Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement: I work in government and have an employer-matched pension plan, so I just use my RRSP as a secondary long term saving option (I should look in to investing within it). My RRSP is currently sitting at about $3,000.
TFSA: $19,500 (my main long term/down payment savings account)
Savings account: $18,000 (putting away money for a down payment (someday, maybe))
Checking account: $3600 (I try to keep it around $4000, and transfer anything over that to my TFSA)
Credit card debt: none - I pay for almost everything on my credit cards but pay them off every month. I have three - one no-fee card that accumulates grocery points, one travel card, and one no-fee card that I use for shared expenses
Student loan debt: none - I was super lucky to pay for my undergrad through a combination of scholarships, an RESP my parents paid into that covered most of my first year, and working one well-paid summer job and 2-3 part time jobs during the academic year throughout my degree. I worked for a year before starting grad school and had my MA tuition fully funded, with my government coop terms covering my living costs.
Partner: My partner, W, and I have not combined incomes
Section Two: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home: Approx. $4000 (paid biweekly) I work in government and am paid through the Phoenix Pay System. Worth a google, but TLDR is that the system is broken and there are a lot of issues with paying people correctly. My file is only a little messed up, but I regularly have incorrect deductions taken off my pay and haven’t had a consistently correct pay cheque in over a year.
Deductions generally break down to (per month): $960 in tax $600 to my pension (fully matched)
$50 in union dues
$24 in death benefit
$30 in disability insurance
$200 to Canada Pension Plan (I usually max out my contributions in October)
$30 to EI (usually maxes out in September)
Side Gig Monthly Take Home
No side gig
Section Three: Expenses
Rent: $1237 for my half of the 2 bed, 2 bath apartment I split with my partner. We have similar incomes, so we split the rent, but he pays for the parking spot because it’s his car.
Renters / home insurance: $17/month
Savings contribution: $200 a month to my HYSA, $300/month to my TFSA
Investment contribution: $25/month to a WealthSimple account
Donations: I budget about $500 for annual donations to causes throughout the year, but will be making a portion of this planned monthly donations in 2021.
I coach a girls hockey team as well, and including supervising time at the rink off-ice and planning practices, it’s about 6 hours a week.
Electric: About $30 a month for my half
Internet: $35/month for my half
Cellphone: $25/month (I’m on a grandfathered plan and it is glorious)
Subscriptions:
$11 for Patreons (Unladylike and the American Girls Podcast)
$13.99 for Netflix (my mum uses my account) (W has Amazon Prime)
$4.99 for student spotify premium (I still have access to my student email accounts, so why not?)
$6.99 every three months for a Joy razor subscription
$149/year for my travel credit card (a great investment any year but this one - it gives great travel rewards, has good insurance, and comes with a PriorityPass lounge membership)
Gym membership: $12.99/month for Peloton digital (I used to have a corporate GoodLife membership, but I let it lapse because COVID. When I moved in to a building with a Peloton bike, I tried the app, decided I loved it, and haven’t looked back)
Car: I don’t own a car, but I do use VrtuCar for getting to/from the rink and occasional other outings. I pay $5 a month for the membership (my travel credit card has CLDI) and usually spend about $100-$150 a month in rental fees (you pay by the km and the hour)
*Note on food: W and I share expenses for some food, but we largely prepare our own meals since we have fairly different diets (I'm gluten free and generally don't cook meat at home, he eats a ton and has meat most days). So you won't see me mentioning much of his food in the diary.
Paid hobbies:
In a normal year, I play in a rec women’s hockey league, which costs about $400/year.
My partner and I would also normally join at least one mixed sports league with a group of our friends, which would cost around $130 for the summer.
I previously did yoga once a week at a studio near me, using Costco class passes. My mum bought me a 25 class pass for Christmas last year, $225.
Day One
6am - alarm goes off to take the antibiotics I’m on for a small infection. As soon as I’ve taken it, I roll over for an extra hour and a half of sleep.
7:30am - my boyfriend, W, and I cuddle a little before getting up to start the week. I’ve made a deal with myself that I have to put on “real” clothes during the workweek so I put on jeans (thrifted Zara high rise skinnies, my favourite pair), an old, oversized pink sweater from H&M and adorable half hoop earrings off Etsy, and walk to the second bedroom (set up as our shared office) to start my day. While the computer starts up, I boil water and grind local coffee beans (Equator, for anyone from the NCR) for my French Press and make a bowl of greek yogurt with banana slices and granola. I start my day clearing my inbox and eating breakfast.
10:30am - After my weekly team call, I call the Pay Centre because my paycheque for this week has some weird deductions and a weird total. They’re not able to provide an answer, but they open a ticket to get it looked at. This means I’ll be putting the additional amount immediately into savings, in case any of it was paid in error and will need to be paid back later. Google “Phoenix Pay System” for some of the horror stories, it’s fun (she said sarcastically).
12:15pm - Between calling Phoenix and having a long list of follow-ups from Friday, this morning flew by. I toast a gluten free bagel (I have Celiac’s) and heat up some chicken and rice soup for lunch, which I eat while watching HopeScope videos on YouTube. I make some Irish Breakfast tea and grab a ginger cookie before going back to my desk.
2:30pm - My dad stops by to drop off Christmas lights for our balcony. He lives alone and has a history of depression, so we’re considering ourselves “bubbled” with him (even though it’s not strictly recommended in Ontario, Ottawa’s cases are really low and we’re careful otherwise). I still wear a mask when I see him other than having dinner with him about once a month.
4:15pm - I wrap things up, then get changed to go on a run. Ottawa is starting to get COLD, but I finally got in to running during COVID so I’m committed to trying to run through the winter, although I’m still learning how to layer properly. Today I wear smartwool socks, Lululemon Speed Ups (bought in their Black Friday sale), an Old Navy sports bra (the only sports bras I don’t hate for running), a Lululemon long sleeve swiftly as my base layer, a pullover from my undergrad, a high vis toque, running gloves, my New Balance runners, and a running belt for my phone, keys and mask. I drop off Christmas cards in the mailbox on my way out (all stamped with stamps I already bought). I do about 7km tonight while listening to the Office Ladies podcast then stretch when I get home.
6pm - After rinsing off and devouring some corn tortillas with peanut butter, W. wants to go on a drive to make sure his winter tires are aligned. We drive to a fancy neighbourhood to see their Christmas lights and play Christmas songs on the radio. It’s pretty adorable.
7pm - I prep my dinner (which will also be my next few lunches) - a sheet pan dinner of broccoli, pepper, zucchini and halloumi with rice, pesto, and Everything But the Bagel seasoning. W. is going home for a month later this week, so we exchanged gifts last weekend, and he got me a hydroponic herb starter kit, which we set up together.
11pm - After watching tv mindlessly with W., we both get ready for bed. I do my nighttime face routine (FAB cleanser, Caudalie toner, FAB moisturizer, and a pimple patch on a cystic zit developing on my chin). I want to do a Peloton ride in the morning, so I set out my workout clothes before going to sleep around 11:30pm.
Total spent: $0
Day 2
6:30am - Alarm goes off. I take my antibiotic, pull on my workout clothes (Mondetta bike shorts, a Lululemon Energy Bra, Old Navy cropped tank, Lululemon Speed socks, old sweatshirt, and my UnderArmour mask) and head down to the gym. Our building’s gym is small and has a 3 person max occupancy right now, so first thing in the morning is the only time I can reliably get in to the gym during non-business hours. I do a 45 minute pop ride with Tunde and after my run last night, my legs are DEAD. I take a long shower back upstairs.
8:30am - I’m working later today to support my coworker on a file, so I’ve shifted my hours to 10am-6pm (which I hate, but whatever). After blowdrying my bangs and putting on my Zara jeans a cozy merino wool sweater, and polymer clay earrings, I run to Farm Boy (think Trader Joe’s) to pick up a few things I need. There’s some dude being a jerk and making a stink about putting on the mask he currently has around his chin, but I and the other two people in line behind him all tiredly tell him to just put it on and get out of the way. Ugh. I buy Brussels sprouts, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, thai soup, miso paste, granola, gluten free Stroopwafels, and some fresh pesto (the odds and ends I forgot when doing my big shop, plus impulse buying the cookies and miso), and spend about $45.
9:30am - Back home, I make coffee and have a bagel with cream cheese, then settle in for the morning.
12:30pm - I take a short lunch break, eating leftovers from last night while making myself a calendar for 2021 on VistaPrint (I couldn’t find what I wanted through Etsy or local stores, so I use some basic digital design skills to make one with some of my own travel photos). $25 including shipping.
2pm - While waiting for input on a document I’m working on, I end up on Etsy (oops) and order a velvet scrunchie and a new neck gaiter for running, since I could not find mine last night. I’ve been trying to shop used or small/local since the pandemic, and Etsy has really opened up a whole new world of options. $20
6:15pm - Done for the day, and boy did I forget how depressing it is to finish work after sunset in the winter. W. and I decide to go for a walk to see the Christmas lights at Parliament Hill, then stop to pick up shawarma on our way home because we’re both tired and not feeling it. Mine is $15.99, but it’ll be both my dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow.
7pm - W. and I put on some Office Christmas episodes while we eat. Then he does some cleaning and I pull out my computer to play Civ and do some browsing.
11:30pm - W. and I both got caught up in our respective laptops on the couch, and only head for bed now. After doing my face wash routine, we lie in bed scrolling through TikToks until 12:15 (oops)
Totals:
Food: $61
House: $25
Personal/clothing: $20
Day 3
6am - Water, pill, back to sleep
7:45am - It’s snowing and W and I are so cozy in bed that we cuddle a little too long. We finally get up and I throw on my favourite non-legging lazy pants (these great sweatpants that look like real pants from Roots), a tank, a cozy cardigan and my Birkenstock-style clog slippers. Then it’s the usual coffee, yogurt-banana-granola combo and emails and documents for the morning.
10:30am - I take a 15 minute break to check that my paycheque was deposited (it was) and to pay off my credit cards (which I do every pay cycle - I never carry a balance but I do put just about everything on credit). While in my email I also see that Air Canada has confirmed my cancellation of a trip to see W’s family for the holidays - I booked it when cases were MUCH lower, with full knowledge that I would likely have to cancel, but it still stings a little. W’s still going, since he can work remotely from there and hasn’t seen his family in over a year, so I’m a little bummed we won’t be spending our first Christmas together like I’d hoped (we’ve been together about 3 years and moved in together in the spring). I’ll get a voucher for the value of the flight and use it to visit his family when it’s safe to do so.
12:15pm - Lunch break! I heat up more leftover rice and the veggie/halloumi combo and top it with pesto and kimchi. Today I eat watching the latest Endless Adventure and an old Eamon and Bec on YouTube. I make tea and grab a cookie before getting back to work around 1pm.
4:30pm - I stayed online late waiting to hear back from my boss on a file I’m working on, but not hearing anything I decide to log off now. It can wait until morning. I scroll through tiktoks while stretching my back on the floor until it’s time to get ready to head to the rink. I change into leggings and a sweatshirt and walk a couple of blocks to grab my VrtuCar.
8:30pm - Home from the rink! While it definitely increases my exposure, I feel good about the league’s approach to COVID (they’ve made teams smaller, teams only practice/scrimmage within a bubble of four teams, they’ve modified the rules, and adults/coaches wear masks except when we need to remove them to communicate safely) and I do really love having a chance to get on the ice. Tonight was a scrimmage, and I reffed, so I got lots of skating in! My VrtuCar was $13 for tonight.
9pm - After heating up my leftover shawarma (SO. GOOD), I hang out while W finishes packing, and we watch some more Office together while cuddling on the couch. We go to bed a little early for more TikTok and cuddle time, since he’s leaving tomorrow, and fall asleep around 11:30pm.
Total spent: Transportation: $13
Day 4
6:30am - Alarm goes off. Pill, then I pull myself out of the cozy bed and throw on cropped leggings, a workout tank, a Define jacket and my UnderArmour mask before heading down to the gym for a Peloton ride. This morning it’s pop with Tunde, and it’s a great workout!
8am - After showering and blowdrying my bangs (I forgot this was why I grew out my bangs the last time, ugh), I throw on a great pair of 7 for all Mankind frayed hem jeans I thirfted, a cute Uniqlo sweater, and my favourite clay earrings. The usual coffee and yogurt/banana/granola combo as I go through my emails. I seriously need to do laundry, so I do a few loads throughout my morning. This is my first apartment with in-unit laundry and it is a HUGE life upgrade, especially with wfh.
12pm - Quick lunch break, since I’m helping out with an interview at 1. Same leftovers (today with spicy hummus), accompanied by Kara and Nate’s latest.
2:30pm - After wrapping up the interview, W. and I head out to pick up the car and take him to the airport. I’m tempted to stop for a holiday drink on my way home but decide to save it for my walk with a friend tomorrow. It’s $16 for the car, but W will pay me back for it since it’s saving him from Ubering. I have a DENSE document to review before finishing for the day, so I make myself a big mug of tea to power through.
5:30pm - After finishing work, I order my dad’s Christmas gift (I’ve been discussing options with my brother since last night to coordinate). I’ve been trying to buy small/local as much as possible this year, so I order him Obama’s new book from my favourite local bookstore ($57) and good merino wool socks (for taking distanced walks through the winter) from one of my favourite outdoors stores ($37), both for pickup in store. Both could have been purchased for less from big box stores, but the small price difference is worth it to keep these kinds of shops open in my neighbourhood! I just have to get a smaller gift to go with my mum’s main gift and then I’ll be 100% done shopping! $94 total
7pm - After lazing around, it’s time to tidy up and make dinner. I put on some old Gilmore Girls for background noise while I unload the dishwasher and make a dinner of duck fat roasted Brussels sprouts (from duck fat W. didn’t finish before leaving) and perogies. I settle in for an evening on the couch, watching Gilmore Girls and playing the Sims.
