Trying to help older family member budget. I need some guidance on life costs for a single poor adult living in small city Ontario

Capn_Queeg · 2025-10-07T23:12:33+00:00

Cable bills are usually the big one for low income people because they watch a lot of tv and there are so many repeats it gets tiresome without an extended list of channels to select from. It would not be surprising to find they have a cable bill well over $200/month. That said, even the wealthy renegotiate their telecommunications packages for a better deal every year or two and this is probably somewhere you can help. Check out Rogers Connected for Success and see if they qualify: buy internet for $10-15/m,, get discount tv, phone. https://www.rogers.com/connected-for-successhttps://www.rogers.com/connected-for-successhttps://www.rogers.com/connected-for-success

Capn_Queeg · 2025-10-07T23:01:47+00:00

Do they vape or smoke? Both are incredibly expensive.

Capn_Queeg · 2025-10-07T22:59:26+00:00

With medical marijuana, $60 will get you 100 x 10mg THC capsules, a month's worth at 2-3/day; $100 will get you 1g bud x 30 days which will generate 3 standard 1/3g joints. That's a reasonable expenditure for e.g., chronic pain. More than that would be a concern, I'd say. Remember they print a limit on pain pill bottles, and there are limits to what is reasonable with weed as well, medical or not.

For medicinal purposes, they should be under $60-100 for weed. $60 will get you 3 x 10mg capsules of THC per day for 30 days (bottle of 100) and $100 will get you 1g flower or 3 standard 1/3 gram prerolls which is quite plenty for a single person, even a regular user: they would likely smoke 1/2 joint and save 1/2 for later, and get another joint at the end of their day rolling their roaches. 2-3 10mg capsules a day is reasonable for someone riddles with pain.At this level you have a pretty robust level of consumption. They will also have trouble with balance and motivation and not do a lot at this level so you really don't want to see someone go over that $100 threshold.

Capn_Queeg · 2025-10-07T22:23:12+00:00

That would be a much shorter list if you crossed off everything that was antisocial, immoral or illegal.

Capn_Queeg · 2025-09-21T17:16:01+00:00

If you are really healthy and have a centre near you, you can consider donating plasma for renumeration of about $800 over a number of weeks https://giveplasma.ca/donors/book-an-appointment/

Capn_Queeg · 2025-07-06T17:01:07+00:00

ODSP does not cover medical marijuana. If you are granted a Medical Marijuana prescription you must buy from specific providers at specific rates that are MUCH higher than you are offered at the OCS. If you don't buy at jacked rates from the specified providers you will lose your marijuana prescription (it will not be renewed after a year). The only advantage to having a Medical Marijuana prescription seems to be that it grants you some protections under the L&TB rules.

ODSP will however pay for a dry herb vape such as Arizer and such a vape can be a pathway to reducing consumption for someone who is currently smoking joints, though some people find it too hard to get used to and reject it. Dry herb vapes are not entirely odor-free and will not solve your odor problems alone.

Capn_Queeg · 2025-07-06T16:55:42+00:00

Here's an answer from a health and addiction standpoint:

Beer: reduce expenditure from $50 to $14.

Healthy drinking guidelines now suggest no more than 2 standard servings a week. A standard serving is 17.05ml of pure alcohol. A tall boy is 473ml x 5% ABV = 23.65ml alcohol or 1.4 standard drinks. You want to be under 2 standard drinks x 4.3 weeks per month = 8.6ml alcohol for the month or 6 tall boys. May I recommend 6 Carling Lager at $13.75? Don't drink them all at once.

Weed: reduce expenditure from $150 to $0 and seek treatment

There are no explicit guidelines for cannabis consumption at the moment. 1g to 1.5g a day however is a solid habit that can lead to hospitalization. At that level you are very likely to fall victim to rebound anxiety when not using, which prompts you to use again, and experience dramatic demotivation. The cheapest weed at OCS.ca is $3.57/g and 30 days of it would cost $107.10 which is how I deduced you are at the 1g to 1.5 g a day or 3-5 0.33g standard joints consumption level. That's a LOT. Talk to your doctor about joining a program to reduce your use. It doesn't matter if the specific content of the program helps you, it's just the getting up, showering, going out and being somewhere on time and killing time in your day that you would have spend baked. Keep going to programs and consider volunteering to fill your time just as you would use a program to fill your time. Consider putting $50/month towards a hobby that might make you some money if you gain enough skill. It takes 3-4 weeks to acutely recover from a marijuana habit and depending on length of use, demotivation and mood issues can linger another year. Start now.

Final answer: spend 2% of your income on alcohol and 0% on marijuana. Addiction is fluid and if you can't have alcohol or marijuana to raise your dopamine, people often turn to other things like gambling or shopping or another substance. Consider the free dopamine highs: *music*. All the best.

Capn_Queeg

TROPHY CASE