(Part 2) Best products from r/PersonalFinanceCanada

Hey ThrowAwayCanFinance,


First off, I hope you realize how fortunate of a starting point you have. You're debt free with a paid of car and have more in savings than a good chunk of your peers.

> The survey, conducted by Pollara for the Bank of Montreal, found that Canadians on average have $41,694 in emergency savings, up from an average of $35,237 in 2014. However, 24 per cent of respondents said they had hardly anything set aside and more than half, 56 per cent, reported having less than $10,000 in available emergency funds.

Take a moment to congratulate yourself


When it comes to books The Wealthy Barber is a good introduction to personal finance in my opinion. It's easy to read and covers the basics. When you're finished with that The Four Pillars of Investing by William Berstein is a little more advanced but is, in my opinion, the most important personal finance book out there. The same author also published a free .pdf called If You Can that's full of tips and other recommended books that's geared specifically to millennials. It's American though so keep in mind there are different terms used. A Roth IRA for example is somewhat similar to a TFSA. Feel free to message me about any specifics there.

Right now you have $5,500 inside your TFSA. This is a great start. Keep this money locked away until retirement. If you aren't aware, TFSAs have a limit to how much you can deposit and there are penalties for withdrawing money or depositing too much. You can read more on the CRA's website and can create an account with them to check on your current contribution room.

I would try and find out a ballpark of how much school is going to cost you. Don't think of just tuition costs but also any additional costs like textbooks. You won't have an exact number but a rough estimate will work. You can use your savings outside of your TFSA to cover the bulk of these costs and continue saving to eventually have enough money saved up to pay for schooling in full. Take it from someone who is currently paying his way through university, if I had that opportunity I'd take it in a heartbeat.

From there focus on maxing out your TFSA each year. Assuming an average 4% return on investment per year you'll have $358,652 by the time you hit 50.

From there it's just a matter of being smart with your money. Avoid debt (especially credit card debt), live within your means (spend less than you earn each month), and learn to recognize and avoid lifestyle creep. What that means is that as you start making more and bringing in bigger pay cheques it becomes easier to blow that money. There's nothing wrong with buying nicer things but controlling impulse purchases when you have extra money floating around is one of the most important skills to have if you want to be financially independent one day.

Best of luck to you & feel free to PM me/post here about any other questions you might have.

Your rent is really quite high, but it's Vancouver so I get it.

One thing that looks possibly missing is budgeting for longer term or infrequent regular expenses. This might be things like:

1. Saving up to buy gifts for people at Christmas. Or just saving up because you know you will spend more at restaurants around the holidays.
   
   
2. Saving up for yearly vacations.
   
   
3. Any regular bills that are yearly rather than monthly. For me this is my rental insurance, but it sounds like you have this covered. A lot of people have yearly car registration fees as well, but I think you don't own a car? Either way, make sure you budget for any expenses like this so you aren't blindsided in January when you get a large bill that you didn't plan for.
   
   
4. Clothing purchases? Maybe this is falling under "personal enjoyment" for you, but clothes wear out.. You're going to need to replace them.
   
   
5. When you get a new cellphone every 4 years or whatever, do you buy a cheaper one on contract so there is no up front cost? Otherwise, you should budget monthly savings for this. And similar regular long-term purchases (Computer?).
   
   
   Perhaps not high on your list, but if it's your thing, setting some monthly budget for charitable donations is a good idea. Alternatively, just have a budgeted "flex" category that can include this, so that you aren't off-budget for random purchases ( within reason ).
   
   Move-out expenses: I've got about a $1000 bill for IKEA furniture in the 1 bedroom place I live in now. This did not include a bed ( additional ~$800). You can certainly do this cheaper (kijiji etc.), but budgeting $2000 or so would be a comfortable start. It sounds like you have the savings to do so. You'll want a good set of cookware, cutlery, plates, and kitchen knives as well, which could set you back a couple hundred, depending on quality and sales.
   
   Retirement savings: Typical suggestion is 10-20% of your pre-tax income. Since you have a defined benefit pension, you could aim for the low end, if you expect to stay in this position long enough to get full value out of the pension. $600 / month would not be a bad starting point. At 7% yearly growth, starting from zero, this would get you to savings of 1.5 million at age 65. 4% withdrawal rate gives a retirement income of $63,000 a year which inflation adjusts to about $30,000. Disregarding the DB pension, if you include CPP of ~$7000 / year, this would give you enough in retirement to more than cover your current expenses.
   
