On a Personal Note… We’re Back in Canada!
2025 brought massive change to our family. It began with the passing of my mother-in-law, which, while not unexpected, was a harder blow than any of us anticipated. Concurrently, my husband went through a difficult time with his now-previous employer, and, six months or so on, he is only now settling in to his new role with a different organization. On top of all that, this spring we completed the Herculean task of relocating back to Canada. And now it’s tax time.
On the plus side, my husband’s new job pays extremely well, and we’re able to save 30% of his pre-tax income. As always, he makes the money and I focus on cost-containment. We’re so very close to being able to retire him from salaried work. We just need to buy a dang house! Until we know what our monthly mortgage payment is, it’s very difficult to know exactly how much our life will cost on an annual basis. Real estate prices in Calgary really soared during the pandemic, when remote work was the norm. It’s liveable city where it’s easy to social distance. Anyway, prices are starting to cool now, which is great, but they still seem awfully gosh-darn high to us.
Back to Personal Finance
Housing
Upon arriving back in Canada, we rented a condo/townhouse unit for $2,100 per month. It covers our basic needs, and the relatively low rent (we were paying $2,500 US in New York) allows us to save every extra penny to increase our downpayment on a home. We have a tidy $200,000 set aside, but more is always better as it can really make a huge difference over the life of your mortgage.
Fun fact: Because we were not home-owners for a period exceeding five years, we’re now considered first-time buyers. Why is that fun? We’ll be able to use the Home Buyer’s Plan to tap into the significant funds held in our RRSP accounts to add to the down payment.
Food
Our moving company did not allow us to take any consumables over the border, so we had to start from scratch in terms of stocking a pantry. We had to do the same thing when we moved to New York, so it did not come as a surprise. What did register as a shock was the price of food, with some costs getting pretty close to double or triple what we paid in New York, even factoring for foreign exchange. I was used to paying a $1 for a spice jar at Aldi. I had to pay around $5.99 for a comparable amount here in Canada. Oof. Somehow, news of Canada’s cost of living crisis did not really filter through to us while we were living in the US. In any case, I continue to strive to keep our food costs as low as possible without sacrificing nutritional quality. (Check out my latest meal-planning system to help reduce wastes and cut costs!) Right now our grocery costs average around $1,000 per month. I recognize the privilege inherent in that statement — so many Canadians have no choice but to get by on far less.
Transportation
I’m happy to report our Subaru Outback, aka The White Lightning, keeps on trucking. We had it shipped to Canada, an insanely complex task that I would not wish on my worst enemy. It was expensive to begin with, and then we got hit with a retaliatory tariff. (Thanks, Trump.) But, as they say, onward and upward. It does give some peace of mind to know that we have a quality used car that we’ve taken care of over the years. She’s now got a set of snow tires on her so we can drive through Calgary winters with confidence. We definitely do more driving than we did in Brooklyn, but on average we’re still only spending $114 per month on fuel.
Housing, food and transportation are the biggest three spending categories. Get that right, and you don’t need to sweat the small stuff.
Now, time to do our taxes.