11pm - W. calls me from his layover to update me on flying in the COVID era, then I go to bed around 11:30pm.
Total: $94
Day 5
6am - Last day of this!
7:45am - I’d thought it would be easier to get up with W gone, but turns out having no outside push/peer pressure to get up doesn’t help? Alas. I’m not feeling it this morning, so I toss on my thrifted Zara jeans, a graphic sweatshirt and toss my hair back. Today it’s a bagel and coffee for breakfast because Friday! While checking my email, I see an item I’d posted on Poshmark has sold - score! I don’t consider this a side hustle, since I don’t put a lot of effort in and I only re-sell nicer things that I’m done with in an effort to reduce waste, but it’s still nice. I’ve made a conscious effort over the last year to try to acquire more clothing used (local instagram thrifters and poshmark have been my go-tos) and drastically reduce my fast fashion consumption. I’m not perfect, but I’m working on it! I’ll be making $13 from this sale after Poshmark takes its fees.
12:15pm - I use my lunch break to run to my local bike store and get my skates sharpened ($9) - the last time I had them done was in September, and I’ve been on the ice 1-2 times a week since then. Oops! It’s a quick errand, and I make myself lunch when I get home - a packaged thai noodle soup, to which I add an assortment of fresh veggies.
4:30pm - After a late call with my manager (sigh), I head out to meet an old friend for a walk outside, dropping the Poshmark package in the postbox on my way. I’ve been dragging all day so I grab an Irish Cream Americano from Starbucks on my way (paid for with a giftcard), and we end up walking for almost two hours!
7pm - After getting home, I’m still exhausted. I drag myself off the couch to make a dinner of pasta with pesto and pan fried zucchini and butternut squash. I spend the evening vegging, watching A Princess Switch 2 (TERRIBLE) and Schitt’s Creek, while making a quick plan for tomorrow’s hockey practice. I head to bed around 11:30pm.
Total: $9
Day 6
10am - After lazing around awhile, I get myself up to get ready to head to the rink. I throw on my Speed Up leggings and a grey Roots quarter zip pullover, then make an easy breakfast of mashed avocado and feta on an English Muffin. I watch a few old travel vlogs before heading to the rink.
1:30pm - Back from the rink! The car cost $16.50 - I’m going to have to do some price comparisons to see whether it would be worth it to upgrade my membership package. I make some Annie’s mac and cheese and a French Press, then curl up under a blanket to watch some Schitt’s Creek.
4pm - After a fully unproductive afternoon, I light some candles and do a yoga class using my Peloton app (I usually just do Yoga With Adriene but there’s a challenge on Peloton so I’m trying to max out the number of days I do Peloton workouts). Then I make a flatbread pizza with pesto and veggies and watch a couple of episodes of Gilmore Girls. After cleaning up the kitchen, I pour myself a cider and take a bath. I read You Never Forget Your First in the bath, which is so good!
9pm - I have no motivation, and I’ve decided to do a 60 minute ride first thing tomorrow, so I bring my laptop to bed and watch youtube videos until I fall asleep around 11pm.
Total: $16.50
Day 7
6:45am - I have all the regrets. But I drag myself out of bed, throw on bike shorts and a tshirt, and head down to the gym. Once I’m on the bike it’s all good, and I’m wide awake after the class!
9am - After showering (and blowdrying my bangs), I get dressed (Aerie leggings and a cozy sweater - it’s Sunday) I make a breakfast sandwich (egg, cheese and avocado on an English Muffin) and some coffee, which I enjoy in front of some Schitt’s Creek. It looks like it’s going to snow later and I want to go out once today, so I walk to Shoppers around 11am (where I get some new tweezers, wax strips and a new foot file - $21.23) and walk for about an hour while listening to Gee Thanks, Just Bought It.
12:30pm - I’ve been putting off a deep clean of the shower, but today’s the day! I scrub down both bathrooms and vacuum the apartment while listening to Forever35. Once the place is clean, I cuddle up on the couch with my laptop. I order some cider from a local brewery, some for me and some to go in my mum’s Christmas gift ($32, which comes with free delivery).
3pm - I’ve been doing some online training for personal/career development and I’m really behind, so I set up at my desk and get through a couple of weeks worth of sessions (it’s self-paced, but meant to be completed in six weeks). Since finishing grad school a few years ago I’ve been kind of struggling to identify what kind of path I want to take in my career, so courses like this to help refine my existing skills are helpful.
5pm - Days feel so long when you get up early! I decide to do some meal prep for the week and make a big helping of vegetable curry and rice, with The Holiday in the background. After eating a bowl of it (gotta do quality control!) I make a hot chocolate spiked with amaretto to finish the movie.
8pm - Another COVID weekend is mostly over. My meal prep has cooled enough to be put in the fridge, and after doing that I crawl into bed with my laptop (again - I normally don’t bring my computer to bed but with W gone …) and message W and watch youtube videos until I go to bed around 11pm.
Total Spent: Self care: $21.23
Food/Alcohol: $32
Total Spent for the week
Food/Drinks: $93
Gifts: $94
Misc personal spending: $76.23
Transportation: $29.50

Alternate R29 Title: A library assistant who makes $38,000 spends some of her money on canned chicken and rice.
Hi there!
This is my first money diary. I started my job in January and while I still don’t know what my forever job is, I am finally happy in my work for the first time since graduating from college. My husband and I have been married for five years, no kids yet. We have joint accounts on pretty much everything we can, so I included his spending as well. I am sorry this is so long!
Section 1 Assets
Retirement Balance: $26k including the following: $10k in an IRA from an old 401k, $3k in a Roth IRA I opened this year, $10k in my husband’s IRA, $3k in a 457 through my current job. This does not include my husband’s pension. How I got there was my first full time job was set up to automatically contribute 3% pre-tax. It sat there contributing 3% for a year before I messed with it lol. I decided to increase the amount as I got raises and was eventually doing 15% by the time I left banking at the end of 2019. I was contributing 15% to the 457 for months and throwing money in the IRA when I got the chance, but with COVID, I dropped my 457 contributions down to 6%. Come January, I will have been at my job for a year and I will start contributing 5.5% to mandatory retirement and will assess from there whether or not to play around with the percentages again.
Home Equity: $82k We owe around 91k on our house and Zillow estimates it around 193k. I’m taking $20k off of that since it requires a significant amount of work and Zillow isn’t the most accurate when it comes to appraisals. My husband bought the house five years ago before we were married and while I looked at houses with him, I was not a part of the home buying process (I was still in college and frankly had no clue about money) He put down about $7k. It was and is very much a fixer upper so we got an excellent deal for what we paid. It is our dream to build a house so while this is not our forever home, we plan to live here at least another five years if not longer.
Savings account balance: $16k. We both deposit into this account with every check and try to avoid pulling from it at all costs. Last major pull was when we put a down payment on a car in May.
Checking Account Balance: Varies but around $1500 at time of writing for our main account. We also have an account that we keep less than $500 in that my mother-in-law is also on since we are on their phone plan. She transfers $50 out of that account every month for our phones. Part of our life insurance also comes out of that account because I have been too lazy to switch it to our main account.
Other Assets:
My stock: $13k I am the only grandchild on my mom’s side. When I was born, my maternal grandmother bought utility stocks in my name. It’s unclear to me how much she bought but she passed away when I was 6. My mom was custodian on the account and she says the only time they touched it was to pay for dental work for me. (I knocked my teeth out on the gym floor in second grade and it caused a lot of dental problems for me growing up). She told me about the account when I turned 18 since I would no longer need a custodian and I have done nothing with it since.
My husband’s stock: $19k between his current and previous employers’ stock purchasing program. Also some of this is in a Robinhood account.
Credit Card Debt: $0 we pay off in full every month.
Student Loan Debt: None. My parents paid for my schooling, a fact I am thankful for every day. My husband did one year at a four year institution before switching over to community college to get an associates degree, which was paid for through the A+ program, which is a state funded program in Missouri.
Car Loan: $25k As I mentioned above, we bought a car in May. We were going to buy a new 2020 Subaru Outback, but the dealer we went to had a pre-owned one so that is the one we ended up buying. We have been planning to replace my old car for the past three years so when dealerships were running low interest specials, the timing felt right. The interest rate is less than a percent and it will be paid off in four years. I intend to drive this car until the wheels fall off.
Net Worth: $220k last checked 09/30 I check our net worth every month, the last day of the month, note any changes and try not to look at it again
Section 2: Income Progression
Mine: $911 bi-weekly after taxes, parking ($35.6), retirement ($175.40) (All numbers are split over two checks). I am having additional money withheld in my taxes (just under $250) because my husband and I always seem to end up with a large tax bill. I’m hoping this will either allow us to break even come tax time or we will end up with a huge refund and I will readjust from there.
I got married a month after graduating college so getting a job unfortunately wasn’t the highest on my priority list. I ended up working retail ($10/hr) then becoming a manager ($10.50/hr) before getting my first retail banking job making $14/hr the March after I graduated. I continued working in retail banking until December 2019 by which point I was making $17.25/hr. I then started my library job where I make $38,000 gross.
My husband: $1750 after taxes, retirement contributions (3% into his IRA), union dues, pension, etc. This varies with my husband’s schedule changing a lot more recently and with overtime (when there was overtime)
Other income: My husband is part of the executive board of his union chapter so he gets a check for $109 every meeting.
Section III Expenses
This is spending we do pretty much every month:
Mortgage: $850
Electric, Water, gas: All vary from month to month, this month $145, $85, and $35 respectively
Phone: $50
Life Insurance: $54
Auto Insurance: $221 (both our vehicles and my husband’s hobby cars we insure as well)
Car Payment : $600
Contribution to Roth IRA: I aim for $200
Food: Groceries around $350 and Eating Out around $250 though both these numbers fluctuate a lot right now.
Gas and Fuel: $200
My personal spending money: $100
Husband’s personal spending money: $100
Pets: $100
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?:
I couldn’t say if there was a clear expectation- both my parents had non traditional paths to their degrees and my mom was the first in her family to go to college. I think I expected I would go to college very early on- I never considered not going. So yes there was an expectation but we were all on the same page. I will talk about how it was paid for in a later section.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?:
I wouldn’t say we had conversations about my parents’ finances but we talked about money in the abstract sense. From an early age, my parents taught me about saving at least 10% of what you earn and saving up for things you want. We never talked much about credit cards or loans other than the general advice of “Don’t rack up a ton of credit card debt.”
What was your first job and why did you get it?:
I worked at McDonald’s the summer after my freshman year of college and I also worked in my college bookstore as a temp during finals of my freshman year (I was hired on and end up working there 3 years.) I wanted to get a job but had failed thus far to get a job working in places I wanted to work so I ended up at McDonalds. (I also didn’t get my license until after my freshman year so I was a late bloomer.)
Did you worry about money growing up?:
No, I feel like my parents did a good job hiding any money worries they had from me. My mom has referenced a few different years of my early life as “bad years’ for her and my father, but money was a factor in our cross-country move. In hindsight though, I am able to see all my parents sacrificed to give me.
Do you worry about money now?:
Yes haha. I mostly worry about my husband losing his job and how that would impact us. I worry I am not saving enough and that I’m spending too much, which are really one in the same.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?:
I did not become financially responsible for myself until I got married. Even then, I’d say I wasn’t really financially responsible for myself- my husband was financially responsible for me. It’s only in the past three years I have felt financially responsible for myself. As far as a financial safety net, we have a decent emergency fund in place. If something truly catastrophic were to happen, I do think I could move in with my parents or my aunt if I had to.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?:
My stocks, mentioned above. But also it is due to inherited income that my parents were able to pay for my college. My aunt and mother inherited my grandmother’s house and my mom sold her portion to my aunt’s then-boyfriend. That money was used in part to fund some of my college and my parents cash-flowed the rest.
Note: When I am at work or in a store, I am wearing a mask.
Day 1: Wednesday
7am Hey I woke up on time for once. I try to get up at 7 everyday because it gives me just a little free time to do something fun without so much time I feel like I need to be productive. I get up, brush teeth, take temperature, make coffee, and start my morning routine. I wash my face with Cerave Foaming Cleanser, moisturize with Cerave Daily Moisturizer and spf with Sun Bum SPF 50. I get dressed in the outfit I picked last night and have a breakfast of a maple syrup bagel with pumpkin spice cream cheese. I resist the temptation to have a muffin knowing I will have one at lunch. I also take my vitamins- a prenatal, vitamin d, and fish oil. I also spend a bit of the morning doing my fun thing, which is replaying Pokemon FireRed and pay a dentist bill for some work I had done in September. I have cavity-prone teeth so it seems like I am always getting a filling done. I try to take good care of them though- they’re the only teeth I’ve got. I also take note of what’s in my weekly Aldi ad and what I have a lot of in the fridge since I know I’m going grocery shopping tonight. $78
1pm I like to eat lunch around 1 since that is halfway through my workday. For lunch this week, I am doing a take on Budget Bytes hummus lunch box. I made hummus Sunday then I bring a sandwich thin, lettuce, cucumbers and assemble those into a sandwich. I also have some baby carrots that I dip in hummus, apple slices I do not, and a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin, which is all delicious. I also take some time to meal plan and prep my grocery list since I like to go right after work. The list is always longer than I want it to be but eating good is important to us. While eating I decide to turn away from the computer and listen to the podcast I was listening to on the way to work, Throughline from NPR.
