Elvis Presley releases ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ in 1956. The Beatles release ‘Love Me Do’ in 1963. Bruce Springsteen releases ‘Born to Run’ in 1975, Michael Jackson releases ‘Thriller’ in 1982, Nirvana releases ‘Nevermind’ in 1991. Then pretty much nothing happens for twenty years until the Screw You Recession Crew releases their eponymous rap ‘Screw You Recession’ in 2009.
I think it’s safe to say that is how the history books will remember the musical timeline of the last half century.
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Oh my lanta…can you believe Canada Day is already here!!?? I feel like it was just last week I was waking up with mysterious maple leaf tattoos plastered all over my forehead!  Ooops … I mean innocently checking out the lovely festivities at Parliament Hill =)
Take a peek at my video for FREE/CHEAP things to do this Canada Day! (which is tomorrow, people. TOMORROW!)
Free Shirts! Free Buffets! Free Sight Seeing! Free! Free! Free!
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Two days ago, on Monday morning, you woke up and told yourself, “This week, I am going to exercise more often.”
Today is Wednesday. You haven’t really been exercising like you promised yourself, have you? It’s OK, we’re all friends here. You can admit it.
I am not here to judge. I understand how hard it is to make time for it, especially with how excruciatingly monotonous most of our exercise alternatives are. Working out at a gym, jogging for an hour to end up back at your house again, running on an elliptical while you stare at a TV. They all suck.
Follow along with this exercise video and tell me if you notice immediate results. If you don’t, I’ll refund your money. What’s that you say? You didn’t pay anything?
I know.
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I still can't believe this is my office
My first blog post. Ever.
Needless to say, but mentioned nonetheless, I’m only a little nervous typing into the world of online blogging. Each stream of writing is highlighted by its own style and blogging I’ve learned is no different. Rules are meant to be bent and others to be broken and while I’ve never blogged before, any excuse to be published without adhering to CP style rules is one I will take gladly. And so it goes!
As we’ve moved into late June, I took a look at my monthly bank statements and my blood began to exhaust with frustration. Monthly charges….of 8 bucks. Now I know what you’re thinking, 8 bucks is no big deal. But then again, that’s probably not what you are thinking because by reading this site, you are looking to save money. And 8 bucks could have bought me the following: A Chinese food lunch buffet, a month’s supply of toilet paper or flu medicine.
Instead I lost before I had! This could not continue.
So I called Scotiabank demanding my charges go away. Or so it seemed.
It turns out that my bank account has a debit card transaction limit of 15 transactions per month and every transaction after the 15 is 65 centuries (or cents as the pilgrims refer to it.) I had no idea this was the case and my CSR and I discussed different options available. So if you are like me and transact over their limit all the time then contact your bank and see what other options are available.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
Once I mentioned that I was a student, he said, and I quote:
“Oh, well that changes everything.”
It turns out that Scotiabank has a student account plan where you get unlimited transactions for $1.25 a month if you’re an active student. Now I don’t know if other banks have this, but if you’re a student and you get monthly charges like I did, then call your bank to see if you can make some, in the words of David Bowie, ch-ch-ch-changes!
Which brings me another point. Put your debit card away.
Thade also had a great post about saving money when going out to eat. And when it comes to fast food, there is one deal where you can’t go wrong and that’s Burger King. They have a different value meal every day priced at $4.29 and you just can’t go wrong with that. I recall the beautiful days at Mickey D’s when a Big Extra meal came to $4.59, but oh how the mighty have fallen.
Finally, two interesting tips I researched online. A woman in the States discovered two interesting ways of conserving water. She puts a bucket of water in her sink when she’s doing the dishes and then uses that water to water her flowers. Pretty cool, but she goes farther. She also washes her face BEFORE she goes in the shower. That way, she figures she does not waste all the excess water for just her face.
These strategies are certainly for the consumer who is looking to save in the tiniest amounts, but if you truly believe that every little thing counts, then clean your face before you step in the douche!
Excuse me recession, go screw yourself.
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According to a recent study commissioned by McNeil Products Ltd, makers of nicotine replacement therapy products, the recession has not caused any decline in smoking in the UK.
“Almost a quarter (23%) of smokers said they had put off plans to quit. And 28% said they had simply been too stressed to make a successful attempt to quit in the last six months, blaming job and financial worries.”
