Just a super quick post about something we saw while shopping.. try on and get $ off.
Interesting concept and if you were buying anything at all in the store, in my opinion it would be a no-brainer! I'm all about free money!
So just a note that while you're out shopping, watch for signs like this. This sign was only on a couple tables of pants in one corner and not throughout the whole store.
Just another quick blog about keeping your wits about you and not panicking with the results after taking advantage of a “free” quote that you see advertised everywhere.
This includes “free quotes” for your roof, sidewalks, gutters, windows, renovations, etc. When I got my brand new roof done a couple years ago, I had someone come to my door literally a month after the new roof was finished. They asked me if I wanted a free quote for my roof and laughing I said sure. Don’t you know it, he said I needed new shingles! The receipt for the roof work was still sitting on my dining table so I showed it to him and he umm’d and err’d until I shooed him off my porch.
The one we took advantage of the other day was a Free Hour of Diagnostic Inspection for your car.
Now, to prelude this, we were looking to get the car diagnosed anyways. There were a couple engine lights on, that have been on for a long time, and it’s a 2001 vehicle. Car drives fine, but we wanted to finally decisively identify what the lights were on for so we could make them go away. I sat down to start researching the best price for a diagnostic at a few places and came across a “Special Coupon” the actual dealership had for a free hour of diagnostic… that ended that day.
Scheduled with the hubby and we could make it work. Called the shop and the guy on the phone was great and said that they are the experts for that brand of car, and he was certain they could figure out the problems in that hour. We drove it in and made sure they knew to only do the free hour and stop before doing anything else. I was happy we were saving $105!
We discussed what the expected charges would be. We said around $300-$400 was what we expected, including their $105 an hour labour charge. They called us a little after an hour later…
$2029.70!
Hubby and I basically panicked… Is there something really wrong with the car? Is it worth paying that to keep the car going for a couple more years or is it better to sink it into a 0% financing deal on a new car? It’s been such a good car…
Then reeling that back in, we called my parents. My mom made sure we knew that these “free quotes” are all to drum up business. You could take a brand new car into the shop and they will be sure to find SOMETHING wrong with it, just like what happened with that roof guy. Then dad talked us through what each of the suggested 4 charges were.. That basically #4 for $600 had already been done months ago, that #1 of a seatbelt piece for $300+labour could be found at a junkyard cheaper, that #2 might just need a piece of tape on a hose instead of 3 replacement parts, and that #3 was a money-grab for an unnecessary service that might actually cause more issues.
It was totally worth getting the free diagnostic from the experts for our car, as we now know what the issue(s) are (and part #s) and we can research how to get the items fixed/replaced somewhere else for cheaper. Just take any free quote you get with a grain of salt and don't immediately agree to go along with whatever they've said without some research.
Sharing this with you because I think it’s pretty cool. We are always looking for free entertainment, and some evenings you just want to get out of the house.
While looking for cooking classes nearby for my hubby’s new-found hobby, I came across what I thought was a little too-good-to-be-true offer at Zehrs. They call it a “What’s For Dinner” class, and you pay $10 for the hour long demonstration class and then at the end they give you a $10 Gift Card to use at Zehrs. Basically, it’s like buying a gift card to the store but getting some free cooking tips, information and larger-than-a-sample taste tests. I bought a few classes for my hubby and a class for my roommate and I to join him one class, which we did the other night.
· The meals are decided the day-of, so you can’t book in for a specific recipe or know in advance if it’s a class you want to go to
· They don’t make any allergy accommodations
· They will pre-do some of the steps in an effort to stick to their time slot, so you might miss how long to cook an ingredient
· The meals in my opinion can be described as “weird”, but I believe they classify as “raw eating”, “dairy-free”, “healthy living”, etc. They are not the sort of meals you would naturally think of making so at first you may seem hesitant to try it
· The price of the ingredients then is pretty up there, like the dairy-free/gluten-free pomegranate “cheesecake” pie we sampled would have cost $50 to make if you went out and bought all the ingredients
· Everything uses a stand mixer.. and these are not cheap
PROS:
· It basically ends up being “Free” as you are just buying money to spend in the store later on stuff you were probably going to buy anyways
· Because they are “weird” meals, they expand your taste palette and introduce you to foods you might not have thought you could like. Like, my hubby’s first class was making a “Quinoa and Kale Taboulleh Salad”, which had two of his most hated ingredients of quinoa and cucumber. However, after tasting the meal, he discovered he actually liked it and promptly came home and made a big batch of it. Then a taste test of some cooked nuts actually made him realize that foods can taste different raw vs cooked.
· They let you ask questions.. so you can clarify if some things freeze well, what an alternative could be, etc
· There is a dietician present at the class, talking through nutritional content and explanations of food descriptions
· You will come away with some tips, like when to know when quinoa is done, how long a pomegranate will last in your fridge, which soy sauce to buy with low salt etc
· You get some free food (It’s a decent portion to try of the two recipes, but I wouldn’t call it a meal), and usually water or coffee is provided
· You get the recipe and instructions to take home with you
· It gives you a good base to then add and remove ingredients from your own kitchen and tastes. Like, the one we all went to was for a quinoa stir-fry of sorts, and while I might not use all the same ingredients they did, it made us realize we could replace rice or pasta with quinoa to get a little more healthy ingredients into us and any veggies added to the meal are good, so remove the onion and add celery if that’s what’s going bad in your fridge first
· It lets you know that foods can serve a dual purpose, like avocado can be a good base for anything needing a creamy texture and crushed nuts can make a pie crust base
· Compared to their other cooking classes, this is a more relaxed and basic class – recipes you can actually make!
· You can sign up for classes really easy online, or at the Customer Service desk
The class we all went to was the only after 4 class in the week, so it was packed with about 20 people. We had some laughs, ate all the food, and I think learned some stuff. At the end, we walked out with the $10 I paid back in our hands and a lot of paperwork (with upcoming classes, tips, the two recipes and more).
I would suggest you grab a friend and do this together, as it’s always more fun to do new stuff with a partner in crime.
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.
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)
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...
