What car to buy is, in my view, a far more complex question than whether to buy new or used. The upside if you have decided to buy used: assessing the relative reliability of various auto brands and models becomes far more feasible with used cars than with new ones which have not yet developed…
This is a tale of a very typical interaction with a big Canadian bank financial guy (I refuse to refer to these guys as advisors, since they do very little actual advising – selling bank products is what they do) who is used to dealing with customers who unquestioningly accept his advice/direction for their investment…
If you read my earlier article on frugal grocery shopping, you are now aware of online apps for grocery flyers, like Reebee and Flipp. But did you know that there are also apps that will give you cash back for grocery shopping? Granted, it’s not quite so straightforward. The apps of which I speak trade…
Pay a visit these days to Amazon.ca, and you’ll notice straightaway that it is awash with third-party sellers: businesses other than Amazon who use Amazon’s colossal e-commerce platform to peddle their own merch. Some of these brands are known to all – vaunted household names, ubiquitous corporate marques, the retail elite – and others are…
Every frugal shopper knows that to buy an automobile is to buy a rapidly depreciating asset. Your car becomes less valuable with every kilometre you put on it, every little scratch and bump it receives, and every year it ages. Your only strategic upside is that depreciation is heaviest the moment you drive your baby…
Apart from owning a decent 1080p television with one or more HDMI ports, you will need the following items. Expect about $600 in initial setup costs (TV excluded).
Amex
If you don’t have this bad boy – or a VISA or MasterCard with a US billing address; or a “virtual” VISA from Entropay; or a…
Assumptions
For this chapter of my Guide, I assume that:
You have enrolled in, and successfully setup, Unblock-us.com service.
You are using the same credit card information and zip code that you entered to subscribe to US Netflix (see my previous chapter).
You purchased a Roku device with US firmware – not the Canadian edition.…
The problem with consumer electronics reviews on monster sites like CNET is that writers never have to pay for their own consumer electronics.
Manufacturers provide them for free. Writers test them for a week or two, and then crap out their articles. It’s a perfectly symbiotic relationship. One party needs to evangelize its flashy new…
These days, life on the leading edge of consumer technology is a little like sitting through a student production of Waiting for Godot. The tech press, such as it exists online with its adolescent sense of gravitas, breathlessly anticipates the arrival of a new and highly disruptive widget, preferably from Apple. Instead, it has to…
The underground man and I are slowly working our way through what I am calling a “superficial bathroom renovation.” I’m calling it superficial because although the man in my life is dying to rip out the tub, tiles and vanity and begin anew with the space, we can’t. We can’t because it is…