May 18th, 2013: My first stop was Target Canada, in the suburb of Coquitlam – approximately 32 km from downtown Vancouver.

May 19th, 2013: My second stop was Target USA at the Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham, WA – approximately 83km from downtown Vancouver.

For my trips, I decided to compare the prices of a few common household items. These figures below don’t take into account provincial or state tax, duties charged at the border, the extra cost in gas, or puts a dollar value on the time spent crossing the border (although with the Nexus pass, it didn’t take me that much longer to get to Bellingham than to Coquitlam). Instead, I’ve chosen to focus just on the price of the products – taking into an account an exchange rate of $0.97 on the Canadian dollar.

Ready? Let’s shop at Target!

We’ll head to the personal care and beauty section first, because that’s where I generally start my Target shopping trips. My go-to mascara is Maybelline’s Volum’Express (The Rocket).

Now to pick up some Aveeno body lotion, which is only slightly cheaper in the USA.

I can’t live without Burt’s Bees lip balm, and at any given time, I have 3 to 5 floating in between my purse, home, car, and desk at work.

When comparing a 24-pack of Durex condoms, I found out it was 32% cheaper to practice safe sex in America.

Next up is Tylenol. There’s a small difference here: the Canadian version has the eZtabs, and the U.S. version is just regular caplets.

A major expense most men complain about is the cost of razor blades. I thought they would be significantly cheaper in Bellingham. Turns out the savings is barely worth mentioning.

If you’re sick of paying so much for disposable blades, perhaps an electric shaver system will be your next big purchase. Note the U.S. package also has a bonus of a few accessories (worth over $30) that the Canadian version doesn’t have.

This was a bit of a surprise to me. The regular price of a 20-pack of Energizer Max Alkaline batteries in the USA is $13.79, which is 23% more than the regular price in Canada.

I don’t know much about video games, but I do know that if I’m ever going to buy myself Call of Duty for Xbox, it’s going to be across the border.

If you’re in the mood to hate your life, I’d recommend picking up Windows 8 Pro in Bellingham.

I now know the best thing about living in Vancouver isn’t the ocean or the mountains or the abundance of delicious vegetarian restaurants – it’s the fact that Nutella is 17% cheaper in Canada.

The Magic Bullet in Canada isn’t pictured with all the accessories, but it’s the same 17-piece system that’s selling in the U.S.

I just read an article in MoneySense magazine about how generic baby diapers are just as good as the brand names. I wouldn’t know, because I’ve never changed a diaper in my life. But, if you must have brand name Pampers, they’re cheaper in America.

Note to self: Don’t buy Calphalon pots and pans in Canada.

Even the bonus Tide Pods attached to the detergent bottle can’t help out this price match.

I don’t have any pets, but it’d be cheaper to feed their faces with food from Target USA.

Well, there you have it! A short 16-product comparison of Target Canada vs. Target USA. What did we all learn from this? Buy your Nutella and batteries in Canada. The rest could be worth taking a trip across the border.

I personally never go across the border with the specific intention of shopping. It’s always an added stop to a pre-planned trip – to catch a flight from Bellingham, a baseball game or concert in Seattle, etc. That way, I’m already spending the time and gas to get across the border, and it makes my trip worth it. And as always, if you are going shopping across the border, it’s in your best interest to declare all purchases when you head back in to Canada.

Just as a side note, I came out of Target Canada (Coquitlam) empty-handed. But I left the Target in Bellingham $66.79 poorer.

Have you been to Target Canada yet? How do you find it compares to Target USA?

The post Target Canada or Target USA: which is cheaper? appeared first on Give Me Back My Five Bucks.

Fast forward to about a month ago when I was introduced to a really cool website called Can I Pay Less.

This is a unique website because it allows you to input how you spend your money and what rewards you’d like to receive – then the site performs an analysis against all credit cards available in Canada, and within seconds, you get to see the cash value of rewards based on your preferences. What I think the best feature of the site is that it can compare millions of credit card combinations to give you a personalized recommendation for the best credit cards for you to use in combination with each other.

For example, check out what happened when I inputted my data:

This tells me that by using my current Capital One Aspire Travel World Mastercard, based on my average monthly spending habits, I would earn around $390 in rewards. But if I added the Marriott Rewards Visa and used it for spending in restaurants, I could potentially earn a lot more in rewards each year.

