The Zellers coupon fiasco of last week ended with the company receiving more than a thousand comments on their Facebook page. The Cliff Notes version is that Zellers released an online coupon on their Facebook page that permitted one item per customer to be purchased at 50% off—and sale items were included. So the mattress pad I’ve been eying was 60% off, then 50% off of that price—a total steal of a deal.
In a Moneyville article posted last week, a writer did the math on why she thinks cloth diapers are more expensive than disposable. While cloth diapers are certainly not right for every family, they make the most financial sense if you launder them yourself.
In a recent blog post I wrote about how much you should be saving for your retirement. In it I mentioned the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP). Do you know how much CPP you’ll receive? It’s likely not as much as you expect.
Whether your home office is the head office of your business or your household, operating costs shouldn’t overwhelm you. Especially if you’re running a business, are a serious couponer or tending to a PTA commitment, office expenses can quickly get out of hand. Here are a few of my top tips for saving money in your home office.
I love my pantry. It’s not a decadent walk-in with custom shelving and natural light (that would be my dream pantry) but I’m very happy with it all the same. Sure, it’s small, and I wish the door would shut itself (the kids leave the door to it open approximately four thousand times a day), but all in all, my pantry is perfect.
I read a great blog post recently about how there’s a jealousy of a different kind when it comes to spending. Instead of feeling bad because you’re not making enough or spending enough to keep up with the Joneses, you might feel bad because you’re not spending less and bring more frugal like the Smiths!
In case you didn’t click over to read the blog, I’ve quoted my favourites bits, here:
When you write about money, you can be a bit of a mood killer at parties. People I talk to assume that just because I strive to be frugal and make smart choices with my money, that I never splurge on anything and only buy the lowest priced item available.
I’m not a fan of spring cleaning my house. I hate washing windows, touching up paint, sorting through clothing and finding the sun hats I bought on clearance last August. However, I love spring cleaning our financials!
Each year around this time I review our spending in key household categories such as entertainment, groceries and utilities. I decide where a little trimming is in order, and where more regular attention is needed.
Here are some spring cleaning ideas for your household this month:
I admit it. I love money. I love making it, talking about it, investing it, and yes, spending it. I think spending money is actually my favourite thing to do, next to writing about it. And write about it I do. I write financial guides. My first was a financial guide for college and university students called Sink or Swim: Get Your Degree Without Drowning in Debt. It took me seven years to write the next one, as three children and a business absorbed my attention. Money Smart Mom: Financially Fit Parenting hit the shelves in 2010.
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Sarah Deveau’s first memory of saving up to buy something she really, really wanted was at age five, when she saved her allowance and birthday money for six months to buy a mini waterbed for her Cabbage Patch doll. She’s been in love with money every since; making it, spending it, and saving it too.
The author of two personal finance books, Money Smart Mom: Financially Fit Parenting, and Sink or Swim: Get Your Degree Without Drowning in Debt, Sarah’s work has also appeared in Today’s Parent magazine, the Calgary Herald, and other newspapers and magazines across Canada.
Shortly after her first daughter was born, Sarah opened her own business, an award-winning children’s consignment boutique in Airdrie, Alberta. But once daughters two and three came along, she closed her store to invest in a lakeside farmhouse on 40 acres in rural Nova Scotia. Sarah and her high school sweetheart husband plan to move east within the next ten years and semi-retire before the kids hit high school, made possible by the everyday money decisions they’re making now.
Whatever your financial goals, be it a vacation home, college savings for the kids, or getting out of debt and stop cringing at credit card statements, this blog is for you.
Follow Sarah on Twitter: @SarahDeveau
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