The Overwhelming Cost of Living in the society
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I hope our day is going well, wishing us all a very amazing weekend.
Cost of living simply means the amount of money needed to cover basic expenses such as your housing, the food you eat per day, your taxes, and healthcare in a certain place and time period.
The cost of living is often used to compare how expensive it is to live in one city versus another city.
Taking my country for instance. Nigeria is a country that is richly blessed with oil and many natural resources but the minimum wages versus the cost if living is not balanced at all. People suffer to have basic amenities. Like food, shelter and clothing.
I will take myself for example, i stay in Benue State Nigeria, where 60% of the population of people are farmers, am quite sure what will be going on in my readers mind, hehe i believe you will probably be thinking that there would be enough food. And the cost of feeding would be relatively low. Well to an extent i would agree with their assumption but in reality things are high.
The price of food triples between last year August to date.
For Me here i do prepare my food myself, i so much believe in the minimalist lifestyle, i don't outrageously spend, i believe that by cooking food for yourself would make you save better. I try to get all the food stuffs readily available in my kitchen. Rice, Beans, semo, yam, Garri and many more food stuffs are usually stocked up in my kitchen. If am to spend money on buying food at restaurants and local canteens. To purchase a meal of balance diet for three times a day would be going to Two thousand five hundred naira, #2500. If you multiply two thousand five hundred naira for 3 times a day By thirty (30) days that would be #75,000 (seventy five thousand naira). In compare to the Minimum wage of Nigeria, which is just #30,000 (thirty thought naira only). That simply means that had it been i was a paid worker, and my monthly payment is #30,000, i wouldn't be able to keep up with the standard of living.
Note, Benue state has a very low cost of living in compare to other neighboring states like Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and many others.
What about Clothing?
For Me i don't wear much clothes but i have a lot of Fashionable clothes i bought, shoes, chains, glasses.
Ever since our president removed the Fuel Subsidy, price of things has hiked up so much.
I have a lot of formal shoes i got before the hike of prices, mostly i buy from jumia (An online Marketplace) with the prices varying from #4,000 - #18,000, i also but Okrika as my Nigerian people would call it, this is a brand of secondhand wears, which are imported from another country. These Okirika brands are relatively cheap.
Just like i told you earlier i maintained a minimalist style of purchase to keep my expenses in check, and make sure am not spending above budget.
Housing:
The cost of renting a house here is determined by the places you stay, if you stay in town and commercial areas, whether you are in Benue or lagos the price might be high.
For example i stay in Aliade (Gwer East) the rent for a self Contained house is just #100,000 but in Cities like Makurdi, Gboko or Otukpo the Prices are ranging between #300,000 to 500,000,
So also in Lagos state, prices may defer from each other.
In conclusion
I can't specifically compare the prices of things outside Nigeria because i have no idea of how much they are doing their things over there but the best practice is to Live within your budget, be Minimal in your spending, don't live to impress others.
Hmm! I feel like relocating to your area o because here in Lagos, to get a hundred thousand rent is for the face me I slap your house not a self-contained.
The rate at which rent increased this last year can kill someone who is not strong
Hehe, cost of Housing really varies, Lasgidi is a city with a very high cost of living, unlike Benue Here😂
Exactly
You are right brother,
It s really overwhelming
Our Government too are not making things easier too
Hmm. I like your minimalist theory of staying in a low-cost area. But generally speaking, not everyone would live in such areas.
I am of the view that price of food items, housing and whatnot should be controlled by the government for uniformity sake. What we have today is extortion all over.
This is why the theories of the capitalists is at war with the socialists.
Wow your analysis came from another angle 😂,
Naturally Nigerians are born opportunistic, we take advantage of any opportunities, just take a look at how prices of things hiked and people blamed it on Dollars, now dollars came down, nobody is ready to reduce their prices
I'm going to call out your math. 2500/meal * 3meals/day = 7500/day
7500/day * 10days = 75,000
But a month typically has 30 days so that makes is 225,000/month.
Not possible on 30K/month salary. Not even close.
I'm all for the minimalist lifestyle and eating a home but for 30K Naira monthly I don't see how it is possible. Just as an example (from Jumia)
10kg of rice would eat up most of a persons 30K salary but would it even let you eat enough calories to survive?
Well, more math :)
10kg = 10,000grams
Each gram has 4 calories so
10,000 grams * 4calories/gram = 40,000 Calories
And a person needs 2000 calories daily (more if working hard) so
40,000 calories / 2000 calories per day = 20 days
So, if 20,500 Naira gives food for 20 days then it would be 30,750 Naira for a 30 day month.
NOPE not possible to get enough calories from a 30K job.
Besides living on just rice is a sure way to get sick as people need protein and oils also. That also doesn't factor in the costs in preparing the food. Doesn't even consider housing, clothing, health and sanitation.
Please don't misunderstand me. I think you are doing the right thing to be minimalist and prepare your own food. Those are traits I've tried to instill into my sons as they are critically important! But in an economic situation as dire as the one in Nigeria right now my father-in-laws words ring true to me.
