MALAYSIANS are being prudent with their spending, shopping around and cutting out unnecessary items from their list to save more money.

Those who spoke to The Malaysian Insight said they would try to find the best bargains before buying an item.

Most also don’t stock up in bulk but only buy something when they have completely run out.

Sukhvant Singh, 58, a full-time housewife from Taman Sri Sentosa in Kuala Lumpur, said everything across the board has gone up in price.

“Groceries are so expensive now. These days I have to spend an extra RM300 to RM400 to buy the same items,” she said.

“Mostly rice, cooking oil, dry provisions, chicken and ghee. These cost the most. One whole chicken used to cost RM14.50, now for that same chicken I have to pay RM18 or RM19. Eggs too have gone up in price.”

Sukhvant lives in a five-person household with her husband and three children aged 28, 21 and 14.

While it is cheaper to cook at home, Sukhvant said there are days she has no choice but to eat out.

“Once a week we eat out at the mamak stall or the Chinese chicken rice shop. The children don’t want to eat the same food all the time, but I try to do it as little as possible,” she said, adding that she spends around RM250 eating out a month.

“If we end up buying KFC or anything like that, then I will use more money.”

Malaysia’s consumer price index in March rose by 2.2% to 125.6 against 122.9 in March last year, the Statistics Department said.

The rise was mainly driven by the 4% year-on-year increase in food and non-alcoholic beverages.

The department said chicken, the biggest component in the meat subgroup, expanded 10.5%, while beef rose by 4.3%.

Supply chain issues and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine are also pushing prices of vegetable oil and flour up.

Nor Izzati Zainuddin, who lives in the Kerinchi low-cost housing in Kuala Lumpur with her husband and four children, is still recovering from the effects of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Nor Izzati’s husband has not been able to find a job since he was retrenched at the start of the pandemic. On the other hand, she is a full-time homemaker.

“We are now depending on good samaritans for donations and food packages. It is tough, but we have to make do with what little we have,” she said.

“Even if we buy food at the sundry shop, we only buy things like noodles, some vegetables and fish balls.

“We can’t afford to buy chicken or anything else because it is too expensive.”

Nor Izzati’s four children are aged nine, eight, five and one-and-a-half.

Her youngest is still drinking formula and requires diapers, which is where any money they have goes, she said.

“We buy Dutch Lady milk from 99 Speedmart because it is cheaper. So are pampers. We can get the milk powder for RM21 if we are lucky.

“We can estimate we need maybe five packets a month, and we budget accordingly. But we only buy one packet at a time as it is too costly,” she said.

Nor Izzati is trying to earn some income by buying clothes from Kenanga Wholesale City, a wholesale mall for clothes, and selling them to friends on WhatsApp groups.

“We can make RM5 per piece. In a good month, we can sell around 20 pieces,” she said.

Meanwhile, Lin, 45, said previously she was able to do all her shopping with RM500, but these days, vegetables, meat and fish alone come up to RM300.

She has three children, one in college while the other two are still in secondary school.

“I do my shopping at NSK. It is the cheapest option and I can get everything there,” she said.

“If I go to the sundry shop, small items such as vegetables and meat alone can come up to RM100. It’s too expensive.”

Lin runs a small business selling kuih, but has been unable to do so since Hari Raya when she met with an accident and broke her leg.

“I used to be able to make around RM300 to RM400 a month selling kuih – even more if I had orders from people.

“But now I’m incapacitated and have to rely on others. I don’t want to have to ask people for help all the time,” she said.

Her husband is a daily wage earner.

“If he has a job, he gets paid. Otherwise, there is no income.”

More subsidies needed

In a short survey conducted by The Malaysian Insight from May 13 to 16, which received 33 responses, a majority said they wanted the government to provide more subsidies to enable them to make ends meet.

A total of 39.4% said there is a need for more subsidies while 33.3% said the government should look into increasing the minimum wage again.

The new minimum wage of RM1,500 kicked off on May 1.

Another 9.1% said there is a need to bring down the prices of food.

An overwhelming 87.9% agreed they are also spending more money to buy groceries now.

Most, 63.6% agreed that everything – poultry, beef, lamb, mutton, seafood, vegetable and fruits – cost more.

In terms of where they shop, 39.4% said they frequent hypermarkets such as AEON, Lotus’s, Econsave and Giant while 27.3% shop in high-end supermarkets such as Ben’s Independent Grocer, Village Grocer and Jaya Grocer.

Another 15.2% said they shop in wet markets.

Of the 33 people who took the survey, 42.4% are in the M40 group, meaning their monthly household income is between RM4,851 and RM10,970.

The B40 group, with a household income of up to RM4,850, made up 27.3% of the respondents while 15.2% are from the T20 group, where their household income is more than RM10,970 per month.

A majority of those who took the survey – 24.2% – said they live in a two-person household, while 21.2% said they lived in a three-person household while 12.1% said they lived alone or are in a four-person household.

Fifty-four per cent of those surveyed owned their own property, with 27.3% renting and 18.2% living with their parents.

In terms of eating out and using a food delivery service, 63.6% respondents answered yes while 36.4% said they do not eat out or use food delivery services.

Among those who eat out and use food delivery services, 57.5% said they spent between RM100 to RM500 a month doing so while 21.2% said they spent between RM500 to RM1,000. – May 18, 2022.