Inflation 2023, reflected in my household expenses | Your stories | Discussion forum

Depending on the age and “cushion” between savings and future expenditure, treating 2023 “fallout” interest as extra spending income for discretionary items could be risky.

Additional discretionary spending is nice but your capital has been devalued by inflation. Interest, particularly in the taxable accounts, barely helps us to keep up with inflation.

Interest income on HISAs and new GICs in 2024 and subsequent years could plausibly go back to, say, 3% range while grocery prices will never go back to a lower value.

For Ontario food CPI went up 5.1% in the year to November but this of course varies by location and personal habits.

Brace yourselves...
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/other/terrazzano-trudeau-planning-to-hike-taxes-again-in-the-new-year/ar-AA1maq62?ocid=windirect&cvid=9990d159cdab46f08cf7ee2c33762137&ei=5

Alexandre said

Of course. Also, the power of averages... All we need in this conversation is three more people who, like cgouimet, managed not to increase their annual grocery bill, and for the five of us our average will be, indeed, about 5%.

Sorry, I have no idea. We produce a lot of own food, including most vegetables and eggs. Producing a higher share of consumption this year than last.

And I am pretty bad at tracking expenditure anyway. Know my income to a cent, investment returns and net worth change so I guess could figure out total personal spend easily but don’t have the need - and variability in expenditure from year to year has many variables. Just rely on CPI and averages.

What I did notice was that our municipality raised local taxes by 3% for 2024 while the one next door raised them by 9%. Pretty sure ours will catch up sooner or later. Some of this “personal inflation” averages not just between people but over time. Sooner or later everyone will pay unless they beat the inflation by dying.

Alexandre said

Of course. Also, the power of averages... All we need in this conversation is three more people who, like cgouimet, managed not to increase their annual grocery bill, and for the five of us our average will be, indeed, about 5%.

I thought I can share my data, because in my case I haven't changed grocery shopping habits and preferences for my household. We haven't switched from olive oil to canola oil for cooking, for example, but price of same brand of cold pressed olive oil we buy went up by 1.5 at least.

I do follow sales and specials for brands we buy, but in many cases the current price "on sale" is what regular price used to be just a year-two ago.

Note that I am not complaining. I am lucky to be financially secure, I can afford it. Thus not changing shopping habits.

Just making the point, actually same as you do, that government provided inflation numbers should be considered with asterisk which points to "It depends."  

Thank you for sharing this info.

People who changed their habits aren't valid comparison points. Our increase is less than yours (10.59%) and we didn't change our habits, but I think that our lower inflation here is because of what we are buying, but this is a significant increase considering our average inflation on groceries was %4.63 for the previous 3 years. Our utilities look to be up 7.82%, but that will probably be higher after we get the final bills for the year in Jan. Here we did change our habits a little by caring less about conserving if it has any impact on our comfort, because with the general increase of unpleasantness in the world we choose comfort where we can. Be that more lights on or a warmer/cooler place to live. So here, we did change our habits quite significantly and the weather has been warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

My conclusion is that costs are up significantly more than one could offset if one didn't change their habits and much more than any government says they are up in their "data".

savemoresaveoften said Threre are still people who regularly shops at loblaws brand like NF, etc yet still dont have PCO membership. What are they thinking ???  

I am one of those who shop RCSS/Loblaws. I have a PCO membership card, but rarely bring it, because it is, literally, pointless. IIRC, I need 6000 pts to get the next redemption level and have been for 10 years. I simply do not buy anything that gives points. I have tried a few times, but earned zero points from basic items like meat and produce. Unless I buy the expensive non-essential items like cookies or popular brand products, I doubt that I will ever earn enough to redeem the points already on the card. That's what I'm thinking.

RetirEd said
BlueSky: Some of Terrazzano's points are valid, but most are his own speculation. On the other hand, he's using the usual Conservative mischaracterization of EI and pension contributions as taxes, which they are emphatically not. They are purchases of benefits by the taxpayer. They are mandated personal responsibilities, but so are medical coverage, auto insurance and, in apartments, home insurance. Not taxes.

I had a disgruntled friend keep me on the phone for nearly an hour (on his own toll) last week for just that point. He started off pissed at taxation of RRSP withdrawals despite the tax break at contribution and gradually swung his anger in ever-larger circles, even when I pointed out one of his children had had many hundreds of thousands of dollars of advanced medical treatment in return for his Medicare contributions.  

Better on the phone than in your living room on NYE ...

Do you have call display for the next call?

HermanH said

I am one of those who shop RCSS/Loblaws. I have a PCO membership card, but rarely bring it, because it is, literally, pointless. IIRC, I need 6000 pts to get the next redemption level and have been for 10 years. I simply do not buy anything that gives points. I have tried a few times, but earned zero points from basic items like meat and produce. Unless I buy the expensive non-essential items like cookies or popular brand products, I doubt that I will ever earn enough to redeem the points already on the card. That's what I'm thinking.   

Do u have the app ? That is the easiest way to see personalized deal every week. Regular I see banana, broccoli, bread etc, which are btw 10%-20% points rebate equivalent. I collect on average 500k pts each year which is $500. Most of my purchases are on sale items too. For example I regularly gets 4k pts per $15 purchase on ready to eat meal. And lots of 50% off available in the morning. Also when NF has buy 4 get 4k pts on veggie and broccoli at 1.99 per, that makes it 0.99 per when buy 4!
Mind you loblaws is only 5mins from my house so I go regularly.

I don’t even use their PCO cc as my card gives me 4% rebate which is better.

Agree no pt to buy stuff at reg price just to get pts. But if you shift your purchase, you can accumulate pts quickly.

Check out the personalized offer, that’s what u need.