• What You Need to Know About DLNA for Streaming Media

    What You’ll Need DLNA® certified wireless router. I use and recommend the ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router; DLNA certified streaming player. I use the Roku 3 and Google Chromecast; and Media player software (channel or app). I’m back. It’s been many months since my last post, and for this I apologize. I work in…

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  • Why Buying a Used Car Is a Smarter Choice

    Every frugal shopper knows that to buy an automobile is to buy a rapidly depreciating asset. Your car becomes less valuable with every kilometre you put on it, every little scratch and bump it receives, and every year it ages. Your only strategic upside is that depreciation is heaviest the moment you drive your baby…

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  • A Review of the Pebble Smartwatch and Its Features

    Underground Woman’s Review I love my Pebble. Admittedly, I am a watch fanatic. I have a wide variety of watches, ranging from the very basic black Timex to the more stylish Swatch (yes, multiples of those), through to the inherited, classy ladies’ Bulova. I also adore my smartphone. Where I was once entirely disinterested in…

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  • The Challenges of a Superficial Bathroom Renovation with Smart Rod

    The underground man and I are slowly working our way through what I am calling a “superficial bathroom renovation.” I’m calling it superficial because although the man in my life is dying to rip out the tub, tiles and vanity and begin anew with the space, we can’t. We can’t because it is the sole…

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  • Is National Home Services a Scam or Legitimate?

    The latest door-to-door salesperson to visit our home was from a company called National Home Services (NHS). National Homes Services’ approach was a bit different from New Home Comfort (NHC) and Ontario Energy Group (OEG), two organizations who have repeatedly misrepresented themselves to us and others as provincial home energy inspection agents. So was this…

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  • When It’s Time to Shop for a New Mortgage

    It’s closing in on five years now since the Underground Man and I moved into our home. Which means the five-year term mortgage we took out at the time is coming up for renewal. This makes it time for mortgage shopping. Which, in my case, means that it’s time to reach out to my favourite…

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  • Building Your Own Do-It-Yourself Managed Investment Portfolio

    In my blog post It’s RRSP season and managed portfolio traps abound, I said that in a future post, I would explain how to do your own breakdown of a recommended portfolio and build your own DIY portfolio of individual mutual funds that are even less expensive than a balanced index fund. This is that…

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  • Essential Tips for Frugal Grocery Shopping

    Anyone who’s interested in this topic will likely already know the basic strategies of planning your meals based on the grocery store flyers. There is also, of course, the classic trick of shopping around the edges of the grocery store, which is where you will find what should ideally make up the core of your…

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  • Confessions of a Torrenter After Cutting Cable

    Two years ago last week, Underground Woman and I cut the cable for good. We had been paying Rogers a little over $200 per month for a mealy Internet plan, basic cable, and a Movie Network add-on we rarely watched for the ever more appalling quality of its titles. (I don’t think it’s any coincidence…

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  • Exposing the Truth Behind New Home Comfort Sales Tactics

    If you read our door-to-door scam artists article, you are undoubtedly aware that we received and wrote about an unsolicited visit from an Ottawa-based, door-to-door residential “heating and cooling” sales company called New Home Comfort. This was just one of many similar, eponymously named outfits that we’ve heard from over the years. We used New…

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