Well, it’s been a while since I wrote a Monthly Savings Recap. The truth is other projects totally got my mind and time by assault, and in fact I don’t want to keep repeating the same saving techniques every month. So, unless I come up with something unique, I think there is no sense in recycling tips month in and month out. Or maybe I should just list them just in case you are arriving now? What do you think?
Roomba’s battery
We have a Roomba. We paid $70 for it two years ago, second hand. It’s some of the best $70 we’ve ever spent. But you must guess the battery would go caputz someday, right? Well, this day arrived, and the Roomba was working for as little as 9 minutes with each battery charge.
Although you can find tutorials on how to fix the battery, I decided I don’t have the time neither the appropriate tools to go for this adventure. Sure, it would have saved me dozens of dollars, but not this time. We have to choose carefully the battles we fight ;)
Long history short, the original Roomba battery runs for US$69.99 (basically CAD85 today). I’ve found a generic one (very well recommended by Amazon customers, of course) for CAD37.97. You can find it here 14.4v 3500mAh NiMh Battery for iRobot Roomba 500 510 530 535 540 550 560 570 580
Savings: $47.03 (not computing shipping and possible import taxes).
Ms. Dan’s gifts
May is Ms. Dan’s birthday. I keep a secret list of possible gifts I can get her, and then I can plan in advance. Smart guy, eh? This year, however, a Groupon event got my attention, so she got a mini helicopter training session. Without too much detail (we are not supposed to reveal each other how much we spend in gifts), the Groupon thing saved me $150 upfront.
However, I had to get a Communauto to get us there (Mirabel’s airport), that I’ll estimate at around $70 (I ll just know for sure two months from now, because Communauto is super terrible). Besides, I had to pay the taxes ($25) and my ticket to get into the helicopter with her ($53) to witness my amazing wife piloting a real helicopter (I wouldn’t miss it, right?)
I’ll consider here that all this costs were supposed to happen anyway, so I’ll not add them to the savings this time.
Savings: $150
Ms. Dan’s gifts II
These were unexpected savings. I got Ms. Dan something from La Senza. I bought her gift one Wednesday, and then the next Friday we were walking by the shopping centre when I saw that La Senza was having a 40% sale on everything in store!
The following day I packed her gift and headed to the store where I bought it. I explained what happened to the girl and she kindly asked me “Do you want to get the difference back?”, at what I promptly answered “Yes, please, if it’s possible”. At first she didn’t believe the amount and checked it twice! Ms. Dan was with me and then I made her another surprise and gave her a store credit (the difference I received back) to spend that day on whatever she wanted. Everybody was happy that day! :)
Savings: $40
‘Wealthing Like Rabbits’ book
Well, I should probably not post it here as a saving, but the true is that I won the book in a Twitter sweepstake, from the amazing Chantal Marr of LSM Insurance. How cool is that? Thank you very much, Chantall!
You can buy the book here: Wealthing Like Rabbits: An Original Introduction to Personal Finance
Savings: $16.95
Total savings for May and June:
$253.98
Not bad, eh? Now I’ll just toss this money into my savings account, since it’s saved anyway. This is the main purpose of all this “save it until you make it” thing. It would be just stupid to spend all this time and energy to save this money and then spend it elsewhere in a impulse purchase or something like this.
If you read this, would you please make my day and leave a comment saying on what and how did you save some money this month?
Photo courtesy of Erik Araújo
