Posts Tagged ‘Saving Money’

A Car Expense That Could Have Been Expensive

A few weeks ago I talked about how I had broken the passenger side mirror on my truck. It was just the mirror itself, and not the housing that was broken, so I was hoping to just replace that and not the whole thing. I had called the dealership and asked how much it would cost, and was told that if it’s the whole thing, then it would cost upwards of $450-500 after labour and taxes, not something to take lightly. So I decided to save up the cash and just tape the mirror in place.

With the recent cold snap we’re having right now, it’s hard to keep the mirror in place with the tape because the cold just makes tape un-sticky. Today while driving home from work, part of the tape came off and the mirror rattled all the way home. As it would happen, today is one of the days the dealership is open late, so I thought I’d pop in and see what they could do for me. Buddy comes out with me after I explained the problem, he takes a look and says “Oh yeah, we can just replace the glass, no problem.”

I took a deep breath and asked, “Are you sure?”

“Yep.”

What a huge sigh of relief! I knew that replacing just the glass would be significantly cheaper than replacing the whole unit, so I was glad to hear that. We then went to speak to the Parts Manager, and he looked it up and said that the glass costs all of $77. And then the Service Manager said he’d install it for me and save the labour cost! Most excellent. I am pleased about that, as it saves me about $350, which I can leave in my Emergency Fund.

Adventures in Cable

One of the easiest places for you to save some money is with your cable bill. With the advent of digital cable, it’s easy to get sucked into signing up for one of those swanky, higher end packages that gives you access to 200+ channels, all the movies you want, digital music and more. Especially when the cable company offers you a deal for several months. One of the ways companies in Ontario get around the issue of negative billing (that’s where the company automatically bills you, and the responsibility is on you to tell them to cancel the service. This was made illegal in Canada in 1999.) is by signing you up to a package with a special discount for several months. Because you have now agreed to the service, they are under no obligation to tell you when the price goes up after that trial period. I find this very annoying, because it’s just one more thing you have to be on top of when you’re trying to be frugal. But it’s a necessary evil and task that must be done.

Because I just moved last month, I had to speak to the cable company regarding my service, so I was able to ask them about any specials I might have been taking advantage of, and ask when they would be expiring. Turns out that my one deal expires in March, which is good to know, because the woman admitted that they wouldn’t tell me it was expiring, just bill me the full rate. *sigh* So I’m going to have to call them in a few weeks, before I am billed for my March service, and get them to rearrange things again for me. And of course the package that I’ve been enjoying all year doesn’t exist anymore (the company restructures their deals every 6 months or so), so I’m not sure what I’ll be able to get out of them for the same price.

However, I was able to save $27 a month this month because I got rid of the Super Sports Pak, which is a cable package for NFL football, MLB baseball, NHL hockey and a couple of other sports. While I am a huge hockey fan, living in Canada gives me the advantage of finding enough NHL games on “free” tv that I don’t need the extra package. I order it every fall for the football season though, as they have more blackout dates and restrictions, so that I am typically stuck watching either the Buffalo Bills or the New York Jets all the time.  That is a most annoying thing, as there are many other teams in the league that I’d like to see as well. So the extra $24.95+tax a month is well worth it for me. Since football season is over, I am able to cancel that and save the money on my bill, which is good. Couple that with the $30 I’m saving a month not having a landline telephone, and I’m saving quite a bit of cash per month.

I’ll be studying the latest package offerings over the next few weeks and see where I can shave off some extra money after my discounts end next month. But it’s well worth the extra work, since it will save me money each month. Sure, the television is an important thing in my house, so I’m not willing to sacrifice completely, however I’m all for saving money where I can with it.