The impact of the high cost of living in Samoa is not a laughing matter.

So says Rosa Asalemo of Leauva’a and Nu’u Fou, who thinks it is high time the leaders address the cost of living.

“It is really hard to cope with the situation right now because some families like ours really can’t afford it, and it is no joke at all,” the 27-year-old said. 

Rosa shared about her family and how they are coping with the high cost of living.

“I am living in our small house in Nu’u Fou with my husband and his sister’s family,” she said.

“We have only one child and my husband is the only one who works and provides for our family.”

However, Rosa has got it all figured out especially on tackling the expensive lifestyle. 

She says the family planning initiative really helps her and her husband to tackle obstacles associated with the high cost of living.

“Luckily for us we only have one child and we are looking into family planning initiatives because I think and believe that to provide for more people, you need to have good and enough source of income to support and provide for their needs.”

Rosa said she was planning to look for a job sometimes soon to help her husband support their family.

“I am planning to look for a job soon to help my husband because here in Samoa not only do we work for our daily supply of needs and wants, we also have to support church and family obligations such as funerals, weddings and title bestowment.”

“So basically life isn’t just about supporting us, we have lots of other things to finance and that is why having one child for now is the best way not to burden ourselves but we are thinking of more kids when the time is right and the money is enough.”

Rosa Asalemo added they had just moved there and they were slowly working their land to plant crops to help sustain their livelihood.

“We just moved here for like four years now and we just finished clearing a small piece of land to plant some crops to help us with our daily feed so that we don’t depend much on supermarkets when they are getting expensive day in and day out,” she said.

Rosa also says she plans to have another child when she gets a job and enough money to support her family and her husband.