Where Does Our Money Go?
Posted by Gail | Filed under In the News
There’s a general belief that people in Canada and people in the U.S. are as different as chalk and cheese when it comes to how we manage our money. Yes, the tax rules, mortgage rules, and lending rules are different (which doesn’t at all dissuade Canadians from buying American-written financial books.) And our attitudes toward life can be very different. But when it comes to what we spend our money on, it turns out that we are very much like our American cousins.
On average, Canadians spend about $16,930 a year on housing. In the U.S. according to the Department of Labor, the number is $16,920. Are you surprised? We spend a little more on transportation — $9,395 to their $8,758. And we’re almost equally as generous; our cash contributions amount to $1,788 while the U.S. average is $1,821.
I think the number that surprised me the most was food; I’ve always had the sense that food is A LOT cheaper in the States, but the stats don’t bear this out. We do spend a little more — $7,305 to their $6,133 – but that works out to $22.54 a week.
They spend more than we do on insurance and retirement savings — $5,336 to our $3946 – but I think most of that relates to the fact that we have socialized health care and they have to pay whopping insurance premiums. What is interesting to note is that while Canadians like to think of our health care as free, it’s not. On average, we spend $1,932 a year on health care (compared to the U.S. $2,853), so if you don’t have a number in your “medical” category on your budget, you’re fooling yourself.
Our higher taxes play into some of our increased costs in Canada. When you look at what they spend on booze and tobacky — $780 compared to our $1,536 – you can see the impact of the sin taxes. Ditto things like personal care products and clothes. We spend $1,167 on personal care; they spend almost half that: $588. We spend $2948 on clothes; they spend 37% less: $1,881. And as for entertainment, we spend $3,976 on “recreation” compared to the Americans who can have fun for just $2,698 a year.
While our spending on household furnishings and equipment are pretty similar: $1,964 for us compared to $1,797 for them, we divide hugely on “household operations” where they shell out $983 a year and we pony up more than three times that — $3,287. Since so many of the U.S. states are warm and don’t have any heating costs, this isn’t really surprising. But it does put an extra strain on our budgets.
While our total consumption in Canada averages $49,766 – that’s the numbers less taxes, insurance and savings and gifts – in the U.S. the number comes in at $42,514.
One of the interesting thing to look at with the Canadian numbers is the difference in spending between different family types. Urban households spend $50,487 on consumption compared to rural households, which spend $44,172, about $6,000 less. Homeowners spend $57,649 compared to renters who spend $32,536, which is a significant difference (over $25,000). Lone parent women spend $40,426 compared to couples with children who spend $68,766. And living on your own is still the most expensive way to live since one person households spend $28,785.
Our costs have also gone up over the four years between 2003 and 2007 (the last year for which we have numbers) – no surprise really right? Food is costing us $700 a year more. Housing is costing us $1,800 a year more. Clothing is up $547, transportation is up $1,200, and we’re spending $400 more on recreation. And despite what the government is tell you about our taxes, they have gone up $2,200.
Okay, your turn. How has your budget changed over the past year? What are you spending more money on? Is there anything you’re spending less on? Are you saving more or less? And how do you feel about where your money is going?
July 23, 2009 at 6:53 am
Since 2008 we have been saving MORE and spending LESS…funny how that worked since our income went down considerably.lol..I guess we just got smarter….I used to buy lunch almost everyday…then is was every second day and then it was once a week…for the last 6 weeks I have brought my lunch to work everyday…(made a few other changes in the eating department..and have lost 15 pounds!!)…we save up for big purchases, and no longer use credit as income or emergency $…we actually use real money!!..lol..it’s so nice to see our net worth statement with the final number in BLACK ink!!!!!!!
July 23, 2009 at 7:31 am
Whatever the stats say, I know for a fact that we’re spending more on food. Our lactose free milk alone is up to 4.79 from the 4.39 I paid for a half gallon one year ago. Similar with bread and many other staples. A sale on fresh fish last week was the same as the regular price last year. Luxuries like cable and cellular service have gone up..and placed themselves under threat of extinction in our house. I threaten to turn it off every month, but my husband ‘needs’ it although he only watches TV for a few hours on the weekend. Gas is a wash, it’s been cheaper and it’s been a lot more. In good news, thanks to remote controlled electricity and the cooler weather our energy bill is much cheaper this summer. Overall, I’m okay with where our money is going but I do feel the need to save more because I don’t think the US or Canadian social security/old age systems are sustainable.
