Vet technician, 33, is scraping by in a small city Ontario house her parents paid for: ‘It’s a lot of guilt’
Vet technician, 33, is scraping by in a small city Ontario house her parents paid for: ‘It’s a lot of guilt’
She always knew her salary wouldn’t be high but didn’t aspire to be rich. What she didn’t realize was that she would struggle to afford basic things like shelter and food
“It feels like I’ve been working harder and harder and sliding backwards down the scale,” she says.
Making $50k in a small town and still "scraping by" is scary. Maybe I'm just old, but I'd hoped that kind of income would be enough for some kind of comfort.
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Her typical monthly expenses:
- Internet: $135
- Phone bill: $80
- Car repairs: $50
- Car insurance: $184
- Gas: $150
- Groceries: $400
- Eating out: $60
- Coffee/tea: $20
- Alcohol: $40
- Her cats: $350 (food, meds and litter)
- Haircuts/cosmetics: $150
- Apps: $30
Ok, she doesn't have an income problem, she has a spending problem.
The internet + phone bill of over $200 a month is insane! She can negotiate/switch her internet bill to at least half that. And she can switch her cell phone to something like public mobile for 1/4 of what she's paying now.
Car repairs, gas, insurance... if you can bike in your small town, this will save you a fortune. Also, consider switching to CAA's pay-as-you-go insurance, which works incredibly well if you also bike.
Food... way, WAY overspending here. $400 a month could feed a family of four, so that needs to be looked at. And "eating out, coffee, alcohol" should be cut completely if she's struggling.
Her cats... well, pets are a money pit. This will always keep her debt.
Haircuts/cosmetics. I'm not a lady, so I can't say whether this is a typical expense or not, but unless she makes a living based on her appearance, this should be trimmed (no pun intended) to a more reasonable level.
Apps... I'm going to assume these are subscription services totalling $30 a month. Insane. Cut those out unless absolutely necessary.
If someone can help her budget, she could easily be saving $500+ a month with little effort.
$50k for an individual living in a small town should have her living like a queen.
What an incredibly out of touch comment. Do you live in Canada and do you pay for telecoms? Those are the going rates. Good luck getting an internet and phone plan for less than $200/month.
It’s not feasible to switch to small carriers like public mobile because they only have cell coverage in major cities. The moment you leave and go towards suburbs or rural you’re on roaming.
I’d like to see you suggest to someone in real life who’s living in Canada that they should use their bike in the winter to do groceries. The fact is, having a car in Canada (unless you live downtown in a city) is mandatory.
Also I know for a fact you have never done groceries in Canada because $400/month is BELOW average for households. In my house we always buy the basics and we spend around $650 per month. That’s with the cheapest versions of every item and we don’t buy processed foods.
Troll somewhere else.
Public mobile is Telus's discount brand. They have service everywhere Telus does. The other major carriers have their own discount branded services. You don't get much (or any) data, but it's a lot cheaper.
I pay $112 for bell fiber internet and $42 for virgin 20gb after taxes. No bundles. Phone is paid for. I live in a small town 45mins from the 401? You can certainly get cheaper internet/phone than $200 a month. Although between the 2 of us, we average more than $100 person/week. We certainly don’t buy the cheapest we can but we budget where we choose.
Public Mobile is owned by Telus, there shouldn't be the problems you describe. I live in the middle of nowhere with Lucky Mobile. Text and talk with no data is $15/month.
But that's not what is normal amoung my peers. The expenses look reasonable to me, but could be optimized further. Normally, optimizing your expenses that much wouldn't be your part time job, but with the current wage situation, that's where we are at.
Good luck getting an internet and phone plan for less than $200/month.
My own bills:
Internet (Beanfield): $40/mo including taxes.
Cell (Freedom): $34/mo per phone, incl taxes.
Beanfield may not be available everywhere, but Teksavvy has similar plans.