4pm: The director of the library comes down and mentions that my boss’s birthday is this Friday (!!!) and mentions getting a cookie cake or cookies for her. I agree that’s a good idea and make a mental note to buy her a card if I see them at Aldi.
6pm: I am done with work for the day. While walking from my building to the car, I call my husband to check in and chat on our plans for the evening. Basically, what does he want for dinner and does he want to go to the grocery store. He is busy working on fixing the frame on the door that goes out the garage and lets me know he finished the window he was putting in our bedroom. He went to Home Depot and spent $99.81. He does not want to go to the grocery store with me lol so I drive from work to our local Aldi. I spend $77.61 And get coffee creamer, bagels, carrots, cilantro, black beans, chickpeas, a frozen pizza, pads, popcorn, spinach, vegetable broth, canned pumpkin, carrots, a bottle of wine, brioche rolls, frozen waffles, parmesan cheese, pickles, heavy whipping cream, chicken breast, frozen onion rings, cage free eggs, pumpkin rolls, coffee, diced tomatoes with green chiles, corn tortillas, red peppers, and pretzels. Some of these things were not on the list and it shows. It’s dark by the time I leave and I haven’t heard from him about dinner by the time I leave so I head home. $115.26
7:30pm We put all the groceries away and discuss dinner. We decide to pickup Chipotle and order ahead. We each get a burrito and a drink. $27 While driving there the VP debate starts so we listen to it on the radio on the way there and back and while we’re eating. After we’re done, we move to the living room to watch it on the tv, talking about it and other things for a long while after. I have been having a lot of feelings lately so it is mostly for me that we talk for an hour and half after the debate. Nothing gets solved really but I feel better overall. $27
11pm: I take a shower and wash my face using the same cleanser as this morning and the same moisturizer. Normally I would include some sort of treatment as well but it has gotten so late! I let the dog out before heading to bed. I got a book (Real Food for Pregnancy by Lily Nichols) from my library via Inter-Library loan so I start reading. I get through a few chapters and I’m getting the vibe that this book is going to challenge me. We will see if I keep reading it. I fall asleep after midnight.
Day 1 Total: $282.42
Day 2: Thursday
6am I am awakened to the sound of my cat throwing up. Happy happy joy joy. I try in vain to fall back asleep when he jumps on the bed. And since he cannot settle in bed, he just walks around. I decide I have lost at 6:45, get up, and do the same routine as yesterday. I have a lot of extra time this morning so I play a lot of Pokemon FireRed and really fill out my to-do list for the week. This stresses me a little since I have a lot I would like to get done and I am not doing it right now. The application for my dream job is due tomorrow morning so I really plan to get that completed today and that is my top priority. Breakfast is a bagel again but today I decide to have a muffin too.
10am I get to work and have a rough patron/coworker interaction to really spike the anxiety and start my day. I focus on breathing deeply and remind myself that this little inconsequential thing does not have to ruin my day and will not ruin my day.
12pm I decide to take a walk to lift my spirits. I still don’t know the campus super well but I play it safe since I just want to walk on auto pilot for a bit. It lifts my spirits but also makes me feel sweaty and gross.
6pm I had lunch around 1, the same as yesterday. Around 3pm I started to feel really exhausted and was struggling to push myself over the 6pm finish line. Because I could tell it was probably going to be an early night I went through my to do list and prioritize the three things I have to get done tonight: the job application, paying the water bill, and a birthday card for my boss. Looks like my husband got gas on the way to work $21.65
9pm I have leftover Thai food for dinner that is getting dangerously close to being too old to eat. I then get to work on the application. I have to film a three minute video that easily took an hour but I wanted it to be good. By the time I’m done, I’m beat. I pay the water bill ($82.42) and I pay my Victoria’s Secret Credit Card because I made a purchase last week and want to make sure I don’t miss the payment. I almost forget about the birthday card again. I am stressed and overtired at this point and frustrated that I’m stressed and overtired. I suspect I will also feel this way tomorrow so I go ahead and make a priority list for tomorrow as well. I almost talk myself out of washing my hair because I don’t have time. I do end up washing my hair thankfully because it needs it!!! I journal about my frustration with my energy and by the time I shower, take care of my dog and journal, it is nearly 11pm and I fall asleep fairly quickly. $82.42
Total Day 2: $104.07
Day 3 Friday
5am the cat wakes me up. Not today Satan. I kick him out of the room
8am I actually get up and do my same morning routine. I am feeling more well rested but still a little tired. I have a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast with a lot of coffee. As I’m leaving for work, my friend texts me about getting together tomorrow. We’ve been getting together for social distanced picnics where we basically sit in a triangle outside and talk. It’s a nice way to still get to see each other. We had discussed getting together last weekend and it just did not work.
1pm I give my boss a birthday card when I come in at 10 and she seems to really like it. I also hear from our director that she ordered a cookie cake from a cookie place nearby so to keep a look out from the delivery driver. (My building can be difficult to find.) I keep a watchful eye but eventually they find us. At lunch, I call the vet since last night I realized we were running low on my dog’s heart medication. I also realize it is the day for my dog’s monthly pill so I make a note to give him that tonight. I then have lunch the same as the previous day but no muffin because there are cookies. I have one. While I’m eating my boss sends a schedule update. I work on a small staff of four full time employees and three part time employees. One of our full time employees quit so it throws our COVID scheduling off. I read through the schedule a few times to really get a sense of it.
7pm Home and done with work. I make a frozen pizza, a habit I have picked up every Friday to ease meal planning. While it is cooking I snack on too much popcorn and sit on my computer and update my budget. I look at where my money is going much more often than every week but I try to make a point to really sit down and look at what I’ve spent every Friday. While looking at my money, I decide to spend more. There is a diner in a nearby college down that has pivoted to providing free lunches to anyone who needs them. The owner is publishing a collection of essays so I order a copy ($33.39) I also place an amazon order for my campus’s food pantry- they have an Amazon wishlist so I buy two items that are on highest priority, canned chicken and rice. ($26.88) Lastly, there is a nonprofit in town that a friend runs that’s mission I care about but I am less than great at donating towards. They provide Thanksgiving dinners in my community and I see they already have sign ups for the turkeys so I donate the amount +$10 for general use. ($30). I also make a note in my planner a month from now to donate another turkey and donate again to the food pantry. I have been coming to the realization recently that I want to be someone who donates regularly so I’m trying to do better with that.
9pm I eat and decide to have a chill night watching Gilmore Girls and drinking a glass of wine. I download Among Us on my phone and play a couple rounds. I also play some Animal Crossing.
11pm My husband comes home from work and we cuddle for a bit. I fall asleep around 1am. He got gas station food during his work day ($10.33)
Total: $100.60
Day 4 Saturday
10am I wake up later than I want to and lie in bed for a bit and play some Among Us. Eventually I get up and make coffee and my special weekend breakfast which is a breakfast sandwich consisting of a biscuit with butter, hot honey and a Morningstar sausage patty. This is a quarantine discovery and I used to eat it every day but since being back at work it's too time-consuming during the week. I also make a biscuit with butter and a local honey which is supposed to help with seasonal allergies. I realize we have checks to take the bank. While getting ready I listen to a podcast asking for support on Patreon to stay afloat. When I go to look at their page, I decide to do an annual subscription ($10.20)
11:30am I leave to run errands. I go to the first library stop of the day to return a ton of books in the book drop. From there, I go to the bank to deposit the checks. After that, I drive to my doctors office to get my flu shot. It was quick. I stop at Starbucks on the way out. I have money from a gift card I got in a blood drive and order a grande pumpkin cream cold brew. I wish I had decided to get iced coffee but I definitely didn't think through what I really wanted. From there, I go to Old Navy. I have a gift card from a weird return situation and it is burning a hole in my pocket. I've been wanting to get more masks so I pick up a 5 pack with the gift card and only pay $0.58. Then I realize I forgot to get gas! I thankfully have enough to get by. Stop by another library to pick up my holds curbside then gas ($29.50) then finally home.
2pm At home, I talk to my husband who tells me there are two rumors at work- either they are bringing 9 people back from a recent layoff or they are going to lay off another 50 people in January. Yay uncertainty!
5pm After folding some laundry, I leave the house to head to a friends place. We have been getting together for quarantine picnics where we basically sit in a triangle and talk. We were meeting at the park but have since reconvened to her driveway. While there we decide to get Panera. I have a free pick two so a sandwich,salad, drink, and chocolate croissant cost $3.69. We talk into the evening and I leave around 10.
11pm I settle in for the night with a shower, some wine and popcorn and Gilmore girls. My dog gets his meds including his monthly pill. Looks like my husband did another gas station stop and spent $5.97
Day 4 Total: $49.94
Day 5 Sunday
10am I wake up a little later than I want to and get started on my day. Breakfast is coffee and the chocolate croissant I bought at Panera yesterday. I put chicken in the slow cooker since today is a bit of a meal prep day.
12pm I get dressed. I need to order new glasses. My husband and I both got our eyes checked back in January and I have basically put off new glasses ever since. My current pair are on their last legs so it is time. I decide to try GlassesUSA and order two pairs for $84. I hope one of those pairs works. I get a small amount of cash back on this purchase from Rakuten. $84
2pm Both my husband and I go out for lunch separately, with him stopping somewhere on the way to work. I get a burger and a French fries and onion rings combo for 12.28 including a 25% tip for curbside. He goes to a burger place closer to work ($10.12) and get a drink from McDonalds for $1.09. I am not feeling super great I think due to getting a flu shot yesterday so I take it easy on the couch watching more Gilmore Girls. I also splurge on the PC version of Among Us for $4.99 No ads and better controls is worth it. $28.48
6pm I am finally motivated to do more than laze around though I am still not feeling super great. I shred the chicken from this morning and prep the components on the wraps I’m going to be eating for lunch this week. They are Sriracha Mayo Chickpea wraps from Budget Bytes I also shower and give my dog his meds. I have a slice of the pumpkin bread I made last week and it is disgusting! I am distraught.
10pm I go to bed. I still don’t feel fantastic but I hope I sleep it off.
Day 5 total: $112.48
Day 6 Monday
7am Hey I slept it off. I am feeling much better overall but wouldn’t say 100% I get up and do my weekday morning routine and have a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. I also spend some time updating my planners moving over undone tasks from last week to this week and looking at what I’ve got going on this week. I check out bank account and realize that our gas bill came out ($32.14)
1pm For lunch, I have my wrap which includes spinach, carrots, bell pepper, and sriracha mayo chickpeas. I also have carrots and an apple and a couple of cookies my aunt made. She likes to cook and bake and will share with my parents and me. She moved to the area three years ago and after living halfway across the country from her, I love having her close by. I remember my friend sent me a free HelloFresh box over the weekend. I click on it and realize I need to use it soon so I order it for next week. I saved $68 which is less than what I spent on groceries last week but I am not sure if it will save money long term since that is $68 just for dinner. My husband went out for lunch and got Chipotle ($13.32)
6pm Done with work! Driving home I really want to stop to grab food somewhere, anywhere but I resist the temptation and have some leftover soup and tortilla chips. I do some house stuff and the regular nightly routine of showering giving my dog his meds, etc. I also finally commit and read my book, An Absolutely Remarkable Things by Hank Green. I am in bed by 10.
Day 6 Total: $45.46
Day 7 Tuesday:
7am I wake up and have the house to myself because my husband left at 5am to go fishing with his dad ($8 for a fishing permit). (They work together so their exposure is pretty overlapped as is). I enjoy having the house to myself but the pets are concerned.
12pm Pretty uneventful day so far. I have to take an early lunch because I have a class at my normal lunch time. Same lunch as previous days though I don’t get to the cookies because I’m short on time.
6pm Done with work! I am stopping at a friend’s house to give her a baby gate then head home. My commute only takes a little longer with the stop- a lot of places are between my work and home. I come home and my husband is exhausted. The starter on the boat broke so they had to paddle a boat that has no business being paddled back to shore plus the general switch up of his schedule. I have some dinner- a chicken sandwich and tater tots. He then gets up and we spend some time together before he falls back asleep. I do my normal evening routine and read in bed for awhile before eventually falling asleep.
Day 7 Total: $8
Food & Drink $161.41
Home & Health $376.37
Fun $12.99
Clothes & Beauty $0.58
Transport $51.15
Other: $100.47
Total: $702.97
Overall, I’d say this was a pretty normal week other than the donations and the glasses purchase. I did a midweek reflection and was alarmed we spend $100 per day but looking at that on a monthly scale it sounds right. We aren’t perfect by any means, but I like to think we have a good balance on spending on things we enjoy and saving for the future. Also, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to include bills on this, so I did which is why home and health is so high.
This was fun. I will definitely be doing one again. Now just to decide if it will be when I will be working from home or if I will just do the same dates in another month.

Source | AMA announcement with more Q&A's
The bilingual AMA ended with the following from StatCanada:

Thank you for all your questions during our AMA! It was fun chatting with you all. For those who may have missed our live chat earlier today, please note that our experts will continue to answer some questions in the next few days, so don't hesitate to send them below! / Merci beaucoup pour toutes les questions que vous avez posées lors de notre séance DMNQ! Ce fut un plaisir de clavarder avec vous. Pour ceux et celles qui auraient manqué notre DMNQ en direct plus tôt aujourd'hui, n'hésitez pas à continuer à nous soumettre vos questions ci-dessous. Nos experts se feront un plaisir de continuer à répondre à vos questions au cours des prochains jours.

