Inexpensive Long Weekend Ideas

This weekend marks the unofficial start of summer for Canadians. On Monday we’re celebrating Victoria Day and today at five o’clock you’ll be able to hear bottles of beer open across the country simultaneously.

Three to four-day weekends are meant to be taken advantage of! Having that extra day off work means one extra day of fun and relaxation but it doesn’t have to include an expensive vacation somewhere. Here are a few inexpensive long-weekend ideas.

Camping

Though it’s too early in the year for me, I know a lot of people who start their camping season this weekend. Since I prefer to camp in a tent it’s still a bit too damp and cold at night for my style. If you’re a trailer of 5th wheel type of ”camper” then you’ll likely be taking advantage of this extra day to get outdoors for a bit (and then quickly retreat to your furnace-heated house on wheels).

A weekend of camping (our style) won’t cost more than $100. This includes any park fees, alcohol if drinking, gas and extra s’mores ingredients. Not bad for a whole weekend of fun! We almost always bring food from home to cut out an extra grocery trip and try to pre-make some dinners which would just require a re-heat on a fire or stove (think something like chili). Since the prime real estate in the cooler belongs to beer or rum, we don’t want to fill it with a bunch of unnecessary containers and ingredients so we keep it simple for breakfast and lunch with toast, bagels burgers or hotdogs. I’m only half kidding.

Picnics

I love picnics. I don’t know why we don’t do them more often. They’re cheap, fun and a great excuse to get outside. We’re actually hoping mother nature cooperates enough this weekend to do one with kiddo, her first!

Museums (Etc)

I say Etc because I’m going to lump in art gallery’s, zoo’s, aquariums and alike. Halifax has a few great museums and a farm/zoo about 40 minutes outside the city. I wish we had an aquarium like Boston’s(!), and for the life of me can’t understand why we don’t, but sadly I can’t change that so I’ll have to settle for some goats and peacocks at the ‘zoo’. Check out long-weekend prices because sometimes main attractions lower their prices for long weekends to attract tourists.

BBQ

Need I say more? Any excuse for me to eat something off a grill is enough reason for me. Food simply taste better when it’s grilled. Meat, veggies or fruit…yummm….

Alongside BBQ’s we also like to have a fire in our backyard firepit. For the cost of some ground beef (I always make my burgers from scratch!), and a few beers (or drink of choice) we have ourselves a whole evening of fun with friends and family.

Hiking

This is something I plan to do more of this summer especially since I got myself a fancy-smancy baby carrier that I can put baby M in (which I wrote about here). We have some beautiful hiking trails that I have yet to explore so will capitalize on my three day weekends and hike it up!

Not So Fun

I have to include it since it’s something a lot of people use their long weekends for, and that’s cleaning. No one loves to clean but a long weekend is sometimes exactly what the cleaning fairy ordered! De-clutter and clean the house and yard up. We plan on cleaning the house and if the weather cooperates, the yard this weekend. I’d love to get some gardening done too but Mother Nature is toying with me and I don’t want to kill any plants with drastic temperature changes.

What are your favorite long-weekend activities?

Avoid Impulse Spending: The A-Z of Saving Money

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The following is a preview of the fantastic e-book The A-Z of Saving Money which I co-wrote with a few other lovely PF bloggers. To read more from this information-packed book, purchase it here for a steal of a price, $4.99!

We live in such a fast-paced society, impulse buying seems to be the new norm. We’re always in a rush to get things done or get to the places we need to be, that we rarely think about what it is we’re spending our hard-earned money on anymore. One of the national newspapers in Canada released a study that said Canadians are so bad at impulse shopping, they’re spending to the tune of $3720.00 each year on impulse purchases. I can assume the same statistics would be found elsewhere in the developed world. Imagine what you could do with $3000.00 extra every year! If your boss handed you a cheque for that amount you probably wouldn’t go out and waste it on frivolous items, you’d likely very consciously allocate the money; be it investing, debt repayment, home remodel or vacation. You would know where that money went.

