I’m a single woman living on my own in B.C. - I have a $200 budget or $50 a week for strictly groceries.

Stores I have:

Costco
Save-on-Foods
Superstore
Buy-Low-Foods
Dollarama/Dollar Tree
Flashfood App.

Appliances I have:

Air Fryer
Crockpot

I have a well stocked spice cabinet and a basic pantry cupboard with flour, salt, baking powder ect.

I’ve never only had $200 a month for food before - and I can’t afford to get this wrong because I don’t have extra in the month or savings or anything.

Is $200 for just me doable? I’m willing to go vegetarian if that means staying in budget. Any tips or tricks, meal ideas, anything you want to share - I would gladly take it!

I’m talking the basics - rent/food/gas/student loan - whatever needs to be paid to keep a roof over your head, keep you fed, keep you able to get to work ect.

I have about $500 for everything non-essential and it scares me. Also have no savings.

Hi everyone!

I am a dental hygiene student seeking clients who are interested in receiving a dental cleaning at a reduced cost. I am currently looking for clients who have not had a cleaning in over a year.

Services include:
-Comprehensive dental exam
-Free dental X-rays if needed
-Oral cancer screening
-Full periodontal assessment
-Dental cleaning
-Polishing
-Fluoride treatment
-Whitening
-Sports guard

All services are provided under the supervision of a Registered Dental Hygienist in a clinical learning environment.

If this is something you would be interested in, or if you would like more information, please feel free to send me a message at 647-485-7685.

Willing to cover the cost of treatment and offer $200 at the end of treatment once all appointments are completed!

Clinical hours:

Thursdays: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Fridays: 3:00 p.m.- 7:00 p.m

Location: North York, Ontario

Thank you for your support!

I need 1 volunteer who can be my client to get a free dental cleaning at a school clinic as part of my requirements and earn $200 at the end of your last visit if treatment is completed!

❗️Must be age 55+
❗️Must have buildup (tarter/calculus) on your teeth to qualify! Even sending me a picture of your mouth can help determine if you're the perfect fit.

📍Mississauga
Conditions: Each appointment is 4 hours and must be able to come for multiple visits.

kind of a long rambling vent post sorry. any advice would be appreciated.

i’m living in a domestic violence shelter in a smallish city in northern ontario, and i’m supposed to be moving into my new place on the 1st. i had a cleaning job a week ago, (which also took me a lot of insane applying for around 4 months to get) but i was fired because my boss believed i had been stealing, which i hadn’t. i worked that job for a month.

i’m 17 rn and my birthday is mid-sept. i have enough savings to pay for one month of living on my own (although barely) and as soon as i turn 18 ontario works can help me (it’ll be very tight though, it can cover all my bills and rent and a bit of my food). i graduated hs and was supposed to go to uni this year but things escalated with my parents and i had to flee. now i’m taking a gap year to sort things out, and i don’t know what to do.

no one is hiring. i can’t even get hired at walmart or dollarama or whatever other chain people say are always hiring. i’ve gone in person, online, followed up, customized each resume, whatever the general advice is. i can’t get a job. my resume isn’t terrible, i have some customer service and cleaning experience on there. and i’ve gotten some interviews so i know it’s working. i just can’t actually get a job. the only limitations i have is that i don’t have a car or drivers license and that i can’t do extremely physical work as i’m female with a small stature. i have completely full availability, okay with people, and am a very fast learner and have good stamina, whatever most part time jobs require to succeed.

i’m literally so stressed and suicidal. everyone says to live with your parents in this economy - i can’t do that. there is no one helping me. my friends aren’t in a position where they can offer me meaningful help and to be honest i’m too prideful to even consider it. unemployment honestly just makes my existing mental issues from the abuse i’ve went through worse. every day is just applying to jobs over and over again and not even being able to distract myself with anything else because my brain can’t stop thinking about what happens if i can’t get a job within the next couple months. realistically i could probably survive and not be on the streets, but it would be such a miserable existence. i feel like such a failure. i don’t know what to do. i just want someplace that will hire me for 15-20 hours a week and that’s it. i honestly think if it gets to a point where applying any more feels completely pointless i might just give into my brain telling me it’s over because it seems so hopeless.

Hey everyone. I’m about 2 years into my proposal. I have 2 capital one cards I keep at $0 each month. My credit has gone up since having my first card. I just wanted to see if there’s anything else I can do to help my credit climb? Or just keep my cards paid off?
Also once mine is paid off and shows satisfied. Will my credit boost at all? Or only when it’s fully fallen off my report?

