Griffiths Family: Today's Challenge....No WIFI :(

This challenge is asking families to attempt to stay within a social assistance budget for five days. Ontario Works benefits provide a maximum basic needs for a couple with any amount of children is $458.00; this sets the challenge budget at $75.00 per family, or $15 per day. A single parent would receive $344.00 per month, therefore, their challenge budget will be $60.00 or $12.00 per day.

The budget includes all food and drink, entertainment, some personal supplies and transportation costs. Each family will be given daily challenge cards which will reveal additional challenges to be completed before the end of each day. As the family completes the challenge, they will blog about their experience.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Today's Challenge....No WIFI :(

Just opened the challenge card for today ‘Wifi is just too expensive. Turn it off for the rest of the challenge. (Except to blog)’. I’m not sure what my daughter is going to say, she does not want to give up anything without a fight. She is reluctant to give up her tablet and I told her it really is her choice and can use it but to understand how it is a luxury that a lot of people do not have. (My parents, her dad and I went together to buy her one for Christmas, otherwise it would have been too expensive for us as well.) Our family uses Wifi everyday, we watch Netflix, play games, and google everything (I’m not sure how I will research more services in the area without it, I guess I’ll have to do the leg work next week).

Activities for today…We attend the Reddit Winter Carnival every year and my dad usually pays for the team, I would have had to take $10 out of my final $20 to curl otherwise so chances are I would have opted out. The gas to get out there and back over the weekend can get quite expensive and our family usually carpools but for this I will deduct $1 each way for the ‘carpool fund’ which we all know is not enough. I usually make a big dinner for everyone but am not able to do that either. I have packed our drinks, tea caraff, snacks, lunch and dinner because curling always runs late into the day. We usually bring some food and eat some from the canteen but there is no way I could afford to do that. The kids will bring their winter gear, sleighs, coloring books and books to keep them busy over the day and there are usually kids they know that they play with as well. I realize how much family support the kids and I have and I've spoken to my family about trying their best not to feed the kids anything today from the canteen so they eat what we can afford.

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Amber Griffiths
Anaiya 8
Jackson 4

Occupation: Finance Administrator / Assistant ED

My kids and I live in our own home, my son is attending JK 2 days per week and my daughter is now in grade 3. We try and stay active and participate in extracurricular activities as often as possible.

Average weekly budget for “basic needs”: $120

Family “splurge”:We like to splurge on skiing, it’s a very expensive sport and I can’t afford to go often.

The one item or service you purchase that you can’t live without: Gas, we are very active and our house, the kids school and my work are on 3 corners of town. Other than that it would probably be the phone, I’ve opted out of having a house phone to save money and have headsets in our house that run off of the Bluetooth from the cell phone.

What do you anticipate being the most difficult in the challenge? Gas, I have informed my work that I will probably work from home a day or two throughout the week of the challenge. My children have swimming lessons during the week and I generally run from Keewatin to Jaffrey Mellick to pick them up off the bus instead of the School (because it’s closer) and then pick up another child before heading to the pool from 4-7 with supper 2 times a week.

What do your children anticipate being most difficult?My children are worried that there won’t be enough groceries for them, my family and friends donate their grocery vouchers from the gas station to me and with mine I usually get between $40-$60 in groceries for $20. I won’t be spending as much on gas so that means I will have less grocery vouchers which will affect what I can buy.

Why did you decide to take the challenge? I decided to take the challenge because I thought it is a great way to raise awareness in our community of the challenges people face day to day. There are challenges that everyone faces every day, I struggle with my current budget and often have to opt out of opportunities because of the financial barrier. My life is all about my children, I would hope this challenge helps them along their journey of becoming humble adults, the gift of seeing people for who they are not what they have.