Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks in the House of Commons, in Ottawa, on Nov. 3.BLAIR GABLE/Reuters
Hey, you there: the guy pouring water in your kid’s orange juice, and the lady reinstalling those old, practically treadless winter tires. Listen up. Canada’s Finance Minister, woman of the people (well, of the people of Toronto’s swanky Summerhill neighbourhood), knows how hard the last few months have been on the average Canadian. She employs many of them. Anyway, when asked by Global News over the weekend how she plans to control government spending during these turbulent times, she cited cost-cutting measures she has enacted in her own home.
“I personally, as a mother and wife, look carefully at my credit card bill once a month,” Chrystia Freeland said. “And last Sunday, I said to the kids, ‘You’re older now. You don’t watch Disney any more. Let’s cut that Disney+ subscription. So we cut it. It’s only $13.99 a month that we’re saving, but every little bit helps.”
To political operatives who sip elderflower cocktails at the Chateau Laurier, it’s little anecdotes like these that make Ms. Freeland the perfect retail politician. Indeed, if you thought Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was good at galvanizing a crowd, just wait until you see prospective-Trudeau-successor Ms. Freeland rally the masses with canned lines about the growth economy, and tips about installing energy-efficient heated floors in your guest bathroom! The people of rural Saskatchewan will be roaring.
But I digress. In the spirit of Ms. Freeland’s self-aware, money-saving advice, here are a few more tips for regular Canadians to consider while they kill time before their appointment at the nearby food bank.
We all know that grocery prices continue to soar (up 11.4 per cent year over year as of September), even as the rate of inflation slows. So the next time you send your housekeeper out to fetch groceries, ask her to select less expensive brands. Instead of Grey Poupon, try French’s mustard. Rather than purchasing freshly shaved truffles, try truffle oil. And if you’re really feeling adventurous, go ahead and buy the ingredients to make a salad at home (it could be a fun and novel activity for the kids!) instead of purchasing the more expensive preassembled version. You might also want to check if your local grocery giant offers special deals to members of the government that gifted them millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to retrofit their old freezers in the name of climate action.
If you plan to travel (and who wouldn’t with so much gloomy news about people skipping meals and hitting their mortgage trigger rates?), consider downgrading your seat to premium economy, and check online to price-compare for more affordable hotel rooms. Apparently even in major cities, and even during events of massive national significance, it is possible to find accommodations for less than $6,000 per night. You might even be able to recoup some of the cost of your international travel if you pack your suitcase with boxes of over-the-counter children’s pain and fever medications and sell them at a premium to desperate parents when you return to Canada.
This is an especially difficult time for young adults – millennials and Gen Z – so this advice is specifically for them: If you find yourself in a cash crunch, don’t be afraid to borrow against the equity of your single-detached home to give yourself some financial breathing room. Consider temporarily scaling back on your maximum RRSP contributions to help with your monthly cash flow. Instead of premium cable, go with basic. And think about delaying starting your family until, say, your mid-twenties, by which time you’ll surely be on strong enough financial footing.
Lastly, if you happen to luck into a financial windfall during this time (through an unexpected bonus or sudden inheritance, for example), do what this government is doing with its better-than-expected revenues as reported in its recent fiscal update, and spend it immediately – and then some. Don’t ask me how this works, or why it is prudent financial planning ahead of a possible recession. If you keep saying the words “fiscal anchor” and “innovation economy,” it will all somehow make sense. So go ahead and blow that extra cash on useless things like fidget spinners, or gun-buyback programs, or scented slime, or COVID-19 apps that cost 675 times their initial valuation. This is how you’ll make it through these uncertain economic times.
And remember: the little things count. Roll down the windows instead of turning on the A/C in your Tesla Model X if you happen to be driving on one of these unseasonably warm November days. Pick up your dry cleaning instead of having it delivered. Ask your nanny to take the bus instead of paying for her Uber. If we all heed the advice of our Finance Minister to reduce our household expenses, we’ll surely find that, in time, we won’t even miss eating lunch.