"Gone are the days when we could eat to our heart’s content. Today we practise self imposed rationing at breakfast, lunchtime and dinner time," said a housewife from Maharagama who quickly added, "I do not want to be identified for there will be more problems to my life in addition to the cost of living. We are old now and are unable to work more, so that we can buy more food. So as a result we have to cut down on what we eat," said this senior citizen.

She went on to say that they have given up on buying a daily loaf of bread at Rs. 40, but instead preferred to eat the branded sliced bread because they can eat it for a longer time. "I prefer to eat the brown bread, but we find it expensive and hence rely on the white bread."

"What one must consider is that bread, unlike cake cannot be eaten by itself, you must eat it with butter and the cost of butter is over Rs.200 per pack. If one tries to eat it with a banana, then one has to pay Rs.10 or Rs.13 for a single banana. The cost of jam ranges from Rs. 90 to Rs. 200. Having breakfast in Sri Lanka is an impossibility now," she pointed out.

She went on to say that the powers-that-be will argue that these food items may cost as much in other parts of the world, but they forget to mention that salaries over there are much higher, she said.

This housewife, Mrs. E.B, said that she lives with her husband who is ill and she too is suffering from arthritis. "We are respectable people and try to live according to the lifestyle that we are used to. I am aghast at the prices today. Rs. 1000 is as good as Rs.100. I don’t know how people who eat half a loaf of bread and dhal manage, because dhal is about Rs.200 a kilo," she said.

"I like to eat a banana or some fruit after breakfast. A good, yet average mango costs about Rs. 60. Cheese is unreachable," she said.

She went on to say that because she is ailing and unable to cook anymore she has hired a woman to do the cooking. "No longer is labour cheap. This is because these people too have to pay the same prices for their food as we are paying. I have to pay the woman Rs. 450 to cook and clean the kitchen. She does not do any housework and her work hours are from 2.30 p.m to 5.30 p.m.

"If I hire a man to weed the garden he wants Rs. 400. It is not that we can afford these payments, but it is because we are too frail to do these things on our own. I dread to think of the plight of the senior citizens in this country," said Mrs. E.B from Maharagama.

Mrs. J. Fernando speaking from Bambalapitiya when contacted by The Sunday Leader said that the time has now come where we cannot afford to eat anymore. "It is a pity because the housewife is always in a rush and bread was the easiest breakfast food. "Now we have kiribath or rice in the morning."

‘But today my husband and I went for a walk at 5 a.m. and we went into a bakery and bought two plain bread buns to make burgers with soya meat for our children. Two plain bread buns cost us Rs.46. If we buy sandwich bread we pay Rs.80 if it is sliced and Rs.78 if it is unsliced," said Mrs. Fernando from Bambalapitiya.

Roshani from Dehiwela said that though the prices of rice and bread have skyrocketed, the well to do families will somehow manage their meals. "Because our husbands have good jobs we are able to battle with the cost of living. But in the case of the poor, it definitely is a nightmare."

"My domestic went to her home in Badulla, where they live in a tea plantation. Her son and daughter-in-law and their children had not eaten rice in three days, neither have they eaten bread. She told me that they like to eat wheat flour based rotis, but are unable to buy the wheat flour due to its prohibitive price. Finally, she had to pawn her earrings so that they could have a family meal of rice, and bread the next morning," pointed out Roshani.

She went on to say that houses that have domestic aids feel the pinch that is brought about by the prohibitive cost of bread. "A domestic aid eats half a loaf of bread with some curry and if one has a domestic aid and a driver then their bread alone in the morning costs Rs.40," she pointed out.

Meanwhile, when The Sunday Leader contacted some office workers they said that breakfast time is really frightening. "A string hopper costs Rs.2.30 and curries cost from Rs. 80. Half a loaf of bread costs Rs. 20, but then again we have to buy some curry to eat with it. It is not that we have to eat for just one day, we have to have breakfast for 30 days," they chorused.

Some of them went on to say that they have given up eating bread, and eat rice in the morning instead. This means cooking curries and that involves buying coconuts at the rate of Rs. 40 each. It is better to die than live they said in disgust.

Meanwhile a gentleman from Colombo 7 said that he too feels the dreadful pinch that is brought about by the cost of bread. "Anyway, the government has made us all feel that by eating a piece of the costly bread, we are leading very elevated lifestyles!" he said adding a touch of humour to this sickening situation.

S.S. from Colombo 5 however went on to say that even after paying Rs. 40 consumers rarely get a decent loaf of bread. "We have failed to observe amidst this price hike that bread is not what bread was years ago. Today they seem to add so much yeast and very little wheat flour and one gets an empty feeling even after eating several slices of bread," she said.

Housewives also said that in addition to the cost of bread, shopkeepers add another Rs.2 for the shopping bag. "In the days gone by a shopping bag cost only 50 cents, now with this din about the environment, it is the common man who has been called to pay for that too," they lamented.

Meanwhile, the man on the street also complained about the prohibitive cost of rice. "When people say that they are eating rice instead of bread, it gives one the notion that rice is the cheaper alternative. Have we ever eaten samba for Rs.70 and Rs.80? Have we ever paid Rs.77 for red rice? Have we ever paid Rs.65 for white rice?" asked Augustine Fernando, who said that he is aghast at the way prices are rising each day.

"Everyday there seems to be an increase – sometimes as low as Rs.1, sometimes as high as Rs.20. Even the pack of margarine has gone up in price, but we are all so overwhelmed with the price increases in rice and bread that we are too fatigued to observe the other surreptitious increases around us," lamented Fernando.