As high inflation continues to affect consumers, some Canadians have had to take serious steps to cut costs, such as driving shorter distances, paying more attention to grocery sales and even skipping meals.
CTVNews.ca asked Canadians to share how the rising cost of living is affecting them and their families. Not all email responses have been independently verified.
Heather Harris of Sudbury, Ont., says it’s been “an absolute struggle” and she’s been paying more attention to flyer deals, buying more food in bulk and cutting back on takeout. She told CTVNews.ca that $85 could fill her grocery cart in 2019. But now that amount “barely covers some staples, fruits and dairy.”
“Activities that we would traditionally do every year without question of gas or cost, we questioned and canceled because it was not in the budget. It seems hopeless right now for people in my same situation. Millennials struggle the most,” she said. in an email Wednesday.
Cost of living pressures have become so great that some Canadians have even decided to skip meals. Amber Rose told CTVNews.ca that she no longer eats breakfast and also wears extra sweaters around the house because she can’t afford to turn up the thermostat as the weather gets colder.
“I spend weekends batch cooking cheap meals to reheat in a toaster oven or microwave to save money. I bake bread rather than buy,” he said. she said in an email Wednesday. “Unfortunately, I’m afraid this is the tip of the iceberg.”
Unfortunately, Rose is not alone. A recent survey by Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analysis Laboratory revealed that 23.6% of Canadians have had to reduce the amount of food they buy. In the past year, 8.2% said they had to change their diet to save money on food and 7.1% said they skipped meals because of the cost of groceries.
The Dalhousie survey also found nearly three-quarters of consumers are changing their grocery shopping habits, such as shopping at discount stores or using loyalty program points more often. These are the kinds of changes that Gerry Lobel, who lives in Tavistock, Ont., had to make, in addition to driving less.
“Over the past two years, I’ve found that No Frills generally has the best weekly deals. I also collect PC Points and charge my purchases to the PC MasterCard, which earns me additional PC Points,” a- he told CTVNews.ca in an email.
Last month, Statistics Canada announced that the annual inflation rate had slowed to 7.0% in August. However, much of this is due to lower gas prices, and grocery prices have risen 10.8% since last year – the fastest pace in more than 40 years. .
“We’ve been in this situation for quite a long time now. So, I mean, most Canadians now accept their fate in terms of how much it costs to go to the grocery store these days. And so they’ve made some adjustments for a very long time now,” Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agrifood Analysis Laboratory, told CTV News on Wednesday.
“(The high food inflation rate) has really caused people to make different choices. They have different behaviors, they visit different grocery stores, dollar stores as well,” he added.
Food bank use has also skyrocketed amid the pandemic as well as high inflation. Toronto resident Sue-Ellen Patcheson, who lives on disability support programs in a home with three other adults with disabilities, said she can only spend $300 a month on groceries to feed her family and that she was “forced to make do with whatever we can get from the food bank.”
“The expenses we have, rent, basic phones and internet, and insurance take all of our income to cover. There’s nothing left to cut,” she told CTVNews.ca in a E-mail.
With files from CTV News’ Melissa Lopez-Martinez and CTV National News correspondent Heather Wright
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