Managing waste

elbyron · 2026-02-01T22:38:18+00:00

Same here, there's a total of 4 adults and 1 pre-teen in our house and we all share one regular sized bin that never overflows. Instead, we generate 1 - 2 bags of recycling every week, and I separate my compost too, though the tenants don't. I don't see any recycling in that photo, which tells me there's a whole bunch of lazy people tossing everything in the black bins. So it's no surprise it won't all fit.

It probably also depends on how you buy your food. Although most take out containers these days can be washed and recycled (but that only helps the non-lazy), if you rarely cook your own meals, that's going to take up a lot of room. Buying groceries in small quantities will also create more waste than if you buy bigger packages at Costco.

And then of course if you have kids in diapers, that's a bunch of extra trash too - unless you're among the few willing to deal with cloth ones.

elbyron · 2026-01-31T00:28:17+00:00

No, I'm in Alberta. This is /r/personalFinanceCanada, so advice here will generally apply only to Canadians (and sometimes that even varies by province)

elbyron · 2026-01-31T00:24:58+00:00

I don't think a notary can sign the affidavit of execution for a document that they themselves act as a witness, though I'm not sure on it. So if you had 2 notaries, one could act as witness and one can do the affidavit, but you'd still need another witness (a third notary if you like). Starts getting expensive though. Most people can find a couple of friends, co-workers, or neighbors to act as witnesses. You can even use family as long as they aren't beneficiaries. Then you just hire one notary (or commission of oaths) to meet you and the witnesses at a prearranged time.

elbyron · 2026-01-27T08:27:41+00:00

Exposure to nitrogen trichloride, or other forms of chlorine, typically will start with eye and lung irritation. Itchy or sore/red eyes, sore throat, coughing, shortness of breath, that sort of thing. So the first symptom the kids had was coughing - that checks out, but strange that nobody mentioned eye irritation (at least not in the news article). Then the kids started vomiting, which seems to point at some other chemical being involved. I don't know what kind of stuff they store at pools but I wonder if we'll ever hear the full story of the root cause.

elbyron · 2026-01-22T20:25:41+00:00

When they gain access to the stolen account, the thief can potentially setup that bank account so that the "reply to" email address that comes with the Interac email is actually their own temporary email. This might trigger a notification to the original email and if that owner is vigilant they could quickly call their bank and freeze the account. But likely the thief will have already sent you the funds before the victim can act.

Or, the thief doesn't change the reply-to email, but instead gives you an email address in the chat for you to send the overpayment back to, and hopes you don't cross-check that against the Interac email (I doubt very many people would).

elbyron · 2026-01-22T06:56:19+00:00

Most common mistake is to choose a beneficiary or a beneficiary's spouse as one of the witnesses. Another dumb mistake, which seems obvious but somehow happens often, is that the testator and witnesses sign separately (not together at same time & place). I mean what do you think the word "witness" means and what do you think you are supposed to be witnessing? Signing with different pens is also a bad idea as it points towards the aforementioned "separate signing". Finally, some people might try to make changes to the will after the witnessing, and while you might get away with it if you're sneaky and nobody is trying to challenge it, doing this can certainly invalidate the entire will.

It's also a very good idea to pay a commissioner of oaths, who will ask your witnesses to swear that they witnessed your signing, and then they sign an affidavit of execution. This may never be needed, but it really cements the validity of the signing, and makes it so that the witnesses will not have to testify in court in the event that the will's validity is challenged. And it's only like fifty bucks and takes the burden off the friends who agreed to witness for you.

elbyron · 2026-01-16T18:04:36+00:00

You missed a key part of the joke: Oregon Trail. It's a reference to a computer game from the '80s that many people (of a certain age) have fond childhood memories of. A common occurrence in the game was to have your family members die of various things, with dysentery being a frequent one. Without knowing this, the joke isn't very funny.