Questions	Answers
How do we know CPI is the right measure of inflation? Does Stats Canada track (if not publish) other inflation measures? Back on the Rational Reminder podcast, Dan Coletti from the BoC said: "One thing we've learned so far is that perceived inflation in Canada is generally above the actual CPI rate." Which raises an important question: is our perception wrong, or is the CPI wrong? And also, what is the CPI for different income quartiles/deciles? E.g. The price of luxury goods declining doesn't really help lower and middle income Canadians facing food and daycare inflation. Stats Canada did an analysis in the 90's about inflation affecting different income levels. I haven't seen an updated version of that, and was wondering if that data was available somewhere, or if we could request Stats Canada do an updated version of that analysis. Should an inflation measure be a simple (weighted) average of a basket of goods, or weighted by the pain of inflation/level of "discretionaryness" in different components? (e.g., should we worry more about food and rent inflation than alcohol and plane tickets?)	Hi u/HolyPotato! Thank you for this great question. The CPI is the official estimate of the overall consumer price change in the Canadian economy. It compares the cost of a fixed basket of consumer goods and services through time, while maintaining the quantity and quality of these products unchanged or equivalent. The CPI is calculated using sampling techniques and index numbers methods, while following international standards. The goal is to obtain the best possible estimate of true price change. The CPI methodologies are regularly updated and reviewed by the Prices Measurement Advisory Committee, composed of academics and CPI experts from other national statistical offices and international organizations. Statistics Canada also participates in international conferences on price indices to share new developments and seek feedback from the international community of experts.
	Results from the Bank of Canada’s Canadian Survey of Consumer Expectations are showing a consistent gap between people’s perceived inflation rate and the CPI inflation rate. This offers both Statistics Canada and the Bank of Canada a unique opportunity to work together to gain a better understanding of key measurement aspects of the CPI and of how consumers form their perceptions or expectations of inflation. Both institutions have initiated a joint project to help identify potential factors that may be contributing to this perception gap. The main findings of this work will start to become publicly available to Canadians in the coming months.
	Currently, Statistics Canada does not produce the CPI for different income groups. The Survey of Household Spending data enable a robust estimation of CPI expenditure weights for the entire population of Canadian households, with geographic breakdown. However, in terms of subpopulation groups, the data are only sufficient to be used to calculate analytical price index series that cannot be used as official statistics.
	Examples of related analytical index series include this study conducted in 2005 on inflation by income groups and a 2019 study that compares inflation rates for seniors to the overall inflation rate, from January 2013 to August 2018. More recently, in an effort to identify potential factors that may have contributed to the gap between inflation perceptions and CPI inflation rate, Statistics Canada and the Bank of Canada analyzed inflation for household profiles including renters, home owners, low income households, high income households, households with university education, households without university education, and households with children under the age of 18. Results showed that, in general, all household profiles considered experienced similar inflation over the past five years (January 2015 to May 2020). Low-income households, renters and households without university education experienced a slightly lower rate of inflation compared to the overall inflation rate. Part of this is explained by the fact that lower-income households and renters spend a higher share on shelter but a lower share on transportation and recreation, education and reading.
	The CPI is calculated using expenditure weights estimated using the Survey of Household Spending data. These weights are non-subjective, non-discretionary and only reflect the relative importance of the CPI components. The “essential good or service” nature of a component likely translates into relatively higher spending on that component relative to other areas in a household’s budget. Currently, international standards in the CPI compilation do not make any reference to a case for taking into account discretionary aspects in the estimation of the CPI components’ weights. Statistics Canada has never allowed any type of discretionary judgement or subjectivity to affect the estimation of the Canadian CPI weights.
	You are right about this analysis of inflation for the lowest and highest income groups that we conducted in 2005. While Statistics Canada has not updated this analysis recently, we conducted a similar study in 2019. We compare the inflation rate for the senior subpopulation to the overall inflation rate from January 2013 to August 2018. Over that period, the CPI for seniors showed an average annual increase of 1.7%, as opposed to 1.6% for the overall CPI. Your request illustrates an interest for the potential usefulness of an updated version of the previous study based on income groups. While we plan to publish the recent joint analysis by Statistics Canada and the Bank of Canada on inflation rates for household profiles, the timing of this release is not determined.
Thank you for your continued sharing and outreach to Canadians, it is highly commendable. Many years ago, I actually worked with Stats Can for 8 months at Tunney's Pasture in Ottawa. For the CPI snapshot, can we get a different image that shows inflation per category for one geography? e.g. Graph Title / filter is Ontario. Y axis is % inflation. X axis is Housing, Transportation, Food, Shelter, ... The history graph shows a line graph, would want bar graph like the snapshot shows. Thanks & keep up the good work!	Thanks for this feedback, u/Falco_iii, and for your kind words! We love hearing from people who are using the CPI data visualization tool.
	It would be challenging to fit multiple components in clusters of bars going back to 1914 on the x-axis. But we like challenges, and we will keep your comments in mind for future updates
How has inflation impacted different incomes differently over say, perhaps the past decade? Has that kind of analysis ever been done? As while airline tickets and hotels helped to hold down the CPI in 2020, only people above a certain income would regularly buy those things.	Currently, Statistics Canada does not produce official CPI for different income groups. The Survey of Household Spending data enable a robust estimation of CPI expenditure weights for the entire population of Canadian households, with geographic breakdown. However, in terms of subpopulation groups, the data are only sufficient to be used to calculate analytical price index series that cannot be used as official statistics.
	Examples of related analytical index series include the study conducted in 2005 on inflation by income groups. This study examined the inflation rate experienced by two sets of households—the 20% with the lowest incomes, and the 20% with the highest incomes—between January 1992 and February 2004. From January 1992 to February 2004, higher- and lower-income households took turns experiencing higher inflation. At the end of the period, however, the rates of inflation for both groups were almost on par. Prices rose 24.7% for the one-fifth of households with the lowest incomes, or an annual average rate of 1.86%. On the other hand, the rates of inflation increased 24.4% for the one-fifth with the highest incomes, or 1.83% a year on average.
	More recently, in an effort to identify potential factors that may have contributed to the gap between inflation perceptions and CPI inflation rate, Statistics Canada and the Bank of Canada analyzed inflation for household profiles, including renters, home owners, low income households, high income households, households with university education, households without university education, and households with children under the age of 18. Results showed that, in general, all of the household profiles considered experienced similar inflation over the past five years (January 2015 to May 2020). Low-income households, renters and households without university education experienced a slightly lower rate of inflation compared to the overall inflation rate. Part of this is explained by the fact that lower-income households and renters spend a higher share on shelter, but a lower share on transportation and recreation, education and reading. While we plan to publish the recent joint analysis by Statistics Canada and the Bank of Canada on inflation rates for household profiles, the timing of this release is not determined.
Does CPI consider sales at grocery stores in its prices? As while regular prices seem to have remained the same, there seem to be fewer sales. That could account for why people think food costs have spiked.	Hi, thanks for this very valid question. Yes, CPI takes into account the price paid by the consumer, so if the product is on sale, the sale prices are taken into account. Do note that the price movements are averaged for a specific class.
Is StatCan working with credit card companies, traditional and online retailers (eg. Amazon) and others with the goal of obtaining a continuous and timely flow of consumer expenditure information that could be used to produce a monthly Fisher, Tornqvist or Walsh chained price index? That must be the future goal, surely.	StatCan has been using scanner data, web scraped data as well as data obtained through application programming interface for various CPI components like food, clothing, gasoline and air transportation indexes. As you suggested, with the availability of high frequency data on prices and quantity purchased, the CPI will consider using alternative price index formulas to calculate complementary indexes, such as the Fisher Tornqvist, in line with ongoing developments at the international level.
Has Statistics Canada thought about analyzing government policy/policy proposals to evaluate its impact on inflation? This would help policy makers decide whether a policy is a good idea or bad idea. For example, lets say the Liberal government proposes to increase sales tax by 2%. This would definitely decrease inflation since consumers have less money to spend while also having less incentive to spend. Statistics Canada can help policy makers determine what the estimated impact on inflation would be. Another example would be investing 10 billion to build 2 factories to produce healthcare products such as face masks. This would definitely reduce the cost of healthcare products since supply is increased. Therefore statistics canada can say the government's proposed policy to increase healthcare products production would decrease the cost of healthcare products by 5% estimated. It would be great to know whether covid 19 response spending (over $200 billion)'s impact on inflation. It's possible it helped Canada avoid experiencing massive deflation, due to being in a depression. Instead of guessing, would be better to have real numbers based on research and models.	Hi u/goldbladess—we love your questions, keep ‘em coming! In fact, it’s our mandate to support other government departments and agencies (this mandate actually extends to all Canadians) with the data they need to make informed decisions. We work closely with our partners to provide them with the information required to make these impact assessments.
	Your edit is a difficult question to answer. The pandemic resulted in a deflationary event (you’ll notice that the headline CPI fell from 2.2% in February to 0.9% in March, and then went negative in April and May). With that said, this is an exceptional time and it’s difficult to determine the exact impact of the government’s economic response and consumer spending, let alone the subsequent impact on consumer prices. So, the short answer: it’s complicated! —Rebecca
the below is a reply to the above
Thanks for your high quality responses!	Anytime! :)
How does the CPI adjust for quality differences in goods, if it does? One complaint we frequently have on here is that housing is more expensive. But the housing we typically buy is also a lot nicer than what we once had and a lot larger. My Dad grew up in 1000 sqft of house for 5 people. Now, he has 2000 sqft for the same size of family. I have 1200 sqft all to myself. Same with improvements in phones. An iPhone is a lot more complicated featurewise than the old Nokia bricks. Cars also have an abundance of features. Most transmissions were manual at one point. Now most are automatic. Airline tickets are now cheaper, but we no longer get a checked bag and meal with them. Does CPI attempt to adjust for these quality improvements?	Hi u/Zealousidealistmoose! Thanks for your great question. The CPI measures what is known as pure price change. In doing so, the quality of a particular good or service is considered when an item is priced. If the price of a good or service increases at the same time as an improvement in the quality of that good or service, the CPI may not register an increase, and may even show a decline for that item. For example, if your Internet provider upgrades your speed at no additional charge, this would be considered a price decline because you are getting better service for the same price. This applies to cars and phones too!
	The same principle applies to a house: if a house is increasing in both size and price, some or all of the price change will be attributed to the larger size of the home. The New Housing Price Index, which is an input for CPI housing indices, compares selling prices of residential houses where detailed specifications pertaining to each house remain the same between two consecutive months. This ensures that the index is capturing only pure price change and not higher prices that are related to the size or quality of houses, which, as you mentioned, can change over time. —Taylor
the below is a reply to the above
What’s puzzling about this answer is that location changes as well, not in the sense that a given house physically moves, but in the sense that characteristics of its location that affect desirability and price change, often very dramatically. (This could be in either direction.) How does Statscan control for this, so it is tracking pure price inflation rather than a change in other factors? Two examples: The price of a given house increase in a town because a new university opens, drawing in people, high salary jobs, etc. The price of a given house falls because the major employer in town closes, or biker gangs move in.	Great question! We account for geography in our quality adjustments for our shelter indices. The New Housing Price Index, which as I mentioned is an input for CPI owned accommodation indices, accounts for geography by comparing prices for very similar housing in very similar areas over time. Our rent model also controls for differences in location and how that influences changes over time.
Does CPI track foreign transactions or online shopping outside of Canada? Or is that measurement only in spending inside Canada?	Currently, transactions made outside the country or transactions made with online establishments that do not physically operate within the borders of Canada are not in scope for the CPI. Online establishments that do have a physical presence (like a warehouse) are included. Should these transactions (foreign transactions or online shopping outside of Canada) represent an increasing share of consumers’ purchases, Statistics Canada will revisit the scope of the CPI.
How has the rapidly rising minimum wage impacted CPI?	Hi u/Glarakane, thanks for the question. One example that may illustrate the effects of minimum wage was the minimum wage increase in Ontario in January 2018. Following this wage increase, higher prices were observed for a number of services, including personal care services such as haircuts, restaurant meals (particularly fast food), and child care and housekeeping services.
the below is a reply to the above
How much change was observed for those things and over what period of time? Intuitively it makes sense but the real important info I think is by how much.	Determining the exact impact a minimum wage increase has on inflation is not a straightforward task. But, we can look at which prices rose at a relatively higher rate following an example of a minimum wage increase, like the one in Ontario in 2018. On average, food purchased from restaurants rose 6.5% in Ontario in 2018 (compared with 2017), while prices for personal care services rose 5.1% and child care and housekeeping services rose 6.0%. All in all, the CPI rose (on average) 2.4% in Ontario in 2018 compared with 2.3% at the Canada level. —Taylor
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So overall it does not seem that an increase in minimum wage has that big an impact vs inflation: 2.4 percent for Ontario vs 2.3 for Canada. Or is that just Ontario crowding out the rest of the provinces in the data?	Overall, Ontario was in line with the other provinces that year. The CPI rose 2.4% in Alberta, 2.5% in Manitoba and 2.7% in British Columbia.
Have you considered doing a covid modified CPI? I know you typically have a basket of goods used, but more most people the ratios of this basket have drastically changed as a result of covid. This causes a disconnect between the CPI and the life that most people are living. Where they think it is a terrible measurement as a movie ticket for a closed theatre the price doesn’t matter. This makes people who don’t have a full comprehension of CPI and how it is measured (most people) to think that the government is lying to them. They see their expenses going up significantly and the government reporting little inflation. On the surface it seems like a lie. A covid modified CPI with a different basket more representative of Canadians lives would help changes in CPI change more reasonably reflect the reality of people’s budget during this once in a lifetime special circumstance	Hi u/waffleaphobia! To be clear, the official CPI receives methodological treatments to ensure that the effect of goods and services not available to Canadians for purchase or use during the pandemic (things like travel tours abroad, or, at times, movie tickets or use of recreational facilities) is removed from the headline number. You can see details of these methodological adjustments in our monthly technical supplements.
