Give Me Back My Five Bucks

I did fairly well this month with my expenses – only notably going over on the Travel portion of my budget because I prepaid for a lot of travel due to extremely good sales. Going forward, March should see a good amount of income coming in, and less expenses since most of our future travel plans are now already paid for. We still need to pay for our train tickets to Geneva and Vienna, but after that, I believe all of our travel is paid for up until mid-June. Over Budget: Food – I’m surprised this isn’t a lot higher, … Continue reading →

Monday 20th $5.93 (€4,50) doner kebab Tuesday 21st $1.45 (€1,10) soft pretzel (x2) $5.82 (€4,33) groceries Wednesday 22nd No Spend Day!  Thursday 23rd + $350 freelance income $18.82 (€14) doner kebab & beer (x2) Friday 24th –  Munich + $330.70 freelance income $80.65 (€60) train (roundtrip to Munich) $0.87 (€0,65) soft pretzel Saturday 25th – Munich $4.04 (€3) admission for St. Paul Church tower $26.90 (€20) Mario’s Pizzeria $3.36 (€2,50) transit $12.04 (€8,95) Globetrotter (water bottle) $33.63 (€25) Munich Bavarian Restaurant Sunday 26th – Munich $6.73 (€5) snacks  $29.59 (€22) lunch $4.04 (€3) soft pretzel (x2) WEEKLY EXPENSES: - $233.87 WEEKLY INCOME: + $680.70 TOTAL: + … Continue reading →

A few years ago when I bought my new car, I just went ahead and bought all of my insurance through ICBC, because that’s what I always did. The idea to shop around for auto insurance never really crossed my mind, because really. How much could I actually save? But when I started looking into auto insurance quotes, I was shocked at how much I was over paying by sticking with ICBC! Just by switching over my extended coverage to a third party company, I would save hundreds of dollars each year. Here’s what I was quoted for: ICBC – … Continue reading →

It is extremely important to understand foreign currency conversion fees – which is how much your debit and credit cards will charge you when you use them outside of Canada. Even though I travel to the USA often, I never really took the time to research into just how much using my credit card was costing me. So save yourself some money by spending a few minutes calling the number on the back of each credit card. Have them explain the fees and currency conversion amounts to you. A foreign currency conversion fee is charged to consumers to help offset … Continue reading →

Wow, I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for five years. FIVE YEARS! So much has changed over the last 1,825 days – not only within the personal finance blogosphere, but my life is completely different than it used to be. And I honestly never, ever thought that I’d be writing a 5-year anniversary post here on GMBMFB, or that there would be people here, reading what I have to write. Since I started taking care of my finances, I’ve gone from a -$21,000 net worth, to over +$71,000. That’s a difference of over $92,000! What I’m most proud of is … Continue reading →