To My Dear Readers....

Someone has figured out who I am. I do appreciate her tact for not publically outing me on the blog, however, as I've said before, when it's no longer anonymous, I'm out for the count.

And with a heavy heart, I have decided to shut down this blog as of tomorrow.

I will continue to read and follow you all in hopes of joining your journies and helping mine along the way.

Thanks for a great year.  I love you all.

In the meantime, I will leave my email open for a little longer if you'd like to chat : anonymouscanadiangirl {at}gmail {dot} com.


Hugs,

*Canadian Girl

The 'Perks' of Loyalty Programs.

In my {humble} opinion, it seems as though there are two distinct schools of thought on this: yay or nay, no ambiguity.

I personally refuse to pay for loyalty programs.  For instance, my Body Shop membership which would normally be $10/year costs me nothing if I use the card 3 or 4 times a year {which I do}.  I wouldn’t pay the $10 at the store – you want me to PAY YOU to come and shop in your store?  Two words for you: starts with F and ends with F!

One such program whose merits I was unsure of was PetSmart’s Pet Perks program.  This program doesn’t cost anything, but I wasn’t told an exact percentage of savings, nor exactly what I was to get out of being a member.  I was in PetSmart doing some doggie Christmas shopping {yeah, I dress my dog up…don’t judge} and remembered I was a member.  Figuring my bill would be high because of the 8 things I bought, which included doggie toothpaste and various items of clothing and toys, I handed over my Pet Perks card thinking nothing of it.  Low and behold, that card entitled me to a 40% savings. 

Yes, you read that right: 40%.  My bill went to $50.73 after tax to $30.40.  I can’t believe this.  I didn’t have to pay for it and just for patronizing your store, I get tremendous savings on things my dog needs wants anyway. 

Thank you PetSmart.  Perhaps other loyalty programs can take the hint and learn what it really means to attract and maintain a loyal customer base.

Feel freezies to share your loyalty stories {good or bad} below.  I’m sure we barganistas {or bargainistos…whatevs you fancy} would love to hear about it!

Hugs,

*Canadian Girl

Crocs. What a crock.

{I love a good pun in the morning, don't you?}

Comfort.  That’s what we all associate with Crocs, right?  NOT. {*insert Borat accent here* } 

I recently purchased {and returned} a pair of ‘dress Crocs’, which was in direct violation of any and all fashion rules I have. However, I was desperate for a comfortable, yet moderately attractive alternative to running shoes for my walk to work.  Whilest browsing about, I came across these puppies:

{click for larger...if you want}

BAD.  DO NOT BUY THEM.  Comfort my ass!  These not only gave me blisters, but gave off a farting sound while I walked.  I fart enough as it is.  I don’t need my feet doing it too! 

For those of you that swear by Crocs {and I hope don’t wear the ones with the big holes that attempt to look like clogs out of the house}, I commend you and congratulate you on your comfort.  I, however, will never wear them.  Alas, I’d much rather look good and be fart-free while getting blisters on my toes!

Hugs,

*Canadian Girl

Biz Etiquette/Budge Question.

Krystal over at Give Me Back My Five Bucks posted an interesting question on her Twitter the other day:  “Do u always give when ppl in the office are collecting $$ for wedding/retirement/bday/baby present? What if it's for someone u don't know?”.

This is something that I’m unsure of where the proper ‘etiquette’ lies.  What if you’re on a budget like me?  What if you don’t really know the person and wouldn’t buy a gift otherwise?  What if you simply don’t like him or her?  {so what, I’m a bitch.  Deal with it…} 

I always feel judged when going around to do this.  Now that I’ve switched to a smaller company, I don’t think it’ll be as big of an issue {that, and I’m far happier here and love everyone I work with…well almost everyone…}.  However, given that I’m still early on in my career, and though I don’t plan on leaving, you never know where life will take you, so I thought I’d go here to my public forum and ask what the proper etiquette would be.

How much is proper to give?  Should you feel obliged to ALWAYS contribute, or is it fair to just reserve the dollaz for those you like/are close with/are your boss?

Eff.  So many questions.

I’m seriously stumped.  Readers - throw me a bone please in the comments below!

Follow Krystal’s Twitter here.

Hugs,

*Canadian Girl

No Spend November.

I finally hit my no spend goal!!!  Woot woot!! 

14/12 for MoNovember. 