July 23, 2009 at 7:32 am
Are those numbers in CAD or USD (or both?)
Also, spending 22$ more per week in groceries sounds like a lot to me! Back in university, that used to be my entire grocery budget. It’s a heck of a lot more than that now, but 22$ is still the difference between being able to afford chicken and steak or fresh veggies vs frozen.
July 23, 2009 at 7:45 am
[...] News Sources wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThere’s a general belief that people in Canada and people in the U.S. are as different as chalk and cheese when it comes to how we manage our money. Yes, the tax rules, mortgage rules, and lending rules are different (which doesn’t at all dissuade Canadians from buying American-written financial books.) And our attitudes toward life can be very different. But when it comes to what we spend our money on, it turns out that we are very much like our American cousins. On average, Canadians spend a [...]
July 23, 2009 at 7:57 am
Since we bought our Toronto home 6 yrs ago our property taxes have increased by over $1000 per yr. Cable also has gone up from $48 to $55/month during this time period. However, due to new energy efficient windows etc, our heating costs have dropped somewhat.
July 23, 2009 at 8:25 am
We’ve chosen to drastically reduce our housing costs- going from 2800/month owning our house to 1400/month renting. The savings will be going into retirement savings and a substantial travel fund.
We’ve also really cut down our food and miscellaneous spending costs, just by keeping a closer eye on things.
July 23, 2009 at 8:37 am
We have cut down on some things that I had considerered to be “luxuries”, like moving from a fast internet down to the “slowest” but it works well for us anyways. That was a savings of 15 bucks a month, or 200 per year. We also re visited our celphones “value” added services…. do you really need call display? call waiting? That was a savings of almost 100 per year? I do believe that we needed voicemail, so that we kept. We also shut down our home phone. That alone was 450 bucks per year.
We are definitly driving a lot less, specially in the summer. There are more walking trips to the grocery store, our beautiful parks, or even a visit to friends, instead of driving. Maybe it’s not significant but I calculated at least 10 bucks a week…. 520 bucks savings. I went from a no limit account to a fee based account, that saves us 6 bucks a month, 72 bucks more in our pocket. The only thing that we can’t trim anylonger is our grocery budget, that’s about 180 per week, and it includes food for us, the baby’s diaper, food for the dog… so we believe that 25 bucks a day feeds all our family members correctly, and we even have some room to entertain with this budget also.
The savings are there, you just have to decide what’s a luxury and what’s not…. I don’t miss my high speed, home-phone, call waiting or call display, I enjoy the walks, I made sure that all the transactions in our account do not go over the limit. We are still happy, and all these savings (about $ 1400 ) per year, go towards our vacation fund.
July 23, 2009 at 8:45 am
Over the course of 8 years of marriage, basically everything has gone up. Everything! I’ve really felt it lately because we have always managed our money carefully and done all we could to save energy, etc, and accumulated 4 children over that time… and we’re peaked now. In my husband’s work there are no raises, but the grocery store, the cable company, and the tax man have been asking for more and more! How do you cut back when you have always tried to keep things trimmed?!
July 23, 2009 at 9:11 am
Over the last year, we’ve definitely noticed some big changes in spending, just like everyone else here.
Groceries have gone up. We used to have a $100 a week for groceries, now we have $125, just because the price on staples has gone up so high (fresh meat and veggies especially). Our gas budget has gone down significantly, which is wonderful, compared to last year. We’ve just cut down on our cell phones and cut our cable entirely, to get rid of that unnecessary money (turns out we were only watching a few hours of TV a month – what a waste!) and we used that money to start an emergency fund and a planned spending fund. Last year we were saving only in RRSPs, now we have two TFSAs, an RRSP and RDSP, and are faithfully paying off debt. We’re living the same lifestyle, just with a baby and with a real, concrete savings goal in mind – to go on a dream vacation in 5 years that will likely cost upwards of $15000. That also means that we need enough money saved in emergency savings and planned spending that we can justify spending that amount of money on 12 days of fun.
Our priorities have changed. We’re much happier now, with less, than we were not focused, but with more.