	However, we felt strongly that Canadians needed to see an estimate of inflation that reflected our spending patterns during the pandemic, so we created an adjusted price index. This uses current expenditure data to create a complementary price index that shows inflation and takes into account these sudden shifts in spending patterns when weighting the components of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This adjusted price index, while not intended to replace the official measure of inflation, can provide additional insight into the price change that Canadians are facing during the pandemic.
There are two types of Inflation, inflation caused by too much demand (demand-pull inflation), versus inflation caused by reduction in supply (cost-push inflation). Inflation caused by demand example: The economy is doing really well, Canadians have a lot of money to spend. Therefore, Canadians are buying more computers than usual, making it hard for production to keep up. This results in inflation for computers. Inflation caused by supply example: The cost of semiconductors have went up due to decreasing rare mineral production. Therefore, this is causing inflation for computer. Another example is an earthquake destroyed half the factories in Ontario. Therefore, supply decreased sharply. With no change in demand, there is hyperinflation due to a large drop in supply. Is there anyway for Statistics Canada to clarify what is causing the inflation for the Consumer Price Index. Reason being, this has massive policy implications. For example, if inflation is being caused by supply constraints, then the solution is to fix the supply constraints instead of tightening the monetary supply/raising interest rates. One solution would be to build more factories/opening more mines. If the inflation is being caused by too much demand (economy doing too well), then the central bank would have to think about tightening the money supply or raising interest rates. Suggestion: For each major item in the Consumer Price Index, have an extra column saying whether it is Demand or Supply induced. For example: Computer, 2% increase from previous year, supply induced. Oil, 5% decreased from previous year, demand induced (drop in oil demand due to covid). Vegetables, 20% increase from previous year, supply induced (lower farm yield this year). Please let me know whether Statistics Canada has already thought about the point I made and what were the conclusions!	Hi u/goldbladess! Thanks for your question. The prices collected in the CPI are reviewed by a number of analysts each month to determine the key circumstances behind price change. Each month, we publish a write-up on the CPI in our statistical publication, the Daily.
	In the Daily, we try to provide users with as much context as possible so they have insight into the key economic and industry-specific factors affecting price change, from supply disruptions to rising demand to other factors like tax changes. —Taylor
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Thats great to hear! I will definitely check it out. Do you guys also give policy recommendations to address those price changes? If Statistics Canada don't, then what part of government is in charge of that?	We don’t give policy recommendations—our role is to produce high-quality statistical information. Other users apply this data—there are many government departments and other users that use our data to make policy decisions. For example, the Bank of Canada uses the CPI to monitor inflation and inform decisions about monetary policy. Thanks for your question! —Taylor
Why should I know about it and why should I care? No sarcasm implied, I just don't know how this is useful for an average Canadian. I know how much things are around me because I live where I live and buy what I can afford. So what is the CPI for in terms of the average Canadian	The CPI is the official measure of consumer price change through time. It is of interest to governments, unions and business organizations. Wage contracts, pension increases and rental agreements are often based on CPI changes, so it does affect the average Canadian. Our income tax brackets are also adjusted to changes in the CPI to account for the changing purchasing power of the consumer.
As I understand things, technological advances can mask inflation in the CPI numbers. E.G the base cellphone Company X sells (the model Y) costs $N. A couple years later Company X’s base model is now the Model Z and it costs more than $N. But because the Model Z is bigger & faster than the Model Y even though it costs more it may actually be deflationary. How or why does that work like that... if I just want this base model - I have to pay more - to me that should be inflation.	Hi Figment09, thanks for your question. The CPI measures what is known as pure price change. In doing so, the quality of a particular good or service is considered when an item is priced. If the price of a good or service increases at the same time as an improvement in the quality of that good or service, the CPI may not register an increase, and may even show a decline for that item. This corresponds with the example you provided. For example, if your Internet provider upgrades your speed at no additional charge, this would be considered a price decline because you are getting better service for the same price. This applies to cars and phones too.
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Thanks for the reply... not sure if you are replying to replies of replies - but here goes. I guess it is more a question of should the CPI measure pure price change if one wants to paint a picture of how the cost of living is changing. Even in the internet speed example... one needs internet access what is the cheapest internet access - if the speed doubles and the cost goes up by 25% - the cost to the individual of the cheapest (lowest tier) internet access is still 25% more. If the previous product isn’t for sale anymore... shouldn’t there be some recognition or capture of the cost per level or tier?	The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is not equivalent to a cost-of-living index (COLI). The CPI has often been used to approximate cost-of-living, but it is important to note that the concepts of a CPI and a COLI are not directly comparable.
	The CPI is based on a fixed basket of goods and services, which represents the average Canadian household's spending habits, following well-established international guidelines and standards. The CPI measures the average change in retail prices encountered by all consumers in Canada.
	In contrast, the objective of a COLI is to measure price changes experienced by consumers in maintaining a constant standard of living. A COLI can be linked to the notion of the minimum amount of money that would be necessary in different periods of time to ensure a given level of wellbeing.
	In short, the CPI measures the change in the cost of a fixed basket of goods and services, whereas a COLI measures the change in the cost of a fixed level of wellbeing. While a standard measure does not exist for a cost-of-living index, the CPI is sometimes used by others to approximate it.
Has StatCan considered benchmarking the CPI basket weights to the quarterly consumer expenditure estimates in the national accounts?	Thank you for this interesting question. As of the upcoming CPI basket update, in addition to the Survey of Household Spending (SHS), Statistics Canada will be using the National Accounts household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) data to update the basket weights. This means that HFCE will be used to estimate higher level aggregate expenditure while SHS data will be used to estimate expenditure for lower-level aggregates. At this time, tthere is no plan to change the frequency of the CPI basket update, as we will continue using estimates of annual expenditures as weights. As conditions change, Statistics Canada remains open to looking at the frequency of our basket updates. We continue to monitor changes in consumption patterns in order to reflect true market conditions.
These are all very good questions and answers! Thanks for your time.	Thank you for participating! Our experts are having a blast answering your questions. Keep them coming!
How has data collection of CPI changed over the past 2 decades (or so, more recent changes)? What are the downfalls or tradeoffs used when collecting CPI data (efficiency)?	Hi u/stolpoz, great question! The big change in CPI data collection over the past few years has been the transition away from primarily collecting prices in person and in stores to incorporating more and more prices from alternative data sources. As more Canadians shopped online, we started pricing more goods online too. We’ve also started incorporating administrative data, web-scraping and scanner data where efficient or possible to do so. One of the trade-offs with incorporating more types of data sources is that our processing systems have gotten more complex. But it's worth it to incorporate more representative, timely and high quality data!
How does CPI take into account the differences between local economies within Canada?	Hi u/canadianxt! The CPI is published at the provincial level, as well as for the capital cities of the territories. Each province is weighted according to their relative share of total Canadian expenditures. So Ontario (39.83%) is a larger share of the basket than PEI (0.33%). We also publish indices for 16 cities.
How does the CPI account for the recent trend of rising rental prices? I see that rental fees account for 6.2% of the CPI yet renters face yearly increases, above-the-guideline increases and significant increases when they move out of rent-controlled apartments. I acknowledge that there are many other costs rolled into the CPI which renters do not pay, but for someone like me who sees the CPI inflation rate consistently pegged around 1-3% but whose housing costs have skyrocketed beyond that, the CPI seems vastly out of touch. Base rental prices in my city have increased from ~$600 to ~$1200 over the past decade, gauged by the minimum rental price for a one-bedroom from a large rental company. One of your other comments mentions this discrepancy between people's perceived rate of inflation and the CPI inflation rate. To what extent do you believe that the gentrification of the housing market has contributed to this?	Hi u/rad-aghast, great question! The rent index captures the price change in both new leases and lease renewals. While large price increases have been observed in the rents on new leases in some regions, price changes from lease renewals have been much more moderate, particularly in rent-controlled areas. Since the majority of people who rent do not move every year, lease renewals have a large influence on the index, and this results in a more moderate rent index than some people expect.
	Although we account for quality changes through the hedonic model that estimates the rent index, gentrification is not something we track, so I can’t comment on the impact of that phenomenon.
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By gentrification I simply mean the increase in the average price of rental accommodations. Is this calculation based on how many people actually move or is it a pre-determined ratio of new leases:lease renewals?	Good question! We do not set a predetermined ratio for new or renewed leases; our data are solely based on a sample selected by the Labour Force Survey using a rotating six month panel. The observation cited is based on this field collected data as well as other external data sources.
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Since people are significantly less likely to move if their rental costs will increase 25-50% upon signing a new lease, doesn't basing this measurement on such a dependent variable leave us with a blind spot regarding inflation in the rental market? Has the level of mobility (e.g. the proportion of people who sign new leases vs. renew existing leases) seen any significant changes over the past decade?	Using data collected from LFS, where households in sample are surveyed for a period of six months (one-sixth of the sample is replaced every month) and dwellings are followed (not households, so the tenants might change during the survey period), ensures that the rent index measures what Canadians are actually paying each month for rent. Listed or asking rents may rise or fall at a different rate than the rent index because they do not take into account rental rates negotiated in a previous month or year.
	According to CMHC’s Rental Market Report, tenant turnover rates which represents the share of units in a purpose-built rental apartment structure that were rented to new tenants in the past 12 months (at the time of the survey), have remained relatively stable over the past few years at about 20%.
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Thank you very much!	You're very welcome! Have a nice day!
What does the data tell us about interesting differences experienced between different Canadians? Obviously the costs of consumer life will be different between somebody living in urban Toronto than rural Alberta, both in costs but also significant differences in the types of products bought. As a larger portion of Canadians continue to move to urban centers how will this affect the CPI and overall cost of living?	The reference population for the CPI consists of all families and individuals living in urban and rural private households in Canada. Because of the broadly defined reference population, the measure does not reflect inflationary pressures experienced by any specific sub-population, but instead reflects the average Canadian consumer. In addition, the CPI basket weights are updated at regular intervals (currently every two years). Changes in population distributions and their impact will be reflected in the CPI.
How come mortgage payments are not included in CPI?	Hi u/ofangdeke, that’s a great question! The CPI measures price change in the interest portion of mortgage payments, but not on the portion of mortgage payments that comes from the principal (the house purchase price). This approach is used because we want to measure the price change in the ongoing cost of owning a home, not the cost of purchasing a home. This is because homes are really a capital good (an asset) rather than a simple consumer good.
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If homes are really an asset then why would we include the cost for a levered investor (i.e. a homeowner who takes on debt) to purchase an asset in the CPI? For example we do not include the cost of funds for investors to borrow money to buy stocks in the CPI.	Hi - Thank you for your question. A homeowner has to pay for their housing services—since mortgage interest cost is one of the components of the ongoing, monthly housing cost faced by a homeowner, it’s included in the CPI. The mortgage principal, or the purchase price of a house, is not an ongoing cost—that is considered the investment portion.
	Financial services purchased by consumers are included in the CPI. This includes bank service charges, stock and bond commissions, and financial administrative and management fees.
When you track items , do you exclude (or average) taxes applied? Example where I am in BC we are outside the Vancouver TransLink gas tax area, so we pay less tax on our fuel price. BUT because of local price fixing (long story but it's something BC "looking into") we pay higher gas prices than the Vancouver area. So we have either a slightly higher overall cost to purchase has, or a much higher rate depending on how you as the government evaluate it.	Hi u/thorskicoach, great question. The headline “all-items” does include taxes—we want to make sure that any changes in taxes that increase or decrease consumer prices are reflected in the CPI. Each month, we also calculate a CPI without the impact of tax changes—this is called the “Consumer Price Index (CPI), all-items excluding the effect of indirect taxes” and it can be found here.
Can you answer this question that you avoided even thou it has the most upvotes. To restate, you continuously claim low inflation, but housing, energy and food have all become more expensive. Why do you misrepresent the true day-to-day cost to Canadians. And are you purposefully lying to support the governments position on deficit spending?	Hello! Thanks for your question—I’m sure you are not the first to have wondered about this. The CPI is calculated using expenditure weights estimated using Survey of Household Spending data. These weights are not subjective or discretionary. Statistics Canada has never allowed any type of discretionary judgement or subjectivity to affect the estimation of the Canadian CPI weights or the CPI itself. The CPI is calculated according to international standards and its methodologies are regularly updated and reviewed by experts inside and outside of the agency, including by academics and other national statistical agencies.
	Statistics Canada’s independence as an agency is established through our mandate to provide unbiased, high-quality data that responds to the information needs of the country. This means that decisions on statistical matters are based on professional considerations and are free from interference from government or outside interests. As a matter of convention, Statistics Canada has always operated as an arm’s-length organization with no direct ministerial involvement in methodological or technical issues.
	Our role is to produce high-quality data to measure price change and reporting accurate numbers is something we take very seriously! —Taylor
1. How do you deal with items which decline in quality? 2. Have you studied whether or not companies are manipulating "basket good" prices to influence CPI?	The CPI measures what is known as pure price change. In doing so, the quality of a particular good or service is considered when an item is priced. If an item declines in quality with no change to the sticker price, this would be considered an upward price movement for the purposes of the CPI because a consumer is getting a lower-quality product for the same price. This also applies to quantity: if a cup of coffee from your favourite fast food restaurant now comes in a smaller cup, but you’re still paying the same amount, we track that as a price increase.
	As for your second question, the representative products priced for the CPI are defined fairly broadly (like “canned white tuna” or “men’s wrist watch” or “bar of soap” – it would be exceedingly difficult for companies to manipulate the CPI in this way because detail about specific items we price is not published.
