Lately I have been choosing to buy organic foods whenever I can.  The Bisphosphenol A (BPA) scare really got to me (90% of Canadians between 6 to 79 have this chemical in our blood) as it can wreck havoc on your fertility and has been linked to certain cancers. With the increased pesticide use on crops, I have been more wary of the food that goes into our bodies.

Organic foods taste better and are better for your health.  Organic groceries don’t have chemicals sprayed on them to make them last longer.  Organic meat is free of growth hormones and antibiotics (no wonder there are these things called “superbugs” in our hospitals that can’t be killed by antibiotics- we’re all eating antibiotics without even knowing it).   A few years ago, King of the Hill even did an episode where Hank fell in love with the organic steaks and joined a local Co-Op.  Organic is tastes better, is better for you, but is not necessarily better for your budget.

More often than not, buying organic can mean paying double the price for something that isn’t organic.  There are certain things that you should buy organic, and things that you don’t need to fuss too much about (like organic bananas).

Here are a few tips that can help you save some money when buying organic.

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It has been stifling hot this summer (thanks, Global Warming) even in our usually temperate climate of Vancouver.  We’ve been hitting 30+ degrees Celsius regularly (about 86+ degrees Farenheit for youngandthrifty’s USA friends).  My boyfriend and I are known to be really cheap when it comes to turning on the air conditioning, but in this hot hot heat, we’ve been less stingy and have been closing the windows and pressing that button and turning on the glorious A/C.

Because of this hot heat, and possibly because I was rendered delirious from the heat, it got me wondering, which one IS cheaper for fuel economy? Air conditioning or having the windows down?  Which one will help that tank of gas (running at $1.18/L again here in Vancouver) go that extra mile for you?

There are two camps to this often heated and long drawn debate, probably not dissimilar to the pronouncement of tomato.  To-MAY-to or To-MAH-to. =)  That is the question.

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Okay I have officially been living under a rock.  Obviously a very very large rock.

Just a few days ago, I signed up for Groupon… after hearing my friends talk about Groupon, my coworkers talk about Groupon, seeing Groupon ads on facebook…I had to get in on the action.  I’M the one who usually is on top of all the latest deals and ways to save money.. so I had to find out what it was all about.

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I had been contemplating getting rid of my pet insurance for a while, especially after a youngandthrifty reader (and ex-employee of a pet insurance company) mentioned on my post (whether my pet insurance claim would be approved), that pet insurance companies paid out 50 cents for every $1 that you pay in pet insurance premiums. The anxiety waiting and waiting for a cheque (or rejection letter which is more so the case) really ate away at me, especially when they make up another reason why the claim can’t be covered this time.

I was using Petcare because I didn’t want to be paying the $40 a month it would have cost to sign up with Trupanion or Vetinsurance.  That was kind of a mistake because Petcare seemed like they would raise rates and penalize you for making too many claims.  Apparently Trupanion and Vetinsurance claim not to do this, that they raise rates (if needed) as a whole to all members, and not solely you for making claims.  Unfortunately, I did a review of how to save money on pet insurance AFTER the fact.  You may be wondering why I didn’t just switch pet insurance providers.  The problem with switching to a new pet insurance provider is that you start from scratch- any conditions your pet had with one provider becomes a pre-existing condition of the new provider.  So basically you’re getting less and less covered.

So I was still humming and hawing, and staring at the $30 on my credit card each month for a few months, deliberating on whether or not to cancel the pet insurance… when I got a letter in the mail from the pet insurance company.

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I’m almost half blind, so I have to wear glasses and contact lenses constantly. I wear my contacts for at least 12 hours a day (eek my optometrist doesn’t like to hear that, of course) and so I go through them pretty quick.

Unless you have extended health (thanks! Extended Health!) the price of glasses can be pretty darn steep. The pair that I got a few years ago would have cost me around $500 had it not been for the extended health benefits, knocking it down a few hundred dollars.

The secret (well, not such a big secret, really) is to buy your glasses and contacts online. Because there is no middle man (no high traffic- rent to pay, and no wages to pay salespeople) glasses and contact lenses bought online a much cheaper than if you buy them in person- sometimes even FREE.

