After all the rants, perhaps I should write something to lighten up the situation. Here’s a list of ways that you can follow to change your lifestyle in order to cope up with the rising cost of living, especially the recent petrol and rice hike.
1. Use our Public Transport
With the recent hike on petrol price, it is wise to use the public transport. It’s cheaper if you’re travelling from a far place, and you’re saving the environment in the long run because you no longer emit any exhaust gas that contribute to the global warming. Think green. 
Don’t worry about the 30-60 minutes wait in the bus stop. You just have to adjust to the unsettling schedule in our public transport. If you start work at 8am, just wait in the bus stop at 6am so that you won’t miss the bus. Waking up early is good for health too. Don’t go clubbing till late at night. Sleep early, wake up early, and wait in the bus stop early.
Don’t talk about other public transportation because there’s no other choices in Miri. We just have to adjust to the efficiency of the bus system here in Miri.
2. Car Pool Whenever Possible
Perhaps you don’t like to wait in the bus stop? Well, car pool whenever possible. If you have colleague that drives a Hilux, well that’s the best option. He could probably drive your whole department staff consisting of 7-10 staffs to the office. You see, if there’s 10 staff in your department, and if all 10 staff drives a car, imagine all petrol used in the 10 cars. Imagine all the gases that the exhaust emits from that 10 cars. Again, think green. Save the petrol. Everyone in your department should car pool. You can always exchange the driver of the day. Perhaps every Monday is Driver A, and every Tuesday is Driver B, so on and so forth.
3. Use Motorcycle
Motorcycle is definitely more fuel efficient than cars. You could probably save a lot here. If you have a family of 5, don’t worry, a normal motorcycle can carry that many people. You see, not only you can car pool, you can motorcycle pool too.
(Found this picture here)
4. Get a Bicycle
This is the best option out of the three I mention above. Bicycle doesn’t require any petrol, and you are exercising at the same time. It’s healthy, and it’s environment friendly too. I know normal office worker don’t exercise much, so think of cycling to work is a form of exercise to keep you healthy. You’re killing two birds at once, not too bad right?
5. Save your Electricity Usage
Turn on the lights only when you need them. Don’t turn on your PC 24/7 downloading illegal stuff. When you got home after work, go to sleep. Don’t eat, don’t turn on the lights. You’re saving electricity there, and a meal there. Think about how much you can save by skipping a meal and not turning on the lights.
Don’t use the fan or air-cond. Just fan yourself. Think of it as a form of exercise for your arm. Whenever you want to go to sleep, fanning yourself is definitely not an option. So, rather than turning your fan or aircond for the whole night, set timer to it so that it turns off after 30 minutes or an hour. You’re saving 7 hours of electricity by doing so, assuming you sleep 8 hours a day.
6. Save your Water Usage
I know, 70% of our planet is covered with water, but why should we save our water usage? Saving on water definitely can save your utility bills. Saving your utility bills can reduce the impact of rising living cost.
You can start saving your water usage by taking bath once a day. Do you know that the water used every time you shower or take a bath is around 40-100 litres? That’s like 1-2 months of drinking supply! Think about the savings that can be made.
Also, try not to flush the toilet after you have done with your business. Either big or small. Leave it there until the end of the day, then you flush it. Every flush is like 7-10 litres of waters. Just imagine how much water you have wasted if you got to the toilet 4-5 a day.
You also can try not to wash your cloths daily. You can re-wear your cloths after spraying it with fragrant spray and then hanging it under the hot sun to kill of bacterias. You’re saving both electricity and water when you don’t wash your office shirt, because you don’t have to iron your shirt. Everyone knows your shirt will wrinkle when you wash them.
You can wear your underwear at least 4 times before you wash it. Use them normally, then turn it around, then reverse it and you can use twice again. I got this from watching Ah Wong, a HK drama.
7. Save your Gas Usage
If possible, cook under the hot sun. We should be glad that Malaysia is a country where we can see hot sun almost everyday. Get a magnifying glass to get concentrated heat to your food. Cooking your food this way may be slow, but just think of it as a test of patience.
8. Don’t Eat Out, Eat In
What I meant by eating in is eating in your house. Don’t eat in those fancy restaurants or coffeeshops. Go to market to buy veges and meats and cook on your own. You can save a lot than eating out, and it’s healthier this way. You don’t know how much MSG they put in their food.
9. Plant your own Vegetables
This is another option to save the car petrol every time you drive to the market to get your foods. Planting your own vegetables can save a lot of money, all you need is your time to take care of the vegetable. For those living in an apartment, you can use hydroponic to plant your veges.
Well, if you think you don’t have the time to plant the veges, you could probably learn how to cook grass properly. You can get grass anywhere, and it’s free of charge. Grass is healthy, I mean, how do cows get so strong? They’re full time grass eater
10. Don’t Eat Rice
With a hike of RM20 per 10kgs, one have to eat less rice. Or better yet, don’t eat rice at all.
Eating too much rice isn’t healthy. If you’re an office worker, and what you do mostly is sit in front of the computer, typing documents or spreadsheets, or spreading office rumours and gossips, then I must say that rice isn’t necessary for you. Rice is full of carbohydrate and you don’t burn that much energy by typing and gossiping. Besides, all those unused carbohydrate converts into fats if you don’t utilized them. Instead of risking yourself getting obese by eating rice, don’t eat them.
BONUS! 2 Ways the Ministers HAVE to do to Change Their Lifestyle
1. Don’t Use Private Jets to Travel
I remembered reading it somewhere where our PM and his deputy spend hundred thousands of ringgit just to pay for the fuel of their private jet. If they’re traveling domestically, they should use Air Asia, and save the fuel cost. If they’re traveling to other places they can use MAS. Why waste the taxpayers money on private jets?
2. Don’t use your Luxury Car.
I happen to notice that our ministers uses luxury cars like Mercedes. Do you know that those luxury cars drink car petrol like us drinking water? Instead of the ministers asking us to change our lifestyle, why don’t THEY too change their lifestyle. They should be driving Kancil instead of Mercedes because Kancil doesn’t have high fuel consumption, and it’s our National Car! We should be proud of our national car right? If you think the Kancil is too low class, perhaps they can drive a Perdana. It’s a luxury car after all
That’s all for today folks. Let’s start changing our lifestyle
wow, a nice way for me to change my lifestyle. thanks ya…