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Thanks that clarifies it!	Thanks for participating, JMJimmy!

Had some time today and I thought I would make up a post on some tips and tricks to maximize the money God is entrusting you with. I have gone through this process with a number of people, I usually get paid for this so . . . take that for what it's worth.
(Or if you are trying to get out of poverty, this is how I went from literally $10.00 two days before rent was due and 1 day before payday in my bank account to owning a house in 3.5 years with an additionally 35k in the bank while making not a lot of money hourly. We're talking like $13.00/hr.)

Fundamental Concepts

Things that will help you cut costs way down, and give you an edge against the ever approach poverty line.
1) If you cannot comfortably afford it, you cannot afford it.
2) Pay with cash as often as possible.
3) If you are renting, and don't do very much with your bank, consider switching to a credit union with an APY over .00001% (lol) you can typically find CU's with between 2 - 4% APY, which means you are literally giving yourself a raise
4) If you have good self control, a credit card with cash back is another way you can give yourself a 1 - 2% raise.
5) Manual cars appear to last longer, and with fewer major repairs than automatic transmissions. (Plus you look like a cool guy.) This is purely my experience, but take it for what it's worth.
6) For the love of all that is good, never rent a car. Renting a deprecating asset is a horrible idea.
7) If you are still paying for cable, you are an idiot. You can get every single channel online for a fraction of the cost. Internet is the only thing you should be getting from the cable company. If you "must" have a landline, instead by a burner phone, plug it into the wall and forget about it. You'll thank me later.
8) While you are accumulating a comfortable bank account, never (read: rarely) buy anything full retail. Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are your friends. If someone is offering a phone for $100.00, offer $55.00. (55 - 65% of their offer) You'd be astonished at how many people will take you up on that. I got a $850.00 dollar phone for $450.00. Same goes for cars and what-not.*
9) Learn 2 - 3 meals you can make in under 15 minutes that are very easy to make. This will help when you don't have the emotional energy to make dinner and are tempted to go out for those expensive dinners.
10) Read up on my post about hobbies, and seriously consider which hobby you are doing to help you make side income.

"Cheating" your Bills

Seperate all of your bills into these categories, then proceed to get discounts on them.
1) Rent/Mortgage + Utilities
Responsible homeowner classes will knock off fractions of a % when applying for a mortgage.
If you are privately renting and considering moving first ask for a % decrease at the end of your first year if you paid on time throughout the whole year. A huge number of landlords value consistency more than you understand. Heck, do it anyway just to see what happens.
When picking somewhere to live, price out monthly driving costs vs rent/a mortgage. It's likely worth the extra $80.00 - $100.00 a month if you are saving $60.00+ on gas/wear and tear on your car.
• Phone Bills
Understand that "Unlimited Data" currently means "Unlimited 4G" for most cellular retailers. Most phone companies give unlimited 3G with their plans regardless. For example, my phone bill is $30.xx a month. Lower than literally any of my friends. Likely lower than most of yours.
• Car Payments & Insurance
I shouldn't have to say this, but will just incase. If you are not in a position to live comfortably - you are not in a position to have a nice car. Don't ever rent. Buy. (Those of you that should rent, know it without reading this, so ignore this.)
You can purchase a safe driving course on groupon for ~$20.00. I got a $30.00 monthly discount or roughly $360.00/year off my insurance and it took maybe 30 minutes of total focus to do.
• Health Insurance + Medical Bills
Always ask for an itemized bill.
Sometimes, just to push my luck I'll ask for a discount for no reason. "That bill is too much." And they'll pretty regularly give it to you.
For prescriptions, GoodRX helped my family pay for my parents very expensive medicines. Could turn a $600.00 monthly insulin cost to $100.00.
• Student Loans
Screw student loans. Pay them off asap unless you have more effective ways to earn money. Bane of my existence. Went to school, dropped out, stupid. Stupid stupid stupid!
• Food, gas, and accessory money estimate
Connect with a few close friends or family about getting memberships to large retailers like Sam's Club. Get a "community" membership, collect cash, and use your cashback card for more. A $600.00 store run quickly becomes an $12.00 paycheck. Which is nearly the amount it costs for a half tank of gas.
If your hobbies are expensive, join a community that participates in it. You'd be surprised what you can get for cheap/free as well as events that let you participate in the activity for virtually no cost.
• Other (boat loans, monthly expenses for pets, $ for gifts, etc.)
If this post is beneficial to you, you should probably not have a boat any bigger than a fishing boat. Boating is a rich mans activity.
The goal with this is to increase the value of your takehome pay. Saving a dollar is really more like saving $1.20 - $1.30 after tax.
Anyway, if this post is anyway helpful to you, let me know. I have a goodly sum of other effective practices that have helped immensely and if you are in the position I was in, this will come in handy.

I realize how wordy I am, with how long this is, so I hope reading it isn't too time-consuming :)
Basic Info:
Occupation: Registered Nurse
Location: SF Bay Area (Peninsula)
Salary: $192,000
Section One: Assets and Debts:
Retirement: $120,000 (avoiding looking at it now, due to the drop in the stock market. Trying to keep my sanity :))
Pension: $150,000 (my workplace is one of the few to offer this, and it really incentivizes you to stay there for a while)
Checking account: $4,000 ish
Savings: I have a few, it’s my way of keeping positivity and hoping to one day buy a house, albeit it most likely won’t be in the Bay, since it’s so expensive here.
CD (for house) :$30,377 (initially put in $30k last year, with a 1.75% APY)
Big savings: $26,602 (my husband contributes $150 a paycheck towards this, for clarity) ( I will transfer this to a CD once the one above matures and combine them)
Emergency fund: $2478.00
Vacation Fund: $1662.00
Monthly Income: Pre-tax
$15,000-$15,500 a month, pre-tax
$7500-$8000 take home, after taxes and retirements
(I work nights, so on top of base pay, there is a 16% differential, 5% on top of that if you work weekends, of which we are required to do 4-5 a month, and an additional $2.50 if you are the charge nurse, which I do about 5 times per month. I also get a $41.53 per paycheck specialty certification reimbursement, which technically covers the cost of taking a certification test and maintaining it via CEUs). I also, during non-COVID-19 times, teach at my hospital, around 12 hours a month, which is additional pay.
Monthly Costs:
Rent: $3230 (Our two-bedroom apartment, includes $50 cat rent per month)
Credit Card Debt: $0. I have two credit cards from Chase; my personal one is the Chase Sapphire Reserve (i.e. my green card) and my husband and I split the Chase Sapphire Preferred (i.e. the blue card). I/we pay off the balance each month. I’d say that my personal card is about $2000.00 a month and the shared card is in the area of $1400-$1700.
Annual Fees: Green Card -$450, although it is going up to $550 in July when it renews. Ugh.
Blue Card: $95, goes through at end of April
Student Loans: About $10,436 left. I pay over the minimum every month, about $300 total, to finish off nursing school loans and a little bit left of graduate school loans.
403b: Usually around $1800-$2000 a month, dependent on checks, they usually differ a little.
457b: Flat $25. Why not? haha
Pension with workplace match: $500-$600 month
Health Insurance (for my husband and I): $405.00
Vision and Dental Insurance: Covered by employer, $0.
Union Dues: $140.00
Short-term disability: $44.00 (I am accident, bone-breaking prone. Oops)
Savings Distribution:
House Fund: $2200 month/ $300 from husband (he has a lot of debt that he is working through, and there is a large difference in income)
Emergency Fund: $600/month
Vacation Fund: $400/month
Car insurance: $0/month right now, as I paid it in a 6-month chunk, equates to about $70/month
Wifi: $100.00 month (I pay for all of this)
PG & E, Electric and Gas :Ranges from $65 in the summer to $350.00 in winter (I pay for all of this). Makes me very ragey, that they don’t seem to have a reason and they are shady. PG&E is the major utility in Northern California, and they are responsible for multiple fires that have plagued us each year for the past few years, especially the Camp Fire, that killed so many people.I hate them and don’t have a utility choice.
Conservice: Water, Sewer, Garbage: $150ish (I pay for all of this)
Spotify Family $15.00 (Covers myself, husband, and best friend. You can add up to 5 people!)
Netflix: $8.99 (My husband and I split this)
HBO: $14.99 (split with my sister)
T-Mobile Cell Phone: $97.00
Medication for my cat: $150.00. He has an autoimmune disorder and he requires immunosuppression pills daily.
Donations:
$20/month to the Wild at Heart Foundation, out of the UK. They rescue dogs from terrible abuse situations and help to place them. Please google Maggie the Wonder Dog to find out more! I’ll usually throw another $20 at them if they are having a drive or a specific pet need.
$20/month for Beagle Freedom Project: They rescue beagles that are subject to laboratory testing and place them in homes and rehabilitate them. They also have acute needs for emergency rescues, so I will donate to them when they need money urgently, usually also $20.
$20/month to The Odd Cat Sanctuary: Helping to place cats that have disabilities and/or were at kill shelters. They do great work.
As you can tell, I love animals. I want to help as many as I can; please check out their instagrams (all of them have the names of their foundations) and help them if they seem good to you!
Patreon: $7/month. I subscribe to/support Christine McConell, who is basically a spooky Martha Stewart. She’s incredible.
Random other things:
2 Wine Clubs (Every 3 months): $250 total; I get 6 bottles of wine total from 2 different wineries. This also allows me to get “free (i.e. included)” tastings at both of these wineries, which are local.
Day One:
0845: I wake up without an alarm, which I find to be so relaxing during this time. Since I am leaving the house once a day, to run, I don’t feel the need to wake up at a certain time. It’s really relaxing. I scroll my phone to check my emails, reply to a few group texts I’m in (nursing co-workers, group of my running friends, my parents) and obviously go through Instagram.
0945: Coffee via Nespresso, and an egg and cheese in a tortilla. Not sure if that qualifies as a burrito, but I’ll take it. I don’t love eggs so much but I am trying to eat more of them, as they are healthy and I’ve read that they are good for women trying to conceive. After this, I take two gummy prenatal vitamins and two Calcium gummy vitamins.
12:00: After finishing up on some YouTube, I putz around the house some more, and bug my husband while he works from home.
13:30: Head out to get some fresh air and go on a 4-mile run on the pavement. I am 99% normally a trail runner, but there isn’t a lot of space to be 6 feet apart on the trails, and it upsets me a lot that people aren’t being serious about it. It makes it easier for me to move if we are on the streets. I relish the sunshine and am so happy that it isn’t raining.
15:00: After running, I shower and eat some lunch, plus put some laundry in. Wow, I'm exciting.
16:00 I go out onto the porch and start to read “The Nightingale”, that I’ve had for years and never got around to reading. It’s really good and I’m devouring it, while listening to the French Indie channel on Spotify (really great background music). My husband brings me some beer from a local place, Blue Oak Brewing, and we split one of their sour IPA crowlers.
19:00: We make dinner, some fried chicken (a Paula Deen recipe that we make about once a year because it is way too salty and delicious for my own good) and butternut squash cubes. We watch some YouTube channels that are focused on trail running.
21:00: V gets his cat medication
22:00: Bed time, after getting through more of The Nightingale.
Day One: $0
08:30: Wake up, check phone. I make a double espresso, plus Eggo waffles with peanut butter, and settle into my book. I find out that my one cat likes to eat peanut butter, when I catch him trying to steal my eggo. I then sob into my book, at the end, and am so happy that I read it. I am interested to see if any of it lines up with any real history, so maybe I’ll look into it soon.
10:40: Watched a little bit of my favorite running channel, Run Steep Get High, and the founder of the channel is running a marathon distance on a helipad. Gotta get the miles in somehow, right? Also, I logged onto the “T-Mobile Tuesdays” app and found out that their promotion is a free year-long subscription to a Hearst brand magazine! I got my favorite magazine, Country Living.
11:30: I do a 10-mile run with 1500 feet of elevation gain on the roads, which is pretty good! I explored a neighborhood that I have not been to before, due to avoiding the pavement. The weather is great and fresh, and I am happy.
14:00: My husband, J, and I go to Safeway. It’s not too crowded, and it’s randomly out of eggs. I see a lot of people wearing N95 and paper masks and gloves. We just get our grocery shopping done and are out in 30 minutes. We get: White rice, coconut milk, curry paste, sweet peas, salt, 2 cadbury eggs, 3 bags of Reese’s eggs (they are our favorite and we freeze them), garbanzo beans, sour cream Ritz crackers, BBQ Ritz crackers, strawberry fig bars, a 12-pack of coke, three Aha! Fizzy waters, a 6-pack of mini ginger ales, apple sauce, pumpkin puree, 2 Rockstar energy drinks, orange marmalade, stain remover spray for laundry, string cheese, provolone cheese, cheddar cheese, a gallon of milk, tater tots, light cottage cheese, yogurt, hamburger buns, ground beef, broccoli, blueberries, 1 lime, ginger root, bananas, 2 avocados, 5 nectarines, 2 Perfect bars, one bottle of Band of Roses rose, and one bottle of my favorite rose, Miraval! Phew. We are making everything at home, and it’s a lot. Total: $191.78
18:00 J makes dinner; we have cheeseburgers and tater tots with a glass of rose. I swear I eat healthy some of the time, haha. We end up watching a movie about the Western States 100 race and then I start a book, “The Vacationers”. I’m going to get all of these unread books read during this shelter in place!
21:00 Immunosuppression V. Thank god for whoever invented the Pill Popper.
22:00: Snooooooooze.
