The Indian Rupee has had a hammering! And we're now on cheese rations because of it!
When we moved it here in 2009 it was 32roops to the Aussie dollar. It hit 55 last week!
Now I'm no fiscal expert (as Dean will attest) so I'm not qualified to comment on how it affects India/Indians or the little chaiwala on the street, so I'm not even gonna try ... but it's plainly obvious (and has been for quite some time) that our rupees just aren't going as far as they used to, especially at the market for imported produce, and of course when we transfer money back home to cover our expenses there.
Yeah I know we could eat dahl and chappatis every day but I just can't do that with our kids, most certainly not for 3 years solid without us developing a severe aversion to the stuff, so we eat a balance of western and Indian food. Having said that though, we eat our fare share of Indian. In fact we're kinda addicted to our regular meals of chhole, lemon rice, puri's (methi puri being Emmy's other favourite food, and lunchbox filler of choice!), paneer, pea curry with lots of sauce is Xanthe's favourite, and chicken everything! I planted three curry leaf trees, and one of them is looking particularly bare .. a testament to how much Indian we do eat!
If it's one thing Emmaline will eat at the moment, it's cheese! It's also one of my weaknesses, but since my little trip to the local expat supermarket last week .. I've put myself on severe rations so Emmy can have my share!
So there I am at the market, pick up my 2 blocks of Emmy's cheese & a ball of local mozarella and the total at the register comes to a staggering Rs2,500!!!!!! I nearly fell over! Those 350g blocks of English cheddar had just skyrocketed to Rs1,100 .. that's about $20.50!!!!! Before Christmas it was 750 (and I thought that was expensive!) ... that's almost a 47% increase! (and it wasn't that long ago that it was 550!!!).
A little chat with the market owner, who's rather savvy importing all these food stuffs for expats, reveals he's got his finger well and truly on the pulse and knows exactly how much that block of cheese sells in Tesco's, what the exchange rate is and thinks that a post Christmas increase of 47% will go unnoticed!!!!! He offered me a discount and we talked more about how he needs to be more realistic with his increase (which by the accounts of expats I've spoken to over the last few days, he does after EVERY Christmas!).
When I return home, I make sure the girls know just how much that cheese now costs (they are also appropriately shocked!) and Dean taunts us with the idea of a cheese embargo ... I don't mention the fact that we're pretty light on treats (and pharmaceutical necessities) from home at the moment (that's a story for another time) ... and I also don't have to bring out the old "we're here because of YOUR job" chestnut .... for him to know when it's time to shut up, knowing I'll find a way to balance the cheese budget!
My girls have given up a lot of food while here, so I can't ask them to give up cheese too (they don't like the local cheddar) BUT, the bog standard easy peasy cheese quesadilia weekend lunch stops right now!!!!!
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