Homes

Affordable ways to entertain at home

The year is almost coming to a close, and the festive season is within sight. This is how you can organise your home entertainment.

With increasing inflation and the pressure of interest rates, budgets remain tight for many South African households. When looking at ways to cut down on expenses, the entertainment budget is usually the first one to go.

Thankfully, there are many affordable ways to entertain from your very own home. Regional Director and CEO of RE/MAX of Southern Africa, Adrian Goslett, says that while homeownership can be expensive, it remains a great long-term investment strategy for those who prioritise their expenses and find ways to pay back their home loan faster.

“Once the home is paid off, the financial burden eases, and the homeowner can fully enjoy the capital appreciation benefits that come along with homeownership,” he notes.

But, finding the necessary funds to keep up with the repayments can be challenging. When reviewing your monthly expenses, Goslett recommends taking a close look at the non-essential items on your budget. This will typically include things like eating out, buying tickets to a concert or show, shopping bills for non-essential items, etc.

To help homeowners find ways to cut down on their entertainment bills and leave more room in their budget to keep up with their home loan repayments, RE/MAX of Southern Africa shares some ideas for entertaining at home:

  • Host a bring and braai.
  • Invite friends and family over for a games night.
  • For those with a pasta machine, host a make-your-own pasta evening as an affordable and fun way to feed your guests.
  • Host your own paint-and-sip evening at home. Ask each guest to bring their favourite bottle of wine, supply some large sheets of paper, and challenge everyone to get their creative juices flowing.
  • For exercise enthusiasts, invite some friends over and do an online workout
  • Throw a themed dress-up dinner party.
  • Grab some snacks, pick a movie series, and host a movie marathon evening.
  • Create your own food and drink pairing using your favourite combos (like coffee and chocolate or cheese and wine) and invite friends over to enjoy the curated experience from the comfort of your own home.

“Finding more affordable ways to keep yourself entertained can go a long way towards getting your finances under control. As difficult as it may be, practising the financial discipline to prioritise your home loan repayments over other expenses will lead to far greater financial freedom in the long term,” Goslett concludes.

Writer: Kayla Ferguson

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Patrick Mumbi

Patrick Mumbi is currently the Content Administrator at Hive Digital Media. Trained as a Journalist, he carries wealth of experience having worked across the media spectrum in print, electronic and currently in the digital media space. Patrick's current responsibilities include writing commercial content and most importantly ensuring quality control is achieved on internal and external content which gets published on various platforms.

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