My day begins with something I can't live without: a large black coffee.
With a little help from the cashier, I figure out how much more it cost me today than yesterday -- 16 extra cents on a $2.52 tab.
Next, I need some reading material. Coffee and a newspaper is the perfect way to enjoy my holiday.
But the price for a paper just went up, too.
Now it's time to pay for my parking. I'm charged $2.36, including 64 cents of tax.
As I sit down for breakfast in the West End, I realize some people aren't taking the tax so well.
"We don't pay taxes, we don't get services. But this is not a tax -- it's a tax grab," one of my fellow diners told me.
I'm stuffed from my $11 meal and so is my tax tab: $1.26 in HST.
To work off that breakfast, I head to Yaletown to rent a bike. But before I get there, I stop at the drugstore to get a first aid kit, just to be safe.
My HST is just $1.27, which seems weirdly low.
Even though the bill says I was charged HST, I wasn't. Instead, I was charged only GST.
When I call the store to report the mistake, they tell me, "Don't worry about it," and go on to say they're also not charging the full price for newspapers.
I guess I'll call that one a lucky break.
No such luck at the bike rental place, where I pay $3.18 in HST on a $30 bill.
My final stop? Heaven. What better way to end a long day than with a foot massage; this is probably the best assignment ever.
But as good as it feels, it's going to hurt my wallet. The total comes to $39.20 – yesterday, the same massage cost $35.
At the end of the day, I paid $10.89 in tax. That's $3.96 more than I would have paid just one day ago.
