Thursday 14 February 2013

It's a lifestyle choice!

I've never been so upset with my taxi driver!  I don't remember how the conversation started but it led to me telling him "I'm just a taxi passenger, don't tell me your problems if you don't want to hear my solution!"

He was telling me that cost of living in Singapore is so high.  He lives in a 4-room flat with a teenage son and a homemaker wife, and he says he's struggling.  Ok, I understand this, because we are dual income supporting a family of 6.  

And he gave an example of utilities bill.  He says his average bill is over S$400 per month and I said, wow!  that's high for a family of 3.  Because our average bill for family of 6 is about S$200.  And I explained that we don't switch on our aircon and we hardly watch TV.  The biggest guzzler of power is probably our computer notebooks.  


This is a screen shot of our January 2013 bill, when the actual reading was taken.

This bar graph shows our past consumption, the line across being the national average.


Then he berated and say how can Singaporeans live without aircon?  Our weather is so hot!  Our government should lower utilities cost!  

For someone like me, raised by my mum and dad to conserve water and save electricity, I think it's not fair that the government should lower the cost of utilities as this would cause more careless use of precious resources.

Most of us were raised without aircon and TV, why do we need them now?  If cost of living is high, it's because our consumption has gone up. 

For our family, we are cushioned from the effects of rising cost of living because of our lifestyle choice.  



No comments:

Post a Comment