She always knew her salary wouldn’t be high but didn’t aspire to be rich. What she didn’t realize was that she would struggle to afford basic things like shelter and food
“It feels like I’ve been working harder and harder and sliding backwards down the scale,” she says.
Making $50k in a small town and still "scraping by" is scary. Maybe I'm just old, but I'd hoped that kind of income would be enough for some kind of comfort.
Say whatever you want about her spending habits but $35k for a vet tech job is fucking criminal. Why are we paying essentially minimum wage for an extremely high stress job that requires at least two years of schooling??
I feel like jobs like these are passion jobs. Or employers feel like if it’s something you’re passionate about and care about, then you should be willing to do it for less.
For example, had a few friends work for the Canucks. I’m pretty sure the family who owns Canuck’s are billionaires, but because the people who work there are passionate about the sport and the team, they get away with below living wages for the privilege of just being around.
Obviously not the same, but… yeh. We under pay people who care and feel indebted to their clients and the work they love.
ITT: Crabs in a bucket arguing about how "You could totally climb that wall if you weren't spending so much on avocado toast!" while the water pot next to them starts to boil.
The analogous theory in human behavior is that members of a group will attempt to reduce the self-confidence of any member who achieves success beyond the others, out of envy, jealousy, resentment, spite, conspiracy, or competitive feelings, to halt their progress.
How does it apply here? She is not "achieving success beyond the others" and we are not trying to stop her from doing so. Quite the opposite! We are trying to help people who find themselves in a similar position make the best out off the budget they have so that they can make ends meet like we do.
In other words, we are crabs who have gotten out of the debt bucket and are trying to help others come out as well.
The other analogy you seem to be alluding to is the "frog in a pot":
The boiling frog is an apologue describing a frog being slowly boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death.
What I can tell you from experience is that during periods of hardship, the ability to adapt makes a huge difference and puts you in a much better position mentally and financially when things inevitably get better. Because this too shall pass.
Maybe you agree with this, but where's the fat? Is a vet not allowed to have pets? It's still a barebones budget.
And the thing to realize about high stress professional jobs is that you have to eat out more and make use of services to save time and energy. It's a tough demanding job, especially for the pay. There's a reason why vets have amongst the highest suicide rates of any profession.
Vet techs too (family member manages a vet hospital) with the suicide risk.
There are so many frustrated, worried people coming in who don't understand the vet is busy doing so much with so few staff and the reason your appointment has been bumped is because the vet is gone, either left the city, the profession or this plane of existence. All too often the last option, and everyone's working through the fall-out.
And vets largely don't see people unless during the exam with an animal; the rest of the time its vet-techs or reception/admin staff. And people lose their metric shit at appointment changes, bad news, or even the bill (because it's always high; get insurance, kids). Admins and techs take the full Karen tornado, which while understandable is still not justifiable. Not cool.
So they shed a customer and sometimes they lose staff too. And they're no longer losing the slackers who don't care about animals: they're losing the animal nuts whose hearts used to be in it. Sometimes those people leave this life as well. It's that bad, that often, for that long.
So yeah, they blow off a lot of steam and leverage those social peer bonds, and I don't see that pressure valve here. You're either gonna spend money on frivolity, psyche sessions, or worse. So those numbers need to be higher for the short term.
Her utilities are higher than my 3 bedroom house's. Phone bill is a bit high, Internet bill is double what it should be, property tax and insurance are high, haircuts, cosmetics, shopping all could be reduced. The cat bill is ridiculous, unless those are some sick pets with long term illnesses or she has about 30 normal ones.
Bottom line is that is not the budget of someone who's "Struggling" in life. Struggling would be not having the money to do half the things on that budget.
$135 for Internet and $80 for mobile is criminal. I pay $130/month for internet, but that's for high speed fiber, because I work from home as a software engineer. I also only pay $35/month for mobile after switching to Virgin because Telus' prices are insane.
I miss living in California and paying $20/month for Google Fi.
Ok, she doesn't have an income problem, she has a spending problem.
The internet + phone bill of over $200 a month is insane! She can negotiate/switch her internet bill to at least half that. And she can switch her cell phone to something like public mobile for 1/4 of what she's paying now.
Car repairs, gas, insurance... if you can bike in your small town, this will save you a fortune. Also, consider switching to CAA's pay-as-you-go insurance, which works incredibly well if you also bike.
Food... way, WAY overspending here. $400 a month could feed a family of four, so that needs to be looked at. And "eating out, coffee, alcohol" should be cut completely if she's struggling.
Her cats... well, pets are a money pit. This will always keep her debt.
Haircuts/cosmetics. I'm not a lady, so I can't say whether this is a typical expense or not, but unless she makes a living based on her appearance, this should be trimmed (no pun intended) to a more reasonable level.
Apps... I'm going to assume these are subscription services totalling $30 a month. Insane. Cut those out unless absolutely necessary.
If someone can help her budget, she could easily be saving $500+ a month with little effort.
$50k for an individual living in a small town should have her living like a queen.
You're missing the point. Someone who does well in school and has a decent job requiring advanced education should not be struggling to make ends meet in a first world country.
Yes, even if she trimmed her expenses (which I agree is possible, though I don't know much about Canada) she would still not be living a "good" life despite being well educated, and fully employed with stable housing. She would be living a safe, healthy and financially functional, but it would not be a sustainable, happy, and enjoyable life, and her savings contributions would be not be enough to give her financial independence without some serious investments.
She relies on a personal line of credit for unexpected expenses, whether it’s a broken appliance, car repairs or veterinary care for her cats.
In 2013, her parents bought her a 1,200-square-foot semi-detached two-bedroom house in a small Ontario city, a university town.
They have also previously paid off her credit card debt, bought her a used Honda CRV, covered a kitchen renovation and helped with other expenses.
At her job, Caitlyn handles everything from drawing blood, performing X-rays and giving injections to answering phones, doing paperwork and cleaning the office space.
“I think the old-school principle is if you go to school and you get good grades and then you go to post-secondary education … the thought process was then you live comfortably,” she said.
She rarely eats out, makes her coffee at home and has cut back on ordering in and drinking alcohol.
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We are a family of four (renting) and we don't spend much more than her living alone. She needs to make some tough decisions if she wants to save some money every month.
We live in a small apartment and I personally can't see how a single person having budget constraints is living in a house. College towns have plenty of apartments suitable for single people.
We use transit, walking and cycling instead of having a car. She could probably do the same since she lives in a college town.
Our internet & phone bills are much lower because we shopped around and went for a basic plan and cellphones. We don't have pets or other luxuries.
Ultimately, if you have trouble making ends meet you have to start from scratch: what are the bare minimums that you need to be healthy? Housing, transportation, etc.
I understand that some people have trouble accepting that their generation's standard of living is worse than their parents', but their inabiliy to adapt isn't helping them. Most people around the world live much more basic lives than what is common in Canada, and they are able to thrive. They could learn from them.