Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for the ‘Holiday’ Category

As eyes turn towards the juggernaut coming at us called the Christmas spending orgy (I am thinking of trademarking that phrase), let me reflect on the idea of using Charity as a present.

Let me first point out that I feel that I do a fair amount of charitable work, and I do give to charities as well, so as a rule and as a concept I completely support charities and feel their good works are a wonderful thing. I strongly suggest to you, good reader, that you give at this time of the year (and all year round). Remember that giving is not just a monetary thing, many charities would love your skills and time as well, so please remember that as part of your charitable works.

What a Crock of Beans!

Now, for those of you who plan on sending me a card that says something like:

“We thought of you this holiday season and have made a donation to the Human Fund in your name”

let me be very succinct: BULLSHIT (note the Seinfeldian reference).

If you wish to give to Charity, wonderful, I applaud your giving, however, do not believe that your “giving” in any way, shape or form makes me feel more festive because of it. You giving to Charity is not a gift to me. If you don’t want to give me anything this year, that is cool, and you don’t even need a card, just drop me an e-mail something like:

“Dear Scrooge, we didn’t feel like sending you jack this year, enjoy the Holidays you unlikeable so and so”

No, I have not completely gone off my nut, but I am really kind of tired of Pious folks showing me how Good they are by “giving for me”, I give as much as I can, and that is as good as it can be.

If you want to give, please do, but don’t masquerade that it has anything to do with me, thanks. Oh and if you send out a card like that and DO NOT give, Karma and or the wrath of whichever God you worship will get you eventually (isn’t that a Happy Holiday thought as well).

Happy Thanksgiving my American Brother and Cousins

Enjoy your deep friend TurDuckEns and gorge yourself on this Happy Festival day.

So after wandering through Loblaws and Independant stores near my home, this time of year really is schizophrenic since it is Halowe’en season however, Christmas is here now as well (in fact Christmas almost intervened into Thanksgiving, in fact the Canadian Tire was putting their Christmas section in the Friday before Thanksgiving).

What gives? Can we not just enjoy Candy and Spooks for a while and then get to Christmas on All Saints Day (November 1st), better still after Remembrance Day (November 11th)? I am sure my Dentist would be much happier if we ate more candy (OK, that is a cheap shot, but there is a group of people who must have a spike in business after folks eat those Orange Halowe’en kisses and they rip out their fillings).

What is our absolute need to get to Christmas so darn soon? It is not like the 50’s and 60’s where if you wanted to send packages overseas you had to have them in the mail for September, now with overnight delivery to most of the world, that excuse is gone too.

Why now? Better still, why so darn much? Why has a relatively important religious period (remember Easter is actually more important (sorry folks, those are the rules)), turned into an excuse to vomit money worse than someone who has eaten a 1 month bad turkey?

Christmas Plans?

One thing you should have put together by now is your Christmas plan. Remember your plan needs to include the whole season, not just the day, because money gets blown on presents, but also on food, booze, and travel (and sometimes that is more than the presents).

Are you going to travel? Do you have a budget set up? Are you driving, what is your guess on how much gas is going to cost? My guess would be at least $1.00 a litre folks, keep that in mind.

The easiest way to hemorrhage money is to simply start Christmas shopping without a plan, so get that plan together and start planning for this happy season (ho ho ho and all that crap).

Yes, I am being grinchy, hopefully my heart will go three sizes one day!

Thankfully the markets (in Canada at least) are closed and we can all sit back and enjoy a lot of turkey and family and be thankful for all that we have in our over-abundant lives.

For some however, Thanksgiving is a terrible time, and that is for the Meleagris Gallopavo, or the Wild Turkey (ZZ Top even sings about the horrible Wild Turkey Bite (but I suspect that may not be what they really mean)).

Constantly hiding and ducking from now until January 2nd, think of these poor creatures as you scarf down their kins legs and breasts! Mmmm… kin…

Happy Thanksgiving?

Oh and one of my favorite Thanksgiving TV episodes:

For those of you planning a large Thanksgiving dinner remember to make sure your smoke detector is in good working order and here is an excellent video Hot Stuff about fire prevention.

Don’t burn the turkey!!!!

The August Bank Holiday in Ontario is becoming more of a non-entity every year. This year all stores seem to be open, the only things that are closed are Banks and Government offices, which should help stimulate the economy a little (I suppose). I did my part to stimulate the economy by purchasing a new TV to replace the 1987 genre one my kids watched (which they claim wouldn’t show channels 2-13, but what is on those channels anyhow?), but whether this is helpful to the economy we can only hope.

GDP Continues to Decrease

Stats Canada came out with data on the Canadian GDP in May on Friday and it seems it is the world of manufacturing that is causing the largest drag to the GDP, whereas the services sector remains relatively constant. This statement itself is no big surprise, given the Auto sector is in deep trouble and all the associated companies are suffering along with the big car makers.

GDP Down again for May

The energy and manufacturing sectors were the main contributors to May’s decline. Construction and wholesale trade also decreased. Conversely, the activities of real estate agents and brokers as well as retail trade advanced in the month.

Not horrible news, but things need to start picking up soon.