Detergent, gasoline, meat, toilet paper. Everything is quickly becoming more expensive. We pay considerably more for our food and energy costs than a year ago. As a result, people have to pay more and more attention to the little ones. But does that work? Today in our series Duurder Leven 72-year-old Yvonne: “I do my shopping in the morning, because in the afternoon it is already more expensive.”
Yvonne Nouwens is 72 and lives in Tilburg with her husband, who has Alzheimer’s.
What do you pay attention to in your daily shopping?
“Every Tuesday at this supermarket it is three loaves of bread for five euros. Then I usually stock up and my husband and I can do it for two weeks. I also buy what is in the advertisement. When the brochures fall in the bus, browse I go through everything and I determine what we eat that week. That way I take it into account. We have to, because it is bitter misery. I recently read somewhere: I do my shopping in the morning, because it is more expensive in the afternoon. Well, I really recognize that. On every euro you currently pay 19 cents extra. And that goes much faster than inflation.”
Is it difficult to make ends meet financially?
“Fortunately, that is not too bad. My husband and I receive an old-age pension, but we are not such expensive people. We do not need that much. I know people who go with every fashion color of the wallpaper, but we have that I’ve always bought clothes at the thrift store And if it’s for my husband, I tell him that nice shirt is off the market Because if he knows I got it there for a dollar, then he doesn’t care,” says Yvonne with a laugh.
What about the energy bill?
“Fortunately, we still have a contract of one and a half years with Essent and recently we received a letter that the price will not be increased. But we also pay attention. and put on an extra shirt My husband puts on his slippers at. And around nine o’clock we turn the heating off again.”
Are there any other things to watch out for?
“There’s a clock in the bathroom, we make sure we don’t shower for more than five minutes. Then it’s go, go, go, ready.”
Worried about everything getting more expensive?
“Yes, certainly. Suppose that war in Ukraine ends, will those prices go down again? I’m afraid not and that everything will stay that way.
Are you still going on vacation or a night out?
“We take it easy. When we were young, we went away more often, to Turkey and Spain. My husband has Alzheimer’s and he doesn’t understand any of it anymore. grandson to the cinema, I buy those tickets via Social Deal with a discount. And with the money we save, we eat fries together.”
Do you have a good saving tip?
“I hardly dare to say that. But if I blow my nose with a kitchen roll, I tear that paper in half. You can use one sheet twice. And if we eat an apple in the evening, then I peel it on a piece of paper that I reuse later. Toilet paper, I’m careful with that too. When my 17-year-old granddaughter is on the toilet, I hear ‘roch-roch-roch’ and then I think, that roll don’t have to, eh.”