'my bills keep growing. but my income isn’t': senior stretches $35-a-week grocery budget
8 minute read
volunteer dorothy bagan stands among bags of groceries to be distributed by the weekly bread market at the kerby centre in calgary.
brent calver/postmedia
dorothy bagan — a 75-year-old spark plug, full of unfailing good humour and great adoration for the purple streaks in her hair — is stretching her latest grocery budget to just $35 a week.
living alone and independently, still paying off a mortgage on her modest parkland home, bagan is a stickler for grocery sales and cost-saving recipes, spending much of her sundays making meals to last for days.
“for dinners, i do a lot of meal prep on the weekend, like cooking ahead to last me for the whole week,” she says.
“i’ll roast a whole chicken. or i’ll buy a ham with a bone in. i’ll bake it, cut it up, so i have it for dinners. but i’ll use the bone to make a broth for pea soup.
“i’ve got to be careful, i’ve got a lot of bills, so there’s not much left over for play money,” bagan laughs. “so i’ll try and do a lot of home cooking like this, so i can really stretch my dollar.”
bagan lives on somewhat of a fixed income, receiving payments from old age security and canada pension plan, and picking up one shift a week at a travel agency for some extra income.
but she only spends on what she absolutely needs, determined to stay in her house and live independently.
“i don’t want to live in a seniors’ home. i want to belong to a real community and have a sense of purpose,” she says. “i don’t want to be on the sidelines, watching life go by. i want to be actively involved, to participate, and contribute to my day-to-day life.”
while she doesn’t drive, bagan will ride with friends to shop for food at a variety of bargain outlets like no frills or walmart. but she refuses to go to pricier outlets, she says.
“i try to be really careful, really smart about my spending, especially with groceries. i can usually do a whole week of food for only $35.”
but despite her disciplined shopping, bagan’s other costs are rising, including a $600 monthly mortgage payment combined with nearly $250 in utilities — a bill that’s nearly doubled since covid.
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“like a lot of seniors, my bills keep growing. but my income isn’t.”
bagan’s son helps manage her finances, keeping a close eye on her bank account and making sure all her bills get paid on time, from her mortgage and utilities to her landline, cable and internet fees.
“he really helps me out, keeps an eye on things for me, and makes sure i have enough. he suggested once i should just sell my house, but i don’t want to. i love my home and i want to stay here as long as i can.”
bagan also volunteers at the kerby centre’s weekly bread market, which sometimes includes frozen meat donations, where seniors can come in for free food. the program has grown significantly since the start of the pandemic.
“i’m at the entrance, and i do the meet and greet, or i’ll entertain the troops,” bagan laughs again.
volunteer dorothy bagan hands out a bag of groceries at the weekly bread market at the kerby centre.
brent calver/postmedia
“and the bread, it’s not a handout, it’s not like a food bank,” she insists, determined to be respectful of her friends.
“it’s just a little bit of assistance, a program to get seniors from one week to the next. it’s very dignified, more of a social event than anything.
“and the seniors that come, they absolutely love it. they are thrilled, over the moon, and i do love it too. i haven’t had to buy bread since covid.”
calgary currently has the highest rate of inflation among major canadian cities, according to data released by statistics canada tuesday, reaching 3.6 per cent in april and 4.2 per cent in march.
larry mathieson, kerby centre ceo, says rising inflation and the high cost of living has uniquely impacted calgary seniors, creating unprecedented demand for programs like the bread market.
“the people we serve, they are from every economic range you can imagine,” mathieson says.
“we’re seeing seniors all across the spectrum, seniors who are paying off mortgages, who are renting, some are even at risk of losing their housing.
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“but we know about one in every four of the seniors we serve are being forced to cut back on food, because of the high costs of everything else.”
mathieson worries the many seniors who are already cutting back on food and nutrition are also cutting back on medication, just to pay the bills.
“that becomes very dangerous. they might say ‘well i won’t take my statins as regularly, then i can at least pay my rent.’
“but even seniors who aren’t renting, who have mortgages, are doing the same thing; they’re having to cut back as well, because their mortgage has gone up by five per cent over the past year.”
for many seniors, government income support comes in the form of old age security and canada pension plan.
the canada pension plan can kick in with benefits available as soon as one month after your 60th birthday, but it can mean a nearly 40 per cent reduction in payments if you start taking it before age 65.
if seniors wait until they are 65, they are eligible for maximum benefits, based on their prior income.
larry mathieson, president and ceo of unison at the kerby centre.
darren makowichuk/postmedia
but mathieson says either way, government payouts have not kept up with the skyrocketing inflation and rising costs canada has seen since covid and aren’t always enough to ensure seniors can make ends meet.