In order to prevent the money from slipping through our fingers we need to look at why people impulse shop:

Emotions (boredom, stress, sadness, happiness)
Perceived lack of time
Lack of knowledge
Laziness
Accessibility

Almost all impulse shopping purchases could be justified with any one of those reasons. You just broke up with your significant other and need to feel better; you didn’t meal plan and stop for fast-food on the way home from work; you don’t bother to shop the sales to find the best price on item ‘x’; you saw it at the checkout and had to have it- the list goes on.

If we know these are the main causes, we also know how to avoid impulse shopping.

If you find yourself to be an emotional shopper you should probably start by avoiding the shops when going through an emotional low or high since you’re more likely to spend money you normally would not. If you do find yourself at a store during an emotional time shop with cash and only cash! Leave the temptations of debit and credit at home. Since people are less likely to spend physical cash in hand the same way they swipe a card, shopping with cash becomes psychologically more difficult. Shopping with cash is also key for budgeting.

During both good and bad emotional times, your judgement can be clouded by these emotions. Being aware of this will help avoid too much damage to your wallet.

Time management is something everyone can benefit from. Figure out ways to free up time in your schedule so when you are shopping you’re not in a rush and you’re able to shop consciously and stick to a list. When you do shop, be it groceries or Christmas shopping, leave the kids at home. You’re more likely to overspend if you have little hands grabbing at everything and batting their sweet innocent eyes telling you how much they need something.

……

To read more please check the book, you won’t be disappointed!

Dealing with Debt

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I’ve been busy all week prepping for going back to work and spending time with some family before the big day, the following is a guest post.

Source: Free Digital Photos

Debt has become an increasing problem for many people in the face of the global economic downturn; living expenses are at record highs, which has led to people borrowing large amounts of money which they cannot afford to repay. However, debt is something that everyone can overcome with the right help, advice, and most importantly, actions. There are many things that you can do to help improve your situation.

Acknowledge the Problem

One of the major problems with debt is that people ignore it for far too long, which only makes things worse. Don’t ignore letters from creditors because they won’t simply go away. As with many other problems, the first step to solving debt is to acknowledge it in the first place. It may also help to speak to others about the problem. There are dedicated helplines for this.

Budget Properly

Paying off your debts is very difficult without having some form of plan in place. Having one serves two purposes. Firstly, it’ll ensure that you don’t dig yourself further into a debt, but it will also help you to save money which you can use to get back out. Plan your monthly income and outgoings to see where things are going. Always put a priority on paying off debts over unnecessary luxuries. Decipher wants from needs.

Talk to Your Creditors

All creditors are required to be responsible lenders, and most will be willing to listen if you have a problem. It’s often far easier to negotiate with them than you’d think, and it can often result in a better solution to both parties. It’s always a good idea to let your creditors know as soon as there is a problem – things get worse the longer you leave them.

Consolidate Your Debt

Much of the stress of being in debt can be attributed to having a number of different creditors, which is why many people choose to consolidate their debt through a variety of methods. Secured homeowner loans are a popular choice, as they generally offer competitive APRs. However, it’s always important to note that consolidating your debt may increase the amount you pay back overall and extend the repayment time of your debts.

Take note of the above points and you’ll have taken the first few steps to solving the problem. Friends in the UK can visit www.nemo-loans.co.uk for more information.

Help Me! Should I Get a New Smartphone?

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Source: pocketnow.com

My phone is a piece of crap. The only thing that continuously works is the actual phone part, and I rarely use my Blackberry as a phone.

Before we civilly discuss my options (and I feel the need to disclaim ”civil” since there’s been an influx of PF haters in the blogosphere lately) I already understand that a cell phone, unless it is your only phone, is a luxury for most. Yes, I’m in debt but I’m one of those PF bloggers who, although I want to be debt free terribly, I’m not sucking all enjoyment out of my life to get there. For me, having a smartphone is no longer a want and I would now classify it as a need. Before we go all apeshit crazy on me about wanting a phone when mine isn’t totally dead, hear me out.

