Pay Attention To Per Unit Pricing

Sometimes you don`t even need a calculator.

I was at Superstore the other day looking at No Name peanut butter, and noticed that the smaller size was actually the better deal:

2 kg = $6.27

1 kg = $2.97 (x 2 = $5.94)

Alrighty then... 1 kg tubs it is!!
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Three Ways To Save On Mortgage Interest

There are three easy ways to shave off some interest from your mortgage.

Because mortgages typically have a long amortization period, the interest really adds up. In the end, depending on the length of your mortgage and the interest rates, you may end up paying as much, if not more, in interest than the original mortgage amount.

Here are three simple things you can do to significantly reduce the amount of interest you will pay:

1) Principal only payments. Every financial institution has rules about how these can be applied (for example, there are minimum and maximum amounts, as well as yearly frequencies). A friend of mine recently put $3,500 towards her mortgage principal, and saved considerably more than that in interest.

2) Shorten your amortization period. Use this calculator to see what I mean.

3) Pay more frequently. If you are paying monthly, consider bi-weekly or even weekly. The sooner you can reduce the principal, the sooner the amount that the interest is calculated on is lowered.

Remember that interest is how banks make money - whatever you can do to reduce the interest you pay puts some of that money back in your pocket.
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Save On Hydro Bills With Fan Timers

Here's an idea that I hadn't even considered until my husband had these installed in our bathrooms: fan timers.

We have the Leviton 5-10-15-30 Minute Timer shown in the link. It's beneficial because it prevents you from forgetting to turn the fan off. You can choose the fan duration according to your specific requirements - for example, for a shower I use the full thirty minute setting.

Prior to installing the fans and timers, we would leave the windows open to provide air circulation, which resulted in heat loss. Now we can maintain the room temperature while still circulating the air, and save money by not wasting fan use.
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Saving Money On Christmas Cards

This falls under the category of "buy off season".

I just got out of storage my box of blank Christmas cards, to find two boxes of beautiful, new gold foil embellished cards, bought at half price a day or two after Christmas last year (regularly $16 per box, marked down to $8).

I'll use these ones this year, and you guessed it... buy more a day or two after Christmas this year...
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Old Navy Online Sale

Here's a link to an area of Old Navy's website, where you can browse for gifts by categories:

http://www.oldnavy.com/browse/division.do?cid=5360

You can then specify your search further by price, where the items shown appear to have been marked down. There are also pages that say sweaters are 40% off this weekend.

Happy shopping!
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