If you’ve seen any of my monthly snapshots, you’ve probably seen that I have more than one retirement savings account. There are two accounts that have money actively moving in; one through work, and one at a bank.

The one through work is with a company that sells a variety of mutual fund products. Their MERs (management expense ratios) range from between 2.5% to 3.5%. If you’re not familiar with MERs, it’s the percentage of your account balance that goes to the financial institution each year to pay for the care of your account. These MERs are high, but not out of whack compared to what a lot of Canadians are paying in fees on their accounts. The saving grace to the high fees is that I have employer contributions and matching as well. They put in 3% automatically, and match 50% of the next 3% that I put in as well. Basically for the first 3% I get a 150% employer contribution match.

The account at the bank has much lower fees; the fees on this account are closer to 0.5%. I don’t get anything in terms of investing assistance or advice, but it’s a much more inexpensive place to stash my money.

I’ve been wondering for the last little while whether it was better to direct my contributions into the high cost account with the free money, or if I should put it all in a low cost account, where the only money that goes in is what I contribute?

Sounds like a job for graphs!

I plotted a $100 contribution with an MER of 0.5 against six $100 contributions with contribution matching and an MER of 3.0. I did this for four different rates of return (4%, 6%, 8%, 10%) to see how much of an impact it would have on the results over the course of 40 years.

Lump Sum - 4% Rate of Return

Lump Sum - 6% Rate of Return

Lump Sum - 8% Rate of Return

Lump Sum - 10% Rate of Return

I was shocked to see that the low cost fund beat out all of the higher cost funds with contribution matching over a 40 year period. It started overtaking the contribution matched funds after the first 10 years in all four cases.

After plotting the different scenarios it occurred to me that my graphs weren’t entirely accurate. Sure, it’ll be close to 40 years before I retire, but do I plan on contributing once and just trusting that it’ll be enough at the end? I don’t think so. I plan on contributing throughout my working career. How does that affect it?

I adjusted my chart to include consistent contributions every year. The results are a little less clear cut than they were before:

Annual Contributions - 4% Rate of Return

Annual Contributions - 6% Rate of Return

Annual Contributions - 8% Rate of Return

Annual Contributions - 10% Rate of Return

They’re a little harder to read, but again the low fee funds start beating out other funds in less than 20 years. The rate of return had a larger impact here. At a 4% rate of return the low cost fund matches the fund with a 75% contribution match after 40 years. At a 10% rate of return, the low cost fund matches the fund with a 100% contribution match after 40 years.

That’s absolutely incredible when you think about it. You’d have to start with, and steadily contribute, twice as much money in one fund as you would in the other just to pay for the fees. You do this just to end up with the same amount of money at the end of the day. All that free money has amounted to nothing.

It just goes to show that fees matter when it comes to investing, and that not all easy answers are as easy as they look. If you were offered a 50% contribution match at work, would you take it? Would you have looked at how the fees on the account would affect your money over time? I hadn’t before now, and I’m a little perturbed by the results.

If you have fewer years to retirement, and have a great contribution matching program, it’s a no brainer. If you’re younger, however, and if your contribution matching is on the smaller side, you may be better off saying no to the free money and investing it yourself in a less expensive fund.

Crazy, I know.

I’d have to be getting a consistently incredible rate of return over the next 40 years to make turning down the 150% contribution match worth while. That being said, anything I put in on top of what I’m currently putting in there won’t be matched at the same rate. It’s worth it for me to keep my current contribution rate going at the office, but anything on top of that is better off going into my low fee account. I’m happy about this, because it’s what I had planned to do anyway.

What fees do you currently pay on your retirement accounts? Have you ever turned down free money? Would you?

Recommended Reading: Sh*t my boss says/This is why personal finance is important to me.

See the ball.

Wait! Don't Drop the Ball! (Photo credit: ipythias)

See me drop the ball.

I have absolutely no idea what happened to this past week. It just kind of disappeared on me. Somewhat fitting when you consider it was the productivity week *face palm*

That sound you hear is my ball bouncing by.

I did almost nothing in terms of productivity this week. I dropped my donations so far off at Goodwill, but that was about it. I’m just going to consider this week my “break” before tackling the big kahuna: my unpacked boxes in the basement.