Day 2: $191.78
Day 3
08:00: Wake up, browse stuff. I got paid today, woo hoo! Get out of bed, have a fizzy water and an Eggo. No coffee for me until tonight when I go to work. I browse Madewell’s website and see that their jeans are on sale for $75 each! I put them in my bag and then log off. Virtual version of window shopping :)
10:00: Walk the rent payment over to the drop box and start my run. The rent box is duct taped open, and I appreciate that I don’t have to touch it. J and I split the rent in different ways; I pay $1830 and he pays $1400, commensurate to our salaries. $3230.00
11:00: 4 miles (oh so slowly) done, hop into the shower and wash my hair for the first time in a few days. I am super blonde and I am trying to preserve the dye as much as I can by not washing as much. I miss my hairstylist!
11:30: I pay our watesewegarbage bill via the phone. The company is not run very well, and there were several times in the last year when my payments did not go through online, nor did they go through via the mail. This is the only way that I know it’ll get done. $162.62
12:00: Get back into bed for a few-hour nap. I’m worried about my mom; She is a nurse in a different state. She was told that there were no hours for her (since she works in occupational health-doing things like fitting people for N95 masks, giving flu vaccinations, etc), but they won’t fire her, so she can’t file for unemployment. I’m quite worried and trying to think about how I can help them financially. Ugh.
15:00 Wake up after having a nightmare that one of my cats died. I never have dreams or nightmares during this nap, so it’s weird. I wake up, sautee some eggplant with parmesan cheese on top. Almost an eggplant parm.
18:00: I leave for work. I’ve majorly adjusted what I bring with me; I only bring my license and one credit card, in a ziploc bag. I bring an extra pair of clothes to change into after work. I bring my lunch in a disposable bag, using disposable utensils (I have reusable ones I normally use), and don’t bring in my water bottle or coffee mug. I bring my keys without keychains, with just a car key and house key. Leave my sunglasses and glasses in the car (always bring my glasses in case my contacts go bad). I also put sandals in my car to wear while driving.
22:00 Eat some pumpkin curry on my lunch break, and buy a Cherry Diet Coke from the cafe downstairs. $1.37
02:00 I am hungry and sleepy so I grab some jalapeño pop corners and a diet Dr Pepper. My pt is “critically stable” and requires the care of two nurses, so we just split all of the responsibilities all night. Do vital signs, dialysis numbers every hour, multiple device numbers every hour (the pt is on a few supportive devices), labs, etc. Total $3.10
04:30 Long break zzzz
07:45 Get home from work. Usually it takes me about an hour to get home, but during Covid times, it’s a solid 28 minutes. If I’ve got to be at work, I’ll surely take this as a consolation prize. I wipe down my car with bleach wipes, as well as my phone, name badge, keys, and air pods. Then I throw my scrubs in the wash (already changed into sweats before I left the hospital) and take a shower and scrub myself clean.
09:00 good night.
Day Three total: $3.397.09. Oy.
Day 4
16:45: Wake up a little earlier than I had planned, shower, drink coffee, watch news with my husband.
18:00:Drive to work, no traffic, yay
19:00: Start work, with the same patient. Do hand off with day shift nurses, check off the 10-ish IV drips that are running, plus the dialysis machine, and 3 other supportive devices that the patient is on. Same partner to take care of the patient, and we settle into our respective tasks for the night.
21:30: Our delivery boba order arrived! We ordered from Little Sweet, which their flavors are OK but I want to try a new place next time. Our unit is full of boba fans, so we usually end up ordering like 10 at a time. I order a Rose High Mountain Tea with added boba & 25% sweet. $8.18 for tip/delivery fee
0200: Fairly busy night, but glad to be at work. Still feeling very cautious and scared about COVID. My hospital requires us to wear paper masks while we are at work, to try and minimize everyone making each other sick. My loops start to really hurt my ears :(
04:30: Break time! I go to the snack machine and get a Diet Dr. Pepper and jalapeno pop corners again. $3.10
07:00 Drive home, yay!
09:00: ZzZzZz
Daily total: $11.28
Day 5
16:30 : Wake up for work, shower again, and get dinner ready. I put on some casual clothes and put my dinner into disposable packaging (Bay Area cringe, so used to reusing haha). Brew a Nespresso coffee and drive to work.
18:45: Fill out my pre-work questionnaire. It asks if I have had any symptoms, traveled, or had contact with any Covid + people. Also they’ve added the question if we work with immunocompromised patients, which I do (heart and lung transplants). I pass and go into work, collecting my one paper mask that I will wear for 12 hours. I get changed into hospital scrubs and start my last shift of the week.
22:00 Dinner time! We were surprised by a local Berkeley bakery, Starter Bakery. They’ve donated a ton of fresh baked goods and I almost tear up when I eat my pain au chocolat. It’s so kind of them to think of us, and on night shift, at that! We get forgotten sometimes.
04:30 : Break time. I have made a headband to attach my mask to, since I am getting sores on the back of my ears. It helps a lot.
07:00: Drive home, get into a fight with my husband as soon as I get home. It’s my fault, since I’m extra snappy these days (I don’t want to be) and then we make up and I take a bath and go to bed.
(Cutting this off as Day 5, since I was off of work at that time).
Day 5 total: $0
Day Six:
14:00 Wake up and drink a Coke to pep me up. I make a lunch of cottage cheese, a peach, and some hamburger buns with peanut butter and jelly (I want to use all of our food). Do some laundry, and give our cat his multiple medications.
16:00 I watch a few videos about Covid, that cite a study done in Wuhan, in the hospitals and public spaces. The evidence suggests that the virus is both airborne and droplet. Yay. :/ (not actually a yay).
17:00: Start a 4.5 hour long happy hour with J’s fraternity brothers and their spouses. We are spread all across the country and don’t get to see each other often, and I forget how much I miss all of them. We talk about everything and everyone brings their pets out (we show off our cats!). We make a pizza and drink a 32 oz crowler (can growler, I never heard of it before), aptly titled Social Media Distancing IPA, from Blue Oak Brewing. Fall asleep at 22:00.
Day 6: $0
Day 7:
0945: Slept with some random dreams, but for a loooong time. Switching back to daylight hours is hard, and it’s been a little easier with our current shelter in place order, since I don’t have anywhere to be.
11:00 I made a pot of Prestogeorge’s Organic Haitian Blue coffee (from Pittsburgh, PA-check them out!) and eat a cinnamon roll. Browse YouTube and watch a Vanity Fair interview with Kim Kardashian, about the prison reform work and what she’s involved in. I’m no Kardashian fan, but I was impressed and glad that something good is coming from it.
12:00 Start on my 6-mile trail run. It’s pouring rain and that really keeps the extra people off of the trails. It’s been making me so sad to avoid the trails, but I know that they will be crowded during the day and there’s not enough places to be 6 feet apart at all times. Only one family let their kids walk towards me, without observing the 6-foot rule. Another opportunity for education.
13:30 Bath time and a fizzy water.
16:00: We start to watch Ozark, since I’ve heard that a lot of people are watching it. I’m feeling so-so on it, and it feels like a cheap Breaking Bad. There’s just something about it that doesn’t click for me.
18:00: We make dinner (tacos, plus chips and guac) and log onto Zoom for a happy hour with our run club! I miss them all so much. We live in the same town and haven’t been able to see each other, due to social distancing, and it makes me sit and think about how much I really see them every week. It ends up being about 4 times per week, and they’re all such a big part of my life. We talk about running, working from home, and making bread (it’s the new popular thing!). We log off eventually and then go to bed. I’m a bit sad tonight.
Daily Total: $0
Weekly Total:
Food: $207.53
Living Costs: $3230.00 (rent) and 162.62 (water, sewage, garbage)= $3394.62
Total costs: $3602.15
Reflections:
This definitely wasn’t a normal week, at all. We didn’t go out and do anything fun, or even go to Target and browse around. Who knew that I would miss going to Target and looking at nothing?
We bought more food than we normally do, but we are obviously making every meal at home. It’s a little shocking to see the big number when you’re at the checkout, but then it makes sense after processing it all.
Work was pretty normal too, which was a relief. The world still turns and people are still really sick from non-COVID things. There were just a few more things that made it difficult to go into work (constantly wearing a mask, being questioned about symptoms) but then there was no traffic so I am going to be so grateful for that every day!
At this time, I wasn’t feeling too cooped up or anything, but I can definitely say that I am now, while editing this. I go from feeling ok to feeling really bummed, and I think mostly everyone is like that too.

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How an IPS officer is changing the fortunes of students from marginalised communities in Telangana
In an amazing feat of institutional transformation, this IPS officer turned a moribund network of state-run social welfare schools into a place where students from the most marginalised section routinely ace competitive exams and sports.
Indulekha AravindOct 11, 2020, 03:38 PM IST
ET Bureau The officer is revolutionising learning in these state-run social welfare schools. When Siddartha Nemali’s teacher first told his class that there was an opportunity for them to go to the US to study for a year, Nemali thought it was a joke. “Forget dreaming about going abroad, at that point I never thought I would travel outside Telangana,” Nemali recalls, on the phone from Hyderabad one evening.
Those were the boundaries of aspiration set by the circumstances he was born into. His family, belonging to a Scheduled Caste called Madiga, lived in a cramped one-room dwelling in Hyderabad, where his father worked as a bus conductor and his mother as a domestic help.
But spurred on by his teacher, Nemali gave it a go and was selected to spend 10 months in the US on a youth exchange programme in 2017. Currently, he is a first-year student of political science at Ashoka University, the elite private university based near Delhi. About a week ago, his family moved into their first proper apartment, thanks to his elder brother’s first salary, after graduating from the National Institute of Technology, Agartala, this year.
For the Nemali family, there is little doubt about what changed its fortune: the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS), where both the brothers studied. Stories like the Nemali brothers’ are legion at the state government-run TSWREIS and its sister organisation, the tribal welfare residential educational institutes (TTWREIS), which together run close to 400 schools where over 2 lakh children study. Over the last five years, these residential schools — which provide free education, boarding, food and other facilities to Class V-XII children from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in straitened circumstances — have been churning out a string of success stories.
Path to Top Career
Their families might be of modest means, but the children, often first-generation learners, have been acing competitive exams, setting records in sports and, at least in two instances, summiting Mount Everest. Last month, the institutes saw a record of sorts with 706 students clearing the intensely competitive Joint Entrance Exam ( JEE) Mains (qualifying rate of less than 2%), for which parents typically spend lakhs of rupees on private coaching. This included students like Thummanapally Niranjan, the son of a farmer who doubles up as a mechanic, who made it to the 99th percentile. In the JEE Advanced exam (qualifying rate of less than 1%), 42 students got regular seats, another 138 have got preparatory seats and all 706 have secured a future that will lift their families out of poverty.
“This is just a humble beginning. I expect close to 100 seats in the NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, a common qualifying exam for medical colleges) exams. Imagine, 100 of the poorest of the poor, going to medical colleges,” says RS Praveen Kumar, an IPS officer who heads TSWREIS and TTWREIS as its secretary, and the person widely credited for leading the remarkable turnaround of the institutes, with what he says has been unstinting support from the state government.
Institutes at a glance
Born Out of Ideals It was SR Sankaran, another dynamic bureaucrat, who set up the network of residential social welfare schools in undivided Andhra Pradesh in 1984 to provide quality education for free to the most marginalised. Two schools were set up in each district.
But over the years, the institutions, which come under the social welfare and tribal welfare ministries and are governed as grant-in-aid societies, began to suffer from neglect. M Satyanarayana, who joined the social welfare schools in 1990 as a physics teacher and is currently a principal, says that in 1996, when IAS officer DR Garg was secretary, there were some improvements.
Academic Triumphs
“But after his term, there was insufficient recruitment of teachers and funds, and the system suffered,” says Satyanarayana. Nonetheless, some of the branches, like the Centre of Excellence in Gowlidoddi, which provided free IIT coaching, produced the occasional breakout student like Anand Kumar Kampally, now an engineer in the US. Kampally’s is the kind of story that brings a lump to your throat. The son of a daily wage labourer, who lost his mother to cancer when he was 10, Kampally had to delay joining the residential school in Class XI because he could not scrape together bus fare.
He got admission for computer science engineering in NIT Patna, but could not afford a laptop till his final year, when he secured a grant. It was only once he got recruited by Ericsson that his life changed. The difference, he says, is that back then, stories like his were rare.
Investing in Learning
“When I was in Class XII, there would be 4–5 such stories. But now you read about hundreds getting admission in good colleges and universities, getting good jobs,” says Kampally, 27, on the phone from Dallas, US,where he now lives. That difference, say Kampally and those associated with the schools, was ushered in by Kumar. A 1995-batch IPS officer, credited with two mass surrenders of Maoists, among other milestones, Kumar took the unusual step in 2012 of requesting then chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy that he be posted as secretary of the social welfare residential schools’ society.
Till then, this had been a post held by IAS officers and not a coveted one at that, with terms often lasting just a few months. The decision was the culmination of a host of factors. Kumar had just returned from a sabbatical at Harvard University where he completed his Masters in Public Administration. A conversation with his mother back in his village on the fringes of the Nallamala forest sparked a train of thought that led to the switch.
Invest in Children
“She showed me the poverty that was still around. Many of the men were stone cutters or farm labourers. Many of the girls got married early. She asked whether she should feel proud that her son is an IPS officer or ashamed that despite her son being an IPS officer, her neighbours were still living in poverty. I didn’t have answers,” says Kumar, on an extended video call from his office in Hyderabad, immaculately dressed in a white, full-sleeved shirt, with rimless glasses and a ready smile. Kumar says it was education that helped his own family escape a fate similar to the other villagers.
