On Tuesday, 15th July, there was a LIVE debate between Dtk Annuar Ibrahim and Dato Shabery Cheek about oil price. According to Annuar, he can reduce the current petrol price of RM2.70 per litre to RM2.20 per litre. A reduction of 50 cents. Of course both of them present the mombo jumbo thoughout the debate and the online version can be view in many sites. However, my topic here is not about discussing politic or my view on the debate. To me there's no benefit for me if I only hear all talk and no action. I will believe when I see result.
So how do I plan to overcome my financial burden in view of the rising cost of living? Not the mentioned I have to spend close to $200 each time I buy groceries for one person. In a few years back, I only spend less than $100 to stock up a whole month's groceries. Now, it is more important to flip though the newspaper to check what's on cheaper sales from hypermarket such as Giant, Cold Storage, Tesco and Carefour. Although I compare the prices, I only buy groceries at Giant, Cold storage and Isetan. All the non-perishable items I will buy at Giant and Cold Storage. However, for perishable items such as beef, onions, button mushroom, potatoes, garlic, fish, Japanese food and etc I will buy at Isetan. How, because in Isetan thses items are fresher and last longer. Example is onion. When I buy onions in Isetan, it stays fresh for 3-4 weeks. However in Giant, the onion on sales there are already near rotten. Besides that, it's difficult to select a good one out of a pile. No doubt the price in Giant is cheaper but I have to throw it away when I can't finish it on time. The one I bought from Isetan will not rotten easily and sometime lasted for few weeks. Therefore, when I buy groceries, I not only look for cheapest price but also freshness and long lasting. That's how I stretch my money these days.
Besides that, I do some freelance work to earn extra money. I'm partnering with my friend who's a great designer. He designs, I manage and service. I have been doing freelancing for many years but it has been on and off kind of thing. I have never taken it off due to planning and locality. Now that I have set up my study, I can concentrate on developing this business. It will be difficult because there are millions of people like me and it's a cut throat market. Some freelancers offer dirt cheap price that is just unreasonable and not even profitable. They probably took the job for some fast and easy cash. I tried that too when I was younger and it goes nowhere. In the end all the hours your put in turn to nothing because the cheap price you offer won't generate any income for rolling. I'm still at the planning stage because it's the most important part of the business. I prefer to get my foundation right and dynamic change according to market trend later.
Other than that, I'm selling the jewelly beads I made to friends and acquaintances. It's still slow but all business has to starts somewhere. I still haven't have time to upload my beads projects here. Main reason is because I'm still lazy in taking photos of the beads work and upload it. I'll see if I have the mood to do it this weekend. If not, we'll just have to wait a bit longer.
Instead of eating outside everyday, I resort to cooking at home. Altough cooking at home means instant noodles for dinner on weekdays. On weekend, I make sure I cook a 2proper meals. I stay near a hypermarket so I will buy the ingredient such as vegetable, chicken, taufoo fresh. I also started to learn some recipes from the cook books I have. I love to cook so I collect cook books and I use the rebate from credit cards to buy cook books. Everyone I know don't believe that I can cook or I like to cook. I can't blame them because I am a workaholic and queen control. Furthermore, I normally share my cooking with my sister and 2 other friends only. I plan to learn how to bake cakes, muffins and cookies. If it's any good, I plan to sell it. Of course I can't just sell it. My plan is to give it away as gifts to friends in first order or make. Then, the next order they will have to pay. I haven't decide on the price yet but I don't intend to charge a rocket for it. Everyone is having financial burden and the only way to get people to continue spending money is to charge a reasonable and affordable price.
Lastly, I started to take LRT and buses where possible. LRT is fine because I can still control my travel timing. Bus is when I have a lot of time to kill or the bus is already available when I arrive at the station. If not, I will use taxi. I hope taxi fares will not goes up. That will drastically impact my financial. Well, these are my ways to overcome the rising cost of living.
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