COST OF LIVING IS TOO COST FOR THE LIVING

In Nigerian pidgin we say The cost of living wan kpia the living I didn't want to put that as a title knowing non-pidgin English speakers will also be reading this post. So in simple English what I'm saying is that the cost of living wants to kill the living. Anyway, we will always find ways to survive. Today in Nigeria, the 5 Naira note is being rejected in some states because it's as good as useless. When I traveled to my village last month in Delta State Nigeria, I wanted to buy some biscuits for my younger ones and I gave the seller some of the little currencies I had with me which summed up to 200 naira. The currencies included 50 Naira, 20 Naira, 10 Naira, and 5 Naira notes but the seller gave me back the 5 Naira notes saying they no longer accept it.

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I had to give all the small currencies to my baby brother who was happy he now has a lot of money. Today I bought some biscuits during my lunch break at work and the seller needed to give me a change of 10 Naira, I asked if I could collect chewing gum instead, which I expected to be the least in terms of prices, but she said chewing gum is now 50 Naira. This is something that was 10 Naira in December last year, I remember, I remember growing up as a child I would buy two chewing gum for 5 Naira which at that time too was becoming too expensive according to my dad then. I can remember faintly a few times I bought sweets in coins and saw the reddish 1 naira note that has also gone extinct.

I do not want to even talk about the fact that I get home almost every day angry at how much I spent for either transportation or feeding especially when I take a look at my bank account balance after all the spending. Since I started working in December, I have had to increase my transportation fare which was formerly 400 naira per day to 700 naira per day if I choose to cover some distance on foot. If I decide not to spend, I end up spending between 1500 - 2000 Naira every day for 5 days which is 10,000 naira a week and 40,000 naira a month on Just lunch and transportation. Now if I should consider just my salary alone, then what I would have left would not be able to sustain me for even a week.

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Last month was hard for me financially and I was giving my sister between 5,000 - 10,000 weekly to cook. Most times what the money can buy would be so small that we only get to eat at night and have to survive with 001 or 011 if I decide to spend on lunch at work. Even water is now expensive, so we try to preserve it as much as we can. It's usually painful when I do my monthly calculations and see I've spent more than 100,000 naira in a month on Just transportation to work and feeding my sister and me. This is why right now I'm in search of another income source so I do not run into further financial crisis knowing I still have my extended family depending on me

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S PROMPT FOR WEEK 108 EPISODE 3