Higher Living Cost

Nowadays the more I read the news, the more I get agitated. Now there is a “warning” issue by one minister that if we would to say anything which is deem offensive we will get caught under ISA. You look at Thailand, there are open demo which criticize the Prime Minister and government in the number of 100,000 people weekly and they are still around. Some will say, it’s lawless but I say its freedom of speech at its best.

Today when my sis bought her normal duck rice with grilled pork she was surprise to know the price is now Rm5.50 increase from Rm4.50 one year ago. You know why? Due to petrol price increase lor. Below is a picture of a RM5.50 rice.

When petrol price increased we were told that ours is the cheapest around the region. But someone has nevertheless forgot that we have others related items like car prices which is still a lot more than our neighbours even after the just announce decrease. Our road tax is higher as compare with our neighbours. This means although their petrol price is higher but it was compensated with the lower price of others. What about us? A better transportation system with more tolls or higher fares? For my breakfast today I ate a very basic vegetarian fried mee hoon with just Choy Sum which cost RM2.50.

Just for the fun a calculation of an average spender, just the basic things to eat, use for a month.

Breakfast
Rm2.50 (Vegetarian mee hoon) + Rm1 (Mineral water)
Rm1.20 (Newspaper)

Lunch
Rm5.50 (rice) + Rm1.50 (Kopi O)

Dinner
Rm5.50 (rice) + Rm1.50 (Kopi O)

In total = Rm18.7, so multiply by 31 to get the cost for a month. It comes up to Rm579.70.
This does not include petrol cost for daily travel, parking, monthly haircut, beauty care, car loans, house loans, eletricity, water, household items and etc.

Can survive? I remember my first job actually pays me Rm180 per month, which was around 20 years ago…..now I guess you need at least Rm1500 net per month to lives "ok"ly.