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Here we have a video with facts about the current prices of studios, condos, and apartments. Plus, the video goes further with the average cost of internet, phone, cable, and other necessities. Towards the end of the video, it sums the total of how much one could be spending each month and how much you would have to make to meet that sum. I provided this video to give a breakdown of the average prices of needs other than just rent. It gives one an idea of how you could budget. Perhaps dining less, removing cable, sticking to Netflix, or maybe cutting out Netflix.

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Cost of Living in Toronto for One Person

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Throughout this padlet you will find resources of the financial aspect of living in Toronto. Although living on your own could bring significant benefits in responsibility and character building, there are a few things to consider when living in Toronto.

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Website #1 Does living alone make you happier?

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Website #1 Does living alone make you happier?

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In this article by Vice Media, it discusses the various experiences of people who live in expensive cities like Toronto. It covers the sacrifices and different reasons why young adults do despite the obstacles they might face.
What I found interesting about this article is that it provided various experiences and opinions on independent living. According to the article, based on your income, it can affect your living situation. In my case, moving from a four-bedroom house to a basement was a significant lifestyle change for me. Luckily I adapted very quickly, but this could be very useful to those who want to gather insight.

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Living alone sounds like a far-away fantasy for many young people. You can do whatever you want, when you want, with little worry as to how your life is intersecting with someone else's. But how the fuck are you going to afford it, and is it even really that good for your social life?

Just trying to find an affordable place to live at all in major cities can spark backup plans for ditching urban life for an existence in the middle of nowhere.

According to newly released data from Canada's 2016 census, though, more people than ever are living alone in the country. That's despite rent in the two most populous Canadian cities-Toronto and Vancouver-reaching unaffordable heights in the midst of housing crises. In Toronto, a one-bedroom now costs over $2,000 per month on average.

So, is living alone really all it's cracked up to be?

Eric Klinenberg, professor of sociology at NYU and author of Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone, said that solo living can have "personal and symbolic value" for people.

"Why do young people spend so much to rent their own apartments, even in expensive cities like Toronto and Vancouver? Because today getting your own place is a key way to become an adult," Klinenberg told VICE. "It used to be marriage and children, but now young professionals delay those things until their late 20s or 30s, sometimes longer."

Stephanie Fraser, a 26-year-old who works at an advertising agency in Toronto, said that even though living alone means being more "money-aware," it's worth it for her. In March, she moved into a basement apartment in Greektown after saving up while living with family.

"I just really like the privacy: One of the problems of living with other people is that you're at a disadvantage with their schedules," Fraser said. She said she also enjoys being able to decorate how she wants to and, as an introvert, enjoys time to herself.

Toronto-based millennial money expert Jessica Moorhouse said that moving to neighbourhoods outside the downtown core of a city while still being close to transit, as Fraser did, is a great option for young people looking to live solo. However, "The people I do know who choose to live alone in a city, it can be difficult depending on what your income is," Moorhouse said. "You'll most likely be living in a basement somewhere or a suite in a house."

While intuitively you might think that people who live alone are less social, especially factoring in the cost of going out, Klinenberg says that people who live alone are usually socially active.

"In the US, at least, people who live alone are actually more likely to spend time with friends and neighbours, more likely to volunteer in civic organizations, and more likely to go out to bars, restaurants, bookshops, and cafes."

Fraser said that she used to opt out of hanging out with people more often when she was living with her brother. Now that she lives alone, she goes out more often.

"If people invite me out, I usually say yes," she said. But, when it comes to spending, she has to be vigilant. If she wants to purchase a pricey bag, she has to consciously save up for it.

Chris, 39, who has lived alone in a Vancouver apartment for ten years, said that while he has a "great circle of friends," "being an introvert and living alone, I always think it can go either way."

"It's sort of your instinct to hermit a little bit, and you don't have the obligation to go out, so you kind of allow yourself to be antisocial." He said, though, it can mean seeking out social situations more often if you find yourself feeling lonely.

