How to be cheap and save $$ while not looking the part of being a cheap-a$$
For someone new to the country and living on their own or with room-mates, it helps to know how and where to save $$. It sucks to waste money untill you learn to be a bargain shopper. so hope this makes it easy (based on being a cheapster in BC).
FOOD
food prices are pretty much the same across all available stores. i only buy the basics at regular price such as milk, eggs, bread, cheese etc. Other stuff like frozen food, meats etc i shop only on sale items. the best place to look for deals are the flyers (advertisements for newbies. we get them every friday and sales usually start the same day). Most stores will have the flyers by the entrance as well. so you can see whats on sale. the cheapest places are probably walmart, safeway, save-on-foods etc. Some stores offer club memberships for free. Get it. Save on foods will put items on sale for club members only. so it's worth it. If you live in desi-heavy areas like surrey, vancouver, toronto, missisuaga etc... or close by, shop at desi food stores. They are usually cheaper than big box stores.
If you live with a bunch of room-mates, its economical to shop at costco. You just buy stuff in bulk which ends up being cheaper in the long run. You can split the memership cost ($55 a year) but its well worth it.
CLOTHING
I'm a real cheapazz when it comes to clothes. Never bought anything on regular price.. ok, maybe a couple of times. You can get good clothes on bargain prices if you look around. Buy off season. T-shirts are dirt cheap in winter. Aeropostale sells t-shirts for like $5 each couple of times a year. That's when i buy 10-15 each time. Lasts a long time. The bay (a big all in one store) although very expensive when regular price, will have specific sales throughout the year. they have a sale around august when they get rid of old styles and make room for new shiznit, thats when yo can buy branded $hit for dirt cheap. Think CK jeans for like $30. I dont bother with old navy crap, its cheap all year long and will only last so long. I find it better to shop around and wait for deals and buy good stuff. Buy winter clothes around feb/ march when the spring $hit is coming in. Believe it or not, tommy outlets here on the west coast are frikkin dirt cheap but you gotta look for sales and clearance stuff.
SHOES
Shoes are usually expensive and in the 100-150$ range. It's hard to wait since the kind you like may not go on sale. so look for BOGO (buy one get one) deals at stores like foot locker, athletes world, sportcheck etc. You can usually get 50% off the second pair when you buy the first regular price. I see BOGO 70% off every now and then. so you get to pick 2 pairs you like and pay less for both in total.
ELECTRONICS
Aaah... the good stuff. One word... Boxing Day.. perhaps that was 2 words. mark the date on your calendars. December 26 every year, crazy boxing day deals. Tv's, camera's, laptops, computers, tablets etc go very very cheap (although really cheap stuff is borderline crap but still). the thing is, you have to make an effort and be in store's really early. Cheapsters will stake out a store over-night if they have to to get at the good stuff before anyone else. There maybe other sales during different parts of the year but you have to keep an eye out. Stores like Future Shop, Best buy, Staples is where it's at.
TEXTBOOKS
I always bought used unless i couldn't. these things are f ucking expensive. Books for a semester will set you back around 4-500$ based on your program. Universities/ colleges will usually have a classifieds board in almost every building or online where students are selling used books. Now there is a scam going on by the official college/ university bookstore. You buy a new textbook for say $150. after the semester, if thats textbook is being re-used again, the bookstore will buy it back from you for a fractions...say $60... and sell it used to others for more.. like $100. If you want to save money, go down to the bookstore and figure out if any of your old textbooks are being re-used. if they are, put them up for private sale for 10-20$ less than what the bookstore sells them for.
Another thing to look for is see if you can find a previous edition of a required textbook. 99% of the time, the new edition is no different than the previous edition but the prof will ask you to get a newer edition. Its another scam to boost book sales. If you can get the same material out of an older edition textbook, why pay out of your ass for a very expensive newer edition when you can pick up an older edition for next to nothing. whatever pages are different (its usually very few), just photocopy them from the new edition if you have to.
Another trick i learnt was that the library will always keep the latest textbook for students to borrow. I would borrow it, photocopy a chapter if i have to. I got away without having to buy a textbook for a number of courses. you can always share with your friends who are in the same class or look for ebooks (trust me you will get really good at using google).
did i miss anything??
Ask me if i did..
Peace!
