Not really, I don't eat either, and I only eat dark chocolate. I thought the sprinkles were to put on cappaccino.

ehhhhh, marmite and oxo yuck. my mum used to make us drink it

any way hello, we live near westmount shopping centre in edmonton, been here since feb, cant wait for snow again.

we dont need to be very frugal but still find ourselves doing it automatically, it must be ingrained.

we all need treats tho and ive found using the packets for making your own bread, rolls, muffins very cheap. a great dutch one as well makes loaves and cinnamon cakes.
we all know a doughnut or muffin from tim hortons is hard to resist, so these are a nice change and ur son will love to help.
well done to hubby for giving up smoking, what a man.

President's Choice, as mentioned: all the Superstores around here have PC bank offices just inside the front door.

No fees, high interest rate on savings (>$1000), and you build up grocery points when you buy stuff on the credit card that save you money in the Superstore. Best deal I could find for banks over here.

Thanks Mark and to the others who had also explained.

use non bio laundry powder instead of dishwasher tablets - its the same stuff & you'll save a fortune!

Thanks all - great ideas - Dutch woman aside

If we could just save an extra $200 a month it would make all the difference - and I think we can get there with some of these. Cheers

President's Choice

Credit unions can also be good financial services as well. In BC, there is one called Coast Capital Savings and it is one of the best places I've dealt with - friendly staff, quick and helpful service and they actually treat you as a person! It has a no fee account and a credit card that can be had for as little as 11.4%. I noticed that PC's credit card rate is usually 19.9% . I imagine all over Canada there are various credit unions that are as competitive as banks and as easily accessible through an ATM using the Exchange symbol.

If you do join Costco, shop with a friend and see if they are willing to split half the goods with you, at least on some items because that can also save money.

Some very good tips on here!

Good God, if you are trying to be frugal the FIRST thing you do is dont run a balance on a credit card, then the interest rates are irrelevent. If you must spend more than you make some months, get a line of credit to pay off the balance.

When you say "no fee", is it really no fee, or do you have to keep a minimum balance? When I checked out credit unions the monthly fees were comparable to the main banks, and the minimum ballances to have them waived were a little higher if anything, which makes a difference if you have $1000 sitting in a no interest account that could be working for you elsewhere.

I agree, really the best way to be frugal that I have found is to buy things with cash. You set a budget for the week, in our case its $200, and then you hand over the money. When you run out you wait until your week starts again. If you have any left over then you put that in a pot until it makes an amount large enough to spend on a treat.

The $200 is for food, gas and all out of pocket expenses. Bills are paid with cheques.

Handing those notes over and seeing the amount in your purse dwindle really focuses the mind on spending.

I've been doing something similar to this since I retired a short while ago. We have no balance on credit cards, all bills are paid out of our chequing account, and we do everything else cash. Boy, a huge difference to when I was working and recklessly using the debit card - quite the eye-opener when you actually see the cash running out.

One more thing - someone mentioned the interest rate on credit cards. Don't forget you can negotiate the major ones down. My Mastercard is less than 10%, did that on a phone call some years back, just gave up a few air miles per purchase instead. Mind you, I've been careful never to carry a balance so it doesn't matter, but life has a habit of throwing expensive curveballs so you never know when you might need it.

But wouldn't a line of credit be a better solution than any credit card for such curveballs?

Pay with the CC to get the points / cashback, then pay that bill off with the LOC at a lower interest rate.


Paying cash is a great eye opener...but i just cant bring myself to give up the convenience of paying with the CC and reaping in the points, and hate carrying large amounts of cash. I guess I spent too long in the dingier bits of Leeds LS6 to feel comfortable carrying more than about 50 or 60 bucks around

I forgot to mention the Bulkbarn, a much cheaper way to by flour, rice, sugar, candy, dried fruits, herbs, pepper etc etc.

First of all, I wasn't advocating the use of a credit card at all. I was simply responding to the idea of frugality on the basis that credit cards had been mentioned in this thread and, since most people have one, if you do want to use it then choose one that's at least not as high as some - PC was highlighted so that's why I raised the rate comparison. Of course paying with cash is much better if you can. Pardon me for breathing!

And when I say 'no fee', it really is. No minimum balance, no hidden charges, definitely no fees. If anyone has a high balance in a savings account then they definitely should be looking at other types of investments which are not necessarily always with the main banks or credit unions.