"Sometimes for sure [it gets lonely]," Chris said. "At the end of the day when you get home and have had a shitty day, it's sometimes nice to vent and moan to someone."

"If you are prone to loneliness or depression then living alone increases the risk of problems," Klinenberg said. "Then again, so does living with the wrong person, being in a bad relationship, and living with your parents because you can't afford rent."

Chris is at a point in his life where he doesn't see himself living situation with another person unless it were to be with a partner. Fraser echoed this sentiment.

But living in a city where rent has skyrocketed in the past few years, Chris said, makes him feel "stuck" in his current living situation. He's been at the same apartment for a decade and is happy with how affordable his rent is, but worries about what could happen in the future. He said, though, that it's still a financial strain living alone now, without someone to split bills with.

"Even though I'm lucky with my rent situation, that could change in a moment and suddenly the impacts would be pretty significant." Chris works a full-time office job.

"You're going to have to give up certain things to afford that lifestyle," Moorhouse cautioned. "Unfortunately, I think a lot of people will just overextend themselves."

When you become old, living alone can actually even be physically dangerous, according to Klinenburg.

"It's a serious social problem that requires urgent attention, because more and more old people are aging alone," he said. "And yet: when I interviewed old people, they consistently said that living alone was key to their dignity and integrity."

"They didn't want to move in with their children unless they truly had to. And when that happened, it was experienced as a major loss of independence."

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Does Living Alone Make You a Happier, Better Adult?

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Living alone sounds like a far-away fantasy for many young people. You can do whatever you want, when you want, with little worry as to how your life is intersecting with someone else's. But how the fuck are you going to afford it, and is it even really that good for your social life?

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Website #2 How two first-generation Iranian-Canadians are getting used to van life

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Website #2 How two first-generation Iranian-Canadians are getting used to van life

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In this website, TorontoLife, it has a segment on stories of how people live in the city. This story involves a young couple who sought a way of living that you think would work in just movies. After watching a youtube video on the van life, Soheil and Armita managed to fulfill just that. Although they do not have an end goal, they are content with what they have now.
I added this website to show an extraordinary measure young adults are budgeting their way in the city. By this measure, they are decreasing payment in rent and increasing savings simultaneously. But, probably by not this extreme, there are sacrifices you might have to take.

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Who they are: Soheil Ramazani, 36 and Armita Kordouni, 30
What they do: Soheil is a data analyst for an investment firm and Armita works at a tech store
The van: 2013 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 170 extended
Van costs: $21,000, plus $20,000 in upgrades
Monthly expenses: $300 for gas, $0 to $200 for repairs, $140 for insurance, $300 for phone and internet plans, $100 for propane, $160 for a storage unit
Monthly i ncome: $5,000 to $7,000, combined

We were both born in Iran, and our parents moved our families to Nova Scotia in 2007. We met in Halifax the following year, and by 2017 we were living together and paying $1,600 for a studio apartment at Yonge and Davisville. This whole thing all started when Soheil read an article in the New Yorker on van life in September 2017, about digital nomads who were working and travelling. That was his ultimate dream-to do both. He got excited about it and tried to convince me to live in a van with him. At first I was freaked out: the first thing that came to my mind was, H ow am I going to fit all my clothes in the van? I worked in retail for a long time and I studied fashion, so I had a huge wardrobe. Then we watched YouTube videos about modern van life, and it started to seem more appealing. Our apartment was only 500 square feet, so it's not like we had much space to begin with.

We bought our van used in January 2018 for $21,000. It was right before our wedding, and we were preoccupied with the planning, so we had to defer the build. To make the van livable, we added a diesel heater, a window, two fans, solar panels, electrical wiring, batteries, a water tank for a shower, a water heater, fridge, oven, propane stove, cabinetry, a storage unit and a mattress. We put all our savings into the build but still incurred $6,000 in debt. Since we have consistent income coming in, we weren't too strict about the budget. And by living in the van, we save around $2,000 to $2,500 on rent and household expenses each month.

