JB folk tighten belts amid rising food costs

The Star

a day ago

MANY consumers are now looking for the best prices when eating out or buying raw cooking ingredients.
Like many average families living in the Johor Baru district, M. Pathmawathy from Taman Nusa Bestari said eating out was becoming costlier.
'My husband and I go around comparing prices before buying essential items, and go for the best deals,'' she said.
Her family now eats out once a week unlike previously when they dined out thrice a week.
'It costs three of us – my husband, child and me – about RM100 to eat out compared with RM80 to RM90 before,'' said Pathmawathy.
Pathmawathy compares prices before buying essentials.
The 40-year-old housewife said that although her husband worked in Singapore, she was still prudent when it came to managing household expenses.
She said an average of RM250 was spent every two weeks on vegetables, fish and meat, and RM400 monthly for basic items.
Salesperson Azalia Hasnah Najwa, 22, said prices of meals had yet to increase following the May 1 ban on eateries and hawkers using household subsidised gas cylinders.
'It is still too early to see the impact from the new regulation.
'Consumers may have to wait another month or two,' she said.
Azalia, who is from Taman Perling, said she spent about RM15 on lunch at her workplace or sometimes brought food from home.
Azalia says eating out in Johor Baru has always been costly.
She said eating out in Johor Baru had always been costly, even before the ban.
'My family seldom eat out as most of the time, dinners are prepared by our mother,'' she said.
Azalia said although there was a wet market in Taman Perling, her mother saved money by doing her weekly marketing for just RM300 at a hypermarket in Taman Tampoi Utama about 6.5km away.
'Goods there are cheaper, and of a larger variety than in the wet market,'' she added.
On the other hand, digital marketing specialist Marcus Tan, 33, said he and his wife, who works as a customer service executive, only eat at home on weekends.
Tan says his monthly food bill is RM1,200 for two.
For them, eating out on weekdays was much easier than having to prepare meals from scratch after coming back home from work.
'Dining out gives us the flexibility of choosing what we want to eat,'' said Tan, pointing out that they could have Chinese, Malay, Indian, Western or Thai food every other day.
He said their monthly food bill, including weekend homecooked meals, was RM1,200, which is an amount he considers reasonable for two.