Minor Issues: Strategies to deal with crazy living costs

To be clear, whether we have money or not, a lot of how we decide on spending has to do with values and living simply, the writer says. ST ILLUSTRATION: CEL GULAPA
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SINGAPORE - I blanched when the cost of my beloved teh siu dai (tea, less sweet) at the neighbourhood coffee shop went up from $1.20 to $1.30. Yes, it's only 10 cents, but it is not just that.

With the exit of my trusted electricity retailer, my family's electrical bills went up, from about $70 to $140 a month. My vegetable bills seem to have gone the same way. I don't want to talk about petrol for the car, which I am going to get rid of once its Certificate of Entitlement expires in a few months.

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