Debt is Scary

I refuse to owe people/companies anything (other than the mortgage). I've gone out of my way to make sure that I paid for my $6000 roof all at once in a cheque, and that I don't charge to my credit card more than I have in the bank. I think interest is a completely avoidable expense. 

I know for some people though this isn't possible. If you're living from pay check to pay check, then a big sudden expense might have to go on a credit card. I have a friend going through this right now. Below were my suggestions and discussions with them. 

1. If you can't afford to pay for it, you shouldn't be buying/charging it. This might mean you don't get to go out on that fancy dinner, or go to that theme park with friends, or even afford gas that week. In all situations, try to change the plan so you spend what you can afford. If it's gas, there's public transit. If it's an event, it's an apology and a rain check. 

2. Sit down and figure out your budget. What comes in is ALL you have. If one pay check pays all bills, then you have the second pay check as what you could spend all month on food and gas. This is what you should make your max credit card amount as. When you charge it up and have no more room to charge, then you at least know you can pay it. And get rid of any other credit cards, lines of credit or etc temptations that might make/allow you to charge more than that second pay check amount. 

3. DON'T just transfer your balance to different cards/line of credit. Yes the interest rate might be better on one, and this is a bandaid for maximum a month as you'll still get charged the interest, but it's bad all around. You need to pay it off, not just move it. And DONT'T get tempted by those pay check advance loan places. Those are best described as you on a treadmill where they just keep pressing the up button on speed. 

4. DON'T just pay the "minimum" charge on your credit card. This is usually $10, and will not even partially cover the interest charged on that month. No, pay as much as you possibly can. Scrounge every penny and pay everything you can each payment and as many times a month as you can too. On the bottom of each credit card bill is a handy little line that says "if you only pay the minimum each month it will take you __ months/years to pay it off". This is a horrifying number to look at as it also factors in interest. 

5. Remember, interest is charged on the WHOLE balance.. This includes last months interest. So if you owe $1000 and don't pay for 1 month and get the 22% interest charge, your balance is now $1220. Okay so next month if you don't pay, you're now going to owe (1220+22%) $1488. So you can see how a minimum payment of $10 won't be a drop in the bucket. 

6. If you have ANY savings, pull that out and pay the balance. Yes you might lose money because it's one of those "lock it in" deals, but you can't afford to be in debt or paying high interest when you have money sitting there. I tried to explain it as "don't be worrying about your future when your present is in trouble". 

7. So you need a lump sum to help knock off a bunch of what's owed? Ok. You know that jar of spare change in your room and car cup holders.. Start there. No word of a lie, any money is good. Now you want to keep enough money in your account to cover the "auto-charged" things so you don't incur a bounce/insufficient charge, but anything else should go to debt repayment for a few months. 

8. Live on nothing! Eat out of the freezer and pantry. Buy $1 rice meals and coupon/price match every single thing. You can't afford anything other than spare change meals for a little while! Walk or carpool instead of filling up with gas, or do an in-home movie night with candles and dollar popcorn instead of a date night out. This is also a good time to use your gift cards or to sell them to friends. Get creative!

9. Side hustle and call in "favours". If every friend you have can find you something to do for them for $10, you'll easily have a nice chunk to throw at your debt. Move a fridge, paint a bathroom, the first step is simply asking if anyone has any odd-jobs. Make sure to weight the cost of getting to the project doesn't zero out the amount you'll get. If no friends have anything on the go, post on Kijiji or with some flyers at an old folks' home.. Just ask for any odd jobs paying cash!

10. Sell stuff. Unused DVDs, trinkets, clothes.. People will buy anything if it's priced right, so throw up some ads on Facebook and Kijiji that are priced well and be willing to take anything people offer. Maybe you can promote a friends' business in exchange for something, try negotiating? Try something like Bookscouter to see if you have any books to sell too. Ask your family if they have anything they want to sell and if you do all the legwork can you get half/25% of what's made?

