Living on a tight budget
While the rich and famous are busy sipping on cocktails, we ordinary South Africans are forced to cut our budgets.
With the recent increase in fuel prices, interest rates and the introduction to e-tolls, most of us will be eating pap with no vleis for the rest of the year.
One litre of 95-octane unleaded petrol will cost us an all time high of R13.96; the Reserve Bank has raised the interest rate by 50 basis points and now motorists have started receiving their e-toll bills.
Residents are feeling the crunch; with the constant increase in expenses cheese and red meat have become a luxury.
At this rate East Rand residents are going to start calling a drive from Benoni to Boksburg a road trip, and ice cream will soon be only for special occasions.
You know every cent counts when you see a string of cars lined up at filling stations the night before the 39 cents petrol price hike.
While most people cringe at the thought of using public transport, at this rate, sooner or later, that will be our only choice.
When the interest rate and petrol prices increase, so does everything else, but when the petrol price decreases all the prices stay the same.
The only way residents can survive this consumer crunch is by being on a tight budget.
Here are some tips on how not to get yourself into debt:
* Before you start oiling your bicycle chains, consider setting up a lift club and, if that does not work, you can still ask your boss for a transfer to go to work in Limpopo, where we can use horses instead of vehicles as a form of transport.
* Family members and dependents need to understand that we are not stingy by choice, money is tight and unfortunately does not grow on trees.
*Our partners and friends need to be told that gone are those days when they used to receive musical birthday cards and expensive presents — they will be lucky if we give them a homemade card.
* We need to go back to our roots and plant our own vegetables and flowers.
