Same salary, different prices of goods and services.
Hello, everyone.
I welcome you to my blog. Watching the price of things skyrocket while you are still on the same salary is really disheartening; it leaves one thinking about how they can possibly cope because, with the current price of things, one cannot even go beyond needs. What more now that the prices of both goods and services are on the high side while salaries and even wages stay the same? Sometimes, I wonder how people are actually coping, especially family men and women with children to take care of, because if I, who am single, am finding it very difficult to cope with fewer mouths to feed, what about them with many mouths to feed?
Recently, the price of fuel skyrocketed from 800 naira to about 1,320 naira and, in some places, 1,380 naira. Before the increase, my transportation to my workplace for the whole month was 10,000 naira, but with the increase, my transportation for a whole month is now about 16,000 naira. It's funny how the money I spend to get to work increased by over 50%, but there is not even a 5% increase in my salary. My employers don't even want to hear a complaint about what you have to say; they still expect you to show up the same way you used to show up when transport fare was 10,000 naira, whereas the increase in transportation has affected you and has forced you to cut down your budget in order to meet up.
I used to think those who earn salaries and still complain that it is not enough are extravagant or don't know how to manage it properly until I became a salary earner too; sometimes, the salary finishes even before it is paid 😂. Like, one is sometimes on such a tight budget that if the salary is delayed for an extra day, you can run into debt, and now I take back what I said about those earning salaries, especially considering the economy and inflation; you can be struggling with how to attend to both needs and a few wants, but then inflation keeps getting in the way, and it makes coping very difficult and nearly impossible.
You can have a budget or plan mapped out on how you intend to spend your salary, but then when that time comes, you realize that the prices you have in your plan or budget are no longer the prices in the market, and at that point, you will be forced to re-strategize, which is not always easy because re-strategizing will cost more or require more money to help you meet up.
Realizing that inflation has somehow become inevitable and not something we can actually escape, I had to come up with ways to deal with it. One of which is to focus more on needs. When I make my budget, I try to make sure whatever I can survive without does not make the list, and only those things that, if not there, will have a way of affecting me are added to the list. Another way to deal with or cope with inflation is by avoiding debt. Debt is one thing that makes life a lot more difficult than it ought to be when it is time to pay it back, so unless it is necessary, I completely avoid borrowing, and when I do, I make sure it is not a high-interest loan so I can pay it back comfortably.