Many tighten belts as year-end expenses soar

AMMAN — With the end of the year approaching, Jordanians are trying to balance day-to-day expenses with monthly earnings.

“Currently, we want to pay off any outstanding debts or bills, and then we will try to lower our heating costs, which have soared in the past couple of years,” Husam Muheisen, an Amman resident, told The Jordan Times on Monday.

On top of Muheisen’s year-end list is to provide his family with sufficient quantities of food and medicine.

During this time of the year, utilities, bills and food expenses spiked, leading Rania Qaisi, a mother of two, to reduce her family’s expenditure on other basic needs.

“Our monthly spending is recorded, and food, transportation and children’s clothes take up the greatest share of our budget,” she told The Jordan Times.

Qaisi added that she makes note of all her payments in order to remain organised, yet the financial burdens remain.

“I am struggling to make ends meet, and that is the situation of the vast majority here in Jordan,” she said.

Speaking with The Jordan Times, Waleed Ali, a supermarket owner, said that many families buy food on credit, while low income households are purchasing the least amount of food possible, and are only buying the basic household necessities.

“Everyone is trying to save money, particularly during the winter when all people have plenty of extra expenses,” Ali added.

People’s spending patterns are changing amid current economic conditions, said sociologist Hussein Khozahe, who added that “purchasing power has significantly dropped because people do not have cash for priorities”.

Nowadays, many people, in Jordan or elsewhere, have a “restrictive mindset” when it comes to spending money, economist Mahmoud Abdullah told The Jordan Times on Wednesday. 

Abduallah added that worsening finances are the cause for this mindset, which eventually increases the chance of scarcer purchasing power.

“People’s finances have increasingly tightened, and this has immediately affected private businesses’ cashflow,” Mansour Zreiqat, owner of a home supplies shop in Amman, told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

Zreiqat ponited out that “a minority of people come to buy home supplies, especially during winter because the weather starts to get colder, and therefore food and heating expenses increase”.

Usually, people at the end of each year settle their accounts and pay any existing debts, he added.