Loblaw's highest ROI activity

Loblaws has a really smart and effective strategy to drive store traffic - they offer a free cookie to each kid 12 and under.  Whenever I ask my 4-year old son if he wants to go to Loblaws with me, he usually replies with an enthusiastic "yes!".  Of course, when I go with him to get the free cookie, I usually end up with a shopping cart full of groceries that I would not have bought had I not gone to Loblaws that day.  Who would have thought that a cookie would be one of their highest ROI marketing activities?

Cheap date

Wow... tomorrow, couples in Toronto can go for a really cheap night out with these offers:

Milestones: Free Date Night, Order Any Meal and Your Date’s Meal is Free (April 27 Only)

Baskin Robbins: $0.31 Scoop Night on April 27th From 5PM to 10PM

Keeping tabs

I am such a sucker for deals.  Here are all the online deals that I've purchased over the past year.

Groupon: Laser Hair Removal (4 sessions) - $89

Wagjag: Family of 4 pass to Fantasy Fair ($55 value) - $20

Maddeal: Kids Active Zone weekday pass ($7 value) - free
Groupon: Crepe Delicious ($30 value) - $14
Teambuy: Limo to the airport ($85 value) - $29
Kijiji daily deals: Mani Pedi ($65 value) - $25

Saved some money today

My electricity bill was over $400 last month so I called my supplier, JustEnergy, and asked what rate I'm paying.  Turns out we're in a 5-year contract at 8.99 cents/KWH which doesn't expire until July 2012.  Considering the Time-Of-Use rates offered by Toronto Hydro are currently 5.1 - 9.9 cents/KWH, my contract doesn't look too good.  But the JustEnergy rep was really nice and proactively offered to lower my contract rate to 7.5 cent/KWH without extending my contract.  Pretty good for just making a phone call but, when my contract ends, I probably won't renew again.

Groupon and other similar sites

Use these links to sign up for these sites and I'll get $10 off when you make your first purchase!

Groupon

Wagjag

Deal of the day

Frutti di Bosco Tart Recipe

We usually buy this dessert, called Frutti di Bosco, from Longos. We really like it because the filling is very light because it's mainly berries, and it's not too sweet.  But over the years, Longos has increased the price of this dessert to ~$30 for a large tart so I decided to make it myself. I served it to our cell group at our New Year's Eve party - it was a hit!   Here's the recipe that I adapted from another site:

Crust:
9 tablespoons (4.5 oz) of butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
pinch of salt
2 cups flour
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tablespoon of cold milk or water

Cream together butter, sugar and salt. Then work in the flour, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice until it looks like course bread crumbs. Add the cold milk or water and gently work the mixture together until you have a ball of dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Grease a 9" tart pan with a removable bottom. Remove dough from the fridge and roll it out to line your tart pan. Poke holes in the bottom with a fork. Cover with plastic wrap again and put it back in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350F and bake the pastry for 12 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool crust.

Filling:
250 grams marscapone cheese
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
splash of marsala or brandy
1/4 cup of cream (or half and half)

Cream together marscapone, sugar, vanilla, and marsala or brandy. Add cream and wisk until light and fluffy. Pour filling into cooled crust and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Berry topping:
4 cups of fresh blackberrys, blueberries, and/or raspberries
1 tbsp icing sugar

Wash and dry berries completely. If the berries are not completely dry, the icing sugar will melt. Just before serving, gently pile fruit on top of the cream filling. Sift icing sugar all over the top of the tart. Enjoy!

money I don't spend

I wish there was a way to track money that I don't spend. I sometimes think about all the money I save because I don't have the following habits:

- drink coffee daily (~$2/day)
- drink alcohol regularly (~$50/month)
- smoke (~$100/month)
- use a diaper genie (~$10/month for the refills)
- subscribe to newspapers/magazines (~$15/month)
- have a data plan (~$20/month)
- shop all the time (?/month)
- have a zoo/science center/wonderland/ontario place membership (~$400/year)
- have a subscription to a theatre production (~$50/month)
- have a gym membership (~$30/month)
- have a premium cable package (~$50/month)
- have 2 cars (~$3000/year in maintenance, insurance, gas, parking)
- have hobbies/collections (?/month)

That's at least $10,000/year that I am saving! With all this money I save, we should be able to go on more vacations! If only it worked that way...

Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX

 

Just bought a Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX for my D40x on Kijiji. I've been wanting to get a fast prime lens for while now. This one is very compact and lightweight. I like being able to take pictures in low lighting situations without relying on the flash, especially for newborn pictures.

I did some test shots on my lovely orchids today. I love this new toy!

wifebeater

As I slowly begin to prepare for our daugher's arrival, I've been gathering things that I need/want either from friends or by looking out for good sales. One item that I've been thinking of buying are nursing tops to cover my "side fat" when nursing. I didn't use nursing tops with my son because my "side fat" problem wasn't as bad as it is now so my bebe au lait nursing cover was sufficient.

The only problem with nursing tops is that they are expensive and they look ugly. I don't want to get too many but I also don't want to wear the same thing over and over again. So anyway, I just found a great and cheap solution to this problem. In the men's section, they have summer tank tops or undershirts (aka wife-beater tanks) with wide arm holes. I just discovered that these can be worn between your nursing bra and regular top and when you need to nurse, you simply lift your regular top up, move the arm hole to reveal your breast and voila!, you get unobstructed access to the boob while "side fat" is completely covered.

I just bought a 3-pack of Hane's men's tanks today at Wal-Mart for $9 and it totally works. I'm going to tell all my breastfeeding friends.

Sew Good

 
 


I learned how to use a sewing machine from my Gr 8 Home Ec class and I didn't touch a sewing machine again until 3 years ago. To say that my sewing skills are limited is an understatement.

Three years ago, I decided to hem the drapes in my son's room. I went to my local drycleaner/alterations place and was shocked to find out that it would cost $50 to hem the drapes. So I decided to invest in a little $20 sewing machine from Canadian Tire and do it myself. Since then, with my limited sewing skills, not only have I hemmed the drapes, I have made an ottoman cover, cushion covers, duvet cover for my friend's son, 2 halloween costumes for my son, flaxseed heat pads, carry bag for my son's stroller's sun shade and rain cover, a cover for my breadmaker so it doesn't get dusty, and hemmed one pair of my husband's pants.

Today, I made a nursing pillow cover and a body pillow case for a friend of mine. The top picture is the nursing pillow "before" and the bottom picture is the nursing pillow and the body pillow "after". I'm sew impressed at myself!

dinner at Ikea

My son and I went to Ikea for dinner today. For $1.99, he had 5 meatballs, french fries, and a carton of 2% milk. Also for $1.99, I had a plate of penne with marinara sauce and a glass of water. You can't even buy the groceries for $4! We had a great time.

South St. Burger company

I'm part of this group called bzzagents. Periodically, they will send me samples and coupons to try out and then tell my friends about it. A few months ago, they sent me a $10 voucher and a bunch of buy one get one coupons for the South St Burger Company. Jeremy and I had tried it in the past and we didn't think it was that great so I was a bit hesitant on whether we would try it out again even with the coupons. Anyway, Jeremy went yesterday and he gave me a pretty good review of his burger, poutine made with NY fries, and milk shake. He said that it was better than the jetsun's burger that we had last week and one of the best high-end burgers he ever had. Granted, he had a $10 off coupon so if value = quality/price, he felt it was good value since he only paid $4 for his meal. Would he pay full price for heart-attack food? Time will tell.

Something borrowed...

With our son, we had friends who lent us all their baby gear. It worked out great because by the time we were done with the gear, they needed it back for their 2nd child. Here's a list of what we borrowed:
- bucket carseat
- bouncy chair
- exersaucer
- playmat
- bumbo chair
- infant bath tub
- baby bjorn
- hip hammock

other items that were donated to us:
- crib and mattress
- baby swing
- bassinet
- toys
- variety of clothes

thanks to all my friends with baby gear! Looking forward to borrowing all this stuff again!

