Back to school is now in full swing with most students starting this week, and stores filled with frantic parents looking for new school supplies, and kids already complaining about having too much homework. It is a wonderful time of the year.

For me, as an epilogue to my student computer safety tip one of my daughter’s broke the day before leaving for school and I ended up having to buy her a new one (because it wouldn’t boot because the boot track had been destroyed). Yet another fun unplanned expense to add to the list of them for going back to school. I think we got everyone off in one piece, but holy crap that is expensive.

More roller coaster rides on the markets as well, along with exciting weather too. This could be a very interesting fall, that is for sure.

This being a shorter week I enjoyed the time off from work, but did try to keep my writing up as well:

• I started my discussions of the new Airline baggage fees in my Sunday’s Best post, but I couldn’t just leave the concept there, but I did take Labour Day off, so you only saw more on Tuesday.
• Air Canada and Baggage Fees one solution put together a plan on how to save the cost of paying for your bags, while having some fun with clothing. Will it work? Not sure, but it might make a strip search, very interesting.
• School starting again means we should talk about RESP: Back to school reminders for those still putting money into the program, or attempting to extricate their funds as well.
• Given the current global economic relapse it is not surprising that loose money policy continues in Canada however there is now even talk of lowering rates? Holy crap on a cracker.

Other financial folk are looking at the mess the global economy seems to be in, and have some more commentary on this mess:

• Mike over at money.smarts shows that not only he is a Guru in terms of RESPs he is also a Beer Pricing Maven as well with compare unit prices – especially when buying Steam Whistle Beer, to quote Homer Simpson, “… mmmmm beer…”
• Canadian Couch Potato asks is Gold (Au) a Hedge against inflation? and the answer may just surprise you.
• Gail Vaz-Oxlade does her best Joey Tribiane imitation with how you doing? Hopefully she isn’t just feeding us a line here.
• Michael James makes some snarky comments about Gold! (Au), I think he forget it can also be used as fillings for your teeth.
• Ellen Roseman pointed out that the CRA nabs 103,000 people for excess TFSA amounts are you sure your contributions were valid?
• Canadian Capitalist laments the death of Blockbuster in Canada, however he points out that Zip kiosks offer cheap DVD rentals as well. Zip is a Canadian firm too!
• Larry MacDonald also boldly gives us an update on the One Minute Portfolio, again, I don’t advertise my investing shortcomings.
• Sustainable Personal Finance points out the reason why most of us do cross border shopping (if we live close to the U.S. border).
• Preet explains what is quantitative easing? a fairly in depth explanation of the concept, well worth a read.
• Echo of Boomer and Echo, asks what should I do with my RRSP? Simple answer is, enjoy it.
• Our buddy My Own Advisor points out there are many millionaire minimalists out there. I’d like to see if I could be one too, so if someone wants to give me a Million Dollars, we can run a quick experiment.
• Our amigo Nancy Zimmerman is having an online launch party on Saturday, check out the details, looks like some fun is to be had by all.

Other Bookkeeping

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