Moving Long Distance on a Budget

I am in throes of packing with only five work days left before my job ends. On June 4th I will make the first trek to Vancouver Island by myself driving two days over the Rocky Mountains and taking a ferry to our new home. I will then fly back on June 17th we will drive a moving van we rented together over the same path with all our precious possessions. Most furniture has been sold off or left behind for the boys to use in the Alberta house(in a previous post recent news: adult stepsons who are attending college are living there for the next two years then we will try and sell it in a slightly stronger real estate market) with exception of a few investment and family pieces - a leather couch set, a large area rug, hubbys office furniture and a very old but not valuable dresser that was hubbys Ukrainian Grandparents from when they first came to Canada a hundred years ago. Then June 24th hubby will go pick up our second car and drive it on the same path.

The highway we travel is a dangerous one, lots of beautiful scenery and wildlife to avoid. Over a mountain pass and through hundreds of miles of bush, with no towns in site. An adventure, one I am a little more nervous about than hubby. We could have saved even more money by having me drive behind the moving van on one of the trips - but the trip can be hazardous and difficult to navigate alone once we get to Vancouver so I vetoed that idea. We each make two trips - the flights back were all purchased on those airmiles I collect every day on my credit card. Yes, we have had to pay air taxes of about $400 but have saved about $1000 in flight costs.


You tube video of the Coquihalla pass taken by some travellers

We priced out having a large moving company move us - we still would have had to drive the two vehicles ourselves. $6000 plus about $600 to get the two vehicles over! Yikes, hubby said no way. I was a bit fearful but have to agree - for the savings I would much rather do some upgrades on our new house or go travelling. So, we are renting a one ton van - for $900 one way. No drop fee and as hubby knows the owner of the franchise we got another $50 off the regular price! We have to pay insurance (auto insurance rider for rental vehicles does not cover commercial vehicles) of about $150, plus gas and a hotel half way but estimate total cost to move at less than $2000 including flight taxes, gas on moving van and two vehicles.

I am a researcher. I used to be a travel agent for 10 years of my life so have a few tricks up my sleeve to save money. Originally I researched a motel at a large city at approximately the halfway point. $120 per night plus tax and no meals included. We have our standards but are perfectly happy in any three star with good reviews on Tripadvisor.com (a valuable resource even if you don't book your own trips) no matter where we travel. Then I researched a similar style motel one hour further into the drive in a small town - jackpot! For $99 plus tax a night it includes continental breakfast. If you can work at least one meal into your hotel costs you are way ahead when travelling. This particular continental breakfast is much better than most. A waffle station, fresh fruit, pastries, cereal, coffee and juice - we have stayed with this chain before and the breakfast reviews are good. You do have to be careful when choosing a hotel based on their breakfast as some motels have no separate breakfast room and see a day old muffin and hours old coffee as a continental breakfast.

For the last two weeks I have been raiding the mail room at work for boxes - as we are moving ourselves smaller to medium size boxes work best. Packing materials have also been saved for the last six months - newspapers and bubble wrap. Breakable items are being packed between clothing and bedding. We have an unpaid crew to help load (four strapping teens/young adults which we call "the kids") and are hiring one person at the other end a day wage of $50 to help unload the heavy furniture with hubby.

Hubby keeps asking me what are the first things I am going to do when we get there besides making our new house a home -go to the ocean nearly every day and planting - anything - everything. I have not been able to plant a thing this spring knowing we are moving and not taking plants with us. I want to do some container gardening and plant flower pots for the front of the house and start an herb garden. Fortunately the growing season on Vancouver Island is much longer and I still have time to plant some veggies and will get some results (thinking of some raised beds and cold frames for the fall and winter).

So that is my life in a nutshell for the next month. If I miss posting for a few days please don't worry, it just means I am off on some adventure or waiting on an internet hookup. This week, the packing continues and several get togethers with friends before we go.

Another Episode of "The Bird Stalker"

Friday night on the pond - Have a great weekend!

