Making ends meet

Vegetables are becoming more and more of a luxury for some, but you can still find affordable ones if you know where and when to look. — 123rf

WITH her low pay, Norhasliza Khalid’s family once had to survive on instant noodles for a whole week.

“We had to ration our food as most of my wages had to go to rent and bills. So we had two packets of instant noodles for four people.

“That was tough for us,” says the single mother of three children, aged 16, 13 and six.

Other weeks, she says, bread or instant oats were on their staple menu.

Norhasliza, from Subang, Selangor, says she tried to make the dishes healthy and was happy when she managed to scour enough savings together to buy vegetables for her children.

Vegetables are becoming more and more of a luxury, she notes, but you can still find affordable ones if you know where and when to look.

For example, the differences in price between the most expensive bag of carrots and the cheapest ones can be vast, she explains.

“This depends on where you buy them. At hypermarkets, you can buy a kilogramme of carrots at about RM7. Whereas at some other wholesale markets, you can get carrots at RM2.50 per kg.

“So I have to be prudent in spending to feed my family with a proper diet.

“There were times that I had to ration a handful of leafy vegetables for a day, so we can have them for lunch and dinner.”

As her children’s needs grow, Norhasliza has decided to take up three jobs including at a foreign workers’ agency to supplement the household’s income.

“I have a bit more money now. But groceries remain expensive. Typically, I spend up to RM300 for groceries monthly. It is really about the increase in prices of goods.

“Things are already expensive today.”

According to the Health Ministry’s National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2023, over 95% of adults in Malaysia do not consume enough fruits and vegetables daily. Instead of the recommended five servings daily, Malaysian adults are generally consuming only two servings a day.

While lifestyle choices and low health literacy are the main reasons why a majority of Malaysians have an unhealthy diet, the high cost of living, especially when it comes to the volatile prices of fresh produce, appears to be a growing factor.

Another family, from Petaling, Selangor, shares the same struggle in putting nutritious food on the table.

A mother of two, Li Xin Yee, 35, works part-time in two restaurants to make enough for the week to buy chicken and vegetables for the family. But sometimes that is still not enough since Li’s family is prioritising saving earnings for rent and tuition fees for the children.

“My husband helps out by doing a few extra jobs as well, including food delivery and supplying materials to recycling factories.

“Despite our busy schedule we always make time to be home for dinner.”

Their children, aged 12 and 10, will have their lunches at school before heading to tuition classes in the evening.

“When it comes to our diet, we will eat what we have and try our best to prepare them as healthily as possible. But it may not be [nutritious] enough because we are skipping fruits, for example. There is nothing we can do now because we need to save money for bigger bills.”

Costly food items are also affecting those from M40 (middle income) households. Single father K. Vatoomalai, 46, tries his best to provide a healthy diet for his 12-year-old son. However, his busy schedule and rising cost of food items often mean Vatoomalai prepares inadequate meals.

For instance, he sometimes cooks vegetables, tofu and rice for dinner, often missing out on preparing animal protein-based side dishes.

“I try to provide home-cooked meals at least twice a week on my off days but on other days, I usually buy from restaurants because I work full time from 9am to 6pm, Mondays to Fridays.

“I wish I had more time to provide him with healthier, home-cooked food.

“But I admit I don’t buy fruits and vegetables as often. They can be expensive and I tend to skip them during grocery shopping,” says the IT technician.