Enjoy Even More Rewards with The NEW AIR MILES eVoucher Cash Rewards Program & Giveaway

I have been an AIR MILES Collector for many years, and I have to say that this program just keeps getting better and better! With more options and benefits available,  it is easier than ever to save on things like groceries, apps, music, movies and even my daily Starbucks treat! I am always looking for ways for my family to save money using reward miles and not only can you redeem reward AIR MILES instantly in-store at participating retailers, but the NEW AIR MILES Cash eVoucher program allows you to redeem AIR MILES reward miles instantly online at some of your favourite retailers, both online and offline. Anyone can use eVoucher. It gives you more options to choose what works for you and your family and the opportunity to share rewards with family and friends if you  would like to. They make great gifts too! I recently redeemed some AIR MILES reward miles for eVouchers at Cineplex so I could take my son and daughter to a movie and it was so easy! You just need a minimum of 95 AIR MILES reward miles in your AIR MILES Cash balance in order to redeem online for $10 or more worth of value at participating Reward Partners. That's it! Here's how it WORKS:

1-Collectors must first sign up for AIR MILES Cash at www.airmiles.ca/cash and set a balance preference for AIR MILES reward miles earned to go into AIR MILES Cash balance.. {You can set your preference so that reward miles can be split however you would like between AIR MILES Cash and/or Dream balances.}
2-Collectors must have at least 95 reward miles in their AIR MILES Cash balance in order to redeem for $10 worth of value.
3-Find participating retailers by visiting www.airmiles.ca and using the drop down menu to determine the Sponsors in the your province or online.
4-Collectors can choose a participating Reward Partner  and redeem for eVouchers in increments of 95 reward miles for a $10 eVoucher. How many miles you can redeem depends on how many reward AIR MILE reward miles are deposited into the AIR MILES Cash balance. Just follow the easy online steps to redeem for your eVoucher.
5-Your eVoucher will then be emailed so that you can either print it or use it electronically on your smart phone. That's it!

Here's how I quickly and easily redeemed my AIR MILES reward miles for our movie eVouchers. From the drop down menu, I chose Cineplex. Then I followed the steps shown.

Next, I chose how many $10 eVouchers I wanted to redeem. 

And here's the great part....you can even choose to send eVouchers to family or friends as a special treat or surprise. You just have to enter their email address in the field below as shown by the red arrow.

Then you just place your order and redeem. 

And then an email with the eVouchers will be sent to you or the email of whoever you choose!

Super easy and fun! You can redeem up to a maximum of $750 value in eVouchers per day, across all participating Reward Partner eVoucher partners.

Air Miles eVouchers are available online from these Canadian Rewards Partners:

Iris Eye Care Centres

FanXChange {an online ticket marketplace for buying tickets to live events in North America.}

iTunes

Hailo {a smart phone app that puts people just "two taps" away from licensed taxi cabs in Toronto and Montreal}

Kernels Popcorn

Safeway Grocery Stores

Cineplex

 And an ever growing list of eVoucher partners. To stay updated, visit www.airmiles.ca/cash.

{Terms & Conditions for each individual partner will apply. It is recommended to use the whole eVoucher at once.}

I love how the AIR MILES Rewards Program keeps adapting and changing to provide Collectors with so many ways to redeem and enjoy their reward miles. And with retailers like Cineplex and Starbucks joining the list of partners with this new AIR MILES cash feature, I know that my family and I will be able to save and enjoy a  little latte and a movie on the weekends!

AIR MILES Giveaway

AIR MILES would like to giveaway to one lucky reader 760 miles AIR MILES reward miles valued at $80 so that you can try the eVoucher and share in some of the fun of this new program.

To Enter To Win a 760 AIR MILES worth $80:

 1. You must be 18 years old and live in Canada to enter. {Except where prohibited.}

2. Please leave a comment below sharing how you would like to redeem AIR MILES reward miles.

3. One entry per person and please make sure that a valid email address is attached to your comment.

4. Contest closes Wednesday, June 11, 2013 at midnight MST.

Good luck!

