Calgarian Zahra Khakoo is imposing a 24-hour rule as one of her 2025 financial resolutions.
The widowed single mother said it’s easy to be tempted by fashion influencers on social media, and to instantly make online purchases that quickly add up.
Khakoo is hoping that waiting a full day before clicking the checkout button will help her weed out spur of the moment purchases and focus on things she really needs.
It is one of several steps Khakoo, who has a 15-year-old daughter, is implementing as she looks for ways to regrow her savings after a setback. Cutting down on the use of overpriced food delivery apps, rebuilding her emergency fund through regular contributions and creating a dedicated hockey fund for her daughter are among the others.
Khakoo is one of millions of Canadians who are rethinking their spending in 2025 as costs continue to climb and stretch family budgets. Data released by Statistics Canada on Tuesday showed that average annual inflation was 2.4 per cent in 2024, down from 3.9 per cent a year earlier but still higher than the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target.
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Financial resolutions are one tool families can use to take control of their money, said personal finance expert Kelley Keehn, who hails from Edmonton and co-founded the Moneywise Institute. But sticking to them requires a roadmap.
Families thinking about financial resolutions should start by defining their goals — whether it’s travelling, buying a home or having a child — before digging further into their financial status, such as assets, debts and net worth, she said.
Impulse spending, which Khakoo targeted among her resolutions, is a common problem, especially in an era when people are bombarded by email deals and social media posts from algorithms that intimately know your browsing habits, Keehn said. She recommends unsubscribing from marketing emails and newsletters, taking a break from social media and leaving more expensive items waiting in online shopping carts — Khakoo’s 24-hour rule.
“I’m not saying don’t buy it, I’m not saying you don’t deserve it, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t have it,” Keehn said. But if you’re buying on credit, she asked, can you really afford it?
Special events such as holidays, weddings and birthdays are notable times when people end up going over budget, Keehn said. But it is also insidious everyday spending that can cause leaks in household budgets — such as ordering dinner from a delivery app after an exhausting work week. For busy families, Keehn recommends thinking about “points of failure” during the week and planning ahead as much as possible.
“It’s about setting the rules up to win and making it easy, like having frozen pizza in the freezer instead of ordering it in,” she said. “Just having some fail-safes where you didn’t spend $60, you spent $10 or $15, and it’s … not going to break your budget.”
Food costs loom large in the mind of Caitlin McCormick. The 38-year-old Port Hope, Ont., woman said her eight- and 12-year-old sons now consume more food than her some days, which adds to her growing expenses.
In the midst of finalizing a divorce, McCormick said she has had to focus much more on her spending habits and where she allocates money. She has resolved to put a firm number next to her financial goals, instead of keeping it vague.
“I’ve definitely been feeling the crunch over the past year or two, especially as costs for variable expenses like groceries and gas continue to increase,” she said.
As a result, McCormick’s financial resolutions are to minimize impulse purchases, especially when shopping online, and to stash money away each month for a planned vacation.
McCormick has learned that assigning a specific number to her goals helps her follow through with resolutions much more than a plan to just “save more,” she said. For instance, she will be putting away $350 a month for a vacation this year.
She has also started on her plan to curb impulse spending by unsubscribing from marketing emails to her favourite stores and removing her credit card information from shopping apps on her phone.
“I’ve found myself asking whether a purchase is truly a want or a need a lot more over the last while, to adjust my spending habits,” she said.
Meanwhile, Taylor Barker and her husband are planning to take the biggest step of all.
Both have good, steady jobs, but sometimes it still doesn’t feel like enough, she said. So the family has resolved to sell their home.
“I don’t think it’s possible to fly by the seat of your pants financially anymore, just with how much it costs to live,” said the 32-year-old, who lives in Dundas, Ont., and is a parent to an 18-month-old son.
For Barker, that means selling her home and moving closer to the country, where her spouse grew up. She said the move will help reduce taxes and give her family more bang for their buck in terms of property.
“We’re hoping to make sure we’re able to afford everything we can for our son,” she said, rather than saying “no” because they are spending more on a mortgage than they can afford.
Regardless of what financial resolutions families have made, Keehn said, it is important not to see it as something limited to a fresh start to the year.
“It’s keeping it top of mind — making a date with yourself, with your family, your spouse or your partner, and putting it in your calendar,” Keehn said.
“So every Saturday morning you’re going to check all of your credit cards and what you spent and reconcile them if you can. Or at least put them in a tracker, and then maybe once a month you have a family meeting. Put it all in your calendar.”
Those actions can make a resolution stick into something more permanent, she said.
“If something’s in my calendar … if the gym is in there, if meditating is in there, if going grocery shopping and meal planning is in there, I am so much more likely to get it done, and especially if you have (done) it continuously for years.”
— With files from Jane Switzer
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