After recently getting my first dog, I quickly learned that buying supplies for the dog or cat in your life can get very expensive! Like many pet owners, shortly after picking our new puppy up we headed straight to Petsmart for some basic supplies. While some of their prices were very competitive and good, many of the prices seemed quite ridiculous. Who knew a cheap looking chew toy could cost as much as $15! I couldn’t accept that this was a normal cost for these types of items so decided to start comparing prices from other places that I knew had pet supplies. Doing so, I quickly learned that prices from one pet store to another can fluctuate quite drastically. I couldn’t believe that one store could charge $10 for a dog toy, then just down the street it would be half the price. This lead me to try to find several places where you could buy pet toys, accessories, beds and even food for the lowest price without sacrificing on quality.

This article is a work in progress as I continue to explore new places. I also realize I am not the only person who knows where the best deals are and need your help, so if you have any suggestions of stores, please leave them in the comment section below. Here are the stores that I have discovered where you can buy things for your dog or cat at much lower prices in Canada: Continue Reading »

The holiday season, Christmas in particular, can be one of the most expensive times of the year for people. According to Bank of Montreal, Canadians are expected to spend $1610 this holiday season which is up approximately 15% from $1397 in 2011. These numbers may sound extremely high, but the numbers actually consist of 4 different categories: Gifts, Trips, Entertaining and Other. Since most people are really bad when it comes to saving money, often people are putting themselves into debt to have an enjoyable holiday season. Instead of paying cash, many of these purchases wind up on credit card statements in the New Year.

To help minimize the blow of your January credit card statement, I have written a guide to show ways you can save money on while having a cheap, enjoyable holiday season.

If you don’t celebrate Christmas simply substitute the word “Christmas” in this article with the holiday of your choosing (ie. Hanukkah, Diwali, Kwanza, etc.).

Cheap Christmas Present Ideas

Clothing – When it comes to clothes, most people look at the brand to figure out how much it is worth. To find good brands cheaper you can look online (ebay/kijiji – watch out for fakes!!), factory outlets (as mentioned above) and even stores like Winners that focuses on name brands for less.

House & Home – If you are buying for someone that doesn’t still live with their parents, chances are they will like nice things for around their home. If they like to cook, buy them something for their kitchen or dining room. There are so many options that don’t have to cost a lot of money. For appliances I suggest looking for warehouse sales or buying online at sites like Amazon. When I furnished my condo I found Amazon had the best prices. For other house and home gifts try Homesense, Winners and Walmart.

Alcohol – Booze is a great gift and is a good way to get away with spending very little on something most people will love. For example, a good bottle of wine can be found without a problem in the $20 range. Continue Reading »

Nowadays everyone seems to have a cell phone. I see plenty of young kids and even multiple homeless people chatting away on their mobile phones every day! My biggest complaint as a Canadian cell phone user is we get ripped off when compared to our neighbours in the USA, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. It seems as though the big 3 providers here (Rogers, Bell & Telus) have teamed up to control pricing so that we pay very high rates. Fortunately, we don’t have to! I have decided to write this article to share some of the ways Canadians can get their monthly rates to a more manageable level.

Pick Your Cellphone

iPhone – If your phone of choice is the iPhone unfortunately your saving potential drops quite significantly. You will only be able to use this phone with the big 3 providers and will therefore have to pay their rates. Luckily, there are some things you can do to lower the monthly cost but I will cover this in a dedicated section for your provider below.

Anything Else – If you aren’t as picky with your phone, you have a lot more options! In the past few years, 3 new companies have arrived to the Canadian mobile scene; Wind, Public Mobile and Mobilicity. Unlike the big 3, Wind, Public Mobile and Mobilicty all offer plans where you can get unlimited everything from as low as $40 per month. A comparable plan using any of the big 3’s posted rates would cost well over $100! Unfortunately there are some downsides to these companies. Unless you live in a large Canadian city, chances are you will not have the option to use their services as their towers are only set up in bigger cities. Lastly, their data speeds are often slower than those of the big 3. When it comes to saving money on your cell phone bill, you will quickly realize that you need to give up some things to get a real savings so it really just matters what things are most important to you.
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When it came to furnishing my condo, I quickly discovered that furniture in Toronto is not cheap! There are many stores in this city where you can walk in and easily spend over $10,000 just to furnish a single room! Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that expensive. There are lots of great places to find items that won’t break the bank.

One thing that I would like to be clear on before listing any places in this article is unfortunately when it comes to shopping for furniture, price often reflects the quality. There are several stores that you can buy things very cheap but the product won’t last more than a few years. My goal with this article is not just to find the cheapest furniture, but list places where you can get the best bang for your buck!

I have spent countless hours going to many of the furniture stores in Toronto and decided to put together a list of some of my favourite furniture shops where you can get the best value. For example, just recently I have been looking to buy a new chair for my den and since I have started I have visited well over 30 different stores! Here are some of my favourite places to look for cheap furniture in Toronto (in order of cheapest to less cheap): Continue Reading »

Last week I was invited to attend a launch party for Alberta Permium‘s new premium product: Dark Horse. At first I was a little hesitent because I had never been a huge fan of rye whisky or scotch. I found them to lack in flavour, burn going down and they often caused me to get bad heartburn. That was until I tried Alberta Premium’s Dark Horse. The Dark Horse is the first whisky that I have tried that I actually really like!

The event was held at Turf Lounge, which is probably the nicest of the off-track betting locations in Ontario (and secretly one of my favourite spots downtown), and was organized by the great people at Praxis PR. The evening included a whisky tasting, gourmet dinner with whisky pairings and some horse betting. What more can you ask for!

Alberta Premium Dark Horse Event at Turf Lounge (Photo by: Zach Slootksy)

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