If you insist on taking a wholistic view of how the multiple economies work here in Indonesia, it's better for your blood pressure and overall happiness. Here's an example from yesterday:
As some of you know, our dogs are high maintenance and have always had their own line item in our budget. Yesterday, it was time to check their urine again for infections and crystals, so my very happy driver went happily to the vet's office with two containers of pee: one labeled 'Theda' and the other labeled "Olivia". Total bill for total urine workup? 44,000 rupiah each (divide by 9000 and you get $4.89).
Later in the day, I headed to the grocery store that is a four-minute walk from our house, and bought.. you know.. FOOD. I had found fennel at another store, so I was looking for leeks for the soup I was planning to make. I found them. Three of them. Healthy looking, fresh.. and 207,000 rupiah (that would be $23, no kidding). Why? Because it came all the way from Australia--which is farther than you think, just ask my mom who recently took that trip.
Rather than getting all flustered about it.. I realized that I'd actually made purchases at a fraction of the cost of Washington!
- $9.78 for two pee tests
- $23 for three leeks
total: $32.78
Pee tests at home would have been easily $40.. so, honey, we saved money yesterday! I'll never have to get a job at this rate! Yeeeeehaw!!
Zoey's version of Freak-onomics. Nice.
ReplyDelete