Hi Everyone!
Food prices are soaring and I'm seeing lots of funny memes about taking loans to buy a single cauliflower. The Canadian dollar has been tanking and everyone is starting to worry about how they are going to save money at the grocery store. I kid you not, I'm starting to slightly panic over my grocery bill while trying to hold on to every weak Canadian dollar I have.
For the past few years I always just guessed what I spent each week on groceries. I got so frustrated on guesstimating an amount for that I started tracking how much I spent each week. I tried to stick to about $100 a week for food and $25 a week for house products like toilet paper, tissue boxes, cleaning products etc. I just made up this number but never actually set it aside in an actual fund. This amount included everything bought for food, home and even mini mid-week trips to reload on fresh meat and produce. Basically, everything we bought at No Frills, Walmart, Costco, Chinatown, and Kensington market grocery stores. I have to admit I wasn't as dedicated throughout the year and did my best to take out things like gift items and clothing that would have been included in our receipts but overall I felt like it was a really true and reliable source of info. I'm super dedicated to being totally on top of this this year! Finger's crossed! Any hoo, I created an excel sheet and divided the columns by date (usually Monday's is shopping day), amount spent (on receipt) and my half I personally spent. Sometimes, one person's half was higher if it included something's like clothes, or special junk foods, or just picking up items on behalf of our parents.
At first, I was surprised to see how many weeks (7 to be exact), we went without buying any groceries at all. This was usually due to birthday weeks, vacations, Christmas or other holiday times where we'd have to eat out several meals with different family members. And even the end of the year where I would redeemed all my PC points for the holidays, so we could host some family and friends over the Christmas break for FREE :) I LOVE free groceries! As you know, what you aren't spending on groceries is what you are paying way more for at a restaurant. I did start tracking our eating out at restaurants as well but I just got lazy and sort of stopped half way through the year. Something to learn from and strive to keep up this year!
The Hard Numbers
My total spent on Groceries in 2015: $2712.19
My weekly total average: $52.16
I was in complete shocked at how low this amount was overall. Our weekly receipts varied so much!!! The lowest weekly amount I had was $6 and the highest was over $430! As you can see, my $100 a week seemed a pretty reasonable guess at the time. And I hate to admit this but there is quite a bit of waste at the end of the week in fresh produce and meat. I always bring lunch to eat at work, which is usually dinner left overs to try and cut back on the waste. I probably eat out once or twice a year during lunch with co-workers or we'll have a work party where everyone chips in for pizza or sushi at the office. I've been pretty good trying to freeze browned organic bananas to be made into banana bread or freezing meats for use on another day. I kind of suck at freezing stuff cause sometimes I'm forget what's up there or bitch at myself on why I didn't properly take the time to portion it out for easier use. Try separating a pack of 6 chicken breast stuck in a big chunk, when you only wanted to eat 2! The horror! Hahaha!
Solution
Right off the bat, I've decided to generally buy less food, particularly junk food. Not NOT buy it, just buy it less! (I really really love my junk food :S) I really don't think I need to eat as much as I do and if I do it's usually out of boredom. My sort of logic is, if I have less to choose from I will ideally eat less. If I have less food, I would ultimately waste less. I'll update you guys and see how that goes!
I'm also going to go back to more hard core couponing and being more on top of the price matching. I'm going to create a list of each No Frills and who they price match. I've been kind of laxed on the coupon front and always forgetting them at home. We started buying quality over quantity and usually there are no coupons on the products we want to buy. But, I've committed to a high contribution this year for my retirement savings and I have every intention on keeping it up this year.
I even rejigged my budget and gave myself a more realistic expense of $75 a week, total for food and home. It's hard starting a new fund from zero and I found myself almost $5 short the last two weeks. This was from a large Costco trip we had at the beginning of the year to stock up on snacks and stuff to save us money overall instead of buying snacks at the convenience store. I also see our food fund going up slightly from last years amount since we committed to eat at home more WAY MORE often. To keep me motivated I've started an "Eating Outside" tax. Essentially, whatever I spent eating at a restaurant, take out, or snacks (coffee, cookies or whatever) the same amount must be put away into a fund. My plan is for it to show me exactly to the dollar how much I spent eating outside of the home this year. So far, I'm happy to say I've only had two trips to a restaurant this year and I've been very mindful how much is spent. I'm optimistic this will be as good for my health as it will be for my wallet!
What are you doing to try and save money on your groceries?
Eros and Pookie
Sunday, 24 January 2016
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
How We Saved Money On Our Trip to Las Vegas and Disneyland
Hi Savvy Saving Travellers,
This year I turned the big 3-0! I couldn't believe how much time has passed and how my 20's were over just like that! I guess I must of had a mini freak out because I felt like it's time to be a grown up and the fun times was over. It's easier to explain why you did this or that cause you were 20 but at 30, it felt like people just expect you to smarten up and mistakes are harder to swallow. It's strange cause I mentally still feel like a kid and want to do fun "kid" stuff! So, I do what I do best... plan a getaway trip to ring in my new decade. When you don't know where you want to go and everything is based on budget, it seems so much harder to pin point where to research a trip. I've searched for cheapie one week vacation to Cuba, Mexico, Dominican, even NYC. Everything was just way out of budget when you add up the accommodations, food and spending money. Then one day, I got a notification that Las Vegas trips were $500 all in for hotel and flight for 3-4 nights. I have a cousin living there and was trying to figure out some tips on places to stay and eat. He's one of my closer cousins and I didn't want to infringe on him and his family. I also haven't really seen or spoken to him in about 12 years since I was last on the West Coast. He told me all the ones in my budget sucked and just to stay in his new house. Amazing! So, our trip went from a few days to approximately 10 days. We took red eye flights to save some money and not lose an extra work day. I also wanted to go to Disneyland and see some other family in the area.
The flight was about $472 per person. Ouch, it was a lot more than previous sales I've seen for about $300, but if we were saving on accommodations then it would make up for the cost. We also made a decision to rent a car so we'd be able to get around on our own without having to rely or burden my relatives. I got our cheap rental online from Costco for just under $200 for nine days. It was an amazing deal! But, here's the kicker as a novice car renter, theres the matter of insurance. Ouch again! As we were unfamiliar with our credit card/insurance policies we decided to get the insurance which was over $200 USD for full coverage. It more than doubled our cost, but I was thinking this is the US, health care is crazy expensive if we got in an accident and someone needed care, or the car got totalled. We decided to pay for it anyways as a hard lesson learned. The one good thing about Vegas, is that there is tons of free parking as long as you self park. If you get valet service, it's technically free but you do have to tip out the dude. And that adds up real quick! Gas wise, we got a Toyota Corolla and definitely spent less than $100 in gas including topping it up before dropping it off. For the amount of driving we did, this car was amazing on gas mileage!
Our brand new rental a 2015 Toyota Corolla
(It was so new, we didn't even have a license plate!)
Arriving in Vegas, my cousin offered to pick us up and take us to his restaurant to have dinner. My cousins honestly were so generous, we ended up eating there almost every day we were in Vegas and saved a ton of money. We made sure to let them know how greatly we appreciated everything they did for use and took them out to some fancy dinners and offered to pay for stuff when we hit up the town. It was great to see family and catch up on old times. My cousin's kid also flew in from DC just to meet me. We haven't seen each other since I was about 7-8 years old and we are both about the same age! My cousin's were also very cool too, they let us do our own thing and everything was very chill. I guess it's a contrast of how I would spend my summers over there previously, when they scheduled family dinners/outing and stuff was more rigid.
Here are some money saving tips on your trip next trip to Vegas or OC!
There are two main areas of Vegas you'll want to check out. The Strip, which is the main area with all the large hotels, casinos and shops. It's walkable but it's pretty big and pretty far. And there is even a ton more walking involved because there are only a few designated crosswalks to get to the other side of the street. It can be brutal, especially in the heat! You can also bus, cab or uber around. Trust me, I would of been happy to jay walk but the fences are so high you can't jump over them and just cross the street! Hahaha!
Crossing using the designated walkways. You can see how high some
points of the fence are and the use of bridges to get across the street.
The casinos are mostly filled with luxury, high end stores that I didn't even want to bother going in. Outside on the actual strip, there was a ton more affordable stores like Marshalls and Ross. Ross is like Winners and there are so great finds for designer purses and clothes. There are also some novelty stores which are pretty pricey like Hersheys, M&M's and the Coco-Cola store. There are always clearance sections and sales so you can grab a few souvenirs for pretty cheap. Coke store was very cool because you can sample drinks they have around the world for about $15 and included trays of drinks that you'd have to share with friends.
