Avoid living beyond your means.

Byline: Paul Selva Raj

HOW are Malaysians responding to the current financial scenario? While consumers have been complaining about price increases, they continue to spend. In a report by a major credit card company, Malaysian cardholders made 15.3 million transactions at the Mega Sale Carnival in August, spending around RM3.86 billion. Average spending per day rose from RM57 million to RM70 million, up 22.7 per cent from the carnival last year. Average spending per transaction increased 19 per cent to RM258 from RM218 last year. The two major areas of spending were shopping and dining. Despite the complaints of financial hardship, people were still eating out.

In another …