I did a recent poll on our Instagram (@fintcloud) to ask people if they would rather learn more about keeping a paperless office, or how to use tech to save money. The results were almost unanimous, people wanted to learn how to use technology to save money! I tried to do a few tips and tricks on IG stories, but think that a blog post would be a better medium.
The Canadian government is giving away millions of dollars to incentivize Canadians to live a healthier lifestyle. You can earn money / points by taking steps and doing some quizzes. Don’t have a step tracker? Just get Google Fit and connect it to this app. They literally pay you to live your day-to-day life. The goals are personalized based on your activity level. I’ve personally earned the equivalent of $15 in less than a year, doing almost nothing. (You do have to log into the app from time to time). For some extra bonuses, my referral code is: jennyt3667
Carrot Rewards pays out into points, and the point system that I use is the Canadian Drop Rewards. Connect your bank / credit cards, and you can start earning points immediately based on your spend with their partners (which includes Uber, Shopper’s Drug Mart, Sephora, Under Armour, Staples, Adidas and more). Including my $15 from Carrot, I’ve earned roughly $200 in Drop Rewards. It’s not cash, but Amazon.ca gift cards are pretty much as good as cash.
The best thing about Drop Rewards is that I find that you can easily stack this with other deals. Since the spend it tracked on your credit card immediately, you can stack this with other promotional offers (in-store specials, online promo codes).
Okay, so enough about points. You want cash? Ebates.ca will give you a cash rebates. So before you go online shopping, check if you are purchasing from an Ebates.ca partner store. If you shop through their link, they get paid a commission, which they share with you once your balance hits more than $5.01. I’m still new to this, but I don’t see why this cannot be stacked with the Drop Rewards. Some major partners include Amazon.ca and Ebates.ca.
Just Butter It is a Canadian finance app that gives you cashback just for allowing it to keep track of your subscriptions. The cashback seems to be roughly 1% of your eligible subscriptions. The bonus of using this app is that you can also easily keep tabs of what subscriptions you are still on. It allows for you to be more aware of those subscriptions that you should cancel if they are no longer in use;.
Mint not an app that allows you to earn or save money, but it is a fantastic way to keep tabs on your personal finances. Connecting all of your financial accounts will allow it to automatically calculate your net worth *caveat that it is not always accurate, particularly if you own a business. I love how easy it makes to visualize your finances. Bonus that it sends you reminders to pay your credit cards. It automatically sets a budget for you based on your previous spend and sends you reminders if spending trends are off.
I know people out there may be apprehensive about connecting all of their banking information to an app. I can understand that and I also felt this way in the beginning, but I think that it is much more beneficial to keep a close eye on my financials and have a full view of it rather than not. Mint helps me ensure that there isn’t fraud on my accounts, and makes me aware of any additional bank fees or interest charges on my account. It has indirectly saved me a lot of money.
Camel Camel Camel aka Camelx3
Love shopping on Amazon.ca for the convenience? Firstly did you know you can subscribe to recurring subscriptions to basic necessities and save more money if you stack these recurring subscriptions? Well, that’s great, but you also need to make sure that these goods are fairly priced. Here comes in Camelx3, which is a price watch for all items.
At one point, I was obsessed with setting this up. I would search for products that I commonly used (like razor blades), and products that I wanted to buy but only at a good price (like a headphone) and setup a tracking such that Camelx3 would alert me via email once the product’s price went down to the price at which I am willing to buy it at.
Your Start Up and E-Commerce Accountant
Jenny Tran, CPA, CMA
