September Budget... Kid Activities

I don't know about you, but September always feels like the start of a new year.  Kids off to school and the beginning of new routines.
Which leads me to the kid activities!  We have two kids that are now 7 and 9 and boy are they busy!  I always say that we are cutting down the activities that they sign up for but something always sneaks in.
Today it was gymnastics.  Now there is an activity for the girls Monday to Thursday which lead to some hefty up front fees. OUCH!
We have an envelope in our cash budget system labelled Kid Activities.  Original eh? Each month we put a set amount of money in the envelope for the kids. Let's face it, they always want to do something.  Gymnastics and dance is paid for based on term, no more fees until the real new year.  Guides and Brownies is paid for in June for the year. But wait, there is a weekly dues. I always write a cheque and pay them for the year to keep it in the budget while also not relying on my bad memory as we are rushing out the door.
Even though all activities are allotted their money for the fall activities, the key is to keep saving. Keep adding to the envelope to build up the fund for the next round.
September also means back to school and after school child care for some.  Count these items in your budget. You may even start an envelope system too!
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Rising Price of Gas

The price of gas is one of those things that will always be a thorn in our side.  Let's be honest we spend a lot of money at the pump.
There are some things that you can do to make the price a bit more easily to handle.
I buy gift cards at Sobeys when they have the promotion buy $200 in gift cards and receive 95 or 100 Bonus Air Miles.
Sobeys gift cards can be used directly at Shell locations that have a Needs.
I prefer Shell as my primary gas station since I get air miles, and a bonus large hot beverage with each fill up.  I try to fill up on Thursdays, as gas changes during the night Thursday.  I watch the trend to see if going up or down.  I tend to fill up in the morning and have a French Vanilla as my pre work treat.

Perhaps Shell isn't your favorite gas station. Find a loyalty card and make it work for you. This summer I went to Irving a lot to get air miles and the game pieces to win prizes.  I bought my Irving gift cards at Lawtons and Sobeys and paid with my Sobeys gift card. This process collects your air miles twice.
Other gas stations offer loyalty programs
Petro Canada has Petro Points
Esso has Aeroplan Miles
Ultramer has their own fuel program ( I don't know anything about this program)
Sobeys Fuel locations Air Miles, and a coupon to use at Sobeys AND sometimes free coffee this is the fill up lotto win

The trick is find a gas station near your house with a loyalty program you like and start collecting.

BUT THERE ARE OTHER WAYS I CUT DOWN ON FUEL FEES
I drive a smaller car. I drive a Toyota Corolla
I drive a standard
I put my car in neutral a lot when driving and coast
I unplug the phone charger when I am not using it
I keep the sunroof open and windows open vs the air conditioner for in town driving, unless its unbearable, I'm cheap but not that cheap!
I try to plan my outings to do them all in one trip. I really suck at this though, and need a lot of work on it.
I keep my car serviced for the regular maintenance
My husband checks the tire pressure regularly

What tricks do you do to help with the gas prices?
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Want to Make Some Money?

I am sure if you could were offered some extra money you would be excited!   It is hard when working full time to get extra money, and being creative is the only way!
I do online surveys regularly to earn money.  

SWAGBUCKS
I LOVE THIS SITE!
http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Donats    Click on this link to join Swag Bucks.  I will receive bonus Swag Bucks and you will also. Please PM me or comment below if you joined so I can watch for the bonus bucks.  I get about 10 to 15 dollars worth of Amazon.ca gift cards a year, worth it to me.
I have made Swagbucks a search tool on my computer. I earn between 10 and 20 Swagbucks a day just from my regular internet usage.  On the left hand side of the swagbucks home page there is a menu, click on ANSWER.  There is a daily poll that gives 1 swagbuck daily, and many surveys to answer while watching TV. I often forget about the ANSWER menu and go through phases where I don't use this site for weeks, but still earn with internet use.
It's August, and I just redeemed today for $10 in Amazon gift cards. There was a sale today to redeem for $10 for 875 Swag Bucks.  Daily price for $10 is 1000 Swag Bucks, watch for the sales. 

  https://legerweb.com/SJJ39 Copy this link in a new browser. ....this is an online survey site. Get in touch with me and we each get $1 on your first survey that's completed. Let me know when you do it, so I can watch for it. Once you have $20 in your account you get a cheque mailed out to you. I do the surveys while watching tv, they don't take long. I get about $40 a year, worth it to me! You can choose to have Air Miles on this site vs the cash. I love air miles, but I am aware of the cost per unit. The money is better bang for your buck, (pun intended)

CADDLE APP
This App can be used on any phone.  There are surveys to fill out that are less than a minute. Also when you buy items you take a picture of your receipt and upload it to this App. When you have $20 sitting in your Caddle account, cash out for a cheque! Click on the link below, we each earn $1 
https://caddle.ca/signup/referral/57f933eb86129

CHECKOUT 51
This is an APP for your phone or IPAD.  Every Thursday you get a list of items that you buy at the grocery store or at Walmart that offers a money back option. When you buy the item, you take a picture of your receipt through the APP and follow the step by step directions.  When you receive $20 you can cash out.
I have two accounts to CHECKOUT 51.  There are often limits to what can be claimed. With 2 accounts I can collect faster.  If you are having 2 accounts, make sure your items are on a separate receipt.