I don’t want to downplay the difficulty of quitting smoking, but it seems like the recession has given us a convenient scapegoat on which we can pin the blame for anything.
“Why haven’t you quit smoking?”
“Oh this damn recession.”
“Why do you shoplift?”
“Why else? The recession.”
“Did you watch The Hills last night?”
“I wish! I would have but, you know, the recession.”
Probably the most troubling point to come out of the article is that one in four respondents said they had actually started to smoke more during the economic downturn.
These people love them some cigarettes. Like more than food. “42% of respondents admitted they were more likely to cut spending on clothes, and 21% said they were more likely to try to cut down their weekly supermarket shop.”
With statistics as alarming as this, surely there is no way even a tobacco industry lobbyist could put a positive spin on it. Right?
“A spokesman for the smokers’ lobby group Forest said: “If people want to give up that’s great, but there is no doubt smokers do derive some comfort from tobacco in times of stress.”
That reminds me of the one time that someone asked me why I race my car around town so fast and I said, “If people want to drive at a reasonable speed that is cool, but there is no doubt that driving fast makes me feel like a man.”
According to cancer.ca, Canadians smoke almost as much as those crazy Brits, with about 19% of us still puffing away.
To all you smokers out there, I know it’s hard to quit. It is very, very hard. But give it a shot. Find something to replace smoking, but not something lame like a nicotine patch. Try this on for size. Every time you have an urge to light up, engage in public intercourse instead.
I don’t see any way that can turn out bad.
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The results are in and Waterloo’s D.J. Demers is the official Screw You Recession! Summer Intern. After having his video hand-picked as one of Richard Branson’s Fave Five and meeting with us live and in person, Demers is ready to jump head first into the Screw You Recession! world of blogs, cash-crunching, tip-gathering, and web-combing for the best recession news and cash-saving advice.
Stay tuned as D.J. starts making magic on Screw You Recession! starting next Monday morning.
But there’s more goodness. We were so pumped to see the skills, talent, hotness, and amazing creativity from some of our Summer Intern candidates that we decided we couldn’t let them go. That’s why we decided to build the Screw You Recession! Blog Army.
These guys are kickin ass and takin names. Joining D.J. in the crusade are some of your other favourite Summer Interns: George Panayotou, Thaddeus Bolton, Romi Levine, Lucas Meyer, Andrea Guernsey and Trevor McManus round out our gang of recession revolutionaries. They’ll be taking over the net with video blogs, recession tips, general money-saving craziness, and whatever other random goodness we fee like throwing your way.
Stay tuned. And if you’re the recession… take cover. Our first bombs drop next week.
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A few weeks ago, I made the analogy that seeing a sporting event live is just not the same as watching it on TV and I immediately realized that it had been a while since I’d seen any sport live. I’m not alone, however, with attendance to sporting events declining by 40% during the recession. That’s a lot of un-eaten hot dogs (although, given the inputs to a hot dog, that’s probably a good thing). But therein lies part of the problem – when you factor in ticket prices, exorbitant concession prices and additional auxiliary charges like parking or foam fingers, a sporting event could run you some serious dime. It’s really a shame because there’s nothing quite like being intoxicated by the energy of an enthusiastic crowd and having a good laugh watching awkward couples kiss and dance for the cameras.
Kiss-cams aside, you’ll likely get plenty of excitement if you start looking at the minor league teams in your area. Sure it won’t be as skilled an affair but minor league players are essentially playing for their professional livelihood so there’s always a sense of urgency in their game. This always seems to overcome a lack of skill. What I also really enjoy about minor league sports is that you don’t need to spend much time lamenting about how much the players are earning. That might sound petty but seeing a guy strike out three times and get paid more than your annual salary to do it can really sting at a time like this. For the record, Alex Rodriguez makes $37,145.65 per at bat. Nuff Said.
Speaking of baseball, if you happen to be living near the Big Smoke, the Blue Jays are back and are providing a highly entertaining brand of baseball. Going to a Jays game has those expensive concession issues, but you can get tickets for as low as 12.00 and enjoy the day sitting in the sun sipping on your flask. Okay, so I’m not encouraging you to bring a flask because it’s not allowed but for the sake of painting a vision, let’s roll with that.  Addressing a more national audience, the CFL will be back soon and from what I found, it’s a good and cheap time. As I write this, it’s dawned on me that it would be really helpful is someone created a site that aggregated cheap sporting events (any takers?).
