If you know the standard prices of groceries you regularly buy, you can save yourself a nice chunk of money as you hunt for specials and do your grocery shopping each month. Knowing my prices certainly helps me! So I’ve decided to share my list of the lowest prices of grocery items on special. I keep track of each item’s regular price as well as the lowest price on special advertised for in the shops lately. This list includes prices that are valid as of October 2016.

Why is it important to keep track of prices? Well, when the items you regularly buy go on special you would need to know if it really is the lowest price available on that product of if it a reduced price only at a specific store. Quite a few of our local supermarkets run specials on the same items in the same period, and one of those deals will usually be the best deal, so it’s important to know which one it is.

Also, if you don’t know the standard price of items in shops, how can you tell if the advertised amount on special is a good deal or not? I’m sure that many of you have learnt this the hard way, as I have! In fact, I am still learning and I still make a mistake sometimes – just the other day I returned a bottle of shampoo to a shop as it was R10.00 more expensive than in another shop, almost right next door!

Buying in bulk can be misleading. Often, the prices are cheaper per item, yes, that’s true. At other times, the price is cheaper by 20c or 50c which makes you wonder if you are really going to save much by spending money in fuel and driving or paying for public transport to get to a certain shop.

And quite often retailers will advertise buying a certain item in bulk at a certain price when you can actually buy the single item cheaper in another shop! Yes, I know, I am one of those people who walks around the stores doing my end-of-month grocery shopping with a calculator in my hand as I calculate the price per unit of advertised items in bulk but that’s the only way I can check if I am really getting the cheapest deal available!

Whenever I can get items that we regularly buy and use at their lowest price, that’s when I will buy a few, or more if my budget allows it, to add to my stockpile. I’m especially a fan of stockpiling non-perishable items when I can get them at rock-bottom prices and I will usually wait for the specials to come, and stock up as needed, so that I don’t have to buy these items at their regular prices. I will also stash cuts of meat or vegetables in our freezer when I see them at the lowest price possible.

Here is my list of the lowest prices of grocery and household items on special. These prices are up-to-date as of October 2016.

General Groceries

• Sugar (no name brand): R27.99 for 2.5kg.
• Cake Flour: R19.99 for 2.5kg.
• Sunflower oil (non-GMO): R34.00 for 2-litre bottle.
• Eggs: R36.00 for a crate of 30 grain-fed eggs.
• Soya Mince: R9.99 for a 200gr. packet.
• Puff Pastry (Today): R8.90 for 400gr. roll.
• Frozen Pies (Makro): R8.30 per pie (when bought in bulk of 12).
• Noodles (various): R3.30 per 100gr. packet.
• Rice (Tastic): R10.00 for 1kg (bought in bulk).
• Pasta: Fatti & Moni’s R9.99 or Woolworths R10.00 for 500gr. packet

Meat

• Beef shin stewing meat: R39.99 for 1kg.
• Boerewors: R39.99 for 1kg.
• Biltong: R120.00 for 1kg.
• Minced meat: R49.99 for 1kg.
• Whole chicken: R24.99 for 1kg.
• Chicken pieces in brine: R37.99 for 2kg bag.

Dairy

• Long-life Milk (no name brand): R9.99 for 1 litre (in a 6-pack).
• Plain Yoghurt (various): R23.99 for a 1-litre tub.
• Fruit Yoghurt (various): R10.00 for 6 cups.
• Maas (no name brand): R21.00 for a 2-litre bottle.
• Margarine: Blossom R24.99 for 1kg, Canola R36.00/Flora Gold for 1kg.
• Butter: (Woolworths) R39.99 for 500gr or (Emerald’s) R34.99 for 500gr.
• Cream cheese: R17.00 for a 250gr. tub.
• Gouda or Cheddar: (Lancewood) R79.00 for 900gr.

Tinned Food

• Baked Beans (no name brand): R5.30 for 410gr. tin.
• Corn kernels (Koo): R10.99 for 410gr. tin.
• Tuna: R9.99 for 175 gr. tin.

Household cleaning supplies

• Automatic washing powder (Ariel, Sunlight or Skip): R39.99 for 2kg.
• Fabric Softener (Comfort): R25.00 for 800ml bottle.
• Window cleaner (no name): R22.00 for 750ml bottle
• Handy Andy (no name brand): R9.99 for 750 ml bottle.
• Kitchen cleaner (Handy Andy Actifizz): R19.00 per 750ml refill.
• Dishwashing liquid (no name brand): R16.00 for 1-litre bottle.
• Tile Cleaner (Glade): R16.00 for 1-litre bottle.
• Dishwasher tablets (Mr.Sheen): R72.00 for 36 tablets.
• Pine Gel (Westpack): R68.00 for a 5-litre bucket.

