MAN ON THE STREET

Topic: With the sluggish economy in the last few years and the dim outlook for the garment industry at present, what have you been doing to help yourself, your family, your community, or the CNMI to survive through these leans times?

Personally, I have been very mindful of working with my children, teaching them not to waste our resources. We try to be cautious with the money we spend in our home. I teach my kids to be mindful of the lights we use. Even though we have seven air conditioning units, we only use two. We had to shut off the other aircons down and we turn it on from 7:30pm to 4am only. We made a conscious effort of sleeping without aircon. We have to make personal sacrifices to address the problems with our economy.
—Jackie Quitugua
Capitol Hill

Conserving energy is what we do now, even with gas; we’ve seen the fuel surcharge, so we’ve been conservative now with my family. For electric, we try to use other sources like gas stoves. We teach our kids to conserve water. We not only teach our kids this but our students, too, since I am a teacher.
—Leslie Barcinas
Rota

Now our budget is controlled in the house. Cost cutting, too. With my kids, too, we now limit their spending.
—Sonny Alonzo
Susupe

I now start to do some physical exercise. I now eat less because of less food. Since it’s election time, we should start going to those election gatherings for free food, that’s where the money is. (Laughs) Seriously, it is really hard these days, harder than before.
—Mario Benito
As Matuis

It’s a real awakening for us to make changes and manage our income carefully for the future of our children. For instance, for fuel prices that are going up, I try to minimize my spending on gas, like if I have errands, I try to do them all at one time. You cannot take anything for granted now with the uncertainties of our economy. We cannot take anything for granted. We have to start saving money now.
—Domie Govendo
Dandan

If you don’t have money, don’t spend too much on unnecessary things. We conserve aircon use now with the power problem. I hope all will work out well with the economy. People should stop going to happy hours. Food is expensive now.
—Pauline Johnson
As Lito

We did a lot of adjustments. We don’t go out at night that much anymore. With our groceries we don’t have much now in our refrigerator since commodities are too expensive. With the power problem and high cost, we learned to minimize the use of aircon and our other electric-powered appliances.
—Sharmaine Casquero
Garapan

Because of what’s happening in the CNMI economy, I am opening up new businesses in other countries to cope up.
—Jason Thomas
Gualo Rai

Our power bill is so high. I now try to be conscious of our aircon usage. We also use fans now. Gas prices are also increasing that’s why we now try not to take unnecessary trips.
—Clarie Kosack
Capitol Hill