Last weekend BF and I went to the PNE. The Pacific National Exhibition is this fair in Vancouver that runs for two weeks every year at the end of August. This year is the 100th anniversary celebration, so I suppose the line ups were extra long, but the cotton candy, candy apples, mini-donuts was extra delicious.  They even had the Beach Boys, Kevin Costner, and Bryan Adams  playing at the PNE this year.

I used a promo code (yes, I heart promo codes) I found online and saved us $5 each for admission (usually $20- prices have gone way up!), though if we got our butts together and left early in the morning, there was free admission from 9-12pm. But alas, that didn’t happen.  We decided against spending the extra cash to go on the rides this year- the extra long line ups aren’t worth it, IMO.

We checked out a pig race, some cows, a marketplace (which ended up being every infomercial you can imagine- but LIVE), and the carnival games.  Oh the carnival games.  They are so so good at suckering you in to plunk your money down and try again to no avail.  BF was so intent on winning something with the basketball hoop game and he tried a few times with no luck.  Then I stumbled on this post by John Chow.  Guess we weren’t the only ones who thought that game was ridiculously impossible.

Carnival games are like casinos, but instead of money, you get an ugly stuffed animal that you would likely never use.  They get them young.  Now I realize how much money I spent when I was a kid, trying so desperately to get those prizes.  I suppose there are some very good lessons parents can teach their children whilst letting them gamble at the carnival games.  Like: know your limit, stay within it.

PF Blog Love:

• Invest It Wisely gives a few tips on healthy living, eating, and exercise
• Boomer and Echo has 10 tips on saving money on auto insurance
• Tiny Potato has great tips on what NOT to do when opening a discount brokerage
• The Passive Income Earner asks what is a real estate bubble and how is it defined?
• Financial Samurai talks about how small business owners are encouraged to sack their employees before tax hikes
• Bucksome Boomer wonders whether we should be eating our eggs, given all the contamination scare
• Money Reasons shares with us how he supports his local community
• Monevator asks whether you consider yourself richer than  your kids, or poorer than your grandchildren
• My Journey to Millions asks whether Gen Y’ers follow stereotypes (I think we do)
• Canadian Finance Blog talks about my dream- retiring abroad

Readers, did you ever get suckered into playing the carnival games? Did you ever win something really good?

Quick and short post:

The winner of the 2010 Miss Universe pageant is…

Oh sorry, I meant to say, the winner of the youngandthrifty Book Giveaway of Your Money Ratios (hardback cover by the way- more bang for your buck), is…

Little House!
There were 12 entries, and random.org generated #7, which happened to be Little House in my spreadsheet.

Congratulations!

I’ll be sending the book over today, once I get your address =)

Thanks to everyone for entering!

PS The heatwave here in Vancouver is friggin’ amaaaazing!  Taking advantage of the extremely good weather, but have a feeling I won’t be able to sleep these next few days due to the heat.  Hear that it’s 10x hotter out East.  Are y’all sleeping alright without the AC on?

Hope everyone’s having a great weekend so far.  It’s beautifully sunny here in Vancouver and I can’t wait to get outside to enjoy some of that rare sunshine.

I finally got my act together and signed up for a self-directed RRSP Questrade account.  I’m transferring over the BMO investorline RRSP account to Questrade.  I found that I was hesitant to rebalance my portfolio in the BMO Investorline account because of the $29 trading commissions.  Also, I was getting sick of paying the $100 yearly administration fee (that the guy neglected to tell me about when I signed up a few years back) that they charge if your portfolio is less than $25,000.  I’m not even allowed to contribute more than $25,000 in RRSPs because of the pension adjustment I get.  I should have done this a long time ago, oh well- hindsight is always 20-20, right?

LOL I might as well change my middle name to Questrade.  I now have a non-registered margin account, a TFSA account, and an RRSP account with them.  You really can’t beat the $4.95 trades.

And the winner is…

youngandthrifty.ca had a giveaway of the book “Enjoy Your Money; How do Make It, Save It, Invest It, and Give It” by Steve J. Miller. I used random.org and drew the winner of the book giveaway.

And the winner is….Kevin! From Financiallypoor.com. Congrats, Kevin!