Disclosure: This post was generously sponsored by AIR MILES Canada. I have been an AIR MILES Collector for over 20 years. As always, I only partner with brands/products that I love and use in my own home. All opinions are my own

Planning & Budgeting for Prom/Graduation 2014 and Win a $50 Prepaid Visa

This year is a BIG milestone for our family as our oldest child is graduating from high school in a just a few weeks. And with this milestone comes the special celebration of a graduation formal dinner and dance for our daughter, who has been looking forward to this special evening for months. She has been looking at formal gowns since Grade 11...all while dreaming about what her dress for this special night might look like, along with ideas for hair and makeup. And as any parent who has a child graduating from high school knows, the costs to make these dreams a reality can quickly add up. For instance, formal dresses for teen girls alone can cost several hundred dollars.

When the school year started, we had a discussion with our daughter about what her prom/grad costs might be and what she would be able to pay for with her part-time job, and what costs that her Dad and I would agree to pay. We wanted to be clear about who would cover what so that there would be no surprises. Did you know that 56% of Canadian parents pay nearly the full price of prom for their children?{As revealed by the Visa Canada Prom Spending Survey 2014}

In our case, we expected our teen daughter to share in some of the costs for her special night. We think it's important for her to understand the financial costs of grad celebrations. She agreed to pay for the limo ride, hair and makeup and a few smaller items. My husband and I agreed to pay for her formal dress and shoes, a dress for the cap and gown ceremony, and tickets for the formal grad dinner and dance for our family. We also placed realistic budget limits on each item and encouraged our daughter to stay within budget. Then we wrote down the budget on paper so we could stay the course with our plan.We also talked about ways to say money...such as wearing the same shoes for both the cap and gown ceremony and the formal dinner/dance. However, these decisions take careful thought as you try to teach your child about staying within a budget while also balancing their dreams for a special night. Hopefully, both parents and child can meet somewhere in the middle where every one is happy and dreams are met! But more importantly, it is crucial to teach your teen about responsible budgeting and spending....no matter what the event.

Visa Canada recently released this amazing FREE app called Plan'It Prom to help kids and parents with the budgeting process for Prom. I so wish that we had this app available to us when we began the process of budgeting and planning for Prom/Grad back in September 2013 as it would have made things so much easier for us!

This app is available to download FREE from the iTunes Store, the Google Play Store and from www.practicalmoneyskills.ca/prom. It's a wonderful planning tool for parents and teens to use to make a budgeting plan.

The app contains great information and tools for planning all aspects of the prom journey including a place to enter amounts budgeted for each item, helpful tips for saving money and a timeline to help in putting the whole plan together.

And if you have a teen daughter like I do, just have a  look at this amazing list that lays out many of the expenses that need to be discussed for budgeting.

I think prom and grad activities are an important teachable moment for parents to talk with their kids about budgeting and finances, and the opportunity to come up with a mutually agreed plan, with teens sharing and taking more responsibility for costs.  I love this app because it provides both parents and teens with a tool where plans can be agreed to and recorded in a very organized way that is literally at your fingertips. Teaching financial literacy to teens is such an important job and this app helps parents and teens to record a realistic, detailed budget, track spending and provides a place for teens to create a visual gallery for inspiration for things like dresses, shoes and hair. And as with anything in life, planning is the key to making sure that things run smoothly, which results in happy teens and happy parents. And if you have a teen graduating this year, I wish you and your family a happy & memorable day!

For more than 20 years, Visa has been a leader in developing innovative, free programs that help people effectively learn the fundamentals of personal finance, including budgeting, saving, responsible spending and the wise use of credit.  Visa is offering one lucky reader a $50 prepaid Visa card to help with prom expenses or some other expense that your family is budgeting for this summer.

To Enter to Win A Prepaid $50 Visa Card:

1. You must be 18 years old and live in Canada to enter. {Except where prohibited.}
2. Please leave a comment below sharing something that your family is saving/budgeting for this summer.
3. One entry per person and please make sure that a valid email address is attached to your comment.
4. Contest closes Thursday, May 22, 2013 at midnight MST.

Disclosure: This post was generously made possible by Visa Canada. As always, I only partner with brands/products that I use in my own home. All opinions are my own.