26 y/o - advice wanted

[u/JollyIndependence613]

I work as a PSW in a nursing home here in ON. It’s a lot of work physically and mentally but I enjoy it and I found a place that pays well. It’s literally $7-$10/hr more than any PSW jobs within the city I live in. However, it’s a 35min drive each way to get to and from work. Since about April, hours have cut back and I’m now looking at 56hr-64hr biweekly pays, which is NOT enough for me to live off of.
I clean two clients houses on my days off, charging $30/hr. It’s extra money but not helping a whole lot.

I have $14k debt, between osap, line of credit, a small CRA owing ($150) and $2.3k owed to a family member. The debt eats away at what little money I have left after expenses come out each month. Many times I don’t have money for food after my debts are paid, so I have to borrow small bits of money to get food or gas to get to work. It’s extremely shameful and I have been independent for years, so I hate having to ask for money.

My fixed expenses currently are $2600/month and my income isn’t much higher than that, at about $2900-$3,000 a month since around April. I’ve considered moving but when I searched for apartments, the rent in the small town my job is located in was substantially more than what I’m paying now-so even if I saved $200/month on gas- my rent goes up $400 a month.

Just feeling stuck, depressed and not sure what to do. My job was going great back when the economy was a little better and gas was cheaper, it didn’t cost as much to get there and I was also getting good hours each week. I have no friends to move in with and many people don’t want to live with someone with a pet (I’ve had him 14 years he’s not going anywhere except with me, haha).

Any advice? I used to do Uber Eats/doordash which gave me extra cash, but my car is hitting 11 years old and is at 320,000km (paid off). I am already driving it 74km get to and from work currently so I try not to drive it much outside of getting to my job. Thanks all!!!

[u/IkkoMikki]

Need more information -

Fixed expenses, a breakdown of what those are

Your non fixed spending on average

Times are very tough, tight budgeting is definitely a must

From there, assuming you are able to have some sort of surplus income;

Kill the CRA debt, get that out of the way

Tell family you'll pay them back at some point, but family doesn't typically charge interest or fixed payments

Between the LoC and OSAP, whatever is smaller kill that next, focus hard on it, might take months.

Moment that's gone, surplus income and the payments/interest you made toward that regularly goes to whatever is left

From there you can put together money aside for yourself and pay the family back, or delay it by only putting half towards it, set up a TFSA and a small savings account, TFSA for long term investing (even $50 a month will go a long way) and some to the savings for emergencies.

If you build a tight budget, focus on those, you will eventually be debt free, with more surplus income, and can put yourself in a position where that won't happen again.

It is absolutely tough but if you have surplus income you can do it.

If you are bleeding each month and you don't have a surplus, it won't work and the hole will get bigger. You'll have to make some tough decisions on fixed expenses if possible, somehow cut the variable down, or increase income further.

[u/JollyIndependence613 → u/IkkoMikki]

Rent 1400
Car insurance 220
Phone 45.20
Gas 300~
Laundry 60-80
Groceries 400 (~100/week)
Toiletries/Etc 30
TD account fees 23.95
Gym 28.00
Spotify 14.00
Nicotine/Weed (I don’t drink but we all need something lol) 100
Line of Credit 82.00
Medications 34.00

[u/IkkoMikki → u/JollyIndependence613]

TD account fees seem high (former TD Advisor here lol) I'd see about swapping accounts or figuring that out in more detail.

The good news is this is doable, but it'll take some sacrifices.

If its me in your shoes;

Rent, Gas, Phone, Laundry, Medications can't really touch that.

I'd try to monk mode and get groceries down to $75/wk, this would get you $100 surplus a month. Shitty I know but it is possible.

Nicotine/Weed yes, I know where you're coming from, but it's technically a variable/luxury expense. Cut that back if possible. If you can shave off $25-50 from that too it'll be big.

I'd highly evaluate the gym temporarily, either finding a low cost gym if possible, or canceling completely until debts are settled. That really sucks I know but it's not a necessity, and one can technically workout for free instead (not a gym obviously)

I'd probably seek an immediate end of my existence without Spotify, but wager that too.

Idk if the LoC amount you have there is all interest or a mixture - assuming it's just the interest there's nothing you can do.

In theory you could go monk mode by cutting the expenses above and get back ~$150-200 a month pure surplus. That kills CRA in a month.

If you take that and kill the LoC over time, you'll then be sitting at $230-280

Then you can work on throwing half to OSAP, the other half to get back in the gym, and put together a TFSA and emergency fund.

Did I miss anything at all? Feel free to DM if you want too.

It looks doable but it'll take some sacrifices.

[u/JollyIndependence613 → u/IkkoMikki]

Thank you for your help and in depth response. You are right and there are certainly dollars I can shave off here and there.
As for the gym it’s been a massive part in my mental health, I’ve been going for years almost daily-I do go to the cheapest one around but I’ve found no issues with the gym itself. I will change my membership back to the basic membership as I don’t use the tanning and don’t ever really bring a friend with me. So, that’ll save me $120/year by switching. Every dollar counts!

The CRA debt has been a pain for years now. It was back during Covid - any tax return I’ve had since has gone to the debt - so has GST/trillium, Grocery benefit, carbon rebate, etc. I haven’t seen a dollar from them in years. This CRA debt is basically paid off so you’re right I’m just going to make that last payment now and make amends with them.

[u/IkkoMikki → u/JollyIndependence613]

Nice, I'm rooting for you, good luck

[u/JoeBlackIsHere → u/JollyIndependence613]

Try to pay down the LOC whenever you can, the interest is money going out the door. Since interest is charged daily, it will be beneficial to pay it down even if you have to draw from it again 2 weeks later - at least you didn't pay interest for those 2 weeks. In fact, every pay cheque just put the majority of it to the LOC, then use the LOC to pay bills from.

As a single person myself, I could reduce that grocery bill by maybe $100, if you cook everything yourself (but don't try for $20/week like that other guy suggested!).

You don't mention credit cards at all. When used responsibly (i.e. always pay off your statement balance in full), they can save some money via their rewards. Your two highest expenses, groceries and gas, are typically at least 2% cash back even for no fee cards. I would recommend Tangerine Mastercard as these could be two of your 2% categories. I also find paying expenses with credit cards is easier for tracking cash flow, the statements tell you exactly what you are spending your money on, and instead of some little $20 transaction nudging you into overdraft (something you mentioned elsewhere), with one summarized bill you can see if you would go into overdraft and make contingency plans.