I’m not sure if many of you readers were around when I wrote my beloved post: Ode to Promo Codes but I thought of that post the other day and thought I would elaborate on why I love coupon codes and promo codes.

I’ve been doing a lot of online shopping lately (BAD girl, I know!) because I have been too lazy to go out to real stores to buy things (and I don’t have the time to find parking, walk to the mall, get side tracked at other stores), and on top of that, I think I’ve become more antisocial (I blame it on the blog?) so the social interaction with actual sales people who are obviously out for your commission tends to bug me and make me cringe.

Yeah, I know, I need to get a life.

Anyway, I’ve done a lot of shopping online (some of my favourites are Amazon, Forever 21 when they have free shipping, and yeah, Victoria Secret because we don’t have one here in Canada!).

Before I shop online and actually go through with the purchase, I always see a box that says: “Promo Code” or “Coupon Code” and because there is an empty box there, I always do a quick Google search to find coupon codes or promo codes that will fit in that box and give me free shipping, or a 5% discount, or even just $5 off.  Sometimes I can’t face the fact that the box has to remain empty.  It was such an unhealthy obsession that I wrote about the extreme extent of my obsession with coupon codes, where I literally spent four hours of my time to save FIVE DOLLARS when I was booking a hotel online.

I was excited that I finally found a coupon code but deflated that it was only worth $5… and wasted four hours of my time.

Yup..!  So sad, so sad.

Now, I usually just hit up the regular coupon code websites to search for coupon codes that I can use in Canada.  If I can’t find a coupon code, a little remorse kicks in when I have to click “submit payment” and that box is empty, but at least I know I tried!

Some great Promo Codes Websites

• CouponCodes- This site shows you the top 50 coupon codes, the expiring coupons, and the new coupons.  It also has an area for travel coupons.  This site also has printable coupons.
• Retail Me Not- I like this one because it tells you what percentage of Retail Me Not customers had success with the coupon code recently
• Savings.com- They even have grocery store savings, and printable coupons as well.
• Discounts.ca- is based out of Toronto and they seem like a small start up (10 employees) but are dedicated to saving you money, even on Daily Deal sites (check out my ultimate guide to Canadian Daily Deals post)

Also, if you’re an eBay addict (I used to be but sort of grew out of that phase when I realized shipping to Canada and within Canada can often be ridiculously expensive…case in point, I bought something worth $3 and paid for shipping really quickly when I realized that the shipping was $30!  It was too late to reverse it at the time.  Yup…. first world problems!), the CouponCodes website has eBay coupons too for specific eBay stores.

Readers, do you regularly search for coupon codes and promo codes when you make purchases online? 

What’s your personal success rate? 

Do you often find good coupon codes? 

Which one is your favourite coupon code/ promo code site?

 

 

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In my 2 year blogiversary contest, a reader asked me to write about ways to save money (or share some tips about how to save money) while living in an expensive city.

Vancouver has been ranked as one of the most expensive cities to live in. In 2008, Vancouver was ranked only second to New York as the most expensive city in North America.  Vancouver is beautiful, there is no doubt about it.  It has the mountains, the ocean, the beaches, the forest.  You can go swim in the ocean or kayak and go snowboarding in the same day (it will be cold, but you can do it).

Living in an “world class” city like Vancouver has its advantages.  It is a melting pot of culture, and this results in ridiculously delicious and often cheap and good eats.   It does have its disadvantages though (other than the 300 days of rain we get here, of course).

The cost of living is ridiculously high and it can be very expensive to live, work, and play.

Other cities can be notoriously expensive to live in, namely Los Angeles, New York, Paris, London, Toronto, Montreal, Singapore, Tokyo… the list goes on.

