Escalating Cost of Living!
3rd October 2008, Friday
Back to work after a day break and was surprised to find a couple of familiar new faces.
A former course mate from my University days who had been with my former company for the past 6 years finally jumped ship to one of the group leaders here.
It was a long process when he kept negotiating for an astronomical hike in his current pay which the HR is resistant to pay. I guess in the end, he just back off from his request and took the job just as his former lab was closed down.
Meanwhile there was another lady whom I had seen from my work out session in the office from time to time and supposedly hailed from my previous employers as well who had came for interview with Shitty Green weeks back.
Aftering enquiring from His Beautiness about the boss and environment, she finally joined as the 9th member of our group...what a bulging sum when it was almost half that number before I joined 2 years back.
Suddenly my current workplace had became a refugee camp for those from my old workplace...
Didn't notice the hike in fare during my MRT trip to work and supposedly every trip now had increased by 3-4 cents.
Our nation now surely is feeling the brunt of the oil prices as well as the precarious global economy...
Some financial analysts are fearing a repeat of the 1920s Great Depression after the bankruptcy of big financial houses like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. The domino effect is alrealy in motion with some European banks in major debts and in need of assistance from their governments while the stock market are in an endless bear run.
In Singapore, the government and associated organisation like MAS are trying their best to curb the rot to be spread here but it's inevitable.
Companies may start to tighten their purse-string; I am surely expecting much decimated bonus by next May.
The situation is worsen with the price hike of various common amenities and services we need day in day out.
The price hike in public transport is always prompt with the world trend and unlikely to reduce when the oil situation subside.
Then Singapore Powers staked a claim to increase utilities prices especially the electrical bill by a good 20% or more.
The utilities bill for my household has always been hefty as we had been addicted to sleep in air conditioned rooms every night... It's a habit that is hard to give up on. So as long as we are able to foot the bill, we just will stick to our routine and stare at the alarming sum at the end of each bill.
Newspaper is an important nourishment to the mind, keeping you up to date with what is happening around in the world.
Shunning it will make you trapped in your own world and unable to hold any solid conversation about current affairs.
For me I had my daily dosage of tabloid size paper from SPH which is free (which is the plus point)
However SPH did increased the price of all their papers to keep in line with the high production costs.
What happen to those days when a copy of Straits Times is 50 cents?
So now in this oxymoronic predicament, you have to save on transport fee by cooping yourself at home. But you cannot turn on the light, or PC or TV to save on electrical bill.
You can't watch the news on TV but newspaper had become too hefty to buy...
Perhaps the best solution is to walk to your nearby Mac Donald's, buy a cup of coffee and sit in the air conditioned restaurant the whole day, hogging on to their newspaper. You can even watch TV at those branches with the LCD screens.
Joke aside, surely I have to start going back to that ultra frugal lifestyle (as if I have one).
But no more spending $100 odd on a stand up comedy...no more few hundreds on a high end ear phone...no more buffet dinner at Raffles Hotel (but that's once in a very blue moon, so still fine)
Ultimately might have to cut back on my hobby like figurines, DVDs, manga, games which I am trying to, but resistance to temptations so far had proven futile.
Meanwhile the missus and myself still have the cheek to plan a long vacation to Japan which will cost us thousands of dollars.
I do have money set aside for that while not depleting the bank account which seems possible at this juncture.
It's truly hard to acclimatise to hardship after enjoying such a wild time financially... But as long as we do not incur huge debts by taking loan or unable if pay off my child's education (if I have one), I think things should remain status quo....
Back to work after a day break and was surprised to find a couple of familiar new faces.
A former course mate from my University days who had been with my former company for the past 6 years finally jumped ship to one of the group leaders here.
It was a long process when he kept negotiating for an astronomical hike in his current pay which the HR is resistant to pay. I guess in the end, he just back off from his request and took the job just as his former lab was closed down.
Meanwhile there was another lady whom I had seen from my work out session in the office from time to time and supposedly hailed from my previous employers as well who had came for interview with Shitty Green weeks back.
Aftering enquiring from His Beautiness about the boss and environment, she finally joined as the 9th member of our group...what a bulging sum when it was almost half that number before I joined 2 years back.
Suddenly my current workplace had became a refugee camp for those from my old workplace...
Didn't notice the hike in fare during my MRT trip to work and supposedly every trip now had increased by 3-4 cents.
Our nation now surely is feeling the brunt of the oil prices as well as the precarious global economy...
Some financial analysts are fearing a repeat of the 1920s Great Depression after the bankruptcy of big financial houses like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. The domino effect is alrealy in motion with some European banks in major debts and in need of assistance from their governments while the stock market are in an endless bear run.
In Singapore, the government and associated organisation like MAS are trying their best to curb the rot to be spread here but it's inevitable.
Companies may start to tighten their purse-string; I am surely expecting much decimated bonus by next May.
The situation is worsen with the price hike of various common amenities and services we need day in day out.
The price hike in public transport is always prompt with the world trend and unlikely to reduce when the oil situation subside.
Then Singapore Powers staked a claim to increase utilities prices especially the electrical bill by a good 20% or more.
The utilities bill for my household has always been hefty as we had been addicted to sleep in air conditioned rooms every night... It's a habit that is hard to give up on. So as long as we are able to foot the bill, we just will stick to our routine and stare at the alarming sum at the end of each bill.
Newspaper is an important nourishment to the mind, keeping you up to date with what is happening around in the world.
Shunning it will make you trapped in your own world and unable to hold any solid conversation about current affairs.
For me I had my daily dosage of tabloid size paper from SPH which is free (which is the plus point)
However SPH did increased the price of all their papers to keep in line with the high production costs.
What happen to those days when a copy of Straits Times is 50 cents?
So now in this oxymoronic predicament, you have to save on transport fee by cooping yourself at home. But you cannot turn on the light, or PC or TV to save on electrical bill.
You can't watch the news on TV but newspaper had become too hefty to buy...
Perhaps the best solution is to walk to your nearby Mac Donald's, buy a cup of coffee and sit in the air conditioned restaurant the whole day, hogging on to their newspaper. You can even watch TV at those branches with the LCD screens.
Joke aside, surely I have to start going back to that ultra frugal lifestyle (as if I have one).
But no more spending $100 odd on a stand up comedy...no more few hundreds on a high end ear phone...no more buffet dinner at Raffles Hotel (but that's once in a very blue moon, so still fine)
Ultimately might have to cut back on my hobby like figurines, DVDs, manga, games which I am trying to, but resistance to temptations so far had proven futile.
Meanwhile the missus and myself still have the cheek to plan a long vacation to Japan which will cost us thousands of dollars.
I do have money set aside for that while not depleting the bank account which seems possible at this juncture.
It's truly hard to acclimatise to hardship after enjoying such a wild time financially... But as long as we do not incur huge debts by taking loan or unable if pay off my child's education (if I have one), I think things should remain status quo....
Japanese word of the day:増やしなさい(Escalate) What goes up must come down...well not cost of living though
posted by Kei at
3:03 PM
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