Some weekend Links:

• CanadianFinanceBlog examines how frugality can lead to happiness
• DeliverAwayDebt talks about how hiring someone to cut your grass isn’t really worth it (as I hear my neighbours getting their grass mowed)
• FinancialSamurai tries to give some reasons why East Coast living isn’t that bad (sorry, can’t give examples here because I’m a west coast girl!)
• Million Dollar Journey gives some tips on how to attract the best tenants
• The Financial Blogger calculates how you shouldn’t be scared into a fixed mortgage because of media hype
• Couple Money considers whether now is the time to by BP (let’s just say I feel bad for people who were holding BP before this disaster struck! Can you say.. OUCH?)
• MoneySmartsBlog (previously Four Pillars) tells you to Under Promise, Over Deliver
• Money Reasons reveals his Movie Secret Frugal Weapon
• Well Heeled Blog talks about how sushi can be an expensive culinary habit (mmmm me hungry now)

So I went out on the town (just a mixed pub/ dance bar) last night for a girlfriend’s birthday party.  This is probably the first time I’ve been out on the town for a loooong time.  I think I know the reason why I don’t go out partying that much (other than the fact that I feel old compared to the 21-year-old girls wearing next to nothing)…I’m cheap and it’s expensive.

Though going once in a while (I’d say once to a few times a year) is budget-reasonable.  I had fun! =)

Here’s the breakdown of what I spent:

• Cover charge $10
• Coat check $6
• Drinks my friends and I $30 (four drinks, working out to be about $7.50 a drink)
• Tip for the bartender $3
• Taxi ride home $12

Total cost of a night on the town $61.

I used to go out almost every weekend when I was a young-un’ in college.  Now I realize how much money I burned through back then!  Yowza!

Here are some tips to help you make sure you don’t spend more than you want, even under the influence of alcohol.

• Bring only the amount of money you budgeted for your night out.  No more (because it will go “poof!”.  Trust me on that one)
• Don’t bring your credit card
• Don’t go out with so many friends (buying rounds for everyone is not easy on the pocket book)
• If you’re a guy, make sure she’s somewhat interested before you buy her a drink (unless you want to be a good samaritan, of course, because even if she isn’t interested, she’ll still accept a drink from you)

Readers, how much do you spend roughly when you go out?  Am I “on par” with the national average in regards to the amount spent on a night out? =)  Is it safe to assume guys will spend more because they are buying drinks for the ladies?

Alright, so onto some link lovage.

• Financial Samurai makes a good point- Only the Poor or Super Rich Say Money Can’t Buy Happiness
• The Financial Blogger gives some great tips on how to fight the rise in interest rates (in Canada) with your portfolio
• Andrew Hallem talks about why beating the market doesn’t add to his confidence
• Deliver Away Debt focuses on the debt snowball
• Little House ponders whether renting is a financially viable option
• Rainy Day Saver talks about marriage and managing finances (very important- everyone around me is getting married left right and centre!)
• Credit Card Daily has this AWESOME personal finance comic going on- check out his latest edition
• Single Guy Money talks about what he would do if he won the lottery

Howdy folks!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. Seeing as I haven’t done any links for a while (trust me, it’s hard to work on your blog when you are overseas in an internet cafe with sketchy internet access!), here are some interesting fellow Yakezie reads if you need to have a small distraction from work =) (Who’s really productive at work, anyway? kidding!).

As some of you may know (if you were following my random tweets on twitter), I was away in Nepal for a few weeks.  It was an amazing trip- Nepal is beautiful!  Next year (2011) is their “Year of Tourism” so if you’ve gotten a visa before, next year you won’t have to pay the visa fee (it costs about USD $100 for a 90 day visa, FYI).

I will promise to add some photos of my trip and any tips on saving money while traveling in that corner of the world once I become less zombie-like from sleep deprivation and time zone changes.

With the recent European crisis, let’s just say I am glad I set some stop losses and preserved some of my gains with my stocks before I left!

