The end of summer is a tricky time of year financially for Toronto parent Monica Belyea. That is when she faces the double whammy of back-to-school shopping for her kids coupled with imminent up front school-related costs — opting into the pizza lunch program her son enjoys, for instance.
This year, things are harder than normal. She’s finding her weekly food budget “does not take me to the end of the week anymore,” and after months of paying higher prices for things like gas, “I just don’t have as much money to go around,” said the single mom of two.
What do you think about this story? Do you have a question, experience or story tip to share? Send an email to ask@cbc.ca.
For Belyea, back-to-school shopping this time around means “just looking at what is feasible within this new world of things being more expensive.”
“There are fewer pencils in the box, but they cost the same amount of money as they usually did,” she said.
The author of personal finance guide Happy Go Money: Spend Smart, Save Right and Enjoy Life, said families need to be “extra, extra organized” when back-to-school shopping this year, since multiple factors are “putting a strain on all Canadians’ wallets.”
“My friends have been talking a lot about being worried about lunches — and making proper, healthy lunches for their kids, since their grocery bills are ballooning.”
WATCH | Melissa Leong’s financial tips for saving on back-to-school shopping:
Tips for saving on back-to-school
13 hours ago
Duration 1:55
Money expert Melissa Leong shares a host of strategies and tips for cutting costs when back-to-school shopping.
Cost-cutting strategies that you can try, she said, include “shopping at home” to see what supplies you already have, carefully comparing prices between stores, waiting to buy certain items when deals are more abundant, and using coupon-code apps when online shopping.
If your family has an extremely strained budget, Leong noted that some community programs and agencies provide free backpacks and school supplies, so you could try reaching out to groups in your neighbourhood for more info.
Combine sales, coupons, store offers
Pat Hollett is seeing lots of new names and faces in Canadian Savings Group, the volunteer-run website and social media initiative she founded, where she and fellow deal-seeking experts share grocery specials and coupons. About 6,000 people have joined in the past two months alone, pushing the group’s Facebook follower count past 100,000.
“Everything has gone up in price and Canadians are struggling to make ends meet — that’s what I hear every day,” said Hollett, who is based in Barrie, Ont., and serves as the group’s CEO.
“There are only so many things that you can control — you can’t control the gas prices, you can’t control the housing market — but you can control how much you pay for grocery bills. So our mission is to help Canadians save money on their grocery costs.”
Like Leong, Hollett recommends starting simply.
“Don’t don’t grab the first thing you see. Shop around and pay the lowest price you can for the same item,” she said. “Price match where you can … Try other brands, if they’re cheaper.”
When shopping for back-to-school items, comparison shop and price match. Coupons, point cards, and sales can help reduce costs. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Her next-level strategy, however, is to employ multiple techniques at once: using coupons, cash-back offers and apps, and tapping points-card deals to reduce prices as much as possible.
Here’s how it could work: say a store has your child’s favourite cereal on sale for $4.77 this week. There might also be a manufacturer’s coupon (printable from a website or a hard copy found inside a physical store) that offers additional savings per box.
On top of the sale and the coupon, a particular grocer might also have a deal for points cardholders who buy five boxes of cereal. Layering these three discount techniques could amount to, for instance, paying just 77 cents per box, explained Hollett.
She outlined how shopping this way can save families up to several hundred dollars a month and could be applied this very week, for instance, on items like kids’ lunch kits in Atlantic Canada, a popular brand of cheese crackers in Quebec and a six-pack of facial tissues boxes in Ontario.
It may require a shift in mentality and habit for some, as well as additional time commitments, but “it’s all about how much work you put in,” Hollett said. “Saving money for families is really difficult, so every dollar you save will help you buy other things.”
Seek deals. Teach kids to budget.
The questions Enoch Omololu has been receiving from readers of his personal finance website reflect the growing economic pressures Canadians are grappling with, whether it’s queries about halting auto-payments, to savings vehicles, to people asking about tapping into RESPs to cover their children’s expenses (the answer to that last question, he pointed out, is you cannot).
“Disposable income has been stretched to the limits, physically, and people are finding it difficult to pay for things that they would normally just brush off and pay for without thinking about,” said the Winnipeg-based founder of SavvyNewCanadians.com.
It’s not uncommon for kids to need multiple pairs of shoes. Talking to his children about budgeting, saving money, and choice is one of money expert Enoch Omololu’s tactics. ‘It’s getting them involved in the process and making them realize that funds are not — money is not — an unlimited resource.’ (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Among the cost-cutting tips he’s using with his own family this season:
Comparison shopping for major purchases, such as electronics, coupled with finding manufacturer’s discounts.
Shopping major sales (kids’ retailers have up to 75 per cent off on summer clothes, he says, which could be layered for fall or purchased for next year).
Seeking gently used items from thrift stores.
Weighing which items to spend more on, and opting for generic or discount versions for others.
Omololu also advises involving kids in some financial conversations and decision-making.
WATCH | How Enoch Omololu turns back-to-school shopping into a lesson on budgets:
Teaching kids to budget for back-to-school
13 hours ago
Duration 1:21
Enoch Omololu, founder of personal finance website Savvy New Canadians, shares a back-to-school shopping strategy he’s using this year: teaching his eight-year-old about choice and budgets.
His eight-year-old, for instance, needs three pairs of shoes this fall: an indoor pair for school, another for after-school care and a third for wearing outside generally.
As a lesson, Omololu made a deal with his son: the youngster can choose a new, name-brand pair (for which Omololu will find the lowest price possible). The remaining two pairs will be ones his mom and dad choose — perhaps new, perhaps from a thrift store. If he destroys the fancy sneakers kicking rocks, the replacements will also be an affordable pair of his parents’ choosing.
“It’s getting them involved in the process and making them realize that funds are not — money is not — an unlimited resource for [their] parents,” Omololu said.
Lots of items are be perfectly fine for another school year, noted Winnipeg dad Bamidele Sanusi, like reusable water bottles, lunch bags, backpacks and the pencil crayons his pre-schooler Elliott enjoys colouring with. (Travis Goldby/CBC)
For some parents, how to afford back-to-school items was a concern even before school ended. Reusing pencil crayons, water bottles, lunch bags and other supplies for another school term, carefully weighing new versus thrift store purchases, and talking to his kids about cutting costs are the tactics Winnipeg parent Bamidele Sanusi is employing this year.
With his wife currently on maternity leave with their youngest, the father of three says saving for back-to-school and trimming down discretionary spending is important “to be able to manage the recurring costs, which is rent, for gas, for phone bills and the rest. It’s a time to be judicious in spending.”
WATCH | Rising prices have made back-to-school shopping challenging for many:
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