If spending money is entirely out of the question, the next best option is to do it yourself. There’ s nothing more free and probably gratifying than throwing the Frisbee or ball around with your friends at the park or making new friends by checking out sport networking sites like Sportaholik. With gym memberships on the decline, you’ll be surprised to find that many people are hungry for free opportunities to be active and social at the same time.
Speaking of hungry, I’m getting there but this toonie in my pocket isn’t going to get me very far….or will it? I think I have my idea for next week, see you all then.
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Over at NOW Magazine, I stumlbed onto an incredible articles by Elizabeth Bromstein called “Cash Crunch.” In it she goes beyond the standard, sometimes faceless money tips (which, though useful, don’t really make you feel much beside the need to go to the bank) and examines how young people feel about money. Not “feel” as in “I feel I want more money”, but the more subtle ways that it impacts us emotionally. Over-doing anything is psychological before anything else: over-gambling, over-eating, over-drinking, over-whatevering. Over-spending is the same. So why are we doing it? How does money really affect how “happy” we are? Are we spending because we’re we feel happy, or do we feel happy when we’re spending?
According to medical researcher Peter Ubel at the U. of Michigan, “Once you have your basic needs met, getting more money rarely brings us as much additional happiness as we think. If you make $70,000 a year and the person to your right makes $700,000, it’s still almost a flip of the coin which one of you is happier.”
The whole article is definitely worth a read, but to boil it all down here are Bromstein’s 5 Quick Tips…
1. Bliss over a new gadget fades much faster than fond memories of a good time, studies suggest. If you invest in fun experiences, you’ll enjoy them for a lifetime.
2. Don’t assume more money will make you happier. Studies show that poorer folk don’t spend more time in bad moods than richer ones. Your bucks won’t save you from your demons.
3. Don’t assume that what you want at any given moment rep resents your true desire. Neuroscience shows the conflict between your pain and pleasure centres makes you a less-than-rational creature.
4. Keep tabs on your spending  – close, close tabs – and rate each expenditure on the pleasure scale. Don’t repeat what ain’t wonderful.
5. Don’t compare yourself to others; it will only bug you. There will always be someone on your path with more cash, so keep a gratitude journal and thank your stars for the roof over your head.
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If you think the only difference between a bull market and a bear one is a pair of horns, then come join me at the back of the class. While I may have a degree in chic-o-nomics, it seems that I’ve got a lot to learn when it comes to the wonderful world of finance. Nowhere was this more evident than during a dinner party on Friday night at which I sat next to an “investment advisor” from RBC who asked me what I thought of all these underwater houses. I said I thought they sounded awesome. Do they have electricity?
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Turns out, “Underwater Houses” refer to homeowners whose mortgage balance is higher than the value of their house. Mmmm kay. Lesson learned.
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So while I line up some Banking Experts who can help me (and you) understand the ABC’s of what happening beyond the sale racks and “staycations”, I’m compiling a Recession Glossary. I’m sure you’ll recognize some of the following, but if you’ve got any of your own, send them my way! xo
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duppie: acronym for “depressed urban professional” (also “downwardly mobile urban professional”).
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furcation: a polite term for unpaid time off (combination of “furlough” and “vacation”).
homedulgence: the tendency for consumers in a recession to socialize at home, indulging on a smaller scale.
chiconomic: style-conscious on a budget (similar to frugalista, recessionista, and recession chic).
bleisure: the blurring of business and leisure, as more people work from home or for less strictly defined hours.
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My sister sent me the link to this site last night…. GasBuddy.com. Awwww! Is anyone else picturing a little gas nozzle with big red cheeks and a friendly grin? Anyway, besides having an adorable name, the site will also tell you where to find the cheapest gas prices in your area. The site is updated daily by some 750, 000 (yes, I said 750, 000) “gas price spotters,” who text or email price updates to the site from their local service stations. Members collect points for sending in prices, referring a friend or posting a message, and can redeem points by entering in the weekly contests for $250 gas cards.
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I kind of feel left out, since I don’t have a car and don’t typically care about gas prices, but this website and my little gas nozzle friend kinda make me wish I did.
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