Say you live in Toronto and you have  a seven-year-old Labrador Retriever. The premiums on a medium-level policy with PetSecure, Canada’s largest vendor of pet health insurance, would cost $520 a year. Only one in three of PetSecure’s clients make a claim each year, but assuming you did, you’d still have to pay a $500 annual deductible and 20% of the bill. After those deductions, the average reimbursement from the insurance policy is only $187.40.

As a general rule, insurance is only worth it if the event you’re insuring against is very unlikely, but would cause devastating financial hardship if it occurred. Most pet medical emergencies don’t fall into that category, so the average person will be better off paying out of pocket. The only case where insurance might make sense is if you have  a very valuable pet,  and you wouldn’t hesitate to fork out $10,000 or more for a procedure.

Our secret is to use websites such as Hotwire and Priceline that let you set what you’re willing to pay, and the star level of your lodging — but don’t let you choose the exact hotel. In return, you get five-star luxury at two-star prices.

We recently returned from Athens where we reserved gorgeous rooms at the five-star Intercontinental from Hotwire for just US$99 a night. All we had to do is click over to the site, specify the geographic area where we wanted to stay, and select a minimum star rating. You then pick from a list of properties, each of which specifies a price and amenities, but doesn’t include the actual name or exact location of the hotel.

My wife and I chose the lowest price and were delighted to get the Intercontinental Athenaeum Athens. We paid $30 to upgrade to a deluxe room. Had we purchased it from the hotel’s website, we would have shelled out around $300 a night.

We’ve also saved a bundle using Priceline. Like Hotwire, this site lets you select an area and star rating, but rather than choosing an unnamed property, you simply set your price. Using the service, we were able to land a five-star hotel in Beverly Hills for only US$99 a night.