*shudder*

Fortunately I didn’t completely drop the ball on tracking my spending:

February 15
-$16.39 – groceries
+$115.50 – medical reimbursement
February 16
+$15.00 – kijiji sale
February 17
+$20.00 – kijiji sale
February 18
*No Spend Day*
February 19
*No Spend Day*
February 20
*No Spend Day*
February 21 
-$10.00 – reloading Starbucks card
-$20.00 – gas
-$20.00 – oil change Groupon
-$43.17 – veggie delivery

Discretionary money balance: +$40.94

This is the first week I’ve come out ahead! It’s due entirely to the fact that I received the reimbursement for my massages this week; but the kijiji sales helped pad the total a bit

I’ve been waiting on picking a location to get my oil changed, and it paid off. I initially found a coupon for $39.99. Then a couple days later I got a bunch of coupons in the mail for between $29.99 and $35.99. Finally I received a Groupon e-mail in my inbox – oil change for $20. Sold. I’m going to try to get it done on Friday.

If you’re part of the challenge, how did you fare this week?

Recommended Reading: Your reward for working so hard is your income.

I’d like to give the same heartfelt thanks to Asia for nominating me for a Liebster Award

The Versatile Blogger award requires that I write 7 random things about myself and nominate 5 other bloggers for the award. The Liebster award requires that I nominate 5 other bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.

I’m going to do it a little differently this time, because these awards frequently make the rounds on the same blogs. If you’re a small blogger, and you want some love, leave your link in the comments with a random piece of information about yourself and I’ll put it up on this post. I’d love to read some new blogs that are just starting out

I will give you another random 7 things about me though. I’m going to have to start keeping track of my random stuff so I don’t bore you with the same stuff repeatedly

1) I skipped grade 8 math as a kid and went straight into grade 9. Between that and being in a grade 7 class where we weren’t taught much, I never actually learned how to do fractions. I’d convert them to decimals in my head, do the math, and convert them back to fractions. It wasn’t until my first year of calculus that my prof caught on and actually taught me how to do them.

2) I’m anaphylactic, and eating mangos will kill me. I always get the same response when I tell people I’m allergic to them: “Oh you’re missing out, they’re sooooooo good.” I actually didn’t like it when I ate it as a kid. I also really didn’t like the gruesome response my body had to it. Come to think of it, my mom didn’t either. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. Funny that.

3) I’m mildly OCD when it comes to the number 4. It used to be really bad when I was a kid; I’d flick lights on and off 4 times, I couldn’t put a book down unless the page I ended on was a multiple of 4, I’d break chocolate bars into 4 pieces, you get the drift. I’d not nearly as bad anymore, but I still put small candies into piles of 4 before I eat them.

4) I don’t like jazz. Some people have a really strong response towards me when I say that, but I really don’t like it. Squealing saxophones give me a headache every single time. I can listen to heavy metal, but not jazz. Go figure.

5) I have really long arms. I’m a 1/4 inch shy of being 5’3″ tall, but when you measure my arms tip to tip they should belong to someone who is between 5’5″ and 5’6″ tall. I injured my neck as a kid and sometimes I wonder if it stunted my growth.

6) Driving in the city terrifies me. Make me drive 200km out into the middle of nowhere on a bad road, and I’m completely fine. Make me sit through a turbulent flight, and I’m fine. Put me on a small city street where people are cutting me off without using their turn signals and constantly tailgating me? Not fine, not fine at all. I was actually scared to be a passenger when I moved to the city, because the traffic terrified me. I didn’t look out the window if I didn’t have to for the first few months. The first time I drove in the city was 3 years after moving there, because I needed a vehicle to get to my first job after university.

7) My parents considered naming me Charlie when I was born. It’s not a common girls name, but I think I would have made a good Charlie. Seeing as my boyfriend is obsessed with Top Gun, it would have been perfect actually

I’ll get my week 3 decluttering/low spend update up for you guys later today. Thanks again everyone!

Recommended Reading: Hello Money, Please Take Me Back.

Anyone?

No?

Okay, I’ll give you a hint:

That looks kind of painful, doesn’t it?

Any guesses?

Okay, now for the really painful part:

I’m guessing you’ve figured it out by now. That pie is the breakdown of what I paid for my mortgage in 2011. Ouch eh?

I don’t know if it’s a little masochistic, but I do actually enjoy opening my annual statement. In spite of the sheer quantity of money going to interest right now, it shows that it’s not all in vain, and I am building some equity in my home.

