Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

Saving my rupees
By Renu Warnasuriya
“Fifty rupees? No, we usually pay thirty, okay, forty-five, forty…” Sound familiar? If it does, you my friend are a member of the ‘Cheapskate’ family. It was while trying to get into a three wheeler with seven others that I stumbled upon this phenomenon.

Ask any parent and they will tell you that their teenager is the biggest spender in the world. While young adults have always had a reputation of being ‘money-wasters’ the reality is quite the opposite, at least where most of us are concerned.

Seven of us (of varying sizes) would rather fit into one three-wheeler than pay an extra fifty bucks for another. Even the decision to spend money on a three-wheeler comes after much thought, “Can’t I walk,” “What about the bus…”

Given a choice most cheapskates (aka skates) would rather dine at an affordable, less extravagant eatery. This is a foolproof system because you can actually fill your stomach for a reasonable price as opposed to having a bite or two for an absurd price.

Hungry though we may be, most of us would split a burger (and the price) with someone else than have to pay the entire amount and eat alone. Of course, the first thing us skates do when we enter an eating place is to peruse the menu for the cheapest item.

Those of us who have cell phones are forced to practice ‘cheapskatiness.’ How many of us end the call before one minute to avoid being charged for incoming? Then there’s SMS. Skates are very careful about how they type messages, you have to type everything and make sure it does not go into two messages. Thus was born the SMS language.

The theory behind this behaviour is obvious; most of us have to pay our own phone bills and those of us who don’t, have to answer to our parents who do. “When it comes to things like CDs we buy the cheapest,” says 18-year-old Priyani. Rarely do skates buy original CDs. Okay, so these fakes may not be perfect, but I’m sure most of us can put up with occasional skips to save a couple of hundred rupees.

Sometimes, though things can go wrong. A friend of mine bought a ‘Bryne’ Adams CD - which he hoped was a fake with the usual spelling mistake. It turned out to be a complete stranger singing all Bryan Adams songs.

It’s the same with clothes. Most skates prefer to buy a damaged version of an article of clothing, than spend more to buy a similar looking article of a better quality. When I go clothes shopping, I spend hours trying to decide whether my buy is worth the money. I make a ‘pros-cons-list’, work out my budget for the rest of the month, compare it with other similar things I have bought, wonder if I can get it cheaper somewhere else… by the time I’m done with scrutinizing, I’m sick of the outfit. All in all this system is quite a money saver.

Romance is another major expense. There are gifts to be bought, cards to be sent, flowers to be delivered. The skates have found a way around this too. Why spend Rs.2000 on a bunch of flowers from a ‘reputed florist’ when you can buy the same thing from a mal shaalawa for Rs. 200. Why spend 100 rupees on a card, when you can make one for less? (Plus you can always harp about all the time, effort and love you put into it.)

Then there’s the social life. It really isn’t easy to be a ‘social butterfly’ these days! Who can afford to go out? “I spend all my money getting into a place so when I’m actually inside I can’t afford anything else,” says 20-year-old Naren who went on to say that he buys himself one drink, which he sips (slowly) the entire night.

Actually many of us skates have to cut down on our social activities because of financial constraints. I know a group of girls who for months have been talking about going for their school dance (which of course would cost a grand total of Rs. 2000 excluding clothes, hair and accessories). The ‘dance fund’ was going strong until the ‘Bryan’ news hit. They were torn between Bryan and the dance, since going for both would have led to bankruptcy. (Bryan won, after all the school dance will be back next year!)

At this stage in life we are slowly (and how) moving towards independence. Most young adults are expected to pay their own phone bills, buy their own clothes and other necessities. The students are usually given an allowance, which they are supposed to manage with for a certain period of time. The earning crowd are not this lucky. While the students complain of meagre allowances, earners complain of meagre salaries.

“Parents don’t realise how much money we have to spend,” says 22-year-old Nishika. A university student, she is given a standard amount at the beginning of the month, to be used for pretty much everything. Twenty three-year-old Marina has a similar plight. Although she too is a student she has a part-time job, which pays her a ‘part-time’ salary. “The thing about having a job is that you don’t have to depend on your parents, the other thing is that it makes you an instant skate, since you have so many expenses, so little money and no parents to depend on.”

Are we embarrassed to be skates? No. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, because most people our age don’t have a steady source of income (unless they have rich parents who dole out money). So if you indulge in all or one of the above activities you are welcome to join the skate club. The one thing you can be sure of is that membership is FREE!

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