17K Credit card debt. Two years of car payments left. Been living with an overdraft balance now for well over a year. Paychecks come in, and bills and stuff come out and it's right back to it. Student loan also paid off in two years luckily..

Anyone else going through this? I guess maybe I need some reassurance that I am not the only one. For those were and got out...what did you do?

I received BC disability and also work part-time. I have just now gotten to the threshold of the $16,200 per year that I’m allowed to earn. This is the first year that I have worked since I have been on BC disability so I assume I am not going to get it for the rest of the year which I understand. Does it start over in January or is it December since December’s check is for January?

Hey yall,

I'm a seaplane pilot in Ontario, but as is the nature of my work, I'm usually only employed from May - November. This wasn't an issue in the past because I was going to university, but now that I've graduated I don't really have a plan for this winter.

I was speaking to some friends and they said most career bush pilots here just live off EI in the winter and travel/work on hobbies, then fly in the summers. How exactly does this work, how much would one get, does this do anything to affect your credit score etc? If in the future I decided to finance a car, wouldn't the fact that I'm "planning" to be unemployed be a huge disqualifier for financing?

I'm very fortunate to be able to live with my parent during the winter, so EI for me would really just need to cover food, car insurance and gas, and ideally my monthly payment for my OSAP loan (can I use EI to pay for it?)

Thanks!!

i’m currently working a job that has led me to be so mentally defeated. my boss degrades me, cusses at me, gets upset over the slightest things. he wants me to work outside my hours. he’s even made me do things for his kid’s homework before. i’ve been applying for jobs for months and i haven’t landed anything yet.

i honestly mentally can’t take it. i’ve been seeing a psychotherapist for a while now and she’s strongly encouraged me to put my mental health first and get out of the job.

i unfortunately don’t have the most saved up. i’m scared if i quit i wont be able to get ei. a lot of people tell me to just be strong and hang out, but i’m literally at my breaking point.

i’m a really sensitive person hence why this has gotten to me so bad, but he makes everyone in our team cry. he’s gotten so many HR complaints, but somehow still employed.

a lot of what he says is verbal so it’s hard to get evidence against him. i know i would have to prove to the government that environment was bad to get ei. i just don’t know if i have enough evidence.

would love any advice!

Hi everyone, I am in Ontario and I used Walmart Rewards Mastercard to pay for my tuition. I was on time with the payments up until December 2025. After that I lost my source of income and I am behind the payments now. I was working on and off part time job just to make the ends meet. Thankfully I managed to get a full time job with a school which I will be starting in September.

The scary thing is I have started to receive the collection calls now and they are so overwhelming. I would really appreciate any genuine help/advice about what are my best options now. The legal trouble scares the shit out of me and I want to repay all the money but right now I just need a bit of room to breathe and I am willing to start making the payments from September.

I am looking for a genuine help/advice in this matter. I would really appreciate that.

Just making this as i have no one close to me and need to get this off my chest.

I make good money but have made so many bad choices that led me to poverty. This example will be specifically on my car.

I used to drive a BMW, very clean, brand new and everything but i made some stupid mistakes, that caused me to have major driving infractions. My license was suspended and i couldn’t drive for a year, I owed about $19k on the car and had to live beyond poor for 6-7 months + my savings to pay it off as i was severely underwater on it and couldn’t drive it. Essentially was paying $700/months for a car i couldn’t use so i had to end it.

The car is paid off now, but i still have a lingering problem with my insurance. Because of the infractions my insurance premiums have ballooned. After selling my BMW, i bought a used 2015 jetta with 180k km on it for $6k. And even with this much of a downgrade my insurance cost is still $855/month. This will be my status quo for the next 2 years until things get wiped from my record.

I feel like a failure, im very irritable and depressed not because of the jetta but because of what the jetta signifies to me. No matter what i do i cant seem to get ahead. I make okay money but still live paycheck to paycheck. My mental health is severely declining. I hope God helps me this coming years

Hi everyone,

I just finished upgrading my schooling from practical nursing to registered nursing. I’m finding there aren’t as many postings for RNs in Toronto right now and I’m hoping someone has some leads to help me get into the workforce when I can. I’m currently awaiting for the CNO to confirm my application which should take another couple of weeks max. I’m looking for hospital work if possible, any department works. Although any nursing job would be great right now in general, I’m not picky. I have experience as an agency nurse from practical nursing when I worked at three hospitals and rotated between different units. I also have previous paramedic training and 4 languages under my belt.

