Bundling Services ...

Our Internet provider is Shaw and our Satellite company - when we first purchased it, was through a company called Star Choice - which was then bought over by Shaw a year ago. Okay, so we have the services directly billed to a credit card each month (which is paid off each month in full). There are always 2 charges - one that says Shaw Cable - for the Internet and another charge that says Shaw Direct - so same company is billing and quite gleefully taking our payments each month. Can you see where there is going? I call up the billing dept to see if they could just do their "bundle" thing that they do and maybe save $5 or so a month - every bit counts right? I guess wrong, because according to the customer service rep at Shaw, they are considered 2 different companies - so they can't bundle the services. Like What!?! "Shaw" is the main provider, but because they bought Star Choice, they are allowed to operate as a separate entity. I guess it was worth a try.

Simple Living

Living more simply - seems to be a lot more in my vocabulary and thoughts lately. I'm not drawn to all the "stuff" that I used to be - in my spend first, think twice (or never) afterwards. I tend to look at value for money items or things, and this can only be a good thing. We love to travel and yesterday I found myself thinking back to what I was doing a year at that exact time. I had a cup of tea and just let my memories take over and it put a smile on my face - it was our last day in Boston and we were just embarking on a cruise ship in the Boston Harbor. It was hubby's first time on a cruise ship and being able to experience his "first time" on it, through his eyes, was magical. These memories are the things that are important to me, so much more than stuff. That is why travel is so important to us. I would much rather save and take a trip somewhere, then buy new clothes or knick knacks for the house. I know everyone is different, and some might think travel is an extreme waste of hard earned money - but it's our "thing" and we do put money aside for retirement each month and we have an emergency fund and our bills are always paid in full and on time - so yeah, travel is our splurge - but all our trips are paid for BEFORE we leave on the trip. I wonder what everyone else's "thing" is. I'm sure we all have one.

Wills and other important documents...

Do you have a Will, Power of Attorney (POA) and Personal Directive? We do. We have no children, but still thought it would be prudent, since we own rental property and wanted to make sure our pet was taken care of, and our nieces would inherit something. All this in case something should happen to both of us at the same time. The paper work all works well for now and was drawn up by a lawyer. As we get older and retire, we may look at changing some things, like perhaps giving more to charity. Our goal is to enjoy life and different experiences, and since we don't have children, we will probably use most of our assets in the future to ensure that we do live life to the fullest.

Some Words For Pondering...

'A bend in the road is not the end of the road... unless you fail to make the turn' (Anon)

I saw this quote and it got me thinking...it really is so true, and applies to so many different aspects of one's life.

In Pain...

So being my clumsy self, I had just finished working out on the treadmill - had even increased the incline and the speed, last night and then I ended up falling down the stairs, backwards. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get up and my husband wasn't home from work yet, but I eventually made it up through the help of stairs and the rail. I'm looking forward to October being over, as it seems to be full of bad luck. But on a positive note, I did not break anything, but I am definitely one sore lass. My left knee and down to my ankle, is quite painful and stiff and as weird as it seems, the right side of my butt is painful also, and that is just this morning. Last night after the fall, I hurt just about everywhere - my shoulder, neck, left knee, right ankle and my butt. I've always been clumsy, ever since I can remember. I remember one time when we were in California, a few years ago, I was pointing excitedly to my husband that the store I wanted to go to, had a 70% sale sign in the window and next thing I know I'm face down in the parking lot because I had tripped over the "big" Cement parking dividers. I mean really, these are not easy things to "not see" I was so excited about saving some money that I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking and to make it worse, there was a DMV place packed full of people, watching me through the window. I do believe I even amazed myself with how fast I could get right back up - oh, what embarrassing situations can make you do. It's actually funny now, when I look back at it.

Oh well, on wards to another day and today is Friday so I can at least recuperate on the weekend.

P&G Brand Sampler...

The P&Gbrandsampler (from Proctor & Gamble) offer is now available. I signed up last month and received sample sizes (fairly nice size too) of Pantene shampoo and one of Pantene conditioner.

This month's selection, I chose the following (3) free samples (1) Mr Clean Magic Eraser (1) Trial Pack of Cascade Dishwasher Tabs and (1) Shower Body Wash

I love getting free things and the variety of them. I had stumbled upon them, on a living well website.

check it out www.pgbrandsampler.ca

The cost of having a wallet stolen...