Rather than looking at my payments like this:

I prefer to look at them like this:

If I average my interest payments over 12 months, it would be the equivalent of paying just over $775 a month in rent. I’ve paid more in rent for smaller spaces in this city. Even if I average the entire payment including taxes out over 12 months, I’m sitting at just over $1375 a month. That’s less than what it would cost me to rent my house in my neighbourhood.

The real saving grace to looking at my statement is seeing the interest portion of the pie shrink every year. If you’re not familiar with mortgages, this is what it looks like when you’re paying them off:

This isn't my mortgage, but if it was I'd only be on the 2nd bar

For the first few years your annual payment goes almost exclusively to paying interest, while paying off a small portion of the mortgage balance. It’s like paying off a very high balance, low rate, credit card where the minimum payment stays pretty much the same as you pay it off. The higher the balance (the beginning), the more interest you pay. The lower the balance (later in the mortgage), the less your payments go to interest, and more goes to principal.

That’s one of the reasons why prepayments early on in the mortgage are so beneficial; they have the biggest impact. Of my ~$610 biweekly mortgage payments, ~$180 is currently going to principal. If I make a $1000 prepayment now, it’s equivalent to making almost 6 mortgage payments. If I make that same $1000 prepayment later on in the mortgage when my principal portion is worth $330, it’s only equivalent to making 3 mortgage payments. The more money I put to the balance early on, the fewer years I’ll be paying it for.

I’ve been telling myself since I signed the mortgage that I was going to take advantage of the prepayment options, but as of yet I haven’t. One of the first things I plan to do once I’ve paid off my line of credit, along with saving up some money to switch over to online banking, is bump my mortgage payments up by 10%. I’m currently allowed to increase my biweekly payments by up to 20%, along with annual lump sum payments of up to 20% of my starting balance. While I don’t foresee being able to take full advantage of those prepayments, I am going to try to put as much onto it as I can while still contributing to other savings accounts. I’m trying to not get too far ahead of myself here.

If you own your own home, do you take advantage of any prepayment options? If so, which ones do you use?

Recommended Reading: The art or refusing money (or that moment you realize you’re an “adult”).

Why? WHY have you infested my yard??

Ah, things you didn’t know you needed when moving into a house.

Michelle over at Making Sense of Cents did a post yesterday on how she plans on upping the curb appeal of her home. Now there’s a topic I can get behind! I purchased my home in foreclose in November of 2009. It never really occurred to me that if the house was trashed on the inside, it was probably also trashed on the outside as well. Autumn evenings hide all sorts of gardening sins…

Spring finally rolled around and it finally occurred to me what I had purchased. I bought THAT house. You know the one; you drive down a street of perfectly manicured homes, just to see the blight of the neighbourhood. The source of all dandelions. The yellow lawn that causes an ombre effect on the green lawns beside it. I had my work cut out for me.

My neighbours thanked me when they saw me doing yard work that first spring.

Not only that, but with leaves on the trees I could see that despite having been planted at the same time, my tree was over a foot shorter than every other tree on the block. The suckers shooting up around the trunk were up into the branches in terms of height. The poor thing was literally dying for some nutrients. It didn’t flower the first year I lived here. The second year it flowered on one side only (the uphill side, nearest the fertilizer spike), which was kinda funny to look at.

Having moved from my parents acreage to an apartment for university, it didn’t really occur to me until that spring that there were all sorts of things you needed in a house that you don’t use when you live in an apartment or condo. As such, I had none of them. These aren’t necessarily 100% needs, but most people will probably find they need them at some point in time or another if they try to do anything with their yard. The ones in green I’ve already had to purchase:

• lawn mower
• weed wacker
• leaf rake
• gardening rake
• thatching rake
• trim edger
• shovel
• ladder
• snow shovel
• ice scraper
• pruning shears
• weed killer – anything from vinegar to Killex.
• buckets or a wheel barrel
• lawn fertilizer
• tree/bush fertilizer
• grass seed
• hose
• sprinkler
• spray attachments
• watering can
• assorted small gardening tools, seeds, topsoil, etc…

The list goes on and on. I hobbled by the first year partly on the generosity of others. My parents gave me a gift card to Canadian Tire which I used for gardening supplies. One neighbour gave me his old lawn mower when he purchased a new one, and I borrowed his weed wacker on occasion as well. The lawn mower got me through the first year and a half, but it died a smoky electrical death last summer. That lead to me purchasing a reel mower – no gas or electricity needed (and therefore no more smoke). There were two kinda crappy snow shovels in the house when I moved in, which I still haven’t replaced yet. Kinda dragging that out…

When Michelle wrote that she was thinking of possibly setting a $500 budget for yard work, my first reaction was “are you nuts??” *insert scrooge reaction here* Then I actually thought about it. I’ve easily spent that much on my yard so far, I’m not done yet, and I’ve been doing the best I can to keep my costs down. $20 for grass seed here and $30 for tools there adds up very quickly. You put painting, fixing a lawn and planting a garden all into one bucket, and it’ll easily be $500. Easily.