Guilty Pleasures - FREE

I don't spend a lot of time trying for freebies, mostly because in Canada there are some - but they are few and far between. Here are two programs that I participate in:

Swagbucks - available in many countries, simply use their search engine and gain swagbucks. I turn these Swagbucks into Amazon.ca gift certificates and save them up for Christmas. Right now I have $30.00 in Amazon.ca credits. I like Swagbucks because you can participate as much or as little as you wish. The secret is take their daily poll for one Swagbuck and search at least 3 times per day and you will end up with another 7-10 Swagbucks per day. I have little time for this so choose the easy way. Minimum take $5 to $10 in GCS per month. Canadians are very limited on their GC choices but if you are American your choices are much wider. Last year I ordered a book written by a friend of mine as well as a large box of Keurig coffee - both 100% free just for using their website. If you are worried about spam from them - don't. They only send you about one email a month about upcoming promotions. I have used their website for three years now and will definitely keep up as it makes it much easier on the pocketbook come Christmas time.

The second is icoke.ca. If you live in the USA you could go to mycokerewards.com.

Although I generally only buy no name pop with four teens in and out of our house we often find Coke bottles gracing our recycle bin - check those liners! I got a full year subscription to Country Living magazine this way - my favorite guilty pleasure of late.

What are your favorite freebies?

A Reason To Go Thrifting

With our recent change of plans I now need to leave enough kitchen utensils behind in the Alberta home so what would a frugal person do? Go thrifting!

Five Anchor Hocking milk glass plates. These will be used when we get to town for family celebrations. These were purchased for .99 cents each at Goodwill. These are not the true vintage ones - based on the marking I am guessing they are 1980s, and may or may not have had the gold edging (I googled and cannot find any exactly alike without the gold edging). If it had gold edging all is gone so it looks like they were meant to be just basic white glass plates. Total $4.95

Next I hit up Salvation Army and managed to score one stainless steel pot - I have enough other pots already but needed one this size - $4.50.

I also bought four Corelle plates and two saucers. These are virtually indestructible and will be the boys every day plates(we already own Corelle plates that we use every day that I am taking to the Comox house). $2.99

Next, on to a garage sale in my neighborhood. This was a stop on a whim, but I managed to score both for .25 cents

Frying pan .15. Not in pristine condition but the boys could care less. A few scratches and I am sure they will add a few more.

Snoopy mug - for resale in my future Etsy store or flea market. Gigantic purchase price? 10 cents. I was totally in love with Snoopy and Woodstock as a kid. I owned a stuffed snoopy and also had a red baron flying house, the kind that was one of the original remote control ones with the wire that made snoopy go round and round. If this little mug was a bit bigger I would keep it for myself but I like a gigantic mug for tea or coffee. This appears never to have been used. No chips, no stains, and was made in Japan.

This Canadian long weekend (Victoria Day on Monday) is being spent packing and organizing, and tonight smokies on the BBQ and corn on the cob. I hope you have a great time this weekend wherever you are!

Linking up with Her Library Adventures Flea Market Finds and Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday.

A New Plan!

Beach at Comox five minutes drive from our new Vancouver Island pad

After four months up for sale we have officially taken our Alberta home off the market. Two low ball offers were rejected ($70,000 to $80,000 below our asking price - we had the property professionally appraised it it was priced to sell already - they were trying to steal a great "view of the ponds" property). Rather than taking a beating on price we have come up with an alternate plan.

This plan involves having a mortgage - our new home on Comox was half paid for with savings. We have always had a secured line of credit, the last several years after our mortgage was paid off it had a zero balance. When we purchased our new Island pad we put the difference between purchase price and savings on the line of credit knowing as soon as the Alberta home sells we would wipe any debt out. Well, that didn't happen.

Everyone (realtors, lawyers, tradespeople, business people) is predicting another "boom" in Alberta - as right now we are experiencing the lowest unemployment rate in North America beating out all other States and Provinces due to being oil rich. We did have a recession in Alberta, realty prices went down about 15%, we just did not feel it as much as the rest of the world. Property prices are actually on the increase - just not in time for this sale. Most estimate that within two to three years the Alberta real estate market is likely rebound to pre-recession prices.

Our problem: we want to move now.

We looked into renting our home out with a management company that only rents single family homes on one year leases to executives. We even had someone come through and tell us how much rent we would get - it sounded very promising. We did our due dilligence and checked the management company's references - all good. We got some advice from some friends who have a lot of rentals - and then we got a wee bit scared. Remember, this was originally our dream home and not purchased for rental. It is currently in spotless condition - like new and it is only seven years old and well taken care of. Our friend suggested that even if a renter did $10,000 damage over two years we still would come out ahead after expenses - about $500 per month. We heard some horror stories of others who did due diligence and then still had very bad renters. I started having trouble sleeping, you know that feeling when in your gut you know it might be the right thing to do but feels so wrong? Apparently hubby was feeling the same way.