Tastes from around the world with Coke!
There are tons of people on the street trying to sell you shows and tours
I don't gamble and I'm all about just hanging out and a bit of shopping. If you want to see shows or do anything, it's probably best to walk the strip in person and get some discounted day of tickets. They pretty much sell tickets throughout the Strip. There are tours for helicopter tours to the Grand Canyon, gun ranges, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. Theres a ton of competition so if you have the time, take a walk and have a browse and try to deal them down further if you can. Also, if you have a friend with a Nevada ID, you can have them grab you tickets to get the local discount. This is for pretty much everything too! We saved $10 a head when we took my relatives to a big Vegas type buffet for dinner. Also, another thing I've noticed for the past 10 years or so. When you buy a Starbucks gift card or top up your card on your phone, you can still use it anywhere in Canada or the US. I usually like to pick up a few gift cards from Groupon when they sell $5 for $10 credit. Best part is there is no currency conversion, so your dollar goes a lot further! Especially now, when our dollar is so crappy!
The other area is called Fremont Street. It's great! It's outdoors but there is a cover that is pretty much like a giant screen with lights! It's definitely walkable but you can't walk from The Strip to Fremont. You can see everything they have to offer here in a few hours or less. Same deal as the Strip, valet is free if you're a member or you have pay for street parking or in a lot. Membership is free so just go in and spend 2 mins to sign up for their points card. There are lots of places for cheap and quick eats. We bought three deep fried Oreos for $1! It's about $6 here at the Ex.
Some cheap eats!
Off the Strip
With a car, everything is relatively close as long as you don't hit traffic. We did once and it was incredibly brutal and my aunt almost missed her flight! There are plenty of cheaper hotels off the strip and fast food joints like In and Out where you can grab a burger for $3.50. I love their food, the fries not so much but everything is fresh, cheap and tasty! They have a secret menu and you can ask for grilled onions as well.
Current In and Out prices
If you do as much walking as we do, you'll probably want to hit Chinatown for the cheap $20 massages! It's one hour and they do your full body and they usually include a few minutes with hot stones and stuff. Downside, you have to tip them $10 a person or they will cuss you out (as told to us by my cousins). I love hitting up Lee's Sandwiches for late night eats and bubble tea type drinks and slushies. They have these baked Deli Manjoo's that are the best things in the world. They are like those HK style pancake balls but with custard inside. Super addictive treat!
A Deli Manjoo
Orange County
It's hard not to head to Little Saigon for some affordable eats and cheap $15 massages! My aunt use to make us drive one and half hours all the way here from San Diego to go grocery shopping and drive back home! My other cousin now lives like ten minutes from Disneyland and offered her place for us to stay and even offered to drive us so we save $17 USD on parking and a crazy amount on AirBnb. We made pit stop by the 99 cent store for a few items like straw hats to wear to Disneyland. Honestly, it was the best 99 cents I spent all trip! I hate hats but it really saved me from the sun, and I didn't want to go with an umbrella for shade (insert old Chinese lady joke here). They have everything you could want there. It's like a full dollar store and grocery store but it's not as cheap as I remembered!
Visiting Disneyland: You can imagine the countless articles and websites I found just on this topic. It was really intimidating. I wanted to get the most out of the day I could. At $100 USD a person, and with our incredibly sad Canadian dollar the cost of the tickets came out to about $270 for two entrance tickets. It's best to pre-buy and pre-print the tickets to avoid another line to buy them in person. There are people and lines ups everywhere! I thought September would be easy since most kids are in school, but nope! This is F&*^ing Disneyland: The Happiest Place on Earth! Believe me, I looked up every which way to find discount tickets and even asked my little cousins who go all the time to help me. No such luck! The good news, you are able to bring in food and drinks as they don't really search your bag too through. We took in frozen water bottles that we drank from through out the day. It was so bloody hot, that I was surprised I didn't pass out from the intense heat.
Food wasn't as expensive as I remembered when I went about 12 years ago, but I also didn't have a job and any money back then hahaha. We were able to get a burger and small fries for $11 USD. Not bad, considering we split the mini-meal. My cousin made sure to feel us well at breakfast to brave the hot day on our feet. It also got a bit chilly at night so I'm glad I brought a sweater. Comfortable shoes and clothes are an absolute must! It was a weekday and it was still rammed, we still waited about an hour for some rides. The best part of Disneyland are the fast passes. You are able to grab one ticket per admission ticket every couple of hours. It pretty much gives you a time you can come back and go straight into a by pass line that is way shorter! We didn't know how important the admission ticket was until we lost one and was so sad we couldn't fast pass together, but we found out you can go to customer service and they'd assign you another one for free. It's so great! Not all rides have fast passes, and you just go to a machine and put in your admission ticket. It then spits out your ticket and another bypass ticket with the time you are to return. If you're late, but super nice and they will still let you through, but don't lose your fast pass as they collect them in line!
- Stock your bag on snacks and frozen water bottles. You can save most of your money by not eating park food and the crazy line ups that come with them. Who doesn't like saving time AND money? Do what I do, eat in line, the whole two birds with one stone thing. It was so hot that I didn't want to eat anything and just drink cold water. (Side note, bottled water everywhere we went was insanely expensive. It's about $3.99 USD for a small 12 pack and that's if it's on sale!)
- Go to city hall and ask for a free button. They have one for almost every occasion. Winton and I got birthday badges as ours are so close to each other. All day Disney employees made sure to say Happy Birthday to you and it was nice!
- Buy your Disney merchandise before going into the park. It seemed like everyone was wear or sporting Disney apparel. It is so expensive! I wanted some Disney ears and they were $20 USD. They had some cool Mickey balloons and I almost crapped my pants that they were $14 USD. I later found out that some of them can light up at night, so you can a cool glowing balloon. If you're with a small child. I'd probably pre-buy them a disney toy they would like and stuff it in my bag. When they get too antsy for not buying anything I'd bring it out without them noticing and tell them I bought it when they went to the bathroom. Smart huh? hahaha
- Stick around for the Electric Parade. I wasn't interested in seeing a parade at the end of the day, but the streets were so crowded there was no room to walk around. Then we saw the park dimmed their lights and a crazy parade of lit up floats and characters walk by with crazy infectious music. It was so much fun and made the $100 ticket worth every penny.
- There are a bunch of photo spots with Disney photographers to sell you prints, but they are more than happy to take a photo with your own phone or camera for free so you don't have to buy anything.
- If you do have to eat before you enter, there are a bunch of restaurants on the street before the entrance. Entrance is probably at least a five minute walk from the street to the turnstile to enter the park.
- If you want to take pictures with the popular characters, prepare for a line up! Line ups are inevitable and it takes so much longer as they "play" with you for a couple mins. I just wanted my picture and leave. There are less popular characters walking around everywhere and they are usually good for a quick selfie!
Hope that gives you some insight in planning your trip!
Eros and Pookie
This year I turned the big 3-0! I couldn't believe how much time has passed and how my 20's were over just like that! I guess I must of had a mini freak out because I felt like it's time to be a grown up and the fun times was over. It's easier to explain why you did this or that cause you were 20 but at 30, it felt like people just expect you to smarten up and mistakes are harder to swallow. It's strange cause I mentally still feel like a kid and want to do fun "kid" stuff! So, I do what I do best... plan a getaway trip to ring in my new decade. When you don't know where you want to go and everything is based on budget, it seems so much harder to pin point where to research a trip. I've searched for cheapie one week vacation to Cuba, Mexico, Dominican, even NYC. Everything was just way out of budget when you add up the accommodations, food and spending money. Then one day, I got a notification that Las Vegas trips were $500 all in for hotel and flight for 3-4 nights. I have a cousin living there and was trying to figure out some tips on places to stay and eat. He's one of my closer cousins and I didn't want to infringe on him and his family. I also haven't really seen or spoken to him in about 12 years since I was last on the West Coast. He told me all the ones in my budget sucked and just to stay in his new house. Amazing! So, our trip went from a few days to approximately 10 days. We took red eye flights to save some money and not lose an extra work day. I also wanted to go to Disneyland and see some other family in the area.
