TIPS to save money | Page 2 | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

A tip to save you both time and money. If you are the type who drives to theatres to see movies; consider buying a projector. As long as you have the space in your house, all you need to add is a dvd/bluray player and you are in business.

About three years ago I bought my second Epson projector.

This is an amazing projector. First of all, it comes with two built-in speakers. So if you use it in a "normal" size room where 2-6 people are watching, it will be sufficient from an audio point-of-view. My previous Epson projector didn't come with speakers and I had to use parts of a sound system (amplifier, speakers) in order to have the sound portion of the video.

Second, this projector has a lamp supposedly lasting 5,000 hours in eco mode. So you should be able to count on 4,000 hours of viewing before it starts to fade. And it comes equipped for 3D viewing, including 2 pairs of 3D glasses. Rendition of 3D is very good.

And last, the absolute best thing about this projector is that you do NOT need a screen to have excellent picture. My previous Epson projector required a screen on the wall in order to have a very good picture.

But after buying this projector, I decided to try it on the wall just to see. And it just happens that my new house had walls painted with the eggshell color. To my surprise, the picture was beautiful, even without a screen.

I'm using this projector in a bedroom with a size of 16' X 12'. The projector sits on a piece of furniture about 2' from the floor and about 13' away from the wall. This gives me a diagonal screen size of about 13'.

Being able to watch a 13' picture sitting 15' away is a totally different way to watch movies. It can't compare even with 5' TV. Anything with a scenery is a completely different experience. In particular if the source of the movie is in bluray format. You should see what Titanic in 3D from a bluray source looks like.

For me, I wanted a projector nor for the financial aspect of it, but because I simply didn't want to waste time driving to a theatre, waiting in line, then wasting more time driving back home. Sometimes one can almost waste as much time driving/waiting than the duration of the movie itself. Time is a fixed asset and most people seem oblivious to that fact.

semi-retired, I believe what will happen when one crosses the border back into Canada is dependent upon a few variables.

First, not all border crossings are created equal. Some are more strict than others.

Second, the time and day you cross the border has an impact. Crossing at 4am isn't the same thing as crossing mid-day when there are 40 cars waiting to go through the border. Even crossing on long weekends has an impact as I've seen the whole staff being changed during such events. The usual staff had been replaced by what appeared to be fresh-out-school agents. One told me that they could charge duties on my coffee and donut Good thing I don't drink coffee and she was only explaining me the rules.

Third, I believe you need to establish a 'profile'. If your sole purpose is to avoid paying duties, they might pay more attention to you. If you seldom cross the border and you have never paid duties, you might be paid more attention to. But if you do 'normal' shopping on a more or less regular basis and do occasionally pay duties, then I believe you might be treated with normal attention.

Personally, I go shopping across the border because of food not available in Canada, or simply because I prefer the taste of food sold in America versus the same food sold in Canada. For example, Heinz ketchup sold in America doesn't taste the same thing than the same Heinz ketchup sold in Canada. It is nice to pay less, but it is not my main motivation for crossing the border.

Here's another tip I just remember; I only used it once a bit more than a year ago.

I wanted to buy an Apple Ipad selling for $900. Staples had them on sale on boxing day for $770. But I didn't feel like to get up at 4am and line-up at Staples. So I took the ad and went to an Apple store. I asked the salesguy if he could match the price. He said no, but he could give me 10% off. So I got it for $810. That's a pretty good price considering Costco was selling the same, identical Ipad for $860. So I beated Costco by $50 by simply asking for a discount

It pays to shop

Here's another one I remembered this morning, but haven't used for some time.

When having a prescription filled, if it will be renewed many times, consider having all the renewal done in one shot. This way you save yourself the dispensing fee. But you better ask the pharmacist first as some greedy drugstores will charge you the dispensing fee for every time a prescription can be renewed. I used to go Costco and had a rx that was renewable 11 times done in one shot. So I only paid a dispensing fee of $4 instead of $48. And I had meds for the whole year. Plus, no need to take a trip just to have a rx renewed. It saved me both time and money.

P.S. Make sure to ask the pharmacist to check the expiry date on the bottle of pills. In particular when getting pills for the next 12 months.

The following tip is designed to save you from unnecessarily spending thousands of dollars. So here I go.

If you have a generator that you plan to use in case of a blackout, unless your generator is an "inverter", you could kill your furnace and replacing a furnace can easily cost between $2K and $6K. Apart from your furnace, any electric/electronic devices/appliances/tools connected to a 'regular' generator will have a much shorter life.

The reason for such situation is THD, or Total Harmonic Distortion. Thousands of people in America (where blackouts are more frequent than in Canada) ended up having to replace their furnaces. In particular those with a variable speed furnace.

A very good place to start reading about THD is the following http://support.fluke.com/find-.....NG_A_W.PDF

THD is supposed to be about 4%. I measured the hydro at home and is around 4.3%. I also measured 'regular' Champion generators (not inverter) and the THD would vary between 13% and 30%+. The same results will apply to any brands of generators as long as they are not 'inverters'. The higher the load on the generator, the more THD. Mind you, I connected a single 13W CFL bulb and had a THD of 18%. As a rule, the higher the THD and the longer something is connected to a generator, the faster you will kill whatever is plugged into the generator. Of course, it is not a matter of just being plugged into a gen., but drawing electricity produced by the gen..

There are tools to measure the THD, such as, https://www.itm.com/product/amprobe-acd-41pq-1000a-clamp-on-pq-meter?gclid=CPWqxs_Q2dMCFQmQaQodz5sEVw this one is on the expensive side, but if you search you should be able to find one in the $200.

The bottom line is learn about THD before you end up having to spend $$$$ to replace what you have killed while using a generator during a blackout. Hope it helps.

SavingIsGood said
Great and educational read regarding generators, but do you Really need one living in areas like GTA? For 20+ years living there I Never, but Never had a need for generator. Not even during blackout a decade ago.
So, unless you live in the sticks, investing in generator is very questionable. And I would definitely Not use it to run furnace or similar apparatus. I would rather invest in solar/wind energy then depend on dinosaurs flesh and blood.  

My initial motivation for buying a generator (inverter) years ago was that I have expensive hardwood floor in my house. If I were to be without power for a few days in the middle of winter, the lack of heat and humidity might seriously damage my hardwood floor. I concluded it was much cheaper to buy a gen than to have to replace the hardwood floor.

Also, I now have two chest freezers and even though the food could be put outside in winter, an extended blackout during a hot summer could ruin hundreds of dollars of food.

Bottom line; a generator is like an insurance policy. You hope you'll never need it but you have it just in case. At least that's my take on it. Of course, generators are also a necessity for some campers.

P.S. If anyone has any questions in regards to generators, feel free to ask me, I spent months studying generators.

Loonie said
Also, keep all your receipts, and return items you don't want. Many people don't bother. Keep your receipts in one consistent place so that you know where to find them. Too many things don't get returned because people can't find their receipts.  

It's a good idea to keep an envelop at home where all your receipts are kept. Right after arriving home you empty your pockets and put all the receipts in the envelop. When you get your CC statement, you check it out against all your receipts. For me, five mistakes over the last 15 years or so.

On top of that, be alert as two years ago MasterCard charged me the annual fee twice in the same year. I called them to straighten out the matter and then cancelled the card.