Call the Hotel

I have always booked my hotels through either Expedia, or on the website of the hotel, for example Best Western.com

In the past month I have booked 11 hotel nights for various dates.
I searched Expedia, and Hotel.com for a while, tracking the price.  Each time you search, make sure to delete your internet cookies.
After searching a Wyndham hotel, I phoned them directly. I told them the I was on Expedia, and want a cheaper price. I said, oh I am so old fashion I prefer talking to a person vs online.  She asked me if I like coffee, and if I would enjoy an upgraded executive room. After a minute of chatting, I said two beds is fine, I didn't want to pay an upgrade. The woman said, no upgrade fee, and I will beat the prices.  The price I was quoted was $400 US currency lower, and an upgrade!!!
Not every time has this worked, but it is worth the 6 minute phone call to try!


 

I Wrote a eBook!

I have been collecting Air Miles for years.  At first I started collecting them to help us get out of debt.  Now that we have the house as our only debt, we have switched our focus to a fun vacation.  In the past two and a half year we have collected 37,000 Air Miles. I have been asked many times to share my tips and tricks. I have shared many on this blog over the past year and a half but I wanted to write an in-depth guide.  This eBook is available on Amazon to purchase for $5.  Here is the link to purchase, copy and paste

https://www.amazon.ca/Guide-Collecting-Air-Miles-Canada-ebook/dp/B07169ZK5R/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1493139592&sr=8-5&keywords=air+miles

check your receipts

When I grocery shop I try to always watch the cash register as things get rung in. Today I am sleepy and wasn't paying attention. 
When my purchase was complete I checked my receipt and noticed that my strawberries weren't discounted the half off.  I turned around and got my $1.24 returned to me. 
To most, this isn't a big deal and they may have walked away. To me, I am committed to this Debt Free Journey and wanted the $1.24.
It is now in our change jar. At the end of this month it will be a deposit into our bank account with what ever money has accumulated. This will be towards an extra mortgage payment. 
Always check your receipts for these little things.
Also, if you notice you are charged the wrong price, go to customer service. You will receive the item for free if it is under $10 as the Scanning Code of Practice. If the item is over $10 you will receive a $10 discount.
Also there are sometimes survey codes. I have never won a survey, but I keep trying. 
CHECK YOUR RECEIPTS!
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Loose Change

There are things to do to save money that seem obvious, but many just don't do.  I found this water jug on the side of the road during fall clean up two years ago.  I had always wanted to fill one to the top with change to see how much money could be saved.  We throw all the change that came across our hands in this jug for 16 months. 
It can be tempting to buy a cute piggy bank for $10 but why spend money for a container to save money? 
One day I looked at it and thought it looked like too much money to keep in the house.  I was also curious just how much money we had saved up. 
I poured it all into a 4litre milk jug and it was almost to the brim. Not bad for 16 months.
It took us two hours to sort and roll the money.  We passed the time watching a movie, so it didn't feel that bad.
Go to your bank branch and ask them for change rollers. They will give them to you for free, no need to spend money at a store on things that can be given to you for free.
We counted it up and were surprised at the amount of money that accumulated. We have decided to save and every month take it to the bank to deposit. We now keep it in an empty juice container.  If you are comfortable having cash in your house, a 4l milk jug works great.  Happy savings!
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Freezer Inventory

Today I decided to attempt to tackle one of our deepfreezers. We have two, one we put all the prepared meals in, and the other is the dumping grounds.
I don't know about you, but going into my freezer is often a surprise, and a surprise that I actually have the items. Or worse, none of the items. A downfall of being a stockpiler is the assumption you always have items on hand. Today I discovered I was out of bread.
I threw everything out of the deepfreezer onto the floor. I brought over milk crates to help sort the items. 
I often grab veggies, fruit and ground beef from my deepfreezer. After I sorted the items, I grabbed large reusable bags and sorted on these 3 categories.  Then I put the randoms on top. As you can see, I have lots of treats. My daughter has a party this weekend, and icecream for the kids. I found a package of candycane bark from Costco that I had forgotten about that was a great surprise!
After taking inventory, I am now aware what I have in the house for food. There was more fruit then I realized which will help cut down on the upcoming weeks' food budget.
Now, get organizing the freezer and happy saving. Who else is cheap?
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CAA Discounts

I have realized that there are a lot of deals that I have been missing if I had used my CAA card.  I went through the list of all the deals posted on the CAA website that I would use. I hope that the list helps you out.

DINING
10% off Durty Nellys
10% off East Side Marios
10% off Hard Rock Cafe
10% off Jungle Jim
10% off Montanas
Free soft drink when you buy fries or poutine at New York Fries
15% off Ryan Duffys
2 can dine for $15.99 Swiss Chalet


ACCOMADATIONS
15% off Atlantica Resort Oak Island and Halifax
10% off Best Western
10% Cambridge Suites
5% off Delta
Hampton Inn has monthly specials
10% off regular rates at White Point
$20 off Sell Rate at Digby Pines
10% off Lord Nelson

ACTIVITIES
10% off Anne of Green Gables
$20 off Cirque Du Soleil
10% off Fisheries Museum entry and Gift Shop
$1 off Martimes Museum of Atlantic
Neptune Theatre random discounts
$3 off family pass Ross Farm
10% off Via Rail
$9 adult pass, $11 Kid Pack and kid pass$27.50 2 adult passes 2 drinks 1 popcorn for Cineplex, only available at a CAA office

Minimilist?

 This year I took on a HUGE endeavor, purging our house.  It took this long because I have touched every item we have, including all of the holiday boxes that are packed up.
As I touched each item, I asked myself if the item serves a purpose, or brings me joy.  If the answer to these questions was yes, it stayed, and if not, away it went. No item was safe. This is a great documentary I recommend if you are needing a little motivation. http://www.theminimalists.com/netflix/  
For those that have been following my blog for a while I sell a lot of items online. You can re-visit this here:
http://guesswhoscheap.blogspot.ca/2016/08/yard-sale-part-two.html
I posted a lot of my items on Facebook Buy and Sell Groups to sell.  It takes effort to take and post the picture, put on Facebook and answer questions but it helps out financially. It was a nice perk to earn some money as I was attempting to travel the road to being a minimalist. I have a goal to sell or save $5 a day.  By selling the items it helped a lot with making extra payments on our home mortgage.  Win Win.
I hate to admit this, but I have packed and priced up 21 boxes for a Yard Sale that I will be having this Spring.  Sadly, this doesn't include what I sold online. It has been a very lofty goal for me to be a minimalist and if you visit my house you may not notice that I have tried. But I see a difference and hey it is all about our own personal path.
I list things online to sell that is over $2 if I have similar items. Then if it doesn't sell it goes in a yard sale box, then lastly I take it to Value Village.  My girls are involved in Girl Guides, if they have their yard sale again this year all the unsold items will go there.
Good Luck to you if you choose this path, and if you have achieved this already I bow down in awe.   And the extra money, BONUS!
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