Found 66 posts tagged as "Shopping"
It wasn’t until, due to health reasons, I had to stop drinking coffee for four months that I really noticed just how much Canadians love their java. No joke; I got weekly invites out for – not tea, but coffee. Every morning, my Twitter feed was filled was happy tweets posted by people who were clearly enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee. It nearly drove me crazy! I’m not going to lie, of all the things I was asked to give up – and there were many, many things – coffee was without a doubt the most difficult. I’ve only recently been allowed to return to a semi-normal diet and, you guessed it, coffee was the first to return. Man, I missed it.
Canadian coffee consumption
The Canadian Coffee Association reports that 63 per cent of adult Canadians drink coffee on a daily basis. On average, Canadians consume more than 40 million cups of coffee per day. That’s an average of about 2.6 cups per person. Obviously, some will drink more than others, and some will drink none at all.
By volume, the Beverage Marketing Corporation says that coffee accounted for 16 per cent of all non-alcoholic beverage sales in 2008. According to Stats Canada, “Coffee competes with a variety of other non-alcoholic beverages including tea, soft drinks, energy drinks, milk and dairy beverages, fruit juices, bottled water, sports drinks, vegetable juices, soya beverages, hot chocolate, and low alcohol wine coolers and ciders.” In fact, in 2008, coffee and tea sales totaled $1.5 billion.
James Nevison has a thrifty eye for tasty wines. Nevison, The Province's wine columnist (they call him the 'Wine Guy') and a 10-year veteran of wine tasting, has a proven palate for pairing poultry with Pinot Gris.
These days Nevison wants you to enjoy the best wines for less money. With the help of his new app, Had a Glass, wine enthusiasts can take his top 100 wine list to the liquor store and pick a winner for well under $20. No more battling bottle labels and perusing point-based reviews. Nevison has scoured the shelves and has hand-picked the top buys across Canada.
The wine descriptions in Had a Glass are wittily written and easily read, and can be searched by price, country, wine type, food pairing, and occasion.
I asked Nevison to share his top tips for picking the perfect wine on a tight budget.
The Toronto Star published an interesting article earlier this week. The article on tipping practices in Toronto is bound to do more than raise a few eyebrows. Based on the feedback I received for a similar article on tipping, Is it acceptable to tip less (or not at all) in a bad economy?, I know that many people feel that the practice is unnecessary and resent having to do it at all.
According to the Star, a 20 per cent tip could become the new norm. Several Toronto restaurants have changed the automatic prompts on their handheld terminals to account for 20 per cent, rather than the industry standard of 15 per cent. It is their belief that a larger tip is warranted by the “outstanding service” they provide.
Taking the plunge into a more frugal lifestyle can save you a lot of money, if done right. Over the years I've seen a number of well-meaning cost-cutting Canucks take to thrift, only to damage their financial bottom lines and become miserable.
To keep you from becoming 'penny wise' and 'pound foolish', here are five frugal living mistakes even thrifty people make:
I’ve never questioned the price of alcohol sold by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). There’s no other alternative for purchasing booze in Ontario and, given the government monopoly, I’ve neglected to ask myself (or anyone else) why prices here are so high. And though I noticed that alcohol was much cheaper when I was in the United States for school, I never delved into the possible reasons for that. When the Auditor General began to scrutinize LCBO pricing policy, I became rather interested.
It turns out that a lot of people think we pay too much for booze, and that the LCBO is doing a pretty poor job (for many reasons). Oh, and the price of alcohol is going up. I bet you didn’t see that one coming.
Doing a little bit of research before plunking down your money on a product could save you a lot of cash, especially if the retailer boasts a price match or price adjustment policy.
With a price match, a retailer guarantees to match a competitor's advertised price for the exact item -- some even offer to beat the price by 5% to 10% if you ask nicely.
A price adjustment policy can be just as lucrative for savvy consumers. Let's say you buy an item and find it on sale at the same store (or find it for cheaper elsewhere) within the next 7 to 30 days -- the retailer will then refund you the difference, padding your pocket with some tidy savings.
Savings can be scored on a multitude of items with both price match and price adjustment policies. Everything from groceries to baby gear, and electronics to clothing -- even furniture can be bought for less by knowing the steps to savings success.
Here's how to do it:
If you’re anything like me, then you’ve been collecting Air Miles since you first got your card, but have never redeemed them for anything. Like me, you’re probably sitting on a very small fortune (I might even have enough to get a movie ticket and a small popcorn).
It seems Air Miles has very recently changed their rules. If you’re a collector, as of December 31st, 2011, you have 5 years to use your existing points. After that, unfortunately, they’ll expire (bye-bye free movie). As of New Year’s Day, reward miles are only valid for 5 years after they’re first posted.
Like most everyone else, I hit a Boxing Day sale just after Christmas. It was time to replace the giant box that we called a TV - it was taking up half of the living room! My partner and I found a modest sized TV at Future Shop; it was a steal at 50% off the retail price. When we got to the counter to pay, the price came to more than I had calculated in my head. I asked to see the receipt. Sure enough, there was an additional Environmental Handling Fee (EHF) of $25.
I asked about the additional cost and the salesperson simply shrugged. “It’s an automatic fee,” she said. “I can’t do anything about it.” I guess things had changed since I’d bought my last TV 15 years ago.
A while ago, I posted about a woman who tried to pay for her groceries in $32 worth of change. And now, I present to you a man who attempted to pay for his purchases with a far higher denomination – a $1,000,000 bill. As you might suspect, he was unsuccessful in his endeavor.
On November 17, 2011, Michael Anthony Fuller walked into a Walmart in North Carolina and went shopping. He gathered a vacuum cleaner and a microwave oven before heading to the cash. The cashier totaled his purchases at $476, and Fuller handed her a $1,000,000 bill. No, seriously.
Last week, my partner and I went to look at a camera at Future Shop. We decided that the time was right and that the deal was too good to pass up. When the salesperson went to ring the item through, she began her well-rehearsed spiel on extended warranties and what type of coverage we should purchase. She asked that with a purchase like this one, didn’t we want the added peace of mind?
My partner was sold. I wasn’t. I pulled him aside and told him that I thought the cost was unnecessary. After all, we’d both had fairly expensive cameras for years and have never had any problems. We battled it out for a bit, and then agreed that we would take the risk. The salesperson wasn’t impressed. She continued her spiel, explaining the enormous risk we were taking. At this point, I politely cut her off and asked her if we could deal with someone else. I had no intention of paying for an extended warranty, and it was clear that she wasn’t about to give up.
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