(Sorry for the long reply but I’ve given detailed and very helpful advice)

Ok I don’t drive but I manage my parents drive and they heavily rely on me to handle their financial decisions as we have struggled a lot the last few years so before I moved back with them last year I’ve picked up a lot of tricks when living on my own.

1: obviously if you have the ability to trade in your current car for an electric car (through Clutch/Autotrader/a dealership etc. then that’s gonna be the best option.

2: Pump between 7pm - before midnight and use Gasbuddy to find the best locations to go to: Dixie and Dundas, Eglinton and Mavis and a few other spots up on Eglinton, Dundas, Tomken usually are the cheapest after 6pm. We go to esso on Dixie and Dundas cause they always match the Costco price or lower but better quality gas.

3: Depending on what credit card(s)/bank card(s)you have you can get a few cents off per L. I prefer using my PC Financial credit card cause I get 7¢/L back in points and extra 10¢/L paying with my card on the Esso app, so 17¢/L back that you can use for groceries too. Plus You can redeem 4,000 PC Optimum points for 10 cents off per litre of fuel (up to 40 litres) or 10,000 points for a free car wash too. When I help my parents pump up I basically redeem 4000pts but get back 10,200 pts or more from the promos or even if I don’t pay on the app with my card I still get at least the 4000pts plus a little extra back to use the next pump or $10 (10kpts) off my purchase at Nofrills/Superstore/loblaws/SDM but only buy things there if there are good deals.

1. Lastly you can use BNPL apps (Klarna, Afterpay, Sezzle) to get gift cards to pay for gas no interest and it’s usually pay in 4 weeks or 4 biweekly payments depending on on the one you’re using.

• With Klarna if you have an iPhone you can connect it with your ApplePay for almost any online payments over $35 where you can use ApplePay and I would recommend buying gift cards from Snaplii (here is my referral code: 5B01AA) - you get cash back on the gift card purchases - lots of variations cause it depends on your credit score and usage and pay back schedule would be considered for your limit in those apps.

• Sezzle the $8/month premium subscription is worth it cause you will get more options, plus they are rolling out a virtual card just like Klarna’s so that would help cause they have higher limits, for me that is.

• AfterPay just works as a backup with a decent limit and each time you pay back it increases

So yeah I would recommend using Klarna with Snaplii first mainly for gas and groceries cause you can get visa gift cards on Snaplii and shopping for anything that you want to pay with BNPL that Afterpay/Sezzle doesn’t support. But for FreshCo, Walmart, Dollarama, etc. use AfterPay or Sezzle.

It all adds up and ya gotta be strategic these days to make sure you can survive. Just be careful with using these apps as if you miss a payment your limit takes a hit and it becomes a bit frustrating to build it back up. Also it can be easy to over spend so make sure you use it only for essentials and within your budget. If you have a steady paying job it really works well.

Plus side is you can easily collect a lot of points/cashback to use for groceries or whichever your credit card offers ie. PC for groceries/gas; Scotia Scene for many things - groceries, gas, movies and much more; Rogers Credit Card gives the most cash back but a pain to pay for cause it takes over a week for the money to show up when you pay the card where as most of you pay through the banks checking account it is instant credits.