Share your personal solutions to the rising prices
Pakistan has been slipping deep into economic recession with record level inflationary pressures. During countless discussions with people, the reaction is always one of amazement as to how people can still cope with such high commodity and petrol prices.
I am keen to learn from the readers how your lives have been affected by the current price hike. I can appreciate most of us are the fortunate ones who make up the middle and upper classes of society with less impact than the disadvantaged. However, I have a personal story which goes to show the current situation is felt across all spectrums of society…
We all know the wheat shortage crisis last winter. At its peak, I experienced first hand the difficulty with which my household cook had to procure a bag of atta. If I recall correctly, it took him best part of the day to scour the city and eventually got hold of a bag. The surprising aspect of it all was that this took place in the most up market neighbourhoods of the city and my family didn’t have any financial constraints. I just wonder how people with less influence and money must have coped during the time.
It would be great to hear your experiences of dealing with the rising prices and how you have dealt with it – For instance, reduced non-essential car travel; eating less meat; eating out less; stopped buying new gadgets/clothes etc.
It would be nice if everyone could share their thoughts as I strongly believe some of your solutions will spread best practice and help others in adopting them and saving some of their own money.
Thanks!
I wud say, No Way Out, at least with hiking price of oil, we just need to keep on sqeezing our home budgets :(. A little that i do is, i dont buy unnecessary goods and i invest in things depending on short-term and long-term usage.
well, the car has been long since converted to CNG. (althou now the gas is also increasing by 31%!)
– fruits once a week now
– atta thing has been resolved by bringing wheat from the native village and getting it ground here in the city
Peeps – thanks for the great input. I quite like the wheat solution…good thought.
I think we all need nifty ideas to beet the prices.
My two cents worth would be to get the good old mosquito net and pedestal pak fan out and sleep on the roof. The only hitch is the constant stream of incomprehensible religious chanting from the mosques on every block.
Ah…I think I just found inspiration for my next post :-)
I do’nt know how i would have copped with the killing hike now because prices were unbearable 4 years ago for me. Driven by the petrol price and car maintenance costs I decided for the company van after braving ferozpur road for 5 years. I think we should all reconsider the fashion of using 1 car per person as it puts load on road as well personal budgets. Govt should also be pushed to provide mass transport service as metros. The company van worked for me in following terms
1. cost efficient
2. No driving stress
3. No more sitting at office at all hours for i had a van to catch
@"to get the good old mosquito net and pedestal pak fan out and sleep on the roof."
hmm, good idea :) *reminds me of the summer vacations when we were kids *once upon a time* and we used to have these nets and also having my grandparents around.
@ bringing wheat from the native village……….
well, add effort, travel cost etc to get this done, it will cost you the same at the end or maybe 10 Rs less.
@Reconsider the fashion of using 1 car per person
Behtereen, but, bibi, we are already short of tolerance, i guess only a few can act on such.
Ok, so the whole time I’ve been in Lahore (read about 9 months), I became addicted to Milo. So for months I would buy Milo for Rs 15. So two weeks ago, I go to this petrol pump shop in Raiwind, and he tells me it’s for Rs 18. I accuse him of cheating, and he says it’s price hike. So I go to the next shop, and he tells me Milo is now Rs. 20. I tell him he is cheating his customers. So I call up Nestle and I get the official price: Rs 15! I checked out several other shops and they are all cheating their customers. I made a scene in Shezan when he was charging me Rs 18, and I forced him to sell it to me for Rs 15 because thats what the packet says. I threatened to take Shezan to consumer courts, and only then did he sell them for the original price of Rs 15. There are several places that still sell them for Rs. 15 and why some of the smaller shops selling them for higher price to cheat customers is beyond me. T
Well, that’s right…a lot of prices hike can be attributed to ‘middle man’ business men