July 23, 2009 at 9:22 am
We haven’t changed our spending too much, but the biggest change has been our split between savings and extra mortgage payments. In the past I kept a relatively small emergency fund (3 months salary) and put anything above that on the mortgage. Now I’m just making the regular mortgage payments and saving everything above that.
Partially it’s due to the uncertainty, and partially due to the savings being invested in REITS averaging a 9% return (before taxes) while the mortgage is at 1.5% (Prime – .75), so I’m not as far ahead paying down the mortgage as I used to be. When the savings equal the outstanding mortgage balance, I’ll always have the option of just paying it off in full then, but in the meantime, I have the piece of mind of an emergency fund that is now 6 months and climbing.
July 23, 2009 at 9:35 am
Brilliant post Gail! That’s some good number comparisons.
July 23, 2009 at 9:41 am
I only got my first “real” job about 18 months ago, so prior to that, we were living on much much less while I finished grad school/residency. So just when everyone started bemoaning the financial downturn, we had more money than we had ever had in our lives! I’m not trying to “rub it in” so to speak, it’s just such an odd juxtaposition in my little world. That said, I’ve often thought that it’s very expensive to be a “responsible adult”. Since my income finally got rolling, we got life insurance and disability insurance in place, and started RRSPs, so I don’t think we’re living off much more than we were before, but I’m thrilled to have the savings and safety net in place.
July 23, 2009 at 9:45 am
I’m one of those “tree huggin, track everything” types. i try not to be excessive in any area of my life. I’ve cut back on the usage of all my utilities (water, electricity, gas) and am paying more for each of these utilities than ever before. My “take-home” is less than before. I’ve responded by trying to cut back further on all “extras” (I live pretty simply — I spend less than 12% on life) to try to maximize my savings and pay off debt (I’m paying off past sins). I wish my pay would increase as fast as our taxes and life costs increase!
July 23, 2009 at 10:03 am
Budget changed a lot over the past year–since we bought our house last spring, we’ve had to add term insurance and increase our property insurance, plus increase auto insurance for the extra car. But, our rent/mortgage has dropped significantly, as well as our commute expenses–moving 10k closer to work does that.
I’ve also branched out our grocery shopping and have found much cheaper options than our old store. However, I do spend more money on work clothes since I’ve changed jobs…but our wages have gone up as well, so we’re still overall better off now than we were a year ago.
I have noticed cable and phone services going up, even though nothing changes on them–remember when call display was $3 ish a month? Now it’s 8 something…grrr.
July 23, 2009 at 10:46 am
I’ve been tracking my money diligently and we’re spending about the same as we did last year for our regular expenses. We’ve gone down on home improvement (because last year we landscaped our yard) and travel (since I’m on maternity leave this year and sticking close to home). But on the whole we’re pretty consistent.
For the most part I’m happy about where my money is going. I feel like I’m making conscious decisions to spend it, and for me that’s key. As long as I know where it really is going, and I’ve made that choice willingly, I’m pretty happy. For me it becomes a problem when I’m no longer sure and I’m also no longer sure I even want the ’stuff’ I spent it on.
July 23, 2009 at 11:01 am
What a great post Gail. I’ve wondered about the differences between the two countries. When I read posts about what people pay for ‘back to school’ school supplies, I want to weep at how low those costs are compared to here in Canada. My budget is ‘new’ still but groceries costs have zoomed for us. This may be slightly due to the fact I have a 12 year old and a six foot fourteen year old athlete who is never full. (Actually, he declared he was full last week. I took a picture to commemorate the occasion).
July 23, 2009 at 11:01 am
Our budget has been slashed even more. We were married last month and we were pleased as to the final bills for services except for my wife’s dress alterations!!!
In general, reducing key variable costs like cell phone and cable add up over the year.
We are going on a 3 1/2 week honeymoon and to earn more money we are renting our condo out when we go on honeymoon (pays for both of our flights).
July 23, 2009 at 11:33 am
What and eye opener!
I can say pretty much EVERYTHING has gone up in the last eight years (except our mortgage payment– thank heavens for that). Proprety taxes, water fees, garbage fees, electricity, natural gas heat (that has more than DOUBLED since we moved here), gasoline, FRESH FOOD is staggeringly more expensive and that single point hurts the most.
