As inflation surges, Canadians find creative ways to save, cut costs

The surging cost of living has some Canadians getting creative with how they cut back on spending and save money as inflation hits its highest level in decades.

For new mom Sandy Yong, bills and expenses have been piling up as quickly as dirty diapers in recent months.

Yong’s maternity leave stipend, which gives her roughly 70 per cent of what she’d make in her day job, has been stretched even further lately as her Toronto household grapples with the new daily expenses for her 11-month-old son and high one-time costs like a crib and stroller.

But Canada’s decades-high inflation levels — hitting 6.7 per cent in April — are a dominant factor pushing Yong and her family to re-imagine their budget in search of new ways to save.

“Our family definitely has been feeling the pinch with inflation and the rising costs of gas and groceries,” she says.

“I have been trying to stretch my dollar even more for the last couple months of my mat leave.”

With one month left before she returns to work but surging prices already pushing down the bottom line, Yong tells Global News she’s been changing her approach to feeding her growing family and saving for the future to keep costs manageable in the short and long term.

Yong is not alone in struggling to make ends meet and looking for workarounds to beat inflation, according to polling from Ipsos conducted exclusively for Global News.

Asked about their strategies for fighting inflation in a mid-April poll, some 54 per cent of respondents said they were dining out less. Other common tactics included putting off new purchases like clothes (47 per cent) and cutting back on entertainment spending (46 per cent).