Thanks for the feedback everyone! It's really helpful. I'm going to think out loud about some of the observations and questions. Not rationalizing, I think every point is valid, just thinking.
1) move
2) sell the car
3) cut your charity donations
Fair. We just moved earlier this year, and we really like our area, but still I had started to price compare to other cities, etc. I'm not sure I want to go all the way to small town (which would be cheapest) but some of the cities in southern Ontario are a bit cheaper than where we are. Something to consider.
Sell the car is at the top of my list, I think. Starting with increased biking later this month when the little one is finally big enough for her helmet, hoping to eliminate most inner-city trips this fall. My wife does volunteer with a theatre group in a small town near us a couple times a year, and there isn't really bus service from here to there, so I'm thinking about options there a little bit.
I know I could increase our personal efficiency a lot by cutting charity. I feel like, since we are so privileged it is reasonable to use some of our considerable resources to help people besides ourselves.
Are you quite happy, content and satisfied with your life?
If you like your job or/and get compensated well enough - keep doing it.
Yes, I am happy with my life and we're on-track for our goals. But I do like to think about where we could be doing better, and also have an idea of what cost-cutting measures I would target first if we were suddenly in a different situation.
Are these membership fees?
The bulk of Entertainment goes to eating out, very occasionally we do something extravagant like a musical theatre production, or we may use this money for museum entrance, etc when on vacation.
Hobby is split between my part of a web server that I pay for (along with other friends) to host a lot of my side projects, etc, and craft material for more hand-on hobbies (fabric, thread, yarn, seedlings, etc).
The idea of using some of the "hobby" money twice by buying materials that are then made in to a gift had honestly never occurred to me as a cost efficiency of DIY gifts. Certainly something to consider!
Hard to tell. These can certainly be lower to an extent ...The phone/net can likely be a lot cheaper.
Utilities might turn out to be an overestimation, I won't know until after we've been through a winter. Summer utilities are pretty low, though still a bit variable. I've been trying to nail down my understanding of the swings in our costs. I think water cost mostly goes up when it's dry because we have a garden.
Phone + Internet we actually currently pay less than that because we're on promotions from both our cell and Internet companies. I tend to promo-surf as much as I can, moving from one to the next as they expire, but I don't want to rely on that for my FI numbers so I keep it at the cheapest full-rate I can find ($20 x 2 for cell phone + $57.50 for home internet -- both numbers after tax). We currently pay ~$47 total for both, but that will change in the spring when our cell phone promo expires.
Health & Wellness $80.00
Vacation $150.00
Absolutely these could almost go away. Health & Wellness has been mostly going to various physiotherapies my wife has been undergoing for some tendinitis issues, etc, but hopefully that can go down a bit next year as she seems to be recovering.
Vacation is so high because my parents live in Africa (very expensive flights) and I would like to be able to visit them once with the kids when older. This would be my first category to cut if we were under pressure, though, I think since it's the least needed and would just be nice to do someday.
I'd be setting up an RESP for my kid (6 months old) before I gave to charity but that's just a personal opinion
I don't include RESP here because that's savings/investment and not an expense. It's basically extra TFSA room that *could* go to daughter's education if she decides to go down that road and OSAP doesn't cut it. It will be maxxed out, on a schedule to get the full CESG of course.