• Financial Samurai has a great post on what to do during the bad times (aka markets crashing again)
• Fiscal Fizzle (Wojo) is going on a blog sabbatical until mid August =(  Will miss him, but hope he has a good break- well deserved.
• Early Retirement Extreme also talks about the Latte Factor and kicks is up a notch with the idea of brewing your own coffee.
• Canadian Finance Blog gives us 5 tips for Getting Back on the Credit Card Ladder (if you’ve fallen off with the current economic crunch)
• Money Funk has a fun post on not getting tricked by Infomercials (yes, the “STOP HAIR LOSS” products)
• Money Reasons has a very thought provoking post on how High Personal Integrity can harm you
• Little House talks about how She was Rich Last Sunday until life took over! =(
• Simple Life in France also has a thought provoking post questioning whether Technology and Entertainment is making us Unhappy
• Rainy Day Saver gives a personal example about the Importance of Health Insurance

Hope you enjoyed those good reads and have a great rest of the week!

Weekend Ramblings

Meant to post yesterday, but because of the power outage that lasted a grand total of 17 hours, I was stuck without internet.. or television.  It felt like camping!  It’s a real eye-opener when you realize that so many things you do depend heavily on electricity.  Had dinner with the family by candlelight at a restaurant because the power died there too!!  It was quite romantic actually, lol!

Then headed over to boyfriend’s place to watch The Hurt Locker (because he, unlike me, had some electricity!)… I understand why this movie beat out Avatar for best director… never had my adrenalin pumping NONSTOP for the entire duration of the movie before.

Glad the power is back on though- and the stormy winds have died down to reveal a beautiful blue sky day!

Back to business…the winner of my FIRST EVER giveaway of the miniature edition of One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch drawn courtesy of Random.org is…..

drum roll please….

you ready?

Evolution of Wealth! Congrats fellow Yakezie PF blogger! (Wow- we Yakezie are seriously DOMINATING!! First WiseBread’s Top 100 and now winning the giveaways!!)

(cool, just realized WiseBread put me on their list! I’m 136, wow! Thank you Yakezie!)

PF Blog Love

Deliver Away Debt is celebrating his 6 month blogivesary by giving away 3 copies of ManvsDebt’s book “Unautomate your Finances”- congrats man on the success you’ve achieved in six short months!

My Journey to Millions has a guest post by The Rat from Ending the Rat Race on: Using Dividend Stocks to get Free Coffee- hmm $75 bucks per month courtesy of Second Cup sounds pretttty darn good.

Punch Debt also celebrating his blogiversary in his post 365 Days of World Domination Happy blogivesary!

Out of Debt Again talks about How Companies try to scam other Companies in Real Life

PF Ninja is hiring Mascots to add to his Kick-Butt team… except it was a good April Fools Joke lol- good one!

Simple Life in France contemplates about her Struggle with Stuff (I think society as a whole has a struggle with buying stuff!!)

Krystal at Work reviews her March 2010 goals =)

Financial Samurai talks about Riding Rocketships to Greater Success- BLASTOFF!!

Mike from Four Pillars has a new site called Blogthority in his analysis of Different Types of Search Engine Visitors- great resource if you’re interested in making some $ from your blog (or at least cover the monthly expenses from blogging!)

Hope everyone is having a wonderfully relaxing long weekend with friends and family… not to mention Easter chocolate!

Weekend Ramblings

Can’t believe it’s Sunday already- the weekend sure is going by fast!

Since the weather has been so great here lately, I was able to walk my dog to the dog park yesterday instead of taking the car as I would usually do.  It took about 45 minutes to walk there, and another 45 minutes to walk back.  It was so nice walking through the quaint little neighbourhoods on the first day of spring.  When driving or cycling, you really have a different perspective on what you see compared to walking.  The walk really made me realize that I want to stay here in Vancouver even though it’s so unaffordable.

Yesterday, Mr. youngandthrifty and I had our Valentine’s dinner in lieu (yes, coming a month late!) because we were really busy with trying to partake in all the Vancouver 2010 Olympic festivities.  We went to a fancy steakhouse (I know, I know, not very thrifty) and the dinner total came up to $150 (including tip).  I think that is probably the most expensive dinner that mr. youngandthrifty and I have ever had.  We probably go out for a nice dinner (meaning more than $60 for the total bill) about three times a year, so it was quite the treat.  Usually we don’t order any drinks but we splurged last night AND even ordered an appetizer!  Yes, we are usually quite thrifty!

Just a little contest I wanted to share with y’all.