11. If all else fails, consider a second job. Yes this is the "ugh" option but if you are in debt and you can't see the light, then you need to do this. For a short period of time, every waking hour should be making you some money until you can get the debt gone. Remember, anywhere that's hiring is a good option.

12. If everything fails and it's the 11th hour, see if a family member or friend can bail you out. Can you have them pay if off and remove the interest and you pay them back every week/month? This is a question for good family members like parents that you immediately write and sign a contract for. Commit to pay them what you know you can afford a month and then pay back more. I'd still do all of the above items as it's still debt, but it's a last-ditch effort to remove the ever climbing interest amount. If this is the route you go, then seriously do not buy or charge anything until you've paid it back. It can be seen as insulting to some generous family members if you buy something instead of paying them back first. 

Small things in your kitchen/lunches can save you money!

Just a few suggestions we use at home to save the pennies in our kitchen. What’s that saying.. If you watch the pennies the dollars will take care of themselves?

 

-Dilute your favourite juices and drinks with water to make them last longer. I’m a big fan of buying “Pure Leaf” iced tea or Fruitopia juices when they go on sale and then diluting them to 1:3 with water (either at work or from the tap). It’s such a strong taste, I can usually make it last a longer time than the three glasses I would have had. I do the same thing with those frozen juice cans and with Starbucks drinks like my favourite Passion Tea Lemonade (Trente size!). It’s SO sugary and strong that diluting it more than 1:4 lasts me for a couple days versus 1 hour. And while Starbucks is not high on people’s “savings” list, my Air Miles cash usually get vouchers for here free

-Save your veggie scraps! Every single piece of a veggie you cut off should go into a Ziploc and then thrown in your freezer. When the bag gets big enough, make a big pot of water boil and bubble the scraps for hours… Instant free vegetable broth! My hubby has been doing this from a suggestion in a cookbook and the flavour is great and a welcome addition to stews and crockpot meals

From the very fun "Thug Kitchen" cookbook. 

-Wash your takeout containers. I have another post that mentions this, but save your plastic takeout containers and re-use them until they finally crack. We joke that the majority of our Tupperware comes from Boston Pizza, but having a whole bunch of free containers on hand will usually inspire you to portion leftovers too and makes it easier to pack lunches without waste

-Wash your Ziploc bags. A lot of the time, your Ziploc bag only held a few veggies or a sandwich… Wash this up with your dishes and the bag is good as new

-Take the free ketchup, vinegar, jam and syrup packets when you’re out. Whenever I go somewhere that gives this stuff away, I take an extra handful and it goes in the fridge at home. This just makes it super easy and fast to pack a lunch, with no product waste that might happen if you pour ketchup into a too-big Tupperware container

-Same deal for plastic cutlery. Stockpiling a bunch of forks and spoons just means you don’t need to buy them

-Invest in some of those “tupperware hats” as I like to call them. Basically shower caps you use in place of plastic cling wrap. These can be washed easily, and there is less waste

-Save your plastic grocery bags, but FOLD them to reduce space and make taking them to the store super easy and more likely! I teach this trick to anyone and everyone as they save a lot of space. Buying bags at your local store for .05 each adds up if you’re watching every penny, and a trip to buy those huge Ikea bags might be a couple weeks away.. So fold up your plastic bags into little triangles and throw a bunch in your back pocket, purse or glovebox. They’re easy to grab and store too if you’re a dog-walker. See below step-by-step (ish) of how to do this

The final products!

Fold it longwise

Fold a triangle corner up so top line is 90°

Fold triangle up, again 90°

Fold again, you get the idea. Keep folding!

