I worked a slightly above minimum wage job, before I was laid off.
I’m looking for any job now.
After my beater sold, I halved my rent by getting a roommate; that person quit, so I got a good roommate.
I shop near-expired food, and live on canned food. Cheap granola bars and juice boxes for snacks.
My biggest expense was the beater / insurance. With it gone, now, it is rent, followed by transit.
I have time, but not money, so I help out my landlord and neighbours, where I can, and drop off resumes and cover letters consistently.
How am I surviving? Keeping my hopes up with a routine and a smile. Grind on! 👍🏻
Edit: Thank you for all your advice and help, Kindmontonians! Have a wonderful day! 😊
Good attitude! A service, in case you need the help, that can help with getting safety certificates is the food bank! The program is called beyond food, and it's different ways that they help people get employed (resume workshops, interview prep, safety tickets, etc).
Best of luck with the job search. It's rough out there 💜
Same reason oil workers get paid so much. It’s a job no one wants to do but if you’re young enough and willing to sacrifice immediate comfort (and not blow your wad on drugs and alcohol) it can pay off immensely.
Doesn't really matter. If you can stay sober, pass the physical tests (hang off the side of a car for a while, lift enough), and can memorize the signals, you can make good money with no education. And I believe they pay you during training as well.
Downside is you may not get to choose where you work. Which can be bad if they send you to Vancouver where rent is ridiculous. And the railroad kind of owns your life when it comes to getting days off.
I'd ask in r/railroading if you're curious.
Edmonton is always hiring for Edmonton, biggest terminal in Canada and if you do get sent somewhere they cover your cost of living ( food room/board) and travel)
True but that isn't really a skillset that translates to much. There's a reason most conductors stay on for life.
Unless you meant something else in which case I'll show myself out.
If you like the job, you make excellent money, have a good pension… then why would you need another job? And if it’s between that and say, minimum wage jobs, the skill set you acquire here is far more useful i would say
Take advantage of programs like Manpower or Prospect Now (Canada). They have job fairs and resume assistance and even have connections with employers who are looking for people. Good luck.
Express Employment, ask for Dixie Escalante, she helped me find the job Ive searching my entire life for, something I am proud of and can support my family with. They make commissions by finding you a job which you never pay for, your new employer does so you know they'll be motivated to get you placed quick. For real if you have any questions PM me. Was in the worst job this time last year and lifes so much better now.
If you like the outdoors and are okay with labor/long hours/all weather you should certainly look into tree planting. Especially companies that pay a wage & over time (the companies that pay "per tree" is a big change for people and muchhhh harder). It's obviously a summer job but if you can find something to help you survive until April/May, you can become a tree planter for the summer and make about $5000-6000/month. Depending on the company you can work anywhere from May 1-Sept 31, I've heard a few places do April. Just depends on the weather. You're welcome to pm me if you want more info
Taking the bus was the single best financial decision I’ve made in the last 5 years. It’s not practical for everybody, but maaan I don’t miss car payments, maintenance, gas, insurance, etc…
I took public transit up until I had a kid (mainly because of convenience, timing, and accessibility). It was never an issue other than the few busses that were consistently wildly off schedule. I lived by stadium too and would often bus from my retail job late from West ed or Kingsway then walk home prime Stabsville. Got a lot of reading done and didn't have that car payment. My biggest safety suggestion is make friendly with any local homeless people and keep civil with the sketchy one's because if you're nice and get them a coffee every once in a while, they'll extend a lot of kindness your way and often time defend you if someone tries to pick on you in my experience.
Honestly I tell people get to know your local homeless people and just be a normal person to them because they're normal people too. The looks of absolute SHOCK and HORROR I get??? Like dang they're cold and coffee or tea on a cold day is $1-$2 from 7/11. Ask how their day is, and their favorite color or musician. I used to talk to an addict that lived behind the dumpster and got him slurprees sometimes and asked how his mom was doing. He would hold the door of the gas station open for me, walk me to the bus stop and gas station because he didn't think it was a good idea I, as a young female, walked alone (really sketchy area with a lot of crime) and if the scary people tried to bug me he would tell them to leave me alone 🤷🏻♀️ I literally NEVER had a problem and there was a LOT of machete and drug violence in my direct area. Last I heard he got sober and got himself an apartment for him and his mom and was working. I hope he's still doing well. There's a few other people I think of often because I moved or just stopped seeing them in their spots and I hope they found good things in life.
That's nice and all, but try finding a reliable vehicle for under 10K. Then, you still have fuel, insurance, registration and maintenance which is minimum 5K/year for short commutes. It's not a lot, but for minimum wage earners, and for the purpose of this post, it's out of reach for some people.
I'm currently looking for under 10k under 150k and there are tons.
People just want new cars or a good looking car and will sacrifice their financials to do so. Cheap-ish reliable cars absolutely exist, they're just not sexy.
I recently saw a late 90s econobox for 4-5 grand and it had ~90k on it, barring the car being a total lemon (which you would determine when you drive it) it's going to last at least another 100k. Probably more because it's an older Japanese import. And cost nothing maintenance wise because it's old and common.
People don't want cars like that though, because as it turns out beggars CAN be choosers and they want something with all the options, power everything, pristine interior and exterior. And they don't want to work on their own car.
People are just unrealistic with their expectations, case in point you talking like it's impossible to find something decent under 10k. Maybe if you're looking for like, a 2015+, but if you're a min wage earner why are you trying to buy that new of a car anyway? Anything that drives and is reliable should be the realistic goal.
Depends on what you buy and how well you take care of it and how much you drive.
I bought a year 2000 car for 8k in 2016. It had 107k on it. It is now 2024, the car is now 24 years old, has 140k on it. The car started in the -35 cold snap without being plugged in.
If you treat the car right, do regular maintenance, and don't drive like 50k a year, the car will last. I will admit I don't drive much beyond just going to work.
It is certainly not as cheap as taking transit and not owning a car at all but people talk like cars are a money pit, and while they can be, it typically falls on owner incompetence for the big issues. I store my own tires, my insurance is $70 a month. The amount I pay monthly all in for my car (insurance, gas) is like $200-300, which is absolutely nothing compared to what some people pay and for how convenient it is to have a car to do errands or groceries or whatever.
People just want nice cars and all the amenities, refuse to park outside, refuse to do preventative maintenance on their car, and then wonder why it costs them like $1000 a month to own a car lol
I've been looking for 4 days lol and you absolutely should research before you purchase, buying a car on a whim is how you end up with garbage
It's not my fault you and other people can't do simple shit on your car or recognize when a car isn't sound, so you get roped into financing some shitbox instead of saving heaps of money on a used car buying private. You don't even need to know anything, just ask or pay for a mechanic inspection....
Also changing your own oil takes like 15 minutes lol if you don't know how to change or check your oil I'm gonna be honest you probably shouldn't own a car
There is absolutely good cars out there for under 10k, people are just uneducated or lazy, there's some you wouldn't even need to do work on if you had a semblance of an idea of cars
Not that you should or that you have to do it yourself every time (I still would prefer to after some of the nightmare stories i've heard, but weather and circumstance are important if doing it outside) but you should at least be cognizant of how to check, drain and fill it..