   For your current savings, you should keep an emergency fund of about 3 - 6 months income in a regular savings account that is easy to access. This is to cover you if something unexpected happens like you lose your job, or have to take extended time off to help a family member, or have some unexpected bills. As somebody who owns neither a car nor a house, your "unexpected bills" are likely to be less frequent and smaller, so you could aim for the lower range of this. I would keep at least $20,000 for an emergency fund though.
   
   For the rest of it, you need to decide what your long term goals are. If you intend to buy a car in near future (5 years), then you should keep an appropriate amount of money in a savings account, or other guaranteed instruments (such as GICs). GICs often (sometimes?) pay more interest than savings accounts, but have specific maturity dates. If you pull the money out before then, you forfeit all / some of the interest (depending on the terms of the particular GIC). If you think you will buy a car in 3 years, don't buy a GIC with a 5 year maturity date. If you intend to buy a house in the future, basically the same story. Keep the appropriate down-payment savings in a savings account or GIC so that there is no chance of losing it before you need it. Stock market investments are great in the long term, but for short term savings there is too much fluctuation, and you could be underwater when you need the money.
   
   If a car, house, or other large purchase (Planned big vacation, wedding, etc?) is not coming in the near future, then you should invest the rest for retirement. I recommend you pick up the book "A random walk down wall street" for more information about how you should be investing for retirement. The short version is to get a low-fee online brokerage account (I use TD direct investing), buy ETF index funds, and just hold them. No day-trading or "I think this will go down tomorrow, I'm going to sell and buy it back then!".
   
   

I'm sorry to hear you fell victim to identity theft. It sounds like you've done quite a bit of the legwork already but just to be certain that you haven't missed anything important, here are the steps one should typically take when they discover that they were victim of identity theft (bare with me here please as I know you've already done some of these):

1. Do contact your local police department about it and file a police report about the incident if you haven't done so already (but from the sound of it you may have already). As to how likely the police are to pursue the matter further, they theoretically should especially that you do have the forwarding address (so they literally do have a lead) but I have never worked in the force and am unaware of their standard procedures so this is mere speculation.
   
   
2. Contact each financial institution involved immediately and make sure to ask for a reference number of the inquiry so you can follow-up in the future if need be. (Sounds like you've done so already for BMO, Chase, and TD, right?)
   
   
3. Notify both Equifax and TransUnion. They use their own proprietary algorithms and sometimes things get reported with a delay at one vs. the other. I don't mean to be a pessimist here or cause you even more worry, but it could very well be that TransUnion has additional cards listed that you are unaware of. And when I say notify, I mean, call them during their regular business hours and explain to them your situation. You can also add a note or alert to your file. The basic service is free as far as I recall (but I might be wrong - so double-check this with them to be safe). The thing you saw on heir web site, is probably them offering a premium service where they can send you an email or SMS to tell you each time a new credit card gets added to your account in order to verify that it's you who has applied for said credit card. Simply putting a note on the file for them to use internally and be more vigilant should be free or at least it used to be free).
   
   
4. As already stated (but it's important so I'll highlight it once more): get a credit report from TransUnion as well.
   
   
5. Contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre they will be able to provide a few additional pointers and advice.
   
   Note: Sorry I'm not sure what the other two lines in your credit report are specifically, but when you contact Equifax, you can ask them directly, they should be able to sort that out easily.
   
   This type of thing does unfortunately happen, and at times it's a bit ridiculous. For a recent example involving Canada's largest bank, RBC, have a look at this.
   
   To end on a related and somewhat uplifting note, one of the rising types of fraud is credit card fraud by having your RF-ID enabled card "read" in passing. Not sure if that's how they got your Visa info or not, but there's a cheap way to protect yourself against this (cost: $3 and about 4 - 6 weeks wait since it gets shipped from China). To see what I mean by having your RF-ID credit card read, have a look at this TedTalk from 2012 (hint: I know people in the industry and they tell me things have gotten more sophisticated now - mostly on the end of the hackers).
   
   So here's your $3 solution: Stainless steel business card holder (can accommodate between 3 and 4 credit cards depending on the model). There are some like the RF Defender that guarantee efficacy and so worth. It has a fancy little engraving on the side (probably slightly thicker, higher quality stainless steel) but it's mostly marketing. At roughly $70, it's a waste of money; so don't get duped. There are also stainless steel wallets for $15-200 but as they wear out they become less reliable since the card has one side exposed (the upper portion that you slide into your wallet.
   