2 minutes of research probably helped me save hundreds of dollars

My Direct Energy renewal form just came through the mail. I don't know anything about natural gas which is why I signed up with this guy that knocked on my door 5 years ago. However, i remember hearing the riterate.ca radio commercials with the tagline of "Those who get it, save" so I decided to take a minute to check out their rates vs what Direct Energy was offering me in the renewal letter. Turns out that Riterate.ca is cheaper than Direct Energy so I was going to cancel my Direct Energy contract and sign up with riterate.ca. Fortunately, I took another minute to find this thread on redflagdeals.ca. Based on the info posted on this thread, I also checked out energyshop.com which confirmed that riterate.ca was indeed the cheapest out of all the gas marketer rates but I also ended up checking out the Enbridge Gas distribution rates (the rate directly from the utility) and it turns out that their rate is almost 50% cheaper than the fixed rate that is offered by riterate.ca.

Net: I am cancelling my super-expensive-I-can't-believe-I-have-been-with-them-for-5-years contract with Direct Energy and going back to the variable Enbridge rate. At least I know (from my 1 minute of research) that Enbridge does not make profit from the price of the natural gas. They only profit from the delivery of natural gas which you have to pay regardless of which natural gas supplier you choose.

$30/month

We hardly ever watch TV so I called to cancel our cable now that the Olympics are over. This will save us $30/month. Last night, I turned on the TV to see if they have disconnected our cable yet and ended up wasting an hour watching Jeopardy and the Shopping Bags. Until they get around to disconnecting our service, I can still indulge in mind-numbing TV programming and waste my time so I don't waste my $30/month.

More personal financial planning advice

In addition to the Wealthy Barber, here are a few more personal financial planning tips that I have collected throughout the years.

1. When getting a mortgage, get a mortgage broker for the best mortgage rates.  Ask a friend or your realtor for a recommendation.  
2. Don't get mortgage insurance.  Mortgage insurance only covers your mortgage balance which decreases over time but the premium remains the same.  Instead, get enough life insurance to cover your mortgage balance and any other consumer debt that you may have.
3. Hold your rainy day fund in a TFSA so you don't have to pay tax on the interest you earn from your savings account.
4. If your annual income is above $73,689, a $1000 donation to a charitable organization actually only costs you $577.85 after the tax savings. 
5. File your income tax as soon as possible so you can get your tax refund back.  Filing it online will get you a faster refund than mailing it in.
6. Pay your credit card balances in full, on time, every month.
7. Get a no fee credit card that pays you back.  There are many options out there.  I use the PC Financial Mastercard because it works out to getting 1% cash back for groceries on every dollar I spend.  A lot of cash back cards says "Earn up to 1% cash back" which means it has a graduated cash back schedule so you don't get the full 1% cash back until you spend a certain amount of money.
8. Open a no-fee bank account.  The banks make too much money as it is.
9. Don't get suckered into group RESPs (i.e. Canadian Scholarship Trust or Heritage Education Funds).  They may have good sales pitches but I didn't like it mainly because they don't provide much flexibility if you have to miss payments. 

The Wealthy Barber

I think everyone should read "The Wealthy Barber" by David Chilton.  It's a book that discusses personal financial planning topics but through an easy-to-read fictional story.  Here are the lessons that I have learned:

1. Save 10% of your income with a monthly contribution into a mutual fund or some other investment vehicle.  Dollar cost averaging is your friend.
2. Everyone needs a will.  Get one done with a lawyer.  Keep a complete, up-to-date net worth statement and keep it with your will.
3. Get the right amount of life insurance to cover your mortgage, car loan, other consumer debts, funeral expenses, dependent's living expenses, childcare expenses, and children's future education costs.  Buy term life insurance and invest the difference.  If you don't have dependents, you don't need life insurance.  
4. Max out your RRSPs each year to save on income tax.  If you invest in equity, start converting them 5-7 years before retirement into guaranteed investment vehicles.
5. Home ownership is a good investment for most people.  Take a 5-year term, a 15 year amortization, and pay weekly if you can in order to pay down your mortgage as fast as possible.
6. A dollar saved is 2 dollars earned.  Thrift is a virtue.
7. Take advantage of income splitting by opening savings accounts in the name of the lower income earning spouse and contributing to a Spousal RRSP.
8. Get disability insurance.  If you are covered under a group plan, check to see if it's portable if you change jobs.
9. Invest in your child's education via an RESP to take advantage of the 20% government grant.  Start converting them to guaranteed vehicles about 3-5 years before your child needs the money.
10. Have an emergency fund of no more than $5000 and a line of credit that you can draw from if you really need it.
11. You don't have to worry about your day-to-day spending habits as much if your financial house is in order.