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!

Love that Scratch and Dent section!

I'm a big fan of the "clearance" and "scratch and dent" areas of stores. If you're just starting out in a home or if you're just conscious of your spending, then checking these little gems frequently can give great savings. 

Here are a few examples of some favourite scratch and dent finds I've done.. long post, kinda turned into a brag post haha:

I've spoken about Rosehill Liquidation before (here: http://couponwithsam.blogspot.ca/2015/09/sharing-great-sales-rosehill-liquidation.html), but this place basically furnished my whole house. They are a end of the line place for many name brands from places like Sears and The Bay. As soon as I knew my offer on a house was accepted, we started shopping and filling a trailer for move in day 

• Bought a beautiful huge and comfortable leather couch. It was "scratch and dent" because one of the back cushions wouldn't zipper totally on. Never in the three years of using this couch have we even noticed! I think it was normally priced $2500 in the store and we paid $475
• Matching colour to couch, huge ottoman, fake leather. Love this thing (and so does the dog) and it was here because the fabric on the underside was ripping off. Again, have never seen the problem. We got it for $125 
• Big beautiful rug. This huge thing was exactly what we wanted to bring colours together in the living room. While standing in the store I googled it and found it for over $2000. We got it for $135
• Washer and dryer set. HE, decent capacity for both (can do our comforter) and haven't needed major repairs yet (and we've abused these things). They were both here because of dents in the sides. Got the pair for $472
• Pedestals for the washer and dryer. These were here again because of dents but they were perfectly priced when we compared to buying new. Yes they don't match, but they serve the purpose! Pair for $105
  
• We bought a pretty cool little fridge that held a lot for $600. After only being home a little while the freezer broke and we suddenly had A LOT of meat we had to cook up and eat. We were still under warranty with Rosehill and took it back, and upgraded to a really stunning fridge for $200 more. This one has been chugging along perfectly since.   
  
• Moving out to my own place, I wanted a new bigger-than-single bed. I got a really great, brand new mattress normally $2300 for $560. They threw in a boxspring free and I bought the rails base for $58. My roommates at the time both also bought new mattresses, getting some "once used" mattresses for steals. I still tell anyone looking for a mattress to go to Rosehill 
• Headboard for my bed.. was a nice white wooden thing. The lamination on a top corner was starting to peel so the whole thing was cheap and came home with us for $100
• Small home appliances came from here too, with no complaints as everything still works fine, including a coffee maker and blender for $20 each 
• Decor items like beautiful dividing screens (that had some sort of paint blotches on the backside no one sees anyways), metal leaves for outside hanging, candle holders and a bunch of other little bits. 
  
• A big backyard porch umbrella that uncannily perfectly matched some really random colored cushions I just bought on sale somewhere else. Never in a million years would I have thought I would find a matching umbrella to them! I think the umbrella was $30, and was totally worth it!
• Our Christmas tree! Seriously love this little tree, multicolor lights, nice shape and decent height. We paid $23 for him  
  

On top of all the above deals, we added on their newsletter discount coupon which gave another 10-20% off each time we went. 

I also know that my grandma found a cow painting she absolutely needed to have for my cousin (her other granddaughter). In the normal store this thing was over $200. I found it by fluke at Rosehill and told her about it and she went and got it for something around $60

• Fish tanks can usually be found "open box" or missing pieces for a discount. Display models can also score a good deal. My first tank is absolutely beautiful, and I bought it as an open box missing the light piece. It was too pretty to pass up at the price they were offering so I took it home (with the understanding I could bring it back within a month) and called the company to see about a replacement light. They sent me one free of charge and I have the prettiest little 30 gallon tank.  
• Our big fish tank was a discount as it was the display model with again, no light. The stand was already assembled so we had to take the whole thing as is. Thanks to our roommate with the big car, we got it all home and I called the company to get replacement lights. Again these were free of charge and I think the tank looks awesome!   Read more: http://couponwithsam.blogspot.ca/2016/05/another-it-doesn-hurt-to-ask-missing.html

• I was coveting my parents new bed that they got for a small bedroom at their beach house. It was one where you could lift the whole bed up for tons of storage underneath. They bought theirs from Ikea and my roommate and I set off to get one. IKEA has a corner for scratch and dent, just before checkouts. I know this is supposed to be your last stop, but it's always my first. Much to my surprise, there was the bed!! All boxed and the labels saying there was nothing wrong with it. It was almost too good to be true. I talked to the guys there and they verified it was brand new, just here for some reason. It was the "wrong" colour as I wanted white but for more than half price it was perfect. It came home and seriously, everyone should have this bed haha. 
  

