Goods & Services Archives - Page 4 of 7

How To Stop Getting The Yellow Pages

February 21, 2012/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Goods & Services, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

If unwanted telephone directories go straight to your recycling bag, here’s how to opt out of receiving them.

WASTE NOT | According to a 2010 Globe and Mail article, plenty of people still let their fingers do the walking through the physical pages of a hard copy version of the Yellow Pages. Funny, I don’t know even one of them. Everyone I know from 8 to 80 has switched to the computer to find the telephone numbers of their favourite businesses. For me, the Yellow Pages has become a shelf-grabbing dinosaur, and I cannot remember the last time I leafed through my copy—oh wait, yes I can. It was last week after two copies of the latest tome arrived on my doorstep and I picked up one them to look for a way to opt out. Read more

Some Relief For Expats Filing US Tax Returns

February 2, 2012/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Goods & Services /by Editor

Americans living in Canada can’t escape paying U.S. taxes, but they can reduce the cost of filing a return.

SPEND SMART | If you’re an American citizen resident in Canada (or know someone who is), you know from the ruckus in the press last year that you’re required to file two income tax returns annually: a Canadian one because you live here, and a U.S. one because you are an American citizen and the U.S. taxes on the basis of citizenship rather than residency.

Never mind the fairness issue, or that people such as Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney game the system by legally parking their jillions in accounts in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, you still need to file—and unless you’re familiar with the U.S. tax code, you will require professional assistance. This service can cost plenty in Canada, which is why some filers head south. Read more

Pill Popper: Why You Need A Sweater Stone

January 5, 2012/3 Comments/in FASHION, Goods & Services, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All Fashion Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

The best device ever for removing pilling from fabric is on sale right now.

SALE ALERT | This is hardly the time to suggest that you rush out and buy stocking stuffers with another 354 shopping days left until Christmas, but we’ve decided to do a little pre-Christmas shopping at Eddie Bauer this week because they’re having a sale on our all-time favourite Christmas stocking gift, the Sweater Stone and we plan to stock up. If you’ve ever put one of these tools to work, you’ll know why we’re excited; if you haven’t, you might want to listen up. Read more

Three Storage Bags That Make Good Gifts

December 7, 2011/0 Comments/in Goods & Services, HOLIDAY, Holiday /by Editor

To protect and to store, these “something extra” Christmas gifts will keep on giving long after they’ve come out from under the tree.

HOLIDAY 2011 | It’s all but impossible to imagine storage bags would be at the top of anyone’s Christmas wish list—or tacked onto the bottom of it for that matter. But the clever containers featured here perform their intended tasks so well that anyone lucky enough to receive one or all of them as “a little something extra” for Christmas will silently thank the giver a thousand times over whenever they put them to work. Read more

Wrap Stars: H&M’s Reusable Gift Boxes

December 6, 2011/2 Comments/in Goods & Services, Holiday, HOLIDAY /by Editor

Why don’t more stores follow the H&M lead and minimize their logo on good looking gift packaging so shoppers can reuse it year after year?

FREE & FABULOUS | Too bad other big brands and major retailers don’t adopt Swedish fashion megabrand H&M’s approach to gift-wrapping, because if enough of them were to do it, gift givers would be able to wean themselves off wasteful wrapping paper in no time flat. Read more

Is Bleach Superbad For The Environment? You?

November 9, 2011/6 Comments/in BUY THIS. MAKE THAT., Cleaning & Maintenance, Goods & Services, HOME, View All Home Stories /by Editor

Is common household bleach a threat to the environment? Can it kill you?

BACK TO BASICS | Call me a freak, but putting on rubber gloves and plunging my hands into my own toilet bowls to clean them with a scrubbing sponge doesn’t bother me at all. What does bother me is that no matter what cleaning products I use, the bowls of my newish toilets look dirty again in days. Frustrated by the ineffectiveness of Vim, Ajax, Lysol et al., I turned to cheap, common household bleach. Read more

Aeroplan Miles: Use Them Or Lose Them

November 2, 2011/3 Comments/in Goods & Services /by Editor

Aeroplan miles don’t accumulate forever. After seven years, they take them back.

WASTE NOT | I used to use my Aeroplan miles all the time. Then my son graduated from university so I no longer had to fly him and us between here and Montreal, my husband stopped taking business trips that I would accompany him on, and there was no longer any urgency to travel. Read more

What Virtual Assistants Can Do for A Business

October 13, 2011/1 Comment/in Goods & Services /by Editor

When time and money are tight, hiring highly experienced virtual personnel could make good sense for your business.

SAVE TIME + MONEY | Although Canada has not experienced anywhere near the economic downturn that has occurred in the U.S., businesses here are on the lookout for ways to save money. One way is to include virtual assistants (VAs) as part of the employee mix. Read more

Keep Track Of Social Shopping Coupons

September 28, 2011/1 Comment/in Goods & Services, HOME, Organizing, View All Home Stories /by Editor

Here’s an effective way to keep track of all your social shopping purchases so they’ll never go to waste.

WASTE NOT | Some digital deal behemoths like Groupon, Living Social—and now Social Shopper—alert purchasers when their social shopping deals are about to expire, but other sites do not. This puts the onus on the purchaser to make sure their deals don’t slip through the cracks. If you’re like me, you may have forgotten about a few things you bought on impulse (social shopping is impulse buying after all), or just plain allowed coupons to expire. When this happens, social shopping becomes a gargantuan waste of money. Read more

Blunt Design-Builds A Way Better Umbrella

August 23, 2011/43 Comments/in FASHION, Goods & Services, View All Fashion Stories /by Editor

This New Zealand umbrella manufacturer is redefining personal weather protection.

MONEY WELL SPENT | Although Vancouver is a rainy place, I almost never carry an umbrella— and if I do, it’s usually a cheapie. I go cheap because every umbrella I’ve owned has been either wrecked and ruined in a storm or lost in 60 seconds. Considering my history, I surprised myself recently by switching from $10 disposables to a $60 Blunt umbrella. If the Blunt lives up to its promise, it’ll be one of the last brollies I buy. Read more