   In short, get the $3 stainless steel business card holder; it's just as effective as the "fancy stuff" (it's what I've been using for years). To test out, put one RF-ID credit card inside of it next time you stop by one of those self-checkout kiosks at the super market or at your gas station. Try scanning your card over the PayPass/Visa Wave scanner while it's inside the stainless steel holder. If the machine doesn't detect your card, you know your new purchase is working.
   
   This type of identity theft isn't very prevalent yet, but the repercussions could very much be the same as the OP outlined in this post.

Sorry to be harsh but it seams like you don't have an income problem but rather spending one. First, your car brings up red flags. Since you have 11k left on it, and it breaks down often and repairs are that much it leads me to believe that you drive a luxury car. Also your car is very inefficient, just to get you around GTA spending $200+/mo is something you can't afford. So what I'm saying right now, your car is your biggest preventer from your future financial freedom and you need to sell it like, yesterday! Yes I know you'll end up owing money on it, but it has to go! I cannot stress this enough.

Good news is that you can get out of this within 2-3 years, but it all depends on you! I went through the same situation, and guess what, I also made stupid decisions and also drove a car which basically ensured I stayed broke for manny years.

I'd recommend you do same things I did to get out of this:

• 1 - Make a budget and STICK TO IT (Remember, your future depends on this)
  
• 2 - Sell your car now and talk to your lender to see what they can do for you if anything.
  
• 3 - Look into getting a transit pass, or save up $1000 and buy a car that will get you to work and back (You need to forget about what people think about your car. Hint: most people don't give a shit what you drive)
  
• 4 - Save up at least $1000 for emergencies and keep it in your bank savings account, not invested. (Very important)
  
• 5 - Start your snowball repayment plan (I recommend you use this free spreadsheet, it's awesome! https://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/debt-reduction-calculator.html) Pay off smallest debt balance first then roll that money into next debt.
  
• 6 - Once you're debt free (you'll get there trust me, if you're committed) expand your emergency budget to about 6/mo of your monthly expenses.
  
• 7 - Only now you should start thinking about investing and retirement, and at this point you'll be so stoked, and hopefully not tempted to make stupid decisions again, you'll end up investing and saving more than 15%.
  
  It is a long road, it'll take you a few years, but it is VERY VERY doable. I've done it with similar parameters as you, and it feels great my friend. I'm now debt free, have a brand new house and I'm on the path to have it fully paid off within 8 years.
  
  Good luck, and remember, your future self depends on your younger self!
  
  Edit: I forgot to mention the book which really changed my mind and how I think about debt. It's by Dave Ramsay, look him up on Youtube, and buy his book, it's only $12 on digital. https://www.amazon.ca/Total-Money-Makeover-Classic-Financial-ebook/dp/B00DNBE8P6/ref=sr_1_2?gclid=Cj0KCQjwh6XmBRDRARIsAKNInDFqnTVZREntH0J2VwWYYj1adNKVIJ4WmK1iopd9iovz8Txo4bPADHoaAqB8EALw_wcB&hvadid=284818070799&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9000724&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=b&hvrand=15846815893330762740&hvtargid=kwd-287159694&hydadcr=16957_10238107&keywords=dave+ramsey+baby+steps&qid=1556707872&s=gateway&sr=8-2
  
  Edit 2: Ok I just noticed that it's not a luxury car in your comments, but regardless you can't afford it right now.

This is like a super-sized version of the Globe and Mail's Financial Facelift column: Our net worth is $2M, can we afford to retire?

Personally I'd start by reviewing The Millionaire Next Door. The authors point out that most millionaires -- i.e. people with net worth of $1M or more -- basically live the same way as everyone else. It's a good perspective to keep in mind: it's a lot easier to do financial planning when you're planning for a normal lifestyle ($50,000/year, maybe up to $100,000/year), not something crazy.

They also have some useful advice about making sure your children don't become financially dependent on you. (Not sure that buying your child a house is a good idea. From the child's point of view, being able to say "I did it on my own" is worth quite a lot.)

How old are you? Planning is easier if you're older. You'll probably live to about 85; say 95, to be safe. If you're 50, you need to plan for 45 years. If you're only 30, you need to plan for the next 65 years.