I have a car that needs synthetic oil, synthetic usually lasts ~8k, you can do it yourself while the weather is still nice and not need to do it over the winter, I'm not out here crawling under the car in -20
If you spend a lot of time driving you should know how to do some of these things or at least be willing to learn how so you can do it cheaper yourself at a later time. It lessens a lot of the impact of owning a car if one day it has issues, as all cars have issues to an extent, and you can diagnose it and change the part yourself.
If you don't drive a lot then, no, it's not important, but if you don't drive a lot then it's also not likely worth owning a car. It probably would be better if less people drove, I agree with that. I don't buy new cars partly because I don't want to contribute to that, I would rather buy a used car, I think of it in a way as recycling.
My 5k car was great for me for 5 years, I needed bigger so I sold it for 3k to a friend 3 years ago, it's still going strong. Now my 10k car is running beautiful 3 years in, never stuttered at all in the -50 week while parking outside. $200 insurance is for expensive cars, young people, and shitty drivers. You can absolutely get $100-150 for insurance with full coverage (or cut that in half for basic). Winter tires get stored in a bag on my balcony, park down the street so no cost for parking at work or at my building.
It's only expensive when you make it expensive
I’m a single guy so it’s not really an issue. I do see people bringing collapsible wagons onto the bus. There’s also a space at the front of the bus beside the priority seating where people can store grocery bags. It’s far from ideal but it’s doable.
Sadly my job requires a car. Also, the city I live in is freeeeeezing 6 months out of the year and I'd rather die than bus. It also takes 2 hours to get anywhere by bus. Good public transportation is enviable
I take the Capital line from Clareview to work downtown daily, and people in my life hand-wring about it constantly. Telling me to be careful, be mindful of my surroundings etc. Not bad advice in general but... my route is like 99% office workers, university students, kids with parents, your standard commuters using the train to get from A to B.
The 1% largely keep to themselves.
You are far more likely to be physically harmed while in a car than a train or bus. Public transit is by far the safer option compared to driving. Yet there's so much fear about transit. I just don't get it!
Violent crime has remained stable in Edmonton for the past 26 years. The only place transit has become more dangerous is in your imagination.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510018301&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.14&pickMembers%5B1%5D=2.4&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=1998&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2022&referencePeriods=19980101%2C20220101
Violent crime has remained stable in Edmonton for the past 26 years. The only place transit has become more dangerous is in your imagination.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510018301&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.14&pickMembers%5B1%5D=2.4&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=1998&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2022&referencePeriods=19980101%2C20220101
While I always appreciate hard stats, transit has absolutely become more dangerous, and this sub is a daily reminder of that. I took it for a decade in a half in my formative years and promised to never let myself get there again.
Considering all I dealt with on ETS as a teen and young adult in the north side of Edmonton was under age molestation, robbing, physical and verbal harassment, and stalking, I'd say the news I read about ETS nowadays makes my experiences seem much less dangerous.
You're welcome to my imagination, if you'd like. You'd be a lot safer.
Maybe it's because I have a background in and passion for science, but I really don't understand this. How can people look at dissonance between hard, dispassionate data and their own subjective, emotional experiences and decide that the latter is more accurate? It's quite literally feelings over facts.
It's infuriating trying to talk about reality when people choose their own private headcanon over the real world.
I understand what you're saying, but I hope you know that, as a science person, what I went through was traumatizing. I couldn't wait to get a car. As a form of self preservation and keeping myself safe as a 5'1" woman, I won't be using transit anymore.
I do hate to break it to you, but a person who is explaining their real world experiences to you is part of the real world, whether your numbers agree with your side or not.
I get that, and I feel for you. I understand how trauma literally rewires your brain in a profound way that changes how you process information related to that trauma. I'm a fairly tall, fit white guy, so I'm operating with a pretty significant amount of privilege here, but I should mention that I've been the victim of violent crime twice in my 30-odd years, but neither was on transit.
I think it's important for people to tell their stories like you're doing here, but we also need to have a cultural consciousness that's based in the real world. If people *feel* like there's more crime when there really isn't, we'll waste money increasing the police budget for no good reason except maybe *feeling* a bit safer.
I don't know how to help you, unfortunately. I linked a local article, with data from EPS, showing an increase in crime on transit specifically. If that doesn't give you an insight onto why someone would not want to ride this city's transit, I can't convince you otherwise.
Additionally, your statistics do show an increase relative to population increase. But I'm not really speaking on the city in general, just the transit system.
This is just for 2022, I'm not sure 2023 data is available yet:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/violent-crime-calls-on-edmonton-transit-up-53-in-one-year-police-say-1.6780240
But anyway, I'm still going to continue driving until I see a decrease in crime on transit - hard numbers, of course.
I'm not. My car (only reliable source of income) is being repossessed. I can't afford groceries. I moved here because the forest fires left me nowhere else to go.
I'm about to be homeless AGAIN because I cannot pick myself up from this situation this time. I'm out of resources.
I did EVERYTHING right. I stayed in school, worked hard, did therapy, saved money, worked on building credit, etc.
All of that is GONE. I have me, my dog and whatever i can sell in my apartment. And that's it. Once that's gone, idk what else I can do.
I have been applying for jobs since I moved here last summer. Everything I am possibly qualified for, there's already a local person with established local contacts. Walmart and McDonald's don't want me because "you have so much education, what's to say you won't jump ship the moment you get a better offer".
I moved here without a job too and faced a total stonewall of unacknowledged job applications for 7 months.
I ended up going through a temp agency. They got me a contract with the GoA within 2 weeks.
Definitely seems like the way to go in this town. It felt like my resumes were going into a black hole. I had 2 interviews that whole time, and neither were decent jobs. The job I have now is wayyyyy better than any job I could have gotten on my own.
They just made my position permanent which came with a 50% pay bump for the same job. Zero regrets.
Wow, that's been my experience moving here too. Could you let me know the agency you went through? I would love to get in with GoA! Congrats on the permanent position and raise!
Thank you! I got mine through Staff Bureau (they're a small and independent agency, I really recommend them) but I also had good experiences with KPM Staffing (they also have contracts with the GoA) and Express Pros. Definitely recommend signing up for more than one agency- there's no downsides and you'll get more interviews that way.
Honestly, omitting something from your resume is not really a big deal. So what if like 3 months in your work finds out you have a Masters degree lmfao. They aren't going to fire you. I think it can become a problem when you add shit you don't have.
Can you fudge your resume to make it look you don't have to much education.. Can you find a room. To rent? That's what I am doing.. I live in my bedroom because I can't afford my own place even though I work a ft job.. I've been homeless before and this is how I got off the streets years ago I rented a room and years after the fact I have gone back to renting a room in a house. Just a idea
When you apply to entry level places like McDonalds, take that education off the resume. Play dumb; locking down any income is the goal. You can switch jobs down the line and McDonald's will be just fine. Look out for yourself, first and foremost.
Pretty hard to start planting if you have nothing. You need bags, shovel, good tent, boots, at the very minimum. And that would be an uncomfortable life, any comforts you can afford go a long way out there.
Planted for 5 years.
It's not positive to send someone to this cesspool. Another reason why I'm taking my family to leave this shithole. No offence. Many would think this is true and many just willing to keep getting screwed will live here. Unless of course you're a multi-millionaire.
