Ragss2Riches

This weather is putting me in such a good mood!!

I don’t want to get tooo optimistic (this is Alberta after all), but I think the winter Just.Might.Be.Over!!! And this means…

Wait for it….

We can start riding bikes again!! Haha. But seriously, it’s a key symbol of summer time. But ofcourse, don’t go out and buy one. Spring time is prime time for snatching up bikes in garage sales.

Last summer I lived in Barcelona, and they actually have one of the coolest bike systems that I’ve ever seen. It would be such a great idea if our weather was a little better. It’s called bicing (bee-sing) and every few blocks they have rows of bikes bolted to a rail. If you buy a membership ($30 for the year) you can swipe your card and take a bike off for half an hour (or they start charging you if you ride longer). Need to peddle for longer than half an hour? Not a problem- just park your bike at any of the many railings, and grab another. This way they don’t get stolen.



And I’ve never seen as many bikes in all my life as I did in my 3 days in Amsterdam. Five-level parking lots holding thousands of bikes!! It was beautiful! Europe really has the right idea about some things.



Sooo… I know that isn’t really helpful to you. Just something that I get excited about so I decided to share it ☺ Until next time…

Love,

Ami G

I found a couple designer items that are either identical or incredibly similar to some of my accessories, so here I've listed the prices and stores.




Left: My Shoes, Spring, $80
Right: Caged Platform Sandals, Barney's, $705






Left: My Bag, H&M, $15
Right: Small Bag, Jas MB, $300

Left: My Ring, Le Chateau, $12
Right: Kenneth Jay Lane, $85



I used to get envious watching high fashion tv and everything the rich and famous can afford, but now I look at it as a challenge to be creative and work with the stores in my price range! Try window shopping in places wayyyy out of your budget, observe the mannequins, and then try to copy the look in a store like XXI!

Love,

Ami G

So we’ve all read tips and ideas on saving money, and a somewhat popular one is carrying cash and leaving your cards at home. If you don’t have your plastic with you, you can’t use it, and you’ll also avoid the dreaded service charge.

However, I DISagree with this tip.

When you are spending cash, the only evidence of where your money is going is on the receipt (which, realistically, young people do not tend to keep). So whenever you are going to set-up a budget or try to figure out where all of your money is going, you just have a giant amount under “withdrawals”, and a giant question mark for your answer. Without seeing your past expenses it is very difficult to plan for the future and see which purchases were really necessary, which you should do if you are serious about controlling your spending.

And leaving your cards at home?? This just seems to be a huge inconvenience to me. You never know when you’ll need some extra money to get out of a pickle, or for that extra necessity you forgot to put on your list.

The last argument against using your debit/credit cards- the service charge- can be avoided if you simply do your banking the right way. There actually ARE plans available to eliminate this cost. Student accounts are a prime example, talk to your bank for more information!

So if you’re like me, and insist on keeping your debit and credit with you, make sure to review spending, budget, go to the right bank, and you should be just fine ☺

Love,

Ami G

YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS!!

Not even 10 minutes after I blogged last, I got a puppy!! Well, not for real, but kind of.
I work at a hostel, and the housekeeper heard some whimpering from a room. She checked it out, and found a puppy in the locker!!!
We had to give it back but I gave the owners big trouble. Poor pup!
I don't have my USB cord here but I got a good video with Lito (I found out that's the puppy's real name) so once I'm done work I'll post the video for you!
So cute!

Love,

Ami G

Did you know that pet therapy is real? Playing with animals (specifically your personal pets) is proven to have benefits socially, cognitively and emotionally.
But I can't really recommend that you go out and buy a dog, so I'll tell you about the next best thing!
I think one of the most adorable date ideas is to go to the pet store and play with the puppies!! You may have to pretend you're planning to buy one, or some SPCAs offer this activity as it keeps the animals happy too.
So everybody wins! Except for that part at the end where you have to say good-bye :(


Ohh, I wish I had a puppy!

Love,

Ami G

So, it’s pretty obvious that technology has changed the world drastically, even just from when I was a kid (which I like to think was not that long ago).
But the scary question is, “Is the workforce changing so fast that our education isn’t up-to-date enough?” New values and techniques are melting away traditional methods, and it is hard to say what sort of skills will be most needed by the time we start our careers.
In my business class we read a book called “The World is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman.



It’s a little long… even my prof said he must have been paid by the word. But one part I found very interesting was his section on the “untouchables”; skills that will always be beneficial for our generation in finding a job. So I would like to share them with you ☺

1) Collaborators....2) Synthesizers
3) Explainers........4) Leveragers (is this a real word? Haha)
5) Adapters..........6) Green People
7) Personalizers....8) Math Lovers
9) Localizers

If you have any questions on these make sure to comment, because I find them really interesting to talk about! I like to think I’m a collaborator, explainer and adapter.

