The Bad…

Everytime I visit or am being visited by my in-laws, I’m constantly hearing comparisons between their small city and that of Toronto. Everytime. It’s like walking on eggshells with what I say because if I’m not careful, I find myself wincing when they start with what feels like a lecture of some sort.

A perfect example would be our gas price compared to theirs. I made the mistake, while driving with my mother-in-law, of mentioning that I need gas but am not sure whether I should get it right at that moment, or wait until later on the day where I was pretty sure price would drop. I merely was just going on about my routine… that game I play every week or two whenever I play ‘guess when the price will be the lowest’. The way I see it, if I can save money on gas, why not? Isn’t that the thing to do? Isn’t that what most people with a fixed income do?

My comment was greeted with a scorning, “Oh come on! You can’t be complaining about your gas price here. It’s NOTHING like that of Thunder Bay’s gas price! You guys don’t know how good you have it!”

I felt like saying… “But I wasn’t complaining. I was just wondering if I should do it now or later… and I figure it doesn’t hurt to save as much as possible. And who’s talking about Thunder Bay? Where did that come from? I never even said I felt that we didn’t have it good. And why are you against me saving money? It IS ultimately, for the sake of putting money away for a rainy day - you know… for your GRANDCHILD???”

But I didn’t. I bit my tongue and explained the following…

The Ugly…

Yes. It’s true that we have lower prices in gas, on average, then that of certain cities such as Thunder Bay and I’m sure… many other smaller cities and towns. But the ugly truth is that we also face an alarmingly high fee for car insurance. And while my in-laws use only, at most, a third to a half on gas and mileage then either my husband or myself, in the end, we’re spending more on gas just due to how much further we need to travel per day.

I’m not saying that we don’t have it good. I think we do. If you want to talk about money, the cheaper price in gas is NOTHING compared to how much further we need to drive and how much the automobile car insurance has been ripping us off for the last few years - a big city like ours have more accidents annually, which is the direct cause of our increase in rates.

The Good…

There is no good for today.

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1. Shy’s Good, Bad and Ugly #10
2. Shy’s Good, Bad and Ugly of Toronto #5
3. Shy’s Good, Bad and Ugly of Toronto #4.52
4. Shy’s Good, Bad and Ugly #7
5. Shy’s Good, Bad and Ugly of Toronto #1