BUT, one exciting thing that happened this week is that I saved over $200 on my car & home insurance renewal this year. My policy expires in February every year, and last year I did some research and found that I could save some money if I shopped around. So I decided that when the renewal came up, I was going to see about switching.

A little history first: I’ve been with my current insurance company for almost 7 years now, because for the longest time they were the cheapest. They gave me good discounts when I earned them, and offered me comprehensive coverage.

My university alumni association has deals with various companies to offer its alumni discounts on products, and one of them is with an insurance company. Last summer I was curious, and so got a quote. Imagine my surprise when I could get the same coverage and save almost $150 a year. I made a mental note to remember to call when my policy was up for renewal in Feb’09.

And here we are.

A few weeks ago I did the online quote thing, and got an excellent quote for my car. Since I live in the city of Toronto, I knew my rate was going to be a smidge higher than elsewhere, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how much cheaper it was. Now it was almost $175 cheaper than my current policy. Interesting. But I knew that I could get it down a bit more with my alumni discount plus adding in my home insurance. So I called them up about a week later to talk to a representative.

Would you know it, after all the discounts and such, I’m now saving over $200 a year? For the same coverage as I’ve got now? I’m impressed. Needless to say I told the rep to sign me up and I made the switch.

Chalk one up to me and my research. Boo-yah.

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.

Total money spent on gas: $385.86

Average gas price: $1.239/L

Number of fill-ups: 10

The number of fill-ups is an interesting one, as I was initially just going to fill up whenever gas got to a certain price, however in my new frugal plan, I’m only going to fill up when I actually need it. This should roughly be twice a week, which will reduce the number of fill ups by 2 from September’s totals, although whether that saves me any money is left up to OPEC and the oil speculators.

Right now this puts me at putting almost 50% of my new job’s raise directly into my gas tank, which isn’t the best thing, as I’d like to be putting it towards my debt, however this still means I’m putting an extra $400 towards my debt, which is still a good thing. Moving to the same city where my job is will eventually save me more than just gas money, but even rent as well, so that would result in me having more than $1000 extra every month that I’ll be able to put towards my debt.

Another step I’ve taken to reduce my costs, since they will continue to be there until I move, is to purchase a Fuel Savings Card at Petro-Canada with my PetroPoints. This card saves me 5 cents per litre on 200L. Not bad at all. I’m still able to earn points with these purchases, and you can replenish the card whenever you have the right amount of points. Definitely something worthwhile, in my opinion. So yesterday I saved about $1.05 on a fill-up.

Small steps, small steps will eventually get there.

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.

I was excited to see that the washer had some rince/soap and wax options, as I’ve developed an appreciation for waxing the car. Living in Canada, it definitely comes in handy in the winter time, since it keeps the salt and snow from sticking to the car. I know, we’re in spring/almost summer right now, but the wax is good at this time of year to keep off all the bugs.

At any rate, I popped in my toonie, selected Rinse, and off I went. The building management had thoughtfully attached the hose on the ceiling with an arm that would keep it away from the car, and still allow enough slack and spin for you to walk around the whole car. Very nice. The one thing I wasn’t sure about was how long my toonie would last. Would it allow me to rinse, wash with soap, wax and then rinse again? Only time would tell.

I whipped around the car quickly to rinse it all off, and then started again with the Wash & Soap option. I pulled the trigger to use the high-pressure wash too, as I had some gunky mud near the wheel wells. I walked briskly around the car, spraying merrily away. I was having a blast, both literally and figuratively.

I switched it over to the Wax, and whipped around the car again, getting the wax on. And just as I got to the front, the timer ran out, and the water turned off. Nice timing indeed.

The total time was about 7 minutes, and the total cost was $2. Considering the super max car wash at a gas station is almost $10 these days, I thought $2 was a bargoon! I brought the car back to my parking spot and then pulled out my squeegee to clean off the front and back windshields. As I was walking around, I noticed that there was still dust on the side of the car (my car is black, which means it shows all the dirt quite nicely.) There was still dust on the car! And I even used the high-pressure wash trigger too!

*sigh* So the DIY car wash, while fun, wasn’t the best thing in the world. I will still have to wash my car at some point in order to get all the “dirt” off. Of course considering it’s supposed to be rainy & cloudy all week, I am not too upset about only losing $2, but it’s the principal, you know? *sigh and double sigh*

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.