By September 2019, we were ready to move into the van . It was a challenge from the get-go: we moved in at 4 a.m. on September 1 because we had to give the key back for our apartment and we weren't done working on the van. It was a hectic day.

When we moved in, we still didn't have a complete kitchen. We only had one battery, and our camping oven wasn't hooked on to the propane. The plumbing was still a ways from being done: we had no hot water. More than a year later, we're still building our shower. We have a GoodLife gym membership which we use for showers, and there are a couple of 24-hour locations around the city that fit our lifestyle. We're planning to get a composting toilet at some point in the future, but right now, since we are still in Toronto, we use facilities at GoodLife, Home Depot, coffee shops and mall washrooms. We rent a storage locker for our extra stuff from the apartment, and there's a toilet there too.

We usually park in midtown at Eglinton and Laird or in Davisville; sometimes we park at a Walmart near my work. Soheil works remotely, so the van is his home office. Overnight, we park in North York between a park and forest. Our van is big, black and unmarked, and it can look intimidating, so we're conscious of not parking in front of people's houses. One night in October, we had a knock on our door-someone was suspicious of the van and called the cops. We ended up giving the officer a van tour. We might paint the trims to make it look friendlier.

There have been vanlifers in areas like Squamish who throw their waste into the woods, which understandably infuriates locals. We're conscious of that and try to live with no impact on our surroundings. We try to not leave any trash when we visit an area, and we never bring garbage to private property. When we empty grey water, we do it at our storage facility, and when we turn on our heater, we are careful that there aren't people nearby because of the diesel exhaust.

Our parents have mixed reactions about us living in a van. My dad lived in the U.S. in his 20s, and he was a hippie. He's supportive of our lifestyle, but he does want us to settle down and have kids one day. Soheil's parents know that he's unconventional, and they hoped that I would be the person who settles him down. On the night of our wedding, when we told them we were going to move into a van, his mom said, "Oh my gosh, he found someone just as crazy as him." To our parents, it's like we're literally sleeping on the streets.

We don't have a timeline. When we're tired of the van, we'll move out. Our plan is to move to Vancouver in mid-February, since we've never lived on the west coast. Soheil will keep his remote job and I will transfer to a location there. We're tired of two-week vacations.
As told to Jessica Lee

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"To our parents, it's like we're sleeping on the streets": How two first-generation Iranian-Canadians are getting used to van life

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Who they are: Soheil Ramazani, 36 and Armita Kordouni, 30 What they do: Soheil is a data analyst for an investment firm and Armita works at a tech store The van: 2013 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 170 extended Van costs: $21,000, plus $20,000 in upgrades Monthly expenses: $300 for gas, $0 to $200 for repairs, $140 for insurance, $300 for phone and internet plans, $100 for propane, $160 for a storage unit Monthly i ncome: $5,000 to $7,000, combined We were both born in Iran, and our parents moved our families to Nova Scotia in 2007.

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In this website by CBC, it discusses data on the new changes that will bring upon this coming year. According to this data, Canadians will spend a couple of hundreds more on groceries. Various trends in food and climate change could have an impact on the price increase.
I added this site because the trends in the price increase on essential products, but the rate of the minimum wage has not been consistent. Also, how much of an impact this could cause in health among Canadians.  It is an eye-opener for young adults to consider when choosing to live alone.

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The average Canadian family will pay up to an extra $487 for food next year, according to an annual report that highlights climate change as a big culprit for rising prices, especially in the produce department.

Unexpected snowstorms, droughts and other weather events have impacted crops and food prices in the past, said Simon Somogyi, lead researcher from Ontario's University of Guelph.

But for 2020, he and others behind "Canada's Food Price Report 2020," highlight climate change.

"We're deliberately pointing out that, you know: climate change is causing the droughts, is causing the bad snowstorms that's impacting prices," he said, citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released on Oct. 8.

The report calls the impact of changing weather patterns on our food systems through droughts, forest fires, heavy precipitation, reduced freshwater access and rising sea levels "the elephant in the room" for 2020.