Welcome to the 1800′s

When I’m working, which is about to happen in six days when I finish my year-long maternity leave and re-enter the working world, I have no internet access. I’m a dental hygienist and unlike some dental offices, I don’t use a computer at all. I love the office I work at and wouldn’t change my patients for anything, but the dentist I work with is stuck in 1854. Even our receptionist doesn’t have a computer. She actually types, on a typewriter, all our charts and ledgers. If you’re less than 150 years old and haven’t heard of such a contraption before- check out wikipedia’s description.

Schedule

I leave my house around 7:30am, not returning until about 6:30pm at which point I will be taking care of family stuff- baby, supper, laundry, at no point will computer time trump taking care of my family. With this in mind, understand that four out of seven days per week I will have very limited to no computer access. Could you go four days (every week) without maintaining your blog, check your emails or participating in any social networking? Yeah, me neither.

Transportation

With my return to work, some days I will be driving in with my sister-in-law which will be nice but on days that I do not drive in with her, I will be taking the city transit. We’re a one vehicle family and this works for now but requires me to get to work on public transportation. This would be essentially a non-issue if I was in one of Canada’s larger cities like Vancouver or Toronto but though Halifax is an amazing city, our transit system is a little to be desired. If I were to drive to work, even in rush hour traffic, I would be there in less than 40 mins (no traffic=20min max). This same distance takes me an hour minimum and changing buses to get to work. Point being, I have time to kill when on the bus. Time I could be using to email and blog if I had a phone that worked.

The Phone in Question

Right now I have a four year old Blackberry Curve which has been in my possession for just over two years. The OS is so outdated it can’t even handle loading a simple webpage. Though I have aspirations of blogging, commenting and being productive on my bus rides, my phone simply won’t let me. I can send and receive e-mails since it is done through an external app that works fine. BBM, Twitter and Facebook all work fine through their own apps 97% of the time. I have no use of a browser which means though I have a data package, I basically can’t use it since as soon as I open a link my browser crashes.

I’m in a three year contract with this phone and cell phone provider. I have no issues with the provider and no desire to change since I’m happy with them and the fact that we only have three provider options here in NS and the other two are garbage. Of my three year contract, I still owe for 10 months- about $90. So if I want to get a new phone I have to wait the next 10 months out or payout the $90 plus the cost for a new phone contract. New contract may be $0 or upwards of $200 so my total cost, as of today, would put me back anywhere from $90 to $290.

Now I want your opinions.

Do I suck it up for the next 10 months and wait for my balance to be zero and possibly get a better deal on a phone in said time? OR do I payout the $90 and look into a new two to three year contract ASAP? Any opinions on the BB Q10 (since I have a glutton for punishment)?

Related to this post: Check out my staff post about the importance of unplugging today over at Kids Ain’t Cheap!

It’s Not All About Money

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Momma and baby last summer. Love me some baby toes.

We spend so much of our lives concerned about money. Good or bad, it’s in the forefront of most people’s minds. Be it getting out of debt, saving for a vacation, retirement or buying something at a local store, we constantly think about money. Tell me I’m not alone here?

As I stood in my living room yesterday morning staring at the rain outside, holding onto my sick baby, I had one of those ”I wish time would stop” moments. Minus her being sick, I wish I could have stopped time, held onto my ever-growing baby and hugged her forever, but I can’t. For those few moments that she was totally still in my arms, being completely mesmerized by the rain pounding the pavement, I wanted time to stop. No amount of money in the world could possibly replace the peace I felt when standing there, watching her sheer amazement at the rain drops in puddles.

It’s too easy to let monetary thoughts consume you. I’m guilty. I’m constantly thinking about our budget, changes that need to be made, checking our online banking, checking out our savings goals, thinking about ways to make more money, our debt, this blog, your blog…whatever it is, money is permanently etched in my brain. This is something I don’t think I will ever be able to ”turn off”. It’s the main reason I started this blog, a release if you will.