Fold it up to the two handles, as close as you can

Loop handles over one corner

 

And if you’re liking some of these suggestions, watch a few episodes of “Extreme Cheapskates” who have a lot of additional ideas of what items can be re-used in a different way (used aluminum foil as a dish scrubbie, buying whole milk and diluting it to become different percentages, etc). They’re crazy for the most part, but sometimes there is a great little gem that can be brought over! Here are some of my favourites:http://couponwithsam.blogspot.ca/2016/02/cheapskates-and-what-to-take-away-from.html

More it doesn't hurt to ask

So I have an item I got for a Christmas gift, it’s kind of like a Fitbit, but it’s a little fancier and tracks a few other things. The battery has run out, and I’m all whiney about having to go out and buy a flat circle battery to make it work again… Those things are expensive!

I thought I would reach out to the company and see if they could do anything for me, and I was able to Live Chat (LOVE this feature!) with a rep who sent me a free battery replacement. It was about 10 minutes of my time while doing other stuff and I’m going to save a little bit of money with a free battery. (Side note, check out the size of the box they sent for the battery though! They are NOT saving money here haha)

 

I work in a position where occasionally there are needs for online orders of items like shelves or displayers. It takes me only a few minutes to send a message to/call a company to see if they have any a) New customer coupon codes or discounts they could offer me b) any current promotions to give free shipping c) anything they could offer me to keep the order.. Usually in that sequence of questions. No word of a lie, this almost always works, even if the coupon code is only something like $5 off. One time my simple ask saved me 50% on printed materials because they had a promotion that wasn’t yet advertised on the website.

 

Maybe it doesn’t count, but always “ask” to get a code to fill a promo box online. A lot of savers and couponers will say that this spot should never be empty! Just searching the company name + promo code online will generate lots of codes that it can’t hurt to try plugging in. If this doesn’t work, I will oftentimes do exactly as I said above, and just call the company to see about any codes.

 

I’ve listed this one before in a different blog (http://couponwithsam.blogspot.ca/2015/08/it-never-hurts-to-ask.html), but I had a problem with my contact solution that I’ve been using forever. Tempted to abandon ship, I emailed the company to ask if this solution was just a bad batch. After giving more information and answering more questions, I found out that the problem was likely my fault with storage. BUT.. The company sent me three FULL bottles of the product anyways for free.. a value of $84 if I went out to buy the items myself! Unexpected and worth the quick emails!

 

Basically this whole renovations blog is a “it doesn’t hurt to ask” -http://couponwithsam.blogspot.ca/2015/09/renovations-are-expensive.html . Everything from calling a company to ask if they had any rebates for a really expensive up-flush toilet (giving me an additional $50 back!), to becoming a first-trial testimonial for a new product called DriCore (which gave A LOT of extra money back, totaling around $630).

 

The above blog post also includes a little poke about watching how things are priced in a store and asking for the price advertised on the shelf instead of what it scans at the register (as we paid $75 each for 3 windows when they should have been $250 each). This applies to items that are in the wrong spot (must be a lot of items in the wrong spot with the wrong sign, not just a one-off a customer put back wrong). I’ve found this is best to do at the cashier, because they will ask for a price check. If you do ask someone before you get to the cashier, they will change the price sticker in front of you so there’s no proof. So.. Sorry in advance to the people behind me!

Now if the item is in the “right” spot, and the label below it is the same UPC code and everything (like an old sale tag left up), then check out this blog post about how this works in a lot of stores: http://couponwithsam.blogspot.ca/2015/09/need-to-know-scanning-code-of-practice.html. Essentially: If the scanned price isn’t correct, then you get the first item FREE up to $10, or $10 off the lowest advertised price.

 

Just the other day with some “free” coupons, I asked if the tax was charged if the item was technically free with the coupon ($1 toothpaste and $1 off coupon). To experienced people, reading the coupon will usually answer this question – with either “Customer pays sales tax” or “Coupon face value
includes applicable GST/HST/QST/PST” (which both mean, you pay tax). For inexperienced cashiers, they will agree with your logic and remove the sales tax from the order too. In order to do this more easily, I usually split out my “free” product purchases into small amounts so the tax value is super low anyways.

Finally, I went to pick up and pay for my contacts, which are silly expensive due to my prescription. After paying and almost out the door, I jokingly said "What, I don't get any free stuff?!"  She laughed and said "Sure, but don't say I gave it to you" and handed me a big box of 2 full bottles and a travel bottle full of solution. 