She’s got me thinking now about the things I want to do for my curb appeal this year. I have to keep the cost down, especially in the spring while I’m still paying off debt, but there’s quite a list of things I need/want to do.

• I need to keep working on my weed eradication *free*
• I need to start trying to revitalize the grass in my back yard *~$50*
• I’d like to mirror the herb bed I built on one side of my sidewalk onto the other side as well *~ $50*
• I’d like to plant a bush in front of the house *free if my friend still wants to split hers*
• I’d like to put capstones on the trim around my tree *~$100*
• I’d like to repaint my porches *~$150*
• I need to paint my fence *~$100*

And what do you know, I’m already almost at $500.

If you live in a house, what did you have to purchase when you first moved in? What would you encourage a first time home owner to buy to get them started? Am I missing anything on the list?

Recommended Reading: Half vs. Amazon vs. Ebay: Which Is Best For Selling Your Books?

I’m cold right now.

When I moved into my house, it was drafty as a sieve. The house was built during a boom, so the quality of the construction leaves something to be desired. No one should have left this job site feeling proud.

My kitchen was ridiculously cold my first winter here. I have some suspicion that my wall closest to my sink isn’t properly insulated, but that was minor compared to the big issue: the back door.

Now I didn’t actually notice the problem until the following summer, when I realized I could see daylight even though my door was closed and locked. The door didn’t even touch the weather stripping. After spending a few minutes assessing the situation, I came to an unfortunate conclusion: the door wasn’t framed properly. When it’s closed, the door sits at a somewhat cockeyed angle to the frame. The door touched the weather stripping at the top, but at the bottom it was a good inch and a half away. As a result, the weather stripping was effectively useless.

I didn’t have either the money or knowledge of how to fix the door at the time, so I did what I could. I tore out the existing weather stripping and rigged up a new one. Normally when you close a door, the weather stripping sits between the door and the stop like a weather stripping sandwich. Since my bread slices didn’t meet on this sandwich, I had to come up with something else. I ended up buying a strip of sticky backed foam weather stripping, and stuck it on a diagonal down the jamb so the door touched it when it closed.

As a temporary solution, it works. However, it does have it’s issues. When you’re using the sticky backed stripping in its normal configuration, the closed door helps push the strip into the stop, which reinforces the sticky connection. When it’s on the side of the jamb however, the door is pushing on the side of the strip, which makes the sticky part want to peel off.

As a result I now have a ~4″ piece of stripping at the bottom of the door that has peeled off and decided it doesn’t want to stick anymore. Hello again draft. Today’s task is going to be to glue the little strip back in place so it blocks the cold air again.

What are you working on today?

If you do participate in Procrastination Thursday please credit Digging Out And Up and link back here. Thanks a lot!

Recommended Reading: Less Than A Grand!

Image via Wikipedia

Or is that just me?

The group that does my veggie delivery charges $35 for the box of veggies, and $5 for delivery. But if you order $40 worth of produce, the delivery is free! As such I usually tack on some portobello mushrooms or some dried fruit into the mix to make up the $5 difference for the free shipping. Costs me the same either way. This week I threw some goat cheese in my veggie box order rather than produce, which cost a little more than $5. Consequently, out of my $60 grocery budget this pay period, I had $16.80 left to cover everything else.

I put off getting groceries as long as I could; basically as long as my milk passed the sniff test (it was still fine until almost a week after the expiry date). Today though, I needed to get groceries. I ran out of salt for heaven’s sake!