Some thing that has gone down in price seems to be anything manufactured (except cars of course). You can always find CHEAP appliances, CHEAP shoes, CHEAP clothes, CHEAP toys…. and boy are they ever C-H-E-A-P!!!!
So with the cost of keeping house an home together going UP and the cost of STUFF going DOWN, it’s no wonder shopping therapy is so rampant.
Our house manages by being careful with how we use the resources (like gas and heat and water) and trying to get the best nutritional value out of every grocery dollar…. when a single red pepper costs as much as a bag of cookies, and the budget says we can only choose one, then we always go for the pepper (sad as that may be).
July 23, 2009 at 11:50 am
I think that Gail is probing a specific type of population by asking this on her website! It is very likely that people here recently changed the way they spend money because their eyes opened up when they started to budget. However, she has access to people how are more likely to look at their budget, therefore can say what did got up or down.
What is different for me? The car is payed off and so is the student loan. So yes, things have changed. Catch up on RRSP, bigger savings towards a down for a house. Now, if I can just keep the vet bills low…
July 23, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I am in a similar position as a few others who have posted here today. I’ve had my first ‘Real’ job for about 12 or 13 months now. So right when the recession was hitting, I had the most money I’ve ever had.
i’m constantly on the phone with our utility providers, phone, internet ect. to bring prices down and 8/10 it works!
July 23, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I’m not sure the numbers directly correlate. The US data looks at “consumer units” (which I think were 2.3 or 2.5 people) while Canada’s data is based on households.
Does this mean a family of five is one household but two consumer units?
July 23, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Between last year and this year I went from being a student living off a line of credit to being a young professional trying to make it in the real world. My living expenses in general have gone down since I moved from Ottawa to a MUCH smaller city in SW Ontario. I’m not paying as much for groceries but I always seem to overspend in this category even though I’m only paying for myself. =/
My rent has gone up from $500 to $695 because I live on my own instead of with a roommate. I only have a cellphone which has the cheapest plan that works for me and I pay for internet. I didn’t bother getting cable.
I purposely picked my apartment in an area that is walking distance to everything so that I don’t need a car. I walk to the bank, grocery store, and work is steps away. I’ve been biking to my 2nd job that isn’t quite within walking distance so I’m not even paying for a bus pass. That might change in the winter but so I will have saved $240!
I’ve also started an emergency fund and am starting debt repayment and saving for school.
The biggest thing I have learned over the last year and a half is to live below my means and to live paying the least reasonable amount for things to save for the future. I *could* have a bigger apartment, have cable, and own a car. But I don’t need those things right now and it will save me a ton of money. I’d rather be putting that money towards other things and then pay CASH for the things I want instead of putting it on credit.
Debt does not have to be a fact of life and I have more hope for the future now that I have a PLAN and can see where my money could take me!
July 23, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Since I am retiring from my f/t job at the end of August, I am making strong attempts to pay off as much debt as I can. Although I heat my house with gas, I can’t seem to get my hyrdo bill under control and it seems to be so much more than the cost of my friends house. She and her husband have about the same sq footage as myself and I live alone! Once I retire, I am going to try to figure out what is going on. I think the big thing is air conditioning. I am using air conditioning this summer and there are a couple of reasons for it. Working two jobs, I try to cat nap between the two of them and when I come home at 11:00 p.m. at night I want to get to sleep as early as I can and making the house comfortable to sleep in is important to me. Another reason, is that because I live in a bungalow with no sleeping quarters on a second level, I have some fear about leaving my windows open at night so I keep them closed and the house gets stuffy if the air conditioning isn’t on.. Once I retire, I won’t buy any coffee or meals outside my home and I won’t need to take a taxi home from work late at night. I will be able to walk home or take the bus as I will get off by 8:30 p.m.. I don’t have a car, animals or childcare so that means there are big savings on that interactive budget sheet Gail! However, my housing costs are at 40% because I pay my mortgage payments biweekly. My grocery bill has gone down big time because I have changed my lifestyle by keeping the amount of food in my cupboard to a minimum. I work in a grocery store p/t and I am 5 minutes away so no longer do I buy extras. I moved my tv to the basement so that I wouldn’t be watching tv and I throw the flyers in the recycling as soon as I bring my mail in the house. I think that when a house is free of commercials I personally am not as tempted to buy things that I really don’t need. I very rarely go to a shopping mall (about once a month) but when I do, I am like a kitchen who has never seen new snow – overwhelmed by all the possibilities!
