Does buying your kid secondhand clothes make you a “bad” parent?

26. September 2012 · 22 comments · Categories: Clothing, Kids, Wasting money

No. It doesn’t. It makes you a smart parent – who is wisely saving their money for stuff like education or awesome Lord of the Rings Lego kits (oh wait..that’s what my husband is buying himself ).

We don’t actually have kids, but I visited with a friend on the weekend who recently had her first child. I was telling her how most of the toys I have for my niece at my house are actually hand me downs from another niece, or were bought at a garage sale. Yes, I’m a cheap aunt. I help chip in for shoes on occasion and put money towards her education. Much better use than wasting it on new toys.

Anyways, she seemed greatly relieved to hear this and fessed up that she’d bought her daughter clothes at Value Village. And then asked if this made her a bad parent! She’s finding out the hard way that motherhood comes with a lot of judgement, and another friend of hers told her she’d never let her kids wear second hand stuff.

WOW! I just think that’s absolutely crazy. I know I grew up wearing hand me downs. Heck, if any of my friends were the same size as me, I’d take hand me downs now. But I’m taller than all of them, so that’s never been an option.

I guess this is one of the reasons that people are so much in debt now. My friend felt badly that they could afford to buy her new clothes – but bought them at Value Village. I pointed out that she was being smart – her daughter would outgrow them quickly, and it was silly to buy them new. I pointed out my niece wears hand me downs (really nice ones, mind you – my brother has some well off friends!) and my parents buy her things at Once Upon a Child.

I don’t know. I guess I just grew up with hand me downs and thought they were normal. Guess I’m just out of the loop.

How do you guys feel about this? Do you buy second hand clothes for yourself or your kids?

Birthday freebies!

25. September 2012 · 9 comments · Categories: Free Stuff

There was a great article in the Metro today (free paper) listing some of the great birthday freebies you can get. These were specific to Toronto, but I’m sure at least some of them are available other places. I’m just sorry this list came out after my birthday!

1. Free dinner at Tucker’s Marketplace. I actually knew this one and took advantage of it on my birthday.

2. Free grand slam breakfast at Denny’s.

3. Buy one get one free at Medieval Times.

4. Free makeup item at Sephora.

5. Free ice cream at Marble Slab Creamery.

6. Free blizzard at Dairy Queen.

7. Free smoothie at Booster Juice.

8. Free dozen bagels at What a Bagel! (really wish I’d know about this!)

So if it’s your birthday – please check some of this stuff out!

Blog round up for Sept. 21, 2012

21. September 2012 · 5 comments · Categories: Blog Roundup

What did I post about this week?

Some of my favourite posts around the blogosphere this week:

Catering your blog to your readership by Modest Money
Wedding worries by Bog of Debt. I remember the year of planning my wedding as insane stressful. Bog has my sympathies.
Are you a grocery store snob? by Canadian Budget Binder. Awesome post. I’d love to meet some of Mrs.CBB’s co-workers.
Moving back home after college by Making Sense of Cents. A sobering look at what’s facing college grads today.
Increase your traffic by writing effective titles for search engines by Veronica at Pelican on Money.
Go Green and Save Money with Energy Efficient Appliances by Prairie Eco Thrifter

How to negotiate with credit card companies

20. September 2012 · 4 comments · Categories: Credit Cards

A few weeks back, I put up a post about living paycheck to paycheck . I said I’d start a series on how to start making a change in your financial lifestyle. If you haven’t already read this first post in this series, please check it out: Calculating your big financial picture.

Even though it might be discouraging to total up your assets and debts, it’s important to do in order to figure out where you stand. I think if you don’t have a good handle on what you owe, then it’s pretty hard to figure out the best way to dig yourself out of it.

One of the biggest problems people are getting themselves into these days is credit card debt. Sometimes it starts during school, when you have access to credit, but not a lot of income – and sometimes it starts after you graduate, with all the expenses that come with “establishing” yourself. With others, it comes with a life change – a new baby, a move, or a job loss. Expenses just seem to start racking up, and the easiest thing to do is start charging them.

So, what do you do when you’re overwhelmed with credit card debt? While trying to figure out where you can cut back is definitely worthwhile, sometimes the payments may just be more than you can handle. In that case you need to contact the credit card company directly. So, what do you do?

1. Call the credit card company and explain your situation. Use some wording like the following “I think I’ve been a good customer. I’d like to stay with you, but I really want you to lower the rate on my card. Can you help me?”

2. If they don’t say yes – then ask to speak to a supervisor.

3. If they don’t say yes, then keep asking to speak to someone up the chain until you get the answer you’re looking for.

It’s really not that complicated – it just takes some time and perseverance. And it can work – check out this CBC story on it.

If they refuse to drop your rate, then your best bet may be opening a new card with a zero percent interest rate and transferring the balance. I’ll talk about how to do that next week.

Have you ever tried negotiating with your credit card company? How did it go?

Should you donate money to charity if you’re in deeply in debt?

18. September 2012 · 20 comments · Categories: Charity

No, you shoudn’t. There, that was easy, wasn’t it?

I honestly can’t remember how I originally heard about Dave Ramsey. If you’re not familiar with him, he provides courses on how to get yourself out of a financial mess. He basically preaches the lessons he learned when he himself was in debt. Some folks like him and some folks don’t.