His maternal grandparents had been bonded labourers in the fields of a Reddy family in Parumanchala village in Kurnool district. As a child, his mother used to work in the fields. One day, two teachers approached his grandfather and told him they would take her to school.
Kumar’s grandfather had three brothers. In the entire family, his mother was the only child who ended up going to school. She went on to become a school teacher and later, a principal. When he used to go with his mother to her village during the summer holidays, Kumar recalls that they could only fetch water before sunrise or after sunset. “I asked my mother why that was so, and she said the villagers won’t allow it during the day. Mind you, by then my mother was already working as a teacher,” he says.
Student Student Sachin Bethamalla is a silver medallist at the 2016 India International Regatta
He also saw his relatives and neighbours sit on the ground, while the local landlord always sat on an elevated platform. He emphasises that he does not remember these incidents to seek self-pity or get trapped in a victimhood mentality. “I want to use them as reference points to prevent thousands of others from being in the same situation. It is something I’m passionate about.” His father, too, was a teacher. Growing up, Kumar himself enrolled in the social welfare hostels, which preceded the schools. He decided the time to give back to his alma mater and to society was now, not after his retirement.
His appointment was initially met with stiff resistance from the school teachers, who went on strike. “He was from IPS background. We wondered how he would treat us, coming with a revolver,” Ambadapudi Sharada, a biology teacher at the time, remembers with a chuckle. Kumar had to assure them that he was not there to police them. “I went to the hostels and told them, I belong to a Scheduled Caste, both my parents were teachers and I studied in social welfare hostels. I said I wanted to repay my debt to the institute which is responsible for whatever I am today. They reluctantly withdrew their protest,” he says.
Student To improve body language, students are encouraged to practice talking in front of mirrors in common areas.
The first six months in the new job were spent visiting schools across what was then undivided Andhra. “I covered about 100 schools. I spoke to teachers, students, parents and many of the alumni. What I saw was that students had a lot of aspiration and energy but were looking for opportunities — someone to liberate them from comatose classrooms where they are treated as empty minds,” he says. But solving that was not easy, since it involved changing entrenched systems, mindsets and behaviours. To help him, Kumar assembled a new team, with people like academic coordinator George Varkey, who had spent two decades in private schools and had been a dean of a group of schools in 2013, when they first met.
“A week after he met me at a programme, he called and asked if I would join him. I said yes, excited at the opportunity,” says Varkey, who can speak passionately about the schools for hours. They began by trying out training programmes for teachers. “But we found that the teachers were not able to connect with the students and the training was not percolating down,” he says.
Students Students are selected to teach others across the state via live TV shows, for which they can win a prize of Rs 1,500 an hour, often more than what their parents earn daily. The money goes into their bank accounts.
Though the schools were nominally English medium, many of the teachers could speak only in Telugu. So the team shifted their focus to empowering students, from introducing basic English guided compositions to a host of extracurricular activities. The society also began partnering with external organisations, to train faculty and improve students’ English communication skills. English, Kumar says, is the language of emancipation. “Yes, mother tongue is important, but English is extremely important for the poorest of the poor, to get into the core of the economy. Otherwise, they will always be on the margins,” says the 53-yearold. No less critical was the focus on extracurricular activities.
“The easiest way to tap into the students’ potential was to take them outdoors, make them feel liberated and help them express themselves — whether it is through cinema, theatre or adventure sports.” Simultaneously, to motivate the teachers, Varkey says steps like a clear pathway to career progression were introduced, whereby teachers were monitored, commended and could be selected for posts like regional coordinator and deputy secretary of the society. Teachers who were doing well would receive personal letters of commendation from Kumar and, once a month, regional coordinators would pick the best teachers in their jurisdiction for a “Lunch with the Secretary”. “Dr Praveen made himself accessible to both students and teachers,” says Varkey. While good efforts were rewarded, Kumar gave short shrift to non-performers. GV Sastry, a retired principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya schools who regularly goes on inspection of the social and tribal welfare schools, has seen this first-hand. “Once, when I was inspecting a class, a teacher was not able to do division in maths. He was suspended on the spot,” says Sastry, who terms Kumar a “dynamic individual” who has overhauled the system. The efforts gradually began bearing fruit. But it was the year 2014 that became the springboard for the institutes, thanks to two major milestones.
That was the year two of the institute’s students — Malavath Poorna and Anand Kumar — both from historically marginalised communities and impoverished backgrounds, achieved the stunning feat of summiting Mount Everest. At 13, Poorna, member of a Scheduled Tribe, became the youngest girl in the world to summit Everest. Kumar became the first Dalit to achieve the feat. The effect was electric. For students of the welfare hostels, it was as if even the highest peak in the world was now within their reach.
Giving Students Wings Centres of Excellence Starting with two, today there are 27 Centres of Excellence run by the social welfare society. These give free specialised coaching for students in Class XI and XII to prepare them for competitive exams like JEE and NEET.
Freedom Schools Set up with the idea to free the children from inhibitions, these are 87 schools where children have freedom to decide their course of study, take part in school administration and teach themselves under teachers’ broad supervision.
Super Students Programme Students are selected to teach others across the state via live TV shows, for which they can win a prize of Rs 1,500 an hour, often more than what their parents earn daily. The money goes into their bank accounts.
Summer Samurais Summer camps with a host of activities such as horse riding, filmmaking and music, among others. About 70,000 students attend these camps each year. College-going women are taught to drive cars and ride bikes to empower them.
Swaero Movement Praveen Kumar launched the movement to help students become more aspirational. The term Dalit is not used in the schools because of the painful history and experiences associated with it. Instead, the suffix “swaero” is used — “sw” stands for state welfare and “aero” suggests sky is the limit. The movement has 10 commandments which includes “I am not inferior to anyone”
E Plus Activities To encourage students to improve their English, considered the language of emancipation, they are encouraged to write guided compositions three times a week. Subject complexity increases according to the age. The programme has evolved over the years.
The teachers began taking greater pride in their work, and in the organisation. “In every organisation’s trajectory, there is a watershed moment. This was ours — and I will give all the credit to the two young students,” says Kumar. It was around the same time that Telangana became a new state, with Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao as the chief minister. Impressed by the schools’ performance, Rao nearly tripled the budget for the institutes. “The CM said this is the model we have to invest in for the new state of Telangana, to improve a generation,” says Kumar. He credits the government’s decision to allow him stability of tenure and the fact that he never had to worry about financial resources as the reasons driving the institutes’ success.
“Our budgets are assured since we are covered by the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Special Development Fund, which only three states are entitled to. For instance, my budget in 2016–17 was `1,378 crore,” says Kumar. From 4,000 to 6,000 seats going empty in united Andhra Pradesh, Kumar says they now have 1.5 lakh children applying to write the exam for the 36,000 seats across schools. “The social welfare residential schools are a highly successful model in terms of giving quality education for the students of SC families. The chief minister feels the same and has increased the number of schools and has been providing the required infrastructure in a phased manner,” Koppula Eshwar, Telangana’s minister for Scheduled Castes Development, told ET Magazine.
“The schools are a phenomenal example of how, given good quality of infrastructure and instruction, you can bridge the gap between the upper and lower castes. The hostels were earlier considered poor cousins to others but they said we want to be the best. They invested heavily in infrastructure, teachers, teaching aids and those investments have really paid off,” says R Subrahmanyam, secretary, Union ministry of social justice and empowerment. The schools, he says, were the model for the Centre’s Ekalavya schools for tribal students in higher classes. Kumar, he adds, “has really built it up beautifully. He’s a fantastic person.”
Padma Shri awardee and Hyderabad based social activist Sunitha Krishnan, who says she has observed the children transform over the years into individuals with a clear idea of what they want, says political will is crucial to sustain such reforms. “I would definitely give a lot of credit to the leadership: to the government, the minister and the secretary (Kumar),” says Krishnan. With adequate funds available, infrastructure has been ramped up, more schools and colleges opened (including an armed forces preparatory college for young women), another 25 schools converted to centres of excellence to train students to clear competitive exams, and a host of activities introduced, from horse riding to teaching college girls to drive so that “they don’t have to always be the pillion rider”, says Kumar.
Village Learning Circles For the students of the social and tribal welfare residential schools, Covid-19 dealt a heavy blow to learning continuity. Coming from impoverished backgrounds, these students could not afford to get smartphones, tablets and laptops needed for virtual classes. “Even if they had a device, connectivity was an issue. Girls were doubly disadvantaged because parents don’t want to give them smartphones,” says Praveen Kumar. To work around this, the institutes came up with two solutions. The first was teachers delivering lectures via the state-run TV network, which Kumar says was reasonably effective. The second was village learning circles, where students taught their juniors. “In every village or basti, we formed groups of 10 students, managed by a senior student or degree student. The senior student would get the inputs from a device or occasional visits from a teacher, and teach the others.” By September, Kumar says there were about 27,000 such village learning circles, where 1.3 lakh students were teaching one another.
Learning
Becoming Swaeros Among all the changes he has spearheaded, the one closest to Kumar’s heart is perhaps the Swaero movement, which he pioneered in 2013 and jokingly terms “a startup in identity.” The “sw” stands for state welfare and “aero” for air and sky, indicating limitless possibility. Kumar says it is a chance for the students to break away from the historic trauma of the Dalit identity.
“The oppression of Dalits is always there, in one form or the other, but what I gleaned from my conversations is that the term was also making the children aspire low. Their minds would not explore what they were really capable of. That’s how we started using the word swaero in the schools instead of Dalit.” He preempts a question of how a new term by itself would usher in change. The children, he says, are also taught 10 commandments to recite, starting with “I am not inferior to anyone.” Kumar says, “We thought by making the children recite and understand these commandments, through the power of auto suggestion, the children will start believing it.” While Kumar has added Swaero to his Twitter handle, others across the state have even begun legally changing their name to include the suffix.
Success Stories The Everester “My life has been transformed. There is before-Everest Poorna and after-Everest Poorna,” says Malavath Poorna, who in 2014 became the youngest girl to climb Mount Everest. She was 13. The daughter of Adivasi agricultural labourers, who never went to school, Poorna was picked by the games teacher at her social welfare school to be part of a new rock climbing programme launched by Praveen Kumar after he joined as secretary. She was then shortlisted for mountaineering courses in Darjeeling and finally in May 2014, along with fellow student Anand Kumar, made it to the world’s highest peak. “I wanted to jump with happiness but I was too exhausted!” recalls Poorna, now 19. She has now completed her BA, after spending a year in the US as an exchange student. Having climbed another six peaks, she has now one more goal to achieve — become an IPS officer like her mentor.
The Everester
Citius, Altius Fortius While in Class X, Agasara Nandini faced a tough choice. Her school, Kendriya Vidyalaya, made it clear to her that if she intended to continue with athletics, she would have to leave. But Nandini, whose father was working in a tea shop and mother was a house help, knew where her heart lay. So she quit the school. With the help of her coach, Nandini and her father approached Praveen Kumar, who asked her to join the nearest welfare school the very next day. “In the first year after joining the school, I won eight medals. Now I’m the fastest athlete in the junior category,” says Nandini, who bagged a gold medal in the Khelo India Youth Games in long jump. “Praveen sir” has been supportive throughout, whether it be paying for flight tickets to the competition or giving cash prizes after every medal win. “I want to take Praveen sir’s name, Telangana’s name and India’s name to greater heights,” she adds.
Citius, AltiusFortius
IIT Dreams If it was Thummanapally Niranjan’s local government school maths teacher who told him about IITs, it was his English teacher who told him about the social welfare hostel he needed to join to get into the elite engineering college. “I wrote the entrance test and got through,” says Niranjan, whose father is a farmer who occasionally takes up mechanical jobs and mother does some tailoring. Their income would not have been enough for Niranjan to enrol for private coaching. The Centre of Excellence provides the same service free. The efforts paid off when Niranjan, after scoring in the 99th percentile in the JEE Mains, secured a seat for himself in IIT. After completing engineering, he is gunning for the civil services. He says: “Initially, I thought of going abroad, earning more and donating it. But in my second year, I changed my decision and decided I want to be a secretary, like Praveen sir.”
Kumar believes marginalised communities need to liberate themselves, with the help of those who have already been emancipated. “Those who are leading comfortable lives must come back to the communities in a big way and pay it back. It has to be a big movement, not solitary cases, so that thousands can be freed from ignorance, poverty and illiteracy. That’s my vision.” He adds that he’s someone who believes in quantum leaps. “I don’t believe in linear progression — it has to be exponential. I want to see Mount Everest climbers in every village,” he says, with a laugh.
Talking about his own experience, Ashoka University student Nemali gives a recent example of why he prefers the term Swaero. “In class, there was a discussion about Dalit cuisine, and how it has been excluded from the mainstream. Every time I heard the word Dalit, I felt marginalised among the 40 students. But when someone hears the word Swaero, we think of people who climbed Everest, who are studying in London. It just makes me feel positive.” After his degree in political science, Nemali says he hopes to become a judge. “I initially wanted to become a doctor but after my stint in the US, I became interested in politics and governance. Now I think if I become a judge, I can do the right thing — do my part for democracy.” Stories like Nemali’s, Poorna’s and hundreds of others seem to be inspiring a generation of the marginalised.
The model is worthy of being replicated across the country. Subrahmanyam says a proposal to this effect has in fact been submitted to the Centre. The biggest testament to what the institutes have achieved is, arguably, the change in public perception. When Kampally, the engineer in Texas, was a student, he remembers that his friends used to tell him, “those schools are only for SCs”. “Now, everyone wants their children to get into these schools. And that is incredible,” he says.
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How an IPS officer is changing the fortunes of students from marginalised communities in Telangana
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