The Challenge: Month 1

Okay, yes, I got bored of blogging about my finances last month, but I thought I’d give a quick update.

I can say that it’s no fun having to live on such limited funds, but it is doable. I was lucky to receive an additional R500 to help get me through, but even so, things were tight.

Here are a few things I learnt last month:

·         Cash is king. Swiping a card allowed me to ignore the state of my finances until there was no money left, at which point I had to do some creative accounting to make it through the month. With cash, I’m always aware of how much money I have to spend.

·         A weekly budget works better for me than a monthly one. Here’s the thing – I like to shop, whether or not I have money to spend. Doing a monthly shop is mostly wasteful for me because I don’t feel like preparing the food I stock in my freezer. I still go to the shops, even when I don’t need anything. I just want things that I don’t have. So, by buying things only as I need then, and not in anticipation of wanting them, there’s less waste. Yes, my freezer is empty, but that’s only a problem when I’m lazy. There are a few things which I’m happy to buy in bulk – milks, eggs, bacon – but for the most part, it works better to shop every few days instead of once a month.

·         Separate petrol budget. A tank of petrol lasts me about 10 days, so I’ve allocated days each month that I can fill up my car. I don’t stick to this strictly, but within a couple of days of these deadlines, I do make a point of stopping by a petrol station.  And instead of just adding petrol money to my weekly budget, I’ve kept a separate tab for this. Otherwise I find that I spend money on other things, expecting that I can get around on petrol fumes if I have to.

I’m continuing with this method of budgeting for April. I’ve even allocated two amounts for entertainment without extending credit to do so.

It’s small steps at this point, but I expect it to get easier as I become accustomed to living with less.