The flight was about $472 per person. Ouch, it was a lot more than previous sales I've seen for about $300, but if we were saving on accommodations then it would make up for the cost. We also made a decision to rent a car so we'd be able to get around on our own without having to rely or burden my relatives. I got our cheap rental online from Costco for just under $200 for nine days. It was an amazing deal! But, here's the kicker as a novice car renter, theres the matter of insurance. Ouch again! As we were unfamiliar with our credit card/insurance policies we decided to get the insurance which was over $200 USD for full coverage. It more than doubled our cost, but I was thinking this is the US, health care is crazy expensive if we got in an accident and someone needed care, or the car got totalled. We decided to pay for it anyways as a hard lesson learned. The one good thing about Vegas, is that there is tons of free parking as long as you self park. If you get valet service, it's technically free but you do have to tip out the dude. And that adds up real quick! Gas wise, we got a Toyota Corolla and definitely spent less than $100 in gas including topping it up before dropping it off. For the amount of driving we did, this car was amazing on gas mileage!
(It was so new, we didn't even have a license plate!)
Arriving in Vegas, my cousin offered to pick us up and take us to his restaurant to have dinner. My cousins honestly were so generous, we ended up eating there almost every day we were in Vegas and saved a ton of money. We made sure to let them know how greatly we appreciated everything they did for use and took them out to some fancy dinners and offered to pay for stuff when we hit up the town. It was great to see family and catch up on old times. My cousin's kid also flew in from DC just to meet me. We haven't seen each other since I was about 7-8 years old and we are both about the same age! My cousin's were also very cool too, they let us do our own thing and everything was very chill. I guess it's a contrast of how I would spend my summers over there previously, when they scheduled family dinners/outing and stuff was more rigid.
Here are some money saving tips on your trip next trip to Vegas or OC!
There are two main areas of Vegas you'll want to check out. The Strip, which is the main area with all the large hotels, casinos and shops. It's walkable but it's pretty big and pretty far. And there is even a ton more walking involved because there are only a few designated crosswalks to get to the other side of the street. It can be brutal, especially in the heat! You can also bus, cab or uber around. Trust me, I would of been happy to jay walk but the fences are so high you can't jump over them and just cross the street! Hahaha!
points of the fence are and the use of bridges to get across the street.
The casinos are mostly filled with luxury, high end stores that I didn't even want to bother going in. Outside on the actual strip, there was a ton more affordable stores like Marshalls and Ross. Ross is like Winners and there are so great finds for designer purses and clothes. There are also some novelty stores which are pretty pricey like Hersheys, M&M's and the Coco-Cola store. There are always clearance sections and sales so you can grab a few souvenirs for pretty cheap. Coke store was very cool because you can sample drinks they have around the world for about $15 and included trays of drinks that you'd have to share with friends.
I don't gamble and I'm all about just hanging out and a bit of shopping. If you want to see shows or do anything, it's probably best to walk the strip in person and get some discounted day of tickets. They pretty much sell tickets throughout the Strip. There are tours for helicopter tours to the Grand Canyon, gun ranges, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. Theres a ton of competition so if you have the time, take a walk and have a browse and try to deal them down further if you can. Also, if you have a friend with a Nevada ID, you can have them grab you tickets to get the local discount. This is for pretty much everything too! We saved $10 a head when we took my relatives to a big Vegas type buffet for dinner. Also, another thing I've noticed for the past 10 years or so. When you buy a Starbucks gift card or top up your card on your phone, you can still use it anywhere in Canada or the US. I usually like to pick up a few gift cards from Groupon when they sell $5 for $10 credit. Best part is there is no currency conversion, so your dollar goes a lot further! Especially now, when our dollar is so crappy!
Fremont Street
Off the Strip
With a car, everything is relatively close as long as you don't hit traffic. We did once and it was incredibly brutal and my aunt almost missed her flight! There are plenty of cheaper hotels off the strip and fast food joints like In and Out where you can grab a burger for $3.50. I love their food, the fries not so much but everything is fresh, cheap and tasty! They have a secret menu and you can ask for grilled onions as well.
If you do as much walking as we do, you'll probably want to hit Chinatown for the cheap $20 massages! It's one hour and they do your full body and they usually include a few minutes with hot stones and stuff. Downside, you have to tip them $10 a person or they will cuss you out (as told to us by my cousins). I love hitting up Lee's Sandwiches for late night eats and bubble tea type drinks and slushies. They have these baked Deli Manjoo's that are the best things in the world. They are like those HK style pancake balls but with custard inside. Super addictive treat!
Orange County
It's hard not to head to Little Saigon for some affordable eats and cheap $15 massages! My aunt use to make us drive one and half hours all the way here from San Diego to go grocery shopping and drive back home! My other cousin now lives like ten minutes from Disneyland and offered her place for us to stay and even offered to drive us so we save $17 USD on parking and a crazy amount on AirBnb. We made pit stop by the 99 cent store for a few items like straw hats to wear to Disneyland. Honestly, it was the best 99 cents I spent all trip! I hate hats but it really saved me from the sun, and I didn't want to go with an umbrella for shade (insert old Chinese lady joke here). They have everything you could want there. It's like a full dollar store and grocery store but it's not as cheap as I remembered!
Line up for security check, done! Now line up to enter with pre-bought tickets!
Visiting Disneyland: You can imagine the countless articles and websites I found just on this topic. It was really intimidating. I wanted to get the most out of the day I could. At $100 USD a person, and with our incredibly sad Canadian dollar the cost of the tickets came out to about $270 for two entrance tickets. It's best to pre-buy and pre-print the tickets to avoid another line to buy them in person. There are people and lines ups everywhere! I thought September would be easy since most kids are in school, but nope! This is F&*^ing Disneyland: The Happiest Place on Earth! Believe me, I looked up every which way to find discount tickets and even asked my little cousins who go all the time to help me. No such luck! The good news, you are able to bring in food and drinks as they don't really search your bag too through. We took in frozen water bottles that we drank from through out the day. It was so bloody hot, that I was surprised I didn't pass out from the intense heat.
Food wasn't as expensive as I remembered when I went about 12 years ago, but I also didn't have a job and any money back then hahaha. We were able to get a burger and small fries for $11 USD. Not bad, considering we split the mini-meal. My cousin made sure to feel us well at breakfast to brave the hot day on our feet. It also got a bit chilly at night so I'm glad I brought a sweater. Comfortable shoes and clothes are an absolute must! It was a weekday and it was still rammed, we still waited about an hour for some rides. The best part of Disneyland are the fast passes. You are able to grab one ticket per admission ticket every couple of hours. It pretty much gives you a time you can come back and go straight into a by pass line that is way shorter! We didn't know how important the admission ticket was until we lost one and was so sad we couldn't fast pass together, but we found out you can go to customer service and they'd assign you another one for free. It's so great! Not all rides have fast passes, and you just go to a machine and put in your admission ticket. It then spits out your ticket and another bypass ticket with the time you are to return. If you're late, but super nice and they will still let you through, but don't lose your fast pass as they collect them in line!
- Stock your bag on snacks and frozen water bottles. You can save most of your money by not eating park food and the crazy line ups that come with them. Who doesn't like saving time AND money? Do what I do, eat in line, the whole two birds with one stone thing. It was so hot that I didn't want to eat anything and just drink cold water. (Side note, bottled water everywhere we went was insanely expensive. It's about $3.99 USD for a small 12 pack and that's if it's on sale!)
- Go to city hall and ask for a free button. They have one for almost every occasion. Winton and I got birthday badges as ours are so close to each other. All day Disney employees made sure to say Happy Birthday to you and it was nice!
- Buy your Disney merchandise before going into the park. It seemed like everyone was wear or sporting Disney apparel. It is so expensive! I wanted some Disney ears and they were $20 USD. They had some cool Mickey balloons and I almost crapped my pants that they were $14 USD. I later found out that some of them can light up at night, so you can a cool glowing balloon. If you're with a small child. I'd probably pre-buy them a disney toy they would like and stuff it in my bag. When they get too antsy for not buying anything I'd bring it out without them noticing and tell them I bought it when they went to the bathroom. Smart huh? hahaha
- Stick around for the Electric Parade. I wasn't interested in seeing a parade at the end of the day, but the streets were so crowded there was no room to walk around. Then we saw the park dimmed their lights and a crazy parade of lit up floats and characters walk by with crazy infectious music. It was so much fun and made the $100 ticket worth every penny.
- There are a bunch of photo spots with Disney photographers to sell you prints, but they are more than happy to take a photo with your own phone or camera for free so you don't have to buy anything.
- If you do have to eat before you enter, there are a bunch of restaurants on the street before the entrance. Entrance is probably at least a five minute walk from the street to the turnstile to enter the park.
- If you want to take pictures with the popular characters, prepare for a line up! Line ups are inevitable and it takes so much longer as they "play" with you for a couple mins. I just wanted my picture and leave. There are less popular characters walking around everywhere and they are usually good for a quick selfie!
Hope that gives you some insight in planning your trip!
