Money Saving Tips
Phone | Professional | Computers | Shopping | Medicine
There are many ways one could cut down on their bills in Canada considerably via the Internet. Or find great deals that are not as heavy on your pocket as most brick and mortar big Canadian stores are offering. Here’s a little rundown of some of these.
Phone
Let’s face it, and I have blogged it extensively earlier. Canada has one of the most expensive telecom services in the world. Why? Because of a cartel of common interest telecommunication businesses. Of course, that’s bad news for us.
OK, so that’s the end of the rant. Let’s get our workarounds going.
If you’re not already using any of the ones below, you’ve been living in a cave. You can save so much money it’s ridiculous how you can still cling on to your ‘regular’ phone plans. In fact, unless you’ve won the Ontario Lottery recently, you are really burning hard-earned money if you don’t have at least one of the following! Don’t think twice and do yourself a favour: sign up!
VOIP – The Best Way to Make Cheapest Calls
Skype – What can I say? The only reason you have not subscribed to Skype is because you’ve been living in a retirement home happily writing cheques for fatcat telecom companies. I mean, don’t even think, get it now!
Cheap Phone Cards
If you’re determined to be old school and would like to stick to using a phone, save a trip to the convenience store and instead buy online one of the lowest pre-paid calling cards to call any country. Save money and don’t just call using your existing big telco ’service plans’ (which are actually plans that serve the telcos, not you!).
Lowest Landline Monthly Plans
PhonePower – Keep your number. Save 66% on your fatcat Canadian telco phone bill. Unlimited free calls to U.S. and Canada. 2nd line free. 2-year price guarantee. Need I say more?
Professional
Get your best foot forward and be a true professional in whatever field you’re in. Job hunting and career building should not cost an arm and a leg, you know.
Free Business Cards
Get free 250 full or mono colour business cards from VistaPrint Canada delivered to your home. Just pick a nice Template, enter your details and be done with it. Give yourself an advantage over others whenever you’re meeting someone new for the first time. A professionally printed business card is a must! And they’re free!
Resume Submission
Speaking of career and job hunting, before you let a recruitment agent take a percentage or part of your salary, post a free resume on Monster Canada. In fact, they even have a professional
resume writing service, so if you’re willing to pay a little anyway, get a great resume first and foremost!
Computers
Your computer files, resumes, letters, docs and other data are more valuable and vulnerable than you usually think. How do you back it up? If you’ve been suckered into buying one of those external drives to save your data, remember that it too can break down!
Free Remote Hard Drive
The rule of backup is that the best backup is somewhere physically remote, so even if your entire house floods, at least your data is safe. Get 2GB of free hard disk space on a secure server from Mozy to store whatever you think is worth preserving!
Signup for your free Mozy now!
Shopping
Get into the habit of shopping online. That’s the best favour you can do to your finances! Buying online not only is convenient, the prices you get are way way better than compared to the best “deals” a regular store can offer.
Department stores
All major online stores have Canadian shops online. Stores like Sears Canada, Buy Canada and Amazon Canada even offer free shipping on top of hugely discounted stuff.
Auctions
For real amazing bargains, however, you need to be bid savvy! You can get deals and wins that are simply unbeatable. For Canadians, there’s Swoopo.ca where some pretty amazing wins appear to have taken place. There’s a special promotion code with which you can take $20 off your first Swoopo.ca win too. Check details there.
Videos
Even for stuff like DVDs and movies, forget renting them at a huge cost, when you can rent DVDs online with Zip.ca with no late fees or anything.
Medicine
As I’ve blogged earlier, finding a family doctor is not a walk in the park here in Canada. But that’s another story!
For medicine, luckily, and for both prescribed and over-the-counter drugs, you’d be surprised how much you can save if you buy them over the internet. There are many online pharmacies, such as Canada Pharmacy where you can Save 80% on Canadian Prescription and OTC Drugs. So give your health (and pocket) a break, shop for drugs online.
