Canadian Dollar!

[tgropp]

My thoughts exactly.......everyone needs to remember that in general our dollar is worth less than the US. It's been that way almost forever. We have been very lucky in terms of shopping and vacationing south of the border for the last couple of years. Don't forget about all the years and years when we were paying an extra 40-50 cents on the dollar. Sure parity is really, really nice but the reality is it hurts our economy.

Yes, I remember those days......the dollar was $0.59 the one year we went, and it was usually at Christmas time. But in the end, it still seemed like a good valued vacation.

 

[maryliz]

Dennise got a better exchange rate than I did yesterday I got $250 and it cost me almost $267. But still NOTHING like I've paid in the past. Seems like I pay that extra 2.5% on my cash transactions at the bank like I do on my CC ... so I think my spending in Jan will be on the CC. The rest of the trip is completely paid for, so I might as well at least get some grocery points by using the card.

 

[Ted in Halifax]

The irony is ... higher oil prices will improve our exchange rate but my heating bill increase and car gas will easily offset any exchange rate gain! Oh well ...

 

[Kat&Dom]

The recent dip (nose dive?) in the value of the Cdn dollar is precisely why we opened our US $ savings account. We were really lucky that we deposited money into it, and paid off our package back when the dollar was sitting pretty at $1.05. We saw that the dollar had started to slip just before we left for our vacation and made the decision to bring cash with us instead of using our credit cards.

Yes, I know lots of people are afraid of carrying large amounts of cash with them, but it works for us. And we avoided currency conversion fees from the credit card company as well as further erosion of the dollar value during our trip. As long as you're prudent. We carried most of the cash and our passports in our money belts, with only enough cash for each day in our wallets. We did have a couple of credit cards in case of emergency, but never used them. Once we got to WDW, the credit cards and most of the cash went into the room safe. We charged all of our purchases onto our KTTW and paid it off in cash as well.

Even driving to and from the world was easy when paying cash. Several times (especially when paying for gas) we got discounts for not paying with a credit card.

Now I realize that many people will balk at the idea of carrying real money around, and it won't be economical unless you can buy that cash at an excellent exchange rate. We got lucky this time, and hopefully will be able to make a timely currency purchase before our next American vacation.

I am the same. I have an USD bank account that I have enough money in to cover our spending money for our next 2 Disney trips. I always carry cash and rarely use the credit card on vacation so that I don't have any surprises when I get home. It actually makes for a better vacation because I don't have to convert costs over into Canadian in my head.

I have so much budgeted each day and what I don't spend one day goes into the next day. I have always found this system works great for me. And any money left over at the end of vacation goes into the next trip budget. In a lot of ways having an USD bank account makes saving and budgeting for a Disney trip so much easier.

We are 5 1/2 weeks away from our trip to Disney. Everything is paid for and the spending money is sitting in the bank so there is zero stress.

 

[Kat&Dom]

The irony is ... higher oil prices will improve our exchange rate but my heating bill increase and car gas will easily offset any exchange rate gain! Oh well ...

Isn't that the truth? It always makes me giggle when I see the threads under the budget board about how much they are paying for a gallon of gas. We haven't seen those cheap of gas prices in years!

And of course, our food prices are higher because trucking the food is higher due to higher gas prices - it is a vicious circle! But I am still glad to live in Canada and have the freedom and quality of life we have.

 

[Toy Story Fan]

I'm thankful that I purchased our cruise and airfare when the dollar was at $1.05. In august, I was considering exchanging our spending money, but did I?...of course not!! So, the money I saved when purchasing the trip, will go towards exchanging canadian dollars. All in all, everything will be even. When we went to DL in the 90's, it was about 46 cents on the dollar!

 

[Momloveshockey]

So wishing we had paid full for our NYE trip back when it was booked in the summer....but I did go and dump another $2000 on it...so it is now 2/3 paid for. Just will have to watch what we spend out of pocket on the trip...still way worth the drive down to Maine...but that does mean a hotel there for 2 nights. Maybe Santa will bring a windfall my way!!

 

[Hoogy]

The dollar is stronger again! I wonder if I should pay off my cruise...or most of it anyways? The only reason I noticed was because I went to cash an American funds cheque from my sister and I got less "back" than the cheque was for...figures!

 

[Ted in Halifax]

Why not pay off half?

 

[monkeyknuckler]

Seems that whenever we go south, our dollar tanks. We will be in Florida on Nov 11. You have all been warned.

 

[HeatherLassell]

Seems that whenever we go south, our dollar tanks. We will be in Florida on Nov 11. You have all been warned.

I'll inform the national guard not to let you travel! lol

 

[sympatico]

I'll inform the national guard not to let you travel! lol

We must have been going alternate years because whenever we've been down in Nov. the dollar is up. Hit it's highest peak in 2007 (I think) when we were there. It was wonderful to look at the credit card charges when we got home and the price was less than the US price. I think it hit $1.10 the first couple of weeks in Nov '07.

Oops quoted the wrong post but you catch my drift.