Ok, so Christmas is just round the corner, and if you haven’t already started your shopping…then what are you waiting for? But just before you get your wallet out… have a think – could you save yourself some money?

Christmas is going to cost you a lot this year, and finding things ‘on the cheap’ can be quite hard.

So that’s why I’ve put this short guide together, to help you reduce the cost of Christmas the easy way.

1) Use price checkers to lower the cost of presents

There are plenty of websites that provide free ‘price-checking’ facilities, so you can compare the price of your desired item from several retailers, and find out which one offers it the cheapest.

Price-checking facilities can help you save some serious cash at Christmas. For example, last year – I used a price-checker to find the cheapest retailer of the latest computer game for my son, and found that one retailer was offering it $20 cheaper than another one!

So, just do a search for ‘price-checker’ on a search engine and take a look at the results!

2) Use discount vouchers

Shopping for food, drinks and presents can be a real drag, and before you know it, you’ve spend $100s. So, to help you reduce the cost of your shopping, you should take a look at the selection of discount vouchers on the internet.

Just search for ‘discount vouchers’ on a search engine and you should be provided with plenty of links.

Some vouchers will offer you the chance to get 50% off at your favourite retailers, while others will allow you to buy cheaper food, drinks and other items.

Discount vouchers aren’t just available online, you can find them in your local paper and some retailers may even give them out once you have shopped there.

3) Shop online

This is the easiest way to do your Christmas shopping – you can order everything you need online and have it delivered straight to your door.

Online shopping tends to be cheaper than shopping in your local store. The demand for products can be much higher online, and retailers lower their prices to compete with each other – so look out for the cheapest online stores, and like the first point in the guide…check the prices using a price checker to make sure you’re getting the best deal.

So, there you have it, a short but sweet guide on how to reduce the cost of Christmas and stay out of debt… the easy way. (for more debt information visit ThinkMoney)

Of course, there are many other ways in which you can save yourself money over the festive period, but the ones mentioned above are certainly worth a try!

Thanks to hannah for this guest post.

What is the difference between a debt consolidation loan that is secured and one that is unsecured?

In case of the former, there is a security that is attached to the loan. In most of the cases, it is your home. Just as there is an advantage of availing secured debt consolidation loans, there is a major disadvantage too.

The benefit you avail in case of secured debt consolidation loans is that they attract lower rate of interest. The disadvantage is if you fall behind on payments, you may lose your home as creditors will not hesitate to take away your home in case of non-payment.

Unsecured debt consolidation loans on the other hand do not require any security. And you don’t put your home at stake. Unsecured debt consolidation loans can be used for making payments for anything under the sun. But the rate of interest, unsecured debt consolidation loans attract is very high.

You can take out unsecured debt consolidation loans if you have a good credit rating. It doesn’t mean that you will not get access to one if you do not have a good credit rating. Unsecured debt consolidation loans are also meant for people with bad credit but the rate of interest will be very high. Nevertheless, it is difficult to find a lender that will extend a loan if you have a bad credit rating because following the credit crunch; lending institutions have adopted very stringent lending norms. So, shop around for the deal that will serve your purpose.

Unsecured debt consolidation loans can also be taken out online. If you are planning to take out unsecured debt consolidation loans online, you get the benefit of comparing the rates that are offered by the different lenders. Many online lenders will also answer to your queries if you have any related to unsecured debt consolidation loans. The eligibility criteria for qualifying for unsecured debt consolidation loans may vary from one lender to another. In majority of the cases, you need to have a sound employment history and you need to provide evidence that your income is enough to make repayments.

Thanks to adamsmith for this guest post.

Early 2008, I graduated from school and TD started to charge me $8.95 per month to maintain the Value Plus Account. If you keep $2,000 in the account, the fee is waived but I’m currently in debt repayment mode so I’m not in the position to leave that much just sitting idle in the account.

A better setup I thought, was to keep the TD Chequing account and downgrade to the Value account, which only charges a monthly fee of $3.95. The Value account is cheaper because it is much more limited with only 10 transactions allowed per month versus the 25 for a Value Plus account. Other differences are outlined in the table below. Now if you don’t have much chequing activity, you can just leave your account as is. For myself however, I perform a lot of cash withdrawals, online payments, and transfers with my chequing account so I had to find a cheaper equivalent of an Infinity account.

TD Canada Trust Chequing Account Pros

• More TD Green Machines
• In-branch teller service for deposits, money orders, etc.
• Good web user interface for online banking
• Maintain banking relationships with local branch

TD Canada Trust Chequing Account Cons

• Limited chequing activity or transactions allowed
• High fees for going over the transaction limit
• Expensive cheques

President’s Choice No Fee Bank Account

In comes the No Fee Bank Account from President’s Choice Financial (PCF). This account is free from monthly fees and provides unlimited chequing activity for withdrawals, online payments, transfers, and even free cheques!

