From child care and housing, to food and vacations, here’s how inflation is

Carlyne St Jules may have to cut her family vacation short this year, thanks to soaring inflation.

“Everything out here, it’s $300 and up,” she says of hotel rooms in Montreal, where she has family and previously studied dance.

“To fill my tank … to come here it was like $89. I have a small four-door Kia.”

St Jules, a 29-year-old event co-ordinator who now lives in New York City with her three children, ages two, seven and 10, says she “brought them out here so they can see my old stomping grounds — but I don’t know how much I’ll be stomping around here with these prices.”

From ballooning grocery bills to pricier extracurricular activities, parents are confronting cost-of-living increases that have them worried about opportunities for their children and a stable financial future for their family.

Cost of just about everything is rising

Inflation hit a 39-year high in June amid an economy hampered by COVID-19, labour shortages, supply chain challenges and the looming threat of a recession.

Money doesn’t stretch as far these days on everything from diapers to daycare and family outings. As well, vacations are harder on the wallet as the cost of gas soars and prices for travel accommodations rise.

Young parents aren’t accustomed to such speedy price hikes; many weren’t born when inflation last hit this pace in 1983.

Mortgage and rent, along with car loans take some of the biggest bites out of parents’ incomes, said Scott Hannah, CEO of the Credit Counselling Society.

For drivers, prices at the pump have increased even faster — gasoline prices for June, the most recent month available, were 54.6 per cent higher than in the same month in 2021, according to Statistics Canada data. 

These financial drains are making things difficult for Canadians, Hannah said. Meanwhile, children’s appetites grow, clothes need replacing and extracurricular sports, classes and activities mount. He said that having a young family is the most expensive time in a person’s life.

“I’ll be 65 next February — it’s hard to say that — and back when I was a kid it wasn’t that big of a deal if you didn’t have the latest and greatest. But boy, it sure is now,” Hannah said of the pressure of consumer trends.

No relief

For Montreal residents Nabil and Samia Haliche, bigger grocery bills and a pricey toll at the pumps have pushed them to hunt harder for food sales.

“We see it clearly at the grocery store,” said Samia, after she and her husband stepped out of a second-hand clothing store in Montreal with their two daughters, ages two and 10. “Everything is more expensive than usual.”

Families with young children often have one parent on parental leave, off work or working part-time, adding to the financial strain.

Housing prices and rents also shot up throughout the pandemic. The national home price…