With the increase of almost all the basic commodities during these tough times, how do you manage to save or lessen your daily consumption? Since the pandemic had started, we all have witnessed the sudden increase in a lot of things whether food or non food. Majority of us are trying to make ends meet just to survive.
In our household, I remember that we bought a lot of vegetables during the start of the pandemic because it was a little cheaper compared to any kind of meat. I know during that time there was also the issue about the African Swine Fever (ASF) that caused panic to a lot of consumers. There was a huge drop on the demand of pork because of the news about the ASF that even if they have lessened the price of it, only a few people bought it. Again, the media played a big role on this until they released some advertisements that it was safe to eat pork. But even if there were advertisements about it, we just bought some chicken and stock up on a lot of vegetables.
Growing your own fruits and/or vegetables
During the start of the pandemic, many people have started to grow their own vegetables. Even before that, we have already grown our own chili in our garden. It was also in January 2020 that we started to grow some tomatoes but it was around May or June when it had bear its fruits and sadly, the birds were the ones who were happy with it. LOL.
Now, other than chili, we have basil leaves, spring onions and mint leaves in our garden. We tried planting tomatoes again a couple of months ago but until now it does not have any fruit yet. I do not know why but our helper said that we needed to transfer it per stem in different pots. Not sure if it was true but we do not have any pots and soil available as of the moment. Most of our recycled ice cream containers have aloe vera. But I would want to invest on pots and soil so we can grow a lot of vegetables. I think it will help us save even a few bucks if we were to grow a lot of vegetables like eggplants and Chinese cabbage. Do you grow your own vegetables? What vegetables do you grow? Got any advices for me? Is it easy to grow them?
Less meat, more vegetables
Like I have said that both meat and vegetables are now expensive. If we were to cook some stew, we would put in a quarter grams of meat and more on vegetables. I remember that I posted a photo of pork sinigang on my noise.cash month/s ago. @bbghitte noticed that it was all vegetables. LOL. It was actually like vegetable sinigang because the vegetables do stand out rather than the pork. It is one way for us to cut on meat. A kilo of pork when bought in the supermarket is around Php300-400 (around $6-8). This vegetable sinigang is already good for 2-3 days. Our helper would just add some soup and we're all good. Why 2-3 days? Most of you know that we only have brunch and it is the only meal were we would eat a cup of rice. Yes, even in rice we only have to eat a little because eating too much is not good. I do not know how long a half sack of rice lasts for us 4 but my parents would only have a cup. There were times that my mom and I would skip rice and would only eat the vegetables especially after I had a hypertension.
I am a carnivore. I do consume more meat than rice. Most people that I know can eat less meat and more rice but I am the opposite. How about you? Are you team rice or team meat? I do eat vegetables and I am happy that I am not picky with it but I would really say no to coriander. LOL. My friend, A, and I do not really like that after taste of the coriander. With celery, I can eat it but not that much as it has the same taste as with the coriander although it is not that strong.
Water consumption
Even before the pandemic, I have been practicing conserving water by taking a bath every other days or every 2 days. LOL. I remember that I even told my friend, A, to always text me if she would go to our house because there were times that I really do not take a bath. LOL. There was this one time when I went to a nearby computer shop and she happens to be doing her laundry just beside the shop and I did not took a bath. She said that I did not smell bad although I really looked so haggard. I think that time my dad had asked me to do some errands. But it was really nice to see your friend unexpectedly. That's why she still surprises me even up to now.
My dad not only conserves water but also some laundry detergents by wearing his used clothes for a week I guess. Gross right? LOL. He does take a bath every night but using the dirty clothes for a week makes it look like he did not took a bath. He even stinks and it is only I who can tell him that without him getting mad. My mom and oyr helper would just take a deep breath whenever he would pass by us. He says that it was his way of saving water and laundry detergents. If I can share with the expenses here in our house, I would really request him to have his clothes wash everyday or every other day if he does not want everyday.
Save energy
Another thing that we have started doing during these tough times is to only open the lights when it is dark. Sometimes my dad would even watch the television without opening the lights. I think it was also the reason why I do experience migraine. So after I have experienced high blood pressure, I started opening the lights when it is dark.
Actually, I have noticed that some of our neighbors also does not open their lights when it is already dusk. They would open a few lights but not like before when they would open a lot. I guess they are also trying to save on electricity.
Aircons are not applicable for us because we never open ours. We did open it only for a few hours laat summer and that's it. Our aircondition is already old and not the inverter type so it consumes a lot of electricity. I remember when my brother's family stayed here in our house for half a year way back, our electricity was around Php12,000 ($240). They did pay for the electricity back then because their aircon was always on almost 24 hours a day even if no one was inside the room. That is why I liked to stay in their room during those times. LOL.
Maintenance medicines
This is the sad part. I found out that my dad had been cutting down on his maintenance medicines. Both of their maintenance medicines cost around Php5,000 ($100) per month. That is already the incomplete maintenance medicines of my dad. If it was complete then it would be around Php7,000-8,000 ($140-160). When my mom have heard of it, she also wanted to take her medicines every other day but she is afraid to do so. Sometimes they would even ask our neighbor who is a family of doctors if they have some medicines from medical representatives that they could give them. Indeed, health is really wealth. I was aware of that saying even before but I neglected it time and time again. So if you are still young, don't think that you are exempted because anyone can experience some major or minor health conditions at an early age.
Those are just some of the things that I couls think of that we normally do during these difficult times to save money. These are the reasons why I sometimes pity myself every 15th and end of the month. Why? Because my dad would really try to budget his pension money for all our utilities and other expenses. That is why I really wanted to finish paying up my credit card debts so I can help him with some of it. Though I do not know what to say if he would ask me where I got the money. LOL.How do you save during these tough times? So I can also try to do it if possible.
P.S. lead image is the photo of the Php50 (around $1) challenge I did before.
Here we have not had so many problems with water and electricity, although we try to save. Food is increasing every day because of inflation, we had a few years before the pandemic that we ate little meat, only vegetables, we lost a lot of weight. Now we are recovering a little, but we only eat chicken and fish, meats are very expensive.