When Saturday rolls around I know it’s my time to reflect back on the week which gives me a moment to check in and see how we’re doing in terms of our goals for the month. So far, so good.
Home Prices
Not a big shock to read on Yahoo this morning about Canadian home prices and how they are far too high. It’s no surprise and I’m betting there will be a correction to the market, the question is when. Royal Bank has already announced they will be raising their interest rates from one-tenth to two-tenths of a point depending on the mortgage come Monday according to the Yahoo post affecting mainly the 5 year closed mortgage term.
That house I told you about last week in my post one house, one home, two mortgages and a pool, well it sold. It sold only after they reduced the price further this past week. To be honest I still believe it was overpriced and I hope the new owners have no plans to move any time soon. Good for the sellers, I’m sure they are relieved after 2 price drops that the home sold. They did lose money though having had to pay 2 mortgages but that was the risk they were willing to take for their dream home.
This is just another reason we didn’t bother changing the value of our home in our Net Worth Update as we don’t want to overstep the pricing. When the correction sets in we don’t want to have a huge drop in our net worth so keeping it real is the smarter way to go for us.
In-Car Espresso Maker
Look out Starbucks you have competition and it’s getting away on you faster than drive-thru can brew, pour and stir. Costing a mere $199 the in-car espresso machine is being marketed to those who want their coffee fix on the go. No distractions in the vehicle when driving but another potential distraction because someone has created an in-car espresso maker. I can just see the next law, fine for brewing espresso $100 while driving.
That’s right you can brew an espresso on the go but brewing and driving is highly NOT recommended even by the manufacturer. Like that will stop some morons who think they can do it all and drive at the same time. The manufacturer suggests pulling over to enjoy the scenic view while plugging in your cup holder espresso machine to make a quick brew. The more I read this article the more I couldn’t stop laughing.. reminds me of the sham-wow commercials.
We wonder if there’s an attachment for a tire valve stem because the compressor sounded beefy enough to fill a truck tire, and definitely loud enough to make us take a few cautious steps back when we used it for the first time.
Do we really need this stuff? With the coffee industry so huge someone was bound to make convenience even smarter than waiting in line at popular coffee shops across the land for their java fix.
The review on Yahoo said that the product tasted “legit” which I don’t doubt, but what I do wonder is who is that crazy for espresso that they need to have an in-car espresso maker? They even talk about bringing it camping that way you can posh up the outdoor forest party. It almost seems as silly as the $6400 toilet but someone is keeping these companies in business. Where there is money to made they will sell.
Check it out for yourself… would you buy an in-car espresso machine?
Gardening and Landscaping
I finally finished the front walkway which I even impressed myself with considering all the cuts I had to make. All I need to do now is seal the steps and I’m done with that. I didn’t end up renting a machine rather buying a diamond disc to cut my paving stones which cost me $29.99 and it cut like a charm saving me rental charges on a cutter from Home Depot. I believe the price was something crazy like $59.99 for 4 hours. I like to take my time to make sure everything is perfect as I hate it when things are done half a$$ed so I do it right even it if takes me more time.
Scanning Code of Practice
I even managed to get a bucket of polymeric sand at the Home Depot using the scanning code of practice because they failed to change the price in the system. Funny thing is that I wasn’t the one that noticed it was the wife and I think she wanted to do the happy dance. Any time we can save money either through SCOP or Product Price Adjustments it savings back in our own pocket do it pays to be aware of prices being scanned. It also helps the stores quality control on pricing so they can make changes if procedures aren’t working as expected.
So I saved myself over on the polymeric sand which was great for the landscaping budget especially since we knew we had more plants to purchase. I’m looking forward to seeing what the overall cost of the entire project is and how well we stuck to our budget. From start to finish it took me two days of work to get the walkway prepped and laid which I thought were pretty good considering it was my first time doing it.
We also went to the garden centre, a couple of times this past week trying to decide on plants that we though would make the garden stand out. We didn’t want any flowers that we needed to take care of so we opted for easy care plants. I talked to Katrina our own Canadian Budget Binder landscaping expert about some ideas and she mentioned the Heuchera plant which is a perennial and grows about 23-36 inches tall and 6-30 inches wide. One I looked it up online I thought it would fit in perfect for what we wanted. I wasn’t sure if I was going to find it but I did at Canadian Tire Garden Centre on sale for $7.99 which I thought was a great price.
I’ve also got the elephant’s ear hosta planted and it does look sharp amongst other various kinds of Hostas that I split and planted with it. I’m far from done the landscaping but I’m hoping to have a good chunk of it done by the end of next week. The garden is growing like mad right now and even the mint is on fire but anyone who can kill mint shouldn’t garden because it’s near impossible to kill as it spreads like wild-fire.
I don’t keep it in the ground for that purpose, rather in a pot. The basil is coming around now so hopefully we can get a huge crop like we did last year so we can make basil cubes again. Other than that our Swiss Chard is doing well as is the chives and mixed lettuce. The peppers and tomatoes were just planted so they will take a while to get going although they were started from seed indoors.
Family popped around to drop off some organic garlic and some asparagus that were picked fresh. I managed to whip up a breakfast which I call a Crustless Potato Asparagus Quiché and can’t wait to share the recipe with all of you some time at the end of June or early July. I’m thinking I might do a double recipe for Father’s Day, I’m not sure yet.
