What’s better than Facebook, Twitter and Skype?

“Better” is a relative term, depending on your feature preferences and priorities.   But the latest and greatest in features that will seriously save you some cash with some serious advantages, surprisingly comes from a small Canadian company.  That company is itiBiti Systems Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Intertainment Media Inc.  In Canada (TSX-V: INT), US (OTC:ITMTF). 

ItiBiti’s first major brand client is NBC, where they have released the first version of the product as the NBC Communicator. 

Not only can you stream tv shows, twit itiBiti style, and connect with people and log in using your Windows Live account and use all of its services from within the integrated itiBiti platform,  you can also make computer to cell phone long distance calls for free.  Yes, free long distance phone calls.   Beat that Skype, Facebook and Twitter. 

Some of the company’s previous news releases have hinted that they’re working on a smart phone application which would really make this system untouchable by the competition.

Planning on skiing or snowboarding this year?

If skiing or snowboarding is a passion for you, and you want to make the most of it this season, read on…

If you’ve never considered a season pass, or are looking to pick one up this year, early Fall is the best possible time of year to get the best “early bird” deals on them!!

This is what you do:

1. Figure out, realistically, how often and when you’d be able to go (and where).   Get a rough number of the amount of trips and write that down.
2. Visit the websites of your local hot ski spots that you are considering and check out the prices for their daily lift ticket.
3. Multiply the price of the daily lift ticket, by the number of days that you realistically believe you could make it out to the slopes.  Write that number down.
4. Go to the Season Pass tickets section of your local ski resort websites and review the options (for example, full 7 day/night pass vs. 5 weekday/7 weeknight pass vs  full evening pass, etc.) and find which you would most efficiently make the most of for the price.  IMPORTANT: “Early bird” pricing for 2010 Season Passes are available now! (Make note of when the price goes up for your choice resort/s).  This is why you’re doing this now!!
5. Compare the $ figure you calculated in step 3. with the favoured passes in step 4.
6. If the numbers are almost the same, you are probably better off holding on to your money an NOT getting a Season Pass.  If you find that you will accrue significant savings aquiring a Season Pass, then there’s your answer.  Now compare driving distances, prices and preferences between resorts before you narrow it down to your winner. 

Buy Nothing Day! November 28th 2009 …

On Saturday November 28, 2009, millions of people will be participating in the 17th annual Buy Nothing Day, which is a fast-growing, successful event/campaign to promote awareness of consumerism and its effects on society, culture and the environment.

It is the perfect opportunity for you to bring to your awareness your own bad consumerist habits that you unconsciously indulge in, such as buying a cup of coffee every morning, fast food lunch every day, or chocolate bars or chips.   Adbusters posted a great article this month titled ‘Nothing To Do But Shop’ which you can read here.

To prepare for Buy Nothing Day (in order to get the most out of it), this is what you do:

1. Print this card and carry it with you in your wallet, in front of your credit card or debit card.
2. Visit this forum to find out about an event (to engage in numerous pranks and shenanigans) near you.
3. Try having a Buy Nothing Day TOMORROW! and document your story by adding a  comment, below.

Traveling home for the holidays?

Okay, heading home for Xmas but can’t afford to do so? Here are a few tricks to help get you home:

By air travel:

• Subscribe to Travelocity.ca FareWatcher and input your round trip info and a reasonable price that you’re willing to pay to get home. Make sure to choose the option for them to email you when a flight becomes available at your selected price or lower.
• When checking websites for prices yourself, check a couple of times daily for several days to become familiar with the price fluctuations that occur throughout the day for your specific chosen flight dates/times. You will find that the best prices are available at around midnight.
• If you’re going “home” you likely won’t need the travel insurance that is always offered as an extra but they try to sneak in with your ticket purchase (read everything on the page).

By bus:

Got car insurance? Get it for cheaper.

