I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what truly makes me happy. Of course there are the obvious things like family, friends, being engaged in work that I enjoy and knowing that the decisions I am making are in line with the course I want for my life. But something unexpected crept up - Money!  This lead me to wonder if I’m somehow evil, since, of course, money is the root of all evil.

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The following joke satirizes the problem of focusing on possessions/material things while disregarding the more important things in life. Hopefully your perspective is better than this!

The Lexus
A very successful lawyer parked his brand-new Lexus in front of his office, ready to show it off to his colleagues. As he got out, a truck passed too close and completely tore off the door on the driver’s side. The lawyer immediately grabbed his cell phone, dialed 911, and within minutes a policeman pulled up.Before the officer had a chance to ask any questions, the lawyer started screaming hysterically. His Lexus, which he had just picked up the day before, was now completely ruined and would never be the same, no matter what the body shop did to it.When the lawyer finally wound down from his ranting and raving, the officer shook his head in disgust and disbelief. “I can’t believe how materialistic you lawyers are,” he said. “You are so focused on your possessions that you don’t notice anything else.”

“How can you say such a thing?” asked the lawyer.

The cop replied, “Don’t you know that your left arm is missing from the elbow down? It must have been torn off when the truck hit you.”

“Oh no!” screamed the lawyer. “Where’s my Rolex?”

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Food is a must buy for everyone. We often fall into bad habits at the grocery store which end up costing us lots of extra money in the long run. Here are some ideas to consistently save you money at the grocery checkout.

Some of these ideas are taken from a great article (Fifty ways to save on groceries) from the Toronto Star on Aug 23, 2007.

• Never shop when you are hungry. This is the #1 rule for controlling impulse purchases. (everything looks delicious when you are hungry!)
• Shop alone if you can. If you have to take children, let them prepare their own list of products they can actually pick up and put in the basket. Let them select a special fruit or vegetable they really like
• If possible, grocery shop at a quiet time so you can compare prices. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are best.
• Ask for rain checks if a sale product is out of stock
• Stock up on basics when they are on sale
• With meat, figure cost per serving instead of cost per pound. A pound of ground beef or boneless meat will make more servings than a pound with a lot of bones or fat.
• Look beyond eye level on the shelves. Manufacturers pay for this prime space. Look high and low for comparable items.

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I found this very interesting article from StatsCan (from Jan 2007) on the differences in trends between US and Canada regarding Personal Debt. Its a great read. Take a few minutes and give this 7-page document a read. Where do you fit in with the trends?

Personal Debt - Stats Canada

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There are certain purchases you deem are NECESSARY things to buy. For us, one of those things was a vehicle. We had to purchase a new vehicle before we got married because my previous vehicle had, how shall I say it…, “given up the ghost”. After we were married and had our first child we realized one thing we should have taken into consideration - the difficulty of getting a baby in and out of the backseat of a 2 door vehicle. But we decided to put up with it, that it wasn’t enough of a reason to purchase a new vehicle. More…

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