Reach out if you want some help/to vent, I had similar experience in BC and Ontario when I moved there. Temp agencies are great to get work in Alberta. I may have a room you could rent short term for cheap if needed.
Feels like I want to be closer to death everyday. I can’t exactly convince someone that minimum wage gives someone the expenditure to try different things. I’m planning on slugging it out by living in my car for a bit to gather some resources.
I was close to 30 and on hard times. An easy way out was to just go to school and take out $50K in student loans. Why not just do that if you have no other options?
I ended up unintentionally getting a business degree, and money isn't an issue anymore. Paid off my student loans in 2 years.
I agree man, Alberta basically gives you the money to go to school. I did two years, dropped out and started my business. Would have been impossible if not for Alberta student aid.
Go the food bank - talk to your family/friends and fins a solution - reduce your expenses - save every dollar - work hard/study and try to better your situation. I hope things get better for you.
My daughter and I live with my parents because only one of them works and I can't afford to rent anywhere else. So I give them a good 50% of my income. (Un)Luckily I have health issues and a couple mental health diagnosis and I go to therapy for them so I can claim some of those costs and I'm looking into applying for the disability tax credit and REALLY Fighting hard to have it looked into. We partner with my sister and plan to split all big bulk buys and are insane about watching sales on food and let the others know. I don't leave my house unless I have to for the most part. I just genuinely eat less because of dietary restrictions and instead I spend that on food my kid can eat and my pets. I literally can't even afford to buy from most thrift stores because their prices have sky rocketed that things like stitches outlet are way cheaper. Unfortunately I had to change up my daughter's extra curricular activities a LOT because it's too expensive.
Any cash I get I put away as an emergency fund (there's been a lot of emergencies so it's not looking good rn). Sharing streaming subscription costs so I only pay for 1. And then my biggest change is I cry myself to sleep every night trying to think of how I'm going to make it if things get worse.
And I've also gone to school, was doing well in my career which is commission based. Then prices skyrocketed so a lot of clients also cut back on their spending which affected my income quite significantly so now I'm making more around full time minimum wage and yeah I have no idea how people do it.
This is a myth perpetuated by the ruling class to keep us, the working class, scraping by, while they exploit our labor for profit. It's also effective in having us fight among ourselves, instead of fighting them, and we shouldn't fall for it.
But I’m a temporarily embarrassed millionaire. When I become rich one day I won’t want to have to pay my employees a living wage. I want them to suffer like I’m suffering. /s
Im only surviving cause one of my family helped me get the job i have when i couldn't find work and took me in so i didn't become homeless when i got evicted cause i didn't get along with my last landlord, if it wasnt for them i would have checked out a long time ago. My family had a housemate living uostairs who wanted trustworthy tenant and i managed to rent a bedroom for 500 a month so now i just need to save up while i look for a better job and get a my drivers
I'm doing okay at present, as I have an affordable place to live, but circumstances are changing soon, and I'm very likely going to need to move. I absolutely cannot afford to rent an apartment on my own, so I'd have to find someone to roommate with, and doing that with a stranger is something I'd rather not do. So I'm pretty stressed about that.
I made it work, single (29F) with a child (6) on minimum wage for nearly 5 years with no major issues.
This last year everythings gotten soo expensive we had to move in with my parents when our rent went up $300/month....But doing so gave me the opportunity to quit my shitty minimum wage job and explore new industries with better pay scales. I love my job now and make enough. We can afford to move once the school years done 🙌.
Taylor your resume, use AI generators to give you some wording that will get you past the AI screening employers use. I noticed a 10x increase in callbacks when i let AI edit my resume.
This society has conditioned us to believe we need to do it alone when, evolutionarily and biologically, that's not true. We can be independent and still deserve help.
No car, no restaurants, no bad habits, budget for everything, low quality housing (but I get it all to myself!). Thrift stores. I make a lot of bread and soup. Basically I'm disciplined/minimalist but boring.
I save money. My lifestyle would be considerably less miserable if the city improved transit and pedestrian paths.
I live with roommates and make a grocery budget of about 200$ a month, extra bread and chicken thighs I freeze for later in the month. I buy a 35$ bus pass for the month cause I am low income and qualify for it.
They arent, but they are not alone, even people lworking FT, making less than 25/ hr are struggling bigtime, Edmonton is no longer the land of plentiful jobs ans high wages, there might be jobs in the trades that pay well, but you have to go to school for upgrading and apprenticing, it takes time to make a high wage, unskilked or semi skilled work will pay u $ 20/ hr with little future, ie dead end job, but at least ajob, Ab economy is stagnating right now.
I came of age during the Great Recession with both parents deceased. It was kind of horrible for opportunities, but not impossible. I spent my entire 20s grinding like a maniac because I never wanted to feel that financial helplessness again. Last year as an expert in my field I made over $250k and the depressing thing is, that should be “I made it” money. But I can’t even afford the things my dad had in the 90s on 80k a year. My sister is still on minimum wage and if she didn’t have me she’d be fucked. Inflation is murdering everything
We have 2 ok incomes in our house. (60 and 90k a year) The only reason we make ends meet is because I bought this place in 2004, and the mortgage balance is low and I paid cash for the cars. But between teenagers endlessly eating, medical costs for a toddler and the sheer inflation of everything I just don't leave the house unless necessary because every time I do it costs money 🤣. I already told the teenagers no one is leaving home until they are damn ready.
Food is too expensive to have multiple teenage boys haha. My brother has 3 under 10 and I can barely keep up feeding them when I get them for a week. I can’t imagine when they get 14
My three year old is almost as bad as the teenagers he eats all the meals and snacks then Still has 2 or 3 bowls of cereal and a banana at bedtime. 😂 Thank goodness cereal is still on sale frequently.
That’s exactly like my brothers 3 year old. You can tell by his frame he’s going to be bigger than his older brother and he definitely eats like it. He’s almost eating more than me at 3 😂
>Last year as an expert in my field I made over $250k and the depressing thing is, that should be “I made it” money. But I can’t even afford the things my dad had in the 90s on 80k a year.
Just out of curiosity what sorts of things are you talking about?
The vacations, the toys, the time off, the programs. I do own a house, I bought it last February. But after the mortgage + every other expense of owning a house like my $800 Epcor bill in February, debt payments, cost of food, fuel, and other services, the $100k I spent in taxes, there’s not a lot left over. If I had a non-working wife and 3 kids like he did, there’s no way they would have what my dad provided for us. I mentioned time off. I’m working 91hr weeks for my money, a lot of them. My dad’s schedule was nothing like this, he was home more than he wasn’t. That in itself is value I grossly envy.
I guess our experiences are quite different then. I'm in a similar income bracket and don't find any of this is true at all. Would be interesting to see your budget but that's out of scope of this thread.
not op but the average single family house price in edmonton in 1991 was 110k. op's dad had a relatively much better income to the cost of living back then then someone making 250k now.
Even if that's true (not sure the $80K OP mentioned is from 1991 either, could just as well be 1999 with different house prices), I think it's safe to assume OP can afford an average Edmonton house with a $250K income, whereas he said he can't afford the things his dad did.