At first glance, it seems like this is all the chequing account you’ll need for everyday banking so why do I keep my TD Canada Trust account you ask? Simple. I keep it to maintain a close relationship with my bank, and for the people service they provide with their in-branch tellers. Plus, there are more Green Machine ABMs out there than CIBC or Amicus machines.

Here’s a quick pros and cons list for holding the PC No Fee Account.

President’s Choice Financial Chequing Account Pros

• Unlimited free cheques (TD Canada Trust charges $25 per book)
• Unlimited chequing activity such as withdrawals, payments, and transfers
• No fee ABMs if you use an Amicus or CIBC bank machine

President’s Choice Financial Chequing Account Cons

• Amicus or CIBC bank machines are not as common as TD Green Machines
• No branches
• No teller service
• Strictly phone or web-based banking services
• No real bank relationship

My first ever chequing account was opened during the summer of 2003 when I started a part-time job at Toys R’ Us. It was the summer before the first year of University and the account was opened with Royal Bank (RBC) by my mom’s recommendation. It was also the closest branch to my home at the time.

Second Chequing Account: CIBC

Now Royal Bank wasn’t bad, but when I started attending the University of Waterloo, the most convenient bank located around campus was CIBC. Penny pinching was the norm as a student so I opened a student account there to save on ABM withdrawal fees and for convenience and decided to close the account with RBC. CIBC even gave me my very first Visa credit card with a $700 limit. I hold this very same card to this day, despite opening and cancelling a few other cards in the last couple of years.

Third Chequing Account: Bank of Montreal

Fast forward to my first co-op job with BMO Capital Markets. I was forced to open a chequing account with them to get paid so I opened an account and held both the CIBC and BMO chequing accounts concurrently for a few years. Now I don’t recommend holding more than one chequing account as I see no immediate benefit for splitting the cash between two accounts and shuffling them back and forth. Plus, you’ll be hit with twice the monthly and maintenance fees.

Fourth Chequing Account: TD Canada Trust

Shortly after came temptation with TD Canada Trust’s iPod Shuffle promotion. TD offered a free iPod Shuffle if you completely switched over your chequing account and set up at least three direct deposits. This iPod was worth $129 I thought, so without hesitation, I signed up, transferred my BMO account, cancelled my CIBC account, and a month later, received my Shuffle in a white plastic, bubble wrapped envelope. At this point, I kept only the TD account and because I was a student, I had the Value Plus account for no monthly fee.

Sweet. Life was good, I thought.

Now, there used to be a time when I went out each and every day for lunch when I started work. Food around my work area would cost at least $7 and could go up to about $17. That’s monthly spending of roughly $140-$350 just on lunch alone! Even spending as little as $5 per day for lunch would mean monthly spending of $100. Put it in perspective. That’s quite a hefty amount and that’s not even counting your morning and afternoon coffee and muffin breaks.

I’m an avid bodybuilder and like many others in the gym, I try to watch what I eat. That’s not to say I don’t indulge in comfort foods like chicken wings, brownies, or cake once in a while but I try to watch my portions and cut out sugar and fat whenever I can. In fact, I’ve completely substituted my normal Pepsi or Coke with its diet equivalent. It’s an acquired taste, I always say.

So, here’s a simple lunch idea that’s high in protein, low in fat, cheap, and super easy to prepare. It takes less than ten minutes of your time to prepare at night or even the morning of.

The Money Monkey’s Super Simple Tuna Salad Sandwich

Basic Ingredients

• One whole can of chunk light tuna (not flaked) @ $0.75 per can
• Two cups of light mayonnaise @ $2.99 per jar
• Two teaspoons of relish @ $1.50 per jar
• Four slices of whole wheat bread @ $1.89 per loaf
• Splenda sweetener, or sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Open can of tuna and make sure to drain the water out
2. Once water is drained, mix all ingredients in a bowl
3. Add a pack of Splenda or sugar, and salt and pepper to taste
4. Spread tuna salad mix on bread, and pack

It can’t get any simpler than that. If you get tired of the same old taste day in and day out, try substituting the tuna with hardboiled eggs for a good egg salad sandwich. Also, don’t be scared to play around with the ingredients. Add some lettuce, sliced tomatoes, or onions for color and texture. I also found out that adding sliced apples in the mix adds a good amount of sweetness and crisp.

So there you go. Tuna salad sandwiches are cheap, gym-approved, and an easy way to save money and your gut. Make your body and your bank account happy! You’ve got no excuses.

I immediately go to my local bank for a consultation to see how they can help me. I was looking to consolidate my debt at possibly a lower interest rate. That way I thought, there will only be one payment made every month and it will be easier to keep track of my progress. Now the lady I had my appointment with wasn’t very helpful. She advised that with my current credit rating, job history, and credit history, the best I can hope for was a personal loan at 12.5% and the chances of getting this was very slim. I politely declined and walked away. Most of the interest rates I had for most of my loans were far below 12.5%.