So here are some ways I thought of to save money while living life up in an expensive city:

1. Ditch the Car if You Can

The usual “plus side” of living in an expensive city is a robust and easily accessible transit system.  I live near local cheap grocery stores (example, bananas are $0.59/lb and at the local Safeway, it is $0.89/lb).  Living near a bank, a post office, and the local library can make life much, much easier.  Cycle to work, take transit to work, or walk to work if you can.  If you need a car, you can always find one of those co-op rent a cars for a short term rental (e.g. if you need to move something, or are doing a major shopping trip).

Estimated cost savings per month if you ditch the car?

• Car Insurance: $150 (approx.)
• Car Financing or Leasing: $300 (approx.)
• Gas: $50-$150+ (depending on how far it is to work and how much you drive)
• Total: $500 to $650+

2. Get a Roommate

Scary serial killers aside, a roommate can be a great way to offset the cost of living.  I know of a few people who have mortgages and rent our a room in their home to a student or someone else who wants to rent for less.  It can be a win-win situation as long as the person isn’t a serial killer.  In Vancouver, unlike renting out a basement suite, if you are the landlord of the home and are renting a room out to a roommate, you can kick them out if you just don’t like them (safety first, of course).  It is apparently much more difficult to kick out month-to-month renters living in basement suites.

However, the downside is sharing a living space.  Some people don’t mind living with others (hey, you might make a new friend, and it can be less lonely!).  I know of a few people who are renting out rooms in their homes.

Estimated Cost Savings/Income per Month:

• $325 to $500 is the monthly going rate in Vancouver for sharing a living space

3. Scope out Free Activities

Living in a big city has its perks because there are usually a lot of free events.  Free and fun events are a quintessential part of a world class city, and there is no shortage of free and fun events around town.

All you need to do is keep an eye out for bulletin boards, read the local free news paper, watch the local station on TV, and listen to the radio.  There is no shortage of things to do.  I find that the best thing to do for free in a big city is people watch and it is one of my favourite things to do.  I especially love watching couples interact with each other (though I don’t love watching obvious PDA).

Here are 25 Fun and Free things to do in Vancouver if you happen to live in Vancouver and need something free to do.  Oh, and visiting Wreck Beach is one of them (yes, that’s the nude beach we have here in Vancouver…and no, I have not visited it!).  According to National Geographic, Vancouver ranks as one of the top 10 beach cities in the world.  I wonder whether our nude beach had something to do with that….

Estimated Monthly savings:

• $100- well this is an ambiguous estimate, but lets say you spend $20 a week watching movies or eating out… you can save that amount and instead spend date day or date night doing free things

4. House Parties!

A lot of people who are new to Vancouver find it difficult to meet people and find the night life and culture lacking.  Many say it’s because most people stay home to save money and all the parties are usually at homes instead of people going out and spending big coin $$$ clubbing or spending it at bars.

Most of the socialization that goes on in Vancouver (I can’t say this for other cities because I haven’t lived in them) happens at parties hosted by friends or acquaintances.  You can host a potluck and tell everyone to BYOB.  Everyone still has a great time and you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg to entertain your guests.

Readers, can you share any other ways to save money while living in an expensive city? 

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One of the benefits of being a personal finance blogger is having the ability to “test drive” things to write reviews about them.  I was given a copy of Quicken Home and Business 2012 to try out and review.

I was very very excited to try Quicken because I have heard so many great things about it and it almost seems that any Personal Finance Blogger isn’t really a personal finance blogger if they don’t use some sort of snazzy personal finance software like Quicken to track their spending, their budgets, and their investments all in one place.

Now, I think my review might be skewed because I have never tried Quicken before, I have used Mint.com before Quicken, and I am an extremely low-tech person (which is absolutely shocking to hear from someone who identifies themselves as Generation Y, I know).

I gave it an honest effort, I spent about 4 hours trying to figure out it, clicking on tabs, clicking on graphs, and trying to input data.  Then I became extremely frustrated because I wasn’t doing it correctly and was worried that I would have to be manually inputting data on a regular basis (like correcting my mortgage remaining amount, updating my bank accounts).  I manually inputted all my investments because they do not have Questrade in their database (just like Mint.com).

