February Summary: the Food Expenses

I did not do a weekly analysis of my food spending in February, and I did pay much less attention to being careful. However, I also was not particularly extravagant either. Since Feb 1, I spend a total of $709 at the grocery store and $142 on fast meals or dining out, for a total of $851. I did spend a bit more on our own "dining out", and I treated myself to some nice lunches. February food expenses were about $200 more than the previous month, and I do note that we were taken out for dinner one night!!

This extra $200 on food amounts to a 30% increase from the previous month, which is huge. Interesting to put it that way, because my initial response to the $200 increase was that it wasn't a significant increase. That's entirely incorrect, and it really helps to shine some light on how my spending slowly started creeping up. I have to readjust to thinking $200 is a lot of money. It may not be excessive in one spending category, but if I squeeze a hundred here and a hundred there, it will add up quickly.

As an example, I was just able to transfer my child into an after school program that is $100 less than her previous program. So if I can reduce my food spending by $200 per month, and my child care costs by $100 per month, I can save an extra $300 per month. Now, that is starting to sound like a lot!

The moral for me is that "smaller" amounts add up. Whether you're in the 100's or the 1000's, you can apply the same thinking. Seemingly small cuts in each expenses category can make for a large monthly savings.

Next post: some goals for March!

Kicking the Savings into High Gear

One of my goals for the year is to make up for lost time with my TFSA. A TFSA is a Tax Free Savings Account in Canada. The program started in 2009 and is open to Canadians 18 or older, with a social insurance number. The account holder can contribute a certain amount each year, and any growth from investments or interest can be withdrawn tax-free. 

The TFSA differs from an RRSP in that the contributions are not tax deductible. Contribution room does carry over from year to year. So if you were 18 in 2009, and didn't make any contributions (or whoops, maybe you did and withdrew it all, ahem!), you can make up the following contributions:

2009 to 2012 was $5,000

2013 and 2014 was $5,500
2015 was $10,000 (whoa! The government was feeling generous)
2016 to 2018 was $5,500 (Government came to their senses, hahah)
2019 is $6,000

Now, I did at one time take advantage of this program. As I said, I used to be GREAT with finances. However, I made a big move and I needed the extra funds.

Adding up the above, I need to contribute $52000 to make up for lost time, as well as the $6000 I can contribute for 2020.

The BIG Question…How am I going to do that?  

I’m obviously going to need to be more diligent about saving. The good news is I’m no longer paying down debt. I have put $2000 into my TFSA in 2020 already. The TFSA is my main goal at the moment, as I’m already making automatic monthly contributions to my child’s RESP on target to receive the government contribution (more on that later) and while I have some room in my RRSP, retirement is not my primary goal right now (I am in good shape there).


I usually get healthy tax returns, in the order of $5000 or thereabouts as I’m still paying a large amount for child care.  My next big task will be to do my taxes and submit, and the amount will be fully deposited into my TFSA.



Next steps will be to invest that money (in the range of $7000), after all it needs to grow! That is the point of it being tax-free!



So that just leaves $45000 left to contribute! Easy peasy, haha. I’m going to have a savings target of $500 per month for at least the next 4 months.

Final week of January!

So January is but a distant memory (ok so maybe it was just last week), and I can provide a run down of my final week of the month food expenses:

Groceries $230.61
Convenience $17.45

Looks like I spent quite a bit more on groceries that week, I'm not entirely sure why but its still a reasonable amount in my opinion, considering there are two of us and my convenience food costs were low. Grocery shopping usually includes other expenses such as pharmacy and household items and even children's clothes! I summarize my expenses from looking at my bank account expense lines, and whenever I see a grocery store it gets added to this figure.

I do know that the first week of February will likely show some higher costs in the food category, as I splurged a bit!

So let me summarize the month! For the past 4 weeks I spent:

Groceries $686.44
Convenience food $101.25

I made a big effort to bring my lunch, and not eat out other than a few quick snacks and coffee.

I'm not sure what I think of this, I would say its probably a good result. I haven't skimped a lot, but I didn't splurge either. The biggest factor is the price of grabbing a quick lunch, as shown by the week I spent over $40 on convenience food.

What do you think? Does this seem reasonable?