Mirvish productions has some new promotions for Dirty Dancing - all weeknight seats (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings) and Wednesday matinees from now through March 29 are going on sale for $30. Use or quote code DANCE30. It's actualy pretty good - well at the least the 12 year old in me really liked it.
Want to take your family to see The Sound of Music? Mirvish Productions is offering a Family-Pack for Tuesday through Friday (7:30) and Sunday evening (6:30) performances. $199 gets you four seats. Use or quote coupon code MUSIC. Tickets can be purchased at TicketKing.com or by phone at 416-872-1212 or 1-800-461-3333.
If you haven't seen We Will Rock You, Mirvish has put tickets for shows on Sunday and Wednesday afternoon and Wednesday and Thursday evenings in February on for $28. That's a savings of almost $50 for the best seats. For Friday and Saturday evenings seats are available for $40. To book, visit Ticket King and use promotional code ROCK28.
Even in these recessionary times, we all need a li'l culture...
Monday, February 2, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Going Green to Save $$$$
So we all know our environment is a mess, and we should all be going greener. But did you know you can go green AND save money? Take for example:
Energy: The federal and Ontario governments have some great programs to help retrofit your house/condo. You can replace your furnace, install a tankless hot water tank, upgrade your insulation and get new windows....not only will you lower your energy bills ($$$!), but you can get up to $10,000 in rebates - cold hard cash. It all starts and ends with an energy audit - about $300, but the government will pay $150 of that too...Don't forget to talk to your bank too- RBC is offering a $300 audit refund plus some loan programs. And if you're buying a new house with less than 20% down, CMHC has some programs to reduce your costs too. So many options!
http://www.homeenergyontario.ca/
Water: The city of Toronto has some lofty water reduction goals. One of the programs they have right now involves selling water retrofit kits for $10. The kits include a low flow shower head, water aerators to lower the flow of water in your taps and a bunch of other stuff. Sounds like a deal to me!
http://www.toronto.ca/watereff/water_saving_kits/indoor_kit.htm
So while we don't officially own our new home until mid-February, we've already had an energy audit and scheduled the contractors. I can't guarantee that I'll part with my rainwater showerhead...but you never know...
Energy: The federal and Ontario governments have some great programs to help retrofit your house/condo. You can replace your furnace, install a tankless hot water tank, upgrade your insulation and get new windows....not only will you lower your energy bills ($$$!), but you can get up to $10,000 in rebates - cold hard cash. It all starts and ends with an energy audit - about $300, but the government will pay $150 of that too...Don't forget to talk to your bank too- RBC is offering a $300 audit refund plus some loan programs. And if you're buying a new house with less than 20% down, CMHC has some programs to reduce your costs too. So many options!
http://www.homeenergyontario.ca/
Water: The city of Toronto has some lofty water reduction goals. One of the programs they have right now involves selling water retrofit kits for $10. The kits include a low flow shower head, water aerators to lower the flow of water in your taps and a bunch of other stuff. Sounds like a deal to me!
http://www.toronto.ca/watereff/water_saving_kits/indoor_kit.htm
So while we don't officially own our new home until mid-February, we've already had an energy audit and scheduled the contractors. I can't guarantee that I'll part with my rainwater showerhead...but you never know...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
The Good News About a Down Market
OK, so we've been doing well living on cash this past week. And with all this talk about saving money, it may seem crazy, but we bought a house. And the best part? It was a brilliant financial move.
For starters, consider the fact that we're currently renting and paying someone else's mortgage, and that our full carrying costs of our new home will be $200 lower a month. But more importantly, this is a BRILLIANT time to get into the housing market. Prices have fallen 10% in the GTA and will likely continue to fall this year. There is ample supply of great housing. And if you're lucky enough to find a seller who is straddling the before-and-after markets - you're in for a deal. The key to buying now (as opposed to when the market has reached it's 'bottom') - is finding a seller who needs to sell - maybe they bought a place back in September and didn't sell their previous home before the market fell apart and now they're carrying two mortgages? maybe the bank didn't re-new their mortgage because they'd been late on some payments? perhaps the house is in foreclosure? Whatever their situation, there are sellers out there just looking to get out - and the number of buyers is less thanks to first-time buyers losing part (all?) of their downpayments in the stock market. High supply, low demand. I wasn't too hungover in economics class to remember that that's a good time to be a buyer. And don't forget about the interest rate factor - the Bank of Canada rate is at an all-time low of 1%, which means you can get a mortgage for under 4%. Brilliant!
The deets on our deal: Our new house has been sitting on the market since April. It was over-priced at 599K because the owner put too much money into renovations to be supported by the neighbourhood - and after a number of price decreases down to 475K, it seemed like a steal. After a lot of negotiations (we have a great real estate agent - ok, it was me, I do this for a living), we are buying a 2,300 sqft fully rebuilt/renoved Victorian home for 442K in downtown Toronto. Seriously. So if the market goes down another 10%? We haven't overpaid. And when the market recovers, we'll be able to benefit from their 150K investment. Brilliant.
Gotta run - I hear sirens outside and need to get my running shoes on...
For starters, consider the fact that we're currently renting and paying someone else's mortgage, and that our full carrying costs of our new home will be $200 lower a month. But more importantly, this is a BRILLIANT time to get into the housing market. Prices have fallen 10% in the GTA and will likely continue to fall this year. There is ample supply of great housing. And if you're lucky enough to find a seller who is straddling the before-and-after markets - you're in for a deal. The key to buying now (as opposed to when the market has reached it's 'bottom') - is finding a seller who needs to sell - maybe they bought a place back in September and didn't sell their previous home before the market fell apart and now they're carrying two mortgages? maybe the bank didn't re-new their mortgage because they'd been late on some payments? perhaps the house is in foreclosure? Whatever their situation, there are sellers out there just looking to get out - and the number of buyers is less thanks to first-time buyers losing part (all?) of their downpayments in the stock market. High supply, low demand. I wasn't too hungover in economics class to remember that that's a good time to be a buyer. And don't forget about the interest rate factor - the Bank of Canada rate is at an all-time low of 1%, which means you can get a mortgage for under 4%. Brilliant!
