Think Outside The Piggy Bank

permanent hiatus?

2010-07-21T15:52:32-04:00

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted anything for more than two months, so I've decided that it might be time to retire this blog. It's certainly not because I'm no longer interested in money, or am no longer a "frugality freak", snort, but I suppose my energy has gone in different directions. My two passions these days can be summed up in the words vintage and vegan, and of course because money is tied to just about everything, finance is not far away from these two areas either. My latest vintage obsession is Pyrex, and you can be sure that I delight in finding thrift store deals as much as ever. But what I'm also doing is trying to sell some of the treasures I find in my Etsy shop Tins And Things, and you're welcome to visit me there.

As some of you know, I've been vegan for two years this summer (almost as long as I've had this blog), and in that time I've come to believe that if the love of money isn't the root of most evil, then certainly greed (whether for wealth, status or power) is the likeliest contender. Whether it's the grinding up of male chicks at birth because they're economic liabilities, or the skinning of cows while they're still alive because it's not cost effective to make sure they're all unconscious first, money is at the heart of a lot of animal cruelty. And when this cruelty is ignored, condoned, or even actively encouraged by both individuals and institutions representing commerce, science, medicine and entertainment, then as far as I'm concerned the acquisition of money can no longer be viewed as a positive or even neutral endeavour. And it's not just related to how we view and treat animals as property. Common to how we treat the environment (think BP), and each other, many if not most of the social injustices continue to exist because of the economic gains from them. As you can no doubt tell by my indignation, animal rights (which I view as an extension of human rights) is where a lot of my energy goes these days, so if interested, you can read more at my So I'm Thinking of Going Vegan blog.

But I'm straying from what I originally wanted to say. This blog is most likely ending, but for those of you who ended up here Googling Bell Canada (I'm now with Teksavvy by the way) or any other topic for that matter, I've put a search bar in the right hand column underneath the subscriptions, so search away! Also, there are separate pages for Maxine, money quote posts, etc., that you can access in the line underneath the banner.

And in case this IS the last blog post, many thanks to everyone for visiting, reading, and commenting. It's been a fun ride! :)

it's that time of year again II

2010-04-30T16:26:00-04:00

You know what I'm talking about, snort. So, are you finished? Were you finished ages ago already? Or are you still scrambling about trying to find any and all related documents? I'm talking about your income tax return of course, which I suppose like everything else, you either love, loathe, or are indifferent to. I probably fall in the first category as I think doing your taxes is quite fun, and in my case relatively simple as I don't have a business, dependents, or enough income to even have to pay tax. Last year I filed my return on February 29th, because I figured I wouldn't be able to do that again for at least four more years, and as usual went the snail mail route. There are quicker and more technologically advanced ways, but I learned my lesson the hard way one year when I filed by telephone and found out that when an error occurs on THEIR end, Revenue Canada places the onus on YOU to prove them wrong. Yikes. It took forever to clear up even though I had not been the one to make a mistake, and after that I decided that snail mail worked just fine. I usually file in early March and receive my return four weeks later (this year it took five because of Easter), thus am all set in the beginning of April when tax season is just starting to rev up.

What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin. --MARK TWAIN

wise words

2010-04-12T20:13:02-04:00

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. --RALPH WALDO EMERSON

think outside the resume

2010-03-31T22:26:05-04:00

Dunno about you, but writing a resume is one of my least favourite things to do. I suppose they're a necessary evil, but I wish we could find a better way of communicating what we do well. And if we can send man to the moon and invent all sorts of neat gizmos and gadgets, you'd think we could reinvent this stupid document. But noooo, we're still forced to participate in this archaic and tortuous event. What I find especially galling is to see resumes required for things like babysitting (excuse me?), and the knowledge that your resume is not even always seen by the person you sent it to. This means of course that your whole working history (a huge part of your life) is revealed to who knows who. Not a big deal I guess, but somehow I feel a little bit robbed of my privacy every time I send out one of those darn things.

And don't even get me started on cover letters -- they're even worse than resumes! But help, dear reader, is on the way. Nope, not from me (although I have managed to land some jobs so I must do something right some of the time, snort), but from the talented Squawkfox who has managed to outline the best way I've seen yet of tackling these two annoying tasks. Check out her series on resume and cover letter writing. You won't be disappointed!

it's that time of year again

2010-03-13T23:25:00-05:00

So turn your clocks ahead and I'll see you in Spring! :)

spend less than you earn

2010-02-28T12:13:03-05:00

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. --CHARLES DICKENS

Clearly not a new concept, a sound financial principle, and the most important rule when it comes to money, so why is it still so hard to follow? ;)

Okay, this was going to be the end of the post until I found an article that quite persuasively argues the above maxim faulty and should instead read earn more than you spend and I'm inclined to agree. It has a lot of good tips on how to increase your income in small but painless ways; read it and tell me what you think!