He has a saying "In hard times tradesmen and professionals go hungry...but a good farmer always has something to eat".
I'd say self-sufficiency AND minimalism are the best path towards surviving in Nigeria right now.
Of course as an outsider I could be totally wrong, and even farmers have to be wary of crops being lost to theives, pests, disease, drought, etc.... but I'll rely on the seasons more than politicians anyday :)
Thanks for posting.
Hehe, I meant for one full day I would spend #2500, if am to buy food outside, and of course it still can't do, our Minimum wage in Nigeria (#30,000) is bullshit compared to the cost of living of the society presently, Having multiple sources of income (self sufficient wealthy) and living within your budget would do,
Thanks for your eye opening comments
I appreciate your contribution
My apologies for the confusion and I meant no offence. In Canada I can't really eat out for less than $5.99 CAD (about 5500 Naira) and when I was in the USA last week the cheapest I found was about $5 USD (about 6300 Naira). Those numbers were the absolute cheapest I found with most restaurants out being double that. That's why I figured 2500 Naira would be for a single meal.
I know where the 30,000 Naira minimum wage came from. A few years ago the world health organization set the "extreme poverty" level at 2.15 USD per day per person (2017 I believe). At that time 30,000 per month would have been just slightly over "extreme poverty". So by setting the minimum wage at 30,000 Naira the government was ensuring that any regular worker would indeed be classified as poor but not as "extremely poor" on the international standard.
Makes sense from a political point of view.
However, with inflation where it is I'm sure that 2.15 would be higher now. Assuming 5% inflation annually for the past 7 years that would mean current "extreme poverty" would be at just over $3 USD/day. In naira that would be about 113,000 Naira monthly today.
You are absolutely right. 30,000 Naira is impossible. It's a hold out from 2017 and useless in todays terms. Even 113,000 is tough but at least it might be possible for a single person.
But then again, I'm a Canadian from half the world away, I shouldn't really comment on things far from what I know.
Thanks for reading my reply at least :) Appreciate it
Oh am just coming online again, I so much love your analysis,
The truth is Nigerian Government have the Capacity to pay up to #200,000 per month as the Minimum Wage, they are just too greedy and they want people to keep wallowing in poverty more, it is very saddening,
Am just knowing you are a Canadian, Nice meeting you 👍👍🙌
Hmm.... Of course the goverment could increase the minimum wage to N200,000/month and there are many good reasons why they should but it may not be quite as easy as you think.
I certainly won't defend the government keeping the minimum wage at 30,000. It is undefendable. A person should at the very least be able to eat for their work. Even slave owners make sure their slaves can eat for their work at the end of the day. 30,000 is like saying "I'll use you for work but won't allow you to live". In what way is that defendable?
But...
Remember when the government removed the subsidy from gasoline? Companies now had to pay more to move their products so prices went up. Bus drivers and taxi drivers had to pay more for their fuel and rates went up. Even people who didn't have cars ended up paying more for everything.
When minimum wage goes up employers have to pay more for their employees. Prices in stores go up to match. Prices for transportation go up because the driver needs to be paid more. Prices for cellular data go up because the cellphone companies have to pay their workers more. Service often goes down because employers can't afford to hire as many employees because they are more expensive.
Of course people who are employed make more money so they don't feel the raise in prices as much, however, the unemployed or underemployed feel the hit that much more.
In California a senator wanted to raise minimum wage to about $50 USD/hour (about 70,000 Naira if I rememer correctly). That's great for the worker but it won't take long until prices for everything skyrocket and employers get rid of as many people as they can--opting for automation and robots wherever possible.
So...
Should the government raise minimum wage?
Absolutely.
How high should the wage go?
Good question. I'm certainly not the right person to say that :)
One thing that would be even better though...If employers start paying more than minimum wage. Just because it is legal to pay someone 30,000/month that doesn't mean its ethical.
And again....I'm talking as a non-resident from halfway across the world. Please ignore me if I'm not making sense :D
You are Absolutely making sense, About the California senator, did he finally increased the minimum wage?
No. $50 USD was a "liveable" wage in the area but non sustainable as it would increase inflation to a point where $50 became as useless as $5. As it is a person can make $110,000/year and still not be able to afford a place to live because of unbelievable prices on things. Minimum wage for fast food workers did become about 30,000 naira hourly ($20/hour) but with price of things there it may sound like a lot but it really isn't.
The short version is I agree more with paying people a fair wage but the economy of things isn't as easy as "the government can fix it by raising the minimum". Employers need to value their employees AND have an economy strong enough that they can still make a profit while paying their employees enough to live on. Sadly that isn't always the case.
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Honestly, the cost of living is just overwhelming most times. These days, i am scared of going out because each step I take, money pours.
Lol this is the sad reality. But I find your comment hilarious though😂😂😂😂
The cost of living is going out of hand and I can't help but wonder if it'll ever get better, I'm surprised things are so expensive over there in Benue, I mean that's the food Basket of the nation.
It shows how bad things are and the need to seek greener pasture.
Boss the food basket is just a camouflage of the reality, foodstuffs and clothing are crazy expensive here