• Maybe it's not quite scratch and dent but I really like popping by The Beat Goes On store from time to time to look at their discount previously used DVDs. For less than $4 I can usually have a movie I've been wanting to watch, that is priced at HMV for over $15. They provide an exchange warranty if the disc won't play so you really can't go wrong. Just yesterday I picked up Disney's Frozen for $15.99, priced at HMV for $35

• While looking for stuff for my new bathroom after renovations, we found a scratch and dent vanity store. They had all kinds and I really liked this dark red wood set that had the vanity with white sink, over sink medicine cabinet and a little shelf with hooks thing. The vanity was $175 and the shelf and cabinet were $20 and $30
  
  
  
  Love to hear everyone's brag buys from the discount stores... Share if you have them! 

Living without Cable or Satellite - a growing trend

I'm hearing about it more and more, frustrations with the rising and unreasonable costs of cable and satellite television. People abandoning these "traditional" forms of tv in favour of the new "normal" Netflix and Shomi accounts only.  

I've been living in my house for 3 years now and we only just got some (free for us) satellite set up. But for 3 years we happily lived without!

In the beginning, my roommate and I invested in the unlimited gb internet package instead of getting cable set up. Best decision ever I think! We could stream, watch, play, download and Google to our hearts content without paying anything more than our set monthly Internet charge. We bought Netflix, which satisfies our movie and series cravings for the most part as well. 

Anything else we wanted to watch, we hopped onto the good old Internet to find. Besides YouTube which seems to have all the awful tv shows I like (judge shows, Maury and Steve Wilkos.. hah!) there are a bunch of free movie apps we used too like Crackle, A&E, City, Viewster, Snag Films, or PopcornFlix. 

Or how about Smart Tvs, that come preloaded with all kinds of different apps for show watching too, like Vimeo, . If there was something we craved that we couldn't find, we went to our "The Beat Goes On" store to buy it for less than $5 (and then it was permanently ours) or asked to borrow it from a friend. My roommate would go to his parents house for any big things like the Super Bowl. 

Or, though I promote nothing as I don't know anything about them, there are things that kind of act like cable boxes - android boxes I think they are. Had we not got satellite we might have looked into this option. 

The only reason we got satellite was for the sports games. We found these a little difficult to find streaming online for free. Even now with the satellite, we aren't technically paying for it as its an add-on to my parents account with a second box and portable dish for no extra money. Rather than sit in their basement, we said yes to hooking it up here. I still watch the majority of my shows on my iPad and phone, while "the boys" watch their sports on the tv. 

Spin and earn free money with Qriket app

You know me, always a fan of the get-rich-quick schemes that don't cost me any money to start.. Here's another one!

I googled phone apps that make you real money. There are a bunch! Most of them require you to answer surveys and stuff, but I wanted one that took no brainpower. This one seems pretty simple, and everyone that has posted about it seems to like the real money you can steadily get. 

Let me prelude this with Ive had it for 2 days. But in 2 days I have $2.45 real dollars (that I can cash out into PayPal when it gets to $5 I think. Easy! 

The Game

Meet Qriket. Pick either blue or yellow and spin the wheel. If it lands on your colour, you get the 5, 10, 20 cents. I've heard-tell that it also jumps up and down to $1 and $2 in a spin. 

Get More Spins

There are a few ways to get spins. 

When you first get started, plug in my referral code at startup: Use the code D73E9F to get 25 free spins http://qriket.com/invite/D73E9F

You'll want those 25 spins, trust me!

Thereafter it looks like there are four ways to get more spins:

1. Spin locator

This thing shows you all the places that will give you 1 spin for every $1 spent at their place (mostly food). Most of them are in Toronto and none are near me unfortunately 

2. Buy Qriket gear. 

Buying a hat or shirt with the logo on it will come with a bonus spins code. 

3. Follow @jcomparel on Twitter or Instagram to get freebies he posts.

All of these codes go into the top little spin redeem button

4. Have your friends use your referral code when they download the game and you get $1 for every joinee. Don't forget to use mine! - D73E9F  http://qriket.com/invite/D73E9F

I hop on once a day, watch all the ads and spin 10 times. I go up at least .50 every day, so I will hang tight and see where I am in a couple weeks. Don't forget to use my referral code if you've found this info helpful!

Another it doesn't hurt to ask - missing parts

Some couples get a puppy or kitten, we go ahead and get another fish tank!  I already have a small 15 gallon fish tank, but I always kinda wanted a big one for the living room. Well, hubby and I went out "fishing" for some new additions to the 15 gallon, and ended up finding what we thought was a too-good-to-pass-up deal on basically the fish tank and stand I originally wanted and we both thought looked stunning. 

(Bowfront on stand with a closed cabinet underneath.)

