Here’s a guest post by Taylor Laurents, a freelance writer who wanted to share how he thinks a storage unit can save people money.  When he is not out saving money, he spends his time explaining to people that he is Taylor Laurents and not Taylor Lautner.  I have yet to ask him whether he has watched Storage Wars yet.

Everyone is looking for convenient ways to save money these days. Carpooling, keeping lights off, and turning down the air conditioning are just a few of the tricks people are using to keep extra money in their pockets at the end of each month.  However, when thinking of ways to save money, very few consider renting a Toronto self storage unit. Wait, paying money to rent a storage unit can actually save you money?  That’s right. It may sound counter-intuitive, but there are actually a number of circumstances in which renting a storage unit can save you money.

A few of those circumstances include:

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Inspired by Sandy from Yes I am Cheap sharing her Non Extreme Couponing Experience, I thought I would share with you my somewhat mild extreme couponing experience.  As you know, I have been a bit of a coupon fiend lately, watching the show Extreme Couponing gets me riled up and excited (though I definitely don’t agree with buying 90 tubes of toothpaste, or 123 deodorants “just ’cause”).  I am more of the variety of buying items that I need with coupons to save money, and not buying 15 of them.  Two to five of the same items, maybe.  But not fifteen.

As you also know, I have been reading Mrs January’s blog (looove it!) because she matches up the coupons in the mail to the sales in store.  I have been saving up my free product coupons (like the Glade coupon) for those days where you need to purchase $50 worth of goods to get 20x the points at Shoppers Drug Mart (one of my favourite stores not only because I’m a shareholder, but I find that Shoppers shows growth, flexibility, and not to mention, it has a great rewards program).

So, last Saturday, there was a 20x the points event.  Usually each dollar you spend is only worth 10 points.  But on these special days, if you spend $50, you can get 20x the points.  50,000 points gives you a $80 redemption, so you can see that if you spend $50 on these days five times, you can get $80!  If you couple that with the more bang for your points days (that’s what I call them anyway), you will get to $100 for 50,000 points.

So here’s a recap of the mission:

GOAL: To accumulate $50 worth of groceries/ necessary items and obtain 20x the points (about 10,000 points) using the least of amount of money possible.

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There are a plethora of websites that can help you scour the great deals and make sure you never pay full price (or sometimes even pay anything at all!) for goods. These websites are the “must read” websites for any person who identifies themselves as frugal in Canada who refuse to pay full price. The fine line here with these websites, is to make sure one doesn’t go overboard and buy something for the sake of it being on sale (which I tend to struggle with myself).

The following websites are updated on a daily basis (if not multiple times a day), so you can be rest assured that you are getting the latest deal. Some of these deals, once posted, may last only a matter of hours, due to their popularity. Also, some of the websites have some overlap (e.g. You may see the same ‘deal’ on multiple websites).  Just click on the title to head over to their sites to take a gander (sorry my hyperlink is a bit screwed up.  Apologize in advance for my lack of HTML skills )

Red Flag Deals

The granddaddy of them all (now bought out and owned by Yellow Pages group -YLO) is Red Flag Deals. Red Flag Deals has been so kind to me and such a great tool and resource. For example, I found out about my beloved late Starwood Preferred Guest MBNA Mastercard there, my free Gucci glasses courtesy of Clearly Contacts, and I find out about the latest freebies and great deals. The site is so well-known that oftentimes they have what’s called the “Red Flag Deal” effect- once a great deal is posted, a few hours later, because of all the Red Flag Deal readers getting in on the action, the deal is done and it is sold out, or the freebie is all distributed. They have a great “Latest Deals” page and have “Most Popular Deals” (whereby members can vote for good deals that are shared amongt members) page, as well as a very active forum on contests, good deals in electronics, home and garden, beauty, and even a section on personal finance. I used to check Red Flag Deals religiously (like every day) and now I check it at least a few times a week.

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Please welcome the following guest post from My University Money, a fellow Canadian blog talking about what its like being a recent graduate, and working in the real world.  Please note- the photocredit is from photobucket and I chose the picture… If you find it distasteful, blame me!

Hello fellow young personal finance readers. I go by the pen name is “Teacher Man” due to the fact I recently graduated university and am in my first year of teaching high school. My partner and I have recently started up a website aimed at helping young people in high school, as well as those in various post-secondary avenues, and finally, students that have recently graduated and are facing ‘the real world’ for the first time. The inspiration for our website came about when we were reminiscing about our time in university and how if we knew then what we know now, we would have been a lot better off. Thus, My University Money was born. Our goal is to help young people in their quest to learn how to succeed in their educational, financial, and career pursuits.