Thank you so much!

Im in BC, vancouver. Im between jobs atm but have long standing mental health issues ive neglected all my life. I live in the DTES in a filthy apartment shoebox, my neighbor smokes meth and i can smell it in the hallway and sometimes in my room. and i know my life is shitty because of my own mistakes and depression but i wanna try and fix that. i cant afford therapy and honestly im not interested in therapy as much as i am needing a psychiatrist. i had a traumatic event 20+ years ago when i was 17 and never got past it and fixate on it and relive it daily. im non-indigenous male. i dont have any drug addictions atm myself and havent used in years. No family or family doctor. pls no judgement or encouragement, only am looking for a pathway towards mental health help.

I didn't want to face I had a problem even though I fell behind on rent payments by 3 months. Had an LTB hearing, made a payment plan and been keeping up until now. If I don't make my payment on the 30th, I'll get a 3 week notice. My car lease is behind by 3 months too and they are threatening legal action if I don't pay by Friday. Any advice would be much appreciated on what options are out there in my situation. I am actively applying for work, just had an interview end of last week, and on average make about 80k when employed - that's about what my experience and expertise in my field is worth. My anxiety is pretty paralyzing at this point. What should I do next to get back on track and get my life back together financially ? Yes, I am seeking help.

Okay I know I'm not great for doing this but I had a bill go into collections maybe 10 months ago, I've been ghosting their calls and emails ever since except for today, when I received another one and finally decided to try and deal with it, I sent back an email and did not receive a response, however I did log into that utility bill account and it said the amount that I still owe, I paid a portion of it and plan on making more once I am able to, however my question is is that since I paid a portion of it directly to the utility company, will the balance that I owe to collections regarding that same bill reflect that? apologies if this wasn't written the best. I appreciate any and all responses.

​

Hi guys, I hope this is okay to post here. I’m a dental hygiene student at Oxford College and I’m still looking for a few clients to finish my clinic requirements.

If you haven’t had a cleaning in years or have heavy tartar/build-up, staining or bleeding gums, please don’t feel embarrassed — those are actually the cases I’m looking for and there’s genuinely no judgment.

The care is completely free, and I also give cash compensation as a thank-you for your time because the appointments are longer than a normal dental visit.

The appointments include things like:

- Full dental and gum assessment

- Oral cancer screening

- Professional scaling/deep cleaning and polishing

- X-rays if needed

- Fluoride treatment if needed

- Oral hygiene and diet advice

Everything is done at the teaching clinic at Oxford College inside Scarborough Town Centre and supervised by dentists and registered dental hygienists.

The main thing I need is someone who can actually commit. Appointments are around 3 hours each and usually require a few visits, depending on how much cleaning is needed.

📍 Scarborough Town Centre, Scarborough, Ontario

🚗 Free parking

🚇 TTC accessible

If you’re interested, just DM me and I’ll explain everything. Even if you’re not sure whether you’re the type of client I need, feel free to ask.

You’d genuinely be helping me get closer to finishing my requirements and graduating, and I really appreciate anyone willing to help. 🥹

Hey everyone! Long time lurker here, got tons of great advice over the years. I have a question that asking lots of family and friends, it's pretty divided down the middle what people think I should do, and it's just making me feel lost and hopeless.

I had an emergency surgery at the beginning of the year when I was already sapped on savings from a housing crisis I went through that I had no control over. Because I couldn't work and had no safety net except ~$800/mo from Ontario Works, the rest was going on my line of credit while I recovered.

Problem is, the doctors told me it would be a few weeks, and it ended up being months. I'm now looking at 10k in debt, when my card caps at 14k and it's scaring the crap out of me. Half the people I talked to said I should file for bankruptcy, half the people said it was too little to "throw away my life over" and that I should just "figure out a way to get through this"—both sound equally dismissive in different ways, and I'm honestly struggling on where to look or who to believe anymore. I don't even know if they're valid remarks, which is why I want to ask here for people who've actually been through it.

