Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Cheap or Thrifty?

After my weekend of vulturing around picking up furniture from my parents and friends and now seeing it in my living room, I wonder now, am I cheap or frugal? When I was a student my entire apartment was made up of my parents old furniture (and it actually gave me a certain amount of security seeing familiar things around me, but I digress). As I have grown older I have bought some furniture new but continue to use older furniture as well from various sources.

My opinion is it is partially a frugal thing, because what is the point of blowing $2000 on a new couch, if you have or can get a good one and pocket the money? If I am happy with the “gently used” furniture, why do I feel cheap having it? Why do I equate financial success with New things? My guess is it is a cultural thing, but again, not completely sure either.

Patience Update

Following up on my “patience pays” posting on Monday, I ended up saving about $70 at the end of it all, by being patient, but also being firm with my Car Rental agent. I think that is not bad for 1/2 an hour of my time (and not getting all twisted about things). Will this happen every time? Maybe not, but again, being patient should usually give you a sense of well being mentally if not financially.

Another Toy Recall

My son’s love of Thomas the Tank Engine is causing me to learn much more about toy recalls than I wanted to. Yet another set of toys is being recalled by RC2, and AGAIN we are owners of these toys. This is starting to get a little ridiculous.

No Interest Rate Hikes in Europe

So the English central bank is not hiking their interest rates which is a good thing to hear. I am curious to see if their Canadian Cousin looks at possibly rolling the rates back a little to keep the Might Canadian Dollar from rising too high against it’s sick cousin in the U.S.?