Friday Miscellaneous August 20, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : blog, car, entertainment , 6commentsLast night I went to a friend’s house for a BBQ. There was nothing else on, so she forced me to watch The Last Song on her laptop with her. I absolutely cannot stand Miley Cyrus. And also, it was literally the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. But do you want to know what the most horrifying part of the entire night was? The realization that she was the best actor in that entire movie. Everybody else was so awful that I wanted to stab my eyeballs with knives.
Moving on … in news about my car, I’m still waiting to get my bumper fixed. I took it into the shop and they ordered the parts in, but then they had to cut out a HUGE chunk of my bumper to colour match the paint. Hopefully it will be done by the weekend!
Oh, and finally in blog-related news … the big “reveal” will be happening around the second week of September. So stay tuned! :)
Have a good weekend everyone!
Rear ended! August 12, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : car , 12commentsYesterday as I was driving home from work, I got rear ended while sitting at a stop light. I wasn’t hurt, but my poor car has a bunch of scratches and a huge hole in the bumper. :( And the guy who hit me didn’t even say sorry! He acted as if I was being a nuisance, asking for his license and insurance. And he was tapping his foot impatiently as I wrote down all of his information and took photos of the front of his car.
I was worried because I have private insurance through CDI and didn’t want it to be a hassle to make a claim. The 2 previous accidents I’ve been in, I’ve only had to deal with ICBC. But CDI was really helpful and I was able to make the claim easily.
Because I have replacement insurance on my car, all of the parts needed to fix my car will be new. And my $500 deductible will be waived since it wasn’t my fault. I forgot to ask about if I’m eligible for a loaner car while mine is getting fixed, so I’m waiting to hear back from my adjuster.
Also, I’m trying to find a place to fix my car. I’d prefer to go with the dealership I bought my car from, or at least another Suzuki dealership. I just have to wait to hear about the loaner car first.
Goodbye, VW Golf July 26, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : car , 7commentsOver the past week, BF’s car (my old 1994 VW Golf) has been slowly dying. There are many things wrong with it. Because the repairs would cost about double what the car is actually worth, BF has found himself a used older model Jeep. He got a good deal, and says it’s in great condition and will last him for the next few years until I finish paying off my car loan – and then he’ll be able to buy something newer. That way we will still be able to easily afford a mortgage (our plan is to buy in 2 or 3 years).
That Golf really served us well, and we put a lot of KMs on her, driving her out to many different places to go hiking and camping. I thought she’d last longer than 15 months, but that’s the risk you take when you buy cheaper, older cars.
It will be nice to have a 4×4 vehicle, and it fits into BF’s active lifestyle. I personally wouldn’t have chosen a Jeep simply because it’s not the greatest on gas and it’s not that practical, but BF’s commute to school and most of his other activities is much less than mine and it’s his money so it’s his choice! :)
As for our old car? Because it will be very hard to sell a car that needs major repairs, we decided to go with the BC Scrap-It program, where I will be able to get a $500 credit towards a new bicycle (I doubt we’d get much more than that if we did end up selling the Golf on Craigslist or something). Since I don’t have a bike and he does, we both think that this is the best use of the Scrap-It program. The other option was $300 cash, which isn’t really worth it.
Has anyone else utilized the Scrap-It program before?
Happy Friday & Pay Day! February 19, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : car, saving money , 9commentsWell, as you can tell by my NetworthIQ, I’ve dropped a few thousand dollars this month. Which hurts a bit, because I worked my butt off to earn a lot of extra money this month. But I adjusted the value of my 2 vehicles (BF is buying my old Golf off me, so I adjusted for the amount still owing), and my Retirement Portfolio took a beating this month.
That being said, I was able to hit all of my savings targets that I set for myself in my February Goals. But I’ll have a re-cap of that sometime next week.