Beanfield is only available to some condominium users in major downtown cities. It is not an available option to most Canadians, especially the vet tech in this article.
It is not an available option to most Canadians, especially the vet tech in this article.
It's a shame that the article doesn't specify which town, but it does say University town.
If I were to guess, especially since she's a vet tech, is that she lives in Guelph or Windsor. Other vet universities in Ontario are in much larger cities.
If that's the case, she has quite a few of options for phone and internet.
Beanfield may not be available everywhere, but Teksavvy has similar plans.
Teksavvy is available nearly everywhere and I know they have similar plans because I was a customer.
Definitely not the case. They serve suburbs and cities. I live semi rurally and they are not a possible option.
She lives in a college town. The vast majority of people in Canada live in urban centers. So, for most single people in Canada, spending less than $200/mo in Internet+phone is trivially simple.
What an incredibly out of touch comment. Do you live in Canada and do you pay for telecoms? Those are the going rates. Good luck getting an internet and phone plan for less than $200/month.
All my life. Perhaps you haven't looked for savings in these areas?
FYI: Public Mobile (my provider for years) has unlimited calling and text w/ 1gb data and ongoing perks for $25 / month. Even $40 would get you 30GB of data and 5g... not sure why you'd want anyone to spend double that when they are struggling financially.
Internet isn't as easy, but all these companies can offer discounted rates. She needs to get internet that fits her needs (I pay $84 tax in for Bell TV and 1GB fibre to my home). $135 is crazy.
It’s not feasible to switch to small carriers like public mobile because they only have cell coverage in major cities. The moment you leave and go towards suburbs or rural you’re on roaming.
LOL. She lives in a University town, and you're saying she won't get cell service from a company like Telus? Give me a break.
I’d like to see you suggest to someone in real life who’s living in Canada that they should use their bike in the winter to do groceries. The fact is, having a car in Canada (unless you live downtown in a city) is mandatory.
Oh boy. She doesn't have to get groceries in the snow by bike... but if she can offload some of her driving to bike (for any reason), she'll save money.
It also doesn't suggest that she's commuting out of town, so biking in a "small town" should be simple for anyone.
Also I know for a fact you have never done groceries in Canada because $400/month is BELOW average for households. In my house we always buy the basics and we spend around $650 per month. That’s with the cheapest versions of every item and we don’t buy processed foods.
Have for decades... sounds like you need to figure stuff out on your end.
Troll somewhere else.
Amazing how someone can take actual advice based on personal experience, and consider it "trolling".
Learn more about how to be frugal, and perhaps you'd agree with my suggestions. Or continue to overspend.
This woman is obviously struggling, and there are very easy fixes for most of her spending habits.
Amazing how someone can take actual advice based on personal experience, and consider it “trolling”
This is the biggest problem, isn't it? I understand somebody not knowing how to live frugally, but at the very least they should be open to learning from people who do.
Don't worry, those of us who how to budget minimally know that you are speaking the truth.
I appreciate that. I've struggled for years before I really started looking at my expenses and saving wherever possible.
Most of the time, it requires no sacrifice, but a few minutes of effort.
The car insurance was a huge money saver for me. We were spending thousands a year on car insurance, whether we used the car or not. Switched to pay-as-you-go and started biking, and my insurance is like a few hundred a year at most.
The cell phone plan was another big saver. I was spending over $150 for three people a month, and now it's less than $50 for the same service!
Food is probably the most challenging, but only if you aren't willing to look at other options.
In any case, it's too easy for people to say that they aren't making enough money when it's their spending habits that really hurts them.
*** I do still think that people should be paid a livable wage, don't get me wrong, but if getting paid more means that someone will overspend more, then they will still be in the same situation. ***
In any case, it’s too easy for people to say that they aren’t making enough money when it’s their spending habits that really hurts them.
Yup. It happens at all income levels, too. There are surgeons out there with nice homes, new cars, vacations and everything, but still living paycheck to paycheck. If you don't prioritize saving, guess what? You don't have savings.
