What is cheap today???

What is cheap today after the 41% petrol hike announced by the government on 5th June 2008? It has been >3 weeks...I am sure everybody started to feel the pinch (or already teruk kena pinch???) especially those families with kids....

Yesterday at my client's place the lady was telling me just the milk powder alone for her 2 kids costs her RM400/month!!! My God! Just milk powder??? Perhaps she should look for other cheaper alternatives.....or producing her own!! (Just Kidding)....this beside the point of this entry I decided to write.....

A glimpse at the history of the Petrol hike in the country:
1990 - RM 1.10 (increased RM 0.21)
01/10/2000 - RM 1.20 (increased RM 0.10)
20/10/2001 - RM 1.30 (increased RM 0.10)
01/05/2002 - RM 1.32 (increased RM 0.02)
31/10/2002 - RM 1.33 (increased RM 0.01)
01/03/2003 - RM 1.35 (increased RM 0.02)
01/05/2004 - RM 1.37 (increased RM 0.02)
01/10/2004 - RM 1.42 (increased RM 0.05)
05/05/2005 - RM 1.52 (increased RM 0.10)
31/07/2005 - RM 1.62 (increased RM 0.10)
28/02/2006 – RM 1.92 (increased RM 0.30)
05/06/2008 – RM 2.70 (increased RM 0.78)

The worst in the history....I am sure this would be the worst for everybody....the last time when the petrol increased by 30 cents per litre....everybody was already complaining like hell!!! DPM has to go on public TV to ask everybody to adjust/change their lifestlye to overcome the hard time....etc. That was just >2yrs ago.....This time round with 78 cents increase ...what else there for most people to adjust/change??

Take for example:

The last time with 30 cents/litre increase....a plate of Hokkien mee was increased from RM4 to RM5. RM1 increase!!! I told myself I would never go back to my usual place to eat. Change of lifestyle ma.....in fact I hardly went back to eat the Hokkien mee after that....PROTEST!!!

So, after 3 weeks from the recent hike, I went back to the same place and order a plate of Hokkien mee.....look! This pathetic plate of Hokkien mee costs me RM5.50!!!

That is 50 cents increase!!!.....there is nothing much in it!! Not only that....a glass of the Kopi ais i used to pay RM1.50 now cost me RM1.90.....40 cents increase!!! So I got to pay extra RM0.90 per the usual meal....don't forget I pay extra to get there for every km I travel.....so the meal actually cost more than that! How to justify for that kind of increase??? You tell me!!

So, to adjust/change my lifestyle to overcome the extra living costs....I probably would never eat out anymore.....simple meal at home will do. Already the travelling between home and office alone is costing me RM100/week.....Extra RM25-30/week....RM100-120/month!!! So, I think I would probably give up the gym membership which I am paying RM120/month.....still there are many "hidden" costs directly or indirectly impacted from the petrol and electicity tariff hike that not accounted for....so inflation is expected to go up. NOTHING WOULD COME CHEAP!!!! NO MORE DRIVING AROUND WITH NO GOOD REASON!!!!

Can't imagine a family with 2 schooling kids.....the parents has to bear extra travelling cost to earn a living has to pay extra for the tambang bas sekolah....or bear extra to send/pick their children from school....if they already provide only the basic necessity to their children...how do they cope when prices are going up for everything??

If one been working so hard for a better living for his/her family, giving the best one could for his/her children....sad to say now you either got to work EXTRA HARDER to sustain what you been working for or DEGRADE yourself and back to square one.....sad?