Debt Free Kid

One morning last week, I woke up with a little giddy feeling, sort of like it might be my birthday*, or christmas morning, but it wasn't. It was Friday the 13th I think, but that had nothing to do with the feeling. I was excited because the night before I received an email from Tangerine** telling me that I'm pre-approved for their new cash-back credit card. As soon as I saw the email on my phone, I went over to the laptop and logged in to accept my acceptance. I was pre-approved for $14 000 but I was able to change it to $7500. I chose this amount because when the new card arrives I will cancel two other credit cards worth $10 000 combined. We are sometimes told to keep our oldest credit card opened for good credit history, but now that I have a mortgage and car loan in place, I'm not too worried about what my credit rating looks like. I hopefully will not be opening too many more credit products after this. I'm excited for this card to show up. Not only will i...

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...