July 23, 2009 at 1:57 pm
We are spending more on fresh fruits and vegs, and since we moved back to our home province, more on gas and gifts visiting family for special occasions.
We spend less on our phone bill. We use an old fashion answering machine to screen our calls. We have reduce the number of trips to Walmart, where we realized we did alot of “snack” spending and are baking more treats. Thanks to Gail we do not spend more than we make. But don’t get me wrong, it’s still a battle sometimes when the little “devil” sitting on your right shoulders says, “come on…you know you want it…”.
July 23, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Unfortunately I’ve seen everything rise over the last three years, except for our mortgage because its fixed.
It costs us more to feed ourselves now, special diet food (gluten, and lactose free is more expensive now then ever), all of our insurance costs have gone up since 2007, with no claims or accidents, regardless of shopping around.
Basic living is more expensive; our utilities, despite our energy saving methods and changes have still increased about $200 total since 2007.
Other basics that have risen, the price of contacts, or new glasses, is one that really hits me hard everytime I go for a re-fill or prescription change. The cost of medical prescriptions have gone up to; I now pay an additional $3/month for my medications then I did last year. While minor in the short-term, its really starting to add up.
We’ve had to cut back mostly ‘fun and entertainment’ from our budget as I’ve personally seen 3 pay rollbacks since mid-late 2008. While we make changes when we can, but if things haven’t improved in the next year or we’ll be looking at selling our home as a preventative measure. We’d be returning to renting as you can’t really downgrade further from where we are now.
July 23, 2009 at 2:30 pm
My instinct is that Canadians spend a lot more on vacations, because they have so much more time off. Every time I’ve gone anywhere — from Mexico to Thailand to Europe — it’s full of Canadians, all up in your grill with their Canadian flags.
July 23, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Dogatemyfinances: “So much time off”?
If you’re in a basic salaried job, the vacation is 2 weeks (minimum amount required to give), or 4% of a paycheque if you aren’t salaried.
I’m not sure where you’re from, or what your vacations look like, but I get 10 business days off a year, aside from statuatory holidays. That doesn’t really go too far. Meanwhile, someone I met from England a few weeks ago was telling me that they have a standard 7 weeks of vacation!
July 23, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Interesting post Gail.
Since finding you many of my expenses have gone down. The only one I have trouble with is hydro. Seems like they can think of many ways to charge you…like having the hydro travel from one pole to another….
I’ll keep working on it!
July 23, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I’m curious about how much Americans spend on dining out compared to Canadians. Last time I was in Arizona (a few months ago) I was startled at how dead the grocery store was and how busy the restaurants and fast food joints were. It being a recession I expected the opposite. Maybe it has something to do with the neighbourhood my parents have their place in, but it seemed to me that there was more restaurant spending going on than grocery store spending. At home I have definitely noticed that it’s been easier to get a table at restaurants and harder to find a slow time at our local grocery store.
While milk has gone up, in Alberta a sudden 25c increase is due to the fact that our milk jugs are now refundable, so while I was shocked for a time at how much we were apparently spending on milk, I did notice an almost equal increase in how much we get home from the bottle depot.
My struggle is still to keep our grocery bill under control, however. We buy in bulk at Costco and I plan our meals. We don’t do prepackaged dinners at all. And yet these days I’m having a hard time spending less than I did a year ago when we WERE ordering in and buying pre-packaged foods more.
It’s looking more and more like I’m going to have to get a part time job (I’m a SAHM with two under two) to help us keep up with the rising cost of living.
I’m also contemplating moving into the boonies and trying my hand at a self-sustaining farm (I’ve already decided we’ll live without electricity)
July 23, 2009 at 3:43 pm
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July 23, 2009 at 5:55 pm
A lot more debt reduction and saving rather than spending. I got my 6mth return info on my one acct, ROI 8.4% for 6mths ending June 30th 2009. Nice given the state of economy. I put a big ding: payment yesterday. doubling up on my student loan payments. I have my budget planned til Feb 2010.