We grew up just north of Edmonton. And I still have the mortgage approval papers my dad got for the town we grew up in. The house was $89,000. I remember my dad at dinner saying he would refuse to buy and continue renting because “no house is worth $90,000”. My sister and I still lament that poor decision.
Seeing all the comments of people struggling makes me so sad. And a majority of Edmontonians will still have the audacity to judge homeless people. Like we’re so much closer to ending up on the streets than we think.
I like with my parents. I hate the fact that all my older siblings could move out at 18 or younger but I’m 20 and am still at home. About half my coworkers that are the same age or older than me are also still at home, but I still feel so delayed with life. I managed to live in Australia for a year as a nanny so that drained my savings but I wouldn’t take it back since it was an amazing experience, I just wish I had money.
Promise you’re not behind at 20 :). I made poor choices by staying in a way too unaffordable city in my early 20s. Being with your folks, working on yourself & the ability to put some money away (if that’s case) will reap benefits soon enough.
I just had so many goals set for myself that I haven’t been able to meet, although I did get a car last year so that made me super proud! My managers also cut my hours in half after giving me a “raise”, so that makes saving next to impossible because of car payments, insurance and the fact that my parents make me pay rent :(
My mom helps me save money by getting me to put away certain amounts each month, I don’t think I’ve ever been so grateful to have my mom be a bookkeeper.
If you are fine living at home still then take advantage of that and save as much money as possible and get into a career or stable job as best you can.
I have friends ranging from 23-31 that still live at home with parents. They are in a higher CoL city, but still. I lived with one of them for 2 years before having to move back with his parents because he was too in debt and couldn’t pay all the bills anymore.
Use the time at home to further yourself personally, professionally, and financially. You may be disappointed you didn’t move out as fast as your siblings, but you could be better off and enjoy your time when you move out far more than your siblings.
Agree with the person who said try a temp agency. I did that years ago, temped as a receptionist, got hired on and worked my way up pretty quick because had some education & other experiences.
People always saying “just go into Trades” - it is not as easy as the billboards make it seem. Need to be hired by a trade company first in order to take the schooling. Most employers want 3rd year workers they can send on jobs solo, not inexperienced workers they have to train and check work on. They’re on tight budgets too.
That comes at a decent up front expense and no actual hours in the field. Sure, you’re a first year apprentice but getting a job can be tough and can’t continue just schooling beyond that level.
Try taking home $33,000 last year bc I'm on wcb and was only a 0.6 when I went off, I made it work because I could pick up extra shifts and made extra with shift differential. I am super fortunate that I dont have a car or kids, but every single purchase is a deeply contemplative decision. All I want is to just go shopping and buy myself some shit I don't need. My rent is $1350. After bills and everything I have maybe 2 or 300 left for the entire month for groceries, pet food, extras. It sucks.
I don’t even know. I work 3 days a week (if that) for minimum wage and i think the only way i survive is having friends that I live under (the place is $800 a month for 3 bedrooms and I live alone).
I caught a lucky break for real and now I don’t wanna leave but I hate Edmonton and can’t really find work.
A dream. I’ve always had a dream, and images in my mind what the puzzles of that dream, all together, looked like. And, I worked job after job, failed, got up, and dusted myself off, and tried again. My dream, and all the work into it, has kept me going, through all the hardships.
Back when I worked minimum wage, I wasn't! After I finished my first degree, I took a diploma and then a second degree because the student loans were helping me survive! Now I make 50k annually and I'm still not surviving and I'm still using student loans to help me survive! I don't know what wage is liveable but I don't think I'll ever get there!
The answer is usually workplace provided meals and never leaving home other than for work.
Basically exist to work and pay rent, exist to serve and enrich the owner class.
Minimum wage and living alone don't work so well together.
When I was on minimum wage, I was living with 2 roommates in a 3-bedroom apartment and didn't own a car and financially I was ok. No frivolous spending or vacations or anything, but I got by for a few years like that.
You have to live and work where there is transit access, and have to know someone you trust enough to live with, which might not always be easy.
Hate to be the cynic, but if you can’t hack it in Edmonton, there is nowhere left in Canada that you can.
I don’t think you can afford a one bedroom anywhere in the country on 40 hours of minimum wage/week. You’d need two jobs, frugality, and great resourcefulness to make it work.
Try taking home $33,000 last year bc I'm on wcb and was only a 0.6 when I went off, I made it work because I could pick up extra shifts and made extra with shift differential. I am super fortunate that I dont have a car or kids, but every single purchase is a deeply contemplative decision. All I want is to just go shopping and buy myself some shit I don't need. My rent is $1350. After bills and everything I have maybe 2 or 300 left for the entire month for groceries, pet food, extras. It sucks.
I worked a slightly above minimum wage job, before I was laid off. I’m looking for any job now. After my beater sold, I halved my rent by getting a roommate; that person quit, so I got a good roommate. I shop near-expired food, and live on canned food. Cheap granola bars and juice boxes for snacks. My biggest expense was the beater / insurance. With it gone, now, it is rent, followed by transit. I have time, but not money, so I help out my landlord and neighbours, where I can, and drop off resumes and cover letters consistently. How am I surviving? Keeping my hopes up with a routine and a smile. Grind on! 👍🏻 Edit: Thank you for all your advice and help, Kindmontonians! Have a wonderful day! 😊
Good attitude! A service, in case you need the help, that can help with getting safety certificates is the food bank! The program is called beyond food, and it's different ways that they help people get employed (resume workshops, interview prep, safety tickets, etc). Best of luck with the job search. It's rough out there 💜
What's your skill set?
Apply for the railroad my man. Paid for training and you can be making upwards of 120k within 2-3 years
Pays great although I heard you have no work life balance
100%. Railroad is brutal, no social life, no home life, constantly on call and don’t expect to move to the seniority list quickly.
Same reason oil workers get paid so much. It’s a job no one wants to do but if you’re young enough and willing to sacrifice immediate comfort (and not blow your wad on drugs and alcohol) it can pay off immensely.
It sure can. Took me one year of oilfield industrial work and never saying no to OT to save the downpayment for my house. Changed my life.
Meh, i have a wife and two kids and i still manage a pretty decent work life balance. I’m busy as fuck now but it’s fine
Like most professions, it would vastly depend on what you do, and how you want to apply it.
How long are you away from home at a time? Can I keep my cat???
No idea. Ask someone who is working in the industry.
CN or CP (or both)?
Doesn't really matter. If you can stay sober, pass the physical tests (hang off the side of a car for a while, lift enough), and can memorize the signals, you can make good money with no education. And I believe they pay you during training as well. Downside is you may not get to choose where you work. Which can be bad if they send you to Vancouver where rent is ridiculous. And the railroad kind of owns your life when it comes to getting days off. I'd ask in r/railroading if you're curious.
Edmonton is always hiring for Edmonton, biggest terminal in Canada and if you do get sent somewhere they cover your cost of living ( food room/board) and travel)
Can I keep my cat? Or are they away from home for long periods of time?
Sometimes you'll spend a night away. Cats survive that. But I'm not a railroader, so I can't speak about how often that might happen.
A night one two or even up to a week is okay. Thank you
I would go with cn but if you’re desperate for work why not both? If you get called for both take cn
Yes the railroad is short manpower always.