Our solution: two adult children (18 - in Alberta that is our legal adult age, and 21) who are both attending college in two year programs this fall - both of whom we are financially responsible for as long as they attend school and who are currently living with their Mother. These boys are unlike many young adults. They are both hard working with jobs and cars and very responsible but wanting some privacy and independence. They are not partiers. They realize we have a large chunk of our equity tied up in this home and we need someone to take care of it for us when we are not in Alberta shovelling snow and mowing lawns. They have agreed to move in in June and hubby and I will move on to the Island. They will make a small contribution to the expenses and will buy their own food and clothes and we will take care of the rest of the expenses. We can return for holidays and visiting family as well as hubby's company has many Alberta clients lined up already so he will return a few days every month or so for business.

The original plan (as devised over the last several years) involved both of us taking six months to a year off together when we moved to the Island. Hubby's plan veared left when he quit his job in January and started his own company, which is already making money. There will be no time off for him. He is going to try and line up work for fall to still do a bit of relaxing this summer with me while still growing his company. I want to take the summer off - I need it. I have never been unemployed and have worked continuously since I was 18 years old and am now battling a disease that won't kill me but that makes it very hard to work with cronic fatigue(fibromialgia).

This new plan costs more, but after figuring out all the expenses we can do this. Fortunately based on a life of always living well under our means, paying cash and being frugal we can make this choice. I will wait until fall until to make some sort of income and even then - part-time work only. We had saved money for this year - now we will have to make sure every frugal choice counts to make that money last as long as possible. We have backup emergency savings if this plan doesn't work out as well as we hope.

The plan is a two year committment for all - after that we will determine if it is the right time to sell or not and will likely to make back more than this plan costs with potential that the market could shoot up higher than our original purchase price (wouldn't that be nice).

Sometimes, when life throws you lemons, you make lemonade. We are extremely good at paying down debt - our net worth is likely to actually grow versus decrease based on the new plan. Fortunately for us we have a strong economy in Alberta with another boom ahead predicted in the short term future or we may have just sold and gotten what we could have and taken a loss.

So now we start our new life in Comox together - living as frugally as possible to make this new plan work.

Final Bit of Thrifting Before the Move

This weekend while taking my Mother-in-law to the greenhouse to buy flowers (and wishing I could buy pretty plants too but due to the move can only look) what should appear in front of me but a yard sale just a couple houses down from mine - and the kind that actually has good stuff for sale!

I would have bought a bunch of stuff had we not been moving - instead my only purchases were these two seagrass baskets for .25 cents each.

Even hubby likes them - even though officially we are not buying "stuff" right now. I count these as containers for stuff we already own and are moving (one can justify anything if you want it enough). I don't have a traditional jewellery box so maybe one for earrings and one for necklaces.

I found the final book in the Stieg Larsson trilogy for $4 in hardcover - my last book purchase of 2012 (unless for resale for .25 cents or less as I am planning on doing a flea market). Mom and I have read books one and two and have been looking for book 3 at thrift stores. When we are done we will likely sell it for the same price.

This book was a freebie - someone at work brought in a box of books free for the taking. I fished this one out for hubby but will likely read it myself.

Things are getting a bit crazy for hubby and I - some executive decisions to be made this week regarding our move that I will share with you as soon as things are finalized. Stay tuned!

Newest Mom and Some New Baby Feathered Friends

Here is the most recent addition to the pond, two brand new goslings, likely hatched within the last two days and their proud Momma. They are a little weak and not very sure on their feet. By next week they will be driving their parents crazy.

Happy Mothers Day!

Picasso Print Found At A Thrift Store

I hate to say it again but "THIS IS WHY I SHOP AT THRIFT STORES!"

From the Columbus Dispatch


What is the best thing you ever found at the thrift store?

A Picture of Our New Island Pad

This is a picture of our new pad on Vancouver Island - four weeks today I shall be arriving to occupy it fulltime. Hubby will hopefully come very soon after! Can you tell I am counting down?

