Canadian Personal Finance Blog

This weekend we finally tried out the Rogers Pay Per View system (to watch Michael Clayton, which I’d seen 8/9 of on an airplane but never saw the ending), and it worked just fine. I was impressed by the fact that I actually can watch it again for 48 hours (it cost $5.99).  We got this digital box a year ago, when Rogers effectively gave it to us for free (or 50 cents more a month), and it has been quite good and we have used it to my satisfaction.

Comparing the pay per view system to Blockbuster or another video store, I think this service seems fine. Was it worth $5.99 for the movie, this time yes, but I don’t think I’ll end up using it a lot. I still get most of my movies from the Ottawa public library, but I may rent one more movie in the next little while, but not too many more, I just don’t see the value, if I can get the movie for free from the Library.

University Costs and So It Begins

As my daughter has made a choice about which University to attend, now I must start spending money. I had to put down a deposit on a residence room, and all the fees I had to pay previously just to apply to the University, to have the privilege to send them more money later.

I will have to make a run to the school, which is going to cost enough, so my daughter can see the campus before she starts in September.

I have created a new category in Quicken to track all these expenses. Why? I am a masochist at heart, I guess.

In Ontario we are celebrating the strangely observed Family Day. Strangely celebrated since most folks have the day off, except Federal Government Employees and some companies, so we do have mail delivery, but the Loblaws is closed? Going to make for an interesting day of figuring out whether I want to skate around the neighbourhood (yet another Freezing Rain storm in Ottawa) or sit at home with my Family and do Family things like:

• Paint the Family room (no, not likely to happen, Home Depot is closed too)
• Work on our Genealogy (I got a program for Christmas to work on that, so I may actually do that one)
• Ask my Children how their lives are going. That one is easy and it takes 3 minutes, because the answer is “Fine!” (with a very annoyed tone).

Enjoy Family Day, get into it.

How Much Do You Pay For Cable (revisited)

From time to time I talk about how much home entertainment costs. I view my home as not very extravagant in this area (I haven’t upgraded my stereo in years, and we still have standard definition TV’s for now). We do have “Digital Cable” but that ended up costing $1.50 more a month (for this year at least), that is our only major step so far. We also have High Speed Internet access, but I view that as a necessity now (for my work, and for life in general).

More and more I talk to my co-workers and they have extravagant home theater and entertainment systems and are spending a big chunk of money on subscription fees or buying media for these systems (i.e. Cable TV monthly charges and DVD (High Definition) purchases).

There is a very small group of folks who have gone completely in the other direction, and have turned OFF their Cable TV access (they still have high speed Internet access).

Their reasoning is actually quite good:

1. They are rarely at home and thus will rarely sit down in front of a TV to watch a show at a specific time, so most of the shows they watch are “recorded”. Some have actual antennas (not the old rabbit ears, better than that) and they can get some digital broadcast TV over the air for Free.
2. When they do have time to watch “TV” they actually watch a fair amount on their PC (DVDs sometimes or recorded shows), either where they are (traveling) or their PC’s connect into their home entertainment HDTVs.
3. They are cheap and don’t want to pay Comcast or Rogers Cable $80 a month for the privilege to watch TV, or fork out $25-$30 for High Def DVDs.

So what do they do? They simply find content on the Internet. Most shows are now available in their entirety from their original broadcasters. Those that aren’t are available from Bittorrent sites where you can download content (illegal in the U.S., might be illegal in Canada, not sure of the copyright laws).

So they save about $1000 a year and get to watch what they want, when they want? Sounds like a good idea to me.

Yes, today is Canadian Thanksgiving, so Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers, and their families. So far it has been a busy weekend for me and the little C8j’s. For those of you looking for a great Turkey story, click on The Greatest Turkey Story Ever Told to read how to prepare your turkey for Thanksgiving.

What is Old is Cheap

Thanks to all this new furniture I collected last week, I now had a wall unit that could accommodate a LARGE screen TV. I know the prices of HDTV’s are coming down, but they are still too cheap for me. As a side note the last TV I bought was 20 years ago, so no, I don’t usually invest too much money in my TV’s. A friend told us about a 32″ regular NTSC TV by RCA at Wal-Mart. We picked it up (and my back still hurts from it), and now we are watching on a BIG (regular definition) the Monday CFL football games!! I am enjoying it, and I enjoyed the $267.00 price as well. The best part, I bought it with PC points (in a round about way), so my Bank bought me the TV!

How much is that Turkey?

My daughter’s part time job this weekend gave her new hatred for poultry, especially Turkeys, due to their weight, and the inability of people to know how to cook the darn things. Why do people ask a 17 year old how long it takes to cook a frozen 18 lb. turkey? My daughter doesn’t cook the darn things, she simply allows you to buy one!

Enjoy the Day

Yup, that’s it for me, I am on vacation today, so not much to write about today, other than the Turkey story. Don’t eat too much.