Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Long Weekend Random Thoughts

I note the gas prices in Ottawa have inched there way back up by about 11 cents in the past few days, in preparation for the long weekend. Am I saying this is a conspiracy? If it isn’t all contrived, then this is the most amazing coincidence I have seen. Our van continues to sit in the driveway, because it is just too expensive to use on long journeys.

The coming weekend brings a great deal of turmoil and excitement. My eldest daughter is off to University out of town, my middle daughters are preparing for High School and my son prepares for nursery school. September is always an expensive month for my family due to many activities and school ask for money and then there are the inherent expenses of returning to school (clothing, school supplies, bus passes, etc.,).

Is it time to turn off the Air Conditioning? I think it is, but we shall see how bad allergies and such are, since opening the house up, inevitably means me sneezing my head off (and thus buying antihistemenes and such). Which is more expensive, running my A/C or buying Claritin in bulk?

Today is the day I return my equipment and a set of forms outlining what to do with my severance package as well, which is a bit of a milestone as well. I will outline how this works, once I am sure how things will work, but the opportunity is if I can find a new job quickly and thus use my severance as a significant financial “hammer”.

Enjoy your long weekend, drive carefully wherever you may be going, careful of gas prices and speed traps and relax.

Gas Price Calluding? Never!

I was amused to see that the competition bureau have now charged a bunch of gas station owners in Quebec with price fixing for gas. I am astounded how is this possible? (I really must learn what is the correct font for sarcasm) When every gas station has the exact same price in an area, what might cause that? Inelastic demand? No, I think price fixing is a little more likely.

Food Prices only up 1.2% Over Year

That is what Stats Canada is saying, that our food prices have only gone up 1.2% over the past year, which is interesting, given the cost of gas sky rocketing, where is this cost being buffered in the system?

Overall, consumer prices for food consumed at home in Canada have risen only 1.2% in the 12 months ending in April 2008. Food prices increased 7.1% in the European Union and 5.9% in the United States during the same period. Countries in Asia with rice-based diets are experiencing the fastest increase in food costs, as the price of rice doubled early in 2008.

Interesting.

Canadians Love the Internet

And I for one am glad of it. Keep going on line and keep visiting interesting blogs, like this one!

Among people who used the Internet at home, 68% went online every day during a typical month and 50% for five hours or more during a typical week. On average, men were online more often and for longer periods than women.

Nortel Sky Rockets

NT is up over $2.00 in the past two days on the statement that they will be doing as they said they would in terms of sales and they are concentrating on LTE wireless technologies (shunning Wi-Max). What does this mean? Hopefully Canada’s former tech darling is starting to get back on their feet and can stop being referred to as “The Former Tech Titan Nortel”. Stay tuned, no this is not me saying go buy this stock, I do hold the stock in a very small way.

Yahoo and Google Get Chummy

Yahoo is now completely killed the Microsoft deal, signing an agreement with Google about search technology sharing and such. This means Yahoo most likely will disappear slowly over time or simply become a part of the Google Monster. Interesting, at one time Google was the “up start” company and Yahoo was the Monster, High Tech is always an interesting world to watch.

I want an iPhone

Yes, the new iPhone 2.0 has been announced by Apple, and it looks really cool to me. They have resolved the issues that I had with it not having a high speed wireless interface (HSDPA 3G) but that is remedied and there are many other really cool applications too. Anyone wishes to have me do a review, please send me one, and I promise to run it through it’s courses (Mrs. C8j will not allow me to buy this High Tech toy, so that is my only chance for now). The cost of the data subscription rate is enough to make me cringe.

I figured I’d move my lazy post for the week to Saturday, for those that might wander by and wonder what has been going on, and to reward Friday readers with an actual post and not just me rehashing.

An interesting week, where I got fixated on the high prices of Cell Phones, but a few other bloggers had other interesting posts as well:

• In I am Paying How Much for My Phones and Cell Phones Again , I discuss the relatively large amount of cash I put out for the privilege of being connected in this world. Some very good comments from my readers on these posts, well worth a read.
• In Understanding the BCE Mess, Michael James attempts to decipher the twists and turns in the largest leverage buy out ever. As a shareholder, I hope it settles down some time soon.
• Larry MacDonald had a posting about 7 Good Blog Posts this week including my story about Bar B Q disposal.
• I lamented about the High Cost of Flying and am getting sick of dieing by 1000 service charges.
• The Canadian Capitalist asked the question Is A Costco Membership Worth it? It never made sense for me, but he, as usual, has a good angle on the charges.
• My wife managed to get a credit card so I asked again, My Wife is Worth How Much?
• Over at Free at 45 an interesting article about how to Appeal Your Taxes .

All in all an interesting week.

The Friday after a long weekend always feels good because you know it wasn’t a full week of work, and this week was no exception. Many interesting posts from the talented Financial Blogosphere and here are but a few of my favorites from my reading list:

• Michael James wrote about a Credit Card Arbitrage scheme run where the author has floated her debt on zero interest credit cards and has managed to play the balancing act to make sure she never gets dinged with an interest charge, and has banked her mortgage payments instead. I do not recommend this in any way shape or form, however it is an interesting read.
• Our old friend Inflation returned this week with Inflation Jumping 1.7% for April year over year, thanks to higher gasoline prices. What is interesting is there is still a prediction of interest rates being lowered again next week? That seems a little odd, but we shall see.
• Gail Vaz Oxlade wrote about how You Measure Up Financially and the areas you might want to look at to make sure you are measuring the right thing. Remember the old carpenter’s adage, measure twice and cut once.
• Debt Reduction is like Teenage Sex was my attempt at telling folks that you need to discuss more with your family and trusted friends about Debt Reduction if you have a problem.
• Any entry title, Porn, Wealth and Burning Through $60M has got to be an interesting read, and it is an interesting read over at Everybody Loves Your Money.
• If Debt Reduction is Like Teenage Sex then Debt itself is like Fat , where I outline my personal fight against obesity and how it is very much like my fight against debt.
• The Canadian Capitalist answered a reader’s question about Reinvesting Dividend Income, which is a subject near and dear to my heart.
• Anybody looking for a humorous stories about Bar B Qs, my post on Flames and Bar B Qs fits the bill nicely.
• Larry MacDonald chimes in on the BCE Takeover SNAFU and whether BCE can win it’s appeal (as a shareholder, I hope they do).

Have a great weekend.

My Blog Reading List

In case you wonder what financial sites I read and haven’t looked at my right side bar lately.

• Canadian Capitalist
• Canadian Money Blog Reviews
• Dividends Matter
• Investment Jungle
• Larry McDonald’s Investment Ideas
• Michael James on Money
• Ellen Roseman on Money
• Free Money Finance
• Loonies and Sense
• Cdn Money Advisor
• It’s Just Money
• Million Dollar Journey
• Free at 45? Dreamer!
• All Things Financial
• Your Money
• Quest for Four Pillars
• Investor Geeks
• Dividend Guy
• Gail Vaz-Oxlade