If you click on the Card Details button, you will get an even further breakdown of how the rewards would work:

I’d still have to do some additional reading, but this is EXACTLY the tool I wish I had known about last year – or even years ago. It likely would have saved me hours of research when all I really wanted to know was what card was right for me, and whether my combination of cards was working for me.

What do you think of the Can I Pay Less website?

The post Finding the right credit card can be confusing appeared first on Give Me Back My Five Bucks.

Tuesday 7th
+ $20.45 Ebates
$68.25 accountant

Wednesday 8th
+ $300 freelance income
No Spend Day!

Thursday 9th
No Spend Day!

Friday 10th
+ $461.36 freelance income
$10.16 lunch
$97.66 Lucky Jeans
$15.13 MEC (bicycle lock)
$40.18 gas

Saturday 11th – Okanagan
$41.68 gas
$17.13 taxi
$105 Mission Hill Winery Tour (for 2)
$40.10 wine
$6.06 lunch
$25 hostel
$10.19 dinner

Sunday 12th – Okanagan
$36.89 gas
$9.78 lunch

Freelance Income: + $781.81
Expenses: - $523.21

TOTAL: + $258.60

This was a good week – not necessarily in terms of spending (as you can see from the totals above), but as you can tell from yesterday’s blog post, it was really nice to get out of the city for the weekend and just relax. Work has been somewhat stressful lately, and I think we both just needed a break. It was expensive, but I worked extra hard this week to bring in some additional freelance income. I also picked up a contract that will bring in a few thousand extra dollars this month, which will be nice.

Also I splurged on a pair of jeans. I’ve been struggling for years to find the perfect pair, and thought I found what I was looking for with Levis. However my pal over at Save Spend Splurge recommended Lucky Jeans to me, and once I tried them on, I fell in love. They are the perfect fit, and definitely worth the almost $100 price tag.

The post Spending Recap: May 6-12, 2013 appeared first on Give Me Back My Five Bucks.

First, the expenses. Because this is a personal finance blog, after all.

The total cost was $357.10, and I guess when you consider $105 (nearly 30%) of that was the wine tour at Mission Hill (for 2), it really wasn’t that bad. We definitely saved money by staying in a dorm in a hostel – we were only gone one day, so it’s not a big deal to share accommodation. Anything more than two days, and I would have wanted to at least splurge on a private hostel room.

Gas was also expensive – but considering the drive was about 1000 km, it was to be expected. This category also includes one taxi ride to the winery (took the bus back).

We ate cheap meals because food was one thing we didn’t feel like splurging on. So this included a trip to Subway, Booster Juice, and the grocery store. :)

And finally, I did do some splurging at the Mission Hill store – snagging a bottle of Compendium wine because it’s not available for purchase in stores. I plan on storing it for at least a few years.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our trip! :)

We were on the road by 7am on Saturday morning, because our tour was scheduled for 11:30am at Mission Hill. Kelowna is just under 4 hours by car, but we wanted to stop for the world’s best pie along the way:

Once we had our fill of pie, we raced to Kelowna, and made it to Mission Hill Winery with 10 minutes to spare. The weather was gorgeous, and there were only 2 other people in our tour group, so it was a pretty good experience.

The Mission Hill Winery – so beautiful! I’m glad we went early in the season (less tourists).

This was our first wine tour ever, so being able to walk through the vineyard was really cool.

Then we got taken to the tasting room, where we got to sample a bunch of different wines. I liked our small group because we were able to ask a lot of specific questions about the wine, and the winery itself. I was impressed with how fun the tour was, and I would definitely like to go on more. But it was expensive, and sampling wines at the bar wasn’t as fun as going on the tour.

The next day, we headed south to Osoyoos, where we went on a short hike, stopped at Spotted Lake, and then headed home through the beautiful Similkameen Valley.

Spotted Lake – we were both disappointed that we had come too early in the year, and the water hadn’t evaporated enough to see the “spots” of the lake.

Well, that was my weekend. :) I hope to come back again, but likely not for a while. It’s a long trip for just a one-night visit. But it was relatively cheap, and since this year I’ll be focusing on more local travel, it was perfect for that. How was your weekend?