I’m also anxiously awaiting my tax papers. I made last-minute RRSP contributions since January 1, totaling about $2,000. I’m still really thinking about maxing out my TFSA this year instead of pouring all my money into my RRSPs – just to get a bit of diversity. I have less than 5% of my Retirement Portfolio in TFSA.
Made 1 of 3 extra car payments February 9, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : car , 1 comment so far
When I bought my car, my loan payments were scheduled to come out of my chequing account bi-weekly on Mondays (1st & 15th of this month). It was really annoying, having to remember and calculate payment times. So I called into BMO last Wednesday to get them changed to bi-weekly on pay day Fridays. They said they would send me some paperwork which I would have to send back to them before they could get authorization to switch the dates – meaning the next payment would be on the new date of the 19th, since I was too close to the 5th to receive and mail off the paperwork in time. So fine, that’s reasonable.
But they took a payment out on the 5th anyway! That means I will be making an extra car payment this month (1st, 5th, 19th). One of my goals for 2010 was to make 3 extra car payments. Not exactly planned, and it’s a good thing I had the money in my account, but that’s 1 extra payment down, 2 to go!
Spending a bit of money January 29, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : car, spending , 2commentsYesterday, just for the fun of it, we decided to go out for sushi. We’ve been doing really well with not going out to eat, so it was nice to relax and have a nice dinner. I treated, and it cost $40. This came out of the Entertainment portion of January’s budget. I’m still going over my monthly budget, but it looks like I’ll make my budget this month! I’m about $75 under right now.
I also spent $58 on my 3-month car service. It was a little pricier than I had anticipated. I guess I’m not used to using $25 motor oil? I was also surprised that they washed my car, and vacuumed and cleaned the inside. Which was nice. I forgot about the 3-month service when I made up this month’s budget, but thankfully I haven’t been driving much so I was able to squeeze it into my Car & Transportation budget and I’m still under for the month in that category. :)
In case you’re wondering, any problems with the car is covered by warranty. I don’t pay for labour when it comes to regular maintenance, but I do have to pay for fluids, filters, etc.
Need a free Car Cost Canada report? December 4, 2009
Posted by gmbmfb in : blog, car , 2commentsIn order to get over $1,000 off the sticker price of my new car, I purchased a report through CarCostCanada.com, which lists the wholesale price of a car, plus any dealer/factory rebates/incentives that are on the table.
When I went to buy my car, and I went in to talk numbers with the manager, he seemed pretty shocked that I had brought along the Car Cost Canada report. The salesperson even said “wow, you sure did your homework.” And I didn’t even have to negotiate! I showed him the report, said I wanted a set amount off the price of the car, and he just went and did it for me, no questions asked. Exactly how I like to do business.
I have 12 unused reports left, so if anyone out there is at all considering purchasing a new car in the near future, send me an e-mail at krystalatwork [at] gmail [dot] com with the make/model/information of the car you’re thinking about, and I can send you a free report on it. It would be a shame to let those reports go to waste!
***UPDATE***
Please note that I have given away all of my Car Cost Canada reports. But if you are in the market for a new car, I would strongly urge you just to fork over the money and buy a report for yourself. It is well worth the money, even if you only get a few hundred dollars off.
Switched over auto insurance November 5, 2009
Posted by gmbmfb in : car, saving money , 1 comment so farOkay well after it was all said and done, I only ended up saving $213.02 on my annual insurance. Which is still a huge amount, but it’s not as much as the online quote I got yesterday. Part of it is because they don’t have 2010 vehicles updated online yet, so when I called customer service they said just to pick the 2009 model “because it would be the same discount.” HA! Wrong.
That’s okay though. If BF insures his car through CDI when it comes due (in 2 weeks), I’ll save another $100 on my insurance. Not bad! Although I think it will be cheaper for him to go through ICBC since it’s an older car. But we can always do the online quote to see. And next year I should be able to get an even bigger discount.
Now tomorrow I have to go in and cancel my extended ICBC coverage because they don’t let you do that over the phone (lame).