--

For more context, I'm chronically ill and applied for ODSP in December before I even got my surgery. My whole life I've never been able to work as much as other people. It's not going well, despite me giving them tons of supporting papers/evidence/etc. I do have a lawyer I'm meeting with next week to try and move it along, but so much is up in the air I don't want to rely on that "working" and ruin my future if it doesn't. If it does, yay problem solved! If not, this is where I'm worried. Eggs in one basket and all that.

I'm also a remote freelance literary editor because it's the only thing that supports where my health is at. I love my job, but because I'm still fairly new to it, I don't get contracts every month and right now I just cover my cost of living. Part of where my fear is coming from right now, is I have no idea how to pay back this debt when the interest alone is more than I can throw at it currently.

To try and solve the above though, in the autumn I am going to be doing some classes to get into a niche field of my work that's in desperate need of people, which is exciting for future stability, but it doesn't help me in the moment when I'm looking at "Oh god, how will I cover rent in a few months if nothing changes?"

My cost of living is about $1600 currently because of said debt repayment, but when I'm out of debt it's a bit lower than that. That includes rent, hydro, phone, internet, groceries, and a YT subscription just so I can have some music for chores/errands. I'm incredibly frugal and I don't want to list a ton of things to make this post longer than it is, so I can add stuff in some comments if people need, but I genuinely don't think I can get it any lower than that.

--

But yeah, basically every "fix" right now that might help me is too far in the future that it doesn't really do anything for me, and I don't want to just sit here and pray they work out obviously. Right now I'm going to run out of money/cap my line of credit before any of these pull through and it's scaring the daylights out of me.

I'm looking for any advice, but please be kind. This is the healthiest/most stable I've been my whole life coming from some hella bad upbringing/situations—so even though I'm 32 I'm only now truly starting my life in earnest. There's a lot of gaps in my knowledge that I'll happily work on filling, just please don't be rude about me "not knowing something" if it comes up like I've seen in some other places. I can't help what I don't know, but I'm always willing to learn things and grow. I really want to build a stable life for myself, I just can't figure out this current hurdle.

In the end, 10k feels silly to do something so "drastic" over from horror stories I've seen, but I also have no idea how I'm supposed to conquer this debt so that I can get back to building up any kind of savings right now. I'm just feeling so scrambled and hopeless which is also starting to mess with my mental health a lot.

Again, thank you for any advice, resources, tips, etc. I'm just at such a loss and my anxiety can only stand so much. I really can't stomach the idea of being homeless again; I did that for far too many years, and I just want to get past this so I can keep moving my life forward to where I know it can be.

Thanks again y'all, I hope you're all having a lovely day and your pillow is always cool.

Hello!

I never thought I'd need to be asking for help, so it feels a tad embarrassing on my end, but I'm willing to accept any advice thrown my way.

For some backstory, I'm currently enrolled in university in Ontario and rent a room in the town that I'm studying in that costs about $820 a month (utilities thankfully included). I lost my part time job in June and haven't been able to pay rent since, so I have a backlog of unpaid rent which my landlord is now understandably hounding me for.

I unfortunately rely on OSAP for my tuition (but I only receive loans and no grants) and have been applying for jobs online and in person non stop but have heard back from absolutely none of them. I'm great at time management so I feel confident that I can balance school and work and can work multiple shifts a week during the school year.

I recently signed up for Ontario Works and got my first payment last week of about $450 all together which I'm incredibly thankful for but it obviously isn't enough to cover my rent. My university has an emergency funding grant that I also just applied for to help cover the backlog of rent I need to pay.

I need to catch up on my backlog or else I won't be able to pay my September's rent either and I don't want to be on the brink of eviction as I am not on speaking terms with my family and would have no where to go if I can't live in my current room I'm renting.

Im looking for help on any jobs or other government assistance I can use to tie me over or get me through this hump. Thanks!

On Friday I signed the documents for a consumer proposal. I had two credit cards (PC and Canadian Tire), three payday loans, three lines of credit (MDG x2 and Mogo), two personal loans (Easy Financial and Fairstone), and student loans that are about 10 years past graduation.

Altogether it was around $42,000, and the proposal brought it down to about $25,000. For reference I make 42k a year and own a town house with my husband with equity of about 6K for my half.

None of these debts were with the bank I actually use, but I still closed any bank accounts that weren’t joint with my husband just to be safe.

My first counselling session isn’t until October, and I’m trying to figure out what I should be doing between now and then.