I remembered that being the 15th, all of the Valentine’s Day chocolate would be on sale. I wasn’t going to build it into my grocery list in case I didn’t have enough money for it, but I was definitely going to keep an eye out for it. I do have a pretty strong sweet tooth

This is how my groceries panned out this trip:

• Old El Paso Salsa – $3.49 (on sale)
• Ground beef – $3.81 (smallest package I could find)
• Salt – $0.17
• Dried black turtle beans – $1.96
• 1L skim milk – $2.19 + $0.10 carton deposit
• 1 dozen large eggs – $2.59
• 2 bulk bags of solid chocolate hearts – $1.98 + $0.10 tax

Total: $16.39 – 41 cents under budget

The bulk aisle has been my saving grace. If I had purchased prepackaged salt, it would have easily been $3-4. Instead I picked up 2/3 of a salt shaker worth for $0.17. I haven’t had to fill my salt shaker in well over a year, so this will last me a really long time. The beans were also a bulk aisle find; I picked up 455g (1 lb) of dried black beans for $1.96. Half of them are in my crock pot cooking right now, and the other half are in the cupboard for later. I expect between 1/2 the ground beef, the beans, and some rice and veggies I’ll get lunches and dinners for the rest of the work week.

Those chocolate hearts are my treat to me!  Two bulk bags full of chocolate for $2. I can’t beat that. I’m out of chocolate chips at home as it is, and I can’t buy chocolate that cheap in any form. My plan is to use a lot of these in baking. I’ve found flourless cake and brownie recipes I can make, but the cost of buying the chocolate for them seems prohibitive at times. Not anymore

Kimberly from Poor Girl Eats Well does a great series called the $25 Shopping Cart, where she goes to different stores and markets and shows a detailed breakdown on how much food she can buy for $25. They are fantastic, and I strongly suggest checking them out. It’s impressive how far you can stretch a small budget when you look hard. Unfortunately, given my geographic coordinates, food generally costs more here. I can’t even come close to matching Californian produce prices.

I can however do the best I can on the budget I have. I’m thinking a little further down the road, when I’m not doing the veggie delivery anymore, I might try doing something similar.

What do you think? Would you be interested in a Canadian version of the $25 shopping cart? Do you think, if pushed, I could make $25 last a week? Let me know what you think.

Recommended Reading: Work Situation.

This week I was decidedly less energetic than last week. I just felt like I was dragging. Combine that with a frustrating bout of insomnia, and you have kind of a slack decluttering. I tried.

The disastrous before shots:

My living room had turned into the equivalent of a multipurpose catch all zone. I opened mail there, ate dinner there, read there, blogged there, sewed there, you name it. On occasion I’ve even fallen asleep there when I just didn’t have the energy to walk up stairs to my (still tidy!) bedroom.

This is after:

Clutter, misc papers, and sewing stuff gone. Well, except for one Lululemon shopping bag which holds some small crafts by the couch. The short book case is actually empty now, and it’s going to be moved into the kitchen to hold cookbooks and small appliances. The only reason it hasn’t been moved yet is because my roommate is sick.

The large bookcase is the one I really wanted to work on:

It’s been a catch all for miscellaneous crap since I moved into my house, and despite my attempts to organize it before it always fell short. I’m satisfied with it for now. There are some shoe boxes at the bottom that I’d like to replace with decorative boxes, but that will have to wait until I have money.

Speaking of money, this is how it went this week:

February 8 – *No Spend*
February 9 -$0.00 – coffee on SBux card, already paid from prior pay check.
February 10 – *No Spend*
February 11 – *No Spend*
February 12 – *No Spend*
February 13 – *No Spend*
February 14 – *Pending*

Discretionary money balance: -$0.00

I’d say it was a fairly successful week money wise. My car was full of fuel, so I haven’t had to fill up again yet. I do need eggs, milk, dried beans and salt, I just haven’t made it to the grocery store for them yet. I have to pay for my veggie box still, which might show up on today’s spending, otherwise I’ll pay for it tomorrow. I posted a bunch of stuff on kijiji and I got 3 bites worth a total of about $60. Unfortunately 2 of them just sort of vanished, and when I tried to meet up with the 3rd today we spent 1/2 an hour both not seeing each other, both going home frustrated, only to find out yes we were both at the same location *facepalm* Fingers crossed that one will go through on Thursday.

Going through the living room I managed to throw out 11 items, put aside 6 items for donation, and put 49 items in the recycling (mostly magazines). I also gave 5 Engineering study guides to The Boy’s younger brother, because he’s currently at the university doing his first year there. So, that’s 71 items this week, bringing my total this month to 167.

