High Cost Of Living: 5 Strategies To Help Families Survive Hunger

By Cami Ezenwa

As high cost of living bites harder on the masses of this country, families are now forced to seek ways of survival.

It is a dilemma made more challenging by the refusal or reluctance of employers of labour to increase salaries on the short run.

Even as the New Year beckons, there is no assurance that things would become easier.

So what strategies should individuals and households be adopting to survive the high cost of living in the country?

1. If you have not been running your expenses on impulse buying, the prevailing high cost of living should convince you to start doing so.

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Budgeting helps the family to live within means rather than buying impulsively. Budgeting checkmates overspending, and even after drawing it up, go a step further to abide by the budget.

Allocate more money to items more regularly consumed

2. Eat what is in season. One of the many blessings that God has given us is all year round availability of crops. As a family, eat more of what is in season. When foods are in season, they are readily available and cheaper. Everyone would eat well and you would be cutting off unnecessary expenses buying them. Plan ahead for bulk purchases of those foods in season.

3. Avoid waste by preparing only what is needed, perhaps adding a little margin.

Here, you will need the services of a refrigerator to help you preserve food when necessary.

Teach the household the principle of decent eating so that even if there is a leftover, it could be kept and pepped up for another time.

4.Another way of beating the high cost of living is by considering optional brands. Higher price does not necessarily mean better quality, so you can actually try a brand switch to optimise your budget.

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5. Another strategy to cope with the high cost of living is to reconsider where you shop.

Some of us are used to shopping from malls and superstores season after season.

Unfortunately, most of the things they sell to us at high mark-up prices at such outlets  are picked from the regular markets, repackaged and resold at, sometimes, double their original value.

In a subsequent writeup, we will focus on markets with best bargains for those seeking to optimise their budgets.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year in advance.