July 23, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Just wondering – were there any stats on income taxes ? Which of us pays more to their gov’t ? ( apart from the sales taxes on purchases ).
July 23, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Like many others we have insatiable teen athletes so the food bill is steadily rising. Just last week we considered how a dairy cow in our suburban backyard would affect relations with our neighbours.
Hydro, gas, cell service and property taxes are all higher as are our income taxes…why does our tax bracket seem to get ALL the increases but NONE of the benefits???
Because of tighter budgeting on the non-essentials and a second part-time job we are ultimately in better shape than last year. In fact we will stay on par with 2008 even though my husband will be laid off for most of the third quarter.
July 23, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Gail CC: the Canadian numbers include income taxes, the U.S. numbers don’t. The average Canadian pays just under $14,500 in personal taxes.
Jenna, the U.S. numbers report eating out, the Canadian numbers don’t. American’s eat about $2,700 a year in food away from home.
July 23, 2009 at 8:29 pm
I have noticed that milk has gone down 50 cents for 4L of skim milk in bags to $3.99. In the winter it was $4.99. Crazy! Bread is $2.79 at the grocery store, 2.39 or if I’m lucky $2 at walmart. I remember when good bread was 99 cents and that was only 5 yrs ago. I hear alot of people shop at Costco, but not everything there is cheaper than the same product at the grocery store or walmart or zellers.
July 23, 2009 at 8:33 pm
dogatemyfinances: mandatory vacation time exists in many countries. In Canada employment standards demand that it starts with 2 weeks but increases in many provinces as your years of employment with a company increases. I do not know where you are from but we Canadians are a nation that loves to travel and with the speed of air travel you will find us all over the world. You can go a long way in 2 weeks. It is fantastic and I think of it as a great step in our evolution from beasts of burden.
As for our flags being all up in your grill – when I first traveled in Europe I was told by other Canadians that I absolutely had to put a Canadian flag onto my backpack. The reason – simply so as not to be mistaken for an American. This information in not intended as an insult – just stating a painful truth but a truth none the less. I instantly noticed a difference in the way I was treated. I started traveling 30 years ago but the young people I know who travel today in Europe and the East tell me that this is still very true.
July 23, 2009 at 9:16 pm
I find these figures interesting but they don’t tell me much about either Canadian or American society. These averages hide important social cleavages as well as resources to which it is more difficult to assign a dollar value such as access to education, permanent employment, equality/equity, etc.
While numbers don’t “lie” they also do not provide complete information and context.
July 23, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Babies are expensive! Thank goodness for hand me downs and second hand stores and generous friends and family. I breastfed my daughter for one year so I saved lots of money there instead of buying formula. Mostly, my husband and I spend money on diapers and wipes and day care for the wee one. We know that it’s better to spend time with our daughter than to just spend money on her.
So while our life costs went up with the baby, our income has also gone up (hubby finished his university degree and has a great job). A big cost that went down was our car and home insurance. Thanks to hubby for shopping around! We’re also saving more with the increased income for things like retirement and a down payment for a house.
We’re doing our best to plan ahead because we know there will be MORE expenses coming in the next 6-12 months! We’ve got a second baby on the way and we’re planning on moving out of our apartment to buy a house. Got to get our ducks in a row!
July 23, 2009 at 9:31 pm
My budget is the same. My grocery shopping is slightly different. For example, I no longer buy skinless/boneless chicken breasts and just remove the skin and bones myself since they are about 3 times more expensive than they were a year ago. I do more in-season shopping because I can’t fathom spending $6 on a tiny box of raspberries in the winter.
Next year when the harmonized tax comes in effect we’ll be effected for our oil bill in the winter so I’ll have to make adjustments then.
July 24, 2009 at 12:04 am
Ms. Dog
I have to concur with Maureen regarding why Canadians identify their nationality. As others have said, it’s not meant to be an insult against Americans, and not an overwhelmingly show of patriotism by us Canadians … but there is an undeniable shift in attitudes from other nationalities once they know someone is Canadian as opposed to American. Whether it’s warranted or not is probably an unanswerable question, one we probably don’t want to get into here.
My experience in the past 10 years of working and travelling internationally is that most people assume that I’m American because of the closeness of our accents (distinguishable to us but not so much to others abroad). Upon finding out I’m Canadian I can definitely feel people let their guards down, trust level increases, they open themselves up more. And then inevitably you start to receive questions about immigrating to Canada!
