Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for the ‘Cheap’ Category

I go well back in time to find this little ditty about libraries and how using them is very frugal, even in my early days I understood how much could be saved by not buying but just reading books.

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Given I am an unpublished author (well not really an author, but a writer), here is a great tip for you folks who want to READ and LEARN about Financial things:

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.

It is that time of the year again, when neighbours attempt to fob off their crap that they don’t want, on their friends, neighbours and complete strangers, yes it’s Gar{b}age Sale time again. 

Helpful Hints

Garage sales are great for getting rid of stuff you no longer: want, need, can use, or is usable, however, they are not “get rich schemes”. Your goal is to rid yourself of things you no longer need to make space in your house, not to make $200 selling your priceless Art Bugotti Plate.

If your goal is to make enough to take your family out to dinner, that is not a bad goal, but your dinner should be at MacDonald’s not the Ritz. 

Bring $20 with you in cash as your budget (better still $5), that way you won’t buy too much (unless you have a crafty seller like me, who will keep stuffing crap into your bag before you leave).

I don’t like doing Gar{b}age sales, they are not worth the time and effort (in my opinion), I donate things to my Church’s Bazaar, and their Garage Sale and I simply throw things out (which don’t last long at the curb as I have said before).  I do not get rid of nearly enough crap in my house, and if I had to use Gar{b}age Sales to accomplish this goal, I’d be waste deep in crap (instead of only ankle deep, as I am now). 

I hate shopping, so you won’t catch me at a Gar{b}age sale either (unless dragged there, or to ask someone to move their car). I don’t shop, I buy, shopping is not therapy or relaxing to me, I shop occasionally for special things for my wife (OK, I let the sales lady tell me what to buy), but that is the only time.

Conclusions

If you have Gar{b}age Sales and you de-clutter your house with it, Good For You! If you make money selling stuff you no longer need any more, Good For You! If you simply give the stuff away to de-clutter your house, Good For You!

However, if you go “bargain hunting” at Garage Sales, Shame on You! You do not find diamonds in the pickled egg jar. If you have Garage Sales and then go out and buy more stuff from your neighbours sales, Double Shame on You! The idea is not to make room for more crap, it is to make more room. If you think you are going to make a fortune from your gar{b}age sale, More Fool You, you are doing it to get rid of stuff, if you think you can get rich on this stuff, sell it on Ebay (good luck). 

Stay the hell away from Garage Sales.

We had another get together of the National Capital Financial Bloggers Association this past week and the regulars were there, but we also had a special guest appearance by Canadian Financial DIY, and he has been added to the prestigious N.C.F.B.A. blogroll in the right hand column. A very interesting chap and with many of the same attributes as yours truly (worked in the same places, from Montreal, etc.,). He also is brave enough to show a picture of himself on his blog (I may one day, but I need to find a top hat and monocle first). 

Financial Blogging This Week

Many interesting posts for this week, and let’s start off with our spotlight blogger this week:

• Canadian Financial DIY wrote an interesting tome about a Modest Proposal for Preventing Older Retired People in Canada… I think I am worried now, hope no politicians take this up.
• Michael James writes about Tax Avoidance on New Homes (in Ontario), which may make for an interesting cat and mouse game between the government and it’s HST and builders. 
• Preet at Where Does All My Money Go continues his educational series about Indexes (and active vs. passive investing) with The Market versus The Index (in a steel cage match). 
• The Canadian Capitalist writes another scathing commentary on Our World-Beating Mutual Fees, seriously folks read this stuff and get the heck away from those high MERs. 
• The Canadian Tax Resource is writing some helpful posts in the series Estate Planning 101 and one I enjoyed is Estate Planning 101 – Death, Taxes, and your RRSPs and RRIFs.
• After getting ripped off No Debt Plan published a helpful 7 Ways to Identify and Avoid On Line Scams. 
• Riscario Insider has an interesting post Preston Manning on Financial Planning, which I enjoyed, but the title is a little misleading. 
• I always enjoy when folks talk about their personal lives and their hobbies and One Caveman does in his article Good Personal Finance Takes Practice.

Victoria Day Weekend

Given it is an early long weekend here in Canada, don’t look for anything on Monday, I will be enjoying a day off, but look for a new video for the weekend enjoyment.

Today is a Saturday and this is today’s post as well.

Finger Pointing = Points

You open the box to find a Finger Pointing, puzzling, what could that mean? Pointing? Points? Ah, yes, Points, specifically Loyalty Points and also Gift Cards. This is all money in your pocket if you choose to use them, but if you don’t they are worthless.

As my readers know PC Points is my favorite, and we will be using them this Christmas to make our Christmas much more frugal, but I also have Petro Points, Aeroplan Points, Hudson’s Bay Points, Sunoco Points, Canadian Tire Money, Optimum points and I’m sure there are others I have forgotten. All these point systems has made my wallet very “Costanza-like” in size, but I have these points.

Gift Cards? Mrs. C8j cleaned out our closet and found our gift cards from last Christmas and luckily none of them had expired, but that is another area where there is “Free Money” for Advent and for Christmas. She and I can go out to dinner for free, we can go to a few movies and I have many books I can buy as well. I keep collecting Canadian Tire money when I buy gas, and eventually I have $20 at least and usually buy new wipers for my car or something like that, but this year, maybe I’ll buy a friend something useful (like a Mr. T. Air Freshener) from Canadian Tire.

Use your Points and use your Gift Cards! You earned them, use them!

If you don’t want to spend them, donate them (you can with PC Points), make them work.

Busy day, so I went back into my archives to find my Tim Horton’s Savings Plan posting from a little while back (a new classic):

Think if you bought Tim Horton’s stock you are doing ok (no I am not saying go out and buy their stock, figure that one out for yourself), but I am saying look at that “Double Double” you have sitting next to you. Ever thought how much those things cost you? I have asked you this question before, so you should know the answer.

Let’s have some fun Arithmetic, shall we?

1. Assume you drink 3 “Double Doubles” a day for 5 days (what you do on the weekend is your trouble not mine). How much is that costing you a week then?3 * $1.39 * 5 = $21.00 per week
2. You work how many weeks? I’ll say 45 weeks to make it easier to calculate for me. So that means you are spending about:45 weeks * $21 / week = $945 per year on coffee
3. Over say 10 working years assuming you took that money made a lump sum payment every year into an investment vehicle that paid a modest 5% (remember if you put it in an RRSP you’d get back tax money too).We have:
   

   Year	Value
   1	$945.00
   2	$1,937.25
   3	$2,979.11
   4	$4,073.07
   5	$5,221.72
   6	$6,427.81
   7	$7,694.20
   8	$9,023.91
   9	$10,420.10
   10	$11,886.11

So after 10 years you’d have almost $12,000 in your pocket (less taxes on the growth, unless you do this inside of an RRSP).

Does that coffee seem so cheap now? Hey, you folks drinking at Starbucks and paying twice as much for your coffee, want me to do the calculations on THAT for you?

Food for thought for a Monday.