The 33-year-old social media manager happily rents in Toronto and has no immediate plans to purchase a home.
With his partner back in school, Rodrigo is trying to work out how to provide for both of them on his $70,000 annual salary and savings.
Rodrigo and his partner are live music fans, so on weekends they often go to a concert, which costs between $40 and $60. They also prioritize seeing their friends, either meeting up at someone’s home or going out for dinner. “Given the price of inflation, weekends seem to be more expensive these days,” he says. “It’s not uncommon to spend $100 in a night out, if you include drinks, food and transportation.
He notes he spends a lot of money eating out. He gets take away food two to three times a week and goes to a restaurant once a week. The ratio of buying groceries to eating out is tilted toward eating out. For perspective, the household spending data from Statistics Canada shows that Canadians, on average, spend about 73 per cent of their food budget on food purchased from stores, with the remainder from restaurants. That means most people spend three times as much on groceries than eating out.