Canadian Personal Finance Blog

For me, not much really. The official news release about the budget can be found here. The only highlights that affect me indirectly and directly are:

• $1.5 billion, three-year Skills to Jobs Action Plan, which really doesn’t touch me directly, unless of course I get laid off and want to learn a real trade, then it might.
• Lots of spending in the health area, which should touch me in some fashion ($40.4 Billion)
• $18.8Billion in Education grants for class size, since my kids are still in school that is a nice addition.
• “…$385 million over three years for an annual Textbook and Technology Grant that will help every full-time university and college student…”, that would help out because text books cost a BLOODY fortune.
• And there are no tax increases, which is good too, since I don’t like tax increases no matter what, I am funny that way.

Kind of ho-hum budget, some perks for businesses, but nothing much for me, but some useful infrastructure spending (mostly in Toronto) too.

Best of: Library our Frugal Friend

One of the best places to get any financial information is your local public library and I just remembered a post I did a while back about The Library Our Frugal Friend.

Given I am an unpublished author (well not really an author, but a writer), here is a great tip for you folks who want to READ and LEARN about Financial things:

GO TO YOUR LIBRARY!

Pretty simple. Here in Ottawa the one thing that amalgamation did do is create a large very well stocked Library (click on Go To Your Library to see their web site).

I take out Music CD’s, DVD’s, VHS Videos, and most importantly books. Pretty much any and all books I might mention here in this blog, I have taken out of the library (I can’t afford to BUY books, but I can afford to take them out, read them, and maybe jot down in a notebook the parts which I agree with, or think are a good idea).

Usually your local library membership is FREE (in Ottawa it is), and most are relatively cheap, and you get your money’s worth very quickly. In fact DONATE to your library to keep them up and running (heck, even Volunteer, they are usually looking for those too). Libraries are great resources for the CHEAP and FRUGAL!

Let me leave you with a Simpson point of view on the Library:

Homer: Now, who’s up for a trip to the library tomorrow? Notice I no longer say liberrie or tomorrie.