Eros and Pookie
Thursday, 22 October 2015
Ramping Up The Savings
Hi Everyone,
I'm back!
I LOVE our new car, but since we got it I've tried to make an effort to really ramp up my savings to fill the giant hole it made in my various funds. We are also eating much better quality foods, so our food budget's gone up slightly. Don't worry, I still love getting items on sales and with coupons, but if it's only a bit more for organic I'm more open to grabbing it. We also celebrated both our birthdays recently and had a pretty big bonanza for it. It was my 30th birthday and I wanted to go to Las Vegas to visit my cousins and show Winton the sites, go to Disneyland, see more cousins and even drove to San Diego to see even more cousins! They were very generous and we didn't blow any money on accommodations and even saved a ton of money with local discounts, offers to give us rides to places and even eating for free. Winton and I made sure we bought a lot of meals when my family would come out to eat with us to show our gratitude for their generosity. I'll write another article about how we saved money on our trip. Anyhow, long story short, our vacation fund is low now and I want to stretch out every dollar I am currently bringing in to throw into my various savings account and in particular my retirement fund.
Here are some of the steps I've been taking to reduce my living costs
1. I love my junk food! I love it so much that I would never say no when I wanted something unless it was too pricey! I've stopped buying tons and tons of junk food and am trying to buy even more fruit and veggies as my snack. If I really want something, I'll get one or two items but I walk by a lot of items on the shelves instead of just throwing them in my shopping cart. It's so very hard but I'm determined to save money and hopefully my waistline as well. I think this is my biggest weakest and my biggest financial leak in my budget.
2. I've re-jigged my budget to show a more realistic amount of what portion of my income was going to where and have set weekly goals to meet. Before I would just pay off an important fund for the month and then the next. I'm paying off each of my funds each week no matter what. This way, each fund is important and is getting what's owe instead of one or two funds getting shafted at the end of the month if I happen to run out of money.
3. I'm made a huge jump and everyone is giving me crap for it. I'm made the switch from Fido to Wind Mobile. So far, yes there are issues with signal and how slow the data is but I've had it less than a week. I remember a time where I refused to jump on the data bandwagon to save $$$, and then I don't know what happened. I know the coverage is smaller but I never go outside the city and I'm paying almost half of what I'm currently paying and for far more perks. I've tried to negotiate with Fido on three different calls to customer retention but they wouldn't budge and it was still going to be more money. Yes, it's not part of the Big 3 but I'm getting 10 GB's a month before they cap it and slow me down! Plus, I'm willing to go with a smaller provider and give a chance to the little guy than letting Fido rip me off. On a serious note, I know I'm not going to use all my services and I expect some frustrations but my expectations were set too high with my Fido account and I was gladly paying for it. They had pretty decent signal and yes LTE is much faster than 3G. I don't talk on the phone anymore unless I'm at work, I just email and text. Mostly iMessaging with friends, just now they have to text my email than my number. I'm either at work or at home so wifi is usually not a problem there. But, I'll be saving about $30 a month! That's A LOT and worth the frustrations and some inconvenience. Fido offered me $30 in savings spanned over 6 months of service. C'mon, that's ridiculous!
4. I also upgraded my President Choice MasterCard to the World Elite. How does this save me money you ask? I pay my card in full within a few days of usage, so I never carry a balance and avoid the shock than if I let it rack up the entire month. The card's interest rate, limit, and fee (or lack there of) for the card hasn't changed. All that's changed for me was a physical new card, with a new number I have to learn and POINTS! I'm all about the points to get free groceries and I would be getting 50% more than my current rate and new places to acquire even more points like at Shoppers Drug Mart. There are also other perks that I would probably never use like concierge service but it's cool to have. With PC, I love that I don't just get free food but I can use my points to buy gift cards for other stores and services. It's great for Christmas time when money can be tight for all of us!
5. While this may not be so much of a savings measure, it is a reducing stress one. I'm going to be relying more on funds to cover expenses. I have to admit that once I've saved some money, I can be pretty stubborn about using money in that fund. I would find ways to make even more money or stall a payment on another fund to cover those costs. It actually would hurt if I had to pull out money from a fund. Sometimes it feels like I'm in constant survival mode and I will never have enough money to feel secure. It's a strange feeling! Part of my anxiety I suppose! I know I will never go hungry and that bills will always be paid but it can be hard to escape that mentality. Just some more work to do on my part!
6. Friends! As I get older my group of friends become smaller. I'm just more selective. I truly believe your friends can make or break you. When I first started writing about saving money and couponing I had a natural fear of being judged by my peers. Then I grew a backbone and said screw it. It's something I was interested in and wanted to share. Since then, tons of friends have come out to help me and ask for advice and I love it. I grew closer with some people and let others go. What I love more is that I can be me and not ashamed about how important this was to me. Having good friends who share similar views is so important, life became more about spending time doing whatever with them, than who spent more money on what. It also might just be an age/life thing but who knows!
I'm happy to say that four months after purchasing the car, I've been able to replenish most of the funds I had to borrow from. I still have a bit of work to do and with the holidays around the corner trying to derail me I'm determined to stay focus and on track.
Happy Saving!
Eros And Pookie
I'm back!
I LOVE our new car, but since we got it I've tried to make an effort to really ramp up my savings to fill the giant hole it made in my various funds. We are also eating much better quality foods, so our food budget's gone up slightly. Don't worry, I still love getting items on sales and with coupons, but if it's only a bit more for organic I'm more open to grabbing it. We also celebrated both our birthdays recently and had a pretty big bonanza for it. It was my 30th birthday and I wanted to go to Las Vegas to visit my cousins and show Winton the sites, go to Disneyland, see more cousins and even drove to San Diego to see even more cousins! They were very generous and we didn't blow any money on accommodations and even saved a ton of money with local discounts, offers to give us rides to places and even eating for free. Winton and I made sure we bought a lot of meals when my family would come out to eat with us to show our gratitude for their generosity. I'll write another article about how we saved money on our trip. Anyhow, long story short, our vacation fund is low now and I want to stretch out every dollar I am currently bringing in to throw into my various savings account and in particular my retirement fund.
Here are some of the steps I've been taking to reduce my living costs
1. I love my junk food! I love it so much that I would never say no when I wanted something unless it was too pricey! I've stopped buying tons and tons of junk food and am trying to buy even more fruit and veggies as my snack. If I really want something, I'll get one or two items but I walk by a lot of items on the shelves instead of just throwing them in my shopping cart. It's so very hard but I'm determined to save money and hopefully my waistline as well. I think this is my biggest weakest and my biggest financial leak in my budget.
2. I've re-jigged my budget to show a more realistic amount of what portion of my income was going to where and have set weekly goals to meet. Before I would just pay off an important fund for the month and then the next. I'm paying off each of my funds each week no matter what. This way, each fund is important and is getting what's owe instead of one or two funds getting shafted at the end of the month if I happen to run out of money.
3. I'm made a huge jump and everyone is giving me crap for it. I'm made the switch from Fido to Wind Mobile. So far, yes there are issues with signal and how slow the data is but I've had it less than a week. I remember a time where I refused to jump on the data bandwagon to save $$$, and then I don't know what happened. I know the coverage is smaller but I never go outside the city and I'm paying almost half of what I'm currently paying and for far more perks. I've tried to negotiate with Fido on three different calls to customer retention but they wouldn't budge and it was still going to be more money. Yes, it's not part of the Big 3 but I'm getting 10 GB's a month before they cap it and slow me down! Plus, I'm willing to go with a smaller provider and give a chance to the little guy than letting Fido rip me off. On a serious note, I know I'm not going to use all my services and I expect some frustrations but my expectations were set too high with my Fido account and I was gladly paying for it. They had pretty decent signal and yes LTE is much faster than 3G. I don't talk on the phone anymore unless I'm at work, I just email and text. Mostly iMessaging with friends, just now they have to text my email than my number. I'm either at work or at home so wifi is usually not a problem there. But, I'll be saving about $30 a month! That's A LOT and worth the frustrations and some inconvenience. Fido offered me $30 in savings spanned over 6 months of service. C'mon, that's ridiculous!
4. I also upgraded my President Choice MasterCard to the World Elite. How does this save me money you ask? I pay my card in full within a few days of usage, so I never carry a balance and avoid the shock than if I let it rack up the entire month. The card's interest rate, limit, and fee (or lack there of) for the card hasn't changed. All that's changed for me was a physical new card, with a new number I have to learn and POINTS! I'm all about the points to get free groceries and I would be getting 50% more than my current rate and new places to acquire even more points like at Shoppers Drug Mart. There are also other perks that I would probably never use like concierge service but it's cool to have. With PC, I love that I don't just get free food but I can use my points to buy gift cards for other stores and services. It's great for Christmas time when money can be tight for all of us!
