April Savings

It has been a long time since I added up all the savings and perks that I accumulate in a month.  We budget for almost everything we spend, sometimes things happen ...but hey that's life.
We are frugal, and baby that isn't glamorous!   It takes a lot of dedication and work to be frugal and save money. 
It takes work to do these things, but guess what? When you do these things, you save money, a lot of money, which helps you get and do the glamorous things you dream about.

Here we go:

Air Miles: 1785 Air Miles earned this month, set to cash and that's $180 dollars worth of stuff when I redeem.

Carrots: 88 Scene Points.  My phone has this app and it automatically collects points if I make my step goal for the day.  The points go to my Scene Card with ease as a set it and forget it, easy peasy!  There are sometimes surveys to complete.
Downloand the App Carrot Rewards  UserCode: meghand8753

More Scene Points: I went to the movies on cheap night. I had no idea it was only $6.39! I earned 100 Scene Points and paid $5 of it with a free Cineplex GC from purchasing Lindt chocolate bars.

Caddle:  $20 check came in the mail! Cash back from groceries and surveys, friend referrals
 https://caddle.ca/signup/referral/57f933eb86129

Swagbucks: Redeemed for a $10 Amazon Gift Card.  Using Swagbucks search engine, and answering surveys, and friend referrals
http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Donats

Ebates: $5 finally redeemed from online transactions.
 https://www.ebates.ca/referrer?referrerid=dmI00Ysp2yY%3D

Coupons: $43.50 worth of coupons this month

Canadian Tire Points : $9.90 from gas fillups, no effort required.  Each fill up receipt offers a survey code for instant win prizes, and instantly receive 2 cents off litre of gas coupon.  Saved $3.80 with surveys and instant savings per litre
Savings: $3.80 cash, and $9.90 in points 

PC Optimum Points: Redeemed $160 of points as cash off of groceries and earned 40,205 points for future redemptions
Savings:$160 cash, and $40 in points for the future

Best Western Rewards: We are hotel loyal.  My husband had work in the city for 3 days and we booked a hotel.   We earned 2850 points, (18-20 thousand is a free night) and 2 nights towards 10th night free.  Also received $20 Best Western instant Reward Dollars for next stay, or food, or pool passes.  The reservation was made through ebates.ca   When I arrived at the hotel I asked if they have a CAA or government rate and my rate was reduced $22.50 each night!  $45 in total for just asking!  A few days after my stay I received an email to fill out a fast survey for bonus reward points.
Savings: $45 cash, $20 towards future stays plus points

Toyota: $10 off.  Our car needed an MVI and when I purchased the car 2 years ago (used of course!) we got a
business card with coupon stickers for various services.
Savings:$10

Neptune Theatre: The girls and I went to see Mama Mia, it was fabulous! When I called for the tickets, I asked if they offer discounts for CAA or government, they did and saved $9 on each kid ticket and $25 on mine.
Savings: $43

Total:$344.50 dollars plus lots of loyalty reward points that will be redeemed and counted in future month summaries!
Guess what? The $344.50 was flipped over into our vacation fund for future fun!

Join Guess Who's Cheap on Facebook, and on Amazon A Penny Saved is a Mortgage Paid, and A Guide to Collecting Air Miles in Canada

https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_7?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+penny+saved+is+a+mortgage+paid&sprefix=a+penny%2Caps%2C206&crid=R06CXF8JG0RF

https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_15?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+guide+to+collecting+air+miles+in+canada&sprefix=a+guide+to+coll%2Caps%2C211&crid=2BS1C1GT9OM2G&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aa+guide+to+collecting+air+miles+in+canada

Maximize Your Points

Well, what a great day for points! I had my list of items that I wanted to buy this morning at Super Store.
This week there is an offer on IOGO Protein yogurt for 2000 bonus  points with the purchase of 2.   There is also a coupon for 75 cents off each purchase.  Yogurt often has the magical pink stickers, you know the ones that make items half price. $3.99 is the original price. I went to the clearance section of the store first and found lots of pink sticker yogurt!
I often am asked if coupons can be used on marked down items and the answer is yes! Maximize this with your personal offers and with the offers in the flyers.
I purchased yogurt and cucumbers and a few packages of blueberries.  
I redeemed $20 worth of points and put the $20 in my vacation fund. After reading about more points stolen from the Pc Optimum I have decided to redeem the points in my account. I paid $2.50 and earned $8.90 back in points!

In summary, try to use coupons on pink sticker items, and if it is a Caddle or CO51 offer or points in your offers EXTRA BONUS!

Free Movies

Who doesn’t love a movie? Going to the theatre isn’t something  we do often, but we always have fun when we do.

Saturday mornings select theatres off family movies for $2.99. Unfortunately, the theatre in my town isn’t on the list. 

Last weekend we were away for the weekend while my husband was taking a course. I was looking for fun activities to do and around midnight remembered this deal.   Around the same time I was playing on my phone checking out my Air Miles status and this freebie promo came across my screen.

Simple steps lead to a free movie! 

I logged into my Air Miles account, and entered my pin and then email address.  

Instantly an email came with pins and each pin was for a free ticket to a family favourite show.  

Then I logged into cineplex.com and entered which theatre and they emailed me a PDF for theatre pick up. 

Just like that 3 movie tickets and an hour and a half of free entertainment. 

Join Guess Who’s Cheap on Facebook 

April Budget Challenge

It’s close to supper time, and by now I have experienced 2 sugar crashes.

Don’t crash your budget for this month!

Get out your envelopes and start stuffing with the money you need for your budget.

