8.09.2023

Be budget smart – Tips to not just survive, but thrive!

With the petrol price going up, the interest rate taking a hike and the cost of living seeming to increase daily (without salaries increasing to match), it’s become more important to be savvy with your spending.

By being smart with your money and finding some clever ways to budget, you could soon be a budgeting aficionado!

1. The 50/30/20 Rule

Finance gurus around the world talk about the 50/30/20 tool as a savvy way to work with your money. It’s pretty simple, you take your net (take home) salary and divide it into needs, wants and savings.

That means 50% of your salary should go towards your needs (such as rent, utilities, insurance premiums etc.), 30% should go towards your wants (eating out, travel, entertainment etc.) and the final 20% of your income should go towards savings and debt (for credit cards or loans, savings accounts, or investing for your retirement).

It can often be difficult to uphold this 50/30/20 split, but once you calculate you can see how far off you are and it can give you a goal to work towards to make budgeting a breeze! And if you need a laptop to help with all those tricky calculations, Teljoy offers a range of budget friendly options.

2. Say Goodbye to that Daily Cappuccino

Yes, it hurts us to even say this, but those daily cappuccinos, lattés and macchiatos add up to far more than you might think! A tall cappuccino costs an average of R35 per cup, multiply that over the course of a month and you’re looking at around R700 a month just on those daily coffees, and that’s just on week days!

If you really can’t do without your morning cuppa joe, you can get at a barista in the comfort of your own home with a Nespresso Essenza Mini Coffee Machine from Teljoy for only R359 per month, which is a great alternative to those daily coffee shop runs.

3. Shop Around

Not all grocery shops are created equal! You are bound to get better deals on certain items at one retailer than you might at another. Scour newspaper supplements and retailer websites and compare prices to get the best deals for your grocery shop.

It may not seem like much, but every rand and cent add up to savings! And ALWAYS take a shopping list, buying without a list (or when you’re hungry) is a sure-fire way of ramping up that grocery bill. Another way to save money on groceries is to buy bulk meat hampers from a butcher rather than buying your meat from a grocery store where prices are often higher.

And if you’re worried about where to keep all that meat and groceries, you can get yourself a chest freezer or fridge from Teljoy on an easy and flexible monthly subscription.

4. Subscription is the New Purchase

An alternative to buying big-ticket items like home appliances and electronics, upfront with cash or whacking it on a high-interest credit card, is getting it on a subscription or rent-to-own basis.

This means that instead of paying thousands to buy the item, you pay a couple of hundred rand monthly for access to the item for as long (or as little) as you need it.

Teljoy, South Africa’s original rent-to-own provider, has a wide range of brand-new TVs, dishwashers, fridges, beds, laptops, washing machines, game consoles and more on an easy month-to-month subscription with a host of benefits built into the monthly price.

Teljoy not only covers the TV licence on all TVs, but they also cover repairs and maintenance and will even provide you with a loan unit if your item needs to be repaired. The low monthly subscription and added extras saves valuable budget (and admin time) to spend on the more important things.

And with the option to cancel any time or upgrade or downgrade your appliance, you never have to worry about being tied into a long-term contract.

You don’t have to be a finance whizz, because when it comes to budgeting it’s all about working SMART and not hard.

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