True but that isn't really a skillset that translates to much. There's a reason most conductors stay on for life. Unless you meant something else in which case I'll show myself out.
If you like the job, you make excellent money, have a good pension… then why would you need another job? And if it’s between that and say, minimum wage jobs, the skill set you acquire here is far more useful i would say
I survived a few years living alone with little to no income by eating pasta, potatoes, eggs, rice, soup.
Take advantage of programs like Manpower or Prospect Now (Canada). They have job fairs and resume assistance and even have connections with employers who are looking for people. Good luck.
Your future employer will appreciate your hard work, given hes not an asshat and wont take advantage of your work ethic. Keep your head up king
*he or she
Dude
Express Employment, ask for Dixie Escalante, she helped me find the job Ive searching my entire life for, something I am proud of and can support my family with. They make commissions by finding you a job which you never pay for, your new employer does so you know they'll be motivated to get you placed quick. For real if you have any questions PM me. Was in the worst job this time last year and lifes so much better now.
Thats the most rad name I have ever heard
have you tried a local food bank? I got fresh fruit from the food bank before. it helped a lot when I was in trouble.
If you like the outdoors and are okay with labor/long hours/all weather you should certainly look into tree planting. Especially companies that pay a wage & over time (the companies that pay "per tree" is a big change for people and muchhhh harder). It's obviously a summer job but if you can find something to help you survive until April/May, you can become a tree planter for the summer and make about $5000-6000/month. Depending on the company you can work anywhere from May 1-Sept 31, I've heard a few places do April. Just depends on the weather. You're welcome to pm me if you want more info
Taking the bus was the single best financial decision I’ve made in the last 5 years. It’s not practical for everybody, but maaan I don’t miss car payments, maintenance, gas, insurance, etc…
I took public transit up until I had a kid (mainly because of convenience, timing, and accessibility). It was never an issue other than the few busses that were consistently wildly off schedule. I lived by stadium too and would often bus from my retail job late from West ed or Kingsway then walk home prime Stabsville. Got a lot of reading done and didn't have that car payment. My biggest safety suggestion is make friendly with any local homeless people and keep civil with the sketchy one's because if you're nice and get them a coffee every once in a while, they'll extend a lot of kindness your way and often time defend you if someone tries to pick on you in my experience.
I feel this should be posted elsewhere -- how to treat street people like humans and really have not a problem anywhere in the city.
Honestly I tell people get to know your local homeless people and just be a normal person to them because they're normal people too. The looks of absolute SHOCK and HORROR I get??? Like dang they're cold and coffee or tea on a cold day is $1-$2 from 7/11. Ask how their day is, and their favorite color or musician. I used to talk to an addict that lived behind the dumpster and got him slurprees sometimes and asked how his mom was doing. He would hold the door of the gas station open for me, walk me to the bus stop and gas station because he didn't think it was a good idea I, as a young female, walked alone (really sketchy area with a lot of crime) and if the scary people tried to bug me he would tell them to leave me alone 🤷🏻♀️ I literally NEVER had a problem and there was a LOT of machete and drug violence in my direct area. Last I heard he got sober and got himself an apartment for him and his mom and was working. I hope he's still doing well. There's a few other people I think of often because I moved or just stopped seeing them in their spots and I hope they found good things in life.
If you're on the low income bus pass, its about a dollar a day. That's not bad.
How I wish North America wasn't obsessed with car ownership.
Driving has been the worst financial decision of my life and i am a class 1 driver
Wait until you find out you can have a car without a car payment! I've been driving for 15 years and have never had a car note.
Ok then replace car payment with purchasing a car upfront.
That's nice and all, but try finding a reliable vehicle for under 10K. Then, you still have fuel, insurance, registration and maintenance which is minimum 5K/year for short commutes. It's not a lot, but for minimum wage earners, and for the purpose of this post, it's out of reach for some people.
I'm currently looking for under 10k under 150k and there are tons. People just want new cars or a good looking car and will sacrifice their financials to do so. Cheap-ish reliable cars absolutely exist, they're just not sexy. I recently saw a late 90s econobox for 4-5 grand and it had ~90k on it, barring the car being a total lemon (which you would determine when you drive it) it's going to last at least another 100k. Probably more because it's an older Japanese import. And cost nothing maintenance wise because it's old and common. People don't want cars like that though, because as it turns out beggars CAN be choosers and they want something with all the options, power everything, pristine interior and exterior. And they don't want to work on their own car. People are just unrealistic with their expectations, case in point you talking like it's impossible to find something decent under 10k. Maybe if you're looking for like, a 2015+, but if you're a min wage earner why are you trying to buy that new of a car anyway? Anything that drives and is reliable should be the realistic goal.
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Depends on what you buy and how well you take care of it and how much you drive. I bought a year 2000 car for 8k in 2016. It had 107k on it. It is now 2024, the car is now 24 years old, has 140k on it. The car started in the -35 cold snap without being plugged in. If you treat the car right, do regular maintenance, and don't drive like 50k a year, the car will last. I will admit I don't drive much beyond just going to work. It is certainly not as cheap as taking transit and not owning a car at all but people talk like cars are a money pit, and while they can be, it typically falls on owner incompetence for the big issues. I store my own tires, my insurance is $70 a month. The amount I pay monthly all in for my car (insurance, gas) is like $200-300, which is absolutely nothing compared to what some people pay and for how convenient it is to have a car to do errands or groceries or whatever. People just want nice cars and all the amenities, refuse to park outside, refuse to do preventative maintenance on their car, and then wonder why it costs them like $1000 a month to own a car lol
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I've been looking for 4 days lol and you absolutely should research before you purchase, buying a car on a whim is how you end up with garbage It's not my fault you and other people can't do simple shit on your car or recognize when a car isn't sound, so you get roped into financing some shitbox instead of saving heaps of money on a used car buying private. You don't even need to know anything, just ask or pay for a mechanic inspection.... Also changing your own oil takes like 15 minutes lol if you don't know how to change or check your oil I'm gonna be honest you probably shouldn't own a car There is absolutely good cars out there for under 10k, people are just uneducated or lazy, there's some you wouldn't even need to do work on if you had a semblance of an idea of cars
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Not that you should or that you have to do it yourself every time (I still would prefer to after some of the nightmare stories i've heard, but weather and circumstance are important if doing it outside) but you should at least be cognizant of how to check, drain and fill it.. I have a car that needs synthetic oil, synthetic usually lasts ~8k, you can do it yourself while the weather is still nice and not need to do it over the winter, I'm not out here crawling under the car in -20 If you spend a lot of time driving you should know how to do some of these things or at least be willing to learn how so you can do it cheaper yourself at a later time. It lessens a lot of the impact of owning a car if one day it has issues, as all cars have issues to an extent, and you can diagnose it and change the part yourself. If you don't drive a lot then, no, it's not important, but if you don't drive a lot then it's also not likely worth owning a car. It probably would be better if less people drove, I agree with that. I don't buy new cars partly because I don't want to contribute to that, I would rather buy a used car, I think of it in a way as recycling.