In comes MBNA in my life and I was saved. I was browsing around a popular forum, RedFlagDeals, and found out about a 0% balance transfer promotion when you open a Platinum Plus Mastercard. Being the Money Monkey that I am, I applied online, and followed up on the phone a week after. The approval process was quick and painless and upon approval, the balance transfer was setup over the phone. I had it deposited to my chequing account and used it to pay off one of my higher interest loans (the Mastercard was already paid off at the time I applied for the MBNA card).

What’s the catch?

• The 0% interest rate only applies to balance transfers made in the first month or two
• The 0% interest rate is only in effect for one year starting on the day the card was approved
• There is a balance transfer fee between 1% and 2% of the total amount transferred but the folks at MBNA were able to cut it down to half of that if you ask politely (this was last year, October 2008, so things might have changed)

Now these guys at MBNA are not crazy. They are banking on the fact that most people are not diligent enough to pay the balance off by the time the promotion is due. After a year from approval, the interest kicks in at 18% up to 24% on the entire balance!

Who do you recommend this for?

• Newly grads with high levels of debt from school (assuming these grads have income to pay off the balance by the time the promotion ends)
• Investors
• Anyone who can and will pay off the debt before the promotion ends (use the money to purchase big-ticket items, or earn a return > 1% for one year)

Who is this not for?

• Anyone else who wants the money but can not foresee having enough cash to pay it off before it’s due will be eaten alive by the high interest rate – do not fall in to the trap!

In my case, I used the$10,000 to pay off some loans and as I save up money from my primary income to accumulate $10,000 by the due date (which is this November), I put the funds into an ING savings account that earns me money while it’s parked. I have calculated the total interest saved and total interest earned by using this 0% promotion to be almost $900 for the year. Not too shabby!

Here’s a very useful tool that anyone can use to keep track of their debts and keep track of each payment period, snowball amounts, and time left to eliminate all debt. You can even choose a payment policy to pay either the lowest balances first, highest interest first, or define your own custom order. Download this tool from Vertex42.

According to Wikipedia:

The debt-snowball method of debt repayment is a form of debt management that is most often applied to repaying revolving credit — such as credit cards. Under the method, extra cash is dedicated to paying debts with the smallest amount owed.

Methodology

1. Write down all the debt you owe, be it revolving credit or personal loans
2. Don’t forget to write down the balance owed and effective annual interest rate (EAR)
3. Always pay the minimum amounts due for all debts
4. Set a maximum amount of cash you can devote to service debt every month
5. After paying all the minimum amounts, determine how much money is left over
6. Use the extra money to pay off the account with the lowest balance account first
7. Another method is to pay off the account with the highest interest (EAR) first but for some people, seeing accounts being paid off is more motivating (technically, you save more money paying off high interest accounts first)
8. Once the account has been completely paid off, use the extra money used to pay that account and its old minimum payment to pay off the next highest balance or highest interest account
9. Rinse and repeat until all debts have been eliminated

In my case for example, I had the following debt with the following interest rates:

• TD Student Line of Credit – ($8,000) @ 8.00% variable
• OSAP Student Loan – ($12,000) @ 6.50% variable
• TD Secured Auto Loan – ($16,000) @5.65% fixed
• Citi Mastercard - ($9,000) @ 18.50% fixed

Now I chose to attack the highest interest account first so I paid all the minimum amounts due and funneled all the extra money to paying off the Mastercard. The Mastercard account has now been completely paid off and theoretically, all the extra money + the Mastercard minimum payment should now be applied against the TD Student Line of Credit at 8.00%.  Rinse and repeat until all debts have been paid off. This method is very simple and extremely motivating as you can keep track of closing each account as a milestone towards a debt-free life.

First and foremost, The Money Monkey welcomes you. I’d like to use this first post to give my readers a snapshot of my financial position last year when I finally graduated and received my undergraduate degree, so you all can see my undocumented progress from back then to where I am today.

School is expensive. However, I was very fortunate to have attended the University of Waterloo because of their internship or co-op program. What that meant was I was able to secure placements and earn money during co-op terms to supplement the high costs of living away from home, tuition fees, and other school related miscellaneous. At the same time, I earned invaluable work experience that I was able to leverage and add to my resume to secure a job right after graduation. Now enough of the school talk as it makes some people miserable. Show me the finances!

Okay, now it’s not as bad as some people may have exiting university in terms of debt load but I exited school with more than $45,000 in debt. Let me outline where that $45,000 in debt came from, as it’s not all related to school. Here are rounded approximations:

• TD Student Line of Credit – ($8,000)
• OSAP Student Loan – ($12,000)
• TD Secured Auto Loan – ($16,000)
• Citi Mastercard - ($9,000)

That’s a whole lot of money! A lot of it is also what we  consider “bad debt”. Hint: It’s the one that starts with an “M” and ends with “astercard”. So that’s the whole picture. Now I realized after school and getting my first job that I feel restricted – almost trapped – by this almost unsurmountable amount of debt. In my next post, I will detail my action plan to get rid of it and start building positive net worth. Now I’m not even at $0 net worth yet, but I’m getting there. I’m actually reaching my next milestone in less than two months so that is definitely something to look forward to.