Dave Ramsey is a Christian. I mention this because it’s an important part of his life and his financial teachings. And I remember him saying way back when that when he was massively in debt – he still tithed to the church. And I took issue with this.

I don’t have issues with religion. Or tithing to your place of worship (if you can afford it, go for it!). What I do have issues with is donating money that you can’t afford – and that isn’t even yours! It’s not fair to run up debts you cannot pay back – and then give away money that could have helped pay them back.
I’m sure some folks will disagree with me on this – whether it’s donating to a food bank, a cancer charity, or tithing to your church.
Almost everyone carries debt – mortgage, car payments, student loans, etc. So, I’m not saying you shouldn’t donate to charity if you have any debt at all – because then no one would ever donate. What I am saying is that if you’re drowning in debt – that you have so much you can’t make your basic month to month payments, then you probably shouldn’t be donating to charity.
There are plenty of other ways to make a difference if you really want to support a charity. You can volunteer your time, help make phone calls, or do fundraising for them (just make sure that this alternate activity isn’t costing you gas money, etc. I remember seeing some personal finance blogs auction off a guest post spot to raise money for charity. There are lots of options out there.

What do you think? Do you donate to charity at all? Would you still do so if you were drowning in debt?

Is Canada a viable destination for offshore investors?

16. September 2012 · 7 comments · Categories: Investing

Hey all! This is another one of my “expand the focus of my blog” posts. Today I’m going to talk about offshore investment in Canada.

What is offshore investment?

Basically, something that is offshore is located or based outside of of a person’s national boundaries (that is, outside your country). The term offshore can be used to used to describe foreign banks, corporations, investments and deposits.

What kind of offshore investments are available?

There are a variety of offshore investments, but some of the most popular are:

Cash (such as bank accounts)
Bonds (both government and private company bonds)
Property (land, buildings, or both)
Equities (stocks or individual funds)

Why would I want an offshore investment?

Some reasons to have an offshore investment are:

Different government regulations – you may be able to invest offshore in items that you cannot invest in via your native country
Better or lower tax rates
Asset protection
Confidentiality
Access to a wider variety of investments

Why would offshore investors consider Canada as a good option?

One of the biggest things Canada has to offer the world is natural resources. Canada has many natural resources, such as lumber, oil, and gas. Right now, the Alberta oil sands are producing a significant amount of oil, and this can be a great opportunity for offshore investors.

Another option is real estate and land – Canada is a big country, and investors may have a lot more options to buy real estate and land then they would in their own home country.

In conclusion

I think that Canada can definitely be considered a viable destination for offshore investors. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about offshore investment in Canada.

No round up this week..

13. September 2012 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized

It’s pathetic, but it’s 8 p.m and I’m wiped. I’ve enjoyed everyone’s posts this week – got to almost everyone’s site at least once, but I’m just too darned tired to post a round up. Have a great weekend -I’ll be back Monday.

I’m looking for guest posts!

12. September 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized

Seriously folks – who wants to listen to me babble on endlessly? I’ve had a few guest posts and would love more. Pretty much any topic, as long as it’s finance based in some way is acceptable! If you’re interested, please check out my guest posts policy.

Newer blogs – don’t be shy! I would love to hear from you – and free links/publicity are always good!

Figuring out your big financial picture

10. September 2012 · 9 comments · Categories: Net Worth · Tags: calculating your financial picture, figuring out your net worth, what you owe, what you own

Last week, I had a post about living paycheck to paycheck. I said I’d start to do a series on how to help you break out of that cycle, and I’m planning to cover everything from cutting costs, to negotiating with credit card companies to looking into declaring bankruptcy. I think that a lot of this information will be useful, no matter what your financial situation!

The first thing you need to do to figure out exactly what you have and what you owe. This can be referred to as calculating your net wealth. I try to do this at least once a year to see how hubby and I are doing – are we doing better? Are we down? Can I finally make good on my threat to sell his CD collection? (yes, he still buys CDs).

So, in order to do this, I figure out the following:
·   What do we have in our savings and chequing accounts?
·   What do we have in our RRSPs?
·   What do we have in non-registered savings (that’s anything that isn’t a saving or chequing account or a retirement account)
·   How much is the stock I’ve bought worth (yes, I own individual stock – but only for companies I work for or have worked for)?
·   What do I estimate the house and car are worth (not everyone likes to include these, as they aren’t ready cash)

You should be able to find most of this information online, or have paperwork for it. I don’t get into pension plan values at all.
And then there’s the not so fun part – what do I owe. This can include any of the following (I put the total amount owed, but you should also have a separate column for monthly payments – you’ll need this later on):
·   Mortgage
·   Car payments
·   Credit Card Bills
·   Any other outstanding bills – best to list those individually
·   Any money I owe other people (e.g. parents)

As with what you have, you should be able to find this information online or have the paperwork for it. If you’re in the habit of stuffing unpaid bills into a drawer – now’s the time to pull them out!

Good luck! This may seem like a lot of work, but it’s a one off and well worth the time and effort. It’ll get you on track to start figuring out where your pain points are. Next week, I’ll cover how to start tackling credit card debt and unpaid bills.

Have you ever sat down and calculated what you’re worth? Do you find it’s helpful or not?