Make the Most of Small Savings.

Long before the Mint dropped the penny, its value had already been lost to most people, but its funny how our thinking changes according to circumstance. I don't often pay with cash, but the other day I happened to buy something totalling $1.76 so I paid with a toonie. When I received a quarter in change I thought "neat", then had to laugh at myself. I don't believe I was ever thrilled to save a penny before, but perhaps I should have been, because when you stop and think about it, its the many small savings that end up making a difference in the long run. Its not very often we come across really big ones so we do have to make the most of the small ones.

COUPONS and BAGS - Small savings for sure.
You would think that redeeming coupons would be a simple thing handled the same way by all retailers, but its not. I have the coupon policies for the stores I shop at but this particular issue doesn't seem to be covered, so I'll try to cover it here. Just to make sure the information is current, I visited the listed stores so I could compare the cash register receipts. For comparison purposes for this exercise, I changed all sales amounts to $100.00, set coupons at $10.00 and calculated HST at 13% on the total sales.

WALMART	TARGET	SHOPPERS	NO FRILLS
Total Sales $100.00 Less Coupons $10.00 Net Sales $90.00 Plus HST $11.70 TOTAL $101.70 Debit $101.70 The coupons are deducted before tax is charged so less tax is paid, reducing the total.	Total Sales $100.00 Plus HST $13.00 TOTAL $113.00 Coupon Value $10.00 Debit $103.00 TOTAL $113.00 The coupons are treated as a form of currency with the coupon value and the debit making up total payment. (Using the Red Card the Debit would have been $97.35)	Total Sales $100.00 Less Coupons $10.00 Net Sales $90.00 Plus HST $ 11.70 TOTAL $101.70 Debit $101.70  Coupons are taken off before the sub-total which means that the value of the coupons must be offset by more purchases in order to qualify for amounts needed for bonus points.	Total Sales $100.00 Less Coupons $10.00 Net Sales $90.00 Plus HST $11.70 TOTAL $101.70 Debit $101.70 The coupons are deducted before tax is charged so less tax is paid, reducing the total.
Bags – No charge	5 cent credit for each reusable bag used.	Bags – No charge	Bags - 5 cent charge per bag.

• The way the coupons are redeemed makes a difference to the amount of HST paid and to the final cost. 
• If trying to meet a certain dollar amount to quality for bonus points, it may be better NOT to use coupons at Shoppers. 
• The 5% Red Card Discount at Target comes off the sales total before the HST is charged, so less tax is paid when using the card. If using reusable bags, watch at checkout to make sure the credit is received.
• At No Frills, they charge for bags, but to offset that, they do always seem to have loads of boxes and those are free. If its necessary to buy a bag, reusing it on the next couple of shopping trips provides some value for the money paid..

SENIOR'S DISCOUNT - Not always what it seems.
Both Shoppers and Rexall offer 20% discount to seniors once a month, which sounds better than it actually is. The catch here is that this applies only to regular priced merchandise. If you're like me and just buy sale products at those places it doesn't mean anything. In that case its much better to save shopping there for on those 'Special Bonus' days.

WASTE - Unnecessary Expense:

One of the things that adds to the cost of groceries is having to throw things out. The more the shopping is planned ahead of time, the faster and fresher your products get home, which naturally prolongs shelf life. Organizing the shopping so that frozen products are purchased last and kept cool helps these items keep their quality better in the home freezer. A good way to keep them in the best shape during transport home is to keep a small cooler with frozen cold packs in the trunk of the car. A small, inexpensive styrofoam cooler works just fine for this purpose. 

You may have noticed that I've removed my e-book. I had an exclusive contract with Kindle Select, which worked for start-up purposes, but that contract has expired. I now want to take a second look at the content, possibly do some revisions and then relist it on more platforms, including Kindle, Kobo, Sony and others. So keep watching, it will be back, better than ever. (Did you know that Kobo, not Kindle, is the most popular e-reader in Canada? Just a little trivia.)