Editor's note: Xu Min, 26, works as an editor at a magazine in Shanghai.

I was shocked a couple of days ago when I went into a bakery near my house and found that the prices of many items had gone up.

One of the items was one of my favorites, a pancake, which was 1 yuan (US$0.14) more expensive.

To be honest, 1 yuan is not a big deal for me, but the thing is that prices are rising across the board; fruit, edible oil, sugar and so on. We now have to pay a lot more for daily necessities and the feeling is that prices will continue to pick up.

My husband works for a commercial bank and together we earn more than 150,000 yuan a year. We still live with my parents.

My mother does most of the family shopping and, every month, I hand a certain amount of our salaries over to her to spend on food. The amount she spends has gone up by about 500 yuan in the last two months.

She's pennywise and always looks for the best deals, but we'll probably have to hand over even more in the future. Inflation is really piling on the pressure.

What my husband and I are concerned about, though, is how the situation must be affecting the daily lives of Chinese at all levels.

Our family has had to put off some shopping plans. We won't be buying that new car or replacing our old color television. We'll have to wait until things get back to normal.

In the meantime, we're trying to save as best we can. We take the subway as often as possible, rather than get taxis, and we also read the news online instead of buying magazines. If I want new clothes, I look online, not in the shopping malls.

We have to find alternatives to spending money.

Xu Min was talking to Wu Yiyao.

(China Daily November 30, 2010)