P.S. I even know some Americans who have sewed Canadian flags onto their own gear to benefit from this phenomenon. Try it next time you travel – you’ll see what we’re talking about!
July 24, 2009 at 6:43 am
I won’t post about the grocery bills because, quite frankly, I’m embarrassed by how much I’ve been spending and honestly can’t seem to reduce it. Outside of throwing away a melon that sat at the back of the fridge cause I was too tired to slice it when I got home, our garbage has decreased because we’re trying to be more conscious of our intake-output.
What did increase this month was my insurance renewals though. Apparently I was lucky with my increases of $22 for car and $88 for home insurance. Some people are way above that. My broker says it’s because during the recession claims can go up, building costs are up, and the insurance co’s aren’t making money from investments now so we get to foot the bill. Nice. Ah well, learning to reign in my spending this year has been fun, frustrating, and always a lesson learned every month. So far 5 debtors are completed, only 4 to go and two of them will be done next month!
July 24, 2009 at 9:46 pm
This past year has been a time of great change for our family. Last July we welcomed our first child. My husband left his job to be a stay at home dad upon my return to work and we made the much-needed move of moving into our own apartment having lived with my inlaws for the first few months of parenthood (Mat leave is helpful but certainly not sustaining!). Now on one income (and living in a rural-ish area where a second car would be essential should my hubby decide to return to work…add a second car,insurance, gas and DAYCARE costs) we have for the first time taken a real ‘eyes open’ look at our debt and goals. We’ve tallied up the figures in red and made a plan of attack but it seems our grocery store is working against our efforts as the staples have gone through the roof!!
Also, as a first time mom and unfortunately not breastfeeding I was SHOCKED at the price of infant formula…last summer when we started the wee one the cheapest brand we could find (but with Omegas) it was $24.99/12 can case. The same case of formula jumped to $27.99/case in February and then $30.99/case in May.
This year we have also seen an increase of car insurance ($8/mo) although this is certainly countered by the low interest rate on our floating rate car loan so that has helped with the overall balance of things.
Vet bills have been higher than ever before…but we were very lucky by finding a vet that focuses her practice on cattle and horses (cha ching) which allows for almost ’subsidized’ rates for her limited household pet clients (rounds out her bookings)…we pay almost half the prices of other vets in the area.
On an aside…I have to say thanks to you Gail for your comments and diehard support of the concept of an emergency fund…I’ve always been of the mindset that I must slap every dollar down on debt but feel so vulnerable not having a ’safety net’ or buffer and it never feels like I’m really making progress.
I’ve realized that with only a little tweaking to what we thought was a pretty tight budget (meaning more from-scratch lunches and fewer timmie’s coffees, cutting the cable we never watch and cutting back our entertainment fund a little) we should have our 3 months salary saved over the course of the next year and while still attacking our debts fairly aggressively (oh that pesky never-ending student loan!!). And as I’m due a raise next spring, perhaps we can accelerate that timeline!
Thanks again!
July 27, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Our expenses have increased in ways many others have mentioned: groceries, cable/phone/internet, insurance (why, as our vehicles age, are our premiums creeping up?) Add in two growing boys, one with some health challenges (asthma, allergies, severe eczema) and a hubby who started his own business–meaning we were paying our own health care premiums and/or paying out of pocket–and the biggest change is what we spend on medical. Hubby and I both need glasses / contacts, the boys don’t yet but likely will, dental expenses for a 4 of us are nuts (and not fully covered by our insurance), and my youngest sons health challenges were largely uncovered. His allergies also required some changes in diet, which affected our grocery budget. Took the older to the orthodontist for the first time a couple months ago, and we are now putting a little aside each month to pay for future work he needs there too. I’d love to now how families on the show function with the low amounts allotted to the “Other jar”, which includes medical: when I did our budget, our “Other jar” was $195/week!
September 19, 2009 at 11:22 pm
To all those with teenaged boys – do they return to normal eating at some point? Our son just turned 15 and I swear if I step on his foot his mouth opens like a garbage can and we just scrape the food in. I’m not sure he even chews at this point. To keep the groceries somewhat under control we prepare all our meals, we all pack lunches, we meal plan and shop the sales. We bulk cook and freeze. I’ve never been a big user of coupons as they usually seem to be for drugstore products or prepared things we don’t use.
