Summer Solstice/Aboriginal Day

The first day of summer. This is the day that Aboriginal Day celebrations are being held throughout Canada. There are some celebrations being held here in London, so I may venture down to Victoria Park with Cub for awhile. Today is also my M-I-L's birthday. There are lots of reasons for us to celebrate today, if only the weather will co-operate.

Reason #2186 for having an Emergency Fund: Canada Post strikes/lockouts. I bring this up because I personally know of people who have become financially reliant of their Government of Canada cheques. It's my  understanding that the employees of Canada Post have agreed to continue delivery of these types of cheques, which is good of them. Canada Pension, OAS, GIS, and Child Tax Benefit cheques are still getting to their intended destinations. Employment Insurance Benefit cheques are not on that list.  Most of these agencies have made alternate delivery arrangements for people to pick up their cheques somewhere, but the plans are not without faults. If you live in an area where you go to a box to get your mail, you would have to go to your local Post Office to pick up your cheque.

Having an emergency fund would alleviate some of the trouble surrounding get payments late because of the postal disruption. If you're living so close to the edge that not getting a few hundred dollars in the mail on a certain day, you're in trouble financially speaking. You could use your emergency money to live on for a few days, and when your cheque was finally in your hands, you could deposit it straight back to your E-fund.

I bring this up because twice this past week, I have gotten calls from people who haven't yet gotten their cheques, and needed to 'borrow' some money to float them until they got said cheque. I feel very conflicted by this because I want to help others, yet the Bank of Auntie Eboo closed a long time ago. I don't want my child-relatives to go without because of bad planning on their parents part. Just because I am in a position to be able to help, doesn't mean that I have to help.

So far this month, we are keeping on with payments, and doing the best that we can. Doing my annual numbers for income tax has really opened my eyes to our spending habits. We have lots we want to accomplish still, so keeping our noses to the grindstone will be important.