Bertha Henson, Straits Times 18 Nov 07;
COD and salmon made their appearance at my neighbourhood wet market recently. The housewives buy them in small portions because they cost so much more than the average selah kuning and kembong.
A kilogram of cod fillet is about $39 compared to $4 for selah kuning.
More choices, even blue potatoes, are available in the heartland. Now if only prices of everything remained the same...
Fish has always been more expensive than the other white meat, chicken. Except that one chicken breast now costs $2 instead of $1.50. We're talking per piece here, not in grams or kilos.
My mother mused about how a lower income family would buy a chicken breast and a thigh and that would be enough white meat for their children's meals for a few days.
Now how?
She mused too about the price of bread. A loaf of white bread from the neighbourhood confectionery now costs $1.20, when it used to be $1.
Perhaps, a switch to a Gardenia loaf - $1.40 in provision shops, $1.60 in supermarkets - might be better as the preservatives would make sure the bread doesn't go mouldy in two days, she thought aloud.
Then again, it's a question of whether a family can afford to pay upfront for the pricier loaf in the first place.
My mother's musings always make me feel guilty. I am a supermarket shopper and buy bread from Delifrance or BreadTalk.
Often, she berates me for buying more expensive, pre-packaged, economy-size foodstuff, knowing full well that I would have to dispose of them because I couldn't finish them before their use-by date.
So it's the wet market that the price-conscious shoppers go to. Not just because they can poke a fish and lift its gills to note its freshness, but also because they can buy stuff in small quantities - measured by the handful; break off that piece of ginger, pick a few stalks of chye sim - and pay for the exact amount.
And it's the provision shop or market's dry goods stalls for them, where the shopkeepers point out cheaper alternatives if shoppers can't afford the regular tin of Milkmaid condensed milk, now priced at $1.60.
The cheaper one, I was told, is Teapot, for less than $1.
Frugality has never been my strong suit. I think nothing of hopping into a taxi and paying the peak-hour surcharge when a wait of 10 minutes or so would have saved me some money.
But with the escalating cost of living and prices of essentials going up, you see people everywhere tightening their belts - and you put the brakes on your own spending.
Discussions about repealing Section 377A, while providing insights into the mores of society, are hardly relevant to the lives of a lot of people here.
Likewise, complaints from those who chafed that the deferred payment scheme for new properties is no longer in place do not strike a chord in most people who already own homes.
It is the price of bread, milk, noodles and cooking oil that is important when it looked like, to put it colloquially, our money is 'small''.
One silver lining amid the price rises: Holidaying in the United States is cheaper. But tell that to those whose idea of a vacation is a jaunt across the Causeway.
Sometimes, the more well-off among us who finance our needs via credit cards forget that it is money in hand that is most important for some people.
The lack of it is why people prefer to queue to pay bills than have them 'Giro-ed'' despite the incentives thrown at them to go electronic.
It is the reason some people do not have stored-value cards, because they cannot afford to put the money down in the first place.
When I defaulted on paying my part-time maid her monthly salary some years ago, I got an earful from my mother.
I should realise, she said, that some people are counting on getting cash at a specific time so they can pay their bills on time.
It upsets me to think that my maid, her kidney patient-husband and three school-going children might be living in a flat without water and electricity.
Cost of living issues made their way into Parliament this week, an indication that politicians are aware of the impact on the grassroots.
Big-picture explanations of worldwide rising oil prices, shortage of crops and costlier feed fly over the heads of most people. Similarly, inflation numbers juxtaposed with growth in gross domestic product can't fight with the amount of cash in the wallet.
Who's coping with this hopefully temporary crisis? Who's not? Is this just a belt-tightening phase or do some people need even more help? Hopefully, the Competition Commission and Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) are hard at work.
I have always wondered why associations, such as the bakers and noodle manufacturers, announce price rises.
Is this so that everyone will fall in line and no under-cutting takes place? Or is this just a matter of being transparent?
I am glad they didn't go to the extent of dictating a recommended selling price - as the coffee-shop owners once did, and were appropriately ticked off.
Still, it is strange how price decreases are never announced. If so, for once, consumers - not sellers - can point to a newspaper report to bargain prices down.
It would be great too if Case re-introduces its price checks so that people know where the bargains are, the choices available and to put the lid on possible profiteering.
One expatriate family didn't know that gas can come in cylinder form, relying instead on the seemingly ubiquitous piped gas.
They too want to save money (gas price has gone up too) and know exactly what they are paying for.
The price crisis is bad for all, but I daresay it has made most people, including me, a little more aware of the value of money.
I have forsaken the coffee stall in my neighbourhood which upped the price of one kopi from 70 cents to 90 cents. I've found another which goes by the old price. It doesn't taste as good, but it's 20 cents saved.
