In Case Of A Car Accident

An opinion piece by Jerry

A few weeks ago my wife and I were involved in a collision that could have ended much worse than it did.  While traveling north on a primary highway a car coming south turned left across our lane.  I was able to stomp on the brakes and yank steering wheel to the left so that we just clipped the other car's right rear bumper at about 50 km/hr.

Fortunately no-one was injured. We each were able to drive off the road into the nearby gas station.  There we exchanged insurance information and business cards.  We pulled off the pieces of our right headlight and duct taped the wires down so we could continue driving.  Both vehicles were quite functionally usable.

This was the first time I had ever been in an accident when I needed to make a claim.  It was a learning experience for me.  Here is what I learned from this incident:

Saving Money Is A Choice?

An opinion piece by Jerry

My wife and I finished buying our children's clothes and school supplies 2 weeks ago.  It was a lot of money to spend in one weekend, and there is more to come with school fees and the fall sports/activities registration coming up.  In fact we have found mid August to mid September to be more expensive than Christmas for our family.

We are fairly frugal, and my wife is amazing with a budget.  Before we did any clothes shopping she went through the kids current clothes to see what still fits and the shape of the clothes.  None of them had much of a growth spurt this last year, so many of the clothes can be worn again, those that didn't fit were given to friends that could use them or to goodwill.  There were a few new things they needed, so we made a list.  We went to Old Navy and stuck to the list.  Old Navy carries its own brand and doesn't carry popular brand name clothing, but the quality and prices are decent, although we did notice price increases over last year.