5. While this may not be so much of a savings measure, it is a reducing stress one. I'm going to be relying more on funds to cover expenses. I have to admit that once I've saved some money, I can be pretty stubborn about using money in that fund. I would find ways to make even more money or stall a payment on another fund to cover those costs. It actually would hurt if I had to pull out money from a fund. Sometimes it feels like I'm in constant survival mode and I will never have enough money to feel secure. It's a strange feeling! Part of my anxiety I suppose! I know I will never go hungry and that bills will always be paid but it can be hard to escape that mentality. Just some more work to do on my part!
6. Friends! As I get older my group of friends become smaller. I'm just more selective. I truly believe your friends can make or break you. When I first started writing about saving money and couponing I had a natural fear of being judged by my peers. Then I grew a backbone and said screw it. It's something I was interested in and wanted to share. Since then, tons of friends have come out to help me and ask for advice and I love it. I grew closer with some people and let others go. What I love more is that I can be me and not ashamed about how important this was to me. Having good friends who share similar views is so important, life became more about spending time doing whatever with them, than who spent more money on what. It also might just be an age/life thing but who knows!
I'm happy to say that four months after purchasing the car, I've been able to replenish most of the funds I had to borrow from. I still have a bit of work to do and with the holidays around the corner trying to derail me I'm determined to stay focus and on track.
Happy Saving!
Eros And Pookie
Monday, 13 July 2015
Car Shopping
Last month, the inevitable happened! Our beloved 13 year old Ford Escape was scrapped and we had to get another car asap! It was an incredibly stressful time but we were fortunate to have support from our family and friends. We survived on a Toyota Corolla rental for almost two weeks and supplemented the next few days by borrowing cars from family members. I was actually shocked that everyone in my family and Winton's offered their car to us. It was very generous!
Buying a car is a big decision and there are so many variables to factor in. We didn't want to rush in and buy a car only to regret it later on. And to be honest, any car we choose would have had significant improvements from our old one. Technology changes so fast!
After two weeks of researching, driving to dealerships and test driving cars. We decided to buy new. We narrowed it down between the Honda CRV EX or the Honda Civic SI. Winton was so in love with the Civic but I absolutely hated it. I loved the design and price but I didn't like the idea of owning a Civic because of all the stigma attached to it. All I thought was 20 year old Asian guys drag racing and souping them up, pretty much the whole Fast and Furious franchise. And other thoughts of people stealing the car or breaking into it for parts and what not. The CRV was much more practical for us. We were coming from an SUV, and didn't want to downgrade in terms of cabin space. I asked around to friends who had children with cars and many said they wouldn't survive without an SUV. Kids take up a lot of space in terms of child seats and strollers, that there would be barely enough room for the trips to Costco. And that's if we wanted kids! The CRV also wasn't too high that our short and aging parents would have problems getting in and out of the car.
All in all, we ended buying the 2015 CRV after FOUR hours of negotiations! It was brutal and honestly I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked. After all, I've never negotiated anything on this scale for myself in my life. Winton has bought a car before so he was a bit wiser on the whole process. As you know, I'm all about cents and dollars and every cent I keep is a cent that stays in my pocket.
Sitting down to crunch numbers is incredibly tedious, especially when they can literally make up any number they want and hope you settle. They added up the seven year extended warranty and minus some admin fees. They play all these mind games on you, to make you think the sales guy is helping you out and bringing the your offers to his managers to see if they would approve a lower price. It's all set up to make you feel intimidated. Why couldn't we just cut the middle man and talk to the manager directly? I was so on to them and every business class I took in school came into play.
As we were far from closing a deal, a second salesman came over to try another tactic on us. We actually found him off putting, he was too abrasive and tried to use the Asian numbers of 88 in the price to make us feel better. Not knowing that Winton and I are totally Canadianized, it totally flew over our heads and we didn't realize it until we got home. We were both thinking that isn't much savings and why the weird numbers with so many friggin' 8's? I was insistent that we were going to Toyota after this meet to crunch numbers with them and that this was basically a numbers game. We didn't care which car we got as long as it was cheaper. This was totally a lie and we wanted the CRV, but it doesn't hurt to try. I sucked up some courage and low balled them with an offer that would make me sign the contract and buy this car on the spot. They were all shocked and told me that it wasn't doable because it was below the invoice price, which is the cost the dealer pays for the car. And Bingo! So, I knew to aim for a little bit higher! After some more back and forth and all the staff putting on their coats ready to go home, the manger comes out and tells us he agrees to $1000 more than what we low balled. As we were about to shake hands, I said I wanted the cargo tray added as well! Hahaha doesn't hurt try right? But, they expressed how they are giving us the car below cost and that they couldn't do it. Our sales guy was super nice and offered us his employee discount on any Honda accessories we wanted. In the end, it was a happy ending and we got an amazing price for our car. It's been two weeks and we are very happy! After four hours we ended up saving about $4000 from the initial quoted price. Four hours well spent! I feel like each hour I negotiated I made $1000! The one thing I'm a bit peeve about was the worksheet we were working on included wheel locks. But when we signed we didn't notice they were missing on our bill of sale so we didn't end up getting them. It slightly ticked me off to have let a small thing slip when you're exhausted but it wasn't the money but the feeling of being ripped off a bit. I'm not too hung up about it as we did get a deal but it was more the principal for me. I've learned so much from this experience that I wanted to share some tip for you when buying a car.
Tips when buying a car
1. Be practical
How much driving will you be doing? Is it a gas guzzler? How much space do you need for people and cargo?
2. Budget
How much can you realistically afford? Will you pay cash, finance or lease? What are the payments, interest rate, and extras you have to pay for? Learn about compound interest. I didn't know that companies tack on about $3000 for PDI, freight, admin fees, OMVIC, and the list goes on and on. I swear most of them seem made up!
3. What features are important to you?
Back up camera for tight parking spaces downtown? Trunk space to lug groceries or kids? Air conditioning? Can you believe some base models don't even include this just so they can advertise a lower sticker price?
4. Ask everyone and learn as much as you can
Friends and family are the best! They give you an honest opinion about their cars, cars they've had in the past and their experiences in general. Take each with a grain of salt, you want an overall opinion. One person may love their car to death and the other hates it just as much! Even new cars can sometimes be lemons. We even went up to complete strangers in parking lots to ask how they like their cars.
5. Walk into the dealership from a position of power
Go in saying "what will you guys do for me to buy this car?" Remember you are paying them! They want your business more then you need theirs. Don't think they have all the power and you have to do what they say. As long as you didn't sign anything, you can always walk away from the deal.
6. Everything is negotiable
I hate that dealerships don't advertise the actual price of the car. I don't go to the mall and have to work out a price with the sales person for a dress or a smoothie? I need straight numbers so I can input them into my Time, Value, Money calculator and find out what I'm really paying over time. If you don't know why that is, google it right now! It'll help you with your budget, loans and pretty much anything that has to do with money. In our bill of sale, we saved a ton by not paying for the admin fee and various other miscellaneous and pretty BS charges they added.
7. Test Drive
It's important to try out the car before you buy it. Photos are great but they most likely will only show the highest trims. I noticed in some cars it was hard getting in and out and sitting in the driver's seat in general was uncomfortable. I'm tall so I've actually hit my head a few times getting in and out. Or if I push my seat back then the back seat passengers possibly have no leg room.
8. Read over everything before you sign
Even the fine print. Make sure everything you want is listed on the bill of sale or lease, and everything you don't want is not on there. Take your time, you shouldn't be rushed into signing a big contract that you would be held accountable for many years!
We'll here's my top points I could think of when getting a new to you car! I hope it's helpful for your search or future search. Oh, and if you're a female, think about bringing a male friend. The car industry is still very sexist. Most of the time I would walk into a car dealership first and was never greeted but when Winton walked in they would be all over him. It was really weird! I felt like I was in Asia somewhere, where people just didn't think women were people. It was really disheartening to see and be in that position. But then again, that may have been what Winton felt when we went to buy a mattress or washing machine! The world is weird!
Enjoy!
