It’s been a month since I started my new job right smack in CBD, and I’ve had a couple of friends who have warned me about the expensive food prices during lunchtime. There are many options at every junction, but a quick scan does show that many food places have priced marked higher than the rest of the island. It doesn’t help that I’m limited only to halal food options, so I really cannot even afford to be too picky. Case in point is that there’s only one halal food outlet at the building I’m working at.
It also doesn’t help that Singapore’s core inflation has been increasing in recent months, and that we hit a 14-year high in August, with food prices increasing by more than 6% YoY. It’s telling that there are many stalls that have replaced food price tags on their menus so that they can keep up with inflated cost of ingredients. Compounding all these together, a typical dish costs anything between $8 to $15, and if you go for something fancier at restaurant, it can easily go up to $20 to $30. This is a very drastic difference from my dining at a school canteen where I can even get by with $10 for a week’s worth of lunches!
That said, I’ve managed to find some pretty cheap, decent (and more importantly, halal) food places at Lau Pasat. My benchmark for ‘cheap’ is a $5 meal, which I consider a bargain in CBD. The Ipoh Chicken Rice stall sells a plate of chicken rice or a bowl of chicken noodles for about $4.50 and tastes pretty good, if not a tad bit oily. And if you use the Kopitiam card, that’s an additional 10% discount.
I’ve also had some lunches at Uniquely Vegetarian, which although not halal certified, seems to be strictly vegetarian and do not serve eggs or dairy products. They charge $1 for white rice and $1.30 for any other dishes. So with three dishes, that’s $4.41 after discount and if you’re not feeling too hungry that day, white rice and two dishes only cost $3.24.
I don’t think times are hard that we need to be stingy on food, but it’s always nice to have a variety of options along the cost spectrum, especially when one isn’t feeling too hungry that day. It’s more important to ensure that the food we consume is also healthy and to that end, the “cheaper” option is probably to bring food from home, which we’ve been practising for a long time now, particularly if there’s leftovers from the day before. I say “cheaper” because there are invisible costs involved, both in terms of time and money. However, given that we now have a helper that prepare our meals, it makes even more sense to do so because we are not spending as much time on food preparation and cleaning up as we used to. Of course, the clear-cut cheapest option is intermittent fasting, which also has some health benefits too. But that’s contingent on not revenge-eating at a buffet thereafter.
Just to put things into perspective, after mortgage, car loan or transportation costs, and childcare for those with kids, food is likely the next biggest spending category of our monthly budget. It is a non-discretionary/essential spending, which means that even in the toughest of times, people will have to spend on food, though perhaps some might go for cheaper options. At the same time, I irk at the amount of food waste and leftovers that people leave on their plates because they’ve maxed out their utility function for that meal. Where possible, I generally like to takeaway and bring it back for the next meal. Of course, some may worry about bacteria growth, so it’s crucial that such food be kept appropriately in the fridge as soon as possible.
I do think we can all afford to be a bit less extravagant in our food consumption, rather than always err on the side of over-ordering. I’m not suggesting that we all go back to sweet potatoes and water rationing, but I do think that if we can all put a bit more conscious effort into controlling our food intake, it can go a long way towards making a difference to both our tummies and our pockets.
Making Cents 