Oh how I feel poor!

I just paid my $5,900-ish tuition payment. My second payment of a total of seven that will occur throughout the program. When did education get this expensive?

Well, as my professors have explained it, when it comes to graduate degrees in business, law, medicine and maybe a few others, the universities in Canada actually charge you what your degree is worth. As in, the cost for the rooms, materials, professors, energy for the classrooms, etc. The gist of it is, the government does not subsidize these programs. So, my undergraduate degree which cost about $20,000 was probably worth closer to $40,000 in actual costs but the government picked up the extra expense.

I totally understand the logic that these types of graduate degrees will pay for themselves later but seriously. I think the high cost is actually a deterrent for people to go to school. Unlike full-time students, part-time students don't have the same options for student loans, bursaries, scholarships, etc. We are pretty much on your own. So, unless you are willing to take the plunge and risk $40,000-ish dollars for a graduate degree, you don't get to go. I don't think that's fair. Somehow, I think we should be encouraging everybody to go to school.

If people don't get a chance to go, then think of all the potential opportunities the world is missing out on. I for one would like to know what all those smart cookies out there could do for the world with just a wee bit more education.

(again, I understand that education is not for everybody or for every job but I think it should be available for those who want it)

Summer soccer

Summer soccer has started. For a low-low cost of $70 I get something like 24 games, of which I anticipate being able to play in 20 of them.

I played my first game last night and my oh my! I forgot how much harder it is to play on a knobbly grass field at a school than it is to play on turf (like in winter soccer). The grass field has pot-holes, sprinklers, divots, hills, mud, etc. Nothing consistent at all. This plays havoc on my poor weak ankles! It always takes about 3 or 4 games before all those tiny muscles in my ankles get strong enough to handle the strain. But...I love it! Small pain for big money savings!

My summer soccer is about $200 less than my winter league because we play on these grass fields instead of turf. To me, that is totally worth it.

Still waiting.

I don't remember exactly when we took our tax return in but it feels like we should have gotten the money by now. Of course, I think I always feel that way when money is owed to me. It just can't get here soon enough!

Thankfully I don't need the money, but I sure do want the money.

Got a new credit card

Boris and I recently got a new credit card. AND, it has a fee! boo you say?

Well, I am not a huge fan of the credit cards with fees but sometimes they really do work out. We went and got an Alaska Airlines Mastercard. It costs us $75 per year. The benefit is that once per year we can purchase a companion ticket for $99 (plus tax). This year we already purchased our tickets to Puerto Vallarta in May. Normally the flights would have cost us around $1,800 but instead it came to $1,218.66 + the $75 fee, which brings it to a total of $1,293.66. That is still saving us roughly $500. Not too shabby huh?

Of course, you have to actually fly on alaska at least once per year as a couple for it to make sense. If we end up not wanting to go somewhere at some point then we will just cancel the card.

I'm feeling pretty good about this card!

Blinds are pricey

Have you ever purchased blinds? Up until about a week ago, I had not. I had no freaking idea that blinds are so expensive.

Unfortunately, my condo came with some terrible blinds that malfunction all the time. We've put up with them for the last 2.5 years but now they are actually breaking. One has literally fallen off the window and two have simply stopped going up or down. sigh.

We decided to go "all-out" and get some fancy cordless blinds for the two bedrooms. They are cellular blinds without cords. yay! For our enclosed balcony we chose to simply replace what we currently have. They are standard aluminum blinds that are extremely long! We only replaced the two that are broken, but there are actually 8 of them in total.

For the 4 blinds (1 in each bedroom and 2 for the enclosed balcony) came to a whopping $896 (including tax). AND it was 20% off! holy crappola! The price was so high because we got pretty sweet blinds for the bedrooms and the ones in the balcony are just so huge.

I even shopped around and couldn't find anything cheaper. I looked into ordering them online but the shipping would have killed me. I guess this is just the cost of blinds. Live and learn huh?