Soaring prices? No problem

By Cesar Gorillo

INFLATION at 5.2 percent lately as a result of the train law has created a surge in prices of all commodities.

So, I checked on our purchasing practices and I found out that we buy on a per week marketing basis which we put in our refrigerator two kilos of pork at P220 per kilo or a total of P440 per week, two kilos of isda sa bato at P230 each or P460 per week, two kilos of beef at P250 per kilo or P500 per week and five kilos of premium rice at P55 per kilo or P275.  All of these weekly marketing alone already cost us P1,675.  So we decided, instead to re-program our eating habits and shifted to pure vegetables of all kinds and cooked them with a sprinkling of ground pork at one kilo per week for aroma purposes.  All types of vegetables alone only cost us P500 per week because we chose the cheapest ones such as camote tops which we pour out hot water for a very crunchy salad mixed with vinegar,  kangkong for fried kangkong mixed with ground pork,  eggplant for egg omelet, and many other types for law-uy  menus mixed with lutya. Then we changed our premium rice to corn grits which only sells at P30 per kilo or P150 per week. Because we love to eat fish, we changed our fish type to the cheapest one such as tamban which only sells at P60 per kilo or P120 per week. So, at present, our total weekly marketing expenses totals P770, thereby saving us P905 per week.

For our electricity cost, I found out that we spend P1,000 more because of our room is airconditioned. We have it replaced with an electric fan and as per latest billing, we were able to save at least P700.

Our cable billing is P575 per month. We had it cut off and just rely on ABS-CBN and GMA networks and so far, I am already addicted to the teleseryes.

Our two Android phones is consuming P20 every three days for the unli call and text and cost us P400 per month. We had it changed to the old non-Android type and only wait that we be called rather than call. For important messages, we use the text so we load out phones with just P20 or P40 every 15 days or P80 per month and that saves us P320 for the whole month.

We checked on our snacks and spend a lot of money on biscuits, cakes, breads and we changed them to bananas which we cook, camote, cassava, lutya and we are saving at least P1,000 per month.  Then we just use the ground corn coffee which only costs P3 per paper pack which we boil rather than the expensive sachet type.

We also eliminated our habit of eating outside at least once a month for which we spend at least P1,000 on one meal at special restaurants.

For our groceries every month, we tried to reduce many ingredients and we were able to save P500 per month.

For our water consumption, we try to save used water which we use to water our plants and out latest billing shows a reduction of P300 per month.

So, if we total how much we saved on pork, beef, fish and rice, it’s P3,620 per month. For electricity, its P700 per month, cable, P575 per month, cell phone load, its P320 per month, for snacks, it’s P1,000 per month, for water, it’s P300 per month, for groceries, it’s P500 per month. All in all, we were able to save P7,015 per month of our precious money.

Beating inflation can really be done. It’s only a matter of discipline and forgoing a little of the nice life we used to enjoy.

What are you waiting for? Start it now!