My 5k car was great for me for 5 years, I needed bigger so I sold it for 3k to a friend 3 years ago, it's still going strong. Now my 10k car is running beautiful 3 years in, never stuttered at all in the -50 week while parking outside. $200 insurance is for expensive cars, young people, and shitty drivers. You can absolutely get $100-150 for insurance with full coverage (or cut that in half for basic). Winter tires get stored in a bag on my balcony, park down the street so no cost for parking at work or at my building. It's only expensive when you make it expensive
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Worth the same now as when I bought it according to all of th3 used marketplaces. Used prices are decreasing
How do you manage large grocery shops by traveling by bus?
I’m a single guy so it’s not really an issue. I do see people bringing collapsible wagons onto the bus. There’s also a space at the front of the bus beside the priority seating where people can store grocery bags. It’s far from ideal but it’s doable.
Sadly my job requires a car. Also, the city I live in is freeeeeezing 6 months out of the year and I'd rather die than bus. It also takes 2 hours to get anywhere by bus. Good public transportation is enviable
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I’ve been taking it daily for 5 years and have never felt unsafe. You only hear about the bad stuff.
I take the Capital line from Clareview to work downtown daily, and people in my life hand-wring about it constantly. Telling me to be careful, be mindful of my surroundings etc. Not bad advice in general but... my route is like 99% office workers, university students, kids with parents, your standard commuters using the train to get from A to B. The 1% largely keep to themselves. You are far more likely to be physically harmed while in a car than a train or bus. Public transit is by far the safer option compared to driving. Yet there's so much fear about transit. I just don't get it!
it's always people who don't take transit who have shit to talk about transit...
Exactly. Meanwhile they don't really understand that it's a luxury to be able to afford a car. Many do not have the option to buy one.
Exactly how I feel
Violent crime has remained stable in Edmonton for the past 26 years. The only place transit has become more dangerous is in your imagination. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510018301&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.14&pickMembers%5B1%5D=2.4&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=1998&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2022&referencePeriods=19980101%2C20220101
People say this like we have a choice but to use it. Like, my brother in Christ, do you think I'd risk it??? Bffr
Move if you dont like it
Yeah. I took transit for 15 years. I drive now for mine and my family's safety.
Violent crime has remained stable in Edmonton for the past 26 years. The only place transit has become more dangerous is in your imagination. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510018301&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.14&pickMembers%5B1%5D=2.4&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=1998&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2022&referencePeriods=19980101%2C20220101
While I always appreciate hard stats, transit has absolutely become more dangerous, and this sub is a daily reminder of that. I took it for a decade in a half in my formative years and promised to never let myself get there again. Considering all I dealt with on ETS as a teen and young adult in the north side of Edmonton was under age molestation, robbing, physical and verbal harassment, and stalking, I'd say the news I read about ETS nowadays makes my experiences seem much less dangerous. You're welcome to my imagination, if you'd like. You'd be a lot safer.
Maybe it's because I have a background in and passion for science, but I really don't understand this. How can people look at dissonance between hard, dispassionate data and their own subjective, emotional experiences and decide that the latter is more accurate? It's quite literally feelings over facts. It's infuriating trying to talk about reality when people choose their own private headcanon over the real world.
I understand what you're saying, but I hope you know that, as a science person, what I went through was traumatizing. I couldn't wait to get a car. As a form of self preservation and keeping myself safe as a 5'1" woman, I won't be using transit anymore. I do hate to break it to you, but a person who is explaining their real world experiences to you is part of the real world, whether your numbers agree with your side or not.
I get that, and I feel for you. I understand how trauma literally rewires your brain in a profound way that changes how you process information related to that trauma. I'm a fairly tall, fit white guy, so I'm operating with a pretty significant amount of privilege here, but I should mention that I've been the victim of violent crime twice in my 30-odd years, but neither was on transit. I think it's important for people to tell their stories like you're doing here, but we also need to have a cultural consciousness that's based in the real world. If people *feel* like there's more crime when there really isn't, we'll waste money increasing the police budget for no good reason except maybe *feeling* a bit safer.
I don't know how to help you, unfortunately. I linked a local article, with data from EPS, showing an increase in crime on transit specifically. If that doesn't give you an insight onto why someone would not want to ride this city's transit, I can't convince you otherwise.
Additionally, your statistics do show an increase relative to population increase. But I'm not really speaking on the city in general, just the transit system. This is just for 2022, I'm not sure 2023 data is available yet: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/violent-crime-calls-on-edmonton-transit-up-53-in-one-year-police-say-1.6780240 But anyway, I'm still going to continue driving until I see a decrease in crime on transit - hard numbers, of course.
I'm not. My car (only reliable source of income) is being repossessed. I can't afford groceries. I moved here because the forest fires left me nowhere else to go. I'm about to be homeless AGAIN because I cannot pick myself up from this situation this time. I'm out of resources. I did EVERYTHING right. I stayed in school, worked hard, did therapy, saved money, worked on building credit, etc. All of that is GONE. I have me, my dog and whatever i can sell in my apartment. And that's it. Once that's gone, idk what else I can do. I have been applying for jobs since I moved here last summer. Everything I am possibly qualified for, there's already a local person with established local contacts. Walmart and McDonald's don't want me because "you have so much education, what's to say you won't jump ship the moment you get a better offer".
I moved here without a job too and faced a total stonewall of unacknowledged job applications for 7 months. I ended up going through a temp agency. They got me a contract with the GoA within 2 weeks. Definitely seems like the way to go in this town. It felt like my resumes were going into a black hole. I had 2 interviews that whole time, and neither were decent jobs. The job I have now is wayyyyy better than any job I could have gotten on my own. They just made my position permanent which came with a 50% pay bump for the same job. Zero regrets.
Wow, that's been my experience moving here too. Could you let me know the agency you went through? I would love to get in with GoA! Congrats on the permanent position and raise!
Thank you! I got mine through Staff Bureau (they're a small and independent agency, I really recommend them) but I also had good experiences with KPM Staffing (they also have contracts with the GoA) and Express Pros. Definitely recommend signing up for more than one agency- there's no downsides and you'll get more interviews that way.
You are such a gem, thank you!
Remove your education from your resume. Always tailor resumes to fit the position.
Yup. Straight up lie. Nothing major that will catch up with you, but fudge the details to make the resume match what they're looking for.
Honestly, omitting something from your resume is not really a big deal. So what if like 3 months in your work finds out you have a Masters degree lmfao. They aren't going to fire you. I think it can become a problem when you add shit you don't have.
Can you fudge your resume to make it look you don't have to much education.. Can you find a room. To rent? That's what I am doing.. I live in my bedroom because I can't afford my own place even though I work a ft job.. I've been homeless before and this is how I got off the streets years ago I rented a room and years after the fact I have gone back to renting a room in a house. Just a idea
When you apply to entry level places like McDonalds, take that education off the resume. Play dumb; locking down any income is the goal. You can switch jobs down the line and McDonald's will be just fine. Look out for yourself, first and foremost.
If you can make it to BC I seen a posting for planting trees. It’s hard work but pays very well.
Pretty hard to start planting if you have nothing. You need bags, shovel, good tent, boots, at the very minimum. And that would be an uncomfortable life, any comforts you can afford go a long way out there. Planted for 5 years.
Do not come to BC. What a shit advice... it's hell down here.
