How to live poor in Singapore 8
use 1 round mostly?
Use only one round?
Yes, free samples, discounted previews. The occasional luxury (no, chilli crab remains too exorbitant; try a little curry fish meat). That new product promoted at half price, or doubled get-one quantities. Hone your experiential taste-buds to forever savour that just-once decent price, because honey, it ain't comin’ back.
But use just one round?
Repeated rounds of house brands, until their affordability grows out of reach (remember that budget-value long bread loaf under $2 ? Well, it has since gone over that price) . Buy in bulk, they keep saying, but who needs too much, expired: so sure, 5 kg of rice for 2 months, but 3 bags of 10 kilos expiring in a quarter year? Your mind still there?
A discounted sale can cause over-spending. Normal high prices can result in frugal budgeting, and invested savings.
I recently watched a video on YouTube by Robert Reich, where he posted several CEOs of US grocery stores saying point blank that they have raised their prices by around 30% or more because they haven’t gotten any push back yet, people have to eat, and that their responsibility is not to the average American, but to their wealthy shareholders. What happened in the US was that a number of years ago, corporations were given the same rights as individuals. It’s especially heartbreaking in terms of our broken healthcare system. We don’t have socialized medicine, so all the healthcare here is for-profit. The number one cause of bankruptcy in my country is due to outstanding medical debt. I personally have thousands in medical debt from my 3 hospitalizations in 2022, and I received horrible treatment each time. Bill collectors call me every day. Each of my 3 Emergency Room visits cost over 30k USD, and even though I was insured and the insurance company paid over 90% of my bills, I still owe thousands. I don’t have the money. So I don’t answer my phone anymore. I look at the bills, and the threats therein, and just tear them up and throw them away. But it gnaws at me. My government failed me, and I have no safety net. So I get how you feel, my friend. I’m very angry.