THE rising cost of living in Qatar is forcing many middle-class expatriate families to forgo luxury spending, which they could conveniently afford before the surge in prices that began about four years ago. While they all agreed that no compromises were being made on food items, they maintained that they still preferred economy buy on every item. Three families that spoke to Gulf Times opened up on compromises and sacrifices they have to make to cushion the effects of the biting inflation. A Jordanian man who was, until May, a senior accountant in a government establishment said he gave up his job to start a private construction business, which he has been planning since 2007, but to his consternation, the business has not been doing as he expected. “The effect of the slow business is telling on my income and I’ve been making a lot of sacrifices especially on our monthly shopping. The family has to forgo many things like regular shopping for clothes, shoes and other luxuries. “I used to buy branded dresses and shoes for both my wife and daughter, but all that has changed; we go for less expensive, still quality, wears and exercise some control on the way we spend our little change,” he said. The Arab expatriate, who lives in a three-room apartment with his nurse wife and daughter, said he has been able to cope with the full support of his wife who assists with her monthly income. “I am desperately looking for a job now before my account goes into red, especially now that we are expecting a new baby, and if things remain as they are, I may consider relocating to my country,” he said. A Pakistani woman, who has been working in Qatar, along with her husband, for more than 30 years, said the family has been living a ‘down-graded’ life since the inflation has begun to climb. “Before the first pinches of inflation were felt in 2003, we were living a regular middle-class life in a decent apartment with satisfactory meals, making consistent monthly savings, but now things have changed. We have since been relocated by my husband’s company to a very rickety apartment with make-shift rooms for our grown-up sons due to the rise in house rent,” she said. The mother of five said, nowadays since the cost of everything is dearer. She has to go for cheaper food items in order to meet the feeding demands of her large family. “We have to restrain ourselves from regular shopping, go for cheaper clothes and don’t even think of changing bad home appliances. We just have to keep patching it,” she lamented. The long-time Doha resident said that she and her husband continued to work despite reaching retirement age in order to make both ends meet and could only go on holidays to Pakistan or any Asian country. “You see, it is really a shame that after working for so long, you don’t have enough savings to sponsor either yourself or a child on holidays to any choice place. Everything is dependent on cost,” she said. According to her, the only respite is that her children were able to receive good education despite the situation. An Indian family also said luxuries such as changing furniture, electronics and other home appliances do not fit into the budget nowadays. “Of course everybody has been complaining about the cost of living, which continues to soar high and families really need to think twice before they spend money on certain things. For us, apart from food and other necessities, we don’t spend money on luxury items such as designer clothes or perfumes. We cut our coat according to our cloth.” “But still, there are very vital things you can’t compromise such as your child’s education, especially when the child is doing well in his studies,” she said. GT

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