Green Shield stamps

This may seem like a no brainer, but we've seen it work in so many good ways over the years.

A small number of retail outlets reward their customers for spending all their money at the store, however, there's a catch there, as one of the Millionaires Club members pointed out :

"You shouldn't be encouraged to spend your money"

This is true, rewards for spending should be avoided if you want to retire early.

However, we all have to spend money, often on food, gas and other essentials such as table saws or radial arm drills.

In the case of Canadian Tire, they reward their customers with token money, only redeemable at their stores. If you pay for your goods with cash or Interac they give you Canadian Tire money, something like two percent of your purchase and often, gas bar "booster" coupons can bump up that percentage quite dramatically.

This all sounds like chicken feed, what use is a couple of percent?

The local Canadian Tire does not have a gas bar, which is a shame, however, another of the rewards companies, Presidents Choice, have a gas bar that gives about three and a half percent in bonus bucks grocery coupons, in addition, if you possess a Presidents Choice Interac card, they reward you PC Points for using it. If you own PC Green bags and don't use their plastic bags, they give you bonus PC points. These points can be used like cash to purchase goods.

More chicken feed.

However, mother saved Green Shield Stamps and occasionally, after browsing the catalog for hours on end and a visit to the town centre, a pair of binoculars or a new set of kitchen utensils would appear in the household from the redemption of the little green tokens.

Mother would say "look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves" and these days we have a better system than the Green Shield Stamp Catalog, our rewards can be used at Canadian Tire to obtain the supplies for a free oil and filter change or a nice roasted chicken at your local Presidents Choice Superstore.

The point is that a couple of percent can be worth your trouble, Canadian Tire money from your yearly gas purchases and Presidents Choice points from a year of essential food purchases can be quite significant, maybe give you free oil changes for life and pay for the annual holiday hamper.

Look after those pennies.....