116 Days

Last modified on September 28th, 2013

I was thinking a few things through yesterday, and came up with a slightly different plan. My last plan was to give my apartment up at the end of December, and then take off in the first few days of January. I’m happy with the January departure date, but not so happy that Christmas would probably involve lots of box packing and moving.

So I came up with a plan B.

I think I’m going to give my apartment up for the end of November, and be totally homeless at that point. I already asked my dad if it’s ok if I use their upstairs bedroom off and on in December, which they said it was. Plus, I’m sure I’ll be doing lots of last minute visiting around town and in Vancouver before I leave, so I’ll probably be bouncing between couches during that time. By leaving early, I’m saving myself a month’s worth of rent and expenses, which will help pay for some of my trip.

Truthfully, if Christmas wasn’t coming up, I’d probably be thinking about leaving shortly, but I want to be around here for the holidays and don’t really feel like paying $1,500 just to come back for a week. Right now I kind of feel like I’m just killing time until I leave.

Which is why I like plan B, since it means I’m out of my apartment in less than three months, and gives me some stuff to start working on at home. Plus, it’ll be fun to hang out with some family in December, and possibly visit some friends in Vancouver off and on during that time. I have lots of shopping to do in Vancouver, namely a new backpack and some electronics, so that’ll be fun in December.

So, I think that’s the modified plan. I’m starting to look into health insurance now. If anyone has any ideas there, let me know. It seems like most travel health insurance plans are only good for a few weeks of travel. There are a few global travel insurance plans, but I don’t know too much about them.

11 responses to “116 Days”

  1. But where will you set up the Christmas tree for December? (I have important concerns, here…)

  2. Duane Storey says:

    I’ve actually thought about that! Hopefully I can bask in the love of other Christmas trees.

  3. Alex Curylo says:

    TD has a six month plan.

    http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/tdinsurance/travel/learningcentre/options.jsp

    If you’re not a TD customer of some sort already, it’s worth signing up for their Travel VISA Infinite card if you like to travel, IMHO. You earn better cashback than any other card, and a whole lot of other goodies like $1 million medical on any 8-day trip.

    http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/PopupPage.jsp?page=/tdvisa/features.jsp#tmi

    If you’re a BCAA member, and if you’re not you should be if you drive anywhere — they just saved my butt from an impromptu campout in the Middle Of Fucking Nowhere, Cape Breton, when I managed to blow two tires simultaneously late on a Friday night — then they have travel medical insurance too.

    http://www.fuzeqna.com/bcaasupport/consumer/kbdetail.asp?kbid=58&p=t

    Just checked a quote, and $5 million medical plus all the other “Deluxe Travel Package” interruption/baggage/etc. bits on a six month trip starting January 1 was just over $300. Seems like a fine deal to me. Interestingly, it also had a ‘Membership Discount’ applied, so apparently contrary to what I said above you don’t need to be a member to buy this.

    No doubt you can find cheaper packages by shopping around the net, but I would STRONGLY recommend buying from someone BC based so you can have decent confidence that they know how to deal with the provincial health authorities properly to organize getting you airlifted to a hospital back home and so forth if needed.

  4. Duane Storey says:

    I’ll check out the TD travel plan, thanks.

    I guess my one concern was all those plans cover emergencies and not normal visits to a doctor. What do you do in those cases, just pay over the counter?

    I have the TD Infinite Visa already, and do all my business banking with TD. It’s not bad, but at $120/year it’s a bit steep. But one of the nice things is that it does cover basic travel and have extra insurance, plus points. But I’ve thought about ditching it for a Cash Back card for a while now.

    I’m also a BCAA member, so I should check with them for travel insurance too I guess.

  5. I’ve been using BCAA for my travel insurance, it’s also a bit pricey, but most of the 6 month options between the different companies are relatively competitive with each other so you probably won’t find a big difference between TD and BCAA, for example.

    Also, if you’re planning on doing any sports like scuba diving, there’s usually a different option you need to get that you may have to ask someone about.

  6. Alex Curylo says:

    “What do you do in those cases, just pay over the counter?”

    Trolls don’t need doctors 🙂

    “I have the TD Infinite Visa already, and do all my business banking with TD. It’s not bad, but at $120/year it’s a bit steep.”

    Step 1: Open a Select Service personal account. Your TD Infinite VISA is free.

    Step 2: Keep $5000 in it. Your account is free.

    Step 3: There is no step 3.

    “I’m also a BCAA member”

    Then I’d imagine check out those two options and you probably really don’t need to bother searching any more exhaustively.

  7. Alex Curylo says:

    “But I’ve thought about ditching it for a Cash Back card for a while now.”

    Before you do that, check the terms carefully. Almost all cashback cards have a cap on how much you can earn that isn’t too hard to run into, and unless they’ve changed things since I signed up there’s no cap at all on the TD card.

    MBNA did just convince me — it arrived yesterday, actually — to sign up for their new SmartCash card instead of the BCAA MBNA card which I haven’t used for multiple years, which looks rather better terms than the general run of cashback cards. Not that I have any real intention of using it instead of the TD Infinite card either, but hey it was free so what the hell.

    https://wwwa.applyonlinenow.com/CACCapp/Ctl/entry?sc=CJB8&lc=en_CA

  8. Duane Storey says:

    “Step 2: Keep $5000 in it. Your account is free.”

    Interesting how you think leaving $5,000 in a non interest bearing account is free 🙂 Even a conservative estimate of inflation at 3% would mean you’re losing $150 a year to pay for a card worth $120.

    Thanks for the insurance ideas. I’ll probably go with BCAA when the time comes.

  9. Alex Curylo says:

    “Interesting how you think leaving $5,000 in a non interest bearing account is free”

    No, I think having $5K in cash available within five minutes (assuming bank is open) is a good idea. Even money market funds may not clear for 48 hours.

    ” you’re losing $150 a year to pay for a card worth $120.”

    You’re forgetting that tricked out chequing account costs $24.95 a month.

    $120 + (12 * $24.95) = $419.40. Plus HST these days no doubt, making it $469.73.

    Yeah, that strikes me as a reasonable tradeoff.

  10. Duane Storey says:

    Oh, I’m not advocating paying the $24/month. I do all my main banking through PC Financial, which offers interest on all their accounts without any monthly fees.

  11. Duane Storey says:

    But yes, if someone were to want to leave $5k lying around, then I can see putting it into an account to get a free VISA card would be a good idea.

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