Quote:
Originally Posted by Mistagin
Well, now you do. We have cut down on our heat by an average of 2 degrees C during the day and 5 at night. We wear hoodies and sweaters and cover up with a blanket when we watch tv or read a book.
I'm almost 69 and my wife is approaching 67. We are both on 'fixed' income, both with CPP and OAS and I have a small work pension (unindexed so it hasn't changed in 9 years). My wife lost her job due to covid and had to retire early, thus losing out on 2 1/2 years of contributing to CPP. That hurts!
We've also cut down on driving, take my wife's little puddle-jumper 2016 Focus when we can. The F-150 (also a 2016) is used infrequently and only when necessary.
Our only saving blessing is that our landlord gives us a very good rate and he hasn't raised the rent yet (in 5 years). If not for that we'd probably be living in our 2016 23ft RV in a 'homeless' camp! We bought that RV after the Ft. McMurray fire so we had a place to live and we lived in it for 19 months over 3 years, and we kept it.
$3,600 income per month barely makes ends meet, so we both work a bit, odd jobs, temporary jobs, etc. as we can to help offset inflationary costs.
Most of our 'retirement dreams' have gone out the window and we've significantly scaled back 'bucket list' plans.
Not complaining, life is good overall. Just stating reality for us in the present. Hopefully some investments we hold will begin to pay off in a few years and add a bit to our retirement comfort!
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You are not alone believe me.
Another frustrating thing is most of my electricity ,gas bills are not for the amount of electricity I use but its all these other charges. I could shut everything off and go away for a month and still have a big bill.
Yet hutterite colonies get 3 phase power cheaper than me and that was before all this solar so called farms going up. Example a while ago if I had enough money to make it work I could get lots of government money to put in solar. This would reduce my electricity bill but you already need to be rich in order to make it work.
So how can I cut back because turning off lights and turning down heat does nothing?
Shop local for groceries and $1500 a month would turn into $3000 a month. It still makes sense to drive to Lethbridge even if gas is $8 a gallon.