Eros and Pookie
After two weeks of researching, driving to dealerships and test driving cars. We decided to buy new. We narrowed it down between the Honda CRV EX or the Honda Civic SI. Winton was so in love with the Civic but I absolutely hated it. I loved the design and price but I didn't like the idea of owning a Civic because of all the stigma attached to it. All I thought was 20 year old Asian guys drag racing and souping them up, pretty much the whole Fast and Furious franchise. And other thoughts of people stealing the car or breaking into it for parts and what not. The CRV was much more practical for us. We were coming from an SUV, and didn't want to downgrade in terms of cabin space. I asked around to friends who had children with cars and many said they wouldn't survive without an SUV. Kids take up a lot of space in terms of child seats and strollers, that there would be barely enough room for the trips to Costco. And that's if we wanted kids! The CRV also wasn't too high that our short and aging parents would have problems getting in and out of the car.
All in all, we ended buying the 2015 CRV after FOUR hours of negotiations! It was brutal and honestly I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked. After all, I've never negotiated anything on this scale for myself in my life. Winton has bought a car before so he was a bit wiser on the whole process. As you know, I'm all about cents and dollars and every cent I keep is a cent that stays in my pocket.
Sitting down to crunch numbers is incredibly tedious, especially when they can literally make up any number they want and hope you settle. They added up the seven year extended warranty and minus some admin fees. They play all these mind games on you, to make you think the sales guy is helping you out and bringing the your offers to his managers to see if they would approve a lower price. It's all set up to make you feel intimidated. Why couldn't we just cut the middle man and talk to the manager directly? I was so on to them and every business class I took in school came into play.
As we were far from closing a deal, a second salesman came over to try another tactic on us. We actually found him off putting, he was too abrasive and tried to use the Asian numbers of 88 in the price to make us feel better. Not knowing that Winton and I are totally Canadianized, it totally flew over our heads and we didn't realize it until we got home. We were both thinking that isn't much savings and why the weird numbers with so many friggin' 8's? I was insistent that we were going to Toyota after this meet to crunch numbers with them and that this was basically a numbers game. We didn't care which car we got as long as it was cheaper. This was totally a lie and we wanted the CRV, but it doesn't hurt to try. I sucked up some courage and low balled them with an offer that would make me sign the contract and buy this car on the spot. They were all shocked and told me that it wasn't doable because it was below the invoice price, which is the cost the dealer pays for the car. And Bingo! So, I knew to aim for a little bit higher! After some more back and forth and all the staff putting on their coats ready to go home, the manger comes out and tells us he agrees to $1000 more than what we low balled. As we were about to shake hands, I said I wanted the cargo tray added as well! Hahaha doesn't hurt try right? But, they expressed how they are giving us the car below cost and that they couldn't do it. Our sales guy was super nice and offered us his employee discount on any Honda accessories we wanted. In the end, it was a happy ending and we got an amazing price for our car. It's been two weeks and we are very happy! After four hours we ended up saving about $4000 from the initial quoted price. Four hours well spent! I feel like each hour I negotiated I made $1000! The one thing I'm a bit peeve about was the worksheet we were working on included wheel locks. But when we signed we didn't notice they were missing on our bill of sale so we didn't end up getting them. It slightly ticked me off to have let a small thing slip when you're exhausted but it wasn't the money but the feeling of being ripped off a bit. I'm not too hung up about it as we did get a deal but it was more the principal for me. I've learned so much from this experience that I wanted to share some tip for you when buying a car.
Tips when buying a car
1. Be practical
How much driving will you be doing? Is it a gas guzzler? How much space do you need for people and cargo?
2. Budget
How much can you realistically afford? Will you pay cash, finance or lease? What are the payments, interest rate, and extras you have to pay for? Learn about compound interest. I didn't know that companies tack on about $3000 for PDI, freight, admin fees, OMVIC, and the list goes on and on. I swear most of them seem made up!
3. What features are important to you?
Back up camera for tight parking spaces downtown? Trunk space to lug groceries or kids? Air conditioning? Can you believe some base models don't even include this just so they can advertise a lower sticker price?
4. Ask everyone and learn as much as you can
Friends and family are the best! They give you an honest opinion about their cars, cars they've had in the past and their experiences in general. Take each with a grain of salt, you want an overall opinion. One person may love their car to death and the other hates it just as much! Even new cars can sometimes be lemons. We even went up to complete strangers in parking lots to ask how they like their cars.
5. Walk into the dealership from a position of power
Go in saying "what will you guys do for me to buy this car?" Remember you are paying them! They want your business more then you need theirs. Don't think they have all the power and you have to do what they say. As long as you didn't sign anything, you can always walk away from the deal.
6. Everything is negotiable
I hate that dealerships don't advertise the actual price of the car. I don't go to the mall and have to work out a price with the sales person for a dress or a smoothie? I need straight numbers so I can input them into my Time, Value, Money calculator and find out what I'm really paying over time. If you don't know why that is, google it right now! It'll help you with your budget, loans and pretty much anything that has to do with money. In our bill of sale, we saved a ton by not paying for the admin fee and various other miscellaneous and pretty BS charges they added.
7. Test Drive
It's important to try out the car before you buy it. Photos are great but they most likely will only show the highest trims. I noticed in some cars it was hard getting in and out and sitting in the driver's seat in general was uncomfortable. I'm tall so I've actually hit my head a few times getting in and out. Or if I push my seat back then the back seat passengers possibly have no leg room.
8. Read over everything before you sign
Even the fine print. Make sure everything you want is listed on the bill of sale or lease, and everything you don't want is not on there. Take your time, you shouldn't be rushed into signing a big contract that you would be held accountable for many years!
We'll here's my top points I could think of when getting a new to you car! I hope it's helpful for your search or future search. Oh, and if you're a female, think about bringing a male friend. The car industry is still very sexist. Most of the time I would walk into a car dealership first and was never greeted but when Winton walked in they would be all over him. It was really weird! I felt like I was in Asia somewhere, where people just didn't think women were people. It was really disheartening to see and be in that position. But then again, that may have been what Winton felt when we went to buy a mattress or washing machine! The world is weird!
Enjoy!
Eros and Pookie
Friday, 29 May 2015
Dealing With Anxiety
Hi! My name is Julie and I'm a worry wart!
There was a great post about worry on Gail Vax-Oxlade's blog today that inspired me to write. I've never admitted to my family and friends that I deal with anxiety but I realized recently that it is more common than I thought. I guess most people chalk it up to being impatient or anal or what not and kind of shrug it off. It really sucks that there is a lot of social stigmas telling people you deal with anxiety, only a handful of my good friends know and now you! Honestly, at first I didn't even know I had it, I just thought it was just the way I was and there wasn't much I could do about it. I figured it was how I was raised, growing up with parents who were polar opposites but both hardcore worriers. For instance, my mother is constantly late, she doesn't care who you are or where she is going, you are going to wait an hour minimum for her ALWAYS. My father strongly believes in punctuality, so he is always on time no matter what and has to leave incredibly early. I remember when we would show up to someone's house earlier than they were expecting us, that we would sit in the car and wait until it was the proper time. Honestly, I think he learned that from Uncle Bob thinking it's a Canadian custom. Uncle Bob as we affectionately call him, helped sponsor and take care of my parents when they first immigrated to Canada. He was invited for dinner one time and was seen walking around our neighbourhood cause he was too early and my dad wonder why he didn't just come over, but I digress.
My anxiety had got to the point where it became mentally and physically exhausting. Worrying about being late, having no money to cover the bills, what my parents thought about, pressures from friends and family to get a place and start popping out babies. Ummm, you need some serious dough for all that! Have they seen how much daycare is now? I grew up poor with a single mom with three kids and a grandma to support. I remember when we didn't have air conditioning and couldn't afford it, so on super hot days my mom would give me 50 cents to buy and ice cream and hang out at McDonalds and the mall for the free cool air. If I can prevent a hard life by spending a few extra years saving who the hell says I can't. I hated feeling unprepared and that the worst would happen to me if I couldn't control situations. I was having trouble falling and staying asleep, working long odd hours in the day and night, and preferred to stay home and watch Netflixs because I didn't feel like I had the energy to do anything. Overtime, I grew incredibly unhappy and I decided to change...
I sought out therapy to help me learn to chill out and enjoy life again. I didn't want anyone to know what I was doing or thinking I was a crazy person cause I had a shrink. I had let my life get out of hand and didn't know how to find my way out the mess. It was honestly the second best decision I've ever made in my life (first, was getting my money shit in order)! In a few short months, I've learned to breathe! It's amazing how learning to change your way of thinking, re-training your brain, and even challenging your thoughts can influence your life. I basically lost confidence in myself and I didn't want to admit it. I was the ambitious girl who travelled the world on my own since I was 17 and dared to rebel against my parents and their old world thinking of what women should be and do. Imagine being 12-13 years old and being told to wait outside because you're not allowed into Tip Top Tailors because your a girl and it's a man's store? WTF!?! Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that I grew up with divorced parents who understood that a child needed both parents. My mom never once told my dad that he wasn't allowed to see us. I was able to call and go over to his house anytime I wanted and he always made an effort to spend lots of time with us. And I digress again! I'm good at that huh?
