While reading 101 Tax Secrets For Canadians 
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Free stuff is always fun, and I recently received an email about My Coke Rewards and the free stuff they are giving away right now. Apparently there’s a promotion going on where they will be giving away one million points over the next two months that can be redeemed for all sorts of fun prizes.
The email I received with the details is as follows:
“I thought you and your readers would be interested in the following information about the launch of Coca-Cola’s My Coke Rewards Million Point Giveaway—its biggest points giveaway to date. During the Million Point Giveaway, My Coke Rewards is thanking its members by awarding thousands of free points every day that people can redeem for things they love, including portable DVD players, gift certificates and free Coca-Cola products.
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101 Tax Secrets For Canadians: Smart Strategies That Can Save You Thousands by Tim Cestnick
I recently borrowed 101 Tax Secrets For Canadians
The book is written a lot like a textbook. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of tax planning including strategies for retirement, self –employment, employees, family tax planning, estate planning, and more. The book is fairly easy to understand and it contains practical advice on building tax savings strategies. If you are interested in learning more specifics on how to save on taxes every year, I would definitely recommend that you read this book. Although tax laws continuously change, this book has been revised into a 2010 edition so everything is up to date.
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After speaking with a friend of mine who is studying holistic nutrition, she made me aware of the dangers involved in using some of the everyday products we take for granted. For example, there are harmful chemicals found in many brand name deodorants that I had never thought twice about purchasing in the past. Apparently these chemicals are absorbed by the body and can cause problems including cancer.
I decided to be more particular about what I bought from that point on. I was able to find a deodorant comprised of 70% organic ingredients. It cost about $5 more than the regular deodorants I had purchased in the past. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work very well. I still didn’t want to go back to buying the harmful products so I decided to try out Norwex’s Crystal Deodorant. For those of you who don’t know about Norwex, it’s a company with the mission of providing cleaning and hygiene products that don’t contain harmful chemicals.
The Crystal Deodorant cost me $12.99 and since I consider myself to be fairly frugal, it seemed like an awful lot of money to be forking over for deodorant. As it turns out, the deodorant seems to work really well, thankfully, and if it lasts at least a year then I will have more than made up for the money I would have spent on regular deodorant. In fact, I think it might even last longer than that.
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It’s important to be faithful to your spouse, and this includes being faithful regarding your finances. A recent globeinvestor.com article entitled “Do You Cheat On Your Spouse Financially?” really got me thinking about the importance of being honest and open in marriage, specifically regarding finances.
Couples need to determine how much freedom each partner gets in terms of spending without the other’s permission. Big-ticket items will likely require both partners’ consent, whereas smaller everyday items can likely be purchased at one person’s discretion.
It’s a good idea to sit down with your spouse early on in your marriage to set boundaries as well as to decide on the dollar amount that can be spent without needing the other’s permission. Of course, every marriage is different and some couples may choose to keep all of their money separate and to rarely discuss their finances with each other. (I don’t think this is the healthiest way to handle things, but I understand that there are special circumstances that may require this method.)
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If you are like me, you enjoy trying foods from different countries from time to time. The easiest way to do this, of course, would be to go to a specialized restaurant that serves that special cuisine you have always wanted to try. However, going out to eat is often really expensive and may not fit within your entertainment budget. But that doesn’t have to stop you from trying different things and expanding your menu.
Rather than eating out, check out local markets and small grocers in your area that offer goods from various countries. Major cities will often have stores catering to their multicultural populations so it shouldn’t be hard to find grocery stores and shops that sell delicacies from around the world.
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An article recently posted on globeinvestor.com suggests that not enough Canadian parents are taking advantage of the Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) to save for their children’s education. According to the article, it’s primarily the highly educated folks with higher incomes that are taking advantage of them, and the people with lower incomes who could really benefit a lot from them either don’t know enough about them or think they just don’t have the means to open one.
The great thing about RESPs is that you don’t need to have a lot of money to open one. So if one of your savings goals is to help your child pay for post secondary education, an RESP is the best way to do it because your child will receive free money from the government in the form of grants and bonds. In some cases, even if you don’t put any money into the RESP, your child may still receive some money from the government.
Opening one is easy. Once you have applied for your child’s Social Insurance Number, sit down with an account manager at your financial institution of choice and ask to open an RESP. When you open one you will automatically be applying for any government grant and bond money that is applicable to your child. You can even open a family plan if you have more than one child. The benefit of the family plan is that if one or more of your children decide not to further their education, the child or children who do can use the money invested in the RESP.
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