Love,

Ami G

Just started following dealsplus on twitter... they tweet a little often, but so far so good.
They post random deals they find on amazon, from video games to easter baskets to waffle makers. But my favourite part is their contest tweets where if you retweet, you get entered for a draw! So far I've entered for a car and an apple product haha.
So if you think you can control your impulse buying, u may wanna stay posted incase that hoola hoop (or any other random object you desire) you've been wanting comes up on sale from deals plus!

Love,

Ami G

The bad news: McDonalds free coffee is long over.
The good news: Now SUBWAY has free coffee until April 22nd!!
What's going on here?? (though I am not complaining) Are they trying to overrun Timmy Ho's and Role Up the Rim?
Who do you think trumps who? Free coffee, or cheap coffee with the chance of big prizes?
I'm trying a little bit of both.
PS, so far 50% of my Tim Hortons cups have won!! I'm feelin' lucky! Maybe I should buy some lotto tickets too???

Love,

Ami G

Hungry?
But there’s nothing in the fridge to eat, and you’re just not ready/can’t afford to go shopping?
Or maybe there is food in the fridge, but you just don’t know what the heck to do with it?
www.cookthink.com is your solution!
They not only take into account what you have available to you, but what you’re craving as well!
You simply choose your mood (classic, exciting, chewy, etc), and what ingredients you have available. If you want you can even distinguish it down to your desired cuisine, such as Japanese, American, Jewish, whatever! From then it will recommend recipes that you may have never even thought of!


It helped me discover zucchini soup with ginger and lime, and spicy beet and avocado salad with cilantro… but if you’re not into that don’t worry, I typed in unique and nutritious to get results like that.
Anyway, whatever your mood, enjoy!

Ami G

Hola!

So I just got back from the Wild Tangerine, an independent restaurant in Edmonton. The owner stops in quite often and usually visits the tables, and he did so tonight. He told us about the Live Original VIP card (which is free), and how we can use it to support local businesses in Edmonton! (they have it for other cities too though).
I looked at the pamphlet he gave me, and some of my favorite restaurants were on it! Twisted Fork Diner, Upper Crust Cafe, Leva, and some funky sounding places that I've been meaning to check out.
It helps out the businesses because it's a bit of advertising for all of them, and it is good for YOU because whenever you pay for something at a local store (it's not just food, there are pubs and retail too), you get reward points. At the end of the year you get a cheque for 4% of whatever you spent at these places! Aaaand, it's good for everybody because it keeps the money circulating locally instead of going to worldwide chains.
For more info check out www.keepedmontonoriginal.com

Love,

Ami G

Hello friends,

For those of you in Edmonton, have you discovered Rodeo Burgers 112th St (near U of A campus) yet?
I haven't, but tomorrow (Mar 23rd!) is the perfect opportunity, because the burgers are freeeee!!
I love it when new food joints have Grand Openings!! Woohooooo

Love,

Ami G

Eeeeasiest way to save money for our generation→ Learn to Do It Yourself from youtube!! Music lessons, yoga routines, or how to make a blog! (heh heh). Whatever you are interested in, there is no need to pay for instruction anymore.
There are even small every day things that you don’t think to look up, like how to sew a button or hem your pants. Usually if a button pops off the first thing I think of is “Shopping time!!”. But reallllly, if it’s time to save money, it is so easy to check-out online!
So before you pay someone to fix that broken banister or teach you an ab workout, be confident, independent, and try to learn it yourself!

Last month I entered a competition through my faculty at the U of A called the Apprentice. I won that competition. That is all.



Just Kidding!. What I wanted to say about it is that one challenge was the classic “trade-up”. Each team was given a paperclip, and 3 days to trade it, and then trade what traded for, and so forth, and whomever had the item with the highest monetary value at the end won this challenge.

We ended up with 2 oilers tickets! Another group had a flat screen TV, and another a microwave. This really opened my eyes to how one man’s trash can be another man’s treasure. When I think of all the things that I dispose of every time I move (which is quite often since I live in a different city every summer), they are all worth more than a paperclip!

So take a pause, and look at your loot before you trash it. I bet it’s worth something to someone… Maybe even Hockey tickets!!

Now that the weather is starting to warm up I can tell you about one of my favorite cheap date ideas. You start off with $10 each, and buy a few scratch tickets (the one and two dollar ones). Then once you scratch them, you take your winnings, go for a walk in a busy area of town, and buy more lotto tickets with your winnings at the next gas station. You keep on going like this until you win $30 or more, or until you’re out of money.
I’ve done this a few times and it can actually go on for a while. I’ve never ended up winning haha, but I figure $10 is worth it for a couple hours of fun. If you don’t have that much time you can start off with $5 each. And who knows, maybe one day you’ll win big!

