What I spend money on

A lot is being spoken about inflation and GDP these days and I recently chanced upon an article on how obsolete the WPI (Wholesale Price Index) calculation in our country turns out to be. (For people to whom this acronym makes little sense, The Wholesale Price Index or WPI is the price of a representative basket of wholesale goods. Some countries use the changes in this index to measure inflation in their economies, in particular India). That kick-started a new train of thought about how one spends his/her money these days.

Coming back to the WPI argument that I intended to make, the calculation still considers what Indians used to buy in the 80's. A bucket that includes a whole lot of age old consumer goods like GoldSpot, Cibaca, Palmolive, Vanaspati and hair oils that are not to be seen in the market these days. Now,coming down to what I (a middle class Indian consumer "today") spend my money on. It ranges from a relatively high amount towards the realty sector in the form of house rent to a moderately high amount towards books which are prone to smell the aroma of fresh paper in the shelves after years and years to come.

The month usually starts on a bright note marked by the routine SMS that the banker sends to indicate a salary deposit into the account. I mean, the first week of the month makes you feel happy as the double digit figure, that appears on the account balance field each time one goes to the ATM to draw money, attracts attention. The second week starts on a slightly doomed note with a proportion of the money that made you rich for a week debited automatically towards a couple of EMI payments. As a result, the breakfast menu in the second week shows up "3 idlis and chutney" for Rs.10 in place of the the Kellogg's cornflakes (rich in cereals) that showed up last week. The last week of the month does not have the item called breakfast in the day's itinerary at all whatsoever. What now? Food drew up a few thousands in the first three weeks.

Weekends usually contribute a lot to the big hole in your purse as a rule and i don't stand to defy anyhow. A Sunday morning reading ritual at Coffee day/Barista over a costly cup of coffee is a routine list item till the third Sunday of the month.Tamil is an extraordinarily beautiful language and it has an amazing term to describe this aforementioned behavior on Sunday mornings -"S****u Kozhupu". Weekend instincts ask for the "periodic inebriation" (If i am allowed to coin a phrase for convenience purposes) once again and it takes up a few hundreds out of your pocket. Now, to peep into the accounts file, one gets to see an amount of the order of 1763.85 or something of the like at the end of week 3. Ten breakfasts, luncheons and suppers to be taken care of till you get richer once again by virtue of another deposit.

Landmark visits, Night time cool drinks, McDonald's home delivery, Domino's Pizza, Bike petrol, Adidas/Reebok 40% sale, Big bazaar super dooper dhamaka offers, Kwality Walls Ice creams and super market pastries/chat items are other contributors which effectively contrive to throw you into a state of poverty close to month end.

It is Week No.4 on the calendar and one goes broke!!!

With my cell phone in hand (which needs a top-up asap) and eagerly looking forward to getting that SMS which comes on the last day of each month, I sign off wishing the working class readers of this post a rich month ahead.