Debt Free Kid

... or maybe this should be filed under stupid spending mistakes? Read on ... I knew I shouldn't have, but I clicked on the link from Paypal offering me a $25.00 credit from shop.ca. I have never used shop.ca, so I took a look. The selection was overwhelming, so I went to my two favourite lurking categories: wristwatches and handbags. I wasn't thinking when I selected one of each for my cart. The minimum purchase was $75, so I picked a $25 bag and a $50 Timex watch. I clicked through ... order went through ... no $25 credit added. Oh great, now what have I done? I mindlessly bought two things I don't need, and didn't even get the discount that brought me to the site in the first place. I clicked help, and saw that the order could be cancelled within two hours. So I cancelled it. Goodbye new bag, goodbye new wristwatch. It was a short fling. Emails came through confirming first the purchase, then the refund. Then an email from Paypal: here is the $25.00 credit! Wha...

My passport expired in May, and I've been slowly working on the "simplified" application for renewal. I finally had some time to get the photos taken, and for some stupid reason I chose to go to Walmart. They weren't very friendly, but they took the pics and when I asked the price I was told there was a "special": two pics and a passport wallet for $19.99. In disbelief I asked what the regular price was and was told $23.99. I told the lady I was sure I had never spent more than $10 on passport photos and she acted like she didn't believe me. I handed over my card and she handed me a plain black passport wallet that smelled slightly of gasoline. I then went across the street to Shopper's Drug Mart to mail the small package to the passport office. Next to the postal outlet was a photo area, with a sign that said, "Passport Photos $9.99" which made me feel slightly sick to my stomach. I hardly ever go to Walmart any more and now I remember...

I am at war with Telus. I have been a faithful client for almost four years and have always paid my bill on time. I had one year left of my contract and due to some blundering at three different corporate stores I called customer service to complain and let them know that I WILL NOT be renewing my contract in 2010. Of course they were willing to bend over backwards to keep me and I let myself be suckered into another three-year contract (oooh, shiny new phone!). Stupid me. I really liked my old phone, and the kickass data plan we set up in 2007, but it's all gone now. I ended up with a crappy phone that never worked properly and returned it four days after purchase. It's now two and a half weeks later and I still don't have my new phone. Yet the $344 charge for phone and accessories is still sitting on my credit card account, waiting to be paid. I hate Telus now. I am going to spend the next three years convincing everyone I know to switch to Rogers or Bell. Hopefully by 20...

I no longer have access to someone's wireless connection at home, and I've been WAY too busy at work to blog from there. And I have lost my focus. I have to remember why I started this blog in the first place. Before I started here I enjoyed reading three kinds of blogs: self-help, single moms, and personal finance. The plethora of these blogs got me through some seriously dark days and some really lonely weekends. When I found myself ready and willing to start posting my own, I wanted to come up with a combination of the three. With a fourth element, the Canadian bias. Mostly, I was tired of trying to find inspiration in PF blogs written by one half of a couple. I don't have a problem with couples, but I can't tell you how many told me in their blogs, "WE paid off a $20 000 debt in just TWO years!" I'm on my own here, and no one is going to help me pay off my debt. As well I can't work more for extra income because I'm a single mom to a three-year...

The first commenter at this post at singleparents.about.com is a stupid, ignorant piece of sh*t. He (she? must be a he) advocates a site called childrenneedbothparents.net, which I only had time to skim through, but this post in particular caught my eye and pissed me off even more. I hate the way the information is presented to accuse a mother of denying her children a father in their lives. I can't think of too many women who would disallow visitation, unless the father was seriously abusive and jeopardizing his children's lives. If we want to go by half-truths, stereotypes, and out-of-context "facts," then I propose that if children are fatherless, it is because the father couldn't handle the responsibility and left. Or was forced to leave because of abuse. It takes a lot more than two parents to make a family. And a family arrangement does not have to be of a two-gendered nuclear type in order to lead healthy children into adulthood. Do you know how man...

I'm so used to discussing money now that I have this blog. All my debts and savings are out there for the world to see - and to judge. Not many people who know me personally know about this blog. Some know that it exists, but I haven't widely passed along the link. I'm afraid of being judged. The issue came up the other night when I was on the phone with my son's father (SF). We can talk openly and honestly about a lot of things, but we have a really unhealthy aspect to our relationship where if something goes wrong and we start fighting (which happens every other month or so, for various reasons), everything we have confided in each other comes out as ammunition in an argument. More so for him, because I am more open and have very few secrets. And I talk a lot. And I usually say too much. We were having an unusually civil conversation on the phone the other night, where I let down my guard and told him about the big chunk I have paid off the LOC. After all, I'm pro...

Dear PC Financial, For several years now, at your recommendation, I have been depositing $50 a month into an Interest Plus RRSP account. I have not moved the funds into investments, because I was not aware of this option, and you have never promoted it to me. Fine. At the end of 2008 I decided to change my strategy and deposit schedule for this account. I cancelled my automatic payments, with the intention of depositing weekly. I did not make a deposit in September and made only one $10 deposit in October. In November I make three weekly deposits of $10, $10, and $12. In December I made two deposits of $15 and $48. This brings my 2008 deposit total to January to August (@$50/month) $400 October $10 November $32 December $63 With a combined total of $505. This past weekend I was going to file my taxes. I pulled out all my little slips of paper, and noticed for the first time that my 2008 RSP statement has a total of $453.02. What is up with the .02? I have been on hold for about fifteen...

I have been waiting what seems like weeks and weeks for my expense claim reimbursement to come in from the health insurance company my employer chose to do business with. I checked my account online yesterday and found out that I am being reimbursed for less than half of what I claimed. Two reasons: 1) Rather than having a $50 family deductible (which is what I was told would happen) they have decided to have a $25 per person deductible. Since Bean's prescriptions for 2008 just went over the $25 mark, we are not getting the full refund for his most recent prescription. 2) They have been reimbursing my chiropractic appointments as naturopathic appointments, because my chiropractor is also my naturopath, however she has two separate files for my appointments and has clearly been issuing receipts for my chiropractic file. The insurance people neglected to notice/did not care and put it all towards naturopathy, which has a way lower allotment than chiropractic. They told me that I went...