Anyhoo, I received tons of great material from my doc that really helped me out. I was given readings and homework to understand where anxiety came from, techniques to try, audio guides to help me relax and fall asleep. I got great tips on how to deal with stressful family relations that I just never thought about. It's hard to see clearly when you are in the thick of it, so it's nice to have a professional opinion from someone who's on the outside to help you deal with it all. Plus, it's very cathartic to get crap off your chest. I'm happy to say now that it's a lot easier for me to fall asleep and get a good nights rest. Swimming and just taking time to do thing's for Julie has really felt like an infusion of energy and happiness. I don't think I'm cured from my anxiety but I'm glad that I have the tools to help me better deal with everyday situations.
So, if you're dealing with anything like anxiety or depression, I encourage you to seek help. There are some free mental health clinics out there, but you'd have to be put on a huge wait list. If you've got any medical coverage from work, find someone who'd they cover and work with what you got. There are so many kinds of therapist out there, so you really need to research the one that's going to work with your specific needs. There's also a misconception that you have to go for a long time. You can do a few sessions to help you deal with a certain problem and cut it off after that. And if you don't have the dough to pay for sessions, some will even work on a sliding scale based on your income. You just gotta do a bit of homework and call around. Not to scare you but just an fyi, an Ontario psychologist is suppose to charge $225 an hour. And that's the fee set by Ontario Psychologist Association.
Happy Friday!
Eros And Pookie
There was a great post about worry on Gail Vax-Oxlade's blog today that inspired me to write. I've never admitted to my family and friends that I deal with anxiety but I realized recently that it is more common than I thought. I guess most people chalk it up to being impatient or anal or what not and kind of shrug it off. It really sucks that there is a lot of social stigmas telling people you deal with anxiety, only a handful of my good friends know and now you! Honestly, at first I didn't even know I had it, I just thought it was just the way I was and there wasn't much I could do about it. I figured it was how I was raised, growing up with parents who were polar opposites but both hardcore worriers. For instance, my mother is constantly late, she doesn't care who you are or where she is going, you are going to wait an hour minimum for her ALWAYS. My father strongly believes in punctuality, so he is always on time no matter what and has to leave incredibly early. I remember when we would show up to someone's house earlier than they were expecting us, that we would sit in the car and wait until it was the proper time. Honestly, I think he learned that from Uncle Bob thinking it's a Canadian custom. Uncle Bob as we affectionately call him, helped sponsor and take care of my parents when they first immigrated to Canada. He was invited for dinner one time and was seen walking around our neighbourhood cause he was too early and my dad wonder why he didn't just come over, but I digress.
My anxiety had got to the point where it became mentally and physically exhausting. Worrying about being late, having no money to cover the bills, what my parents thought about, pressures from friends and family to get a place and start popping out babies. Ummm, you need some serious dough for all that! Have they seen how much daycare is now? I grew up poor with a single mom with three kids and a grandma to support. I remember when we didn't have air conditioning and couldn't afford it, so on super hot days my mom would give me 50 cents to buy and ice cream and hang out at McDonalds and the mall for the free cool air. If I can prevent a hard life by spending a few extra years saving who the hell says I can't. I hated feeling unprepared and that the worst would happen to me if I couldn't control situations. I was having trouble falling and staying asleep, working long odd hours in the day and night, and preferred to stay home and watch Netflixs because I didn't feel like I had the energy to do anything. Overtime, I grew incredibly unhappy and I decided to change...
I sought out therapy to help me learn to chill out and enjoy life again. I didn't want anyone to know what I was doing or thinking I was a crazy person cause I had a shrink. I had let my life get out of hand and didn't know how to find my way out the mess. It was honestly the second best decision I've ever made in my life (first, was getting my money shit in order)! In a few short months, I've learned to breathe! It's amazing how learning to change your way of thinking, re-training your brain, and even challenging your thoughts can influence your life. I basically lost confidence in myself and I didn't want to admit it. I was the ambitious girl who travelled the world on my own since I was 17 and dared to rebel against my parents and their old world thinking of what women should be and do. Imagine being 12-13 years old and being told to wait outside because you're not allowed into Tip Top Tailors because your a girl and it's a man's store? WTF!?! Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that I grew up with divorced parents who understood that a child needed both parents. My mom never once told my dad that he wasn't allowed to see us. I was able to call and go over to his house anytime I wanted and he always made an effort to spend lots of time with us. And I digress again! I'm good at that huh?
Anyhoo, I received tons of great material from my doc that really helped me out. I was given readings and homework to understand where anxiety came from, techniques to try, audio guides to help me relax and fall asleep. I got great tips on how to deal with stressful family relations that I just never thought about. It's hard to see clearly when you are in the thick of it, so it's nice to have a professional opinion from someone who's on the outside to help you deal with it all. Plus, it's very cathartic to get crap off your chest. I'm happy to say now that it's a lot easier for me to fall asleep and get a good nights rest. Swimming and just taking time to do thing's for Julie has really felt like an infusion of energy and happiness. I don't think I'm cured from my anxiety but I'm glad that I have the tools to help me better deal with everyday situations.
So, if you're dealing with anything like anxiety or depression, I encourage you to seek help. There are some free mental health clinics out there, but you'd have to be put on a huge wait list. If you've got any medical coverage from work, find someone who'd they cover and work with what you got. There are so many kinds of therapist out there, so you really need to research the one that's going to work with your specific needs. There's also a misconception that you have to go for a long time. You can do a few sessions to help you deal with a certain problem and cut it off after that. And if you don't have the dough to pay for sessions, some will even work on a sliding scale based on your income. You just gotta do a bit of homework and call around. Not to scare you but just an fyi, an Ontario psychologist is suppose to charge $225 an hour. And that's the fee set by Ontario Psychologist Association.
Happy Friday!
Eros And Pookie
Thursday, 30 April 2015
Swimming = Increased Productivity
Well, it's been an interesting few weeks! I've progressively adapted to my new swimming, hot tubbing and sauna-ing regime. I've been aiming to go every other day, following my hair washing schedule. It's weird I know! The pool is salt watered and apparently it's suppose to be a lot better for me sans the chlorine. If you ask me, I really couldn't tell the difference minus the salt flavoured gulps I accidentally ingest up my nose here or there. And the weird texture in my hair from all that time in the water. I feel so good after the fully body workout, swimming laps is fun for me not boring, tedious work. Change up the techniques you use and you end up working out different muscles. When, I'm tried I swim on my back so I'm still moving but not as vigorous. Plus, the whole if you don't keep going, you could drown helps keep me motivated enough to get to the other side. I use to absolutely hate swimming because I was always the smallest person in swim class. I hated certain techniques and being the one everyone had to practice "saving" from drowning. The extremely cold water was so torturous, that my lips were always a constant blue/purple hue. My teachers always asked me if I was ok, but it was brutal to swim in what would probably be equivalent to an ice cubed filled pool. You could just never get warm enough until you hit the showers.
In the hot tub and the dry sauna, I like to bring a book and a large bottle of iced water so that I'd be able to read and have something to do. Having low blood pressure, I make sure to keep very hydrated and not get too over heated. Feeling like you're going to pass out absolutely sucks! Especially, since the saunas are in the change rooms and Winton can't come with me. To be honest, at first, I actually hated the dry sauna since I didn't seem to sweat fast enough and my skin would feel like it was completely drying and burning. But, between reading and stretching in there, I've actually learned to enjoy it. It took a few trips to figure out how long and how hot I liked it in there. I've debated a bunch of times whether or not I should pour some water on the hot rocks just for a little steam. So far, I've met a couple of interesting women in there. One woman just moved to Toronto, so I gave her some advice about what's in the area etc. Another elderly Chinese woman, ended up giving me advice on life and what to expect etc. It was pretty amusing cause there was the standard Asian parent bashing their kid. When I'm alone, I love to practice some yoga poses! I love being able to stretch further in the hot atmosphere. I'm super fidgety so sitting still and meditating doesn't work for me, but in a way I feel like being alone with no phone access in a completely quiet sauna is like meditation for me. It's Julie's quiet time, and that's what I feel like all of us are missing in our lives. Even when we are alone, we aren't really alone. It's really easy to text your friends and listen to a podcast. But, being completely alone to contemplate your thoughts is like digesting the information from your brain instead of your brain constantly ingesting information.