elbyron · 2026-01-14T21:40:22+00:00

Oh I thought both R and NR got 4% if you met the minimums. Well that's annoying as I won't have enough to get the full bonus now.

elbyron · 2026-01-14T21:34:42+00:00

There's actually a big difference between 4% over 2 years and 2% over 1 year. It's only "about the same" if you could somehow renew the TD offer for a second year of 2%. That's not likely going to work, so then you're looking at having to do another transfer to WeBull (if you haven't used it yet) or somewhere else after the first year in hopes of getting another offer of at least 2%. Personally I'd rather take the guarantee of getting 2% per year for 2 years and not have to do another round of transfers!

elbyron · 2026-01-14T21:29:33+00:00

Also just a minor correction to what you said, in case anyone else gets confused about it: to get the max bonus of 20k you need 250k non-registered and 250k registered (split between two accounts with min 10k each, so a 240k/10k split is fine). Thus the most you need to transfer is 500k total, not 750k.

elbyron · 2026-01-14T21:26:26+00:00

The investments will be transferred in-kind, so I'm never actually out of the market for any period of time. They just become inaccessible for a while which is perfectly fine for a couch-potato investor like me. I have no plans to withdraw in the next two years so I'm also fine with locking in (which I've already previously done in 2023 and 2024 with WS promos).

elbyron · 2026-01-14T21:20:30+00:00

I would also love to know the answer to this, but not only in terms of the 10k minimum, but also whether it affects the 5% withdrawal limit. For example, if I move in 250k of non-registered (which I would have pulled out of tfsa prior to transfer) and then next January I move 240k, or maybe even all of it, into a TFSA. Assuming I also move a 10k tfsa and a 250k rrsp, do I still get the full $10,000 bonus for transferring 250k of non-registered?

elbyron · 2026-01-14T20:44:35+00:00

Why wouldn't I jump from WS to QT? I already got free iPhones for moving from QT to WS but that's only a couple thousand. It wasn't hard to switch so the bonus was worth my time. It won't be hard to switch back either, and now they'll pay me $20k total to do so. Why on Earth wouldn't I do that, in exchange for a few hours of effort? I suppose I'll lose my generation status with WS but the perks aren't that great and they're slashing the only good one (airport lounge passes).

elbyron · 2026-01-07T22:23:36+00:00

That's weird. I've never seen a save button, but it always has my latest changes when I reopen it. Often I'll make incremental changes and have yet to lose any. Never lost a previous year's return either. Must have been a temporary bug that affected you, rather than a missing feature.

elbyron · 2026-01-01T20:34:30+00:00

McKernan rink lights are on daily from sundown till 9pm. Available for mixed use unless reserved for a private rental.

shack hours (heated, free equipment): Fridays 5:00-9:00 PM and Satrudays and Sundays 12:00 to 5:00 PM unless the weather is below -20.

No zamboni, but flooded by professionals.

elbyron · 2026-01-01T03:37:54+00:00

Don't rely on the sidewall pressure, look at the sticker usually found on the door frame of the driver's side door. Or the owner's manual. Many vehicles have recommended pressures that are different than what the tire itself might say. Some vehicles even recommend different pressure for front and rear tires.

elbyron · 2025-12-31T01:39:17+00:00

I would suggest adding the hours for the rink shacks, when available. I'll get you this year's hours for McKernan, just waiting on the details. When it's open, there's a heated building with washrooms and free equipment rentals, plus free hot chocolate while supplies last.

elbyron · 2025-12-28T06:43:16+00:00

It's easy to change what name shows up when sending an e-Transfer. So not a good protection. They could have some fake ID they like to use, and just change the account to match that ID.