Moments like yesterday morning remind me that I need to make a conscious effort to stop sometimes. There are a few things in my life (big and small) that no amount of money could ever replace and I need to remind myself that money is NOT everything.

My family. I grew up in a broken house and I have so much pride in knowing I’m married to a man who loves me and we have a daughter. A tiny human who has taught me more about myself in the last 10 months than I’ve been able to figure out in 28 years. She will continue to amaze and shape my life in ways I’ll never know.
My physical and mental health as well as my ability to maintain my sanity. I’m so lucky. I’ve watched mental and physical illness destroy people and lives.
Nutella. I totally understand how the plant in Germany was robbed.
My cat. She’s a tricky little feline who keeps us on our toes but I adore her wake-up meows at 6am.
Campfires with great friends and family. There’s something about being in the woods that brings people together (or maybe that’s the alcohol…).
The genuine excitement I feel when my daughter masters a new skill. As if no other child in the world can clap their hands haha.
A bottle (or three) of red wine and my best friends.
The time we were able to have with a few specific family members who have passed on (too early) but live within us everyday.
The smell of bed sheets when hung on the line to dry. Best. sleep. ever.
My daughters toes in my face. I never understood people being all mushy about baby feet. Now that I have a daughter all I want to do it stuff her tiny little toes in my mouth. No judging until you have a kid!
Walking through the streets of Munich with my husband. I want to move there.
The experience of watching our local QMJHL hockey team kick ASS this season. An experience we’ve had the opportunity to share with a few family members. It’s been a wicked ride. I’ll be watching The Mooseheads play game five tonight on home ice where they WILL win the President’s Cup. Up next: Memorial Cup! It’s been amazing watching such ridiculously talented kids play such great hockey.
My sister’s baking experiments. Yum.

What are the things in your life no amount of money could replace?

Getting Back Into The Groove

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Source: Free Digital Photos

With me returning to work in less than two weeks I really need to get my butt in gear and back into a routine and back onto a schedule. I have a loose routine with baby when at home, we roughly do the same things everyday, but it’s not conducive for when I go back to work. Buhbye 8am breakfast and 1pm daily walks. Damn financial responsibilities.

Early Rising

Right now I allow baby to wake me when she wakes to start the day. These 7-730am sleep-in’s are going to have to come to a stop. Starting next Monday I’m going to go through all the motions as if I was going to work. My day will require me to wake at 6am at the latest in order to have enough time to get me ready, gather everything to have both baby and I ready for the day, nurse/feed/dress baby and be out the door by 7:20.

Organization= Life Saver

In order for me to accomplish my early mornings without putting a shot gun to my head, I will need to get organized! I’m already stressing about food so meal planning will keep my sanity. Meal planning is something we’ve been a little lazy about lately, but need to get back on track for next grocery run. I’ll also look into planning another Big Cook with friends. I love being able to turn the slow cooker on in the morning and have my dinner complete when I walk in the door. If you’re a busy person and have yet to break out that slow cooker, get on it, you will learn to love it!

I don’t have to worry about my clothes since I wear scrubs but staying on top of laundry will be key. As tempting as it will be to plop down on the coach after baby goes to bed at night, if I don’t keep up with the laundry it will quickly consume me. Between a messy baby, and my dirty scrubs, it piles up fast.

Hubby and I have already done our ‘‘budget” up until October so other than periodic checks and tweaks we should be set in terms of finances. I think I’ve already ironed out any foreseeable issues.

Packing lunches the night before is a must. I’m terrible for leaving stuff like this to the last minute. If lunches get left until the morning, which is already jam-packed full, it will be forgotten. Leaving lunches until the last minute means going to work with no food and spending money. I can’t let lunches, and my laziness, bust my budget! Packing lunch the night before also allows me to better plan my meals for weight watchers.