The deets on our deal: Our new house has been sitting on the market since April. It was over-priced at 599K because the owner put too much money into renovations to be supported by the neighbourhood - and after a number of price decreases down to 475K, it seemed like a steal. After a lot of negotiations (we have a great real estate agent - ok, it was me, I do this for a living), we are buying a 2,300 sqft fully rebuilt/renoved Victorian home for 442K in downtown Toronto. Seriously. So if the market goes down another 10%? We haven't overpaid. And when the market recovers, we'll be able to benefit from their 150K investment. Brilliant.
Gotta run - I hear sirens outside and need to get my running shoes on...
Monday, January 12, 2009
Confessions....and New Beginnings
There's no better proof that it's time to get your finances under control, than starting a blog about saving money, and within 2 posts and less than 2 months, doing the following in rapid succession:
1- vacationing in Cabo (and spending $600 on wine/champagne - in one evening)
2- getting engaged (and having the requisite engagement party, complete with a $400 mariachi band)
3-buying a designer puppy (and purchasing the necessary puppy supplies, including an $85 hoodie)
And let's not even talk about Christmas.
And so with those confessions out of the way, it's time to start over. First order of business: the Brel financial autopsy. As you can imagine, we were NOT looking forward to looking beneath the surface and finding out where all our money was going. After all, neither of us is particularly good at saying no - another beer? sure! wicked pair of shoes? absolutely! dinner out 'cause we don't feel like cooking? count us in!
The good news...neither of us carries any real debt. We pay off our credit cards every month. And we both have some investments - albeit less than we did in September:(
The not so great news...our random spending. Our fixed expenses weren't a surprise - having just rented our place, leased a car and signed up for all the basics, we knew how much we were spending on living. But how much do we spend on food, entertainment, booze and wherever else our cash disappears to? Our guess: $300 a week. The reality - $649 a week! And that number doesn't include the recent splurges, clothes, gifts or household expenses. Pathetic, really.
And so today, we say goodbye to our beloved friend, our trusty saviour: plastic. We commit to living on cash - and recording what we're spending that cash on. Seriously. We mean it this time.
If that doesn't motivate us to hunt out the deals - nothing will...
1- vacationing in Cabo (and spending $600 on wine/champagne - in one evening)
2- getting engaged (and having the requisite engagement party, complete with a $400 mariachi band)
3-buying a designer puppy (and purchasing the necessary puppy supplies, including an $85 hoodie)
And let's not even talk about Christmas.
And so with those confessions out of the way, it's time to start over. First order of business: the Brel financial autopsy. As you can imagine, we were NOT looking forward to looking beneath the surface and finding out where all our money was going. After all, neither of us is particularly good at saying no - another beer? sure! wicked pair of shoes? absolutely! dinner out 'cause we don't feel like cooking? count us in!
The good news...neither of us carries any real debt. We pay off our credit cards every month. And we both have some investments - albeit less than we did in September:(
The not so great news...our random spending. Our fixed expenses weren't a surprise - having just rented our place, leased a car and signed up for all the basics, we knew how much we were spending on living. But how much do we spend on food, entertainment, booze and wherever else our cash disappears to? Our guess: $300 a week. The reality - $649 a week! And that number doesn't include the recent splurges, clothes, gifts or household expenses. Pathetic, really.
And so today, we say goodbye to our beloved friend, our trusty saviour: plastic. We commit to living on cash - and recording what we're spending that cash on. Seriously. We mean it this time.
If that doesn't motivate us to hunt out the deals - nothing will...
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
OK, we totally suck....
All this hype about going on a budget freaked us out a bit...so much so, in fact, that we decided to run away to Cabo for the week.
So if you were hoping to get some good tips on saving money this week, well we can say that there are spectacular deals on trips in Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican. With the travel industry tanking right now, the tour companies have a bunch of pre-purchased rooms and flights to sell - or almost give away, in some cases. Check out www.belairtravel.com for some great last minute getaways.
And we promise when we get back, we'll really go on a budget. And tell you all about it. Unless something else cool comes up that we have to do...
So if you were hoping to get some good tips on saving money this week, well we can say that there are spectacular deals on trips in Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican. With the travel industry tanking right now, the tour companies have a bunch of pre-purchased rooms and flights to sell - or almost give away, in some cases. Check out www.belairtravel.com for some great last minute getaways.
And we promise when we get back, we'll really go on a budget. And tell you all about it. Unless something else cool comes up that we have to do...
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Here we go...
Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know that our economic reality has changed considerably over the last 4 weeks. Most of us have lost a chunk of our investments. The real estate market is slowing down. Job prospects and job security are getting bleaker. And everything we learned in economics class is apparently not always true: the market might not actually be able to take care of itself; and if the government does A, B might not actually follow.
So in the absence of a crystal ball or a winning lottery ticket, this seems as good a time as any to learn to live within our means.
This is the story of Brendan and Mel (a.k.a. Brel) learning to live on a budget - all the while trying to maintain the fun and fashionable life we are used to.
Read on...you never know, you might even save a penny or two...
So in the absence of a crystal ball or a winning lottery ticket, this seems as good a time as any to learn to live within our means.
This is the story of Brendan and Mel (a.k.a. Brel) learning to live on a budget - all the while trying to maintain the fun and fashionable life we are used to.
Read on...you never know, you might even save a penny or two...
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