Although this post may seem off-topic, it’s not. Any business savvy, hard working individual knows that saving $250.00 with little effort is worth your time, especially when you’re just starting off in your career.

Two winters ago, some jackass scrapped the side of his white car onto my bumper, leaving a huge scratch looking design on my bumper. Like most of you reading this, I have very little time to fix things myself so I let it go until yesterday. I’m now changing cars and need mine to look at its best to offer it as a trade-in.

I read tones of blogs and wasted allot of my time to find nothing helpful. Having a body shop quote me $250.00 to fix this burden, i figured I had nothing to loose by trying to fix this problem myself. Worst case scenario, I bring my car to the body-shop.

The white paint is melted on, stuck and impossible to scratch off or wash off. I ran into a bottle of GooGone at home, I crackled with insane glee and took it out to the car. I applied a small amount onto a Scott towel and started to scrub. To my surprise, the white paint was staying stuck to the paper towel. No more than ten minutes later, this ugly large white tattoo was removed and my bumper back to normal, well almost. I did have to wash it with water for a couple of minutes and then apply wax to make it look perfect once again!

So for all of those people stuck with the same burden, try it. Worst case, you will have to bring it to the body-shop, but honestly, you might end up like me, $200.00 richer minus the cost of wax and the amazing GooGone bottle.

While I’m on the topic of saving money; every time my car insurance is up for renewal, I always take a half hour to call around and check prices (I really hate getting ripped off). I’m very loyal, but if I can get the same for half getting insured somewhere else, I start asking questions and do some research.

It turns out that I moved last October downtown Montreal and my premiums went thru the roof. Apparently, living downtown puts my car to risk! My rate went from $800.00 a year to $2100.00 a year and this with no at-fault claims and a perfect driving record minus a couple of parking tickets. I have to mention the company, as I seriously feel robbed! The insurance company is: Belair Direct, one of Quebec’s largest insurance companies, one which I gave my hard earned money to faithfully for over the past FIFTEEN years!

One of my staff had just bought himself a new car and while hunting for prices I asked him who he insured with and what he paid. He referred me to his broker, Gary from Basanda & Associates. Gary took great care of me and quoted me $750.00 a year without knowing what I paid previously. I then did my homework on the insurance company, they had a great track record. So there we go ladies and gents, I’m saving $1,350.00 a year and this took me no more than 30 minutes.

If you need Gary’s telephone number, drop me a line. I’ll be glad to share my contact.

Eric Belec