"Canadian farmers will face challenges in the future dealing with unpredictable crop yields, heat-wave livestock threats, pasture availability, and pest and disease outbreaks," reads the report from researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax and the University of Guelph.

That link between climate change and food prices comes with a forecast that the average Canadian family will spend $12,667 on food at grocery stores and restaurants in 2020.

That's two to four per cent more than in 2019 - though the researchers expect it to be closer to the top end of that range. It's the second-highest prediction since 2013, outdone only by an anticipated three to five per cent, or $420, rise for 2017. The algorithm provides a two per cent range for the national forecast.

Inflation factors into what's spent on food

Canadians also face relatively steady inflation. The consumer price index rose 1.9 per cent year over year in October, according to Statistics Canada - the same increase as the previous two months. Increases have remained below 2.5 per cent since Sept. 2018.

A hotter climate is one factor behind an increase in bacterial outbreaks such as E. coli, Somogyi said, as hotter temperatures and unpredictable heat waves increase bacterial growth. In recent years, multiple E. coli outbreaks prompted grocers to pull romaine lettuce off their shelves and restaurants to stop serving the leafy green, which tend to drive up prices for alternatives, like spinach.

Produce prices also trend up because Canada imports vast amounts of its food as the colder weather limits what can be grown. Imported goods can fluctuate in price due to trade issues creating slowdowns at borders or weather events impacting delivery logistics.

Food trends can also prompt price swings. This year, celery costs skyrocketed partly due to a fad diet based on purported health benefits of celery juice. In May, one major Canadian grocer advertised celery stalks for $5.99 online - compared to a more typical, roughly $3-per-kilogram cost for much of the years prior to April 2018, when Statistics Canada stopped tracking the vegetable.

'They see the planet on their dinner plates'

It's difficult to put a number on how much of the anticipated 2020 food price increase comes from climate change, said Somogyi, but it is responsible for "the bulk" of last year's vegetable sticker shock. In the case of the catapulting celery costs, months of unseasonably cold weather and heavy rainfall in California created supply issues.

But the stability of food supply isn't climate change's sole casualty, as it sparks changes to demand too, said Sylvain Charlebois, lead author from Dalhousie University.

"People, when they think about food, they see the planet on their dinner plates much more so than ever before," he said.

Younger generations especially decide what to eat in part by looking at the environmental impact of their meals, said Charlebois, and turn more toward full or partial plant-based diets. Fast-food chains and manufacturers raced to stock and create products to feed this demographic with Beyond Meat and Lightlife alternatives now ubiquitous at restaurants across Canada.

Somogyi anticipates climate change will continue to boost food prices, particularly in categories where Canada relies heavily on imports, unless big changes occur.

In particular, he'd like to see a national food policy that focuses on producing more high-cost items, like many vegetables, in Canada through vertical and indoor farming. That would reduce time to market, costs and risks of bacterial outbreaks, he said.

"If we maintain our current food, Canadian food distribution structure, I can see that happening each year - four per cent, 10 per cent, 15 per cent."

Federal food policy released in June

The federal government released a long-awaited food policy in June 2019 - the first in Canada - after starting public consultations in 2017. The policy addressed four significant areas for short- and long-term action, including:

Boosting community access to healthy food.

Making Canadian food a top choice domestically and internationally.

Supporting food security in northern and Indigenous communities.

Reducing food waste.

Certain initiatives announced as part of the food policy could support vertical or indoor farming, said Agriculture Canada spokesperson James Watson in an email.

The department is also exploring vertical and container agriculture beyond the food policy, he said, pointing to a August 2017 workshop it held where experts identified research and development needs in this area.

"Vertical and greenhouse production show potential for increasing food security [particularly in remote areas of Canada], decreasing transportation costs and increased health for Canadians."

Agriculture Canada is working with others to optimize these farming systems so they can complement traditional ones, he said.

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Canadian families will pay nearly $500 more in 2020 for food, report says | CBC News

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The average Canadian family will pay up to an extra $487 for food next year, according to an annual report involving Halifax and Ontario university researchers that highlights climate change as a culprit for rising prices, especially in the produce department.