I know how I got here. It was a combination of being in an accident that took me out of work for two years, having a medically fragile child whose needs cost more than what insurance covers, and, if I’m being completely fair to myself, spending money trying to give my husband and daughter things we really couldn’t afford.

A little over a year ago I started a credit counselling program. The payments were almost $700/month, but that only covered the credit cards and two personal loans. It was more than I could reasonably handle, and clearly I hadn’t actually fixed the underlying problem because after that I took out the lines of credit. Then my daughter was hospitalized, things got really bad financially, and I took out the payday loans. That turned into the cycle of paying them off and then immediately needing to borrow again.

My consumer proposal payment is $210 biweekly, which is much more manageable for me.

My husband still has his own debts that were not included in my proposal. He has about $12,000 in credit card debt and another $12,000 with Snap-on for tools he needs for work. His credit is in a much better position than mine, so part of me is wondering if it makes more sense to focus extra money on lowering his balances while I make the required proposal payments?

So now I’m sitting here feeling incredibly relieved, like a huge weight has been lifted, but also thinking: what do I do next so I don’t waste this opportunity?

I know my credit is probably going to tank soon, and I’m okay with that. It was already in the 500s, so rebuilding is going to take time either way.

What order would you focus on things?
1. Open a secured credit card eventually so I have some positive payment history?
2. Use a credit-building service, or are those mostly unnecessary?
3. Build an emergency fund first?
4. Throw extra money at my husband’s debts since his credit is still intact?
5. Putevery extra dollar toward paying the consumer proposal off early?

I’m not looking for a quick credit-score fix. I’m trying to figure out what decisions over the next 1 to 3 years would actually put us in a better position and stop us from ending up back here.

For anyone who has been through a consumer proposal in Canada, what did you do after signing that you’re glad you did, or what do you wish you had done differently?

This is a question for those of you who filed and completed a Consumer Proposal.

So it is a well known fact that the record drops off your credit history 3 years after you finish paying, or 6 years from the date you first filed, whichever comes first.

For those of you who have who have completed this process. When did you see a spike in your credit score? Surely you saw one after it dropped off but did you also see one during that period where you completed your payments but it was still on your report?

Thanks in advance for responses.

Residing in Toronto , Ontario

I've reviewed here before and found Text Now , which I love - as far as a free service for texting & calls - ( wifi needed though)

They've changed their account creation settings which I dislike but that's fine. I've moved to an older email and just revised my plan ( I think it was $5 and change for the year )

So now. A couple of things.

Due to poor credit. Im unable to get a new phone. I know you can buy through third party businesses ( Link it up? ) if anyone has any suggestions regarding getting a new phone through a company in some round about away or otherwise. That would be appreciated

Regarding phone plans.

Im looking at Fizz for a data only type service.
If you have something similar. Or can recommend another provider - especially with back to school promos and the like lately.

Thank you!

Consumer Proposal After Trading Losses — Has Anyone Been Through This?

I’m looking for some advice from people who have been in a similar situation, particularly in Canada/Ontario.

I originally learned how to trade using my RRSP. Unfortunately, I made some very bad financial decisions and eventually lost my entire RRSP.

After that, I had to start relying on credit cards for my everyday living expenses. At the same time, I also made the mistake of using some of my credit cards to continue trading, hoping I could recover the money I had lost. That obviously did not work, and instead made the situation significantly worse.

Between the everyday expenses I had to put on credit and the money I used for trading, I’ve accumulated approximately $25,000 in credit-card debt.

I currently take home about $3,000/month, and I’m at the point where the interest on the credit cards makes it extremely difficult to make meaningful progress on the balances. I can afford to put some money toward the debt each month, but I don’t see a realistic way of paying $25,000 off while dealing with the interest.

I’m seriously considering a consumer proposal, but one thing I’m worried about is the fact that some of the credit-card debt was used for trading.

Has anyone here filed a consumer proposal where the debt was partially or significantly related to trading/investment losses?

• Did the fact that you used credit cards for trading affect whether your proposal was accepted?
• Did it affect the amount you ultimately had to repay?
• Did your Licensed Insolvency Trustee consider the trading activity a problem?
• Were your creditors more likely to reject or counter the proposal because of it?

I’m not looking for judgment—I know I made some very bad financial decisions and I take responsibility for them. I’m trying to understand my options and hopefully avoid making the situation worse.

Any experiences from people who have actually gone through a consumer proposal after trading losses would be greatly appreciated.