On the savings side, on top of all the other prunning of our spending we’d put in place over several years, I began working from home this past winter. My husband’s 1997 vehicle finally decided to retired itself so he began driving mine and I worked from home. He carefully researched and shopped around and in May he finally replace his truck with a new(er) 2004 model. I decided to continue working from home. I save $40/wk on gas and have cut out the twice a day trip down to the lobby of my building for a Timmies coffee. Those two things alone save us over $200/month. I also find if I’m not commuting to work I don’t stop to do errands on the way home and give myself the temptation to make impulse purchases. My husband and I set off early every Saturday morning to gas up the truck, get our 1 Timmies of the week, do the groceries and take the scenic route home. It’s not a romantic date for sure, but we look forward to some quiet time together without the kids.
We’ve haven’t had cable since 1993 when we built our house beyond the reach of cable. We could never justify the cost of satelite so we make do with what comes in off the airwaves, which still keeps us on the couch too much.
We both make good salaries so to some people our frugal living is completely unecessary. Our kids are still using a Nintendo 64 (remember the 90’s?) I forget Gails word for it, but we are constantly skipping things we could buy, but choose not to because it’s unecessary or we’d just rather do something else. By paring down everything we can we live on 50% of our take home pay, and the rest is allocated to travel, saving(retirement), knocking down the mortgage and the things we don’t budget specifically for because they are small and unscheduled (haircuts, 1 meal out every month or so). By really examining our expenses this past year we’ve freed up that 50% which we can aim at whatever needs attention (maxing out the RRSPs before the deadline, saving up for 6 months for that replacement truck). This year we had the truck purchase so our summer vacation was camping for 10 days. The summer of 2008 we spent a month in Europe with the kids and plan to take another long trip next summer if all goes according to plan. We are now in a good place where we feel we’ve got all the bases covered, we’re saving and taking care of retirement but still enjoying the present. It’s taken a while, and we’ve certainly made mistakes along the way. I can’t believe the dumb things we spent money on in our 20s. I try not to beat myself up over it but when think of where we’d be now if we’d put even half that wasted money into our RRSPs 20 years ago, it just gives me a headache.
A year ago we got a new Aeroplan VISA and cancelled our old VISA. I do carry a $20 bill in my wallet just in case I have to make a cash purchase, but rarely have any occasion to spend it. Sorry Gail, we don’t do the cash thing. Instead I micromanage every penny on my Excel spreadsheet, but absolutely everything goes on the VISA which gets us Aeroplan miles. We’ll all be flying to Europe again next summer on points. I pay off the balance every WEEK and have never paid a cent of interest. It’s not really a credit card to us, just a convenience card with a points benefit.
My To Do List for the next 3 months includes: investigate car/house insurance quotes prior to our annual renewal in November; complete the last half of the Christmas shopping by Halloween (all cash, and under budget); investigate adding voice mail to cell package and dropping land line; review online “frugal recipe” sites for cost effective cooking ideas for winter soups and stews; research/save/buy new bedroom furniture for 6′ tall son still using the same bed and furniture since he was 2…
September 20, 2009 at 12:57 pm
@Jennifer – enjoyed all your posts on this beautiful sunny, Sunday. Thanks for the memories!
Our son had a hollow leg too as a teen. And, as a younger child when his tummy was full, his dessert compartment was always empty. His friends were bottomless pits as well. One BBQ party he had one of his friends who had just done several hours of chores in the barn ate 8 hamburgers with all the fixings (and my homemade burgers are HUGE), as well as lots of potato salad, coleslaw, crudites, and dessert. It’s a story we haul out and laugh about at least once a year.
Your descriptions sound like our house. Always homemade everything and lots of it. Your son will slow down in his early 20’s. He’s a growing boy and is lucky to have you and your hubby. My only advice is to enjoy him…before he journey’s off on his own.
Your sister’s wedding sounded beautiful and I’m sure it’s something you all will remember forever. Well done!
@Mary – I’ll check out more of my recipes. Right now I’m trying to do sourdough bread starter – I’ll let you know if it works!