Boom boom dollar

Christmas, my I love it so, but I can see why some may have grudges against it. No doubt it is highly commercialized...but I still love picking out presents for my loved ones. I know it's the thought that counts, but I don't consider myself a very crafty person and rather than giving my friends shoddily-engineered crafts I opt for buying things much like the majority of the world. I'll have to hone my "project" skills.

Anyway, some people may find themselves financially pinched during the holiday season. It reminds me of my younger days and how I would go about saving/getting money. Here are a few tricks I've learned.

• Forget the couch. Scrounge up change by hitting the "change" button on every single vending machine/coin-operated contraption you come into contact with. You would be surprised how often a couple of coins will fall out. When I was a little girl there used to be 2 newspaper boxes right on the corner of our lot and everyday I would trek across our lawn to those boxes and hit the change button. It funded many a slurpee back in the day. :) Nowadays, I punch the change button whenever the mood strikes me. Again, you would be surprised how often someone will leave a loonie (one dollar coin for you non-Canadians) or toonie (two dollar coin) in there and not just a quarter or a dime.
  
• I credit someone dear to me with this one...and this trick only works if you have big movie complexes where the bathrooms and/or food services are separated from the actual theatres by the ticket-taker guys. Pick a busy night for better chances at success. Buy a couple or 3 (or however many you're comfortable with pulling off) and go into the theatre with same number of people. Then one of you comes back out to go to the "bathroom" or to get "snacks" with all the movie stubs of those friends already seated...heads back out to the unticketed friends and distribute the tickets thusly. Ticket-takers are so busy they don't know who has come and gone. Ta-da! If you're smooth enough you can easily get 3 people in for every paid ticket. But shhhh, I didn't tell you that.
  
• This one I figured out as an experiment, but I've never done it again. Ticket-swapping and "stuffing" merchandise. I just wanted to see if the sales associates would catch on, but both times they didn't. If they did I would have paid for it properly, no problem. One time I swapped the a necklace tag for the tag of a less expensive one. I saw the description that came up on the screen and it didn't match my merchandise at all...but she didn't catch it. Another time I was buying a Tonka truck for my godbrother and as a treat for myself I "dropped" a pack of Lilo and Stitch stickers in the open cavity of the box. It was so easy to see, but again they didn't catch it. On the flip-side, if you ever try that at my store you wouldn't get away with very much 'cuz I'd be so on to you. :) Honestly, at one store I used to work at a couple was trying to buy one of our wool coats and it rang up as corduroy pants. They insisted that that was the price they saw on all the coats and they thought it was a great deal. I DON'T THINK SO! (And just to set things straight, that tag wasn't on any of the other coats.) So if you're ok with getting away with that sort of thing (and I don't mean that in a hoity-toity way or nothing) then all the power to you.
  
• Not sure if it'd work these days, but if you need to make a call on a payphone and have no change call the operator. Time it so that you call the operator right after someone else just had a brief conversation. Sound really upset and say that you dialed a wrong number and now have no more change to place your call. Usually they'll be sympathetic and patch you through for free. I was reading a book in junior high and this character's house phone's keypad was busted so he would phone the operator and pretend he had no limbs to dial the digits. I was inspired from that and tweaked his story. Maybe this scam only works when you're a young little girl and can turn on the dramatics. I don't know. It's been ages since I've tried that.
  
• This one is legit. :) ALWAYS carry your receipts with you, and browse as often as you're comfortable with. Swoop in for price adjustments! Don't settle for the price you paid. Never EVER settle for the price you paid...that's just being a rookie consumer.
  
• I know they're just trying to make a living, so I feel a little guilty about this one...but when bartering in a market ALWAYS start off at a price less than half of their initial asking price. This is particularly true in Mexico and touristy markets. Tourists are always taught to begin bartering at half the initial price and vendors know this and use it to their advantage. If they say 100 pesos you can say 30...though I find this pretty cutthroat. I'm more apt to say 40. It all depends on what you're comfortable with. When I was in Ixtapa and the agents and I were comparing our bargains I rocked value-wise. You know, not to brag or anything. :)
• And on a travelling note, always go for the lowest fare you can get. Forget about loyalty programs (aka frequent flyer miles such as Aeroplan) since there are so many blackout dates and junk like that. Those programs aren't worth it unless you're a business traveller...and even then, it may prove beneficial to shop around if you've got the time.

I can't think of any other ones right now. But feel free to share your own mini-ways-to-save!