The post A weekend getaway to the Okanagan appeared first on Give Me Back My Five Bucks.

When I was younger, many of my friends went traveling. I was extremely jealous of their experiences, but not of the fact that they racked up credit card debt, ignored student loan payments, and came back home to a financial mess. Now that I’m able to afford to travel, none of my friends can because they’re too busy paying for the life they led 10 years ago.

And that’s fine by me, because I personally think I’m appreciating travel more now, than I would have when I was younger. For one thing, I can afford it. Sure, I still stay in hostels and travel on the cheap. But I can afford to do amazing things as well – like hot air ballooning in Cappadocia, hiking in the Arctic Circle, taking a gondola ride in Venice, and eating real, proper meals in restaurants – without any of it having a major impact on my budget.

The few times I traveled when I was younger? It was rough staying within such a tight budget. Especially since “budgeting” was a foreign concept to me anyway. Being older and knowing how to manage my money appropriately makes traveling a lot less stressful. And maybe even more enjoyable?

There’s so much emphasis on traveling when you’re young. In fact, just a few days ago, someone pointed me to this article: 3 reasons to travel while you’re young. Basically the idea of the article is not to hold off on traveling. No matter what the circumstances, there will always be something to stop you. Here’s an excerpt:

Never were more fatal words spoken:

• Yeah, but… what about debt?
• Yeah, but… what about my job?
• Yeah, but… what about my boyfriend (or dog or car or whatever)?

Most people I know who waited to travel the world never did. Conversely, plenty of people who waited for grad school or a steady job and traveled still did those things — eventually. Be careful of the yeah-but. The yeah-but will kill your dreams.

The world is a stunning place, full of outstanding works of art. See it. Do this while you’re still young. Do not squander the time. You will never have it again.

I get the message behind what he’s saying: don’t be scared, just go for it. But to put a time limit on travel – to say that you should do it while you’re still young (what’s wrong with doing it when you’re 30, or 40, or 60?) – to contemplate forfeiting all other life goals… well I think that’s a bit foolish. And it’s the reason why I don’t read many travel blogs. It’s like if you don’t travel often (or at all, even though you want to) because you have other priorities in life, all of a sudden you’re uncultured, boring, and basically dismissed. Not saying all travel blogs are like that, but some are. That’s probably why I’m a better fit as a personal finance blogger, than a travel blogger. :)

And it leads to comments and sentiments like this:

To even suggest that going into debt in order to travel will enrich your life? Or that you should travel instead of taking care of (high interest) debt? Come on. Let’s be real here. Perhaps it’s because I’m a personal finance blogger, but I think that’s the dumbest piece of advice I’ve ever heard. Traveling doesn’t automatically make you better, smarter, or more cultured than anyone else. It also doesn’t make you more interesting either. Life experiences do – and it doesn’t matter if you gain those experiences working a 9-5 job, raising children, getting out of debt, earning an education, or traveling.

I had coffee with a friend a friend last week, and we got to talking about my year in Germany. She said the one thing she really regretted was not spend time living abroad somewhere during her life. I gave her a weird look and said, “your life isn’t over just because you’re 30, you know.” She gave me an equally weird look back and I immediately knew she hadn’t even considered living abroad now that she was “old.” There are plenty of opportunities to travel and live abroad at any age. And of course it’s true you will experience things differently when you’re young. But who’s to say whether that experience will be better or worse than going 10 or 20 years down the road?

I guess my point is that I don’t think anyone should regret not traveling when they’re young. Not everyone can. Or wants to. If you have debt to take care of, a career to think about, family obligations, or any other reason that would prevent you from packing your bags – guess what? The world will still be around to explore after you’re 20′s. :) And maybe, MAYBE it just might be better that way.

So travel when you’re young. Travel when you’re old. It doesn’t matter. Travel if that’s what you want to do in life. Or don’t. Just don’t go into debt to do it, and don’t get pressured into stretching yourself thin just because you feel the need to experience or see something by a certain age.

Do you think it’s essential to travel when you’re young?

The post You don’t have to travel when you’re young appeared first on Give Me Back My Five Bucks.