Many locals find eating out too expensive in Johor Baru.
EATING out in Johor Baru is becoming costly no thanks to escalating prices of essential items in recent years.
Cooking at home and dining in is now more common in many households as locals try to make ends meet.
Electrical store manager Jenny Chin, 38, said she spent RM200 weekly to buy ingredients to cook dinner for her family of four.
“It’s enough for five days,’’ she said, adding she was lucky as her husband and two schoolgoing children were not fussy with home-cooked meals.
Chin says it is cheaper to cook at home for her family of four.
“Our dinner usually consists of soup, vegetables, meat or fish or poultry dishes,’’ she said, adding she would normally compare prices of the ingredients before buying them.
Chin said her family would usually dine out on Friday and Saturday at a fast-food outlet and spend between RM50 and RM100.
Electrical technician P. Steevan said even eating economy rice or nasi campur for lunch was no longer as cheap as it used to be.
He said a plate of rice, vegetable curry and steamed tofu would now cost RM6 from RM5 previously, while white rice and mutton curry had increased from RM9 to RM12.
“It is better to check prices of the nasi campur dishes first before choosing what you want to eat,’’ said Steevan.
The 40-year-old bachelor who lives with his younger sister, her husband and her mother-in-law, said they spent about RM500 monthly for groceries.
“All of us are working except my sister’s mother-in-law and the ingredients are for our dinners,” he said.
Steevan said his family had to reduce the number of times they dine out to only once a week.
Steevan says his family has to reduce the number of times they dine outside to once a week.
“We normally spend about RM70 to RM80 when we go out for dinner,’’ he said.
However, optometrist Suhana Md Seh, 49, and her husband Abdul Hadi Shaari, 48, still find it cheaper to dine out for lunch considering their three children are away at university and boarding school, and it is not economical to cook for just two.
“We only cook when our children are back home during their semester break,’’ she said.
Suhana said they usually eat a simple breakfast at home like sandwiches or French toast before going to work, and spent no more than RM10 each on their packed lunch.
“We have a late lunch at work and we skip our dinner,’’ she said.