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In the website attached, it discusses the disparity between minimum wage and rent in Canadian cities. Living on the minimum is close to impossible for the average tenant in Toronto. Why I chose this website it gives an insight into the disparity in pay and rent in the city. It shows that working more than one job might is a necessity for the average renter in the city.

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The odds of a minimum wage worker being able to afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment in just about every city in Canada are next to nil, a new report from an Ottawa-based think-tank says.

Looking at Statistics Canada data on wages from last October, and rental information from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) that same month, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) crunched the numbers on the almost 800 neighbourhoods across Canada's three dozen largest cities to see how easy it is to find a place to live on the minimum wage.

The results were bleak.

By the CCPA's math, a minimum wage earner could afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment in just 24 neighbourhoods across the country, out of 795 analyzed. If the standard drops to a one-bedroom, the picture looks marginally better, as the report found 70 neighbourhoods affordable for minimum wage workers , but that's still less than one out of every 10 - and most are far from downtown cores where jobs are more plentiful and generally higher paying.

Concern over Canada's housing market tends to focus on homeowners, CCPA economist David MacDonald said, but almost five million Canadians - about a third of all households - are renters, and they face affordability issues that are just as pressing.

"Many of these renters, particularly those working at or near minimum wage, on fixed incomes or single-income households, are at risk of being priced out of modest apartments no matter where they look," he said.

In its analysis, the CCPA calculated the income that a minimum-wage worker would earn over a standard 40-hour workweek, and then cross-referenced it against rental data from the CMHC. The report also assumes the rule of thumb that a person should spend no more than 30 per cent of income on housing to avoid having other financial issues. Theoretically, a minimum-wage worker could simply work more hours, or drastically cut back on other expenses somehow, but that isn't quite the same thing as making an apartment affordable.

Add it all up and the standards of affordability are looking increasingly out of reach.

Leading the way is Vancouver, where a theoretical minimum-wage worker would have to work 84 hours a week to afford the average-priced one-bedroom apartment, or 112 hours a week for a two-bedroom apartment.

Toronto was not far behind, where that same worker would have to work a 79-hour week for a one-bedroom, and a 96-hour week for a two-bedroom apartment.

"A sole income earner working full time should be able to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment for their family in a country as rich as Canada," MacDonald said. "But in most Canadian cities, including Canada's largest metropolitan areas of Toronto and Vancouver, there are no neighbourhoods where it is possible to afford a one- or two-bedroom unit on a single minimum wage."

Victoria, Calgary and Ottawa round out the top five. In all three places, that same worker would have to clock a 70-hour workweek at least just to pay the rent on a two-bedroom. In all three, you'd need to earn at least $26 an hour working 40 hours a week to afford a standard two-bedroom apartment.

'It becomes a struggle'

Norma Jean Quibell lives in Ottawa with her partner and their two children, aged four and 10. As a stay-at-home mother, she says she's well aware how hard it is to make ends meet on a modest income.

"It becomes a struggle where you have to kind of pick and choose which area is going to have to be left behind for a month because our rent is so high," she said.

About 50 per cent of the couple's income goes toward the almost $1,500 rent on their two-bedroom apartment. While she knows that is on the high side, they are reluctant to move because their daughter has a disability that they get help for through a local program. If they move, they would lose access to that program.

"It makes it extremely difficult for us some months to be able to afford certain bills," she said.

The CCPA only found three cities where the local minimum wage would be enough to comfortably afford a one-bedroom apartment and have enough left over, if working 40 hours a week. All are in Quebec: Sherbrooke, Saguenay and Trois-Rivières.

Ten more cities - Kingston, London, Windsor, St. Catharines and Sudbury (Ontario), Moncton and Saint John (N.B.), and Quebec City, Montreal and Gatineau (Quebec) - were found to be unaffordable on average, but had some neighbourhoods where a minimum wage worker could afford a one-bedroom. A two-bedroom is still out of reach in all of them, however, except for once again some neighbourhoods in St. Catharines and Sudbury.

