Thankfully it only took dude a minute to figure out what it was: the bank set up a pre-authorized payment for my line of credit, so that if I don’t pay my bill on time, they automatically transfer the money over from my chequing account. I have a vague memory of this being set up for me a few years ago, but since I have since changed the account number on the chequing account, I didn’t think it would work. (The account that was originally set up on was closed, and then I opened a new account this spring after I got the new job).

Anyways, that cleared up that mystery, when suddenly the previously ‘nice’ rep got pushy.

“I notice that you’re almost at the limit of your credit line,” he said.

“Yes I am, that’s because I’m using it to pay off other credit cards with higher interest rates,” I replied. (This isn’t entirely true, but it was Monday morning and I hadn’t yet finished my coffee.)

“Are you having trouble making the monthly payments? Because if you are, we can switch that over to a loan which would give you smaller payments,” he went on.

I suddenly got really pissed off. Who is this guy and why is he assuming that I can’t make the payment? When that automatic payment went through, it didn’t get rejected, did it? Stupid, son of a !@$%^^$#! Couldn’t he have just asked me if I wanted to lower my monthly payment? I realize he was trying to be “nice”, and maybe he just didn’t ask delicately enough, but still, the way he did ask got me quite mad. Argh. I told him thanks for asking, but I wasn’t interested and hung up. Sheesh. I think what also bugged me is that every interaction I have with banks these days is reduced to an offer for a loan. Giving me a loan isn’t necessarily the best way to help me out of my financial quandry, you know? <sigh>

Okay, I feel better now after that rant is done. 

This also applies to housing too. Toronto typically has a low rental availability rate, as there are always people moving into the city. It’s actually gotten better over the last few years as a lot of people bought condos and houses, so that left openings for people like me who prefer to rent. Gone are the days where I need to take the first non-insect-infected apartment, regardless of price. I remember seeing much smaller and unclean apartments for about $300 more a month than I’m paying right now for my wonderful, clean apartment. It was always a dicey proposition, looking for a new place to live.

But just because I can afford my apartment doesn’t mean others can. There are a lot of people who are barely making ends meat with three part-time jobs because that’s all they can find. They live in a one bedroom apartment with 7 other family members, 4 of whom are also working, so that they can afford a roof over their  heads and some food to eat. It can be tough, that’s for sure. I’ve read a few reports over the last few months that talked about how the number of families in Toronto that are below the “poverty line” has increased by about 5%, whereas that number has decreased in the rest of the country. I’m not surprised, since the cost of living in Toronto is higher. Gas costs more, food costs more, rent is higher, there are more places to spend your disposable income–I’m not surprised at all. I’m sure this is pretty much the same as in other big cities around the world, like New York, London, Rome, and so on. With so many more people competing for the same number of apartments, houses, food items, jobs, etc., they’re bound to be more expensive.

I remember the day a number of years ago where I passed the annual salary that my father made. What’s impressive about that fact is that he owned his own house outright, and supported a family of four on that salary! I am in debt, and live by myself. Of course he lived in a small town in southwestern Ontario, where the cost of living is significantly lower. The price of the house I grew up in is 3 times lower than what I would pay for a one bedroom condo here in Toronto. So it’s not surprising, although I’m always impressed when I think about it.

So to live well in a big city you’ve got to have a good, steady job, and mad budgeting skills. This will allow you to stretch whatever your salary and ensure you can live well in the big city. It might be hard, it might be tough, you might not be able to afford a lot of the things you’d like, but unless you’re willing to move to a smaller town (I’m not), then you’ve got to make do with what you got.

I found 4 pennies on Friday night, which was pretty good for me. Three pennies at once too. It was kind of hard to see them too, as it was 11pm on a relatively cloudy night, so I was surprised I managed to see them. But I did, so I added them to the totals. I’m still lagging behind M, but that’s okay, it’s fun to see how much we can find.

The Hiding of the Cheese.

“What the hell are you talking about Jb?” you’re asking yourself. Patience my dear readers, patience.

This week I needed to get another piece of parmesan cheese, as I’m almost done mine. Parmesan cheese, real parmesan cheese (parmiggiano reggiano, for those of you in the know) costs a lot of money. It’s one of my concessions in my kitchen. I can cut back on the amount of meat I buy, on the amount of fresh fruit I buy, but don’t take away my parmiggiano. That’s a must. So this week I was wandering around the store looking for it. But do you think I could find it?

