You Never Know...

In the category of "You never know unless you ask...",

• I got flight miles credit for 2 flights I wasn't supposed to get but the agent made an exception for me! I was supposed to have been a member of their program prior to the flights.




• I received a discount of $400 on my trip to Norway when I decided to call and ask if I was eligible for an advertised price reduction. Turns out if the final payment date has not occurred, you are!

What a great way to start the weekend.

Freebies

I usually use credit card points towards flights. Recently we decided to use them towards gas cards.

Luck would have it I have just enough points for a $50 card and since ordered, there is news of a postal strike in our neck of the woods.

The very best part about it is the credit card has no fee and I do not carry a balance so it truly is a free gift.

Our other card normally has a fee associated with it but because I have a business account with the bank, it is waived.

I get points with use as well as travel insurance which has saved us a lot of money over the years.

D's new card has a fee of $75/yr but it covers our roadside assistance for both our vehicles, saving us having to buy a plan anymore.

It's great to get freebies and discounts just for regular spending.

Deals!

I think retailers and the travel industry are hurting a bit.

I got a great deal on my recent bookings. D and I took a day trip to a shopping mall yesterday so I can look for a few things and we found some amazing offers.

My work clothes mainly come from Mexx. But yesterday, I didn't find anything great there but completely lucked out at Banana Republic -- A store I haven't shopped at much since my personal budget cut backs.

It felt like shopping in the States. I got 25% off everything and they gave out an extra savings coupon worth 30% off the total. To get good quality things at that much of a discount was amazing.

I bought a top, skirt and dress for just over $100 taxes in. Normally, that is what it would cost for a pair of pants. It was worth the gasoline to get there.

Laptops vs Netbooks

I've started my laptop vs. netbook fact finding mission. I've used laptops for the last 12 years. My first one being a Compaq Presario. My current 6 year old one is by HP and weighs about 17 pounds probably.

D has been encouraging me to get with the times and move to a netbook for the size and portablilty. This D seems to like encouraging me to spend money....

I do have trouble embracing new technology easily and quickly so it was like pulling teeth to get me to even take a look at them. After all why test temptation? I figure, if I don't see them, I won't suddenly want one.

We looked at them in 3 places -- Costco, Staples and Best Buy.

I was tempted at Costco when I saw an HP netbook for $450. The smallest ones didn't do much for me but this one was slightly larger. In Staples, I decided against laptops once I saw how big they have gotten. Full size keyboards are the thing now.

I did see another HP "laptop" that didn't have a DVD drive for $700 that caught my eye. It was finished in brush metal and I really like that look. Finally in Best Buy, I was willing to get a laptop again because they had a special on a HP one for $550.

My thought was I can get new technology and more power for $550. I can compromise on the size thing. Spending $700 was too much but for $100 more, I get a better machine than the netbook I saw earlier. That is the quirky logic that goes on in my mind.

For fun we looked at Macs. They are really sleek and really the price is similar to what I've paid in the past. D is a Lenovo guy so I've been told "no tech support" should I go the way of a Mac...

I paid $2200 for my Compaq and $1700 for my current HP. I cannot believe I can buy a better replacement for $550 plus taxes. That just blows my mind. And things will probably just get more competitive and even better. And no, I didn't buy anything. I'll just keep the research neatly tucked in the back of my mind.

Timing

My hair is pretty much shoulder length now. When I took a foot off in April to donate to the cancer society, it was jaw length. I figure by next April, I will have enough length again to repeat.

The timing is great. I prefer longer hair in the winter as it feels warmer to tie my scarf over my hair around my neck while it is nice having it shorter for the summer but long enough to tie back. I couldn't have picked a better cycle. This way, I can also enjoy all hair lengths yearly.

There is a seat sale for Jan/'10 going on right now that we are debating about. We have only bought one ways out west for Christmas, awaiting the post Christmas sale. Well, here we are but the lowest fare entails us coming home 2 days later, and 1 day before I go back to work.

Having experienced winter plane travel as one of its worst last Christmas (16 hrs for something that usually takes 5) I am hesitant to play it so close. On the way there is no issue but I am risking that there will be no big snowstorm in the first week of Jan.

The worst case? I miss my first day of work in 2010. Can I live with that? Probably. D isn't really affected because he can work remote if we are delayed. So do we keep waiting? Today is the last day for the sale...

Old Ways

I made my last mortgage move that will pretty much put us in the ballpark for finishing up the mortgage by the time the renewal comes along in 3 years.

