Adventures in Debt

The change in the weather has definitely got me thinking of getting outside and moving again. I’m not a big winter sports person (I’m more into the apres ski rather than the skiing itself), so I always look forward to spring/summer/fall. And with the winter we had this year in Toronto, where we had the second highest snowfall total in almost 70 years, I was itching to get back outside and moving around.

Since I’m also trying to be a frugal person with respect to my exercising, that meant no joining the tennis club that I wanted to join, or recreational sports league. So what’s a frugal gal to do in an expensive city like Toronto? Take advantage of all the green space and free tennis courts. The Parks & Recreation department of Toronto does a good job with the free courts around the city, so that the nets were up several weeks ago, and the courts ready to go. They’ve even converted some of the free hockey rinks around the city to tennis courts, which is nice. Sure, they’re not the swanky courts I’ve played on in the past, but considering I’ve not played regularly in over 15 years, it’s not a huge issue. In fact, I would feel worse paying for a tennis club membership and then only going like 3 times all year. This is something I’ve actually done before, so I didn’t want to repeat that this summer.

One issue with the free tennis courts is that invariably there tends to be that group of men (and why is it always men?) who occupy the courts all day, not allowing any one else to play. You’re only supposed to play for 30 minutes at a time, and then if someone’s waiting, you cede the court to them, and then they play. But since there’s like usually 10 men or so hanging around, they just put up a racket on the pegs, leave it there permanently, and play all day. It can be rather intimidating to recreational players, you know? But the one thing I’ve noticed with the permanent players at the park near my house is that they only occupy one of the three courts permanently, so that they let others take the other two, and in fact, I’ve even seen them cede their court sometimes, which is nice. They’re still there watching, which can be added pressure to someone like me that’s supremely rusty, but at least they’re nice about letting others play while they take a break. Other groups at other courts around the city aren’t as nice, so that’s a good thing.

Another form of exercise I’m trying to do regularly is jogging. I rediscovered jogging about 8 years ago, and have been discovering all the green spaces in Toronto as I do it. I used to run through the Spadina extension, as well as Sunnybrooke Park, which are nice areas. Now that I live close to High Park, I’m exploring this area. It’s impressive that once you enter the park you don’t feel like you’re in a big city any more. Very nice.

So there are two activities I’ll be doing that are frugal and somewhat free this summer. What are you doing to get out and moving this summer?

This morning I was driving to work and passed by an independent gas station. I chuckled quietly to myself when I saw the price they had listed: 190.0. The rest of the city was listing their gas at 119.0.

Needless to say this typo or mistake could cost both the gas station owner and customers money. It would have been better if the owner paid a little more attention to his pricing and displayed the correct price. But instead, he left it up there all day. Now, he could have been having a malfunction in his sign, however unfortunate that would be, however I took a look to see if he had posted any signs on the pumps or even near the cashier’s booth, but didn’t see either. I know that even if I weren’t trying to be frugal, I still wouldn’t pop into that station to fill up. There’s no way I would want to frequent a station who has an owner that doesn’t not pay attention to the details of his business.

How’s that for some gas station follies?

In mid-March I prepared my 2007 taxes and Netfiled them to the Government of Canada. Typically it only takes three weeks before I hear back from them, since my taxes are usually quite simple. Except two weeks ago I received a letter from the government asking me to send in my T4s (those are the slips that your company sends out stating your income for the year.)

GULP

I don’t know about you, but I always get nervous whenever the government asks for “proof” of anything, whether that’s at a border crossing and they ask for my passport, or when someone asks to see my photo I.D. But this, this could be extremely nerve-wracking!

But since I knew that the real reason they were asking for the proof was that I had made more last year than the previous year, what with my raise, my severance pay and my new job, I knew I would be all right. And sure enough, I was!

How was I all right?

I actually got my income tax return last Thursday. Yes, for one glorious day, my bank account was doing the Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy song. The planets even aligned last week so that I had both my income tax return AND my bi-weekly pay deposited into my account on the same day. Oh, it was a heady time, seeing all those numbers in my chequing account. I admit that I left all the money in my account for a day just to see all those numbers.

Of course reality set in the next day when I had to disperse all the money:

1.  10% went into my fun money savings account (either my travel fund, or my new tv fund, I haven’t decided yet.)
2. 90% went into my debt repayment, divided up between a couple of the accounts.

How are you going to use your income tax refund (if you’re getting one)? Are you going to be bad and spend it on something frivolous that you haven’t been able to buy? Or are you being responsible and paying off some of your debt?