Yes that’s the photo below and it’s perfect for a breakfast, brunch or snack. I’ll be posting this recipe in a few weeks time. So make sure you are subscribed to the blog so you don’t miss this super easy Quiche recipe.
Canadian Budget Binder’s Weekly Blog Posts
If you are a regular reader you would have already received these awesome posts in your email but just in case you missed reading one I’ve put them all together here just for you.
- PF Weekly Reading Line-Up #23 Grab A Brew: Listening, Learning, Building, Sharing Equals Growth
- Summer Jobs For Students: Tips For Finding The Perfect Job
- May 2013 Net Worth Update : Up and Down The Ladder (+1.77%)
- Bust Our Budget May 2013 #5: Summer Expenses
- The Grocery Game Challenge #1 June 3-9, 2013 : Organic Food Costs
- 5 Ingredients Simple Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Garage Sale Finds
For the summer I will feature garage sale finds from Jen and the fans. Since Jen has started budgeting and saving money she tends to find her best deals at garage sales. Join in the fun! I’ll pick one fan each week along with Jen’s finds if you send in your photo and write-up no later than noon on Saturdays. If I don’t get any submissions I’ll just skip the post for that week.
Jen’s Garage Sale Finds
Outdoor motion sensor lantern $5.00 (they were asking $15), Child’s Cars umbrella, 2 x sanding blocks and 2 x sanding sponges $2 for all (they were asking $3.50). The light is brand new, still wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam.
What do you think bargain or bust for Jen this week?
Making A Difference
If you are a personal finance blogger making a difference and would like to get featured please email me today. I can’t promise I will feature every site as it runs only once per week but you can’t get featured if you don’t share your site. So now I’ll hand it over to the star of today’s Making A Difference. A big warm welcome to Pauline from Reach Financial Independence.
Take it away Pauline……
Hi! My name is Pauline and I blog over at Reach Financial Independence. For those of you who are not familiar with that concept, financial independence is the point where all your passive income, for example rent from properties you own, dividends from the stock market, and other income streams from investments give you enough money to cover your living expenses.
At this point, you can choose to live the life you really want, because you do not need your salary to live on. You can quit your job, start freelancing or work for less money in a field you are passionate about, volunteer your time, or simply sit on the beach and sip cocktails. The later gets boring after a while, which is why most people who are financially independent still have some kind of activity.
I managed to leave the corporate world at 29 and at the moment, I am living in Guatemala where I am fixing up a house that I am hoping to turn into a guest house some day and developing 90 acres of land into a residential community. Like my blog, those endeavours are more like hobbies, and I do not need them to make a living.
Reach Financial Independence is about building wealth, achieving your goals and living life on your own terms. We all have a different definition of our dream life, thank goodness, otherwise life would be pretty dull, and I think we can all achieve it with savings, hard work and determination. I hope with this site to help readers dream big and get there.
Who’s Talking Canadian Budget Binder
I really appreciate when other blogs take time to recognize my hard work here at Canadian Budget Binder and share it with their fans. My way of saying thanks is sharing you with my fans so a big round of applause for some amazing blogs and websites that shared us with their community of fans. Thank-You!
- Freedom Thirty Five Blog
- Coupon Christine
- Tales and Trenches
- My Financial Road
- Money Rebound
- Money Bulldog
- My Own Advisor
- Two Hot Coffees
- Fearless Men
- Reach Financial Independence
- Edward Antrobus
- Eyes On The Dollar
- IHeart Budgets
- Fixemupandrentemout
Carnival Glory
- Yakeezie Carnival
- Reach Financial Independence
- Carnival Of Retirement
- Finance Carnival For Young Adults
- Carnival of Money Pros
- Lifestyle Carnival
Google Search terms really help me to understand what people are looking for at Canadian Budget Binder! Any typos below are simply how the person who searched Google and typed it in search incorrectly, or me 
Another week of thousands of search terms but only a few good ones worth mentioning.
Top Pick: Man always after Money: Shhh… so are some women… it goes both ways!
- Why should I take care of my eyes?- Oh I don’t know.. do you like the dark? Eyes like teeth and other parts of your body should be cared for and not taken for granted.
- Does Value Village Wash Clothes- No, otherwise they would have to have even higher prices than they already have on their USED products. Anyone else notice the crazy prices on some items in Value Village lately?
- Costume Jewellery in Canada worth money- I had no idea it would even be worth anything but what do I know
- Mr. Guy Lasagna recipe- hmmm no Mr.Guy here just Mr.CBB and here’s my crock-pot lasagna, it’s probably better anyways.
That’s all for this weeks edition of the Saturday Weekend Review, join me here next Saturday for the hottest blog posts on CBB and more! Have a great week.
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- I Can Buy It, But Can I Afford It (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- The Saturday Weekly Review #17- All Mouth And No Trousers! (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- The Saturday Weekend Review #18- Is It 24 Hr Lasting Perfection or Lasting Perfection “Style” ? (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- The Saturday Weekly Review #21- End of May And A Dog and Garden Update (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- The Saturday Weekend Review #19- Mothering Sunday Is Mother’s Day! (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