Along with lunches, the night before I also have to make sure kiddo’s bag for daycare is ready to go so I just have to grab it. This will include packing 6272 outfits to change into, diapers/wipes and weather sensitive items (sunscreen, rain gear, hats…). I still don’t feel like I know everything. Our daycare is literally around the corner, I’m half tempted to just give her a key to my house and tell her to get what she needs if I didn’t pack it

My calender will rule my life. I already rely on both my Blackberry calender and the calender in my kitchen to keep me on top of everything. Summertime especially is insanely busy. Looking ahead, we have one totally free weekend between this coming weekend and the second weekend in September, it’s nuts!

The Blog

It almost goes without saying that I absolutely need to get my stuff organized for blogging or it will not happen. I don’t do it yet but I think organizing everything (my blog and freelancing) in some sort of calender will help. I’m a very visual person. I will have Monday off work to get some stuff done around the home/blog (though will be watching a baby all day too) so I hope this helps me stay on top of things.

What does everyone else do to keep your life together and run on schedule? Tips appreciated!

Don’t Finance a TV, Win One Here Instead!

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Before hubby and I moved into our first apartment, I managed to save enough money to buy a pretty decent TV. I knew he wanted one (and don’t get me wrong, I love my movies) but it wasn’t on our top-priority list as we were taking an older TV from home with us. Though the old, 32” tube TV was a decent quality, the new light-weight flat screen HD TV’s were so much nicer. Not only would I be able move it without breaking my back but I couldn’t argue with the difference in quality.

Without telling my then soon-to-be husband that I was secretly saving money for a TV, I went out with my brother during a boxing day sale and bought one. The idea was to store it at my brother’s house until we moved into our apartment a few months later and surprise hubby on moving day. How excited would he be to not have to transport his old 365lb tube TV?!

The Sweet Talk Shop

My brother and I had a plan of attack when we went to the store. We woke up early and headed out to the store in question. I located my TV and waited for my brother to buy what he wanted. While I was ~~guarding my TV for dear life~~ waiting, a sales associate started talking me up about my pending TV purchase. I have to be honest, I know very little about fancy electronics, TV’s and alike, this sales associate preyed on me like I was supper. He saw right through my ”I know what I’m doing” front and sweet talked me into a home theater system.

Say what?!

Yup. I went in there with cash in hand for a TV only and ended up leaving the store with a TV and a box full of speakers and other gadgets I knew nothing about.

But you only had money for a TV?!

That’s right. I did only have enough money for a TV but don’t worry. I qualified to finance the whole purchase at a mere 29.99% interest rate. No problem at all!

Even though I had enough money to pay for the TV my brother and the sales associate convinced me I should keep the cash for my upcoming move and allocate it for the new apartment then finance the whole thing (interest free for a year).

Idiocity At It’s Finest

This was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done. Though I learned something from it (silver lining?!) I still hate that I was sweet talked into a ”killer deal”. To maintain with my idiocity, the end of the interest free period came and went with no money put on the financing. It wasn’t until a few months later that I finally did something about it, after paying a bucket of money in interest. We paid it off in full about four months after the annual interest free period.

And so my friends, rather than worrying about replacing that potential 457lb old tube TV, or upgrading an older HD TV why not win one? A sweet 50” TV giveaway is being brought to you by http://www.quotemeaprice.com/ (where you can sell structured settlements) and is free for you to enter! (TV details can be found HERE)

Contest runs through until the end of the month. Will ship world-wide (up to $50 shipping charge). Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back To Work Worse-Case-Scenario Budget

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Though she’s holding the xrays backwards and upside down I will allow it since it’s a free photo from here.

When I started this little ‘ol blog I was embarking on my maternity leave and adjusting to our changes in income. We’ve come a long way in the last 10 months. The first of May brings the month that I will be returning to the workforce. Exactly three weeks from today marks the end of my maternity leave. Not that I have anything to complain about being allowed to have my 52 weeks in Canada, it’s still sad knowing I will be leaving her all day, four days a week.

Worst Case Scenario

Hubby and I sat down recently and did our monthly budget up to October inputting my income on an estimated ”worst case scenario”. Since we won’t have an exact idea what my pay will be as my hours are changing, we input the potential lowest estimated amount that I would be making. Guess what? Even with our added expenses the budget balances. Which means anything I bring home over and above this threshold is ”extra”. This excites me since I’m sure we’ve totally low-balled my income.

