When did we become a bunch of penny pinchers?

Are you too getting just a little sick and tired of all the advice about how to save money?  “How to save money when grocery shopping” ... “How so save money on clothes” … “How to save money on electricity” … When did we all become such a bunch of penny pinchers?

Thank goodness for Christmas.  Apparently Americans responded to all those articles about how to spend less with a big fat “Stick it where the sun don’t shine” and let their dollars roll.  ComScore, a leader in measuring the spending habits of Americans, reported that a whopping $35.3 billion was spend online, marking a 15% increase to last year.

The writers of the “How to save on …” will probably tut tut about this figure.  I applaud it.  This kind of spending will generate a need for more merchandise, resulting in more jobs.  It’s a shame Christmas comes around only once a year.  With that kind of spending, our economy would be back on its feet in no time.

Unfortunately that is not the case and more and more jobs are lost on a daily basis.  Statistics tells us that the unemployment rate is down by 8,5%.  Baloney, the unemployment rate may be down, but it’s not because all those people found jobs. 

Undoubtedly some will have found employment, but I dare say that the rest of those 8,5% simply lost their unemployment benefits.  I should know, I’m one of them.

I received no warning that my allocated weeks were nearly up, I received no notice that I had nearly reached the end of the line.  My benefits were canceled from one day to another.

I suspect that a mistake was made, so I went to the unemployment offices, but was politely sent packing.  I tried contacting them by phone by got the message “Our call volume is high.  Please try again later.  Have a nice day.”

(To be continued)

Moving time

Well, the shit has hit the fan. The real estate shit that is. We’re gonna have to move soon.

I got a call from our landlord this morning, announcing that he is planning on selling our condo. We’re just having no luck.

Ten years ago we came to the building and moved in in unit 504. A little over a year later the landlord sold the place.

In the same building we moved to unit 402. A little over a year later the landlord sold the place.

From there we moved, still in the same building, to unit 502. A little over a year later the landlord ... you guessed it, sold the place.

That’s when we moved into the unit we are in now. In this unit we’ve been for about 6 years, but now, now it’s selling time again.

Damn it and we just recently fixed the place up. We painted everywhere and modernized the kitchen.

The building is far from ideal, but over the years it’s become home.

It also has a very convenient location. Within walking distance of the subway station, close to stores, close to the bowling alley and everything else we need.

It’s not moving that worries me, it’s the price of rental units. At the price we’re renting now, we’ll never find anything similar.

We’re considering buying the place, that way we’ll never have to move again, but do we really want to do that? Over the years the quality of residents in this building has gone down and the management and Board of Directors are far from ideal.

Along with the downsides, the building does have some good points. The units are large and the balconies are enormous.
We’ve seen other condos in the past and my goodness, in comparison those are shoeboxes.

What will the future bring? The real estate future that is.