Tips for living alone in Toronto

Tips for living alone in Toronto

Living alone can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you are free to do whatever you wish, whenever you wish, without anyone telling you that you need to come home. On the other hand, there is no one to actually call you home. Most of us would prefer to have someone to live with, but some are perfectly content living by their own rules. Toronto can be a daunting place for a solitary person and we are here to provide you with some useful tips for living alone in Toronto. Obviously, first thing is to get moving to Toronto out of the way. Research a bit and we are sure that you will have that one in the bag quite quick.

Now, we are going to present you some standard costs and the ways to try to minimize them. So let’s get cookin’.

Tips for living alone in Toronto – The Lowdown

The fact of the matter is that Toronto is expensive to live in. In order to fully realize where we can save, we need to give you a breakdown of the costs. Some of these costs are not applicable to every single person but they provide you with a good baseline.  The costs are the following :

• Housing
• Phone
• Groceries
• Entertainment
• Nightlife
• Coffee
• Additional costs

Housing

Most of us can easily forget about purchasing a house in Toronto, as even the smallest one is going for more than a million dollars. If you are able to afford such a place, congratulations! Most of us will need to live alone by the way of renting a place. And, unfortunately, this is not exactly cheap, either. If you can afford both options but are unsure which one is better for you, maybe this article covering that topic can help you decide.

You can expect your rent to be somewhere around $1500 ballpark. Here is where you can actually save quite a bit of money. There are places in Toronto that have lower rents, but they usually have some factors that could be annoying, such as high noise. The trick to getting a cheaper apartment is that you need to figure out what bothers you the least.

Basically, search for apartments that are renting out cheaper because of not having the things that you do not mind not having or being in a bad location that you do not mind living in. 

Phone

Everyone needs a phone nowadays. We have become so reliant on having our own personal assistant on hand. This will set you back around $80 for an unlimited plan. Now, in order to save some money on the phone, you can obviously go for a lower plan. The less obvious solution is not to use the phone unless absolutely necessary. You can go for a pre-paid plan which will cost you a lot less in the long run, provided you do not use the phone extensively. You can accomplish this by taking advantage of free internet phone services, such as Viber and Skype. Yes, you will need to structure your life around it, but living alone in Toronto will be quite a bit cheaper.

Groceries

You can expect your shopping bag to set you back around $400 a month. And that is living almost on a minimum. Add in some other necessities and it becomes a bit more than that. What you can do here is to devote some time to check out what items are on sale and where. This ties into transportation costs because all that traveling might get expensive as well. Nonetheless, the best way to save money on groceries is to go sale hunting. It will undoubtedly take more time than just going to your local grocery store but your wallet will feel the difference.

“Going out”

Sure, you can save a lot of money by never going out but that would defeat the purpose of living alone in Toronto. Yet, the answer to this is simple. Do not go out if you want to save money. If you do want to go out, you can safely assume that you will need around $200 a month for just the basics. This includes two outings to a restaurant, perhaps a movie or two and maybe a concert ticket.

Nightlife

For most people that live alone, nightlife is what keeps them sane. Expect that you will be using up most of your money on this particular activity. Nothing much to be done here except less partying. What you need to know is that, on average, a drink will set you back around $10 at almost any given bar in Toronto. So, provided you go to have a drink on a weekly basis, having an average of three drinks, your tab will run around $130 (you will get some more expensive drinks along the way).

Coffee

Living alone in Toronto is pretty fast-paced and you will need some caffeine to keep you going. Obviously, if you are keen on saving, never buy coffee from anywhere. But you will and it will cost you around $30-40 a month for having a cup of coffee each day. If you want to get some fancier stuff, such as various lattes, it will set you back even more.

Additional Expenses

Even with living really on the down-low, you will have unexpected expenses. It is best to know that they will inevitably happen and be prepared for them. Judging by the majority of people that live in Toronto, extra expenses amount to around $130, on a monthly basis. There is nothing you can really do about these, apart from knowing that they will happen. Make sure you include them in your projections.

Living alone in Toronto is a costly affair. Even if you cut down on most of the costs, the price of living is still really high. But, it might just be worth it. Toronto is an awesome city to live in and you are paying extra for the privilege to be counted among the “Torontonians”. If you decide to move to Toronto and think you can live with these costs, all you need to do is contact Toronto movers and get to moving!