Avoid February Funk: Save Now For Fun Later

Well, here we are. The New Year isn’t so new anymore, Valentine’s Day is over, and we’re in the longest stretch of the year without a long weekend. Throw in some Canadian winter weather and… things might just sound a bit too gloomy. But fear not, Mogo-ites! This is a great time of year for a bit of planning. Get the jump on 2011 to make sure it’s the easiest year your finances have ever had! You know that saying, “save it for a rainy day”? Well, in this personal finance post, we’re going to tell you to try the opposite. We all know this is a great time of year for laying low and just catching a movie inside. Well what if you took that saving now, for some fun later? Here’s how to do it: What do you like to do? Figure that part out, and the rest is easy. For me, I’ve been dreaming about golfing all winter long. Right now, I can’t get out there on the weekend, so here’s my plan. Payday is the 15th, so I took out an amount that works for a day

Save $100 in 10 Minutes: Set Up Your 1st Automatic Savings Account

Want to save yourself $100 in 10 minutes? Sounds great, right? With this technique, literally 10 minutes of effort could save you $1200 over the year. With online banking, automating your cash is easy and effective. Almost every major online banking site in Canada offers you automatic cash transfers that you can set and forget. You can also check out ING Direct! How to Do it • Decide how much you want to save per month (let’s say $100). • Identify when you get paid (let’s say 1st and 15th of the month) • Log into your online banking • Set up the cash transfer to your savings account ($50 on the 2nd and $50 on the 16th). Most sites give you this option on the “Money Transfer” page • Let your cash slowly start saving **Why it Works ** Well, that was easy. All you needed to do was decide the savings level you could afford and make a quick note on your online banking. This is a massive mental step towards saving cash. That little bit of effort ensures that you will save some money each month. Even if you set the amounts for $10 or $20, it could be more than

Save Money On Eating Out – By Going To 2 Restaurants

Double the places you go… to save money? This concept works; trust me. Last weekend my brother-in-law recommended a fantastic restaurant to check out. It was Italian and had great reviews – we had to go. Before I took the Mrs. out, I went online to check out the menu (and pricing). I wanted to see how much to budget for this special meal and get an idea of what was on offer at this highly-hyped place. Looking through the menu, I realized that while the gourmet food was reasonably priced at about $17/main plate (including tax & tip), the wine and drinks were quite expensive. I took a look around the neighborhood and saw an opportunity for some savings while having a great night out. There was a bar next door that had a great Thursday night drink menu – packed with specials. If we extended the night to have a drink later, and only had water with dinner we could save a ton of cash and do more. Additionally we could skip the post-dinner coffee, in-restaurant, and either have an extra drink, save the cash or hit a coffee shop in the neighborhood. By checking out the menu earlier,

Cheap and Easy School Savings!

If sending the kids back to school is causing you a ton of stress worrying about all those school expenses, then here are some ideas to help you prepare for the expenses and save yourself some money in the process. 1)     The school envelope – Grab an envelope and start stashing money in it. This is your emergency backup for the times that you forget to pack a lunch or withdraw the lunch money. It’s also a life-saver when your child appears the morning of a field trip with a permission slip and a need for cash. 2)     Ask the school about financial assistance programs – Ok, so it can be a bit embarrassing to ask for reduced tuition, lunch waivers or fee waivers, but if you qualify, why not do it? Use the money that you save to provide for your family in other ways – rather than padding your pride. Been there, done that. 3)     Talk to your child’s teachers – Ask them what expenses to plan for. How many field trips will your child take this year? What opportunities will be available to your child later in the year? Teachers plan for these things well in advance and they

Save $5 Per Paycheque and Get Big Rewards!

What would you do if I handed you $130 right now? No conditions, no interest; it’s all yours. Would you pay a bill with it? Go out to dinner and celebrate? Throw it on your bed and roll around in it? What if I told you that if you wanted that $130 dollars you had to save it instead? Arrgh, that’s not nearly as much fun, right? Everyone knows that saving anything is hard. How can you do that when you have bills to pay, groceries to buy, and expenses that pop up out of nowhere? You’d want the money though – who wouldn’t? So, reach out and take it. It’s a fun little concept called “Pay yourself first”. You work hard every day. Wouldn’t you say that you are worth at least five dollars a check? You wouldn’t let bill collectors rob you of your last five dollars, so why do it to yourself? If you get paid every two weeks, and you stick $5 in the bank (or an envelope) each paycheck, that’s exactly what you’ll have in a year: $130. Your $130. No one else’s. Yours to play