Canadian Finance Blog

How Avoiding the Big Supermarkets In Canada Can Save Money

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 09:00 AM PST

When I first moved to Montreal I decided out of habit that it was probably most economical to load myself up with a back pack and a few plastic bags and head to the large supermarkets for a big box bulk shop. From my very first shop I felt like something wasn’t quite right, the costs just seemed a little too high compared to my home country (UK) prices.

This went on for a while but on the way home one evening, walking from downtown to my home in Westmount along Boulevard Maissoneuve, I noticed Marche Almizan on the corner of St Mathieau. It caught my eye because had some interesting breads outside. I love bread, so I popped in expecting just to pick up some new kind of bread. I walked around the store and noticed they had a ton of cool goods and they were not expensive, in fact, as far as I could tell they were cheaper than the box supermarkets I had frequented.

After that I started to check out some other smaller stores and supermarkets, I found more and more that I could find items in them at cheaper prices. I used to find some places would have cheaper canned goods and dry goods, such as Fruits Rocky Montana near DADs Bagels in NDG, and some cheaper for vegetables, such as Fruiterie Mont Victoria in Westmount on Rue Sherbrooke. Many places from the McGill Ghetto to Cote De Neige exist and have great prices.

When you start digging under the surface of a Montreal a lot of off the path deals can be found such at the goods at the Frigo Vert organic supermarket, next to Concordia downtown, and the donation based canteen style People’s Potato of Concordia downtown campus, yes you can get a lunch meal for nothing there!

But that’s Montreal?

I can’t say for sure that every city in Canada works like this but I have found some success using similar techniques back home in London, UK and have been told that it works like this in Vancouver too and some other places in Canada too. My best friend is also finding luck with this in Auckland, New Zealand.

The point is that by stepping outside of what is considered the normal thing to do you may find yourself finding better deals, better quality goods and you will also have the added benefit of supporting smaller more locally based business. You can create a shopping route and bulk shop (where possible) once a month or so, or if it’s on a route you tread daily just pop in when you need stuff.

Food is something that is needed so when we can work out a way to cut back on its cost it’s worth pursuing. In some cases it may be more work for you but you’ll actually find you feel more a part of your city and you’ll learn about places and people you never knew about.

After all this is how people used to shop until the big box supermarket came into existence and it helped harbour a sense of community amongst everyone.

Do you have any experience with small store shopping over bog store shopping and do you find it saves you money?

Author Bio: Forest parks writes about lifestyle, frugal living, finances and more over at his blog FrugalZeitgeist.com. He writes about things such as The Cheapest Places To Live and How To Simplify Your Life.

How Avoiding the Big Supermarkets In Canada Can Save Money originally appeared on Canadian Finance Blog on January 10, 2012.

Four Interesting Stories From 2011

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 02:00 AM PST

One of my regular media gigs is sitting on the Alberta Primetime Monday Money Panel and for our year end show, we were asked to talk about some interesting stories from 2011 or share stories of interest and things we are watching in the new year. 30 seconds is not much time to respond properly to this question so I thought I would share four of my tops stories from 2011.

Pooled Registered Pension Plans (PRPP)

In January 2011, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced the concept of a new PRPP as a means of trying to address the big retirement gap in Canada.

Later on November 17, 2011, the Harper government introduced the Pooled Registered Pension Plans Act(Proposed Act) legislation as the next step to the process of implement the federal portion of the PRPP. The government describes the PRPP as a change to Canada's pension landscape that will make saving for retirement easier for millions of Canadians.

Being a strong advocate of workplace savings programs and financial education in the workplace, I have followed this story closely and written some articles:

The next steps for the PRPP is the Federal Government needs to pass this Proposed Act and adopt regulations. At the same time, work on provincial legislation and the multilateral agreements will need to be undertaken.

Task force on Financial Literacy in Canada releases their findings report

In the 2009 budget, the federal Minister of Finance announced his intention to establish a national task force dedicated to the issue of financial literacy. The Task Force would provide advice and recommendations to the Minister of Finance on a national strategy to strengthen the financial literacy of Canadians. Appointed in June 2009, the Task Force on Financial Literacy is comprised of 13 members, drawn from the business and education sectors, community organizations and academia.

On February 9, 2011, Canada’s Task Force on Financial Literacy today made public its report to the federal Minister of Finance, recommending urgent action on a national strategy to strengthen Canadians’ financial literacy. I am watching this story to see if this whole process makes an impact on the future financial literacy in Canada.

Vanguard comes to Canada

Back in June, US mutual fund giant Vanguard announced it's intention to come to Canada with a series of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). In December they actually launched 6 ETFs with very low management fees. The management fee for all six Vanguard ETFs averages 0.24 per cent and the Canadian Equity Fund is reported to be 0.09 per cent.

I'm especially interested to see if the Vanguard Canada is able to create more awareness about the high fees being charged by the mutual fund industry. Canada has been reported as having some of the higher mutual fund fees around the world but despite that it remains the investment of choice for Canadians with $775 billion dollars of assets under management. ETFs have significantly less assets with less than $40 billion in assets under management.

Vanguard is targeting their ETFs to investment dealers and fee based advisors because the do-it-yourself market is too small (only 5% of all investors in Canada). Here’s a few articles I wrote on the topic:

Another year of Market Volatility

The last hot topic of 2011 was another tough year with more volatility. The TSX finished the year in negative territory (-8.89%) despite some hopes for a Santa Claus rally. The TSX hit a high of 14,329.50 and a low of 10,848.20 with 8 of 12 months with negative returns. September was the worst month of the year where the TSX lost 8.66% in a single month. October followed with the best month rebounding a 5.61% return.

In my line of work, I see a lot of investors who have accepted the volatility as normal and others who are just sick and tired of all the ups and downs and the market taking away any gains they make the previous weeks, months or years.

To help investors, here's a few articles I wrote about dealing with market volatility:

Are there any interesting stories you are watching for 2012?

Best wishes to everyone in 2012.

Four Interesting Stories From 2011 originally appeared on Canadian Finance Blog on January 10, 2012.

Life Insurance Blog

Tuesday, January 10, 2012