“with the way that inflation is going, a lot of seniors just don’t see any relief in sight.”
during covid, mathieson says the kerby centre started to see a lot of seniors struggling with food insecurity, and started delivering frozen meals and food hampers, particularly to those who were shut in.
mathieson thought that the help would just be temporary, that the kerby centre would stop handing out free food once covid was over. but the need, he says, didn’t abate.
“in our 150-year history at the kerby centre, we’ve never done anything like food hampers. but ironically it’s grown, because the need is so high and it continues to grow.”
volunteers donna rapp, left to right, alice vanden berg, and virginia malejko load up groceries to be distributed at the kerby centre’s weekly bread market.
brent calver/postmedia
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seniors’ demand for affordable housing also continues to soar, mathieson says, with waiting lists for subsidized rentals getting longer every month.
“we literally see people walking into our parkade, bringing their belongings, their documentation in a bag, and they’re living somewhere on the street,” he says.
“we know the homeless population is aging. or we’re seeing seniors forced to live in unsafe or inadequate housing.
“they may be renting a room in someone’s house that doesn’t have a window, or they’re facing elder abuse. or they’re dealing with dementia, and someone is stealing their money.
“it’s heartbreaking. but that’s our reality today.”
mathieson argues governments need to invest in more affordable housing for seniors, particularly non-profits like silvera for seniors, providing affordable, subsidized housing along with services and supports for older adults.
silvera ceo arlene adamson says demand for seniors housing that allows the elderly to maintain a good quality of life continues to grow, with wait lists now approaching six to eight months for many of their units.
“there just isn’t enough of that housing, and there needs to be much more built, much, much more.”
arlene adamson, president, alberta seniors and community housing corp.
gavin young/postmedia
silvera’s portfolio has grown to 1,800 units in 28 supportive living and independent living communities in all four quadrants of the city.
many of those units are subsidized, indexed at 30 per cent of a senior’s annual income, a critical service where funding needs to continue to keep pace, adamson argues, “so we can respond to inflationary cost increases.”
but even middle-income seniors, who can’t qualify for a subsidy, are feeling strained financially, adamson says.
“there is a whole segment of our senior population that doesn’t qualify for subsidy, but also can’t afford the higher income private options.
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“they’re caught in the middle, and there’s very little available to them.”
adamson says she’s particularly worried about seniors who are on waiting lists, and might still be struggling in the broader community because they feel forced to cut back on food and self-care.
“often when they come to us, we’re seeing everything from depression to physical challenges that have gotten worse because they’re not active, or they’re dealing with malnutrition.
“they might be renting an apartment, but then they don’t have enough gas money, or they can’t afford the bus, so they can’t get to the store.
a blackboard lists items to be bagged up for distribution at the weekly bread market.
brent calver/postmedia
“so they’re living on canned goods, or they can’t even afford fresh produce or the cost of quality proteins.”
apart from seniors with significant health challenges living in long-term care, these are among a myriad of examples of seniors in that pressure-point of need.
“we need more independent living, or self-contained, government-subsidized housing, for seniors who can’t afford anything else.”
adamson adds that while all three levels of government have declared a commitment to building more affordable housing, their efforts need to be better co-ordinated.
“they’ve got to collectively come together and come up with more ways to just build more seniors housing.
“because seniors want to stay independent for as long as they can. and moving them to long-term care, into the health-care system, is much more expensive to taxpayers.
“we can’t just build for one population. the highest demand for housing right now is seniors housing and that’s just going to keep growing.
“we need to build better communities, communities that are welcoming of seniors.”
we know the rising costs of groceries, mortgages, rents and power are important issues for so many calgarians trying to provide for their families. in our special series squeezed: navigating calgary’s high cost of living, we take a deep look into the affordability crisis in calgary. we’ve crunched numbers, combed through reports and talked to experts to find out how inflation is impacting our city, and what is being done to bring prices back to earth. but, most importantly, we spoke to real families who shared their stories and struggles with us. we hope you will join the conversation, as these stories roll out.
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this week: scrimping and saving: food insecurity in calgary
still to come:
- priced out: the rising cost of housing
- the cost of doing business
our series so far:
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