My stats for the month of May 2012

31. May 2012 · 4 comments · Categories: Blog Statistics

I’ve noticed other bloggers posting information about their blogs and their stats, so I figured I’d give it a shot. I don’t have any specific goals to compare myself to at the moment – I guess I should come up with some!

For May 2012

Alexa Ranking: 482,742. Not too darned shabby if I do say so myself. I started at something ridiculous like 17 million, and got below 1 million in April. So, things are humming along very nicely. I’m part of the Yakezie challenge, and hoping to crack the top 200, 000 before the first six months are up. I know I owe a lot of credit to the nice folks who stop by, comment, and tweet my posts, so THANK YOU!!

Twitter followers – I have 25. Not huge in the grand scheme of things, but I really haven’t focused on Twitter that much, so, again, not too shabby.

Facebook fans. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Mind you, I have no Facebook page, so this isn’t too surprising. Eventually, I may do something about this.

RSS subscribers – 7. Well, it’s better than a poke in the eye with a stick.

Unique Visitors – 619.

Do you post stats on your blog? Do you have monthly goals?

Why you should never, ever, pay just the minimum amount on your credit card

29. May 2012 · 8 comments · Categories: Credit Cards

I just got my credit card bill. It’s over 5000 grand for the month. Now – before you start thinking – what is this girl doing, giving out financial advice when her credit card bill is so high?! It does have mostly essentials on it (transportation, groceries, gas), but I’ll freely admit that it has some not so essentials on it (dinner out and Mr. Canuck Buck’s trip to HMV). The biggest chunk is medical, alas – something that is not covered by our health care system or insurance. So, I am normally a tad more frugal.

Anyway, a note on the last page of the bill caught my eye. It says “If you only make the minimum payment every month, it will take approximately 21 year(2) and 11 month(2) to pay the entire new balance shown on this statement.

21 years?! Almost 22 years? Are they nuts? I’m hoping to be retired in 21 years – not still paying off a credit card bill I ran up in my 30′s. And that’s assuming I don’t ever spend anything else again on this credit card.

I had friends in university who just paid off the minimum on their card and thought they were doing well. I didn’t really have that option – my parents did not co-sign anything for me (I never thought to ask!), so the most credit I could get was 500 bucks a month. I remember a “friend” lording it over me that she had a higher credit limit than me because her parents had cosigned for her. She was much quieter about the whole situation once she had to start paying off her bill.

I guess I just can’t understand why on earth you would take the route of only paying the minimum. I know I’m lucky I’ve never been in truly dire financial need where I couldn’t pay off my credit card bill, but I’d like to think good sense, and a bit of restraint have helped me from running up a bill I couldn’t afford.

If you are in the situation – get the heck out of it! While you really need to take a good, long look at your spending habits, you may need to take some drastic measures in order to pay your bill of faster. There’s anything from getting extra hours at work, to transferring to a lower interest card, to negotiating with your credit card company. They’re all worth a shot – cause who wants to be paying a bill you racked up 20 years later!

Have you ever just paid the minimum on your credit card? How did you break free from this habit?

I can has Blackberry Playbook

28. May 2012 · 3 comments · Categories: Entertainment, Extra costs, Wasting money · Tags: Ipad, Playbook

If this title makes no sense to you, then please check out this site: I can has cheezburger. It’s awesome.

While I have high hopes of winning an Ipad 3 via Praire Eco-Thrifter, I broke down and bought a Blackberry Playbook today. While I do think that the Ipads look awesome, it was less half the price for a Playbook, so I went that route.

I’ve been thinking about getting a tablet for a while, but couldn’t really justify it as I own a netbook and a smartphone, and a Kobo. Well -the Kobo I owned until recently, but I lost it. One of my worst habits is being forgetful, and I can’t even remember where I last saw it.

I know it seems like poor form to reward myself for losing my Kobo, but I give myself some comfort that I got a decent amount of use out of it, and well – not buying the Playbook isn’t going to bring my Kobo back. I’m just going to have to be more vigilant about what I do with my stuff.

I’m looking forward to my new Playbook. I take the train to work every day, and it’ll be great to be able to read or watch T.V. show or movies, and play games, all one the same device. I’m also hoping to sneak in some blog posting, or at least commenting on my lunch hour.

Do you own a tablet? If so, which one? If not – why not?

Prairie Eco-Thrifter Giveaway Extravaganza

27. May 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized

Prairie Eco-Thrifter is having a serious giveaway to celebrate the second anniversary of the blog The biggest prize is an IPAD 3!! Yes, you read that right. IPAD 3! Also, some great cash prizes. Please check it out!

Blog round up for May 25, 2012

25. May 2012 · 5 comments · Categories: Blog Roundup

Welcome to my blog round up for May 25, 2012. This week I blogged about:

Being annoyed at the movies in I don’t mind if you waste your money, but please don’t waste mine
A tale of caution: What can happen if you don’t pay attention to your bills
How to spend a long weekend on the cheap.

Some of my favourite posts around the blogosphere this week are:

How Pinterest Can Save you Money by Prairie Eco-Thrifter. I found this interesting enough I finally signed up for Pinterest!
How to control stock trading impulses by One Cent at a Time
A review of PlanWise Financial Software by Modest Money
The In’s and Out’s Of A Debt Reduction Plan! By Canadian Budget Binder. This is a fantastic post that gives you everything you need to know to get your butt in gear if you have debt and want to get rid of it.
Save Money, Buy a Chest Freezer by Canadian Finance Blog.
How Much is that Wedding In the Window? By Young and Thrifty
My cash only experiment for groceries by Living Richly on a Budget

How to spend a long weekend on the cheap

23. May 2012 · 6 comments · Categories: Entertainment, Free Stuff, Vacation · Tags: long weekend, long weekend activites, May 24

The “May 24″ weekend is coming to an end, and for me, it’s been a fairly economical one. I often go somewhere on long weekends, but decided just to take it easy this time. I still managed to do a lot, but not spend very much. I’ll give you the highlights, and hopefully this will help give you ideas of how to fill your long weekends without busting the bank.

