This is the latest episode in a series of world news entitled ‘On the edge“, Who profiles people who have trouble with the increase in the cost of living. In this story, an ordinary family in Ontario talks about their difficulties in getting out of it.
These days, Cheyenne Allen says that her family must count every dollar they have just to get them.
The 34 -year -old event planner and future mother of two London children in Ontario. Said 20 years ago, having a house and living two incomes would have been stable.
But since the Pandemic Covid-19, things have changed.
“I spent a lot of time in my twenties working two part-time jobs and going to school, and I was just doing it,” she told Global News.
“Now, I am in my career, my husband has his career, he bought this house in 2019, and we went well, then pandemic success.”
“It’s not going as far as before”
Allen said that she and her husband, a boilermaker, report $ 147,000 a year before taxes. With this income, she believes that they should have more possibilities of better.
“It’s not going as far as before. It’s just not,” said Allen.
This situation is not specific to Allen and his family.
Moshe Lander, professor of economics at Concordia University, said Canadians’ purchasing power in the past five years has had a significant drop.
However, this has not dropped regularly since the 1980s.
Lander used McDonald’s Big Mac as an example.
“If you earn $ 20 an hour and a Big Mac costs around $ 7, then you work for three big Macs at an equivalent hour. If, in the past, you work for two Big Mac per hour, then regardless of the number of dollars you earn; your purchasing power is increased because you can now buy Big Macs with an hour of your time than you could.
“What happened then is that, essentially, the prices of the Big Macs increased faster than the dollars’ amounts that we have won at our work increased, so the number of Big Mac that we can buy has fallen.”
With the post-paid increase in the cost of living and a growing family, Allen said they stressed where each dollar goes.
The couple currently pays $ 2,000 a month for a mortgage, but they also have condo costs that continue to go up.
While on a reasonably low rate now, Allen said that she was worried about what their mortgage arrives in renewal in two years, roughly when her maternity leave will end for their second child.
“It’s a bit scary because that’s when I should go back to work and look at health care costs for two babies, and it’s difficult,” she said.
The cost of growth of a family
With a year and a half and a second along the way, Allen said that costs can quickly add up.
“I was lucky to be able to breastfeed my baby, so I hope I can do it with the second because the price of the formula is amazing,” said Allen.
With baby formulas costing about $ 50 per week, Allen said that this let some families decide between the invoices to pay and their child’s food.
While Allen is trying to find offers, she said it can be difficult to find good quality baby items, even second -hand, with everything that felt.
Her daughter is currently in part -time daycare, $ 600 per month, but the cost would be $ 1,000 per month if she was there full time.
While she tried to raise her daughter on a list for a childcare location of $ 10 a day when she was five months pregnant, almost two years later, she has not yet heard.
Allen is concerned about what will happen when she returns to work after the end of her maternity leave.
“It seems that we are only an invoice to pay to go back to work. If we do not end up hearing one of the $ 10 wedges a day, we will have to seriously look at our options,” she said.
Food prices in Canada are likely to increase: report
The 15th annual report on food prices, published in December 2024 by a partnership of four Canadian universities, provides that in 2025, food prices will increase overall by three to five percent.
The report indicates that the average family of four people should spend $ 16,833.67 on food in 2025, an increase of $ 801.56 compared to 2024.
The report has revealed that food affordability remains a major concern for Canadians.
It is a concern shared by Allen, who thinks that the prices of essential articles should be better controlled.
Allen said her family had started gardening and preserving foods as a way of fighting food costs, but with the impact that the American trade war has, she plans to extend her garden.
“People need food to live, people need water to live,” said Allen.
“And I think it is a bit exorbitant to pay $ 6 for half a-blueman.”
The Fourth History of Global News from the Brink News series should publish next Saturday.
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