Living Cost Make You Drop ?

 How much is your expenses in a month? Is your parents “envelope” still enough for you (if you still study and away from home)? Is your salary enough for a month or not?    Of course you spend more money after the increasing of BBM price last year. One thing for sure…the price is always increase time after time.

Hmm… let’s see, for weekly grocery which is usually around Rp.200 - Rp.250 thousand, now turns to Rp.250 - Rp.300 thousand. LPG is usually Rp.57 thousand, now becomes Rp.90 thousand. Though living cost increases drastically, most of our salary is still the same as before, well, maybe crawling and finally reach nothing but the nearest point.

A survey from BPS (Statistic Centre Board) Balikpapan (East Borneo) shows the consumption level of Balikpapan People of 250 commodities, which can be classified in to 7 big groups. Mr.Basiran Suwandi, head of BPS Balikpapan said that the housing, water, electricity, gas and fuel are in the first place for 26,76%, grocery 22,41%, Fixed food material 18,43%, transportation, communication, and finance service 17,8%, clothing 5,28%, education, and recreation 5,66%, and health 3,65%.

In our beloved city, rent a room can drive you mad, Rp.300 – Rp.750 thousand for a month, some even have to be paid for one year, 1/2, 1/3, or at least ¼. What about a house? Well, you may take a deep breath for it… Two times public transportation cost you Rp.12 thousand plus “sweat” coz you might have to take a little “foot practice”. For lunch, one portion of rice cost Rp.3 – Rp.5 thousand, chicken Rp.7 – Rp.15 thousand. So, your simple menu cost Rp.10 – Rp.20 thousand, plus the waiter, I mean water/drink. What about breakfast and dinner? Oh GOD … I live not only for today

Maybe we can cut some expenses. Less food, eat only once or twice a day, fasting on Monday and Thursday? Well those are other options... Find roommates, travelling on foot or bicycling, and use the same clothes more than once. You’ll save soap, water, electricity, time, lots of energy, and good smell, he..he..just kidding.

And most of Balikpapanese are very consumptive. Maybe because many people work in foreign company, so they have a lot of money to spend. But what about the rest of them? Are they also rich, or do they just pretend to be rich? Do you think Balikpapanese are very consumptive?               

Vocabulary :

crawl                  : merangkak                         take a deep breath   : tarik nafas dalam2

drive                   : membuat                           foot practice         : jalan kaki                

mad                    : marah                              pretend               : berpura-pura

taken from ECB Material