Switching banks – how much would it take?

Is the hassle worth the Bonus cash?

 

There are a lot of opportunities to get some bonus nearly-cash freebies – everything from buying a car at a certain time, to signing up for a credit card during a promo, and then banks trying to get new customers. I took advantage of a good sign up deal at Meridian when they opened across the street and scored a bunch of extra money (in the form of interest %) for just putting what I was already holding as savings into a different bank at the right time.

 

My hubby and I decided to try and cash in (HAH!, get it?) on BMO bank offer to “switch banks and we’ll give you cash!”.  We wanted to open up a joint account somewhere anyways, so this was a good opportunity to jump on a free money deal. We set an appointment with the Manager to sign up…

 

 

Now the rest of this post is more of a rant/opinion. I wanted to post it as a reminder that not all that glitters is gold, and to weigh what could go wrong with something before jumping headlong into it.

 

After a lot of just “getting to know us” and credit score checking, we were handed a full page of details about how we get free money. This included and bunch of “must-do’s” including setting up an automatic deposit, getting a new credit card, paying that credit card bill, etc. All of these items had to be completed by a certain date. Seemed easy enough! We went throught the sign up process for a totally JOINT account on the middle plan (saying we would get $250 if we did everything), got a new credit card for each of us and left feeling pretty confident. Our first to-do checkmark was making a deposit, which we did before we left that day of our wedding gift money.

 

 

Cue the problems...

-          Immediately, the new BMO debit cards have had issue after issue. We were hit-and-miss with whether it worked somewhere or not, but it would work up to the point of then saying declined. That’s a horrible feeling when you actually do have money. We complained and they sent us new cards. My husband is on card #4 now, and I’ve stopped using mine entirely. Stores around us like Swiss Chalet still have notice on their doors that they do not accept the new BMO debit cards 

-          We found out very quickly that “Joint account” at BMO does not mean that. Someone on the account has to be “main” or something, we still don’t understand, but basically my husband can do basic things like paying a bill or seeing HIS credit card balance. He cannot make changes, see “my” credit cards balance to make a payment, and he can’t talk about the account without me around. This has been incredibly frustrating.. Mostly because we don’t understand why 

-          We needed to have printed documents for a lawyer saying what we had in all of our bank accounts. This was not easily done as my husband couldn’t print the screen I can see which shows chequing and three credit card balances. I had to “order” the printout and have it put in an envelope for pickup by my husband

-          While paying bills somehow we paid one credit card amount to the wrong card. I called to try and find out how to switch the credit on one card to pay the other card and it is a “cash advance”. They cannot immediately credit me the charge for this, so have to call them back in the next month to have it refunded (hoping the whole time the “note” he has put on the account is indeed there)

At one point we started worrying that we hadn’t checked off all the boxes on the to-do lists. My husband went to the bank on three different occasions and was told something different each time.. usually starting with “no clue”. I kept trying to call the Manager we had signed up with but no answer. My husband emailed her a few times too, again with no response. 

Finally, we got a hold of the Manager. She said she would send us the printout again so we could see if we checked everything off. She (and basically BMO in general) couldn’t tell us whether we checked all the boxes. We were told by one of the people at the bank on one of my husband’s visits that the deadline for doing everything was December, so I was concerned that I wanted to make sure we hadn’t missed anything. She informed us that actually, no, the deadline was August! All that stress and hassle with the company, and we might have missed something because we were told the wrong deadline!

 

Fast forward to now and we received the money, so we had done everything on time, thank goodness. But as I stare at the free money, I wonder if the hassle was worth it?

 

Basically 6 months of annoyances and not being able to use a debit card where our money was seems like we should have been paid more, especially if this had actually been my sole bank account. I cheated and still kept my other bank account with a working bank card and all my bill payees intact, but had I not had this I would have been totally dependent on the faulty BMO cards and customer service. If this had been the case, the money would not have been worth it.