You're missing the point. Someone who does well in school and has a decent job requiring advanced education should not be struggling to make ends meet in a first world country.
Yes, even if she trimmed her expenses (which I agree is possible, though I don't know much about Canada) she would still not be living a "good" life despite being well educated, and fully employed with stable housing. She would be living a safe, healthy and financially functional, but it would not be a sustainable, happy, and enjoyable life, and her savings contributions would be not be enough to give her financial independence without some serious investments.
She would be living a safe, healthy and financially functional, but it would not be a sustainable, happy, and enjoyable life
As somebody living modestly, I'm laughing at this. It seems like people either overestimate how much satisfaction they get from their expenses, or they underestimate the peace of mind that comes from living within your means. I suspect it's mostly the former.
Living modestly isn't the same as trimming off all the fat to prioritise survival and savings above all else (which is what this vet tech would need to do to really make a difference for her financial state)
I'm on a very similar income ($36,000AUD) in a country with similar issues surrounding housing, and a quickly rising cost of living crisis. I'm not sure about her exact area, my cousin's in Edmonton, so that's my main reference point.
I live within my means and other than a student loan, I have no debt. But I also have no property and no real assets beyond the everyday items I need for work (laptop, phone, my bicycle)
It is very comforting and peaceful to live within my means. And I often experience a "simplified joy" in moments where work is calm, my family is happy and I have an afternoon off to take my time and bake this week's meals to keep the grocery budget happy and healthy.
But most of the time work is not calm, work is a major contributor of emotional and physical stress, and taking stress leave isn't quite yet a financial option (until I'm approaching mental health breaking point, which so far so good)
Usually the family isn't happy, I've got chronic health issues, my partner and I both have disabilities, it's vital we maintain chunky emergency funds because our savings disappear quickly when one of us needs to see a specialist (public healthcare in Australia is a mess at the moment) so if we're talking about going to the country for the weekend to have a relaxing holiday we're usually deciding its not worth the petrol, train or accommodation costs when for all we know I could require an urgent doctors appointment tomorrow and we'd wished we'd saved all that money.
We're financially smart in the sense that we are 5-6 big emergencies away from bankruptcy which is so much more than most people in my income bracket. But in our experience we tend to get our emergencies in waves where it's one right after another leading into each other. It's scary.
Fortunately we don't want kids, but if we did, I can't see how we'd do that without majority changes to my income stream.
It's also just exhausting to live on a strict budget all the time. I'm definitely getting fit biking halfway across town 3 times trying to shop at Aldi and veg markets because it's the most affordable grocery option, I'm lucky I'm not time poor, but many people working low wage jobs are. Mentally it's hard keeping track of everything all the time, comparing prices and holding back. It's socially exhausting, having to constantly remind friends that unless it's a free or very low cost outting, we won't be hanging out.
Being out at work and feeling exhausted and headachey and knowing some caffeine would help, but I forgot to pack a zip lock bag of instant coffee, so I'm out of options because that's what's budgeted for. So I finish out my day in pain. Likewise, I had to give up my monthly massages because it was a luxury my budget couldn't bear. It didn't reduce my physical capacity, but it has made my daily pain level higher which makes me less happy.
Small things like that's make me feel tired, frustrated, burnt out and angry that my income is so low.
But then I'll have a moment like today, where I'm harvesting the sunchokes i planted in August, thinking to myself, being poor prompted me to grow these, but having them here to water and watch grow has been so good for my mental health and this is such a rewarding experience.....but I could have also had this experience with money in my pocket.
I was definitely more happy and more comfortable 5 years ago when my same income had a higher buying power so my budget wasn't as tight.
I will never want to live outside my means. But boy howdy the cost of living here means I'm getting close to having to make the real tough decisions (like, do I really need to pay extra for certified allergen free ingredients, or can I gamble on the cheaper brands that "may contain traces of") to avoid blowing my budget.