What’s even better about these tickets is that they’re considered “tickets”, not “passes”, so I can use them on opening weekend of a movie (like I did this weekend.) A friend dragged me to see Fast & Furious because she wanted to see Paul Walker up close. Plus I’m a bit of a gear-head, so I didn’t mind going.

People can buy these tickets at a number of places, if you’re a CAA member you can buy them through them, , and through some property management companies (my apartment building has them.) So just take a look around and see where you might be able to buy some, you can have a cheap night out!

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.

But now I’ve got a dilemma-what to do with the money. Because I’m currently not working full-time, I’ve got some options for the money. I had previously blogged that I was going to split it into thirds and send the money into debt repayment, emergency fund, and something else (hadn’t figured out what to do with that final third.) These are good option, however I have since changed my mind, mainly because of course I’ve only made $5 as a freelancer so far.

So my options are:

1. Move the money into one of my Lines of Credit. This has the benefit of giving me immediate access to the money, as well as saving me money on the interest I’m being charged, since it’s calculated daily.
2. Move it into my Citizen’s Bank Global Chequing Account. This also gives me the benefit of immediate access to the money, but also earns me a bit of interest on it.
3. Move into my emergency fund. This will replenish what I’ve taken out, plus earn me more interest than Option 2.
4. Pay off the Visa card. Okay, the refund wouldn’t pay it all off, but it would take care of about 57% of that card’s balance, which of course would save me money on the interest.
5. Pay off the MasterCard. Again, this doesn’t cover the entire amount, but it would take care of 38% of the balance, and save me money on the interest.

My main hesitation on moving the  money to either credit card is simply the fact that if I need access to the money for something like rent, I can’t get to it. And since the refund amount wouldn’t clear the entire balance, I couldn’t really use it for living expenses either, you know?

For the time being, I’ve just moved it to the TD Line of Credit so I at least save on the interest, but I’m not entirely convinced I want to just leave it there, you know?

What are your thoughts? Which option do you vote for?

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.

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.

Turns out I was wrong! I am a big city girl now. Phew, okay, I said that out loud. I feel better now.

Plus I’m just tired of “working for the man” and having to go into the office, so 2009 is the year of the freelancer…me! I spruced up my freelance website, and have started networking and applying for freelance jobs. I’m quite excited about this on a number of fronts, but the main one is simply that I could possibly bring in a few extra dollars here and there. That is the number 1 goal for doing it. But if I can get the monthly income and client list up to a decent level, I am most definitely going to chuck the full time job.

But wait, what about the current state of the economy? Aren’t you worried?

Surprisingly no, I’m not worried. Technical writing is a small enough market that if you’re good at it, you’ll always have a job. And it’s one of those types of jobs that lend themselves to contracting because it’s a great way for companies to save money. They get you in to work on the project they really need done, they pay you a fair wage, and they don’t have to pay you any benefits or retirement savings matches. One other cost-saving measure for them is that I am able to work online, from home, so they don’t even need to set me up at a desk in their offices. Technical writing covers such a gamut of topics that I’m not worried at all. Tech writers work for software companies, hardware companies, banks, insurance companies, the government, the military, your local transit commission…I could go  on here. So I’m not even limited to just tech companies.

This is why I am excited about starting on this adventure. While I haven’t landed any freelance contracts just yet, I know that with my current efforts, I should land some soon. Wish me luck!

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.

Recently though I was investigating moving to a monthly plan that would give me more minutes in the evenings, so I started looking this week. Turns out my provider (Virgin Mobile Canada) also had these “extra” packs you could add to your monthly plan that would give you extra things, like unlimited texting and calling to certain phone numbers, or let me choose when my unlimited calling block occurs every day (instead of only in the evening), and so on. I spoke to a very nice customer service rep who explained all the details to me, and I decided to go for it. The main selling point was simply that I would get unlimited calling and texting to 5 phone numbers I could add to a list. This means that I can now call my sister in Kingston whenever I want, for no extra long distance charges! Or my friend in Vancouver, with no extra long distance charges. What’s even better is that I can actually change who’s in my list once a month, so if I know I’m going to call somebody in particular frequently, I can change the numbers on the list and be done with it. Isn’t that great? I’m excited.

But what’s even better is that this whole new plan only costs me $2 more a month than I’m paying now. Yep, you heard me right, for $2 more a month, I get unlimited texting and calling across Canada to 5 numbers. That’s definitely worth the extra $2 in my opinion. Yippie!

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.