 

As it is though, I think it was worth the aggravation for $250 and hubby and I will now work on switching accounts to somewhere else.. Maybe to TD who has a Switch for $300 offer on right now...

 

Switch and Save!

We all love our brands, right? We find something we like to eat/use and we tend to stick to it. We’ll walk into the store and grab that product without looking at the products around it. I’ve been guilty of this with our milk selection; we get the same bag every week without thinking there could be something else that is cheaper and tastes the same. I wanted to post this little blog as a reminder to always look around/ look up in Flipp the items you buy.

 

There can be a lot of savings here if you are willing to give the no name brand a try too. This is often as much as half off the “name brand” stuff, with similar tastes/effects.

 

-Water. We love Nestle water, but these can be expensive ($3-$4 for a 24 case is expensive in my brain). At some point we decided to try a case of no name bottled water for $2-$2.50 as we go through bottles like crazy (YES, I know, we should just get a water cooler or Brita filter. That’ll be our next “switch”), and found we liked the taste of this too. While we love Nestle, I think we can say we’ve switched to literally whatever is cheapest. BUT, we watch the sales and watch the Flipp app as we stock up when the Nestle water goes on for $1.99

-Milk. As I said a little earlier, we kinda blindly grab our milk every week without glancing at what else is on sale. By accident, my husband picked up a bag of the more expensive milk, which was something like $5.99 (our milk is usually $4.27). We tried it, and basically couldn’t taste a difference. Looking at the Flipp app to make our grocery list this week and I see that the more expensive brand milk we tried is actually cheaper this week than our normal brand! We will switch this week and save a little money while not forfeiting taste

-Snacks. I’ve been totally converted to the Shoppers Drug Mart “pringles” cans (I buy them when they’re $1) as I actually find they taste better than the $3 Pringles cans now. Ditto for chips and pop.. not paying for the brand name on the package means I can usually get chips for $1 each and cases of pop for $3 while still satisfying that craving

-Same for soup cans.. Walmart has some great deals on their Great Value cans for .57. My husband was able to go shopping and picked up 30 items for less than $29 that included mostly “Great Value” (Walmart’s brand) products, including 10 Great Value cans. It also had 10 bags of instant oatmeal for $1.50 total. It’s pretty impressive to get 4 bags of groceries for less than your weekly grocery budget (allowing us to go and buy meat this week too!)

-Drugs. While this is argued on some forums I see, I’m a big fan of buying the no name “knock-off” of the real thing. I buy Restoralax, which runs around $25. This gets pricey fast, so one time I tried a bottle of Shopper’s “Clearlax”. Literally worked the same way, had the same ingredients, but saved me $3. This is a similar situation to the water we buy, as I will default to the switched bottle of Clearlax, but when there is a Restoralax coupon for $3 off and the bottle goes on sale, you can bet I’ll pick up the branded stuff as it’s now the cheaper option. Similar story to cold meds and headache pills.. The same product for a little bit less?.. sign me up!

 

For every item going into my cart, I will look it up on the Flipp app and see if the same item is cheaper anywhere else. This can include searching a word like “milk” instead of “Neilson” to make sure I see all brands with that item (including the no name brand) on sale. It’s a couple dollars each trip, but over a month that adds up!

 

SOMETHING TO NOTE:

You cannot “price match” the no name brand. Price matching works on the same size and brand of a product in another store. You can price match Bananas and potatoes as these are usually not branded, but as soon as there is a brand name, even if it’s literally No Frills’ “No Name” brand, you can’t go into Walmart to price match as that exact brand isn’t carried there. If there is an amazing deal on a no-name product that week, then you will need to drive to that store to actually get it.

Step 1 of Canadian Couponing: Get the Flipp app!

Okay, so seriously, who doesn’t have the Flipp app yet? Who doesn’t know what that is?

Raise your hand. Admit it. 