The move was an increase of $100 per payment. It is amazing what compounding in your favour does. I had previously thought that lump sum prepayments was the most powerful way to make an impact and underestimated the power of the small amount over a longer time effect.

We are doing both so hopefully will be benefit from both sides.

On a different note, I made a few clothing purchases lately. We enjoy going across the border to a number of US border cities for the day, have lunch and do some shopping. I was looking for a small token gift for a girlfriend's birthday (we take each other out for a fancy dinner as the real gift) as well as some lighter summer work clothes now that I am walking.

I ended up spending $65 total for a french manicure polish set (girlfriend), 3 skirts and 2 short sleeved tops. I was pretty pleased with it all. The last time I made a similar purchase was for 2 skirts and 1 top for just over $500 so an amazing improvement. That seems like such a previous lifetime to me. I'm not sure that I would be going back to my "old" ways even when we are debt free.

Being Tested

I was seriously tempted this weekend.

Since we have moved toward a more frugal approach to everyday life, one thing we haven't missed is non food shopping. We just don't do it anymore unless we needed something. This past weekend, we found ourselves at a discount department store that has a bit of everything.

What do I do? My legs magically led me to the shoe section whereby a pair of high heeled fashion boots just managed to pop on my feet. As I was strutting up and down the aisle with D looking at me miraculously, frugality was as far from my psyche as Mars is.

We were there to look for a pan, not high heeled boots...

I managed to browse the rest of the store all the while carrying my boots. Whoops, I used the word "my", didn't I? After all they were marked down from $190 to $60...

No I didn't buy them. D almost went back into the store to get them for me because of the immensely forlorn expression I had when I went to put them back.

Wow. That was close. I can say this now but it seriously took me 1/2 hr to get over the apparent "sadness" of not buying. How crazy is that? I had no idea how strong my hidden "buy, buy, buy" programming was. Here I was thinking I've moved beyond that.

Boxing Day 2008

The day after Christmas is known as Boxing Day here in Canada (and probably other places too). It is customary to expect good sales at the shopping centers. Because boxing day landed on a Friday this year, I had a feeling that this weekend would be horrendous at the malls.

Yesterday we took a day trip into the city for a change of pace. I cannot believe I've been off work for 1 week already! It still feels like I just finished (not sure if that is a good sign or not...). My main goal was to visit the 2 British ladies that owns a runs a very yummy fish and chips restaurant. We stumbled on their little spot in the spring and vowed to return as soon as we could.

To my disappointment, the restaurant was closed until the new year. To our surprise, we found many restaurants and shops posting the same messages. I have never seen so many businesses closed and parking lots so empty.

Upon reflection, I feel it is a very healthy sign for this community. It isn't all about the bottom line. Isn't that why I am off too? Sure it is! So hurray for them. Hey, I could be riding up the ski lift with many of them and not even know it!

We ended up at a shopping mall where I did spend about $200 on clothes -- $170 bought me 5 items of clothing for work (paid by a main working account) and $30 got me a neat casual top (paid by my allowance).

I have become pretty practical with my clothing. Gone are the days where spending $1500 for an outfit was no big deal. I shake my head even thinking about that phase of my life. Mind you, I still value quality and I know what is the minimal I need to spend for something to last.

My current wardrobe consists of fancy clothes from my olden days, work clothes bought on sale from the Gap, Banana Republic, Esprit, Mexx and Jacob and casual clothes. Yesterday's purchases came from Esprit and Jacob.

On a completely different note, we did some grocery shopping as well and found our resultant grocery bill outrageous! It came to over double what it would cost at home (thanks to my price book). We deliberately wanted to grocery shop in town because we thought the prices on the mountain were really high. But it turned out we didn't save anything at all.

That is definitely one budget point that will have to be considered should we move out here for an extended period of time.

Fly WestJet if You Can!

I would like to commend WestJet Airlines for exemplary service the other day. I receive the Travelzoo (Canada) top 20 by email each Wednesday and this week featured a 50% off 2 day seat sale.

In November, we purchased our spring skiing flights at what we thought was a sale but this week's deal was even better. In fact it was $200 per ticket better. So after I calmed down (I don't like being on the short end of a deal...), I decided to call them to see if it would be to any advantage to cancel our tickets and purchased them again at the lower price.

The whole transaction took less than 5 minutes. We were charged $50 per ticket (taken off the $200 savings) to cancel but still came out $150 x 2 ahead, held as a fully transferable flight credit for a year.

Those of you who have flown with Air Canada know that their cancellation fees are a lot more and had our tickets been with them, it would not have been possible to do the same transaction. I would not have even bothered trying.

So kudos to WestJet and Travelzoo!