Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Yes, it is Victoria Day in Canada, the alleged start of the summer (although given the temperatures, I am not so sure about that). Traditionally in Southern and Eastern Ontario folks go to open up their cottages and start camping and such.

Banks are closed, as are government offices, and other amenities, and depending on where you live, most stores are closed as well.

A day of rest? For some, hopefully.

Financial Posts From the Past Week

• Envelopes and One More Carnival
• $1.11 per liter Gasoline and other opinions
• Workplace: One out of Three Canadians a Workaholic?
• Illness Follow Up and Telephony

Well, this is kind of off topic, but Niagara Falls (the Canadian side) has a very interesting economic model which seems to be based on:

• The Falls (naturally, why else would I be there)
• Gambling
• Factory outlet stores
• Lingerie Shops
• “Lingerie Shops” (no need to elaborate)

An interesting place. I didn’t see much of it, mostly just high school gymnasiums, but still an interesting place, economically. Oh and they have very large fish too? Not sure what that is, but it was near the pool in our hotel?

Financial planning wise the weekend was not too bad. The rental car was free thanks to using my Aeroplan points, the hotel had a special rate for teams in the tournament, but then they tacked on a whole bunch of “local taxes” which really pisses me off. One tax is for paying for the nightly fireworks? What if I didn’t see them, do I get a rebate? Not likely, I guess. We overspent on eating out, so that is our next goal on these kind of trips, how to save money on food. Gas was relatively cheap, because I was driving a Yaris, and not my van (I cut my gas costs in half).

I think writing a series of articles on the costs of your children being active in sports might be coming soon, let me think about that one.