Before going on mat leave we would easily spend every single penny I made. I was always taking extra hours and working as much as I could. Me losing a massive chunk of income and being on mat leave is exactly what the doctor ordered in terms of us figuring out how much money we really needed. I am giving up one day per week with my return (one less day of daycare and one day more for me to be with her) so my income won’t be quite as high but hubby’s income will offset my lost day. During the last few months hubby received a raise which ends up equaling approximately my lost income every month so we will still be bringing home about the same (pre-mat leave) every month.

Change in Expenses

With my return to work, there is an increase in our budget. We now have to pay for the following things:

Daycare
*Transit Pass for me
*Uniform expenses
*Licensing fees and Continuing education fees for me
**Change to cell phone contract

* tax write off

**With my return to work I will be away from all technology (I don’t have a computer or internet access at work) for over 13 hours. We’ve already adjusted the budget to include a plan that allows me to have access to my email etc on my phone.

It’s not all about spending. We will be saving on electricity, heat and water. With no one home during the day almost all power will be off, less water will be used and heat only on in the evenings.

Added Expenses AND Balanced Budget?!

We had a baby. She has expenses of her own. It amazes me that we’ve been able to work a budget that included these new expenses like daycare every month, diapers (though I’m thinking of switching to cloth) and even a small savings every month for her education (so she doesn’t end up writing a personal finance blog sharing with the world how much debt she’s in from school), yet we still have enough money to live life. We’re even going on a vacation this summer with the whole family (and I mean whole family, like 100+ people!). When we put our minds to something we’re pretty unstoppable.

In these past 10 months we’ve both increased our income. As mentioned my husband got a well deserved raise and I’ve gotten into the world of PF blogging and freelancing. It’s not a ton of money, but the sites that I’m staff writing for will provide me with half of my goal for how much extra I want to put towards our debt every month. Combine this with our worse case budget and I’m confident that one extra payment per month will happen, if not more! Allowing us to become debt free even faster.

How has a change in employment meant positive things for your budget?

Note: I can’t thank every single one of my readers personally but I wish I could. This blog and the connections I’ve made in the personal finance community have seriously changed my life. Though there are a few bad apples and people I think I’d like to throw a brick at (no blogs that I read/comment/connect with on twitter!) I’ve also met people who I’d like to consider friends and can’t wait to meet some day. The vast knowledge this community has blows my mind. It’s tough to comment on everything I read and I’d almost rather not comment at all then leave a lame-ass comment like ”nice job”. Just know that I love all your blogs all and thanks so much for opening my mind and accepting me into your community.

Why I’m Paying Our 0% Interest Loan First

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Source: Free Digital Photos

You read that right, of all of our debts we will be working on paying off our loan with 0% interest first. I am going against every personal finance rule in the book in order to maintain my sanity. As you may know, of our total debts, almost all of which are from my schooling, I ended up charging a boatload of money on credit cards to pay my tuition after I didn’t get a loan I was expecting. Stupid I know, lesson learned.

Before my husband got his last raise, and I was starting my maternity leave we found ourselves in a very tight spot. My husband, at the time, wasn’t making enough money to cover the bills alone, I was about to go on mat leave for upwards of a year (though may have been cut short if money required me to) and we were struggling with our budget and especially the credit cards. Though we were making the minimum payments on time even, it was stressing me out knowing it would be a long time before we were in a good enough spot financially to pay more than minimum. I don’t need to explain to all of you what the interest charges were like.

We immediately started looking into different financing options to consolidate what we could. I’ve already explained our process of getting in a DMP here but our ideal debt solution ended up being a debt management program (DMP) which consolidated all of our credit cards and one unsecured line of credit at 0% interest. We could finally breath. The monthly payment is manageable and 100% of our payment goes towards our principal.

