Grocery Bills

[Things have changed]

But you say yourself that it was several years ago - Singapore has got much more expensive the last few years.

I don't think Kubes is being that extravagant, and why shouldn't he eat food he enjoys rather that "eat local" because it's cheaper. We could all eat all day in hawker centres but ......

[Mr Singers]

we'd all get kidney failure and our cholesterol would go through the roof?

[Boomz]

... "eat local" because it's cheaper.

We eat local cause we are exactly that - locals.  It agrees with out palate.  It being cheaper is just incidental and of course helpful 

[Per week???]

Afte our maid left our grocery bills also dropped dramatically - like also about 700 per month.  We use MUCH less toilet paper and cleaning products - razors and batteries - our electricity bill dropped by 100 per month.  I suspect that they sell things to each other or ship them home.

[Now come on,]

"After our maid left our grocery bills also dropped..." How could this happen? Didn't your maid show receipts after she shopped?? How was she paying? I have a rough idea of how much the shopping will cost, give my maid slightly more than that in case I've forgotten something - she returns with the receipt and change. There's no way the grocery bill would differ by that much if she left!

[Mebbe But]

My electricity bill is always at least $100 less per month when the maid is away on holiday. Let's face it, we are way more efficient than they are because, get this, it is our money that pays the bills! As for the food bill, lots of people I know never check up on the maid's expenditure. They simply can't be arsed.

[Per week???]

To Now Come On

Yes our bills did drop by that much.  Yes she was shopping and cooking and providing receipts that tallied with the money spent. This was checked on twice weekly basis.
I suspect that much of the food went to waste / went off / went to lucky plaza on sundays, and cleaning products were also wasted or stock piled and sold/sent home. Examples. She loved cheese!! We would go through a 5kg bag of rice a month - we now go through 1kg every six weeks or so (not that rice is that expensive).  5 kgs of washing detergent would last a couple of weeks. Toilet paper  consumption has dropped to less than half since her departure - and she was 1/5th of our household.   All different OTC medicine would also disappear.  Daily headaches perhaps? etc etc etc...the list goes on and on. It added up to the figure stated.  I still have our shopping kitty log with amounts spent ......

[shopper...]

My electricity bill is always at least $100 less per month when the maid is away on holiday. Let's face it, we are way more efficient than they are because, get this, it is our money that pays the bills! As for the food bill, lots of people I know never check up on the maid's expenditure. They simply can't be arsed.

I agree.  Some people don't care that much and it's too much hassle.  That's ok.  Don't have a problem with that.  For me. I do our weekly shop, even though I work full time.  I like to keep control of the food that comes in and also want to shop for special offers .  I can't expect our maid to make decisions on what to buy or what brand to buy.  If I write down the brand, she'll buy what I write down, even if an equivalent is cheaper.  She can't be expected to know which brands I'm happy to substitute and which I'm not.

Bottom line is, if you want to really keep costs down you need to do it yourself.  My husband is even more useless than the maid when it comes to shopping!  But it's not fair to start accusing the maid of stealing just because you can cut the bills when you do it yourself.

[headache]

I was interested in what PP said about OTC medicine.

Our helper goes through Panadol/Paracetamol at an incredible rate - I am always buying boxes of the stuff.  When I suggested that perhaps she watches less TV (ie when ironing), and therefore strained her eyes less, she laughed.  Nope - TV was more important than headaches!

[Per Week???]

To shopper:
The increased consumption happened slowly over the 4 years - and began getting out of control in the last 12 months when I moved from part-time to full time work.  I did the big monthly shop myself - her dollar expenditure was to buy the day-to-day perishables, milk, bread, fruit,etc.

Items in the house were simply being "consumed" at a great rate and over time I began to suspect that there was something was not right.  In the end she was dismissed for stealing - red handed - not for household products though. So she was stealing - she apologised and promised never to do it again. Too late. Once she left our general expenditure dropped as stated.

Yes... I agree it was my fault for not acting 12 - 18 months prior when I saw a pattern.

[Cairnhill]

My electricity bill is always at least $100 less per month when the maid is away on holiday. Let's face it, we are way more efficient than they are because, get this, it is our money that pays the bills! As for the food bill, lots of people I know never check up on the maid's expenditure. They simply can't be arsed.

its because the maids have the tendency to turn on all the lights and air-con when they are at home? I have a maid that comes in once a week. Each time, I got home earlier than usual, I noticed that all 3 air-cons in my apartment are turned on, plus the fan in the spare bedroom. When I am at home, I only turn on 1 air-con at a time.

Beyond the air-con thingy, she is pretty good in cleaning and its hard to find a good maid who can iron fast, and clean efficiently. Hence, I let it slide.

Personally, its not about being cheap and paying a higher electrical bills. For me, its more about being environmentally friendly. In Singapore, you don't see people re-cycling things as often as Australia and many European countries. Hence, I try not to waste energy and give away clothes & shoes that are still relatively new/brand new but I am not wearing, to Salvation Army.

I think in general, maids are not really environmentally friendly.

[Green Light]

When I suggested that perhaps she watches less TV (ie when ironing), and therefore strained her eyes less, she laughed.  Nope - TV was more important than headaches!

She laughed because she's probably never having headaches at all,  she's storing them all up to send back home!

I don't think TV gives you headaches anyway unless you sit too close and she can't be sitting too close if she's doing the ironing at the same time.

I think in general, maids are not really environmentally friendly.

It's not really their fault, the countries in which they come from aren't very environmentally aware - it'll probably happen eventually but not in our lifetimes!

[Kubes.SG]

For me, its more about being environmentally friendly. In Singapore, you don't see people re-cycling things as often as Australia and many European countries. Hence, I try not to waste energy and give away clothes & shoes that are still relatively new/brand new but I am not wearing, to Salvation Army.

I think in general, maids are not really environmentally friendly.

You know why SG does not go on about recycling.  Because they are not stupid.  In UK, AU, and much of WE, the environmental thing is just out of control bullshit.  When you carefully analyze the environment impact of recycling (transportation, sorting, recycling itself, transporting it back, etc, etc) it actually consumes more energy, effort and $$$ than if you just burnt or buried it near where it is collected.   Developing countries aren't into recycling because then just can't afford to be so wasteful of their precious resources.

Recycling is a joke and a fraud.  Only idiots believe that recycling is saving the environment.

I was pleased to see major a company from a major "environmental terrorism" organization showing us what an absolute joke, farce and fraud all this environmentalismist bullshit is becoming.   

Play loud.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq58zS4_jvM

[jalanperak]

Recycling is a joke and a fraud.  Only idiots believe that recycling is saving the environment.

It depends on what you're recycling, and how developed is the recycling infrastructure.

Recycling newspaper, aluminum, and glass has long been an economically sound practice. Recycling more expensive metals like copper, nickel and steel are even more cost effective.

Plastic is probably break-even with a well developed infrastructure, but the cost of developing that infrastructure is either out of reach or not cost-effective for underdeveloped countries or very small ones.

[maid re-selling stuff]

"After our maid left our grocery bills also dropped..." How could this happen? Didn't your maid show receipts after she shopped?? How was she paying? I have a rough idea of how much the shopping will cost, give my maid slightly more than that in case I've forgotten something - she returns with the receipt and change. There's no way the grocery bill would differ by that much if she left!

Yes, it could happen. We usually asked the maid what is running short and what to buy. Seems like foodstuff and washing powder are being used up in a hurry. What happens is that the maid would be passing the foodstuff, daily necessities to other maids, or sell them cheap to foreign construction workers nearby.