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No matter how thrifty I am, it is a challenge to manage the high cost of living. Working from home gives me a welcome kind of flexibility to shop around.
Cooking brings me pleasure, mainly because I don’t have to do it as I live alone. Growing up as part of a farming community taught me to appreciate produce from the land, to savour home-made food. Ingredients were basic, and simple concoctions erupted with flavour from the blends of herbs.
Frugal in disposition, I cannot abide the idea of wasting anything. That’s how I developed my relationship with my freezer.
Buy seasonal produce from vendors when prices are lower and their beauty is unrivalled. Look around for specials on pantry items and meats. Cook and freeze them in small containers.
I rarely buy food, and when I do, it is inevitably from local establishments.
I am scandalized by the proliferation of US franchises. Fast food may tease your taste buds, but they are essentially greasy, brown and unhealthy.
I like colour, not from a glob of ketchup and a splotch of mustard, but from the exhilarating range that comes naturally from vegetables.
All that being said about my careful expenditure, I still struggle to make ends meet. Whenever I go to a grocery, I am completely overwhelmed by the idea that most families are larger; many incomes are small and the range of expenses must be much broader.
Food, clothing, school supplies, cleaning products, medicines, doctor’s bills, mortgages, rent, and utility bills are simply the basics. People want entertainment—they want and often need convenient items that cut down on the labour and effort required.
How do they manage?
I can complain about high prices, object to the outrageous hikes I’ve seen in short time, but where is the reprieve to come from? Who is regulating the unnecessary influx of imported items that we seem to have an inordinate fondness for?
Does anyone have the gumption to try to redirect taste patterns that were deliberately introduced to whet our appetites for foreign flavours?
I saw an online post recently from the CEO of Xtra Foods inviting farmers to come in and discuss arrangements to have their produce on the supermarket shelves. I know others have done the same in the past.
I was bemused by the announcement from Massy Stores of their new Epicure Bakery, a partnership with Hendrickx Bakery of the Netherlands, to bring a high-end set of baked goods.
It seemed odd in these times where foreign exchange is largely inaccessible. Closer examination revealed that the relationship is one of training locals.
Developing capacity is always welcome, but I have a feeling that there are several people with the required skill right here on the ground—and perhaps the idea was based on snob appeal, a vibrant characteristic of the Trini identity.
I know I live on the ground and I often assume that everyone is getting squingy in these guava days, but I forget how widely this place is spread out.
People complaining about the high menu prices at the latest North American franchise to hit the ground, and the comments were mainly that what is affordable to one person is not the same for another. That is true.
It means that if one grocery chain chooses to target customers with a high disposable income, they are strategically creating a niche for themselves.
Another might create a brand for friendly and efficient customer service, another for giveaways and specials. Or maybe in venturing out into communities and making contributions in various ways.
Everyone is trying something to gain a solid customer base, and you can’t blame them. We just have to remember the power of the consumer lies in the ability to walk away.
It’s not easy, I know.
I have always advocated supporting our local farmers and producers. People are making and offering a lot of products and services that we could patronise.
I have been trying to plant things in my yard—vegetables and herbs mostly, but truth be told, I have to concede that I am having a hard time.
After the onslaught of Giant African snails a couple years ago that ravaged everything, I was loath to replant.
I still labour over my herbs, but it is heart-breaking to see my efforts at vegetables failing repeatedly. It’s not that I have any substantial amounts, but there was a joy in seeing things flourish that I no longer have.
The heat is too much. Too much for me, too much for them. I’ve had my head practically clean-shaven for almost a year now, and venturing out is like sticking it into a hot oven. Compounded by my worsening back behaviour, my little spot of joy from gardening is dwindling.
I cannot imagine how farmers are coping with this unrelenting heat. I have to wake up at 5am just to get in an hour or so when the sun comes up. My plants are wilting, but I keep trying with the herbs.
I told my friend who is an even more avid gardener, that I have decided that it is not worth it to try to grow vegetables anymore. I’d rather buy from the farmers.
You see that work that they do on a daily basis? We can never put a real value on it. Supermarkets and consumers, I beseech you to buy local.
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Vaneisa Baksh is a columnist with the Trinidad Express, an editor and a cricket historian. She is the author of a biography of Sir Frank Worrell.
