The Mogo Blog

2013 Christmas Spending Guide (A How-To Guide On Avoiding Spending Aftershock)

We are in the heart of spending season. Whether it’s a party, secret Santa, not-so-secret-Santa, flights, or stringing up lights on your house, there are a million and one ways to spend during December. In the lead up to the end of the year, there are some ways you can lock it down (Budgeting all year long, keeping careful track of all your purchases, re-gifting the double crockpot that Nana got you last year) but frankly, those are tough. They take a lot of work, and they’re not realistic when

CONTEST: Let us send Cookies from Cupid to your sweetheart!

As resident blogger, Alan, mentioned in his post earlier today [https://blog.mogo.ca/warning-valentines-day-is-only-19-days-away/] – Valentine’s day is just around the corner. So… Mogo wants to help you look like a total hero! The winner of our Cookies from Cupid [http://on.fb.me/xf3As6] contest will choose the lucky person they want to receive a basket of 3 dozen assorted cookies (including a heart-shaped one) from cookiegrams.com [http://www.cookiegrams.com]. And, if you choose yourself, we w

The Ideal Girl Gift Guide

Much as I don’t want to admit it, guys and gals do have different wants when it comes to the holiday season. There’s always overlap—you can’t count on us both wanting the newest gadget, most likely—but in general ladies have a wishlist that’s going to look different from the dude one. Let the record show: I’m no girly girl, so if that’s who you’re shopping for you may want to look elsewhere. I feel I’m a nice mix of feminine and practical, and so are most of my female friends, so the lady in yo

Give it Away, Give it Away Now: How to choose a Christmas charity

A few years back, my family and I got tired of the usual Yuletide* game: spending tonnes of bucks on stuff that your sister/mother/brother-in-law/grandma/dog might not even like but felt obligated to fuss over. Instead, we started to get creative. For my stepmom, for example, my sister and I bought a goat. No, not an actual goat (though that might help with some of the Christmas cleanup) but rather a goat that went to a family in Africa. It’s a program through Oxfam, and it’s a great way to see

Vancouver’s Best Holiday Markets

Like most people, I find it next to impossible to go to just one place and find everything on my Christmas list. My friends and family are all so different from one another that it can be super stressful to shop for them in a time-saving way. I’m also allergic to big box stores and shopping malls, which certainly doesn’t make the process easier. Or at least, that’s what I thought, until a friend dragged me to a Christmas Craft Fair. I admit that I was totally biased and unschooled, because in m