The cost of having a wallet stolen, is not only the stress it causes. We adhere to a strict budget, so the cash that was inside hubby's wallet was his gas money for the next 2 weeks, until next payday. He also had to pay $22 for a replacement Drivers Licence. All the extra gas in running around to all the different places to get new bank cards, store cards, motor vehicles, etc, but also he needed a new wallet now. He didn't want to pay $50 for one, so he finally found one that seems pretty nice for $13. Plus, he lost a day of work pay, as Friday he had to take off work to phone all the Credit Card Companies and go get a new Driver's Licence, Health Care Card, Bank Cards, etc.

Nerves were strained out our house hold this weekend and tempers on short fuses - as we were both stressing and not getting much sleep at all.

We'll just feel a lot better, once we see that the fraudulent charges are reversed, then we can concentrate on getting a new tenant into our investment property.

We have an add on kijiji, for our rental condo, and in the past we've had quite a bit of luck with this site. Here's keeping our fingers crossed.

Our tenant, said that she is putting a stop payment on her post-dated cheques. So we have given her the option of staying until the end of Nov (paying Nov rent) and then she can get her damage deposit back at the beginning of Dec, if all is well the apartment - or she can leave at the end of Oct, but she forfeits her damage deposit. She is supposed to get back to us. Technically she is responsible for the full year lease, but the cost to legally make her accountable is just not worth it.

The Thursday From Hell...

Last week was certainly not the best - we received notice on Thursday evening that our tenant who signed a year's lease back in April mailed us a letter saying that she loves the condo, but after taking a University Course this past Summer (she is 88 years old - yes you read that correctly) she now realizes that her "Spiritual Needs" are not being met. Whatever the heck that means... So not only is she not honoring the year contract she signed, but she's only giving us 2 weeks notice to find another renter. This is not an easy time to rent in the year and we turned down other people, because she agreed to a year's lease. Oh - and she wants her damage deposit back. Also Thursday night, hubby was working overtime, so he calls after 9:00 pm and says he'll be home even later, because he's just realizing that he doesn't have his wallet, he had it in the morning, because he put a cheque into the bank, so he's going to look around his work place again and check the parking lot where he works. He gets home and no wallet. He remembers putting his wallet in his coat pocket at the bank and is thinking that maybe it fell out. So it's now after 11:00 pm and the bank closes at 8:00 pm, so thinking someone might have found it and turned it into Customer Service, we call the 1-800 # to see if there are any notes on our accounts that the wallet was found - they check and say no, but to check with the bank branch in the morning. I told him he should phone the credit card companies, but he wants to wait until the morning to avoid all the hassle if his wallet just at the bank. So against, my better judgement, he waits. The next morning, hubby calls the bank and no, noone turned in a wallet. So he proceeds calling all the credit card companies to let them know - seems some one must have it - because it seems on Thursday all his cards were charged up - fast food places, cabs, liquor stores, convenience stores, etc and the biggest was at a camera store for almost $600. This is definitely a stressful situation. The Credit Card Companies, say that we won't be responsible - but, they have to send him forms and he has to complete them and then send them back and then the Fraud Dept at the Card Companies start dealing with it. In the mean time, as luck would have it, the credit card statements are all starting their new billing cycle, so all the charges that happened on the day it went missing is on the statement that is due in 2 weeks. We always pay all of our bills in full and on time and I doubt that the "fraud' dept will have time to reverse all the charges before our balance is due. So now, I'm super stressed, because I pay the bills and the fraudulent charges amount to approx $1,000. Oh, and of course all the cash that was in the wallet is gone also.

I'm not feeling very positive ...

Free entertainment last night

We took advantage of a free comedy act show last, courtesy of my company. The only thing we needed to pay for was parking, and that came to $5. There were 3 comedian's and we went with friends, as we had 4 tickets in total. It was a nice evening out and it was basically free. It was great to get out of the house, have some laughs, visit and not have to break the budget. In the past I haven't always taken advantage of the "freebies" provided by work, but going forward into the future, it is something we will probably do. The reason I haven't always jumped at these "freebies" in the past, is that they usually start around 7 or 8 and go until 10 or 11 and I need to be up for work by 5:00 am, so I'm usually heading to bed at 9:00 pm. I'm tired, but I'm here at work - thank goodness it's Friday, and it's the Thanksgiving long weekend, here in Canada.