My first car

I have survived my first year of commuting in the car that my dad and I had picked out together when I started university. I had saved up some money and he said that for my birthday present every year he would pay the insurance if I bought the car. I still think I got a pretty good deal on that one. I went with my dad to buy the car, but I didn’t really do much talking. He said I needed a good, solid, “bigger” (re: North American) car.  I ended up with a 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix. It has served me faithfully over the past few years, but due to a long commute and my girlfriend moving in, it I time to look at a slightly more reliable option. My little brother has decided he can make use of the old car and I have decided to sell it to him a charitable price that still leaves me way further ahead than if I traded it in.

So I have recently embarked on this quest to find the perfect car for someone in my position. I have read roughly 199 personal finance articles on how to decide on and buy a car and I think I have a pretty good handle on things; however, I decided the only way to be sure of this was to share my thought process with some well educated readers and ask for their input. A big thanks to Young and Thrifty for allowing me the opportunity!

My financial situation

I guess before we start talking about mileage rates and finance offers, you should be aware of my rough financial situation. I graduated without student debt, and have recently taken on a mortgage. As a first year teacher I make about 50K a year before taxes. I find that I currently have about 1K a month in disposable income after all my paycheque deductions and expenses are taken out. My girlfriend is still in university and basically earns enough to pay her student expenses. I have saved up approximately 10K
either for a down payment on a car, or to buy a used one outright.

The options

This has been my thinking up until this point. I am looking for an ‘econo-box’ type of vehicle. Luxury isn’t a big deal to me at this point in my life, and I am just looking for something with low maintenance costs and good gas mileage. I still need a little room for transporting things and I am a pretty big guy, so I just don’t feel comfortable with the sub-compact class of cars. I believe my personal sweet spot is in the compact category, so I started looking at Civics, Corollas, Elantras, Sentras, Mazda 3s, VW Jettas, VW Golfs, Focuses, and the Chevy Cruze/Cobalt combination. I would be looking at the mid- level of features on pretty much every car because I want the A/C and cruise control. I definitely have no need for sun roofs and leather seats.

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Everyone has likely been noticing the recent spike in gas prices, what with the current global situation. It got me thinking, have people been changing their patterns when they gas up?

The gas prices here in Vancouver fluctuate, I find that they are most expensive during the day, and the least expensive during the late evenings. I find that during the middle of the week, it’s more expensive. During the weekend evenings, it’s least expensive. When I talk about fluctuation in prices, the fluctuation is usually about a $0.03 to $0.10 difference (I’m talking per litre here, not per gallon!). For a 35 litre tank, this would be a $1.05 to $3.50 difference in price.  I know it doesn’t seem like much to even bother, but if you fill up often, that can add up.

My gas up patterns

I fill my tank up when it’s at a 1/4 tank or less (which I really shouldn’t do because that’s bad for the car, according to my mechanic).  When I gas up my car, I usually fill it up.  I’m not sure why I have a habit of waiting until it’s at 1/4 tank or less, though I think it could be because I have the perverse desire to see how many kilometres I can go on my car with the one tank of gas.  My car averages 300km per tank of gas.  Under extreme circumstances, I sometimes put just a little bit of gas in the tank and hope that the gas prices will decrease in the next few days.  It’s almost like.. gambling.

I know that my family and friends having been shifting their gassing up patterns recently because of the gasoline price spike, they get a little bit of gas, and tell themselves they will get more gas later at a lower price.

As for me, I usually get gas in the late evenings, around 9pm or so.  The time I most dislike getting gas is in the mornings before work- that’s when I find the gas prices are the highest, as well, getting gas usually makes me late for work!

When I visited Melbourne, Australia a few years ago, the gas patterns are very predictable, apparently- it always goes up on a certain day of the week, and goes down on a certain day of the week (I think my uncle, who lives in Melbourne, told me that it always drops on a Thursday).

When I was younger, I recall that my frugal mom would always intentionally drive to the other side of town to take advantage of the lower gas prices at the pump. I think it was about a $0.03 difference. She says she doesn’t do that anymore, thankfully. It doesn’t make sense to me, to waste gas to save money on gas. That’s somewhat analogous to spending $500 on a wallet, when you don’t have money to put in a wallet.

Some tips to save on gas:

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