Custom-made, stand-alone humidor, $150
The Den for Men chain was going out of business and was willing to sell me a humidor for $150 for my cigar collection - a total deal because something like this would normally go for $2,000.
The catch? It had to be picked up the very next day from their Ottawa location. Not only do I live in Richmond Hill, but I had to be in Toronto also the next day for a 5 p.m. recording session for my first album, After Hours.
I borrowed my father-in-law's pick-up truck and drove all night in the dead of winter, only to discover when I arrived in the morning that the humidor was built into the wall of the store.
Borrowing tools from the mall maintenance team - I'm not really a "tool" kind of guy - we disassembled all the pieces. Back in Toronto, I commissioned a woodworker friend to put them together in his Scarborough workshop.
After eight months, the cabinet was finally ready, but too huge to fit into the elevator of my condo building. It sat in my friend's workshop for another two years until my wife and I bought a house that satisfied my pre-move condition - 10-foot ceilings to accommodate the cabinet.
My total cost? More like $2,000, so I didn't save a cent. As told to Deirdre Kelly
