The holidays are just around the corner and so is the new year!  Get a head start on your 2014 financial plan by taking one small but very important step. Think of 3 things you would like to achieve in the following time frames: A short term goal – 1 Year A medium term goal […]

Chatting to people about their holiday preparations can be interesting and I often get some really good ideas. Two people have mentioned how they don’t really like shopping and don’t consider themselves to be ‘shoppers’ but they both practice ‘strategic shopping’. I call it that because they take advantage of sales and fully stocked shelves […]

American Thanksgiving is this week and the ads have been on for weeks. Sales, sales and more sales. Sales across the border and sales in Canada too!    The question is: Should you buy it if it’s on sale? What if it’s a really, really good deal?  A great discount can make it very tempting […]

  You probably make at least and maybe more holiday lists but do you make a budget? It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the holiday season because between gifts, cards, holiday functions and regular life….it gets busy! And that can mean that attention to details is exchanged for what’s easiest and what’s easiest is almost […]

Rather than move into Holiday Budgets just yet, I thought I would write another post on nutritious meals that are relatively easy to prepare and won’t break the bank. They make several portions and many freeze well so will be available for meals that just need reheating – fast and easy! $17 – Chili and […]

I remember the cheesecake my best friend make for my birthday while we were in university. Talk about living on a tight budget. But do you know, it was the best cheesecake I’ve ever had. It was such a nice gesture and delicious too. I’ve since made a couple myself  and compared to buying them, […]

Fall is a great time of year to enjoy hearty meals that warm your belly and your home but not by breaking the food budget. I recently read in a book that the number of servings that a hotel restaurant plans for from an average size turkey is 15. Now, the book was written in […]

Our kids are at the age where there opinions are becoming more and more defined. Particularly when it comes to what they prefer for presents and while I think it’s great for family (grandparents, aunties and uncles) taking the kids to chose what they would like or giving an ‘experience’, I’m sure I’m not the […]

Common sense tells us that keeping in good health is the right thing to do but sometimes, you can’t control what happens. Last Friday I had knee surgery to reconstruct my ACL (due to a soccer injury) and I consider myself very lucky. Granted, going in for surgery provokes anxiety and the rehabilitation process is […]

This is a great time of year to start saving because summer is over and it’s ahead of the holiday season. How much is enough? That is the question. For many of us, we assume we are limited by what’s left over at the end of the month. How about approaching it a different way? […]