That would just drive me up the wall.

I tried to set up accounts but then was asked to download some sort of spreadsheet from my bank’s website (which I couldn’t find) so that Quicken could update my Quicken account.  I then resorted to manually inputting my information.  I gave up after four hours and left it again for a week.  With fresh eyes, I tried it again and no luck, really.

Here are some of the PROS and CONS of Quicken that I have gathered in my short time trying it out:

PROS:

(more…)

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Although I want to keep my personal finance resolutions as aggressive as they were last year, I know that this is not feasible and it will most likely only serve to punish me and make me feel bad come end of 2012.

Therefore, because I like baby steps (and achieving these baby steps makes me feel better about myself, thus making me want to try harder to achieve more), I’m going to try and make my financial resolutions realistic, given my recent move to working at 50% of my previous income and going to graduate school.

Without further delay, here are my 2012 New Year’s Resolutions.  I’m looking forward to reviewing them in June and again in December to see how I do.  Nothing compares to blogging for the world to see in order to keep yourself accountable.

2012 Personal Finance New Year’s Resolutions

• Contribute $5000 to the TFSA- I plan to sell some of my Canadian non-registered stocks in order to put money into my Tax Free Trading Account.  With the remaining amount, I may use my RRSP tax refund (provided I got one lol) to top it up to the $5000, for a total of approximately $20,000 total contribution in the account.

• Max out RRSP allowed contributions- I set out $200 a month automatically to an RRSP TD e-series and top up the rest before the year ends.  Next year will be the first year where I have to start repaying my Home Buyers Plan withdrawal.  I believe I will be paying back into my RRSP at a rate of $150 a month.  The remaining $50 contributed per month can be used towards offsetting taxes.

• $5000 baseline for Emergency Fund:  I would like to save $3300 before year end for my emergency fund, in case I need to repair my car, or pay for a veterinary bill since I don’t have any pet insurance, and other unplanned necessities.

• Save up $3600 total for Travel Fund- I plan to climb the highest peak in Africa in 2013  and will need some cashola for that (not to mention get in shape)…I will try and set aside $100 a month for this travel fund (automatically). I have an ING savings account for that.  This should be doable as long as I keep the $100 a month contribution to this account.  It currently sits at $2600.

• Pay down the Mortgage extra $200/month- We just started this before the end of the year.  If it were completely up to me, I would be paying this down very aggressively and sacrificing many things for this.  However, my boyfriend lives in the same roof as me and I need to make sure he’s on board with the aggressive pay down plan, and he wasn’t.  I’ll need to work on him …
  

• Slowly change most of my equities into dividend paying equities- Organize DRIPs for more investments if possible, and also arrange for a TD e-series fund for a TFSA account (though this means I would have to apply for a mutual fund TFSA account, which can be a pain in the behind).

• Write down what I spend my money on daily- I’ve been terrible at remembering to do this last year- though I think I was pretty good at it up until September. I need to continue to remember to do this in order to keep track of my spending.  Let’s just say December was a bit of a gong show in terms of trying to keep track of my spending, what with Christmas presents and all.

Readers, what are some of your 2012 Personal Finance Resolutions?

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Part of blogging about your goals and resolutions means trying (key word, trying!) to keep accountable with them.

So I thought I would share with you how I think I did this year.   As you know, I blogged about my personal finance goals for this year early in January, and also shared my personal goals. I will share how I’m doing for both.

• Max out TFSA to $15000- In January, I’ll have $15,000 of TFSA space because I took out all of my TFSA’s for my down payment. I plan to sell some of my non-registered stocks in order to put money back into my Tax Free Trading Account and top it up with savings.

100% completed:  I ended up transferring in kind my non-registered dividend stocks.  I did receive capital gains or losses (net capital gain for this year is only about $120) because I moved them when the markets dipped to near the purchase value of what I bought them as.

• (more…)

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