Are you going to continue working? Or will you need to support yourself entirely from your capital?

Let's assume you won't be working, and that you have a long time horizon.

The usual advice is to follow the "investment pyramid" idea: have more of your money in low-risk investments (the bottom of the pyramid), with less money in higher-risk investments.

I'd suggest putting 3/4 of the money into GICs (you don't need to take big risks, so it's probably a good idea to keep most of the money safe); that'll earn about 2% at the moment, maybe 3-4% over a longer time period (expected nominal return on bonds is about 3.7%, according to the Canadian Couch Potato). At 2%, that would be $300,000/year.

Bank deposit insurance via the CDIC (covering the risk of bank failure) only guarantees $100,000 at each institution. If you're trying to make sure your entire $15M of GICs are covered, you probably want to look into provinces which have unlimited guarantees for credit union deposits.

And then I'd put the remaining 1/4 into equities. Canadian Couch Potato suggests 1/3 in the Canadian index (VCN), 2/3 in equities outside Canada (VXC). This portion will go up and down, but over the long term, expected nominal return is 7.2% (again, according to the CCP).

> Realistically, what sort of lifestyle do you think I can afford now? How much money would you spend on a house, how much would you save for a rainy day?

I'm basically saying I would put all of it away for a rainy day, and continue to live a regular lifestyle. You may be thinking, well, what do I get out of having $22M in the bank?! Two things: you don't need to work, ever (of course you can continue to work if you enjoy it), and you have ironclad financial security. You're only living off your investment income, not your principal.

What if you want a more extravagant lifestyle -- say, putting $5M into a house in Vancouver, and spending $500,000 a year?

Then I'd start looking at annuities. If you're getting closer to the margins, you want to make sure you're not going to outlive your money. You want to find an insurance company that you're pretty sure will be around 65 years from now (!), and that will sell you an annuity. Basically you give them a giant lump sum, and they pay you a fixed amount every year until you die.

I think you should also submit this question to the Globe and Mail's Financial Facelift, see if they print it.

> We'd be moving into my parents house so it would be using their machine- how do I explain that the washing machine won't be full of poo or dirt for them when they go to do their washing? Do you do a machine washing cycle with bleach or something every month or?

My understanding is that exclusively breastfed babies' poop is water soluble. Meaning water can break it down and rinse it away. When the baby starts solids, you need to drop as much of that in the toilet as you can. We bought a bidet for that purpose (that and once you start using it, you can't go back to toilet paper. Just make sure you get one with a backflow regulator. None of the DIY stuff.). Just spray and pretty much all the poop goes into the toilet. The only thing left on the diaper inserts are the stains. My wife and I started spraying even during the exclusive breast milk period.

For the actual wash, we do two cycles.

First cycle we use cold water and Tide. Second cycle is hot and we use Nellie's Laundry Soda. You can also buy the smaller tin on Amazon, but this tub will last a long, LONG, time. As far as I can tell, there's no residue in the washing machine. If you still have residue, you're probably putting too much laundry in the machine or something. Between the HE and the rinse cycles, all the poop is pretty much washed away.

> How can I start my cloth diaper horde? What did you start with? I've looked into the subreddit for it a bit already.

I went to Amazon and purchased some from this company. No complaints so far. We've had the occasional diaper blowout (maybe 3 times in 8 months), but first was because the wife was worried the diaper was secured too tightly (obviously not). The second time, baby girl had so much poop, the diaper couldn't properly contain it (it was impressive). The third time, baby girl was napping and when she woke up was nudging her butt all over the place while simultaneously peeing. With the diaper insert covered, there was no place for the pee to absorb, so it mixed and this mixture squeezed out the legs. Kids are fun! :)

But yeah, compared to the 2 diaper blowouts we had when baby girl was using disposables for 3 weeks... These were a walk in the park.

On a side note, if people question you and ask if cloth is dirtier, from experience, I'd say disposables are worse. First off, with disposables, you're supposed to knock solids into the toilet as well. It's also hard to do that with a diaper sprayer (or bidet) as disposables absorb water (it's actually funny looking when they get full). Problem is, you really can't squeeze the water out. Not efficiently. So now your trash is full of these little diaper grenades. If you're not doing that, then it makes my next point infinitely worse. Also, these disposables, despite having that nice baby fragrance at the beginning, stink after being soiled. Now imagine a trash can full of them for two weeks (since garbage pickup is every two weeks). We're fortunate our baby wasn't born in the summer. Yikes. Exclusively breastfed baby poop isn't that bad smelling. When you introduce solids, oh my. There's a reason you poop in a toilet with water I guess.