Stress: A look At DMP

Though we’re finally in a better spot financially thanks for the DMP and my husbands substantial raise, my money stresses haven’t gone away.

I’ve seen many different explanations about what a DMP is and how it affects ones credit rating. First, it is not bankruptcy. Long and short, for u, we went with a not-for-profit agency (huge importance, you shouldn’t consolidate in a DMP with a for-profit agency-another post topic). While in the plan our credit rating isn’t totally shot but has a slight flaw on it.We still have our cell phones, one credit card which we were allowed to keep under agreement for my husbands work travel expenses and my other secured student debts that we’ve always maintained in good standing.

Plus Two Years

The ”flaw” on our credit report will say visible to agencies for the duration of our payoff plus two years. If we do nothing other than required minimum DMP payments we will have the 25k paid off in 4.5 years. So we’re looking at a ‘flaw’ on our credit report of 6.5 years total. Not happening.

I plan on making enough extra money each month (over my projected back to work income) to have the loan paid off 2.5 years before its projected pay off date so that in a total of 4.5 years we’re presented with a brand spankin’ new credit report. During our two year ”probational period” (once our DMP is paid off) I will relocate our DMP payment plus my extra income payments back into our other debts (none with an interest rate higher than 5%) and pay them off.

AND SO. Within 4.5 years ALL of our debt (minus mortgage) should be paid off and this is why I’ve decided to pay my 0% loan first.I want our credit report to reflect nicely in max five years. If everything goes according to plan, it should work out that in five or so years we will be looking at moving into our forever home since we’re outgrowing this home.

I would love to hear constructive feedback on our plan. Would you do the same thing?

The Stresses of Tire Shopping

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Source: Free Digital Photos

This past month hubby and I have had the luxury of shopping for some new all season tires (insert sarcasm). With winter seemingly over we need to take our winter tires off and replace with some all seasons. This is the first time we’ve had to buy all season tires since purchasing our vehicle, a Dodge Journey, three years ago.

When I started on my search to find the perfect tire for us I had a few criteria I wanted them to meet:

At least 100k warranty.
Reputable brand.
No re-treaded, refurbished tires.
Within budget. Duh.

I was shocked at the price variation of tires. I probably shouldn’t have been but when I first started calling I was getting a range anywhere from $550-$1200. I knew we wouldn’t be buying the highest end tire but also didn’t want a generic brand with no reputation that wouldn’t last more than a year.

Driving Habits

With the advice from a very helpful tire technician at a local garage, I was able to narrow down our search. After explaining our driving patterns he didn’t think we would gain all the benefits from the highest-end tire ( ie: Michelin brand) and suggested a few brands to help us narrow our search.

For one, it’s an all season tire we’re shopping for. When the weather starts getting really bad in the late fall/early winter, we put exclusive winter tires on so only have to worry about the spring/summer/early fall weather which is pretty mild. When the weather is that bad, we’re not going to be driving anywhere. I take public transit to work and when weather is really terrible hubby can usually manage to work from home.

The other thing we have to consider is that our day-to-day driving is done close to home. My husband drives our vehicle to work, and to job sites, but is never more than 20km from home on a daily basis. In the summer we take her (Hubby has named our truck Diane) camping a few times and this summer specifically we will be taking it on a 2000km road trip to Boston. We want something that will tolerate the city driving and do well on the occasional highway trip.

Our Decision

In the end we chose to go with a Bridgestone tire. This tire met all our criteria:

105k warranty
Bridgestone is a reputable and trusted brand.
New tire, not re-treaded.
Within Budget.

After calling around, we set a max budget of $700 total (installation included). These tires ring in at $709.00. $9 over budget BUT we get a $70.00 mail in rebate bringing the total down to $639. My mother-in-law and I called around to see if we could get it any cheaper since my mother in law’s friend, who owns a tire place and often gives hook-up’s, said there was no way he could match that price for this specific tire and we should jump on it. The unbiased opinion solidified our decision.

Baby’s getting her new wheels today at 12pm! Next up, an oil change!

How do you decide on criteria for car purchases?