 

If you are reading this, then you absolutely should have the Flipp app because you’re looking to save some money. If I left the house with nothing but this app, no coupons, no pre-research, nothing else but the app and some money, I KNOW I would still be able to save some. Before continuing with reading, download the app and follow along with me! (There’s no kickback to me, and no need to really “sign up” for anything)

 

Summary of what the app does:

-Holds all flyers for everywhere closest to you, and then some stores that are a little bit further. Grocery, Furniture, Technology, etc

-Allows you to “favourite” a store flyer to easily find it each week

-Has a search function which allows you to search for a store flyer, for an item, or for a coupon

-Items are tagged with brand and description (both “milk” and “Neilson” will bring up the same product)

-Allows you to “clip” an offer or sale that you think is a good price, and they all go into the “clipped offers” section

-Allows you to make your own shopping list right inside the app, and then shows you how many offers in the flyers match that item (this week “Eggs” gives 20 sale deals)

-Has a section for Coupons. Select the coupon you want and send it to your email to print

-Has coupon match-ups for the coupons in their database. Before you leave the house to shop, this is a one-quick glance to see if there’s anything here you’d want to buy so you can print the coupon while getting your shoes on

-Gives you the option to connect an account and sync loyalty cards to the app. Imagine not having to dig for that one loyalty card to scan in your wallet, and just click on this tab in the app! Air Miles, Aeroplan, CAA, Canadian Tire money.. It’s all here 

 

All of this allows for quick and painless Price Matching when you shop at an applicable store (Walmart, FreshCo, No Frills, etc all price match), as you don’t carry around 10 unruly newspapers or have to flip through every page to find where that one deal was. It gives you access to all of the sales on that week for everywhere around you, and gives you no excuse to not save some money!

 

Every single item I am about to put in my cart gets searched on the Flipp app first. I might think it’s a good deal where I’m standing, but searching it on the app will find it cheaper somewhere else and I can quickly and easily price match it for added savings (or it reaffirms that yep, that’s a good price). 

 

It’s also good for checking to see if you can double dip on your coupons. On Thursday when the flyers come out, I will search the name of every coupon I have in my binder to see if there are any sale deals I can pair with my dollars off papers. This is how I can get items for free, as I can see something is one sale for $1 and I have $1 off coupon for it. Consider that deal clipped and cashed in on on my next trip!

Free is good! - latest shopping trip

New year, trying to get back into the swing of couponing every shopping trip. 

What motivates me most to get back on the bandwagon?.. Free stuff! (That and watching a whole bunch of extreme couponing shows)

So today.. I put together a good little bundle of stuff that was totally free and actually "paid" me to leave the store with it!

I utilized three different coupons, one price matching deal, and some novice cashiers to get all this for free. I printed as many of the coupons as I could, which ended up being 4 toothpaste ones, 2 cat food ones and 5 VH ones. Luckily two were through SmartSource, which is a coupon printing portal that also shows up on other couponing blogs as a sorta sub-portal (allowing you to print the same coupons again). I made sure all of my coupons had different "PIN numbers" and codes and then scoped out where the deals were on my Flipp app. 

VH coupons were any one packet for $1 and Real Canadian Superatore had them on for $1. I went to Freshco where they priced matched for a penny lower, and then confused the heck out of the cashier as I was holding $5 for a purchase of $4.95. We added a plastic bag and she rang it all through with a penny owing. 

I checked here for the other two deals but they didn't have the same items for the other deals. 

Perfect portions cat food were a totally free. I ended up going to Zehrs for the toothpaste deal and they had the cat food too. Totally free + a novice cashier meant she rang in the deals and removed the tax too. 

The toothpaste is a deal we can usually always get - it's one of those never pay for items! The coupon is buy 2 Crest products and save $2, and Zehrs had them on for $1 a piece. Again, the newbie cashier rang through the items and removed the tax too. I had to split this deal into 2 so that I could get around the "max 6" rule they had. This coupon usually comes with an exclusion line of "cavity protection" ones, but these coupons didn't.. Yay! 