Originally, we purchased 30 pockets and 30 diaper inserts. However, baby girl was on the small side for the first few weeks. As a result, we used disposables for 3 weeks. After the first 3 weeks, we were burning through disposable diapers (changing 3 diapers in a span of 5 minutes was common), so we purchased 4 newborn covers from Amazon and just used the original inserts. The original inserts were big, but we folded them to make them fit.

As our baby grew, she starting going through diapers like crazy. As a result, we purchased an additional 10 bamboo only liners (to soak up more pee during night time sleeps or for travel) and 12 more inserts (I think these are mixed bamboo/fleece) from planetbaby.ca.

Also, when she grew too big for the newborn covers, we bought 4 one size diaper covers from Rumparooz as well.

In total, this is our horde:

• 30 pocket diapers
  
• 42 bamboo/fleece inserts
  
• 10 bamboo inserts
  
• 4 newborn diaper covers (we don't use now)
  
• 4 one size diaper covers (we don't use now)
  
  Personally, the Rumparooz were okay. We found the newborn ones better than the one size ones.
  
  The newborn covers were great. However, for the one size, the elastics are extremely strong. So poop can get in between and stay there. Additionally, because the elastics are strong, it left marks on baby girl. Not enough to cut off circulation or anything, but enough that it made my wife concerned. Also, because of the tightness, the elastics couldn't be opened up during the wash cycle. So after a while, the elastics and the PUL fabric would start to smell like urine. We think that may have been a factor that contributed to baby girl's month long diaper rash. However, the main contributing factor was her acid poop (don't feed your baby citrus fruits too early, it looks painful). The tight elastic didn't help with healing.
  
  If I had a do-over, I'd look into BumGenius or something for the covers. I heard a lot of good things about their products. Not sure if they do covers. However, I have no complaints with the diapers we got from planetbaby.ca.
  
  Yikes. That's a lot more than I thought I'd type out. If you have further questions, I'll be happy to answer.

The one I bought is the Merkur 34C, it is pricy and if you have larger hands. The Merku4 34C will feel small. Select the 38C, as it has a longer handle.

The other one I have seen people recommend it the Edwing Jagger DE89lbl. I think either one will work fine. If you can get to a House of Knives or a Tommy gun's I think they will have them on display so you can handle them.

Please note, unlike your normal cartridge razors, these razors are top heavy. It takes a bit of practice to be able to shave well, quickly and not cut yourself. Since the weight is at the top, you need less overall pressure to shave. Also I would really recommend that you sign up for one of those razor blade clubs, that way you have a large selection of blades to try. Not all razor blades are the same. I use feather because I read they are really good but aggressive blades. I had no idea what that meant. It just means you gotta be careful. My SO kept going "i see you cut yourself again" for a good 3 months. While I learned how to shave with both the razor and the blade combination. The razor itself will come with a blade, and the others you will have to try on your own. Looking back, I should have signed up for a "gift box" of blades to try a couple of brands instead of just going "I'll just use Feather because the internet said it was good."

Good Luck.

Also not using alcohol based aftershave and shaving foam has been great for my face. I use shaving soap, and some baby oil.

Can I recommend using an Aeropress?

In my opinion it's better tasting than a french press and its super easy to clean; just twist off the cap, push the finished puck of grinds out into the garbage, then rinse with water, disassemble and leave to dry.

Edit: Cheaper links for press, and filters

Keep saving. This is more important than MERs at your level. Good job not being in debt. Consider switching to e-series funds in the future. You could convert your mutual fund account to an e-series account or open up a direct investing account. Google to find more info if you're stuck.

http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2012/03/05/some-advice-for-new-potatoes/

http://canadiancouchpotato.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/CCP-Model-Portfolios-TD-e-Series.pdf
https://www.td.com/ca/products-services/investing/td-direct-investing/accounts/open-an-account/index.jsp

Check out these books and resources (from the library)

http://www.amazon.ca/MoneySense-Guide-Perfect-Portfolio-2013-ebook/dp/B00G2FGMQ8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1452659802&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.ca/Millionaire-Teacher-Wealth-Should-Learned-ebook/dp/B005OKPBR8/ref=pd_sim_351_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=5125Kw3bMbL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR106%2C160_&refRID=03FJ3C0XVWVFT7EJ56H4

http://www.amazon.ca/How-Move-Back-Your-Parents/dp/038567192X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452659888&sr=1-1

http://www.moneysense.ca/retire/the-best-of-retire-rich/

Good luck

Can I offer an alternative? Why don't you buy a temporary Android phone for $100 and save for the next few months to buy an iphone later on? I am just offering this suggestion because I am personally against a line of credit for consumer items.

