A struggle named family budget city pulse
Kannal Achuthan and Deepa H Ramakrishnan
The hike in prices in Chennai is comparable to that in big cities like Delhi
Chennai: Spending patterns vary largely among poor, middle class and rich families and even a small rise in prices of essential commodities hits the poorer sections.
For Madhan and Swapna, a couple living in the Kannagi Nagar Housing Board tenements, managing their household budget is a struggle every month.
Madhan, an autorickshaw driver, said expenses always seem to overshoot income. He spends Rs.1,500 towards house rent and Rs.3,000 towards food.
His wife is pursuing a B.Com degree and Madhan makes sure that Swapna has at least Rs.1,500 every month for her college expenses. They have a four-month-old baby.
“We don’t have any savings as of now. I don’t make all my money from autorickshaw. I also do a bit of real estate brokering now and then. I used to work in a private cellphone company earning Rs.4,500 but that would not be sufficient for the three of us. We also have the baby’s medical expenses from time to time,” he said. Currently, he is repaying two loans — Rs.10,000 and Rs.5,000 — that he had taken some time ago.
Middle class families
Middle class families like those of V.Sabari and Devika have comparatively less difficulty in managing their budgets. Yet, it is not easy. Sabari works as a human resources manager in a private firm and makes about Rs.25,000 and Devika brings home Rs.12,500 from her job in a BPO firm.
“We would like to buy a house. But even with loans, it seems only well-paid IT firm employees can manage that because of the skyrocketing land prices,” said Sabari. They spend Rs.7,000 on house rent, Rs.4,500 on food, Rs.1,200 on domestic help, Rs.2,000 on fuel and Rs.2,500 on the telephone and Internet.
Says Devika, “On an average, we spend Rs. 800 on out-of-the-city travel every month as our parents are not in Chennai.”
The couple puts the remainder of their income in a postal savings account and insurance.
They plan to have a baby only after a few years so that they have some savings for the child.
Even for well-off business families, repayment of loans and investment takes a chunk of their earnings. Gilbert James, Kripa Gilbert and four-month-old Rihanna live in a posh locality in Nungambakkam. Gilbert, who is director of International accessories brand Fuse, says he makes Rs.2 lakh per month from the company and Kripa brings in about Rs. 75,000 from her job as consultant.
Their business loan takes up Rs.1.8 lakh as EMI and their bank loan for two cars takes up Rs.16,500 as EMI. House rent takes up Rs.20,000.
Food and provisions cost Rs.8,500 and they spend Rs.10,000 on fuel. Entertainment and eating out takes up about Rs.10,000. About Rs. 5,000 is spent on health insurance and risk coverage.
According to the Central Statistical Organisation’s consumer price index (CPI), the number of urban non-manual employees in Chennai has increased by 4.1 per cent from January 2007 to January 2008.
The hike in prices in Chennai is comparable to big cities like Delhi (4.2 per cent increase in CPI) and Mumbai (4.1 per cent rise).
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