Love,

Ami G

That bottled water distills not only the bad, but also the good. If you want to get everything out of your water (I hope you’re all drinking that 8 cups a day!), then it is actually better to drink tap water with a lemon slice in it. The lemon distills out the bad, keeps in the good, and I’ve actually grown to quite like the taste of lemon water. Also, its cheaper than always buying bottled water!

Love,

Ami G

I just found a pamphlet for an organization that believes that everyone has the right not only to food, but to healthy food. So what they do is buy fruits, vegetables and meats in bulk amounts, and as they are a non-profit organization they do not have a mark-up on the price. This makes them about 20% cheaper than the grocery store.
Their orders are $8 for fruits and veggies, and $12 for meat. You can order as often as you like, and go pick it up at their location nearest you (there is now one at the University).
At first I thought I might feel guilty participating in this, because as I can afford food I don’t want to take advantage of the system. So I talked to them about it and this actually is as good as it sounds, it’s there for everyone! I was also nervous that the food might be wilted or close to expiry or something, but I met someone who just tried it and said there was a lot of food and it was all fresh! So I’m going to have to try this out, and I’ll let you know how it goes for me.

Love,

Ami G

Everyone knows about the first Tuesday of the month where most of the grocery stores give deals, but I just realized the significance of this last month. I usually buy my shampoo, razors, vitamins, etc, whenever I run out of them. But as these necessities tend to add up quite a bit, 10% Tuesday actually saves you a lot of money on them! So if you are running low see if you can hold off until the beginning of April, and plan it out so you get your expensive purchases on the cheapest day of the month.

Love,

Ami G

I was reading one of my regular blogs recently, and they were talking about vacations that we can take right in our home province, Alberta. And I couldn’t help but piggy-back off of the idea and think of this book I recently read called “The Impact of a Single Event”. It’s from a local author, and you can tell a little that he’s a first timer, but it is still neat because I know all of the towns in his novel (accept for the period when they go to Africa). Anywayyy, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with vacationing, so I’ll tell you.
At the end of the book, you are told about a specific location and given the coordinates of it, and the couple goes there in the book. Apparently, there actually is something waiting to be found at that location, so I think reading the book and following the map would be a fun hiking adventure! Also, you would be supporting a local author in the process, and as writing books is what I would like to do one day, I support you supporting authors :)
Even if you’re not much of a reader, hiking/camping is still an excellent break from reality for a super low cost. As may long weekend will be coming up soon, I’ll blog about some excellent free camping locations for you! Make sure to reply if you want to add your fav spots.



PS, I went on a camping date last summer near Jasper, and there was so much to do every day! Cliff jumping at Horseshoe Lake is a must, here’s a couple cute pics of my camping date :)




Love,

Ami G

So I’m not sure about all of you, but I am clueless about how to do my taxes. Every year I try to do it on my own and completely mess it up. And I just finally found out this year that the U of A will do them for you!!
As long as your annual income isn’t too high (because this is a service meant for students or other young people without a profession) they take you in and input everything on a tax program with you. For Freeee!!! This is only until March 20th so if you’re in the Edmonton area make sure to get on it!

Fast food joints are making it easy to get your daily fix! Not only is it Roll Up the Rim season at Tim Horton’s, but McDonalds is giving free coffees until March 14^th!!

PS, so far I'm one for two: I've won a free coffee, and had one losing cup. Wish me luck for the $10,000!!

Sooo, I just found out about something that one of my friend’s mom’s does once a month with her group of friends, and it is the most adorable idea!

For our age group I think this would work best with about 6 good friends and $50 per month. Everyone puts the money into a pot, and when they get together they draw a name. Whoever’s name they draw gets the $300 to go on a shopping spree!! Then, at the next month’s meeting, they show everyone what they got, and they draw a new name (ofcourse, they work it out so that everyone “wins” the same amount of times per year).

I think this is such an excellent idea because you’ll want to have a get together with your tight group on a regular basis anyway, and this will save you from spending a lot on a night out or an expensive restaurant. One of my keys to happiness is spoiling yourself occasionally, and this way you are guaranteed to twice a year at least! Also, I have trouble saving up any money if it is just sitting there in my account, but putting away a smaller amount (like $50) per month isn’t as hard. Making a plan with friends guarantees that you’ll have that money saved for when you need to have a spending spree.

Ofcourse, if you’re not into clothes shopping, or shopping at all for that matter, you can do whatever you like with the money! Video games, going to a hockey game, a spa day, a concert, odds are whatever interests you might interest your close friends, so it will still be fun to tell them about it.

What would youuu do with your sudden $300? I would defs go shopping!