Should you’ve ordered ready meals since you didn’t have any within the fridge (or ordered elements as a result of doing a grocery run felt extra nerve-racking), you might be hardly alone. Most Canadians discover it worthwhile, even with further value of service charges, supply charge, and a tip.
It’s Monetary Literacy Month and we’re speaking about further {dollars} Canadians pay for comfort.
On Wednesday, Nov. 4, PC Monetary shared with MoneySense the findings of a survey Angus Reid carried out for it in late September.
In it, 92% of Canadians (from a complete of 1,498 adults) mentioned they’d picked a costlier choice previously yr as a result of it saved them time or effort. That quantity sounds alarming, till you have a look at how typically folks really do it.
Solely 14% mentioned they pay extra for comfort typically or fairly often. One other 45% mentioned typically. For many of us, the price of comfort is a sample we slip into at times, not a way of life.
That makes it a very good factor to take a look at carefully, as a result of the occasional splurge is simple to justify, and the small ones are the simplest to lose monitor of.
Is the comfort charge value it?
Most individuals (77%) may identify at the very least one space the place the profit would justify the next value.
Predictably, groceries or meals got here first at 35%, adopted by family cleansing, upkeep or repairs at 34%. Should you’ve ever opened TaskRabbit to take care of a leaky faucet as an alternative of making use of experience you gained from YouTube in quarter-hour, you recognize what that’s like.
Time and trouble matter greater than they used to, too. Six in 10 respondents (60%) mentioned saving time or effort is extra necessary to them than it was 5 years in the past, and 59% mentioned the identical about decreasing stress or trouble.
Value continues to be a significant deciding issue although. When requested what makes one thing good worth, 61% mentioned a low value, 50% mentioned high quality, and 24% mentioned saving time or effort. Solely 3% described their strategy to spending as primarily prioritizing comfort.
The worth tag is just not at all times the value
One purpose comfort is tough to price range for is that the true value can present up late, at checkout.
The Competitors Bureau calls this drip pricing: providing a low value to draw clients, then including obligatory charges so the marketed value can’t really be paid.
Beneath the Bureau’s steering, companies shouldn’t promote a value that clients can’t really pay, aside from government-imposed expenses like gross sales tax.
The Bureau has taken that argument to the Competitors Tribunal. In June 2025, it sued DoorDash, alleging the corporate promoted supply at a lower cost than clients ended up paying, due to obligatory service charges, supply charges, small-order charges and others added at checkout. The Bureau additionally alleged that a few of these charges had been offered in a approach that appeared they had been taxes.
Evaluating the ultimate complete at checkout is essential.
Home meals payments proceed to develop
StatCan says costs for meals purchased from shops rose 1.7% yr over yr in September, the smallest yearly improve since Could 2024. Nonetheless, grocery costs are up 33.0% since September 2020. Meals total rose 2.2% over the previous yr. It’s one of many largest shares of family spending.
