Open 24 Hrs — It’s always Time To Shop!

Okay, we get it, the econ­omy sucks. Every sin­gle day we are bom­barded with sto­ries of peo­ple los­ing their jobs, houses being repos­sessed and unhappy employ­ees because “in this kind of econ­omy, you don’t com­plain if you have a job in the first place”.

But at the same time, Christ­mas shop­ping is under­way in most parts of North Amer­ica and a lot of con­sumers took advan­tage of Black Fri­day and Cyber Mon­day deals.

So, how to not become poor in Canada? How to man­age your money smartly?

Here are ten use­ful tips.

Get famil­iar with local prod­ucts – Thanks to glob­al­iza­tion, new­com­ers to Canada will likely be famil­iar with some brands sold here. Yet, a lot will be totally new. I strongly rec­om­mend you to adapt to local brands and prod­ucts as soon as you can for two main rea­sons: first, for­eign brands and imported prod­ucts are typ­i­cally more expen­sive; sec­ond know­ing the prices of local prod­ucts will help you bud­get in the long run.

Pack your lunch – You can never go hun­gry in Canada. There are fast-foods, restau­rants, cafés and food courts every­where and grab­bing some­thing on the go is always easy—easier than pack­ing lunch, that is. But even though your daily $5 lunch may sounds cheap, it adds up. Besides, eat­ing out all the time isn’t usu­ally good for your waist­line. Do your­self a favour and pack your lunch most days of the week to save both money and time at the gym later on.

Use your credit card wisely – You will need a credit card sooner or later to build your credit his­tory, make online pur­chases etc. Credit cards are great finan­cial tools but learn to use them wisely, espe­cially if it’s your first one. Always pay the bal­ance in full at the end of the month, don’t apply for too many cards and track your spend­ing to avoid a big sur­prise when receiv­ing your monthly statement.

Use cash – Most Cana­dian pay with debit or their credit card because it’s very con­ve­nient. How­ever, bank fees can add up and it’s easy to lose track of how much you spend. A few years ago, I decided to with­draw a fixed sum every two weeks (usu­ally between $200 and $300) to pay for all of my pur­chases, minus gas and monthly bills. I def­i­nitely spend less this way and I always know exactly how much money I have left for these mis­cel­la­neous purchases.

Mon­i­tor your bank fees – Bank fees can really add up. For credit cards, com­pare their perks wisely: some are free while oth­ers have an annual fee (usu­ally between $30 and $100). It may be worth pay­ing the fee if the card offers inter­est­ing rewards. Oth­er­wise, stick with the cards with no annual fee. Make sure you select a bank­ing pack­age that fits your need: most banks offer up to ten trans­ac­tions at no fee and then charge about 50 cents for each trans­ac­tion. If you use debit a lot, pick a pack­age with unlim­ited trans­ac­tions. Finally, make sure to with­draw money at your bank’s ATMs, oth­er­wise a ser­vice charge may apply.

Con­sider shop­ping in the U.S. – Even though the US dol­lar and the Cana­dian dol­lar are almost at par, Cana­dian prices are some­times ridicu­lously higher than south of the bor­der. Typ­i­cal exam­ple: books. I usu­ally buy them from Amazon.com. Even after ship­ping fees, it works out to be cheaper than buy­ing them in Canada.

Resist social pres­sure – In North Amer­ica, con­sum­ing is almost seen as a patri­otic thing to do—yes, you’re help­ing the econ­omy! But for your wallet’s sake, learn to resist social pres­sure and mar­ket­ing tricks. For instance, the year is an unin­ter­rupted series of events to cel­e­brate: Thanks­giv­ing, Hal­loween, Christ­mas, Box­ing Day, Valentine’s Day, etc. You cer­tainly don’t have to splurge every time. Sim­i­larly, new needs are con­stantly cre­ated by mar­ket­ing cam­paign. For instance, while I encour­age new­com­ers to buy a warm win­ter coat, most of us liv­ing south of Nunavut do not need a $700 parka designed for Arc­tic expe­di­tions. Espe­cially if you live in Toronto.

Learn to nego­ti­ate – If you are a good cus­tomer, take advan­tage of it and nego­ti­ate. For instance, when I switched bank, I made sure the new bank waived all bank­ing fees for a year. It never hurts to ask for perks and spe­cial offers. Com­pe­ti­tion is stiff and good cus­tomers can some­times be rewarded.

Take advan­tage of reward cards – Before the pro­gram changed for the worse, I had a free Shop­per Opti­mum card and reg­u­larly got $5 or $10 off my pur­chases, with lit­tle to no efforts. I now have a Scene card and I reg­u­larly get free movie tick­ets just by using my debit card. Fig­ure out what reward pro­gram works for you and take advan­tage of the perks!

Do you have any money tips for new­com­ers to Canada? How do you save money here?

Related arti­cles:

1. How To Bank in Canada (4÷10)
2. A Nation Under Debt
3. How to Avoid… Bank­ing Scams
4. How My Bank Account Was Com­pro­mised (And Depleted)
5. 5 Things to Do When You Land in Canada (That No One Told You About)