cost of living

[murdock]

things like petrol...water electricity useage...food...toll roads... and all the little things which were there but not a major contibutor to the monthly expenses...until now...well a little while ago.

i went to get bread and milk this morning...so i could have breakfast this morning...something i havent done in a couple of weeks due to work comitments (all good...at least i have lots of work)

picked up the milk and noticed the price had gone up another R2...not cents like the petrol price...so now i start thinking...the cost to get to the mega spar in comaparison to the local tea room due to the cost of petrol...which is now costing me over R1 per km i travel excluding all the other bits and pieces...tyre services etc...we talking just petrol.

the milk at the local tea room is R6 for a 1 lt sachet x 2... the cost to travel to the shop and back R4...thats R16

to travel to the super spar R 10 plus now with the price increase to R17...thats R27...for a 2 lt milk

you do this every day it would start adding up...but most people collect on their way home from work...just using this as an example.

my point...is it getting so expensive to live nowadays...that we have to start taking our purchases of the little things like bread and milk into account

i did a quick rounded off calculation of my basic expensises per month (absolute basic)

bond R6000 ( this is for a R700 000 house) were do you find a house for R700 000 unless you live in the bush
electricity...water rates etc R1300 (i have reduced this from R3300 per month but fitting the 300 ltr per day restricitor...and use gas...solar lighting...invertors etc)
vehicle + insurance R4000 (what i would classify as a budget vehicle on a 60 month hp)

if i were an electrician working for a company (R10000 per month less deduction) i would already have to look at reducing my cost of living and i havent even added food...petrol...school fees...clothing...cellphone...etc and some of the other basic neccessities...and this is with my wife working...but addtional costs are taking inot account...now having to employ a domestic...her vehicle and expenses...insurance...

how are people surviving or are they...3 jobs...rolling credit cards...please tell me because i feel a crimminal paying the little wages i do...and wonder how my staff are living...

i would like to hear how you survive every month...or maybe you dont fall into this catagory...or maybe you still live like i use when living expenses were a lot lower and spent money like there is no tomorrow.

i was going thru my turnover 5 years ago...cost to run my little bussiness and what it cost me today in comparison to my hourly rate charged to the customer....looks like i am gona be joining the rest of the employers who exploit labour to come out ever month...because i can assure you if i had to increase my rates to the keep up with the cost of living...i could be out of bussiness.

or looking at it from another angle...maybe thats what i am doing wrong...under selling myself...increases in my rate...are not keeping up with the rate of expense increase.

help me out here...am i worrying about trivial things or should be looking at this from a diffrent perspective...like rather charge more for my time and not let the little things like petrol...cost per litre of milk interfere with my daily chores.