Can you still save money today?
Residents are told to save money every day by economic experts and banking officials.
POLOKWANE – Residents are told to save money every day by economic experts and banking officials.
Save money for your children’s education, save money for retirement, build up a nest egg, are just some of the messages we hear.
Is it still possible to save money in today’s economic climate?
Review spoke to a few residents of Polokwane to find out how they felt about their savings.
Marlize van Wyk says she finds it very difficult to save with three children in school. “When you add up all the school fees, clothing, books and other expenses, very little money is left to spend on keeping the household afloat,” she says.
“When starting out in life, people should consider the expenses of having children in school and plan accordingly. The sooner you start saving for when you have children, the better off you will be.”
Neleen Jansen van Rensburg says it is becoming more and more difficult to save money with the recent increases in the petrol price as well as the costs of water and electricity that went up too.
“The only way to save money is to spend our annual family holiday at home, but this too had proven to be expensive,” she says.
“Living expenses have become too much for people to handle and with the price of petrol going up every now and then, the only vacation our family can afford is to stay at home and make the most of the time together.”
Yolandé Anders blames the high cost of living on the petrol price and says the best way to save money is to find a mode of transport that did not need fuel.
“When the petrol price goes up, the prices of all consumer goods go up. When the price of petrol goes down, it is only with a few cents and I save around R15. These days you can buy a loaf of bread with that kind of money and little else,” she explains.
Richard Molapo says he tries to save money by only taking a taxi to the city from Turfloop once or twice a week instead of every day.
“There is no money to save for later years when I want to retire. I will be forced to keep working for as long as possible,” he says.
“I try to finish all my business in the city in one day and I sleep over if I need to be there for work for more than one day. That way I can save on transport costs.”
Jimmy Mafungo says he manages a shop and it is clear that luxury items stays on the shelf much longer, because people cannot afford them anymore.
“I monitor my expenses by keeping tabs on my electricity usage. This helps me to work out how much I will spend on electricity at the end of the month and I can work out my budget accordingly. This does not mean I have money to put away, I just manage to keep up with my daily living expenses.”
Zhané Saais says she is a student and now realises how expensive life is.
“My friends and I take turns to drive us all to study sessions to save money. Parties are out unless we can make do with the food in the house.
“The little money I save, I use to visit my family.”