I read. To me, there’s nothing more enjoyable then spending a lazy afternoon reading. I borrowed the book from my sister-in-law, so it cost me absolutely nothing to enjoy this pleasure.
I went with my sister-in-law and niece skating. I know this seems like an odd thing to do when the weather is nice out, but it’s a great time to go if you have an arena open. It’s not busy, and it’s a nice way to cool off in the afternoon. My sister-in-law kindly paid, but I did spring for chocolate milk for my niece on the way home. Total cost: $2.50.
Make my super awesome potato brunch dish. Total cost – less than 5 bucks.
Watched the latest episode of Sherlock and the movie “Out of Sight”. No additional cost on top of my regular cable bill, so I’m going to count this one as a zero cost.
Had some friends from out of town drop by. I’d originally planned to go up and see them, but they were coming through for her Mom’s birthday, so this saved me a trip, and some serious bucks! We took their son to the park, and he tried hard to play with the cat (she wasn’t too interested). Total cost – less than 50 cents for a few glasses of apple juice.
Take advantage of other people’s fireworks! I had a great view from my upper floor windows of several fireworks displays, and it didn’t cost me a cent.
And of course, writing blog posts.

I realize this is all making me sound very cheap (ahem..frugal!). I hadn’t planned to go this weekend quite so cheaply – I just wanted to take it easy and enjoy myself. I think the point I’m trying to make is – while it’s certainly okay to go away and spend money on a long weekend, if you choose to stay in town, there are plenty of fun and cheap ways to spend your time.

What’s your favourite way to spend a long weekend?

A tale of caution: What can happen if you don’t pay attention to your bills

22. May 2012 · 5 comments · Categories: Bills, Wasting money · Tags: cancellation, insurance, premiums

This tale comes to you courtesy of one of my co-workers. I’ll use his real name it cause it’s John, which is pretty darned generic.

John was married, but has been divorced for a long time now. Apparently, he bought his ex-wife a very expensive engagement ring, and they’d taken out a rider (basically, extra insurance) on the ring through their home insurance. When the marriage ended, and John moved out, he cancelled his home insurance and the extra rider on it. He then set up new car and home insurance with the same company, just on a new place.

He was billed separately for the home and car insurance, and wasn’t keeping very good track of how often the bills came in for them. So, for over 9 years, he didn’t realize that he was actually getting three bills – one for his house, one for his car, and one for the rider on the engagement ring. For some reason, it hadn’t been cancelled along with his old home insurance. No, I don’t know how you’d miss this for 9 years, but if you aren’t paying attention, it can happen.

So, eventually John wised up, and went back to his insurance company. They had a record of his original cancellation, including the cancellation of the rider. They cut him a cheque for 5000 dollars (I know, I asked – apparently this *still* wasn’t as much as the ring cost). Well, they actually cut it to him and his ex-wife, but he eventually got that straightened out.

I guess the moral of the story here is that you should always read your bills, and double-check when you’ve cancelled something that is has actually been cancelled. When Mr. Canuck Buck and I got married, my parents covered the honeymoon suite as a gift. When we checked out, we almost did not look at the bill as we thought it would be rude, but we decided to after all. I am glad we did, as another suite had ordered a bottle of champagne, and they had put it on our bill! We sorted it out, but my parents either would have paid it, or had no way later on to prove we had not ordered it.

Have you ever run into a situation where you were billed for something you had cancelled?

I don’t mind you wasting your money, but please don’t waste mine!

21. May 2012 · 7 comments · Categories: Entertainment, Wasting money · Tags: dealing with idiots, films, going out, movies, other people, The Avengers

I’m afraid today’s post is going to be a bit of a rant. Thanks for listening.

The second last movie I went to see was “The Hunger Games”. I loved the book, and was interested in seeing how it would be on the big screen. I met a friend at the movies a week or two after it opened, and she decided she wanted to see it. And while I think they did a great job with the film, I’d forgotten how bad it can be on a Saturday afternoon at the movies. People are constantly turning on their phones (and the bright screens are really distracting), chatting with their buddies, and coming in 15 minutes after the movies starts – and then sitting on the stairs! I guess this makes me sound old and cranky, but I just don’t get why you’d pay the ridiculous price a movie is nowadays, and then not arrive on time or pay attention. I take some comfort in the fact I buy discount passes through CAA, but I’m still paying and want to enjoy the movie.

So after that, I swore off movies for a while. And I was just going to bypass “The Avengers” until everyone start raving about it. My boss. My co-workers. Mr. Canuck Buck (yes, he had my permission to go without me ). They were all in awe of how amazing it was and I just had to go so they didn’t ruin any more of it for me. So I finally caved and went on Friday afternoon after getting out of work early.

Big mistake. After having my seat kicked repeatedly during the “pre-show”, I moved to the very back corner. I was in heaven – til 15 minutes into the show. Then someone, who’d obviously dragged along their not very interested girlfriend, came in and sat right beside. She proceed to get out her phone on and off for the next hour. She’d even leave it out and on, and not use it. It drove me nuts, and came close to bringing out my inner Hulk. I finally said something (after sighing loudly and swearing under my breath), and she cut it down after that, but it really wrecked the movie for me. Do people not know how distracting their phones are? Or do they not care? Why would you pay good money if you have no interest in a movie?

So, I truly think that’ll be it for me at the movies for a while. I even ended up spending more money afterwards on some chocolate to help chill me out.

Have you ever had this happen to you? Any idea why people do this?