Not Sure How We’re Supposed To Live?

Now I know many of you are from either the States where you have to pay for health services, or from other countries of which I’m highly uneducated of how your health systems work, but here in Canada, we are known for our free health care. This has both been a good thing and a bad thing because waiting times are usually outrageous.

Recently, the province I live in, Alberta, has had a budget renewal. Due to the price of the Canadian dollar summiting so low, and the price of oil dropping off, our economy has done little but crash and leaving us in a current 5 billion dollar deficit.

So what does the government decide to do amongst other things? Start charging us for health care. Now keep in mind, I understand that others will look at us and say things like, “We’ve always had to pay for it. So stop whining about it.” But what I’m asking you to remember is that Alberta is one of the most expensive places to live. Just because gas prices and things have gone down, living costs have far increased past wages in the past many years. You can come here to make money, but you also come to lose money.

Aside from that, you have to remember that health care was one less thing we had to budget. Yes, we still have to pay for the dentist, chiropractors, and medical needs of that line. But this is the direct access to a doctor that will now cost us.

I wouldn’t even be complaining if we had to pay something like 10-20 dollars a month for health care as I feel that is a good introduction to the paying of health care. But they are going to ask us to pay $1000 per year for health care. Combine that with the fact I’m almost getting 60% of my net pay already by the time they take out taxes, and the fact that I just barely am over the limit of which you have to start paying for health care (people under a net income of 50,000 do not have to pay), I’m not sure where it is going to come from right now. Maybe if I didn’t have so many taxes taken out, I would find this easier to accept. But when my account is pretty much dry by the middle of the month simply paying bills, and I’m living off 100% of my husband for the second half already, and we’re barely making it month to month as it is, how am I supposed to come up with a possible $2000 for the both of us?

On top of all of this, there are many refugees and immigrants from various countries that are somehow able to live in Canada getting $24,000+ per year from the government just to sit home and take English classes. Yet my husband and I are in debt because he was unable to do anything for 2 years and has been working for less than a year. Aside from all of the many dollars we have had to pay to Immigration, I can’t seem to catch a break.

The worst part of all of this is that my husband has not been “home” to see his family in almost 2 years. The government did not allow him to leave the country, and only in a few months will be his first time to leave. So we had plans of trying to save up some money to drive down and see his family, finally.

This whole fee thing would probably be even less of a deal if it weren’t for the fact this budget is supposed to go into effect THIS JULY. So somehow, I may be $1000 or $2000 out (our entire trip if not more) just for health care and my husband not able to see his family, his grandpa that is sick and his brother who he wasn’t even able to travel to see during his surgeries last summer?

My head can’t even wrap around this right now. I don’t even know what to do. It seems like the world keeps demanding money, specifically the government, but our wages don’t rise, and instead we get less and less to live from. I don’t know how I’m going to do this…

We Finally Got It… And He’s Happy!

I never knew looking for a truck could be so stressful. It’s been 3 weeks. Two down payments and cancellations. And endless online and offline searching. I cannot even begin to tell you the amount of sleep we’ve lost and the amount of frustration we’ve endured. Truly endless. Or so it seemed.

One thing about trucks is they cost a lot, especially where we live. So the decision either came to 0% interest on a new truck that cost much more money, or be charged some interest on a used vehicle that may not cost as much money, but usually had a fair amount of mileage on it.

To add to the frustration, my husband has owned 3 trucks before and therefore was not willing to settle for something ridiculous. We also deal with a mad amount of winter (snowed the first week of September…) so having 4WD and other features was important. He also wanted a diesel which automatically lifts the price. Oh boy…

Slowly throughout the weeks, we whittled down a few things. One, that he didn’t want brand new because the price was so high. Two, that we were sticking with lower kms on a used truck. Three, that it had to be diesel. Four and almost decided from the beginning, it had to be a Dodge.

The problem came that we had to find a Dodge with low kms that was a diesel and not out of our price range and that was the true struggle. Prices for trucks are simply outrageous. And then one caught his eye online.

There was a silver Dodge, lifted (he likes lifted), rugged brand new tires, nice looking wheels, diesel, 15 000 km, only 2 years old, still covered by all the factory warranties, some cool features, and a very fraction of the price it would have been new. It’s still at the high end of our price range, but doable.

So we went to look at it to make sure it wasn’t just one of those circumstances where the vehicle looks awesome online, but there are tonnes of things wrong with it when we get there. Truth be told, it was exactly as it looked.

The dealer man met us, was incredibly nice, gave us the keys, told us to have fun, and was very friendly and easy to sit with to discuss the truck. It was a small used dealership, very family friendly. I mean seriously, the men were sitting around chewing Double Bubble. Not much more friendly than that!

The truck was great, and made my husband feel so happy. I of course venture on the thoughts of pricing and what it means to dedicate our finances to this vehicle for the next several years, but again, it is doable, and most importantly, it made him happy.

Don’t get me wrong, the truck is nice. Aside from a couple dings in the bed, and the absolutely tiniest bump in the door (the dealership agreed to pay for this), the truck is incredibly unused. My assumption would be that the person who previously owned it could no longer afford it. I mean this truck probably cost upwards of $60000-70000 brand new. But it runs nicely, it looks nice, and it’s huge. Oh my word is it huge! The thing’s a beast! But at least I know my husband will be safe driving around this soon-to-be-frozen-place we call home. It’s his new baby and he loves it and that’s what makes me happy.

Not the best picture, but it was taken late at night when we finally took it home. Makes the Challenger look tiny!

Have you ever experienced extreme stress trying to find a new vehicle? What obstacles did you face?