Archive for June, 2010

Reflecting on June

As June draws to a close, I’m feeling quite reflective on my journey. All the numbers aren’t in yet, so I can’t give you my June report card, at least not yet. I can tell you that June will end well, on paper. I think this month I understood that this isn’t just about numbers. [...]

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Shopping Spree at Shoppers Drug Mart

Jolie at Shaking the Money Tree, along with the flyer delivery fella in my neighborhood made sure I knew about the Spend Your Points event at Shoppers Drug Mart this past weekend. I was going to spend them anyway, but Shoppers threw in an extra $25 if I used ‘em up on Saturday or Sunday. [...]

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Driver’s Training: $800

My ex-husband propositioned me yesterday. Here’s the pitch: send the girls to driver’s training, and get their license this summer. The program he has his eye on is in Barrie, where he resides. They spend 20 hours or so in a simulator, then another number of hours in the classroom and they’re expected to spend [...]

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Word of the week: whirlwinded!

I’m really looking forward to a bit of downtime this weekend.  Wednesday was a crazy day around here, with a wee earthquake, then a tornado touching down in Midland, then more tornado warnings later into Wednesday evening for southern Ontario. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m just a bit too old for so much [...]

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The economic impact of the G20, for the little guy (and gal)

I live a little north and a little east of Toronto’s downtown. Right now, Toronto’s downtown doesn’t look like it normally looks. Last Wednesday I was meeting a colleague for a business lunch. As I came out of Union Station, I had to pause for a moment and remember where I was. Frankly, I felt [...]

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Optimum Card?

Just a heads up for those of you who may have an Optimum Card from Shoppers Drug Mart. Their redemption schedule will change July 1. As if the HST wasn’t bad enough?  So, if you’re sitting on a bundle of points, and you’ve been wondering what to spend them on, you may want to check [...]

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Health Insurance options

On Friday, I spent a little time exploring some health insurance options. In case you’re wondering what the end result is, I’ll save you the trouble from scrolling down to the bottom and tell you it’s a no go. My first call was to the Ontario Drug Benefit program/Trillium. These are the most sensible folks [...]

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Wrapping up the mortgage renewal: learned something new

It only took 3 months from pursuit to paper signing, but I’ve switched the mortgage on my rental property from MCAP to CIBC. Why’d it take so long? The CIBC’s promotion of their 3.99%, up to 2% cash back offer if you switched your mortgage to them turned their mortgage folks into one-armed paperhangers. While [...]

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Should have got a pre-nup with Rogers!

A number of weeks ago, in an effort to continue to whittle down my expenses, I gave the nice folks at Rogers a call. Every communication service you can think of I have with Rogers. They were kind and offered me a 10% discount across the board (with one exception) on my services. That was [...]

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How does my budget stack up to the guidelines?

Sometimes, I’m overwhelmingly aware of how little room I have in my budget. Lots of experts have guidelines for which percentage of your budget should be allocated to certain expense categories. If I were to compare my reality with Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s guideline, here’s how I stack up: Gail’s “Life Pie”, as she calls it suggests [...]

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