarding the coupon train

On SC’s forum we were discussing how we would spend our money if we won the jackpot.

Brad Duke pocketed a lump sum of $85 million after winning a Powerball jackpot in 2005. I like the way he’s spending his money and would probably do the same (although I think he should give a bit more to charity)

Here’s how Brad spends his money

Photoshop is pretty much the only photo editing software you’ll ever need, but it comes at a pretty hefty price. As such, the announcement of a free version is music to my ears. No specific date has yet been announced, but a free version (admittedly stripped down from what you’ll find in the full version) can be expected to hit the web in the next few months.

And by hit the web, I mean really hit the web. This won’t be a downloadable version – it’ll be web-based. Think Google Docs & Spreadsheets. A lot of things we once thought of as the domain of our desktop alone are slowly but surely evolving to web-based products, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s slowly but surely becoming a web-based world — one where our computers have more space and our productivity can triple, since we can access our work from any computer in the world. Exciting times, people.

This info is fresh off the oven. I had a meeting with some of the guys working at Bell Mobility yesterday and they mentioned that they’ll be offering a bundle/package where users can place as many calls as they wish for free. They also mentioned that Rogers will have a very similar offer. Here is how it will work:

You’ll need to buy a bundle from say Bell. For example you must have your landline phone, cell phone and Internet service all through them (sorry I don’t know what the bundles will include, maybe Internet won’t be necessary, I’m just guessing). You can then place free calls to any phone number (including cell phones) that are subscribed to Bell.

So here’s a possible scenario and I’ll use Rogers for my example coz they are well known for their cell phone services. Let’s say your parents subscribe to a Rogers bundle and you do the same. You will be able to phone your parents or other Rogers subscribers on their cell phone or Rogers digital home phone for free anytime of the day as long as both of you are in Canada.

This can end up saving you $$$ especially if you talk on your cell phone a lot. The only drawback is that Bell, Rogers and Telus will not cooperate so placing a phone call between two different providers will be costly.

The special 20x day is finally here! If you’re on the chain remember that you won’t get any referral points unless you actually shop today and spend $50 or more. Also don’t forget to take your 20x coupon.

Here’s an idea of what you could buy from Shoppers today:

• Milk is reasonably priced at SDM
• Valentines chocolate and gifts are still on sale at some stores
• Easter and Saint Patricks chocolate
• Tissue (the Life brand tissue quality is fine and inexpensive)
• Diapers, baby food, wipes, etc.
• Vitamins – you’ll almost always find some vitamins on sale at SDM
• Tylenol, Aspirin and other OTC durgs
• Electronics – yes, beleive it or not most SDM stores sell iPods, digital cameras, etc.

You can also read Shoppers Drug Mart flyer here online before leaving

Enjoy your optimum point hunting and when you’re back leave a comment telling us what you got from Shoppers 🙂