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Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Old Nov 12th 2019, 1:17 pm
  #31  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Originally Posted by Jingsamichty
If you've 'always wanted to have a dog' yet you allow yourself to be put off by a tiny thing like picking up poo, I don't think you've wanted a dog that much. It's not as if you actually have to use your bare hands

It's like saying you'd love kids but have decided against it because of nappy-changing.

Get a dog. They're great.
In the city it's no bother anyway, you only carry the bag to the nearest bin. Charlie, a dog I once had, was programmed to discharge on sight of the bin.
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Old Nov 12th 2019, 1:51 pm
  #32  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Originally Posted by Jingsamichty
If you've 'always wanted to have a dog' yet you allow yourself to be put off by a tiny thing like picking up poo, I don't think you've wanted a dog that much. It's not as if you actually have to use your bare hands

It's like saying you'd love kids but have decided against it because of nappy-changing.

Get a dog. They're great.
Well, we all have different tolerances towards stuff. A slightly false analogy to kids, given the limited Pampers period, and full lifespan. I haven't ruled out getting a dog at some point, I had one as a kid, and there have been few other family dogs in the past. Do you have a dog? What type?
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Old Nov 12th 2019, 2:22 pm
  #33  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Originally Posted by dbd33
Here we have three horses, two dogs and two cats. And fish. The fish are not cheaper. Best stay away from all animals, and eating out, and new cars (and very old cars) and nicer houses and having a vibrant life involving many people.

For this, people give up family, culture and access to Europe?
I don't know where my next meal is coming from so I'm certainly not qualified to own a pet.

A young lady in the office elevator several years ago was explaining to a colleague that she'd just spent $4k on an operation for her dog. A friend of mine who works at a Vet near the Beaches has been privy to a $25k opp. Such sums are an absurdity to me. Back in the day when our dog needed to be put down after the cancer got too painful it was only a few hundred quid.

A slippery slope to ruin even before you have to walk it every day, pick up, take it to the beauty parlor or check it in somewhere because you need a vacation.

Your pet list is excessive but then there is no one to talk to in the countryside so I understand it.
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Old Nov 12th 2019, 2:38 pm
  #34  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Originally Posted by JamesM

Your pet list is excessive but then there is no one to talk to in the countryside so I understand it.
So long as one stops at chatting with one's animals it's all good.

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Old Nov 12th 2019, 2:39 pm
  #35  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Originally Posted by Shard
Well, we all have different tolerances towards stuff. A slightly false analogy to kids, given the limited Pampers period, and full lifespan. I haven't ruled out getting a dog at some point, I had one as a kid, and there have been few other family dogs in the past. Do you have a dog? What type?
We have 2 dogs, A large whippet and a podenco.
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Old Nov 12th 2019, 2:44 pm
  #36  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Originally Posted by Jingsamichty
We have 2 dogs, A large whippet and a podenco.
Whippets. Such high energy dogs.



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Old Nov 12th 2019, 2:53 pm
  #37  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Originally Posted by dbd33
Whippets. Such high energy dogs.

Indeed. I reckon ours is horizontal for 23 hours a day. Incredible bladder control too... if it's raining, he just holds it in for another day.
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Old Nov 12th 2019, 5:03 pm
  #38  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Originally Posted by MillieF
but what is this continual need for people to have a bloody sippy cup in hand? Can nobody face the day without some sweetened bucket of stuff that they have to hang on to like a comfort blanket?

Why?
its called Coffee and yes some of us need it in the morning to even function properly.

I make my own however without paying $3 a cup
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Old Nov 12th 2019, 11:22 pm
  #39  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Originally Posted by Shard
$48 !!! I don't normally but lamb, any idea how much the equivalent would be in the UK? Seems very expensive. Or is the $48 an artificial price so that they can knock it down on a regular basis.
Sainsburys website says leg of lamb £9/kg. 2.2lbs, or £4.50 ($7.65) for just over 1lb. You do really well to see it for $7 or $8/lb here and that's boneless. Not as good.

Back when money was tight I used to pick one up and put it straight back down when I saw $40+ on the label.
There are lots of things here that say $8/lb, save $10/lb and they are never $18/lb but Lamb isn't one of them. I don't remember when it was but there was a week in one store and then the following week in a different one where they were between $23 and $33. We had 7 in our freezer after that.
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Old Nov 12th 2019, 11:28 pm
  #40  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Originally Posted by BristolUK
Sainsburys website says leg of lamb £9/kg. 2.2lbs, or £4.50 ($7.65) for just over 1lb. You do really well to see it for $7 or $8/lb here and that's boneless. Not as good.

