Sometimes being disloyal can be a good thing The other day a frugal blogger friend of mine asked the question: “How many stores do you shop at for food?” I had to think about it for a second, before I answered “eight” — which is actually on the low side for me. Just as there is no shortage of good restaurants to eat at in Vancouver, there are also tons of places to buy groceries. From organic and discount chain stores that span city blocks or more, to corner ethnic grocery stores, Vancouver has ...
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How to Add Family Heirlooms and Antiques to your Décor
It's the time of year when you're likely going to have more of your family around for the upcoming holidays. If you're anything like me, you have certain things that were given to you by family members, perhaps passed down to you. ...
Staying Fit on the Road: Keeping Fit and Healthy While Travelling
Travel tends to throw some people out of whack. Maybe it’s because you can’t follow your normal daily routine while you’re on the road. Or maybe it’s just too easy to be seduced into blowing off your diet and exercise routine until you’re back among familiar surroundings. Learn how to stay healthy when travelling. In either case, travelling can be disorienting and stressful, and it’s very tempting to put that part of your life on hold until it’s all over and you’re left with no more excuses for ...
Winter Car Prep Checklist
It hasn't really hit us here in Vancouver, yet—but I know that much of the country and the USA have been seeing signs of winter for a month or more already. If you regularly drive, you'll not want to delay in getting your vehicle up to snuff winter-wise. Last year, I shared a post about winterizing a car. There were quite a few things that needed to be done then, living in Calgary, which I am sharing again below: ...
Why Spring Cleaning Is Actually Good For You
You may have already begun your spring cleaning efforts for this year. With the right toolkit of spring cleaning products, you can slowly begin to dust away the winter blues in preparation for the summer months in Vancouver. However, sometimes it can be hard to stay motivated while spring cleaning, even though it has a range of benefits for both your personal wellness and home environment. If you do spring cleaning right, you’ll engage in some serious scrubbing, polishing, reorganizing and ...
5 Key Ways to Get your Ideas off the Ground
You've got the ideas. Now make 'em happen. If you're like me, you have no shortage of ideas floating around in your head. How many of those ideas do you actually end up acting on/making happen? Maybe it's shiny object syndrome, or. . ."squirrel!" Whatever it is, it's time now to start moving forward on some of your ideas. Here are five key ways to get your ideas off the ground: 1. Write down all your ideas To clear up some mental space, write down all your ideas on one big list. If you have lots ...
How to Leave Room in your Travel Plans for Spontaneity
Even booked tours leave a little room for taking in other sites, or doing whatever you want. Yet, when I come across people who plan out every single thing they're doing, they seem overwhelmed, exhausted, and generally seem like they're not having any fun. Now, on the opposite end of the spectrum, I've been on trips where I had to walk for 2 hours just to get to the place we wanted to for lunch. That just doesn't seem like a good idea! That kind of thing left me really hungry/cranky, feeling ...
3 Things I’m Doing to Get Debt-Free
I'm sure you've heard the statistics about the amount of consumer debt the average North American family has, right? In Canada, for every dollar of disposable income that Canadian households have, they owe more than $1.70 in debt. Whenever I hear the issue of money come up among my friends and co-workers, it is always to say that they don't have enough of it. They complain about their credit card bills and talk about how high their mortgage is. To be clear and upfront with you, I currently ...
3 Tools I use to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs
It can be lonely working for yourself. In an office environment, there are many other people around to bounce ideas off of, have lunch with, and chat with around the coffee machine. But, when I am working from home and get into a groove, it can be an entire day (or two) before I connect with other people. Outside of working in a co-working space (where there are desks and other office supplies set up so that people can come in and work - similar to what they'd do in an office at a regular job), ...
How To Stay Safe While Traveling Around The World
Safety is a crucial topic that should not be separated from traveling. While we travel because we want to enjoy and experience new things, will it still be pleasurable for you if you got mugged, are in a hospital bed, or worse, at a police station? Whether we like it or not, accidents can happen anytime and every country has its fair share of crimes, so the importance of safety while traveling can’t be stressed more than this. If you’re planning to embark on an around-the-world adventure, ...