Whether we live to eat or eat to live, we all need food.. and as with everything else, it is getting much more harder to have a good meal without having to burn a hole in one's pocket nowadays.. Most of the time, you might be able to get the same food/dishes for the same price, but its quantity and/or quality suffers.. Your roti canai might still be MYR$1 but it definitely is smaller in size, and a couple of years ago, you could have had 2 glasses of teh tarik with the price of one these days..
Food in this country is no longer cheap.. And it has been rising since a few years ago and had kinda gotten worse these past few months that even the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism's website has stopped displaying the price list of controlled goods since March 2011!! Makes me wonder how the Ministry is gonna "enforce" these prices when they themselves can't even list out the prices of these controlled goods!!
Here are some food prices* :
1 loaf of bread (white, Gardenia) -> MYR$ 2.50
10 eggs (M size) -> MYR$ 3.20 - $ 4
1 liter of fresh milk -> MYR$ 4 - $ 5
1 kg of chicken (fresh, uncooked) -> MYR$ 5 - $ 7
10 kg of rice (local, non-fragrant) -> MYR$ 21 - $ 30
1 glass of teh tarik -> MYR$ 1.20 - $ 2
1 piece of roti canai -> MYR$ 1 - $ 1.20
1 plate of wan tan noodle -> MYR$ 4 - $ 5
1 plate of nasi kandar -> MYR$ 4.50 - $ 8
* prices taken from several hyper-markets and might not be up to date.
So your breakfast could cost between MYR$ 2.20 - $ 3.20 if you were to have a glass of teh tarik and a piece of roti canai. Then your lunch, assume that you eat with your colleagues at a kopitiam, will be at least MYR$ 6 (average of $4.50 for rice/noodle dish and $1.50 for drinks) and MYR$ 4 for take-away dinner (assume that you don't want to eat alone at the shops). In this case, you would spend around MYR$ 12 a day eating out, which will come up to MYR$ 360 a month..
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| sushi.. a luxury in Bolehland.. |
Prices for fresh fruits and vegetables here are disproportionately more expensive, when compared to countries like Thailand and Indonesia.. Produces, like fresh vegetables, tropical fruits and rice, are supposed to be affordable as we have so much arable land, yet we import most of our food.. Why is that? Cos everyone wants to work in air-con offices, wear tie and shirt to work and be a professional, instead of a farmer.. We are importing 30% of our rice needs currently, and are stockpiling rice due to fears of world food shortages and looming grain crisis in China.. There are several well-written articles on this predicament of ours, you can read them here and here..
Global food prices are rising steadily... and it doesn't help that global warming is playing a huge part in driving up food prices world wide either.. thus one very good and healthy way of saving is to cook at home more often.. You can opt to cook more during weekends and freeze the extra portions for lunch or dinners in the coming week. You can be creative and try out different recipes.. You can cook using produce/items that are on sale thus save further on cost. By cooking at home, you control what you eat by making healthy choices of consuming more vegetables and fruits, and less oil and sugar. And with the savings, you can indulge in good restaurant foods occasionally.. it is definitely a win (save $$) - win (be healthy) solution..
Next, telecommunication cost..
Disclaimer: I am not an economist nor am I (formally) trained in finance.. The figures above are my own estimation which are based on data gleaned from my family/friends and the Internet. I am just stating my observation, experience and thoughts, as I had lived in 3 different Asian countries/cities in the past 20 years...
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