Back when money was tight I used to pick one up and put it straight back down when I saw $40+ on the label.
There are lots of things here that say $8/lb, save $10/lb and they are never $18/lb but Lamb isn't one of them. I don't remember when it was but there was a week in one store and then the following week in a different one where they were between $23 and $33. We had 7 in our freezer after that.
Re: price of lamb in the UK, you've reminded me of one of my first 'what?!' experiences over there. I'd never been in an Iceland before, so was having a look around and came to the (frozen) legs of lamb. I can't remember the price, I know it was quite expensive but that wasn't what surprised me. There was a security tag on it, the kind that beep if you leave the shop without paying. A leg of lamb with a security tag, couldn't get over it!
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Old Nov 12th 2019, 11:38 pm
  #41  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Originally Posted by spouse of scouse
Re: price of lamb in the UK, you've reminded me of one of my first 'what?!' experiences over there. I'd never been in an Iceland before, so was having a look around and came to the (frozen) legs of lamb. I can't remember the price, I know it was quite expensive but that wasn't what surprised me. There was a security tag on it, the kind that beep if you leave the shop without paying. A leg of lamb with a security tag, couldn't get over it!
My local supermarket in Totterdown kept tins of salmon and jars of coffee behind the counter. Same idea but without the tag.
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Old Nov 12th 2019, 11:44 pm
  #42  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

I like lamb but even on sale its pretty pricey. Costco sometimes has a whole frozen lamb.

But then you have to cut it into more manageable size.
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Old Nov 13th 2019, 12:44 am
  #43  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Originally Posted by spouse of scouse
Re: price of lamb in the UK, you've reminded me of one of my first 'what?!' experiences over there. I'd never been in an Iceland before, so was having a look around and came to the (frozen) legs of lamb. I can't remember the price, I know it was quite expensive but that wasn't what surprised me. There was a security tag on it, the kind that beep if you leave the shop without paying. A leg of lamb with a security tag, couldn't get over it!
In Toronto we used to routinely buy meat in the pub from people who had just nicked it from the supermarket. Their method was simply to grab as much as they could carry from the freezer and leg it down the street. Alarmed lamb legs might have discouraged them.
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Old Nov 13th 2019, 12:47 am
  #44  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

We live in a so so area, and its a little common for some to do as dbd says, they go into the store, grab as much as they can and run as fast as they can, sometimes they get caught but that doesn't seem the norm. I have been approached more then once while outside asking if I am interested in buying steak, steak seems to be the big one.

I for one would not buy meat from some crack head peddling it on the street.

It's interesting at times living in a questionable area.

It's all mostly drug fueled, people need to steal to buy their drugs. Leave a dime in your car, or a pop can, and park it on the street in this area and its likely to get broken into, but even if there is nothing in the car, some will still break into it just to make sure.

Last edited by scrubbedexpat091; Nov 13th 2019 at 12:49 am.
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Old Nov 13th 2019, 1:16 am
  #45  
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Default Re: Biggest Money Lessons from Living in Canada

Originally Posted by Jsmth321
We live in a so so area, and its a little common for some to do as dbd says, they go into the store, grab as much as they can and run as fast as they can, sometimes they get caught but that doesn't seem the norm. I have been approached more then once while outside asking if I am interested in buying steak, steak seems to be the big one.
Because it's relatively compact and valuable even at half the sticker price. We didn't buy random stuff though. People would approach us, we'd discuss Sunday dinner, place an order and they'd fetch it.

Originally Posted by Jsmth321
It's all mostly drug fueled, people need to steal to buy their drugs. Leave a dime in your car, or a pop can, and park it on the street in this area and its likely to get broken into, but even if there is nothing in the car, some will still break into it just to make sure.
I used to have a sign on the dashboard, "Doors Open Please Do Not Break Glass". People would break the glass anyway. Once I lost a full soft pack of Marlboro (Marlboro aren't sold otc in Canada so it's a bother to go to Chinatown and get more). Once, early in the era of portables phones, I caught a glass breaker and hit him with my brick sized phone. The security guard, who had been watching, applauded.

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