Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Um, no,

I will confess that I am driving a beater to work, but that is mostly because the bus service in Ottawa is very tuned to folks who go downtown in the morning and come back at night. I live in the south and commute to the west of Ottawa. I did take the bus for a while, and it felt very frugal, but my job then became psychotic for hours, so I decided to buy a friends “beater” and have been driving it ever since.

I give out advice, but I don’t always follow it. Yes, if I worked downtown, or lived in Montreal or Toronto I would take mass transit, just because those cities are set up to not want you to drive!

At least figure out WHY you don’t take the bus (if you can rationalize spending the money on a second car, at least you have thought about it). –C8j

Why does the summer seem to cost so much more (at least in my household)? Well for one thing my kids are at home, and eat like there is no tomorrow. They are out in the fresh air, running around, exercising, and then coming back to my home and eating anything that isn’t nailed down. Anyone who claims girls don’t eat as much as boys, well, let’s just say you are mistaken. The kids want to DO things as well (I’m bored is the battle cry of my house), so they want to go to movies and they want to go shopping, etc., what to do?

Well, first remember that if kids just play outside that is kind of free, and in your community there are useful cheap and free activities to look into:

• Your local library MUST run some kind of reading program and summer activities. The nice plus is that typically the library is air conditioned as well.
• If your child is playing a sport the family going to watch the game is an outing, or go have your kids watch their friends play (that’s free too).
• Find out which days your local movie theaters have cheap(er) movies on and go then.
• In Ottawa, the Museums have cheaper admission days (Tuesdays I think), another great place to go visit.

You don’t have to go broke over the summer keeping your kids entertained. –C8j