According to the latest Consumer Price Index, which measures the average price changes of a fixed basket of goods over time, the current inflation for households stands at 6.1 per cent.
The rising cost of living is indeed problematic, especially for lower-income households. And as hapless consumers, there seems to be very little we can do other than find a higher-paying job or look to the government for help.
But the good news is, inflation is not permanent. Food and energy prices will level off, and wages will catch up to keep pace with inflation.
And in the meantime, the best thing we can do is to become educated consumers. Thankfully, in an era with an app for everything, there is one to help us fight inflation.
All hail the Price Kaki
So what exactly does an app that calls itself our price buddy do?
Developed by the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE), Price Kaki is the first mobile app in Singapore that helps us to compare prices of groceries, household items, and hawker food.
To date, it has pricing information on over 10,000 products sold by five major supermarkets and 37,000 cooked food items in food courts, coffee shops, and hawker centres.
In addition, users can also view the unit pricing of over 1,200 grocery items and receive updates on price changes.
But will the prices on Price Kaki be current? After all, no one wants out-of-date listings, especially when it involves a discount.
Perhaps, that is why Price Kaki offers rewards of grocery, movie or transport vouchers when users share and contribute updates to keep the information current.
Save time and money
Even though Price Kaki has been lurking around since 2019, the app has never seemed more relevant until now — a time of surging inflation where every cent counts.
Instead of manually going around supermarkets to hunt down the best bargain, we can now use the app to filter and sort listings by price and distance and compare the prices between different supermarkets.
Not only will this save us money, but time as well when planning our shopping trip or going out for lunch.
Unfortunately, the inflationary pressure will continue to wreak havoc on our budgets in the short term due to supply chain constraints and the war in Ukraine.
As consumers, we cannot change global events causing inflationary pressure. However, we can become smarter shoppers with Price Kaki.
The ability to get as close as possible to perfect information (i.e. knowledge of all market prices) will prevent us from paying more than necessary, especially when unscrupulous retailers are using the recent GST increase as an excuse to raise prices unjustifiably.
Featured Image Credit: Giant Supermarket/Google Play
