10 Questions About Money For The (Almost) 10th Of April

I don't usually link up with Leslie for her "10 on the 10th" but I decided to join in this month -- just a few days late. The questions are all about money and I thought they were interesting. My usual "10 on the 10th" photos are coming tomorrow :)

 

1) What was your first job?  How old were you when you started working?

My first job was probably working for my dad. He owned a tree nursery with my two uncles so there was always something to do. I worked in the fields, I worked planting cuttings on elementary school spring break, I worked in sales for two summers in university, I worked as a receptionist in the office in the spring in high school -- I learned a lot of different skills at that place! Other than that, I did a lot of babysitting. And one year, one of my mom's classmates paid me around $200 to colour in The Anatomy Coloring Book. They had to colour it all as a class assignment and thought it was a waste of their time so they paid me to do it. That was a lot of money in the mid-80s for a 10-12 year old! I was probably 12 when I started working somewhat regularly.

 

2) Tell us about the best job you’ve ever had.  And the worst.

 

Probably the best job I ever had was when I worked part-time at Chapters, a big Canadian bookstore. I started there during the Christmas rush in mid-November and worked there part-time for two or three years. I LOVED talking to people about books and selling them books. I worked in the children's book section and as a cashier and always made a lot of sales! (I was also working full-time at my "real job" so Chapters really was just for fun!)

The worst job I had was a two-day babysitting job when I was about 18 where I realized, in retrospect, that the children were being abused. I was too young to recognize it at the time since it was neglect rather than physical abuse. I never reported those parents and I really regret that. But I do think about that family a lot.

 

3) Are you a saver or a spender?  What about your significant other?

 

I think we are both savers. We don't tend to spend a lot of money, except on travel! But we are both pretty frugal.

 

4) Have you ever played the stock market?  Do you play the lottery?  Ever gambled?  Ever won big?

 

I have never played the stock market. I did buy a few lottery tickets when I was about 12. I won $50 and then the lottery kiosk didn't want to pay me. My dad got mad at them and said something like, "If you will take kids' money when they're giving it to you then you have to pay out to kids when they win." I think I spent that $50 on junk food my parents wouldn't let me buy otherwise!!! I did go to a casino once the year that I lived in The Netherlands. I had a limit of money to spend and when it was gone, I was done. I don't really like giving my money away in that way.

 

5) What is your favorite way to splurge?  What do you dislike spending money on most?

 

My favourite way to splurge is on travel!!! And buying myself flowers :) I hate spending money at the dentist and on household and car repairs -- our washer, our furnace, our car -- ugh. Those aren't fun ways to spend money.

 

6) How do you save money?  Do you save change?  Christmas Club or vacation accounts?  Time-share?

 

Right now we are saving money by not traveling -- hahaha!!! I don't save change and we don't have vacation rewards. My credit card gives us points for shopping so we save some on groceries with that. Dave gets a percentage back on his credit card bill at the end of the year. We're not too big into this kind of stuff though.

 

7) Who pays the bills?  Who does the taxes?  Do you file early or last minute?

 

Dave mostly pays the bills because he has the steady (and larger) income. He has most of them on direct debit so it's easier, rather than depending on my income which fluctuates. I mostly do the taxes but Dave is always there to answer questions about his work income. I always aim to file early and usually end up filing about two weeks before the deadline.

 

8) Name brands or generic groceries?  Favorite stores to shop?  Have you used grocery pick up?  Delivery? Coupons?

 

We definitely buy generic groceries -- they're way cheaper. I've experienced grocery pick up once when I was doing it for a friend. I tried grocery pick up for our family but when it took me five minutes to find the kind of milk I wanted, I gave up on the rest of the order. Who has time for that?!?!?!

 

Before Covid I used to price match all the time but I've stopped that now. Maybe I'll pick it up again when things go back to "normal." Right now I'm still thrilled when I can find everything on my list :) And we always shop at SuperStore and then Wal-Mart for any extras. We do buy certain things at Costco but SuperStore is the cheapest and usually has everything we need.

 

9) Do you shop thrift stores and yard sales?  Ever used Poshmark or eBay?

 

Our kids like to shop yard sales. And we like to donate to the thrift store. One thing that isn't covered anywhere else in these questions that I'm going to talk about here is that we get a ton of hand-me-downs for our kids (and our house). If you walk into our house, very little of what you see is something we've bought. It's all come from someone else -- mostly my parents, Dave's parents, or Tim and Janice. That has helped us save a ton of money over the years.

 

10) Is there anything you collect or save thinking it might be valuable some day?

 

I'd love it if we could make some money off of Dave's 5,000 baseball cards (that's really about how many he has) but I don't think he has any valuable ones. I collect mugs but not because I think they might be valuable! So no, we don't actually collect anything of value.