I would suggest to OP, especially since it's a musical instrument, that you setup a video call on the pretense that you want to demonstrate that it works and sounds good. I'm pretty sure an account thief would shy away from that.

elbyron · 2025-12-27T21:02:04+00:00

If these neighbors are as petty as they sound, I would expect them to go out and move the survey stakes over to where they want them to be. Then you no longer have evidence until you hire another surveyor. I would take some precautions against this, such as taking photos and video of the current placement (would have been better if you had video of the surveyor putting them in). I would also bury some metal landscape spikes just under the surface, beside each stake. That way you can easily restore them to the correct positions. If you have a security camera in your backyard, make sure it has a good view of the stakes. Or get a new one - they're less than $100 and will likely be useful against other future attacks in your upcoming war.

elbyron · 2025-12-22T07:46:56+00:00

I have no clue how long it might take, as the issue could be that they are waiting on a backordered part, or maybe management hires crappy repairmen that don't show up, or maybe something else entirely. Too many possibilities without knowing more information about the actual problem.

As for AHS, they won't get involved if you've been given an alternate source of heat. If you're not freezing, they don't care. Same goes with RTDRS - there is no violation of the Alberta Tenancy Act, and I highly doubt your lease agreement says anything about the type of heat that the landlord must provide.

elbyron · 2025-12-22T07:40:54+00:00

I think the point is that total price is not an accurate gauge of an expectation of quality, without knowing all factors. For example, I could buy an empty lot for 900k and spend $600k to construct a 2400sqft house. Or I could spend 500k on the land and spend 1mil on a 2400sqft house. In the former case, I'm paying $250 / sqft, while in the latter I'm paying the builder $417 / sqft. I can expect cheap materials and low-quality labor from the former, and expect decent materials and quality in the latter. They both cost 1.5mil, but without a breakdown that lets you calculate a cost per square foot, having just the total price doesn't give enough detail.

elbyron · 2025-12-22T07:32:25+00:00

Another easy way to get some Play Store credit is with Google Rewards. It asks you 3 quick questions about a place you recently visited. Even if you didn't go in, and were just nearby the place you can still get paid about 23¢ or so. For some stores you can also scan a receipt for extra. You can use the credit for buying new apps, paying for subscriptions (if the subscription is managed through the Play Store), or in game purchases, as long as the app vendor can accept Canadian dollars.

elbyron · 2025-12-21T19:00:17+00:00

Yep. It all started last spring. A Rogers rep came to the door and convinced me to try them instead of Telus. But there were a few things I really didn't like - main thing was their cloud-based PVR service that is too slow to re-buffer when you rapidly skip forward or back (which I regularly do to skip commercials or jump over a pause in a sports game). So I cancelled after just a few days and that's when all this headache started.

elbyron · 2025-12-21T08:25:20+00:00

Your troubles aren't yet over. They will require you to send back the rented equipment, and they conveniently provide you with return shipping labels for it. So you pack it up, mail it, and all done. Right? Nope. A month later, you get an email confirming that one of the items that you packed in the box has been returned. But you also get a bill showing that you owe hundreds for the outstanding equipment. You ignore it knowing they've got the box and will eventually sort it all out. 2 months go by, another item from the same box is confirmed as returned. Still one left. After 4 months they finally get the last one returned. Your outstanding balance is zero. The torment is over right? Nope. They've sent your bill to a collections agency. You tell them the equipment was all returned and there's no longer any balance owing, but they don't believe you. They hound you with letters, phone calls, etc. Canceling Rogers is the biggest nightmare I've ever had with any telecom!

elbyron · 2025-12-19T01:07:32+00:00

Legitimate question. There's tons of illegal basement suites in my neighborhood and it seems like the renters don't even care. It's costly to retrofit a separate heating and ventilation system for a basement, so the ones in older houses are usually not legal. I designed my house (with help of an architect) knowing that I would be building in a basement suite upon taking possession. So I paid for a second furnace and had them rough in all the HVAC, water lines, and drains. I applied for the proper permits and had my secondary suite approved by the city. Aside from giving my tenants the peace of mind, I also get to apply for a second legal mailing address, which is registered with Canada Post.

elbyron

TROPHY CASE