You May Keep The Change

Some families are vegetarian by circumstances, not by choice. They miss having meat at least 

once a week. They just cannot afford it. That's why they don't tip. This recipe, cook onions, 2mato in canola oil for 6m. Add chopped eggplant, cook for 8m. Eat with boiled potatoes and raw garden tomatoes.

It only happens in the movies, after a romantic dinner. Keep the change! We pay with plastic money now so waiters bring the machine and we add the tip. Some restaurants demand a certain percentage, so we punch it in.

Keep the change is in the movies because in real life, there’s not enough change to buy tomatoes, at $4 a pound. I bought tomato paste as a substitute but there’s no tomato taste. I guess preservatives they used to make the paste, killed it.

There’s no change if you can’t afford fruit and vegetables because medication is a priority. I have a novel around here where a daughter went to see her mother in Brooklyn. Something was off. She didn’t look well. They cut her government cheque so she had to make some adjustments. Eating healthy had to go. Buying her cholesterol and blood pressure pills was the priority.

Keep the change is difficult when the price of gas goes up and wages haven’t gone up in three years. How about bread? Why does the price go up as soon as I leave the store? I understand with tomatoes because vegetables in Canada and U.S. are cheap during the summer. They are so many. But bread? Why does the price goes up constantly?

Keep the change does not exist for parents raising teenagers. They want technology now, but they have to wait. There’s no money to buy four laptops for teens that live in the same house. The only change available is for cheap meat cuts, chicken wings, rice, tomato paste, bananas and bulk oatmeal. It’s called basics.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.