Clearly Contacts (which claims to be Canada’s largest optical store) had a giveaway one year in Vancouver (they alternate this big event in different parts of the country) where they were giving out FREE glasses if you ordered them online. I think I just had to pay shipping, which was under $10. I got a nice pair of white Gucci glasses (yes, it’s real!) for $10. Now I take this pair traveling with me because I don’t have to worry about sitting on it, scratching it up, or losing it.

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Mr. youngandthrifty kindly bought me a scratch and win lottery ticket a few months back. It was one of those expensive $20 scratch and win tickets that has a 1/3 chance of winning (I didn’t win by the way).

He paid for it with his credit card at one of the British Columbia Lottery Corporation booths.  He paid for it with the credit card so in hopes of accumulating more travel reward points with the now defunct MBNA Starwood Preferred Guest Mastercard.  You can get the same scratch-and-win tickets at a gas station, convenience store, etc.

He was diligently reading his online statement (I trained him well) to make sure there weren’t any weird charges on his card, when he saw this:

CASH EQUIVALENT TRANSACTION FEE:……………………………………………………………………….$7.50

He ended up calling the credit card company to inquire about this charge.

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In an earlier post this week, I wrote about a step by step guide on how to negotiate with the contract yielding wireless providers.  Today I’ll reveal the actual flow of the conversation I had when I called in for my sister.

Here’s the Scoop on my Conversation with Rogers recently:

My sister was paying about $31 a month including tax (from a previously negotiated contract by yours truly two years ago) for:

• 10 voicemail
• 200 day time minutes
• Rogers to Rogers
• Unlimited evening and weekends starting from 6pm

Being the young-un that she is, many of her friends text.  As you know, texting can add up!  She wanted text messaging included in herr next plan.  She was paying an extra $3-5 more a month just for text messages sent and received (texting on the very very low end hence restricting herself from unleashing the texting beast).  She had one more week left on her contract.

So I called in to the Retentions Department for her, spoke to Tristan (names have been changed) from the Retentions Department who said that if she added $5, then she can have 250 texts, AND she would have to recommit for another 2 years.  (In my head, I was thinking WTF- what kind of deal is that? Pay more??)  I firmly but nicely said that she didn’t want to pay any more, and that I am with Telus and I get all the above for LESS per month including 100 long distance minutes per month, web browsing, and 200 incoming and outgoing texts (which is true, by the way).

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Here in Canada we are ruled by only a few wireless service carriers.  Namely these fall into the “big three” otherwise known as:  Rogers (also bought out Fido Mobile), Bell (also in May 2009 bought out Virgin Mobile), and Telus (also carrier of Koodo Mobile)… UH… can you say MONOPOLY?? These guys have been fighting head to head with each other, to keep prices of contracts up.  I was paying $40-50 a month for my measly serviced cell phone bill back in 2004 (I was constantly over in talk time, thus getting dinged a 25 cents per minute) until I one day I called in to complain.  I think I fluked it by calling when my contract was up (unbeknowst to me at the time, it was when I was un-edumacated in personal finance  still).

I called back then and said I didn’t like how much I was paying.  The CSR (customer service rep) then told me that they can reduce my bill and increase what I was getting (e.g. minutes, texts, free long distance).  I was like “what??” why had I NOT done this earlier?? I could have saved so much cashola!  I had reduced my monthly bill (and was getting more bang for my buck) to $28 a month- never over.

Ever since then, I’ve been getting good deals on contracts for mr. youngandthrifty, my mom, my sisters, my friends…you could say that I’m addicted to the art of negotiation (on the phone– not so much in person cus I’m kinda shy).

First of all, you need to decide whether you want to be on a contract.  Currently WIND Mobile has come into play and they are straight up no contracts, so you’re not tied down.  They have very competitive rates (much to the Big Three’s dismay) without having to negotiate to get something you’re happy with.

If you’re down with signing up for a 1, 2, or 3 year contract then please continue reading.

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