Proud of my accomplishment, I brought everything home and took the top most picture. Then on top of everything, I always check the cash-back apps. Another Yay! The perfect portions cat food was on TWO of the apps! I ended up making $3.19 back through these apps. Checkout 51 for $2 and Save.ca for $1.19. 

It's no extreme couponing but it's a start to get me back in the game!

Cash-strapped for Xmas?

Couple people have asked me for some help and suggestions for Christmas shopping this year

I think everyone is feeling a little cash-strapped, so here are my suggestions for last minute shopping without breaking the bank

•  NEVER LEAVE A COUPON CODE BLANK. Google “coupon code/promo code” for that company website before buying. Look for “sign up and save” messages on the site to get % off your first purchase. If in doubt, try the “chat now” or call their customer service and just ask if they have a coupon code they can extend to you as a first time customer. Almost everyone will say yes to something.
• Look for a “buy this and get a free..” deals. This usually allows you to get two gifts for the price of one. Or.. in some cases, a gift for them and a gift for you. Even deals like “buy a gift card and get a free $10 gift card” are great, as you can save that $10 card as one of the “oh I forgot about Susie!” gifts
  
• Daily Deals are awesome.. I bought earrings that were normally $80 down to $14.99. Look for places advertising their “12 days of deals” and such and subscribe to those eblasts. I would check back every day for what they have on the go that day
• One favourite deal I do is Texture.. This is the magazine subscription for tablets/iphones. You pay monthly, but you can add the app to up to 5 devices.. So this I gift each year to everyone in my family (with the login details) but I only pay one price.
• There are free magazine subscriptions you can get besides these. Normally they are run through “samplesource.ca (make sure to register!)” or similar places, but you can start here https://www.thebalance.com/free-magazine-subscriptions-1356536 if wanted
• “Super Savers” sales at Value Village, couple times a year and a few times before Christmas. If you subscribe to their eblasts they will often have some good clothes and shoes sales coming up before Christmas too. I check back often at their art, as they are usually cheap and can find some great gifts for under $15
•  Liquidation stores can have good deals. Theres a couple places near me, and theyre the kind of place you have to check back on often, but can usually find something cool at each one when I go. If your people aren’t picky, sometimes a massive $2 jug of vinegar could be a great gift!
• Spend your loyalty points! Air miles, esso, petrocanda, scene movies, optimum etc.. all of these allow for free purchases. I spent 400 points yesterday with Air miles and got 4 $10 starbucks voucher cards. Shoppers with optimum points can make great mini gift baskets of stuff like a pampering kit, nail polish kit, etc.. all using points for free
  
• Jump on the free stuff… Because free doesn’t last long! Last year I did a lot of the “sign up and get $ to spend”, like on Julep and Shopping Channel. I was able to buy free gifts and just pay some shipping. Then I got an email in an eblast today for totally free earrings.. Yes please!
  
• When in doubt, join the “free” blogs.. These people do all the work for you.  http://www.freemania.net/ , freestufffinder.ca, redflagdeals.com/go/freebies,  canadianfreestuff.com are places to start with that I like

An overarching note – try to keep doing all the saving things you would normally do when your brain isn’t going a mile an hour… Like logging into that shopping website through your Airmilesshops.ca portal (often all Dec long there are double the points deals and such) or showing your SPC discount card when buying dinner. Start at your favourite deal places (Groupon, WagJag, Perkopolis, Venngo, etc) and then go from there

Then, my last suggestion?  START NOW! Think at every sale you go to throughout the year about other people, and if there is something there you could buy for them for Christmas, you are ahead of the game! The main reason we are cash-strapped is because we spend so much all at once, usually all in one month. I go back to a song I sang as a kid.. "Christmas Bills, Christmas Bills, Piled on the Floor..."  All you need is a place to store all these "gifts" and "re-gifts" for the year.. For me it's in this trunk where I also have the wrapping paper and gift bags!