Do you know when your car insurance is up for annual renewal?  If not, check the slip that you carry with you with your driver’s license and find the expiry date.  Once you have this date in hand,

This is what you do:

Mark on your calendar, any day about 5-6 weeks prior to your insurance expiry date, title it ‘Research car insurance’ and do this:

• Start asking your friends and family who they’re insured with and if they feel they’re getting a good rate and how their service is ( and who knows, someone you know might also end up having connections).  Write down the names of the companies or brokers and get contact info if available, on a single piece of paper that you carry with you in your wallet or purse (making a list, but leaving room for additional notes after each item).
• Research on the net to complete any missing information on your list (contact #’s, etc.)
• You can also try researching for local reputable auto insurance suppliers in your area and add a few to the list.   
• By now your list should have 5-12 companies on it.  Make sure there is still enough room beside or below each item for additional notes.

Now, mark on your calendar a day about 4 weeks prior to your expiry date, title it ‘Get insurance quotes’ and do this:

• Call your current insurance company, provide them with your Policy number which they will ask for (which is somewhere on your insurance slip) and your current information and inquire about your coverage and what it means.  (You’ll want to confirm whether you have collision coverage, 3rd party liability, and what your deductible is).  Write it all down.

Note: Your deductible, is how much YOU yourself, have to pay out for repairs, before the insurance company will cover the rest. 

• Now, start calling the insurance companies on your list and get quotes based on similar coverage (or a different coverage if you feel that you don’t need as much coverage or can make-do with a higher deductible which equals a lower rate). Make sure to have your Policy number handy.
• Write the quote and the coverage information in the space provided on your list of companies.
• In the end, it should be quite clear as to whether you should stay with your own insurance company, or switch to another one.  It is very likely that by taking all of these steps above, you can treat yourself to a savings of anywhere between $20-$80/month!!

Do you think it’s too much work and not worth your time? Then keep reading: This is to show you that it IS worth your time…

• Finding your insurance slip + writing on your calendar (est. 3-5 minutes)
• Talking to friends and family (labour of love)
• Writing things down on a piece of paper (total est. 3-5 minutes)
• Calling your insurance company to get your details (est. 8-25 minutes)
• Calling a bunch of insurance companies (est. 30-90 minutes)
• Switching insurance companies with paperwork/payment options that are involved (20-45 minutes)

This gives us a worst case scenario of 1.5 to 3 hours of your time, which at a value of, for example $12/hour, is $18-$36 which you can EASILY get back in your first month’s savings alone! 

How do YOU wipe?

I used to be a firm believer in NOT using paper towels until I had two consecutive incidents that changed my mind about this…  Both incidents involved red wine, embarrassed house guests who wanted to clean up their mess before anyone saw it, and clean white towels…

So this is what I have found to be a suitable compromise:

• If you do not already do so, use old tea towels or rags or even cut up pieces of old clothing that are too destroyed to be donated to clean your counter-tops or bathroom, etc.  There’s no need for you to spend money on cleaning cloths (such as J-cloths).
• Take home all random unused napkins from your fast-food/restaurant/cafeteria experiences.  You can also pick up a “so ugly it’s cool now” napkin holder from your neighborhood thrift shop for under $1 if you can’t find a home for your napkins.
• Use these napkins at home for personal use or for cleaning purposes if you don’t have any available clean rags.
• keep your one paper towel roll hidden in a cupboard (from YOU) to be used when you’ve run out of your stash of recovered napkins! If you use half sheets every time, you’re doubling the life of your roll.  Just tear a piece off without tearing the whole sheet off the roll.
• If you are having a get-together that involves food/alcohol, take that roll out where it can easily be spotted in your kitchen.  You don’t have to learn this one the hard way!

It IS possible for 1 roll of paper towels to last you a year.   Not only is this good for the environment, you’ll save money as well!

Note for you clean freaks: Worried about reusing rags? Throw them in with your dirty laundry or zap them while WET in your microwave for 30-40 seconds on High power to disinfect them.