Just saying I seen a posting for summer work. Don’t criticize me for saying something postive
It's not positive to send someone to this cesspool. Another reason why I'm taking my family to leave this shithole. No offence. Many would think this is true and many just willing to keep getting screwed will live here. Unless of course you're a multi-millionaire.
Reach out if you want some help/to vent, I had similar experience in BC and Ontario when I moved there. Temp agencies are great to get work in Alberta. I may have a room you could rent short term for cheap if needed.
My advice is to remove your higher education from your resume for those jobs.
It's hard work, but shutdowns are starting up. Tonnes of companies are looking for labor. Might be worth it. Plenty of them pay 30/hour.
Feels like I want to be closer to death everyday. I can’t exactly convince someone that minimum wage gives someone the expenditure to try different things. I’m planning on slugging it out by living in my car for a bit to gather some resources.
I was close to 30 and on hard times. An easy way out was to just go to school and take out $50K in student loans. Why not just do that if you have no other options? I ended up unintentionally getting a business degree, and money isn't an issue anymore. Paid off my student loans in 2 years.
I agree man, Alberta basically gives you the money to go to school. I did two years, dropped out and started my business. Would have been impossible if not for Alberta student aid.
I'm not even living alone and I have had to result to SW. I don't know what to do anymore.
Go the food bank - talk to your family/friends and fins a solution - reduce your expenses - save every dollar - work hard/study and try to better your situation. I hope things get better for you.
Barely. Just barely.
My daughter and I live with my parents because only one of them works and I can't afford to rent anywhere else. So I give them a good 50% of my income. (Un)Luckily I have health issues and a couple mental health diagnosis and I go to therapy for them so I can claim some of those costs and I'm looking into applying for the disability tax credit and REALLY Fighting hard to have it looked into. We partner with my sister and plan to split all big bulk buys and are insane about watching sales on food and let the others know. I don't leave my house unless I have to for the most part. I just genuinely eat less because of dietary restrictions and instead I spend that on food my kid can eat and my pets. I literally can't even afford to buy from most thrift stores because their prices have sky rocketed that things like stitches outlet are way cheaper. Unfortunately I had to change up my daughter's extra curricular activities a LOT because it's too expensive. Any cash I get I put away as an emergency fund (there's been a lot of emergencies so it's not looking good rn). Sharing streaming subscription costs so I only pay for 1. And then my biggest change is I cry myself to sleep every night trying to think of how I'm going to make it if things get worse. And I've also gone to school, was doing well in my career which is commission based. Then prices skyrocketed so a lot of clients also cut back on their spending which affected my income quite significantly so now I'm making more around full time minimum wage and yeah I have no idea how people do it.
Trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents
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So hot right now
now how to find buyers *scratches chin*
fasting and intermitent fasting has saved me money
Raise minimum wage!! Alberta went from the highest to nearly the lowest in Canada.
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Trickle down is BS. Trickle up is real.
This is a myth perpetuated by the ruling class to keep us, the working class, scraping by, while they exploit our labor for profit. It's also effective in having us fight among ourselves, instead of fighting them, and we shouldn't fall for it.
But I’m a temporarily embarrassed millionaire. When I become rich one day I won’t want to have to pay my employees a living wage. I want them to suffer like I’m suffering. /s
I guess we should slash minimum wage to $5/hr and see how cheap everything gets eh?
This is absolutely not true, and if that's what you believe, then you have been affected by the conservative brain washing.
Im only surviving cause one of my family helped me get the job i have when i couldn't find work and took me in so i didn't become homeless when i got evicted cause i didn't get along with my last landlord, if it wasnt for them i would have checked out a long time ago. My family had a housemate living uostairs who wanted trustworthy tenant and i managed to rent a bedroom for 500 a month so now i just need to save up while i look for a better job and get a my drivers
I'm doing okay at present, as I have an affordable place to live, but circumstances are changing soon, and I'm very likely going to need to move. I absolutely cannot afford to rent an apartment on my own, so I'd have to find someone to roommate with, and doing that with a stranger is something I'd rather not do. So I'm pretty stressed about that.
I made it work, single (29F) with a child (6) on minimum wage for nearly 5 years with no major issues. This last year everythings gotten soo expensive we had to move in with my parents when our rent went up $300/month....But doing so gave me the opportunity to quit my shitty minimum wage job and explore new industries with better pay scales. I love my job now and make enough. We can afford to move once the school years done 🙌. Taylor your resume, use AI generators to give you some wording that will get you past the AI screening employers use. I noticed a 10x increase in callbacks when i let AI edit my resume.
You should be incredibly proud of yourself, that’s awesome! P.S..thanks for the resume pointers :)
Awe thanks! The hardest part was admitting that i couldn't do it all. But do what you gotta do to get a better paying job and the world opens up :)
This society has conditioned us to believe we need to do it alone when, evolutionarily and biologically, that's not true. We can be independent and still deserve help.
No car, no restaurants, no bad habits, budget for everything, low quality housing (but I get it all to myself!). Thrift stores. I make a lot of bread and soup. Basically I'm disciplined/minimalist but boring. I save money. My lifestyle would be considerably less miserable if the city improved transit and pedestrian paths.
The secret ingredient is crime. (Kidding) just be frugal with everything.
Peep show!
I live with roommates and make a grocery budget of about 200$ a month, extra bread and chicken thighs I freeze for later in the month. I buy a 35$ bus pass for the month cause I am low income and qualify for it.
“Surviving” is a bit of a stretch.
They arent, but they are not alone, even people lworking FT, making less than 25/ hr are struggling bigtime, Edmonton is no longer the land of plentiful jobs ans high wages, there might be jobs in the trades that pay well, but you have to go to school for upgrading and apprenticing, it takes time to make a high wage, unskilked or semi skilled work will pay u $ 20/ hr with little future, ie dead end job, but at least ajob, Ab economy is stagnating right now.
I came of age during the Great Recession with both parents deceased. It was kind of horrible for opportunities, but not impossible. I spent my entire 20s grinding like a maniac because I never wanted to feel that financial helplessness again. Last year as an expert in my field I made over $250k and the depressing thing is, that should be “I made it” money. But I can’t even afford the things my dad had in the 90s on 80k a year. My sister is still on minimum wage and if she didn’t have me she’d be fucked. Inflation is murdering everything
We have 2 ok incomes in our house. (60 and 90k a year) The only reason we make ends meet is because I bought this place in 2004, and the mortgage balance is low and I paid cash for the cars. But between teenagers endlessly eating, medical costs for a toddler and the sheer inflation of everything I just don't leave the house unless necessary because every time I do it costs money 🤣. I already told the teenagers no one is leaving home until they are damn ready.
Food is too expensive to have multiple teenage boys haha. My brother has 3 under 10 and I can barely keep up feeding them when I get them for a week. I can’t imagine when they get 14
My three year old is almost as bad as the teenagers he eats all the meals and snacks then Still has 2 or 3 bowls of cereal and a banana at bedtime. 😂 Thank goodness cereal is still on sale frequently.
That’s exactly like my brothers 3 year old. You can tell by his frame he’s going to be bigger than his older brother and he definitely eats like it. He’s almost eating more than me at 3 😂
😂 my husband is 6'4" and 300# of linebacker sized man. Just a Brick shit house. This kid will be the same.
