World's Richest Man Says the US Economy is in Recession (& Times Bookstore's 30th Anniversary)

Warren Buffet thinks the US is in for a "long and deep" recession which has already started. Excerpt from Reuters' website below:

He said the United States was "already in recession" and added: "Perhaps not in the sense that economists would define it" with two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

"But the people are already feeling the effects," said Buffett, the world's richest man. "It will be deeper and last longer than many think."

Well, the rest of the world can't be far behind.

On a different note: Times Bookstore is celebrating it's 30th birthday by giving it's members 30% off regular-priced items. Check out the full details here.

Doesn't Matter If You Don't Own a Car...

... the rising petrol prices will get to you too. Don't be surprised if your utilities bill is a little higher than usual this month. This Business Times article tells you why.

There was tighter electricity supply - arising from cogeneration plant shutdowns for maintenance and exacerbated by the supply outages of Indonesian gas.

There was also increased demand for electricity 'which hit a high this month,' the source said. This was brought about by the high temperatures (which means increased use of air-conditioners) and also higher industrial output.

Already, average monthly electricity tariff had increased by some 25 per cent between December, when it was S$140 a megawatt hour, and April, when it hit S$173, latest Energy Market Company (EMC) figures show.

And the further climb expected in electricity tariffs this month - due to the ever-rising oil prices - reinforce EMC's expectations that electricity rates will face more upward pressure in coming months especially as electricity demand in the second and third quarters is traditionally higher.

With the price of food, housing and utilities going up everywhere I doubt if a recession is far away. After last year's phenomenal success and this year's looming recession, I wonder how this year's up-coming GSS is going to fare.

Time to Whip Out The Pots and Pans

Photo by: jslander

AsiaOne reported today that food operators are upping their delivery charges. I'm a big fan of Sarpino's and I just love their "2nd pizza at 50% off" deal so reading that they're increasing their prices is a big disappointment. But with food costs rising everywhere, this was bound to happen sometime.

So, what's a girl to do? Well, reduce the frequency of having friends over for pizza to start with. The next would be to cook more often. Besides being cheaper, it's also more healthy. Most of my friends have developed the habit of picking up something for dinner on their way home from work from the numerous food courts dotting the island and typically, food from food courts are poorly balanced (probably with the exception of economy rice, but this depends on what you pick) and high in MSG content. Other friends really like instant noodles. The most common reasons for not cooking (instant noodles with only the condiments that come in the packet don't count here) are:

1. I live alone and it's too difficult to cook for one person.
2. I'm half dead by the time I get home from work.
   
3. It's too time consuming. I'd rather spend my time doing other things.
4. I don't know how.

The solution to problems #1, #2 and #3: batch cooking
Now some people would find this disturbing, but even though I live alone, every time I do stove top cooking (as opposed to microwave), I'll make at least 4 portions. I usually have one portion the day that I cook, which is usually either a Saturday or Sunday, and then refrigerate or freeze the other portions for later. So on weekdays, all I have to do is to pop the food into the microwave to warm it up and 2 minutes later I'm enjoying a warm, home-cooked meal. That's 1 hour of work for 4 decent meals.

The solution to problem #4: learn (and it ain't as difficult as you think)
Some of my friends had the privilege of growing up in homes where their moms would make everything from scratch and shudder at the thought of using canned/frozen ingredients. That's all well and good and I love food made from scratch just as much as the next person but if you haven't the time or expertise, making food from scratch can be difficult. And then there's the argument that preprocessed food is unhealthy too. BUT, there are different degrees of unhealthy and there are ways to minimize this.

Take for example, the humble packet of instant noodles. It's fast and efficient. Everything goes into a bowl, pop the bowl into the microwave and you're all set. What I usually do for microwaved noodles is to buy dried noodles without the seasoning. There's a great variety of dried noodles out there so it's basically up to your own preferences what to use. Here's a hint, though: don't use any type of noodle that needs washing after being cooked, e.g. "mee sua". Instead of the seasoning that comes with the typical instant noodles packet, I use chicken or vegetable broth that comes in 1L cartons. Any type will do and some broths do have added MSG but very little. If you're really health conscious, you can get the organic vegetable broth that has all-natural ingredients only and no MSG. To make it a more well balanced meal, I add frozen vegetables. Now most people think of frozen vegetables as being limited to the generic mixed vegetables of peas, carrots and corn but there are other types of frozen vegetables out there. My preference is for frozen spinach, frozen cauliflower and Watties' Winter Vegetables which has broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, potatoes and baby onions. I'm also a big fan of frozen shrimp dumplings so I'll throw a couple of these into the mix as well though I never never use the "soup" powder that comes with the frozen dumplings. This is just sugar, MSG and artificial flavouring. I'm sure, of course that the frozen dumplings have some of this artificial flavouring added to them too but at least it's kept at a minimum. So, with a prep time of about 5 minutes and microwave cooking time of about 7 minutes, it is possible to make a half-way decent bowl of noodles. Other quick and easy dishes are omelets (or scrambled eggs) and pasta.

I don't really enjoy cooking but I do enjoy a good meal. So if that means that I have to give up a little time then I'd rather cook than to consume crappy poorly balanced hawker food. It's bad enough that I have this for lunch pretty much every work day so at least I come home to some decent food. And on top of that, the money I save by cooking allows me to have better food if and when I eat out for dinner.