(more…)

Happy hump day!  Hopefully perusing these links will help you get past the rest of the work week and onto the weekend!

Last week, I briefly rounded up the wonderful Yakezie Challenge members and their associated posts, but didn’t have enough time to add the Yakezie members who were ranked in the top 50,000 of the Alexa rankings.  As promised, I hope to do that this week… don’t want to leave anyone out!  This will probably be the last “regular” volume of my mid-week round up, I might feature some favourite blog posts from Yakezie members instead.  So enjoy my completely non-condensed version (read: took  hours compiling!) while you can!

As you may already know, the Yakezie Challenge was envisioned by our leader Financial Samurai (lol, do we sound like a cult?).  I’ll go by the rankings of the Yakezie Challenge, which is hosted by Ryan on Planting Dollars’ site this week.  The order is from the lowest ranked Yakezie to the highest.

Happy Wednesday!

The 200,000 Club

Girl with the Red Balloon talks about her Debt Snowball: Student Loan Style

Saving Money Today blogs about joining the Yakezie Challenge- welcome!!

Mike at Personal Finance Ninja (hiiiyaaaa!! sorry had to put that one in there) blogs about Life Style Inflation: Why your Savings is Not Growing as Fast as Your Income. Awesome term to describe what we gen-y-ers suffer from- life style inflation!

Beating Broke doesn’t think “Life’s Better Here” and talks about how Innovis Healthcare Stinks.

Rainy Day Saver gives tips about how to Prepare your Finances for Vacation.

One Money Design gives you the how to on Adjusting your Income Tax Withholding Allowances (US taxes)

Bytta at 151 Days Off asks Where Do You Draw Inspiration?

Foreigners Finances gets you to take the Entrepreneur Test- how well do YOU score? Yay! I think I’m a natural entrepreneur (though I certainly don’t feel like it sometimes!)

My Money Minute has joins the 200,000 mile club (no, not the mile high club, get that mind out of the gutter!) because he has done 200,000 clicks on his Nissan! That’s really really impressive.  He must have maintained that car very well!

Stay at Home Mom CFO talks about the things you need to think about when choosing Maternity Coverage

Elle at Couple Money reviews the book Unautomate Your Finances.  Interesting, I myself prefer to automate my finances. =)

The Amateur Financier was featured in MSN Money this week AND shares with us Learning Financial Lessions from Aesop’s Fables

Engineer Your Finances talks about the Financial Lessons Learned from Engineering and how financial literacy and education trumps all!

Downturn Living discusses How Green is Your Sex Life? (yes, you read that right! =P )

Little House in the Valley shares some tips on how to make over a “fixer upper” house and make it your home.

Redeeming Riches gives 10 great money saving tips on how to save $10K, one of my favourites is to pack your lunch.

Single Guy Money talks about how to make money off of Craigslist (great tips! One of my mini goals is to sell unwanted stuff on Craigslist)

Clarifinancial tells us a secret from the Life Insurance Industry… SHHH… Life Insurance Doesn’t last your Whole Life!

CJ Bowker hosts the Yakezie Challenge Carnival (yeahhh!)

Frugalzeitgeist ponders about whether trading your car for a horse will be cheaper. Dang, so many creative PF bloggers out there! LOVE it!  AND he’s good on the computer…he created a widget of recent Yakezie posts.

Money Reasons discusses whether you Can really Trust People Asking for Handouts when they are Dressed Better than You?

Well Heeled asks you How Much Would You Spend on a Mattress? (the picture on her post looks sooo comfy- I want that bed!)

Wealth Pilgrim wants you to make sure that your IRA Beneficiary Gets their Money when You Go.

Evolution of Wealth shares with us the Hidden Gems of Life Insurance Policies

Money Funk fills us in on her new business proposition… hint: it’s a friggin’ great idea!!  PS: congrats on hitting the 200,000 mark!

Punch Debt in the Face also hits the 200,000 mark (yeehaw!) and asks you what hobbies you spend your big buckeroos on

The 100,000 club

Ulitimate Money Blog invites us to be French by practising the same frugal habits… mmm baguette, anyone?

Deliver Away Debt advises you to Do Not Get into Any Debt!

