Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for the ‘Tim Hortons’ Category

Yes, it is Roll Up the Rim to Win (TM) time again at Tim Horton’s, a time as hallowed as Spring in Canada, causing normal folks to drink copious amounts of coffee to ensure they have a chance to win. What are these over-caffenated folks chances you ask? Just click here to have a look at the rules (that every Tim Horton’s is supposed to have around as well) and chances of winning.

If you read this document closely, you will learn:

• If you enjoy your Double, Double in Ontario, you have a chance of winning 50% of all the Rav4’s being given away.
• If you quaff your Regular in BC you only have a 6 in 17,364,000 chance of winning $10,000 (they will give away 6 prizes in BC and they figure to sell that many cups in BC).
• If you win a Rav-4 don’t hand your rim around, and when you try to claim your prize send it by Registered Mail (Timmy’s recommends that strongly)

It is always important to read the rules in these types of giveaways. It used to be they broke down the number of winners by cup size, but for some reason that data is no longer in the contest rules (it used to be Xtra Large cups had a better chance of winning).

I always thought that if a Condom maker wanted to make more better sales in Canada, they should license the Roll Up the Rim(TM) from Timmy’s and change it to Roll Down the Rim to Win (but don’t tear). Guess I think too far out of the box for most marketing companies. I suppose a Mohel could also use my idea, but I don’t think they advertise much. Remember, “The rabbi gets the salary, and the mohel gets the tips.”

My other idea, is that Tim Horton’s should sprinkle a few cups in there that say, “Haven’t you had enough Coffee?”, or “Ineligible to Win again this year!” amongst the cups for fun. They’d have to give out a small prize with them, but that would be funny.

EI Claims Climbing

Stats Canada rolled out some interesting information about EI (employment insurance) claims yesterday:

In December, 538,200 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, up 25,000 or 4.9% from November, after seasonal adjustment.

The number of Canadians receiving regular EI benefits rose by 79,100 between December 2007 and December 2008, a 16.6% increase. The number of men receiving benefits went up 21.7% while for women the number increased by 8.6%

So in 1 month the number of claimants jumps by almost 5% and year over year it just almost 17%, which is very worrisome (especially for those of us unemployed). Given the period for claiming EI has been extended, this might mean a larger drain on the EI fund, which has previously been a “cash cow” for the government to draw from.

TSX a Bargoon?

If you are looking at buying into the market is now the time to dive in? Not sure what part of the index you might buy, or maybe buy the whole thing in an Index Fund (or maybe an ETF too?).

Don’t know, but here is an interesting graph to look at:

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Neat eh? Easy to see that we are back to 2002 (like I mentioned yesterday). Just something else to keep in mind.

R-r-roll Up The Rim and Buy?

Tim Horton’s was always an interesting investment idea, but I still can’t see growth, but every year when the Roll Up the Rim to win season rolls in I see the herds of Canadians buying their coffee at the Mecca for Cheap Java North of the Border.

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Will I be buying Tim Horton’s stock? No, I think I am moving away from investing directly in stocks and moving back to a more passive investing technique.

Happy Ash Wednesday

Lent has begun folks, and now is the time to start your Lenten Financial journey, and to maybe drop by your Church and enjoy their Ash Wednesday service as well.

Your journey begins today.

Busy day, so I went back into my archives to find my Tim Horton’s Savings Plan posting from a little while back (a new classic):

Think if you bought Tim Horton’s stock you are doing ok (no I am not saying go out and buy their stock, figure that one out for yourself), but I am saying look at that “Double Double” you have sitting next to you. Ever thought how much those things cost you? I have asked you this question before, so you should know the answer.

Let’s have some fun Arithmetic, shall we?

1. Assume you drink 3 “Double Doubles” a day for 5 days (what you do on the weekend is your trouble not mine). How much is that costing you a week then?3 * $1.39 * 5 = $21.00 per week
2. You work how many weeks? I’ll say 45 weeks to make it easier to calculate for me. So that means you are spending about:45 weeks * $21 / week = $945 per year on coffee
3. Over say 10 working years assuming you took that money made a lump sum payment every year into an investment vehicle that paid a modest 5% (remember if you put it in an RRSP you’d get back tax money too).We have:
   

   Year	Value
   1	$945.00
   2	$1,937.25
   3	$2,979.11
   4	$4,073.07
   5	$5,221.72
   6	$6,427.81
   7	$7,694.20
   8	$9,023.91
   9	$10,420.10
   10	$11,886.11

So after 10 years you’d have almost $12,000 in your pocket (less taxes on the growth, unless you do this inside of an RRSP).

Does that coffee seem so cheap now? Hey, you folks drinking at Starbucks and paying twice as much for your coffee, want me to do the calculations on THAT for you?

Food for thought for a Monday.

BMO analyst did a survey and even with the Canadian dollar hovering around parity with it’s American cousin, prices of things in Canada are still 18% more expensive than they are in the U.S. . Is this surprising, not to me, price gouging has been going on for Canadians for a good long time, and I don’t expect parity in pricing in the next year if the Canadian Dollar stays at parity. When a CD costs $12.99 in Canada and $9.99 in the US (the same one) you can see that the Canadian market is not that important to the manufacturers. Do I sound bitter? You bet.

Tim Horton’s Savings Plan

Now with companies like Kia and Rogers using the “If you didn’t buy coffee you could buy this” in their advertising (please note I mentioned this first in the Tim Horton’s Savings Plan many years ago), maybe Tim Horton’s should start their own bank, like PC Financial. Offer points for frequent users and then they can introduce the save a nickel with every coffee, which would be their customer lock. Each time a customer buys with their Pre-paid card, 5 cents is deposited in a savings account for them (or their RRSP), Scotiabank already offers something like this as do other financial institutions.

Look for the “Bank of the Big Cajun Man” coming soon!

New Housing Price Increases Still Up

As with last month, this month’s year over year increase was lower at 5.2% and the month over month increase was Zero, which is quite interesting too. Have a look in the attached table for where you live and the new house price increase.

New housing prices increased at their slowest pace in more than two and a half years in April, despite strong markets in Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.

Yes it is a holiday finally, and I get to enjoy the first long weekend since Easter (which seems a long way away). No stores are open around me, but Ottawa has some benefits that other Ontario cities don’t have because we have the Rideau Center, which is deemed a “Tourist Area” so all of it’s stores will be open and we are across the river from Gatineau/Hull and there all stores are open today. Will I go shopping? I might run to Tim Horton’s to have a Pro-Monarchist Coffee and Donut, but that is about it.

Happy Victoria Day

Why do we celebrate this holiday still? We need a holiday in May as simple a reason as that.

Oil is over $125.00 a barrel, and gas in Ottawa is about $1.25 a liter, so if you are driving, do it in a very calm fashion and try to save that valuable gasoline. Inflate your tires, don’t stomp on the accelerator or brake and don’t idle too long in those traffic jams trying to get home tonight!

Enjoy your day of vacation folks, I’ll be back tomorrow.