Just Odds N Ends

Lots of action this week in the living rich household.  We traded in hubby's sportscar (found at a garage sale, paid for in cash) and sold my car (also paid in cash) and upgraded to a 2012 model (cash from both vehicles paid for car plus a bit extra).  We are now a 2 car family again.  Maybe one day we will be a one car family but for now this works.  Our truck is for lifestyle, hauling things like kayaks, bottles, furniture and going to spots with buddy.  The car will be shared.  We rarely have to be two different places at one time but it happens.  The car is a four seater so will work to haul family around when they visit or when we go places with Mom.  Probable savings?  About $1200 per year in insurance and maintenance and less polishing and washing for hubby who is in charge of that in our household.

Test subject buddy was the first picture taken with new iphone SE

My birthday is in a few days.  I really wanted nothing but hubby insisted we upgrade my phone.  I had an iphone 4s for the past four years (my first smartphone) and really liked the apple product.  I upgraded to an iphone SE which is just a tiny bit bigger than the 4s and perfect for my needs.  That is a company expense but company money is our money so I am counting it as my birthday present.  It turns out that the new plan we had to change to is $5 cheaper a month on a two year contract.  The phone was $129 so essentially over two years we save $120 plus tax and so we are only out of pocket $9 on buying the new phone. Plus - I get to sell the perfectly working old phone.  That money will go straight into the weekends away fund.  So, basically after all is said and done we are ahead of the game by upgrading the phone. The new phone's primary feature that enticed me to finally agree to the upgrade is a much better camera as that is the same technology as the iphone 6.  I am constantly amazed at the pictures hubby takes with his iphone which rival that of my expensive (5 year old) DSLR Canon Rebel camera and you don't need to lug it around with you.  It is likely we will just take phones with us for pictures in our future travels except when we are close to home or traveling with a vehicle.  Lugging around a big camera when flying no longer makes sense.  For those in the United States we pay far more than you do for cell phones and charges.  Let's just say that the government had to intervene to outlaw 3 year contracts this past year as they were unfair to consumers so things are getting better but not fast enough.  The major issue is lack of competition so our line rates are still high. Hopefully that will change soon too (not holding my breath).

We have thought about canceling our home alarm.  We are almost always home and only use it when we go away.  We do receive a discount on our house insurance for having it.  Hubby called them to cancel and they dropped our rate to basically paying the same amount as the discount we are receiving on our property insurance, therefore we are even and receive the alarm for free.  Not too shabby.

We have another kid coming to visit at Christmas.  Once again, I am so thankful we won all those airmiles as they come in handy with a big family.  Cost per ticket?  $105 in tax so very reasonable.  Total savings between the 2 kids so far $800 in won airmiles.

On our recent weekend to Bellingham Washington one of our purchases were these tiny lights for our patio.  I have priced them out in Canada and they were far more.  Yes, we tend to spend money on our home versus in restaurants or on things like clothing and hair.  Everyone has priorities and we spend so much time at home and on the patio it makes sense.  This was taken at dusk last night.  For $20 we got two strands and they likely will last a long time as are both indoor/outdoor but protected from the elements.

Finally, we have no travel plans in the works and are just adding to our different savings funds right now.  What makes that difficult is I keep coming across great travel deals.  This morning I found a flight from Vancouver to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam this fall for $573 including taxes on secretflying.com.  They post error fares and just really low airfares that anyone finds.  If you like them on facebook you can stay in the loop.  The listing said $566 but when I checked airspace the rate was a tiny bit higher.  That is not in the cards for us but if they have a rock bottom rate in the Spring we might consider it (or to somewhere else in Asia).  Check them out if you are a traveler.