My Journey to Millions shares with us his net worth update

Enemy of Debt talks about his challenge: Manage Your Money Week 2: Teamwork, Accountability, and Kids

Early Retirement Extreme talks about the idea of a Downsizing Party (dang- that’s a good idea.. I need that pronto!)

David @ MBA Briefs tells  us that the Not So Bad News, is Good News

Wojo @  FiscalFizzle pleads for someone to take his money, he just wants that darned space heater!

Monevator asks you to decide whether Cash is King or Cash is Trash in this crazy market.

Suburban Dollar updates us on the Wealthy Bloggers of the PF world for the month of March (see which PF bloggers walk the talk!)

CreditCardChaser talks about Warren Buffets $50 Million GEICO Credit Card Business Loss

20′s Money wonders why Consumer Discretionary Stocks are Soaring

Sweating the Big Stuff interviews Monevator!

Canadian Finance Blog has a guest post on Frugal Getaways: 5 Ways to Treat Yourself with a Frugal Vacation

Planting Dollars interviews Daniel of Sweating the Big Stuff (hey! It’s like an Interview love triangle!!)

Fiscal Geek talks about the Single Most Important Step to mastering your personal finances.

The 50,000 Club

LeanLifeCoach at Eliminate the Muda asks you think think whether you’re Earning a Living or Living an Earning?

Free From Broke asks you to ponder whether it’s Okay to Be Allowed to Copy Children’s DVD’s?

PT Money discusses Easy Money: Some Good and Not So Great Ways to get Money Fast

Budgets Are Sexy graciously compiled a list of the 20 best money websites

Debt Free Adventures tells us how he saved $41,123.16 with just one phone call.‘

And finally, our Yakezie leader is on top!

Financial Samurai talks about the Mental to Physical Connection for a Healthier Lifestyle

Sorry this is non finance related, but just wanted to tell y’all that Friday at work the Olympic torch came by, so couldn’t resist taking a peek at it and seeing what the buzz was all about.

I got to take a picture with the torch too!  Those torch bearers are like instant-celebs! I should have applied to be a torch bearer in hindsight- it would’ve been fun to wear that snazzy outfit.
There was a huge crowd and I couldn’t help but get swept up in the excitement.  There was drumming, everyone was smiling, and cheering.. it was great! It made me feel like such a proud Canadian- not just wearing that Canadian flag on my backpack when I travel lol!  Seeing this level of patriotism for Canada is so great- I get kind of teary-eyed thinking about it!

Here are some pictures:

If you’re reading this through Monevator’s post on Can Money Buy Freedom, welcome!  If you like what you’re reading, please consider subscribing through RSS

The other day, I brought my dog in for his annual wellness check. In my Petcare QuickCare Optimum Plan, I’m allowed to claim $150 a year on wellness claims (anything routine). Since there’s no deductible and I’m basically paying into this every month, the youngandthrifty inside me always wants to make sure I use up the $150 allotted per year. Or else I feel like I’m getting ripped off.

The vet wanted to test for mange (yeah, I know! crazy huh?) and to further assess his allergies (I have the most fragile dog on the planet, I think- he’s already on a raw food diet and he’s still itchy and allergic!). She did a skin scraping for mange, did a patch test for yeast, gave him some shampoo and mange medication.. and the total bill came to $270. The general exam came up to $110 alone (yeah, this Vet’s expensive, but she’s good).

I am hoping that the general check up for $110 would be included in the $150 wellness allowance, but you never know. It’s up the the pet insurance company.

Sometimes I feel like I’m always at their mercy, like they can deny my claim anytime for any ridiculous reason. (Last time I submitted a claim for a $150 check with a different Vet, they denied it because they said they haven’t seen a general exam cost that much before, and they wanted a break down of the cost).  The insurance companies really go through the claims with a fine-tooth comb.

It feels like I have asked someone out on a date, and am waiting for them to get back to me… not really a fun feeling.  Kind of like you’re anticipating R-E-J-E-C-T-I-O-N.

At the same time, I worry that they will accept too many of my claims and then raise the monthly fee next year. You never know. I guess that’s why pet insurance companies may not be worth it in the long run…It really depends on the company and whether they will “penalize” you for making claims.

Do you use pet insurance? Any stories you care to share on your experiences with Pet Insurance companies?