Cutting Back on Expenses: The Ugly Truth
Canada saw the largest increase in the consumer inflation rate since 1983. Naturally, people are turning to the internet to find tips on cutting back on expenses, especially essential expenses like food, transportation, and utilities.
While there are certainly a lot of posts that claim it’s easy, the truth is cutting back on expenses is hard.
It’s one thing to cut back on non-essential expenses like vacations and eating out, but when you have to find a way to cut back on the essentials, that’s when the sacrifice gets real.
If you really want to cut back on your grocery expenses, it’s going to take more than buying off-brand products, shopping for sales and eating less meat.
Shrinking your transportation budget isn’t just about taking public transit. And putting on a sweater isn’t going to make that big of a difference in your utility bill.
The hard part is doing all of those things at the same time, every single day.
It’s the time it takes to regularly look carefully at your finances and decide where you will spend less.
It’s the added effort of writing down the price of every item as you put it in your grocery cart, adding it up, and then deciding what you’ll have to put back because you’re over budget.
It’s finding vegetarian recipes that you actually enjoy.
It’s the time it takes to actually go into a thrift store and carefully sift through the clothes to make sure they’re not ripped or stained before you buy them.
Cutting back expenses means being intentional about every single thing you buy because spending less in one area isn’t enough.
The ugly truth, the part that no one talks about, is that cutting back on expenses is exhausting, limiting, and sometimes downright depressing. It’s hard and it sucks.
But, the good news is if you’re consistent and creative with your sacrifices, it does make a difference.
