Price matching

When we need something, we always look for a good deal.  This time around, we needed a new washing machine.

In order to get one, we waited and waited for a deal to come up - it sure did.  We google searched for them on www.redflagdeals.com and noticed that someone had pricematched them at a department store.  We ended up doing the same thing and purchased the set for cheaper than any price that has been advertised in the past two years (even lower than boxing day).

How?  The store we bought at was the most expensive; however, they had a price match + 10% of the difference.  The difference was huge, so it worked out in our favor!

Score one for the Frugalistas!

Going ballistic on the mortgage

If you know us, we are not fans of consumer debt (credit cards, lines of credit, etc).  We buy everything with cash that we've saved and never tap into credit.

While the mortgage rates were low, we were trying to break the mortgage and found out that we would have to pay hefty penalties to do so.  No matter how we tried, the bank wouldn't allow us to do it.

We have no idea what the credit/interest rate environment will be come summer of 2013 when we renew.  Will rates be at their historical lows again?  Will rates be in the double-digits to quell inflation or a currency crisis?

We certainly have no idea, but one thing is certain - we control how much debt we have left at renewal time, and we want that number to be as small as possible, no matter where rates stand.

So, we've decided to go ballistic on the mortgage.  We're going through our finances again and with a little voluntary austerity at our household, everything that we save will go into the mortgage.  At our current pace, we have 6 years left on the mortgage, but with a little austerity, we might be able to shave another 3 years off and pay it off before we renew.   That would be a dream come true.

We'll post updates from time to time!  Hopefully, this can be done!  After we're done we can have a mortgage-burning party!

Unbelievable...

...and we thought we were frugal!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/work/extreme-frugality-can-you-outcheap-em-all/article1555518/

More frugal posts to come.