The best part of this whole experience was the change in my attitude. I always thought I didn't have enough time for anything and I "tried" to make time here and there. Whereas, when I just sucked it up and went swimming and forced myself to go the first few times, I found myself coming home and it was still early to do things. I had so much time and energy to cook dinner, make my lunch and snacks for the next day. I did so much more, but didn't feel as exhausted as when I sat around on the couch and did nothing all evening. It's pretty bizarre! And now, I crave going cause I love that high you get from feeling healthier and stronger. Try something new that's good for you! I bet you'll love changing up the boring daily routine. Besides, it doesn't hurt trying to get that six pack while having fun and enjoying yourself.
In the hot tub and the dry sauna, I like to bring a book and a large bottle of iced water so that I'd be able to read and have something to do. Having low blood pressure, I make sure to keep very hydrated and not get too over heated. Feeling like you're going to pass out absolutely sucks! Especially, since the saunas are in the change rooms and Winton can't come with me. To be honest, at first, I actually hated the dry sauna since I didn't seem to sweat fast enough and my skin would feel like it was completely drying and burning. But, between reading and stretching in there, I've actually learned to enjoy it. It took a few trips to figure out how long and how hot I liked it in there. I've debated a bunch of times whether or not I should pour some water on the hot rocks just for a little steam. So far, I've met a couple of interesting women in there. One woman just moved to Toronto, so I gave her some advice about what's in the area etc. Another elderly Chinese woman, ended up giving me advice on life and what to expect etc. It was pretty amusing cause there was the standard Asian parent bashing their kid. When I'm alone, I love to practice some yoga poses! I love being able to stretch further in the hot atmosphere. I'm super fidgety so sitting still and meditating doesn't work for me, but in a way I feel like being alone with no phone access in a completely quiet sauna is like meditation for me. It's Julie's quiet time, and that's what I feel like all of us are missing in our lives. Even when we are alone, we aren't really alone. It's really easy to text your friends and listen to a podcast. But, being completely alone to contemplate your thoughts is like digesting the information from your brain instead of your brain constantly ingesting information.
The best part of this whole experience was the change in my attitude. I always thought I didn't have enough time for anything and I "tried" to make time here and there. Whereas, when I just sucked it up and went swimming and forced myself to go the first few times, I found myself coming home and it was still early to do things. I had so much time and energy to cook dinner, make my lunch and snacks for the next day. I did so much more, but didn't feel as exhausted as when I sat around on the couch and did nothing all evening. It's pretty bizarre! And now, I crave going cause I love that high you get from feeling healthier and stronger. Try something new that's good for you! I bet you'll love changing up the boring daily routine. Besides, it doesn't hurt trying to get that six pack while having fun and enjoying yourself.
Thursday, 2 April 2015
Progress and Contemplation!
I've been doing a ton of learning in the past little couple weeks! I've ramped up my savings games in some areas and faltered a bit in others. I've tried to cut out all my miscellaneous spending habits, but cracked on the no junk food rule. I'm surprised I was able to hold off on buying junk food for a couple weeks but when I caved I caved pretty bad. On the bright side, packages of cookies will sit in the cupboards and eaten pretty slowly by my normal standards. With the nicer weather, I'm back to the daily 45 minute walks to work. Some people think it's excessive, but with my podcasts they feel like 20 minutes. I actually feel like I'm reducing stress on my walks, as I like to see the elderly doing Tai Chi in the park while the bright sun is shining on my face. I'm one of those people that need to be in the sun! I love basking in it and working on my non-existent and impossible tan, but that's another story! I'm also happy to report that I've survive another year biking through the harsh Canadian winter. I absolutely refuse to take the TTC home during rush hour, I just can't deal with the cramped and grumpy crowds who push and shove like it's life or death to get on the train. Weather permitting, I've biked home every single day in the blistering cold! Some days when the snow or rain falls pretty hard I will end up walking for safety reasons. Even with bike lanes, they are rarely shovelled all the way to permit us bikers to ride safely in our own lane and cars for some reason don't mind driving so close you can reach our your arm and touch them! Even with my helmet, it's not worth the risk to easily slip on some rain or snow and get into an accident.
Last week, I started back tracking and reading all the interesting blogs from Mr. Money Moustache. He's great! If you haven't heard of him, give him a google and check out his blog. He talks about living a frugal, simple life that isn't about consumption and more about being happy and enjoying life. It made me do a lot of contemplating about my life and reinforcing what I was doing was good for me. For all the shiny things I wanted to buy, at the end of the day they didn't really increase my happiness. If I had one day left on this earth, the last thing I'd want to do is go shopping for shiny new things. So, I went out and created new experiences that would increase my happiness and hopefully my life span. Usually, on Sundays its my catch up and clean up day but instead I took out an hour or so to sit in a cafe and enjoyed a hot chocolate, my favourite crepe and start a book I bought on vacation way back in November. I took another half an hour and spent it going to the condo pool to do some laps. I HATE exercise but I love to swim! The hot tub doesn't hurt either hahaha! It was hard at first since I'm so out of shape but I've gone a few times since then I can slowly do more laps than the previous trip. Best part is it's in the condo, so I don't have to leave the building to enjoy a quick swim and post relaxing session in the hot tub. Sometimes, I forget and take for granted that we are so lucky to be living downtown and are paying for all these amenities that most people don't use. The pool is always dead and I've never seen more than 5 people or so at anytime. Most of the times we've gone, the pool is empty and that's the best! Starting this year, there also has been a myriad of fitness and fun programs hosted by the condo and they are all free! I am fortunate enough that I work from home on Mondays, which is also my errands day and it just happened that I was offered set work. I'm usually tired on Monday's but I felt a nice sense of new energy that came over me from changing up my routine. I've gone a few more times after work to jump in the pool and you really get an extra jolt of energy to get you through the rest of the day. My days are longer but they are more fulfilled and feel like I accomplished a lot more. The worst feeling for me is after a crazy long work day, and spending a few hours on the couch binging on shows you think "what the heck happened to the day?" Don't get me wrong, I love tv binging and there is nothing wrong with doing it in moderation. But, I really did notice what I could do if I get off the couch for a couple hours and do something else instead and it's great!
DIY Re-Caulking the Bath Tub
Lesson learned: Silicone is better than general caulking material
We had to caulk the tub this week since our first attempt, however well done, the material did not hold up to the water assault we gave it over a couple of showers. The tube said it was caulk made for the tub and needed 36 hours to dry. We gave it more than two days and started to notice it peel right off the wall after the first shower. I suppose the fact we picked it up from Walmart, instead of an actual home repair store should have been a sign. Luckily, we were able to still reuse the tools we bought the first time around to scrape off the off the old stuff and re-apply with the recommended silicone by the Canadian Tire guys. It was advertised as three hour ready but we gave it a good 24+ hours to fully dry. It's appears a bit shiny/wet but when you touch it it's nice and dry. It's been almost a week and it's nice and solid with no signs of wear or tear. The best $3 we spent! I would definitely recommend buying a scraper and applier, we got ours from Walmart for about $5 each. They are reusable but after two uses the scraper seems to be a bit dull. The applier tool gives you a nice professional, clean and straight look. This tool is definitely a keeper! You just need to make sure to use a wet paper towel to wipe off the excess silicone before it dries to avoid it drying up on your tool.
Tip: wipe the tool often to avoid the silicone over flowing on the sides and smearing all over your tiles and tub.
Overall, I had a very good couple of weeks! Had some great new experiences and fun, all while reinforcing my good financial habits. It's hard to start a new savings habit and the best thing you could do is start TODAY! Right now! Put away $5 into an account and once you see it grow you'll get addicted! That's what happened to me. I made a good chunk of change as a teenager but with no financial foundation I blew it all on eating out and having fun with my friends. I still regret it and wished someone sat me down and taught me about personal finance! No one will care more about your finances and future more than you will (ok, maybe your mom). But even then, if you ever get into a pickle, most people won't or can't help you. Thanks to Facebook/Instagram etc. most people seem so happy in their big houses, new cars and what not but you never see the bill attached to those items. How much debt do they really carry to keep that facade? So, what if you don't have the newest whatever! Trust me, it feels a MILLION times better to be able to stand tall and know you owe nothing to nobody! The onus is on you to take care of yourself and family (if you have one). Sadly, some people think their parents will be around forever and are so dependent on them that they never learn to grow up and become independent. So, I say STAND UP, GROW A PAIR, and GET YOUR SHIT IN ORDER!
Eros and Pookie
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