About Me

Saturday, October 15, 2011

GST cheque came woo! Into savings!

I have two more days to work at the restaurant before it shuts down for the season. Kind of indifferent about this. I'm glad to not have to go there anymore, but it was a good source of income this summer, I really liked some of the people I worked with too.

I saw an ad in the paper yesterday for a restaurant I was thinking about applying to looking for experienced servers to work full-time. I don't know if I can do full-time with teaching but I can do evenings and weekends and the occasional day I'm not teaching. I think I'll at least apply this week.

I've been looking up the cost to install a kitchen island permanently. Just thoughts on how much it would cost. I would like to do it for my parents but can't figure out an estimate. Any ideas? They currently have a moveable island with no cabinets. I would like for them to attach it, have one WITH cabinet storage, and then get a new countertop to connect it to the other counters. Probably thousands of dollars, but I thought I would at least check it out.

I've been thinking about Christmas ideas a lot lately. I want to get my parents something good for putting up with me, letting me live with them. I was thinking either the kitchen idea, or help pay their seasonal campground fee, or put up drywall and paint in the basement. I don't know, something useful/helpful to them though, not just a tangible gift item. I'm thinking up to $1000 though.

I think I want to get D a pass to this place in Montreal. Maybe I will buy the pass, it's to a wind tunnel that feels like you are skydiving, and then a hotel stay there. It would be a good weekend roadtrip. He has mentioned that he has wanted to do it on a few occasions. For my brothers and friends, I have no idea! 2 more months to decide still though.

D doesn't want to sign a year lease. Do you think I could ASK the lady to pay extra if we didn't have to sign a year long lease? I really like this place but cannot afford it on my own. Does it hurt to ask, or is she going to look down on us afterward and think we are probably irresponsible if we can't do a year lease. I may want to live here even without D and don't want to hurt my chances of her accepting my application at a later date.

3 comments:

  1. Didn't know you wanted to live there that much. My advice is to talk to D again and then talk to the lady and explain yourself. Best case scenario is that she understands and accepts your offer and worst case is that she looks down on you and if that happens they are other places that you will like.

    It does't hurt to ask. If you don't you will never know.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The landlady might appreciate you openly communicating with her. Don't make it seem like a plea; just lay out the facts without too much detail and say that you're well-aware of your expenses but want to err on the side of caution, then see what she thinks.

    As for gifts, you could try buying Groupons. I did this last year - coupons for restaurants, trapeze lessons, boat rides and even pottery lessons for my 60-year-old aunt (who loved it) and my mom - at reasonable costs. No one was insulted that I bought a coupon but were excited to have experiential gifts that they enjoyed but would have never thought of doing on their own.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You can always ask! Especially if it is just a lady's apartment and not a 'business type' apartment building where a business owns the building and isn't as flexible. She might agree, especially if it is a basement apartment.

    As a landlord of a house, I wouldn't take anything but a year-long lease because it is a stand-alone house and we have to pay a certain amount into taxes, water, hydro, etc. But when we rented a room in our house....didn't care, it was just extra income :)

    ReplyDelete