 GROUPON

Click on this referral link and I will earn $10. Trust me this site is amazing!!  Create your account and make sure you sign up to get their daily emails. I have gotten deals on restaurants, hotels and admission to activities.  I use it to get tourist attractions when visiting other cities also. Explore my blog for my GROUPON post or click

 http://guesswhoscheap.blogspot.ca/2017/05/groupona-new-trick.html 

I always cash out when I hit the amount. You are able to keep collecting, but I am paranoid. There was an App a few years ago that went belly up and we lost the money collected.

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Yummy Candy

First, thanks for everyone's patience. I haven't been able to add pictures on my blog for a while, and I  have been frustrated. Finally, I have figured it out.
If you have recently purchased the skittles that are now out there are many things to do with them.  In stores Skittles and M and M's have a blue cineplex logo on selected packages. When you collect 8 packages, you redeem the codes online for 2 movie passes to be used at Cineplex. Just log online to purchase your tickets, and voila! I have bought some packages for $2 and some for $2.22 a bag during the past two weeks. I have a lot of candy here! The down fall is to insert the codes all the packages need to be opened.  I store them in large glass jars. As you can see, my frugal ways also are used in my canisters. These are old Nescafe Instant Coffee Jars that have been my canisters since 2001!
I then went to the Dollarama where they have loot bags in a great cone shape. 
I have filled up a few of them to be birthday gifts. I have attached a Movie Pass with the bag of Skittles to be the gift. Voila!
Last year ( I will also do it this year) these were stocking stuffers for my kids. I put a bag of candy in their stocking along with the print out ticket to the movie from the redeemed code. For the $16 plus tax my two kids get a trip to the movies, and candy.
I also keep a jar on my desk at work. 

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Coupons...here it is....

I teach a coupon and money saving class. I work in small groups or one on one about places to get coupons, and how I make loyalty cards work well for my family. The money I make from them goes towards our debt, and you learn how to save. WIN WIN!  I am going to list a few of my favorite coupon sites for you to get started. I am still available for the hour one on one coaching however. PM at guesswhoscheap@gmail.com

I suggest you create an email account just for coupons.  I suggested creating an email account with your name, and the word coupons. Then only coupons come to your email account are then coupon related.  I also suggest creating a FaceBook account for coupon searching. You can like all the products Face Book pages, and you will get notifications of coupons this way also.

I used to save roughly an average of $200 a month with coupons. Now that I have a massive stock pile I am saving about $100 a month in coupons.  What would you do with an extra $100?


healthyessentials.ca

gocoupons.ca

pgeveryday.ca

websaver.ca

zebracoupons.com   THIS IS MY LEAST FAV, THEY CHARGE FOR THE COUPONS

save.ca

smartsource.ca

groupon.com

walmart.ca

Take a piece of paper and track all your passwords, and mailing addresses. I have accounts registered for my father's house and my mother's to receive more coupons.

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All that glitters is not gold...maybe Onyx?

Yesterday I discovered that Air Miles is soon offering a new deal as of August 13 th Air Miles will be able to be used to buy travel vouchers that can be used at a transait travel agent, such as Marlin Travel, Sell Off Vacations, Trip Central, Thomas and Carson are the agencies I am aware of.
For every $100 in vouchers it will cost 909 Air Miles.   This is a wonderful deal for me.  I am a teacher and when I am able to travel I always experience black out dates.   I have been there and felt the frustration summers, Christmas to visit family, long weekends, nope nadda for availability.

I almost booked my vacation yesterday with my Miles and would have been left paying the taxes, airport fees etc outside of Miles using cash. Almost 980$ oop. And  it was great until the lady told me about this deal and it can be used to cover the taxes. AWESOME!!!

This may not appear to be a great deal to some, let me break down my logic.

Air Miles advertises that New York has flights for 1125 miles. Anytime I can fly its peak season but I spent some time playing with it for fun. I was not able to find flights to this point level but did find flights for 1463 miles which is awesome! The taxes is $143 still great deal, but none of these are direct flights. They stop in either Toronto, Montreal or Boston and are 5 to 7 hours flying time each way.  I bought a direct flight in May for $500 which was about 2 hours 15 minutes each way for a direct  flight for the low miles can be a challenge, and you need travel flexibility.  I prefer direct flights if the difference is $300 or less. When I'm on vacation I want to get to my destination quickly for more discovery time. If the price was more than $300 in difference  I will explore the shortest milk route for the lower price.
EQUATE DEALS WITH THE PRICE OF YOUR TIME

I have another exception. If you have a lot of time for your trip I encourage the lay overs and call and ask for a night lay over so you have time to explore a new city for just the cost of a hotel room. Now that's a great deal!

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Host a Party

We all have friends in direct sales, some of us may even be involved in direct sales.  There are a few companies that sell items I enjoy and I try to  figure out the best way to enjoy the product on a budget.  I recently discovered Epicure and how it is dummy proof for even me to cook with ease.
I asked my friend that is in this direct sales  company to let me know when a hostess special fits my wants list.
 EVERY DIRECT SALES COMPANY HAS HOSTESS SPECIALS, the perk for you to host a party.
Hosting the party was simple.  The direct sales consultant created a Facebook group with a catalogue link.     I invited everyone that I could think of to come over on a Friday night. That was it.
I picked up a bottle of wine, 2 boxes of crackers, a can of lemonade, bag of tostitos, and a bag of chips.   Because the party is food centered, the sales consultant brought dips and I just had to provide the dip pairings.
I spent less than $25 on these party supplies.
I earned 2 products for half price, and  $75 items in free products and 2 host specials.
If you are interested in  products from a direct sales marketing company, I suggest hosting a party to maximize frugal deals!

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