I made the mistake of adding up the purchase price of the magazines I put in the recycling this week. $167.68 plus taxes. That sucked; though to be honest I was expecting it to be much worse.

How did your challenges go this week? Next week’s productivity challenge for me is going to be tackling my office/filing cabinet. What’s yours?

Recommended Reading: Your Money Is Yours.

Image via Wikipedia

I received a comment from Batman over the weekend about why I pay bank fees. It’s a valid question, in the day of online banking it’s not necessary to pay bank fees anymore. I know a lot of brick and mortar banks down in the states have only just started charging monthly fees for checking accounts, but Canadian banks have been charging them for years. If anyone knows about a brick and mortar bank in western Canada that doesn’t charge them, by all means let me know.

I do currently do a lot of my banking online. I transfer money around, pay my bills and buy my mutual funds and stocks online. I do like the convenience of online banking. I’m just not 100% ready to make the jump to full online just yet. I do plan to do it later this year, but not yet.

The first thing I’d like to do is finish paying off my line of credit with my current bank. I don’t want to be closing accounts while I’ve still got liabilities on the table. I’m only a few months away from doing this as it is.

The second thing I want to do is build a one paycheque reserve in the online account before I switch everything over. Given that my mortgage comes out of my account the same day that my paycheque goes in, I want to make sure there isn’t any delay in the online system. I think it was Red earlier this year that got stuck without her paycheque for a couple days, because the pay day landed on a holiday so her online bank didn’t process it right away. I do NOT want to be missing mortgage payments. That’s why I want to have a paycheque worth of reserve in there before I get things switched over. I also want to have the reserve in there in case my work isn’t as quick to move my pay over as my mortgage is at moving my payments.

Batman said that they hate paying fees, and I do too. I’m just not personally and fiscally ready to make the jump yet. I do plan to do it, and kudos to you for pointing out that I’m paying not only stupid, but stupidly high fees. Comments like those keep us bloggers on our toes

Have you made the jump to online banking yet? How did you find the transition? If you’re in a brick and mortar bank or credit union, do you pay fees? Why or why not?

Recommended Reading: Developing Discipline.

This post has been sponsored by netvouchercodes.co.uk

It’s fairly safe to say at this point that my shopping has fallen off the deep end while I’ve been working on paying off my debt. It’s been a necessary evil, and unfortunately one that the state of my wardrobe is starting to reflect.

I started shopping online a couple years ago after the purchase of my first pair of expensive jeans. Those suckers hurt my wallet, but almost 5 years later they still fit me perfectly in all the right places. Knowing the brand, style and size however, I was able to turn to the internet for them when they went on sale. I’m a sucker for clothes.

During the last year and a half, in an attempt to get my fashion fix, I’ve become a sucker for fashion blogs. After the first few weeks I was getting frustrated at the constant stream of Louboutin, Chanel and Balenciaga. I wanted to know how on earth they were doing it? Who can afford to buy all of these items, and still be able to refresh their wardrobes every time a store restocked its shelves? Are they trust fund kids? Are they kept? Even in a debt free state I sure couldn’t afford to do that.

I started to notice something else though. Every once in a while the bloggers would mention that if you typed in a code at the online checkout, the store would give you a discount. The offers frequently have time limits, and the discount would vary from free shipping to well over half off!

What rock had I been living under that I didn’t know about these before? To be fair, I always saw that there was a box for voucher codes at the checkout, but I had never actually used one myself. I never knew where to get them from, and I always kind of assumed they only went to *special* people. I wasn’t special enough for a discount. *facepalm*

I finally gave it a shot over Christmas when I was purchasing The Boy’s Christmas present. His golf bag kicked the bucket over the summer, and to say he was ticked off would be an understatement. I decided then that if he didn’t go out and get one for himself, I’d get him a nice one for Christmas. After dealing with a less than helpful sales associate in the store, I decided I’d look online for his gift. After locating exactly what I was looking for, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to look and see if I could find a voucher code for it before I hit the order button. Low and behold I found one for 10% off my order, which ended up paying for my shipping costs!

For better or for worse, when I find a brand that works for me I tend to be fairly loyal to it. It’s not necessarily helpful in getting rock bottom prices, but it saves me the frustration of trying things only to find they don’t work for what I need. I’m quite excited to have found a way to take a bite out of my online purchases without having to switch brands. I’ll definitely be using these in the future for my online purchases!

Have you ever used a voucher code? What is the best online discount you’ve ever gotten?