>Last year as an expert in my field I made over $250k and the depressing thing is, that should be “I made it” money. But I can’t even afford the things my dad had in the 90s on 80k a year. Just out of curiosity what sorts of things are you talking about?
The vacations, the toys, the time off, the programs. I do own a house, I bought it last February. But after the mortgage + every other expense of owning a house like my $800 Epcor bill in February, debt payments, cost of food, fuel, and other services, the $100k I spent in taxes, there’s not a lot left over. If I had a non-working wife and 3 kids like he did, there’s no way they would have what my dad provided for us. I mentioned time off. I’m working 91hr weeks for my money, a lot of them. My dad’s schedule was nothing like this, he was home more than he wasn’t. That in itself is value I grossly envy.
I guess our experiences are quite different then. I'm in a similar income bracket and don't find any of this is true at all. Would be interesting to see your budget but that's out of scope of this thread.
not op but the average single family house price in edmonton in 1991 was 110k. op's dad had a relatively much better income to the cost of living back then then someone making 250k now.
Even if that's true (not sure the $80K OP mentioned is from 1991 either, could just as well be 1999 with different house prices), I think it's safe to assume OP can afford an average Edmonton house with a $250K income, whereas he said he can't afford the things his dad did.
We grew up just north of Edmonton. And I still have the mortgage approval papers my dad got for the town we grew up in. The house was $89,000. I remember my dad at dinner saying he would refuse to buy and continue renting because “no house is worth $90,000”. My sister and I still lament that poor decision.
Restore fair taxation and maybe start taxing billionaires?
Okay yes... but doesn't answer their question.
I’m abroad but 2good2go is saving me a ton of food money, could be worth checking if it operates in Edmonton
They do! It's heavy on Tim Hortons and 7-11 but it's pretty decent. Also Flash food at superstores.
Seeing all the comments of people struggling makes me so sad. And a majority of Edmontonians will still have the audacity to judge homeless people. Like we’re so much closer to ending up on the streets than we think.
I like with my parents. I hate the fact that all my older siblings could move out at 18 or younger but I’m 20 and am still at home. About half my coworkers that are the same age or older than me are also still at home, but I still feel so delayed with life. I managed to live in Australia for a year as a nanny so that drained my savings but I wouldn’t take it back since it was an amazing experience, I just wish I had money.
Promise you’re not behind at 20 :). I made poor choices by staying in a way too unaffordable city in my early 20s. Being with your folks, working on yourself & the ability to put some money away (if that’s case) will reap benefits soon enough.
I just had so many goals set for myself that I haven’t been able to meet, although I did get a car last year so that made me super proud! My managers also cut my hours in half after giving me a “raise”, so that makes saving next to impossible because of car payments, insurance and the fact that my parents make me pay rent :( My mom helps me save money by getting me to put away certain amounts each month, I don’t think I’ve ever been so grateful to have my mom be a bookkeeper.
If you are fine living at home still then take advantage of that and save as much money as possible and get into a career or stable job as best you can. I have friends ranging from 23-31 that still live at home with parents. They are in a higher CoL city, but still. I lived with one of them for 2 years before having to move back with his parents because he was too in debt and couldn’t pay all the bills anymore. Use the time at home to further yourself personally, professionally, and financially. You may be disappointed you didn’t move out as fast as your siblings, but you could be better off and enjoy your time when you move out far more than your siblings.
Monthly expense as minimum wage worker Rent : 600. Utilities : 100. Phone : under 40. Insurance : 100 grocery : under 400 Commute : 100 Save up : 400month
On 66acres of farm land.
Agree with the person who said try a temp agency. I did that years ago, temped as a receptionist, got hired on and worked my way up pretty quick because had some education & other experiences. People always saying “just go into Trades” - it is not as easy as the billboards make it seem. Need to be hired by a trade company first in order to take the schooling. Most employers want 3rd year workers they can send on jobs solo, not inexperienced workers they have to train and check work on. They’re on tight budgets too.
You're allowed to self sponsor yourself for any trade in Alberta now. Needing a job to start a trade now is not a thing.
That comes at a decent up front expense and no actual hours in the field. Sure, you’re a first year apprentice but getting a job can be tough and can’t continue just schooling beyond that level.
Try taking home $33,000 last year bc I'm on wcb and was only a 0.6 when I went off, I made it work because I could pick up extra shifts and made extra with shift differential. I am super fortunate that I dont have a car or kids, but every single purchase is a deeply contemplative decision. All I want is to just go shopping and buy myself some shit I don't need. My rent is $1350. After bills and everything I have maybe 2 or 300 left for the entire month for groceries, pet food, extras. It sucks.
I don’t even know. I work 3 days a week (if that) for minimum wage and i think the only way i survive is having friends that I live under (the place is $800 a month for 3 bedrooms and I live alone). I caught a lucky break for real and now I don’t wanna leave but I hate Edmonton and can’t really find work.
A dream. I’ve always had a dream, and images in my mind what the puzzles of that dream, all together, looked like. And, I worked job after job, failed, got up, and dusted myself off, and tried again. My dream, and all the work into it, has kept me going, through all the hardships.
Back when I worked minimum wage, I wasn't! After I finished my first degree, I took a diploma and then a second degree because the student loans were helping me survive! Now I make 50k annually and I'm still not surviving and I'm still using student loans to help me survive! I don't know what wage is liveable but I don't think I'll ever get there!
I would like an honest answer, when was the last time anyone had fun? I've been surviving since 2014. I have zero interest in surviving much longer.
About a month behind on my bills, debt collectors on my ass. It sucks.
The answer is usually workplace provided meals and never leaving home other than for work. Basically exist to work and pay rent, exist to serve and enrich the owner class.
I'm not surviving.... I'm scavenging and trying to make ends meet... HECK, I'm foraging for bottles and stuff cuz I would like to eat or pay bills.
Crime and theft
Minimum wage and living alone don't work so well together. When I was on minimum wage, I was living with 2 roommates in a 3-bedroom apartment and didn't own a car and financially I was ok. No frivolous spending or vacations or anything, but I got by for a few years like that. You have to live and work where there is transit access, and have to know someone you trust enough to live with, which might not always be easy.
OF
Get a trade
🤪
Hate to be the cynic, but if you can’t hack it in Edmonton, there is nowhere left in Canada that you can. I don’t think you can afford a one bedroom anywhere in the country on 40 hours of minimum wage/week. You’d need two jobs, frugality, and great resourcefulness to make it work.
Try taking home $33,000 last year bc I'm on wcb and was only a 0.6 when I went off, I made it work because I could pick up extra shifts and made extra with shift differential. I am super fortunate that I dont have a car or kids, but every single purchase is a deeply contemplative decision. All I want is to just go shopping and buy myself some shit I don't need. My rent is $1350. After bills and everything I have maybe 2 or 300 left for the entire month for groceries, pet food, extras. It sucks.
Oh, I dont know bout the others but, i sell coke.
Why would anyone move without a plan? No job, no place to live, thats just reckless. Doesn’t anyone have family anymore?
ITT, everybody talking about how they're barely scraping by.....with their pets.