Soaring rents in places like Toronto and Vancouver have been well documented, but the CCPA report suggests they aren't just a big-city problem. Indeed, even places that don't qualify as cities are impacted.

Meghan Mutrie, who lives in Canmore, Alta, says that town has the same rental problems as anywhere else. She said she's had to put up with all manner of poor housing options before landing her current suite, a garage unit in a new subdivision that suits her well.

She has managed to make ends meet by working more than one job at times, but she worries about those who have less than her. "Many people are being outpriced," she said. "I have friends who live in a trailer while they rent out their own place to make it work, and they own their own businesses."

"You can't have a town without all of the levels of jobs," she says.

Across the country, the CCPA tabulates that a worker putting in 40 hours a week would have to earn $22.40 an hour to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment. It drops to $20.20 an hour for a one-bedroom unit.

The highest minimum wage in the country is $15 an hour in Alberta, a highwater mark that is still well short of both of those levels. In some provinces, the minimum wage is barely $11 an hour - less than half what it takes for a two-bedroom, according to the CCPA. And roughly a quarter of Canadian workers within $3 of the local minimum wage, the CCPA says.

"Until those wages are pushing $20 an hour, and more of the available jobs are full time, rental costs will remain a significant burden on many workers," MacDonald said.

"Everyone deserves a decent place to live."

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It's next to impossible to pay the rent working full time for minimum wage, new report calculates | CBC News

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The odds of a minimum wage worker being able to afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment in just about every city in Canada are next to nil, a new report from an Ottawa-based think-tank says.

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This video by National Post provides facts on how average Canadians are living. To list a few, more women are living on their
own; a rise of 20-34 yr olds are staying with a parent and a decline of couples having children. By adding this video, I thought it would give a good insight into the life of Canadians now. It also provides an idea of what the future may hold. And what questions to ask yourself.  Will the rate continue years to come? Are Canadians unable to afford children? Are people staying with parents to save for a stable future?

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This video provided by Global News gives a story about an individual who moved from Paris to Toronto. He recalls that Paris was comparatively cheaper than living in the city. In summary, he reflects on having a far better experience while living in Paris.
It was interesting to see that although Toronto is expensive, it does not add up to par with other cities to some. You would expect to live in other world-class cities that would have a hefty price tag, but others could disagree.  It is something to reflect on what you would want out of your destination.

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Some suggest Toronto has become a world class city (such as London, New York or Paris) and therefore the cost to live here should reflect that. But according to one downtown dweller - who has experience with one of these other cities - the comparison doesn't add up.
Jamie Mauracher explains.

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Is the cost of living in Toronto, worth it? | Watch News Videos Online

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Some suggest Toronto has become a world class city (such as London, New York or Paris) and therefore the cost to live here should reflect that. But according to one downtown dweller - who has experience with one of these other cities - the comparison doesn't add up. Jamie Mauracher explains.

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In this video below is a vlogger who immigrated to Canada. Deciding between Calgary and Toronto, he ruled out what city would benefit him the best. In summary, he chose Calgary because of the availability of jobs in his field and the exceptional immigration program in the city. What I found interesting about this video is his journey in making this final decision. Despite the negative opinions from others, he stuck with what suited his lifestyle best. I believe his story could give an idea to those to rule out what city would fit one's best.

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In the picture by Rentals it provides a wide range of the average rental prices across cities in Canada. By ranking each city by the most expensive to least categorized by one-bedroom to two-bedroom apartments.

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In picture #2, it shows the comparison between countries on the average pricing in monthly cellphone bills. Below, Canada is leading and following in closely is U.S in the average cellphone bill pricing.

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Overall what surprised me the most from researching was the surge pricing of groceries and the disparity between minimum wage and rent. This resonates with my situation since I do live in one of the most expensive cities in Canada. Currently, we are under social distancing due to a droplet virus. There has been a surge in pricing on basic necessities. I would pass this information to students who are considering moving on their own. To consider alternatives such as roommates to have a stable living.