I use the same envelopes until they fall apart.  I record on them how much I need for the month.  Some months I don’t need every envelope and some months I need to add some envelopes.  This month dance and gymnastics money is due for the kids, sigh.    Even though the fee stings, I a, prepared.

This month I am going to challenge everyone to shave $50 off of the April budget.  Throw it in your debt.   

I am going on a vacation and would like to save up some spending money. That’s my goal until June.

Let’s see who has $50 leftover from their envelopes at the end of the month

Comment and share how you did it.  I look forward to hearing the tips.

Good Luck 

Priority Pass

I took advantage of an offer exclusive to World Elite Master Card holders yesterday, and will never look back again!

Priority Pass Lounges are something that I have seen at airports when I travel, but I never knew how to get inside.

Last year, before a trip to New York I had phoned Master Card to ask questions about traveling outside of the country. I was told about the insurance that was available to me, and also that I was able to gain access for myself and a guest to the Priority Pass Lounges.

Inside the lounge are comfortable chairs and sofas. That alone was worth using the Priority Lounge. If you don't have access to the lounge card, you can pay a walk in fee which varies from $25-$50 depending on the airport and services. There was a bar with free drinks, and a small fee for the premium beverages. Coffee, tea, pop and bottled water was also available. Since you are through security, you can take it right onto the plane with you. There were also sandwiches, veggies and desserts along with WIFI. Some lounges also offer a shower and hot meals. 

Despite me being cheap and frugal, after this airport experience at the Priority Pass I would go out on a limb and suggest it is even worth the fee to sit in the Priority Lounge vs purchasing a meal at the airport and waiting for flights. 

A list of all available lounges can be found at https://www.prioritypass.com/ 

If you recall from last year's blog, my flight was cancelled and I ended up paying $500 Canadian for one night of accommodations at JFK airport. When I returned home, I was reimbursed. The great free travel insurance is another great perk.

March Budget

Here it is March 4th and I haven’t written my budget up for this month yet, oops.
Don’t worry it takes a few months to figure out how much you actually spend on the categories.   Look through your debit and credit card statements to add up your average in each category.

Sit down and make a quick list of everything that you will spend money on this month.  Your budget changes month to month but some things can be carried over.  
Some items carry from month to month depending on the need and bill cycle.
Here is a list of my categories:

Emergency fund ( 3-6months of expenses if you don’t have this started)
Dental procedure
Glasses
Clothes (this one builds up)
Gas
Car repairs, or new car fund ( if you plan to buy a car in the next bit let this build up. We just bought a car but will continue here to save for tires and services)
Power bill
Internet
Cell phone
Groceries ( this includes stock pile, end of the month I build on pantry items)
Restaurant (eating out)
Property taxes ( this builds up we pay annually)
Tax Free Savings Account
RESP
Parking at airport
Cleaning
Kid activities ( 2 activities need to be paid after March break)

OTHER CATEGORIES
Housing (mortgage, rent)
Car payment
Medical/dental plan

Miles vs Time

Oh my oh my!  I have always collected Air Miles.  Hell, I even wrote a book about collecting Air Miles (link posted below).  Until two years ago, my Air Miles were always collected in the Cash Miles option.  We would redeem our Air Miles every 95 Air Miles to save $10 off at Sobeys for groceries or at Shell for gas.  Then we would take that $10 and plop it on our mortgage as an extra payment. Slow and steady wins the race.

The flights I have explored for redeeming have been short haul flights. Any of the weekends that I have explored to take a flight to NYC or Boston, there was always a layover to the destination.
I was flexible and tried a lot of Friday to Sunday options, as well as late Thursday evenings and none worked for me.
 When I only have a short amount of time to travel, I find it worth my time and money to buy the direct flight for the under $500 return trip, then redeem Air Miles and pay the $145 taxes and fees. There is a point when I need to determine miles vs time.

Fast Forward to present day.  I cashed out Air Miles in July for a trip for 2 to an all inclusive vacation in Punta Cana.  Our flights have been changed 4 times.  The first change was leaving 2 hours later to arrive in Punta Cana.  The next two changes were by 10 minutes only.  And the last change was 2 hours later leaving Punta Cana. I am grateful because the trip is to an all inclusive and no plans are booked when we arrive so nothing is time sensitive. And I do have a free trip that cost me 23000 Air Miles and only $900

Our other trip is booked for the end of June to Orlando.  I know direct flights aren’t an option. This time of year so I was prepared for a milk run.  I got a call that the trip to Orlando was also getting its 4th flight change, this time a layover in a whole different city. AND arrives 2 .5 hours later!!!! This changes my plans in Orlando. We have plans the day we arrive and some changes needed to be made.

The customer service rep told me this happens all the time with travel plans.  I have not traveled a lot, but at least one flight vacation a year. I have never had this happen with paid flights. Have I always been lucky, or is this an issue when flying with points?  I have been told by many it only happens with points. Please share your comments.

I feel close to done with collecting air miles aggressively.  I will continue to use my card but I do plan to try to be more aware with my collecting. I am debating to now put my air miles options to cash miles, and save the miles to redeem for gas etc and bank up the cash since flights are so challenging in my experience. 

I did redeem Air Miles 2 weeks ago for 4 passes to Universal Studios.  This saved us over $1100 US dollars and cost 14400 Air Miles.  Perhaps saving for merchandise only is another avenue I will explore, and also less hassle.

What have been your experiences?


https://www.amazon.ca/Guide-Collecting-Air-Miles-Canada-ebook/dp/B07169ZK5R/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519504128&sr=8-1&keywords=a+guide+to+collecting+air+miles+in+canada&dpID=51LAp7sNrfL&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=srch