It was on sale in the store for 20% off, which already made it a good deal. And then, it was marked down another 20% off that because it was missing the light accessory. We looked at the lights and the 20% off basically covered buying one of those lights. Done deal, we picked up all the stuff needed and brought it home. 

To prelude any more of this, let me explain that my 15 gallon tank was also a steal of a deal when I bought it a year ago. It's a National Geographic bowfront tank that when I bought it, had a defective light. The store tried to help me but they didn't have any more of that tank (hence why I got it for such a great deal). I called up National Geographic and after a little back and forth, they sent me a complete new lid and light set. 

So part 1. of "it doesn't hurt to ask", is I called up National Geographic again and asked how I could get lights for my new big tank. Without much hesitation, they are sending me the lights. When we get the lights, we can decide if we like them or not, and if we do, we can take back the light we bought at the store. If not, I can sell them to another aquatic fanatic and get another $25 or so off our bill. 

Part 2., there was a store coupon going around for $20 off your purchase of $75 for three days only. I took in my receipt and asked if they could refund me and "buy back" an item on my receipt. They said yes, and I saved another $20. 

Beautiful tank, we were happy with what we paid, and we saved here and there on something we wanted. Hooray!

Free is everywhere! - @ Toronto Airport

My hubby and I recently took a trip to Disney World. As with all flights, you try to get to the airport early, so we were there probably 3 hours early. Once there and through customs, our plane was delayed so we were going to be another hour or so just waiting around. 

Through customs and at the waiting gates, Toronto Pearson has little iPad stands. We took up shop there to charge our electronics and play on the iPads. One of the features of the iPad is the ability to win free stuff just for playing games and watching ads. I thought.. Why not!

We played some scratch card game that gives you points for opening chests with keys and matching three of the same icon (because it took no brain power or skill, and each "game" went quickest). When you run out of scratches, you watch a 30 second ad and you get 5 more scratches. My honey and I did this for the entire wait time (well, I did, he was totally bored after the first hour haha). 

Your points can then be redeemed right on the iPad for free drinks and snacks. If you play long enough they also had prizes like a TV, but you would have to win the jackpot spin to get that sucker!

So in 3ish hours, I won us 2 pops and 2 chips and he worked hard for some expensive chocolate bar thing that they were out of, and substituted for some awful peanut butter version (see his sad face :( ). 

You had to answer a skill testing math question correctly, and they would deliver your chosen prize right to the iPad you're sitting at. They had other games on there including card games and slots that you can accumulate prize points in. 

From these iPads you could also order and pay for food, which we tried, and I would suggest the flatbread as it was large enough to share, and a good airport-deal at $9. 

Freebies are everywhere, this was just another one I found and wanted to share. 

SPC - Student Price Card... Get one!

If you are in school or are a parent/grandparent/friend to someone who is, this has been probably one of the best "investments" I've ever made. Everyone who can, get one! 

The SPC card is a student price (discount) card that is accepted in more and more places, from food to shopping to entertainment to banking to travel. They have a great list on the back of the card that shows all the places it is accepted and there is even an app that you can quickly use on your phone in your area on the go. 

The card costs $10. Yep that's it. When I got my card years ago, I was making a purchase of something like $120. I bought the card first and used it on that purchase, and it paid for itself immediately, and every discount since has been free effortless money! This is a complete no brainer! Every time we go out to eat, I save something like $3-$5. A couple meals and the card is paid for again. 

I always ask at retailers if they have a SPC discount and more and more places are saying yes. Banking and travel too, every little 10% adds up! 

To qualify, you need to be in school with a student ID card to show when you make the purchase. As long as you are a student you can buy the card every year and it is good for a year. 

Then there is this awesome second part, called the BMO SPC MasterCard. This I got quickly after getting my original card (can apply through their website) and it is a SPC discount card combined with a no yearly fee, chargeable, credit-building MasterCard. This was great for me to start building credit as it was my first credit card, and one less discount card I had to carry around. PLUS you can hook up the card to air miles and get air miles with each $20 charged to the card. This card is like a triple dream! Annnnnd.. Every year they automatically renewed my SPC credit card, so in the entire life of my SPC affair I've spent only $10. 

Since I got the MasterCard, I no longer had to show my student ID either because retailers assume that BMO has already screened me. One less card I needed to carry around again.  

There are other student discount programs as well. On campus, grab one of those free planners they give out and inside should be the various places that will give student discounts for your school. I went to York University, and they had their own separate student discount card plan that was good off campus too. While I was in school I would also ask stores if they had a student discount, and a bunch did though they didn't promote it anywhere. 

It pays for itself almost immediately so in my opinion there is no reason not to get this card (or MasterCard) and use it!