Of course the best approach is to be both frugal when you can (spend less) AND seek ways to increase income (earn more) to achieve whatever your financial goals may be.

curses, curses, CURSES!

2010-02-24T17:36:58-05:00

I have many many virtues. Well, a few. But patience (specifically patience with computers) is not one of them. I especially do not have patience with browsers that don't load pages quickly enough for my liking, which means that I particularly don't like IE7 (oh how I long for IE6 again!) or Firefox. What it also means is that I've been swearing like the dickens (and we're talking long strings of practically every curse word known to man), which is actually kind of surprising since I generally don't swear much at all. And it occurred to me that if I had to put money into a jar for every time I swore these days, I'd have me a whole pile of cash by now!

Moral of the story other than that I should try Google Chrome? Don't know. Also don't know why my cursing below turned so colourful (I swear I didn't do it), but it seems appropriate somehow. ;)

&*+%$%&*%^#%@#$*&^&*#$#$%

how do you decide what X is worth?

2010-02-19T12:50:27-05:00

In other words, how do you determine value? Take the pot on the left for example. I found it advertised on Kijiji, and immediately fell in love. But more than a hundred other viewers over the past month and a half did not fall in love. Or at least, not enough to want to pay the asking price of $40. That price was considered a steal by its owner, and frankly, I'm inclined to agree. The pot is huge (holds 26 cups while my biggest holds 16), and is ideal for making vast quantities of soup, which I do a lot. Of bigger value to me is the brand and colour (the Dutch BK line which no longer produces pots and pans in this lovely shade), and the idea of making savoury soups in this cheerful cauldron. I grew up on food made in pots like these, so definitely nostalgia factors in. But when I was asked by someone if I thought this pot was worth $40, I immediately replied absolutely. I don't even intend to haggle for it! And I guess that's what monetary value comes down to: whatever someone is willing to pay is what it's worth.

p.s. even though it's not Monday, I'm going to put this in the monday's $ question category because well, it's a question and it's about money ;)

update: Got the pot yesterday plus a smaller version for an additional $5, and am even more thrilled with them in person. They're clean, and you can tell that they're of really good quality. I'm gonna enjoy them for years I bet!

does anyone NOT hate Bell Canada?

2010-02-02T18:57:45-05:00

Hating Bell Canada (Canada's largest telephone and telecommunications company) is about as traditionally Canadian as liking Tim Hortons (Canada's favourite place to buy coffee and doughnuts), and I've written about this monolithic/moronic institution before, but why stop when there's always something new to complain about? This time it's about their Internet service, and I'm annoyed enough that after having been with Sympatico for a long time, I think I'm finally ready to switch.

One of the many sucky things about Bell Canada is their policy that if you want to terminate your current contract early (and they're very keen on having you sign up for two-year contracts at a time), then you have to pay a $100 cancellation fee*. What they don't feel obligated to do in turn is to inform you that your service fees are going up. Nope, at their whim they simply raise their fees without telling you. In my case, I happened to notice that my monthly Internet bill was suddenly $2 higher. Now this may not seem like a huge amount, but it's the principle of the thing that matters. No explanation given for the increase, and no advance warning. Were they hoping I simply wouldn't notice?

Fortunately for my brother though, this will likely mean that I'll be switching over to his TekSavvy group as he's been urging me to do for months. Why didn't I do so before (especially given my obvious dislike of Bell)? Well, laziness in part as I'll have to change my online email address in about 100 places. Just wait until I inform Bell Canada though. They have a habit of trying to talk you out of leaving instead of providing you with the kind of customer service that would make you not want to leave in the first place, snort.

And in case you think I'm exaggerating the national hate affair with Bell Canada, check out the 617 responses to Ellen Roseman's Bell Blues column! Also, check out Bell Blues: one year later for more happy reading. ;)

*to my knowledge I'm NOT on a contract at the moment

Monday's money question 7

2010-01-18T20:47:00-05:00

What is your very first memory of money?

I'll let you think about that while I dig deep into my own memory bank.

My first memory? Well, I must have been about six, and I've never admitted this to anyone before, but I climbed onto a kitchen counter, stole a coin from a jar in the cupboard (nickel or dime probably), and bought some candy at the store down the block. Isn't that terrible? My first memory of money involves criminal activity! Makes you wonder how (or if) that affected my relationship with money at all, snort. How about you?