Lazy Investor

Great Canadian Rebates is currently offering a rebate of $10.50 to join the MemberWorks-SavingSmart membership.

So what is MemberWorks-SavingSmart?

SavingSmart is a shopping club that provides a 5% discount on gift cards/certificates for a variety of national retailers and restaurants, as well as exclusive members-only online savings. Each time when you purchase gift cards from SavingSmart, it will automatically give you the discount.

What retailers are included in MemberWorks-SavingSmart?

You can purchase followin retailers’ gift cards from SavingSmart:

American Eagle Outfitters, Au Vieux, Duluth,Birks, BLOCKBUSTER,

Canadian Tire, Casey’s, Certigard Labour Discount, Certigard Maintenance

Service Package, Chapters, Cineplex, Coles, Crabtree & Evelyn, Cyberflowers.ca,

Designer Depot, East Side Mario’s, eBags.com, Fruits & Passion, Golda’s Kitchen,

Home Outfitters, HomeSense, Indigo, Linens ‘n Things, Olive Garden,

Petro-Canada Preferred Price Card, Red Lobster, SportChek, Sports Experts,

The Bay, The Keg Steakhouse & Bar, TipTop Tailors, VistaPrint, Watch Station, Winners, Zellers

Among these retailer, what I really like the most is the CanadianTire gift card, as I can use it at the CanadianTire Gas bar. If I am buying the gift cards using my 2% Amex credit cards, I am saving 7% of gas each time. That is just sweet. Also, Zellers is a good one. If you combine the gift card discount with SPC card (SPC offer 10% off for regular and sales items at Zellers), the rebate is even bigger, 17% off!!!

Is there any limit of how many gift cards I can purchase each time?

No, There is NO limit to how many gift cards you can purchase per day or per retailers.

How much does it cost to join SavingSmart?

There is $9.95 monthly membership for SavingSmart. Currently, it is offering 15-day FREE trial. And Great Canadian Rebates is giving $10.50 when you join. So, you have 45 days FREE trial. Since there is no limit of how many gift cards you can purchase each time, you can just grab all the cards you want and then cancel the membership. However, if you buy regularly from the retailers above, I do recommend to keep the memebership because after you cancel, you cannot join again.

Have you joined before?

Yes, I have joined the same kind of membership before. At that time, it was 20% off the face value of the gift cards with a limit of 5 cards each month for each retailer. But that kind of membership is nowhere to find now.

How do I join?

If you decided to join SavingSmart, you need to sign up for Great Canadian Rebates first. Then, do a search on SavingSmart. Click on the link to the SavingSmart website and sign up from there. It is currently the only way to join SavingSmart. There is a bonus of $25 Petro-Canada Preferred Price Card being offered if you join now.

So, have fun shopping

My contract ended with my cell phone service provider, Aliant, this month. I made a call to them yesterday switch me to the prepaid plan instead of the monthly plan I am currently on.

I found myself never make that much calling. During the daytime, from 9am to 5pm, I am in the office and have access to the office phone. When I am off work, I can use the home phone if I need to call anybody. However, completely getting rid of the cell phone is not an option either. I still need one for emergency purposes and occasional use. It is important to have a cell phone to call for help if anything happens on the road while I am driving.

The previous monthly plan cost me around $37 per month, which gives me 200 minutes day time and unlimited weekend and night time calling. After switching to the prepaid, I get to keep my phone number which is nice and will be paying $0.39 per minute day time and $0.05 per minute during night time and weekends. I can top up my account $25 each time. That amount will not expire for 60 days. Any unused amount will be rolled over when I add more funds to my account again. So technically, I will be paying $12.5 per month or less for my cell phone service now. It is a saving of at least $294 per year compared with the monthly plan, which can cover 40% of interest I am paying on my car loan now. Not too bad I guess.

I have been struggling about canceling my cable TV services with Rogers. I really do not watch that much TV, probably 2 hours a day at the maximums. $31 per month($372 per year) for TV looks quite expensive to me. Finally, I have decided that Rogers has sucked too much money out of me and I am calling them to cancel.

While on the phone with CSR, not surprisingly, Rogers wants to keep me as a customer. Therefore, the CSR offered me $5 off from my regular monthly bill. The new total including tax is now around $25. I will not be hooked to any sort of contracts, which means I can still cancel anytime.

In the end, I took the offer. I guess I will keep it for one more month, and then might still call to cancel. I guess nowadays it does not pay to be a loyal customer. You always get a better deal if you threat to leave. Gee…….

I am just back from my one month’s trip from China. The trip is wonderful, but I am tired. While in China, I truly feel the fast development there, but at the same time, the air pollution is horrible. I was not able to see a blue sky in a month. Actually, I doubt I would ever see it even if I had stayed longer. The inflation there is crazy as well. The price has gone up so much since three years ago.

Oh, anybody will be able to tell me what is going on in NA market these days? Looks like everything is down.