Hells no. Was it next to the brie and camembert? Nope.

Was it next to the packages of feta? Not at all.

I suddenly started to get worried, as I was wondering if I would be able to find it at all. I ambled up to the deli counter to ask the clerk, and she replied “Oh yes, we have it here behind the counter.”

Huh? I stared at her blankly for a few seconds and didn’t even notice that she’d started to walk over to the other side of the counter. It’s behind the counter? What the hell was I buying pseudo-ephendrine? Had I suddenly walked into a pharmacy?

“It’s over on this side,” the clerk repeated when she saw I hadn’t followed her.

I made sure she grabbed a piece of parmiggiano reggiano, not the padano (again, for you cheese snobs like me, you’ll know why I was keen on the reggiano and not the padano), said thanks, and went on my merry way. But this whole incident got me thinking. Why the hell would they put it behind the counter? Is it because the reggiano is expensive? Like over $10 a wedge expensive? Have people been shoplifting the parmiggiano reggiano? I don’t know, but that’s the only thing I can think of as to why the parmiggiano reggiano was hidden behind the deli counter. There’s no other reason because it’s already pre-packaged and wrapped up.

At any rate, I got my cheese, so I was happy.

We played a bit of the slot machines at first, playing a $5 in the machine and making $15 back. Not a bad investment. Although it was one of those complicated machines so neither of us had any idea what exactly we were doing on it. We took our $20 and went to the tables. My friend wanted to play some craps, which she had recently learned to play in Vegas. At one point she told me she was actually up several hundred dollars, so I thought this might be an interesting game to make some money on. (And before you say anything, I know that the house wins on most of the games, and the point of going to a casino is to gamble with money I can afford to lose. That’s why I had only brought $80 with me.)

By the time it was time for my friend to shoot (that’s the person who throws the dice in craps), I thought it might be fun to play as well. So I tossed in $60 and got some chips back. I played a few conservative bets and won a couple of them, but then my friend “seven’d” out, so it was my turn to shoot. And wow, did I ever shoot! Apparently I have the touch, because I was shooting for almost 30 minutes straight. The dude next to my friend was betting on the field (that’s a bunch of the “odd” numbers that aren’t supposed to come up as often), and I kept throwing those. Then I went on a roll and was throwing all sorts of 6s and 8s, another great way to make some money. And then the 7 came up so I was done. But wow, did I have a blast! I think I might have even doubled my money at that point, and instead of at least taking out my original $60, I kept playing.

Everyone else at the table couldn’t shoot to save their lives, and so I ended up losing all that money. But I had fun, as did my friend. We left the casino at this point and headed out to do some dancing.

A few hours later we came back to the casino and played some more craps. Yes, I know, we probably shouldn’t have done that, but it was such a great nice up to then that we wanted to play some more. If you haven’t played craps before, I highly recommend it because it’s a very social, nice game. The players are cheering for you because if you shoot the right numbers, they win. So there’s a little more comraderie than at most table games. Anyways, the same crew was working the table, so we were welcomed back with open arms. I dropped $50, and ended up making $65. Again I had the chance to shoot, and was even MORE on fire than the first time. There were a few guys down at the other end of the table who must have made some mad money off me because one of them gave me a $5 tip when we were all done. It looked like they were betting all the 6s and 8s again, with odds, which means you earn more money each time it comes up.

All in all I lost about $40 total, which I think isn’t bad. Unfortunately that last session was cut short as the crew had to close the table at 3:30am, so I guess it’s not a bad thing, since I was up $15 on that go-around. I won’t tell you what my friend lost, as I know it was a lot, BUT, she knew she probably would end up losing it all, and so that made it okay. While it was a chunk of cash, it wasn’t her mortgage payment, or the last few hundred dollars in her bank account. It was her play money, the money that is annoying to lose, but isn’t a matter of life or death if she lost it. That’s the way you’re supposed to gamble. You must go with money that you can afford to lose, because chances are, you are going to lose it. The cliche is definitely true: the house always wins. But if you go with your fun money, then you don’t mind it so much, and you might even have a bit of fun in the process.