Frugal Stress Relievers

I officially have 18 days of work left. I fired myself on Friday putting my employer on notice that June 1 is my last day of work. They were very surprised but supportive. The next four weeks will zip by and I am on a mission to purge at least one item a day by either selling it, giving it away or throwing it out. Yesterday I gave away an old street hockey net the kids quit using four years ago and today a small 13 inch colour tube tv. Tommorrow I am dropping off old glasses to the optometrist who gathers them up for distribution in third world countries.

This week is what you could call "a little stressful". Without getting into the dark details hubby and I have been coping in our own frugal ways and thought we would share some ideas:

1. Exercize: Take a walk, bike or use that old exercize equipment you own.

2. Read - I find I cannot think of anything else when reading a book so find this a stress relieving activity.

3. Hang out with your pets. They are soothing and although they do not understand the stress they tend to be empathetic (even our hamster soothes us) plus they are so darn cute. I am sure your dog would be more than happy to chase after the ball if you would just throw it or take him for a walk.

4. Do brainless work ie: hubby took to painting our wheelbarrow, I took to cleaning the hamster cage and finding items to purge in our downsize.

5. Get up at a normal time, do normal routine things. Sometimes when stressed it is easy to ditch your routine but routine can be comforting.

6. Poke yourself, remember all the good things in your life and consider: Any day above ground versus below ground is a good one - you woke up today, it has got to be a good day as that was a step in the right direction.

Any other ideas?

April Budgetary Results

April Food Budget $426.57 (if you are new to this blog the post in which I worked out this formula is here)
minus March overage of $30.30 = April Food Budget 396.27

Actual $396.72 - Success - only over by .45 cents!

It took me three months but I made up January's huge overage and am back on track. This method of carrying forward and reducing current month's food budget by previous months overages certainly keeps the budget on course. It also allows me to blow the budget near end of month if I happen upon a great sale, knowing that it will only reduce next months budget.

Coupons used $9.50 - one of the lowest months yet. I am almost at 95% scratch cooking so only using coupons on mostly non-food items. I found a great sale on pork loin mid month so with a little effort chopping up pork chops - the freezer is well stocked going into May.

Non-food items: all over the counter medications, soaps, razors, garbage bags etc: $72.19 of the budget. I would like to reduce this further and believe I will be able to when I can again stockpile after we move ourselves to Vancouver Island.

Meat: $99.11. I continue to buy family packs and break them down into family size meals. We had the older boys over a few times for dinner - and the younger two kids seem to have hollow legs at ages 14 and 16. I swear we went through six litres of milk the last time my 16 year old stepson was over for the weekend.

Annual Clothing Budget $200
April spent $9.99 on a shirt and a tank top at Goodwill (see previous post)
= $190.01 for rest of 2012

Annual Hair Budget $400
April spent $140.20 on a cut, professional colour (lighten not darken) and professional hair product
= $192.20 for rest of 2012

We also sold our truck $5500 which was reduced from original asking price due to a wheel bearing that was discovered during the purchasers mechanical inspection - he still bought it - thank goodness!

Also unloaded this week: sold 2 kids bikes $40, gave away a tube tv, one box and one bag to goodwill and recycled an old cell phone as part of a women's shelter drive (they recondition them and give them to women in crisis).
Total in stuff sold in downsize: $7910.

I have just over 20 days of work left and will be making the drive to move to Vancouver Island the first week of June to our new pad at Comox. Hubby will come as soon as we can unload the Alberta house - we did a further price reduction this week and are resigned to losing somewhere between $50,000 and $70,000 on this home from our purchase price. Fortunately, the home is paid for in full - and we made over $100,000 in equity on the sale of our last home so everything evens out in the end. Lesson learned is try not to tie so much of your equity up in your home. Our new home in Comox is smaller, less expensive on taxes and utilities and is 54% of the cost of our home we are trying to sell in Alberta. The difference in equity will be put to work making our life financially independent and hopefully a little less stressful.

Saturday was the 9th Anniversary of the weekend I met Hubby(married 6.5 years) - we celebrated by using a giftcard that we had received at Christmas and went to the Keg for a wonderful dinner of Steak and Seafood. It was one of the few good meals out we have had in the past year - excellent service and food. Afterwards we went for a walk around the pond and spotted:

Muskrats(look like mini-beavers) and Grebes (similar a duck)

It is baby making season on the pond so stay tuned for photos of tiny furry and feathered creatures as all seem to be pairing up!