She had almost gone on vacation, for the first time in ten years. Gea Zegveld from Veenendaal wanted to visit an acquaintance in Hungary. But she had calculated that she would have already lost 400 to 500 euros on the petrol alone. Apart from the expenses there. “Then you want to go out for dinner or do something. And then I think: no, this isn’t going to be him.” So also this year she will stay at home.
Zegveld knows how to live frugally. As a single mother, she raised four children in addition to her busy home care job. “That was tough,” she says, also financially. “I often bought second-hand clothes. And my kids couldn’t always go to a birthday party,” she says. Because how was Zegveld always supposed to pay for all those presents?
Her children are now adults, but the rapidly rising prices are once again forcing Zegveld to be extra frugal. Her hand rests on her cloth shopping trolley full of offers from the cheap ‘euro shop’ she just came from – a pack of kitchen rolls sticking out.
Zegveld no longer buys meat. Too expensive, and to be honest she doesn’t like it as much as she used to. “I have become a bit vegan.” She has become more economical with gas when cooking. “Then I think: those vegetables and potatoes can also be put in one pan.” And for a few weeks now she has been showering lukewarm. “Now it’s just fresh, fruity.” She laughs: “Are you awake right away.”
In recent years, Zegveld has been living on disability benefits. Five years ago she had a hernia, and an operation only made the misery worse. “After that I couldn’t walk anymore.” She has recovered, but still has daily back pain and tired legs.
One bright spot is her move from the single-family home, where she raised her children, to an apartment. “Small is beautiful.” And: ground floor. “As you get older, this is ideal.”
One thing still needs to get off her mind: “They really have to make healthy products cheaper.” She herself eats vegetables and two or three pieces of fruit every day, even if that is an attack on her wallet. “If you want to live a healthy life, you really have to put in too much effort. Then I wonder: does it really have to be that expensive?”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of August 3, 2022