Full Disclosure: I love iOS and Android equally, I own an iPhone but I always put financial priorities first. I saved up for my iPhone 7 over the last year to buy it outright.

https://www.amazon.ca/BLU-Advance-5-0-Unlocked-Smartphone-Compatible/dp/B018IZ0SWI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481025656&sr=8-1&keywords=blu+android Here is one for $80

Not sure your budget, but this one has great reviews and is only $219

https://www.amazon.ca/Zinus-Ultima-Comfort-Memory-Mattress/dp/B005G5SIRG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?crid=VG98IVE7ZSZU&keywords=queen+mattress&qid=1567889304&s=kitchen&sprefix=queen,aps,177&sr=1-6&linkCode=ll1&tag=glitzandgf-20&linkId=e9022f665daa9d0795340ebc9304d02b&language=en_CA

Really recommend this book. It's a fantastic read:

http://www.amazon.ca/When-Bubble-Bursts-Surviving-Canadian/dp/1459729803/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427140405&sr=8-1&keywords=when+the+bubble+bursts

home ownership in the GTA and Vancouver is overrated. i would recommend reading this book: The Wealthy Renter and possibly this one if you're more inclined When the Bubble Bursts. they at least provide you with less biased advice than your friends, family and the real estate industry.

Read the book: The Debt Free Lifestyle: A strategy for the Average Canadian. The author is a huge fan of prioritizing paying down the house first (for monstrous savings on interest).

https://www.amazon.ca/Debt-Free-Lifestyle-Strategy-Canadian/dp/1988025079

They're so expensive though, the grinders! Amazon looks like $150-200?  Cheapest I found is - https://www.amazon.ca/Cuisinart-CBM-18C-Programmable-Conical-Burr/dp/B002H0QMGW/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1549388579&sr=8-7&keywords=conical+burr+grinder

>You Need A Budget

It's currently free on Amazon with an audiobook trial kind of thing.

https://www.amazon.ca/You-Need-Budget-Paycheck-Paycheck-ebook/dp/B071Y2XSFN

> Essential Retirement Guide by Fred Vettese

Thanks, this one, right? https://www.amazon.ca/Essential-Retirement-Guide-Contrarians-Perspective/dp/1119111129/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509569427&sr=8-1&keywords=the+essential+retirement+guide

Thanks! Is this it? https://www.amazon.ca/Essential-Retirement-Guide-Contrarians-Perspective/dp/1119111129

Check out the books How Not to Move Back in With Your Parents: The Young Person's Complete Guide to Financial Empowerment and More Money for Beer and Textbooks for Canadian books aimed at teenagers.

Wealthy Barber Returns is also a solid “basics” book.

Buy a merkur 34c, you won't regret it.

https://www.amazon.ca/Merkur-Heavy-Classic-Safety-Razor/dp/B002A8JO1Q/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?gclid=Cj0KCQjw3uboBRDCARIsAO2XcYDn4rxQm7NrMkHAJnjWGVVbOrrqvy8sMpRrtcRE0PrBPhjFXqa_oR4aAu6FEALw_wcB&hvadid=208482290840&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9001215&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=6617579443206802455&hvtargid=kwd-488387101592&hydadcr=19768_9260447&keywords=merkur%2B34c&qid=1562005128&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&th=1

I would break down your "fun" in to categories. If your spending $200 on coffee each month, it might be worth looking in to a coffee maker and some contigo mugs.

I would buy 2, $2-5 coffee's at work every day. So, 20 days of work thats 80-200/month. Since I bought a AeroPress and a nice travel mug that I fill up each day I have been able to put about $100 more into savings each month. I still buy the odd coffee but I prefer the aeropress and specific beans. It only takes an extra 3 minutes in the morning.