Too bad that with Christmas coming, it's going to be one spendy December!!


Hugs,

*Canadian Girl

November Numbers.

If you've been reading for a month or so, you'll remember from this post that I've been tracking all spending categories for the month of November.  I did some crunching yesterday, and here's what it looks like:

...perhaps I should quit drinking.  NEVER!  I loves me some wine. 

It's important to note that the $169 in the clothes/gifts category was for 2 gorgeous dresses for my bday/Christmas parties.  I have very few hot little dresses, so this was a treat to myself.  The transportation portion of my budget is hefty this month due to rising gas prices, and the 'beauty' category the same simply because I needed a hair-doing this month. 

I'm $22.41 in the red over my $400 budget.  I'm going to list a pair of sunglasses {Armani...big and round, so totes in style but too wide for my skinny, long face} on Kijiji/Craigslist to see if I can make up the shortfall.


Thank you all for your comments on my last post regarding moneyville.ca.  I'm glad as many of you find certain posts as useless as I do!


Hugs,

*Canadian Girl

Reading Moneyville.ca.

How many of you have been reading the new moneyville.ca site posted by the Toronto Star?  I know Krystal over @ Give Me Back My Five Bucks posts on the blog there frequently, however I tend to think she’s one of the few there with the experience and know-how to post insightful blogs that people can utilize and learn from.

I’m not trying to negate the fact that moms who post don’t know how to save a buck or stretch a family budget, I’m just simply noting that their tips and experience doesn’t really relate to the younger, internet and blog saavy readership that moneyville.ca attempts to capture.

Let’s dissect this post here from Adam Goodman.  Have a read thru, and I’ll bet you’re hard pressed to find any innovation whatsoever, or anything of true merit in his post.  It’s the same old dribble that we’re used to hearing.

The post starts with the title ‘How I Saved $7,000 Painlessly’.  Intriguing, no?  Who wouldn’t like a list of ways to save $7,000 without cramping their style too much?  WRONG.  The premise of his whole post for ‘painlessly’ saving $7,000 is this: you should pay yourself first before paying your debts. 

Hrm? Come again now?  He says in one of the last bits of his post that his savings account is $7,000.  However, he had student debt when he first graduated which he struggled to pay off.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather maintain a small emergency fund and use any excess ‘reserves’ to pay down that debt.  Unless my savings account has 12% interest, it’s not worth the trade-off.  That’s a few thousand {or even hundred…} dollars that could have been much better utilized.

He says it was painless to save the $7,000, but I think that when you muse over debt and are up at night thinking about money issues, it entirely negates the pain.

{Disclaimer: I’m all for an emergency fund, however I sure wasn’t socking away $100 per month when I was in major debt and wanted to get out.  I did it in small increments and stopped at $1,000.}

Let’s look at an example:

Using what Mr. Goodman professes, we’d be saving $100 per month for a year.  With a simple calculation of compound interest, that means we’d be making roughly $188 per year and growing our deposit to a mere $288.  I’m out of debt now, so $188 is great, but when I had big debts to pay, that $188 would’ve gone a long way! It’s not much when you consider a debt of $5,000 or more, where the monthly interest amounts to about half that total yearly savings.

For example, let’s take a calculation of someone who’d be in roughly $7,000 debt and it will take almost a year to pay off:

Without the $288 the debt payoff would look somewhat as follows, using a roughly 7.5% interest rate on the debt and it would be paid off at the beginning of June:  

With the $288 {applied to the last payment, considering it would take roughly a year to compound the interest – I know, I know, it’s JUST an illustration of a point, not what would be really earned in the time frame}, the debt is cleared almost an entire month earlier.  And this is without consideration of any snowballed funds towards the debt.  To me being clear of that debt a month earlier means far more than the $288 opportunity cost:

Moral of the story:  Adam Goodman, your ideas idea sucks.  Congratulations for being out of student debt.  But if you want to expand your horizons a little, think outside the box and create real savings tips.  Most normal people who are struggling on limited incomes and wanting to payoff debt can think of way better things to do with $100 per month.  Moneyville.ca – perhaps you should reconsider who you allow to blog on your site {not you, Krystal – you’re great} and ensure the blog is a real PF blog and not just some site where anyone with a savings account and a computer can post.

Feel free to share your opinions in the comments below.  But note, please, that any hateful comments will not be approved :)

Hugs,

*Canadian Girl