[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Given my financial situation, I do not buy anything other than food and gas for my 20 year old, 220,000-mile Toyota. It is not 2030, yet, (except for my jalopy), “I own nothing” (as Klaus and Justin preach), but I am NOT happy! At least not happy with what Trudeau, et all, have planned and done!

Since a divorce, loss of a well paying job, loss of my house, and using my savings and line of credit to try and save the house, I don’t have assets, and I am still paying on that debt, so I don’t have a whole lot to cut back on. There are many in much worse situations, so I won’t use the ‘food bank’. Hopefully, this doesn’t sound whiny, as it isn’t meant to be whiny. Life is what it is. I am just not in a position to cut a whole lot out of my spending. The job loss, divorce, etc. did an excellent job at curbing my discretionary spending, thank you very much.

AFA food, I have lately stocked up on non-perishables, dried legumes, powdered Milk, canned goods, because I suspect there may be shortages on MANY things, for some time. I do, however, sometimes get a ‘treatment, like Costco Polish Sausages. They are ‘made in America’. I also try to buy local, such as 10 lb of potatoes, all the way from Bassano, AB, about 75 miles from the Costco I shop at.

AFA sales tax, there is none on food (so far) in Canada and Alberta doesn’t have a sales tax. I am doing what I can, by joining the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta (Provincial independence party) andthe Maverick Party (Federal Western Canada independence party).

What I can do, that doesn’t cost anything but my time, is GET THE WORD OUT.

[Wissa]

It sounds like life has thrown you many of the same loops I went through. Divorce, losing a job. As soon as I lost the job, I rented out my house and rented a room from my brother (he charged me the same as he charged his other renters) until I could find a buyer for my house. I only got a couple of thousand dollars in my pocket after selling expenses and paying off the loan. Sold off my personal property associated with home ownership. In the meantime I worked temp jobs at minimum wage, with a 40 mile round trip commute through city traffic. I finally found a permanent job and rented an apartment where I lived for several years. Their claim in their newsletter was "We're not actually public housing. We just look like it."

A couple of jobs down the line I decided to get out of the apartment. Bought a cabin where I've been living for the past 30 years (come this June, anyway). Kept living here even when my commute became 50 miles each way.

Since then, I retired at age 51 when I lost my employment. I could have gone back to work at times in the past 14 years (come next Monday) but I couldn't think of any good reason to do it. After taxes and the additional costs associated with being employed, it wasn't worth my time. So right now, I live on Social Security, and only spend about 2/3 of that. I've never gone to a food bank, but my brother helps out at a church-based food bank and he'll bring me something from the food bank once in a great while. He says they've got so much food there that they have trouble figuring out how to get rid of it. When I talked to him this evening he said they're trying to get rid of salmon, so I told him that sure, I'd take some. I've got enough food here in my house right now that I could survive for years, but I'm not going to pass up salmon or smoked whitefish from their food bank if he brings some over. It's too pricy for me to ever consider buying it.