Toiletries

• Toothpaste (Colgate/Aquafresh): R7.00 for 100 ml tube.
• Mouthwash (Colgate): R42.00 for 500ml + 250ml bottles.
• Soap (Protex, Dettol or Pears): R7.00 or R7.30 for 200 gr.
• Cotton Buds (Dove): R9.99 for a packet of 200.
• Shampoo or Conditioner (Tres Semme): R49.99 for 900ml.
• Razors (no name brand): R6.00 for a packet of 2 disposable razors.
• Tissues (Twinsaver): R9.99 for a packet of 200.
• Toilet paper (Baby-Soft): R74.00 for 18s.

Fruits

• Bananas: R7.00 for 1kg.
• Oranges: R20.00 for a 7kg pocket.
• Apples: R6,60 for 1kg (when bough in bulk of 3kg)
• Strawberries: R10.00 for a punnet.

Vegetables

• Carrots: R10.00 for 5kg.
• Potatoes: R34.00 for a 7kg pocket.
• Cabbage: R10.00 for 2.
• Lettuce: R10.00 for 3.
• Spinach: R10.00 for 3.
• Butternut: R20.00 for 7kg.
• Mushrooms: R10.00 for a punnet.

I do hope you will find this list useful. There are, of course, once-off specials I may come across from time to time, but unfortunately, these do not repeat (though I wish they did!) and I have not included them in this list.

If you know of any prices that are lower than these though, or if there are any items that you would like to see included in this list, please do let me know by leaving me a comment below.

The post Know Your Prices appeared first on Frugal in SA.

I’m a huge fan of stockpiling non-perishable items in moderation. We don’t have a lot of space to store food or other items so my stockpile can never get too big, which is a good thing! I do have enough space for stockpiling certain items which we use on a regular basis and whenever I can get these items at their lowest in the shops, I buy as much as my budget allows.

When I meal plan for the month, I always make sure I check my pantry and freezer for items which I already have and which I can use in the coming weeks. This helps us keep our grocery bill in check and also helps us save overall – if I bought an item at a very low price this means that the meal I prepare with it will cost me less overall (you can read more about this in my post Meal Planning Around Specials).

Stockpiling allows you to take advantage of very low prices and this carries on throughout the year. Starting a stockpile doesn’t have to cost you a whole lot. Simply spend a bit extra, within your budget of course, to stockpile certain items when they go on special. I try and look for rock-bottom prices. In August, for example, I bought 4 bottles of Comfort fabric softener at R25.00 a bottle when normally a bottle costs over R40.00 and even on special it comes down to only about R36.00 so. This was a huge saving.

In July I found Alpo Purina dog chunks at R 149.00 per 8kg (normally this bag is over R200.00) as well as Husky tinned dog food at just over R17.00 per tin (normally they are about R23.00 or more each) so I bought as much as I could within my budget that month. This means that I will be saving money on those particular items by not buying them at a higher price.

It is important to check the expiry dates on all your stockpiled items. I do this twice: I first check the expiry date on the items before I buy them and when I store the stockpiled items I make a note of expiry dates somewhere visible in my pantry so that I am reminded of what needs to be used up and by which date. This really does help as it’s so easy for items to end up right at the back of a shelf and you only get to them when it’s too late, and you don’t want to turn your intended saving into a waste!

If you stockpile already, what are some of your favourite items to stockpile when you can? Here are my top items to stockpile in my pantry which you might find useful if you are just starting out with stockpiling.

• Coffee and Tea.

• Tinned meat (tuna, sardines, corned beef).

• Tinned vegetables & fruit (baked beans, for example).

• Tinned pet food.

• Pasta & rice.

• Oil, sugar and flour.

• Rusks & crackers.

• Laundry washing powder & fabric softener.

• Household cleaning supplies.

• Toiletries (shampoo, toothpaste, soap, toilet paper)

Having a stockpile, even a small one, can help reduce your expenses each month. Even if you decide to spend only a hundred or two hundred Rand each month, within your budget of course, to stockpile on items when available at their lowest prices, I’m sure you will find that it does help from one month to the next.

Have you ever taken part in a Pantry and Freezer Challenge in order to reduce the amount of items you have in your stockpile, no matter how small, and to save a bit of money? I have! You can start by reading my post Take the Pantry and Freezer Challenge.

The post Are you a fan of Stockpiling? appeared first on Frugal in SA.

If you are on your journey to becoming debt-free or you’re looking for simple ways to tighten up those leaks in your monthly budget, today I am sharing with you 10 tips which help us save money every day. They may be small things but at the end of the month, they do add up! And wouldn’t you much rather save that bit of money? I know I would!

1. Brew your own favourite brew in the morning

A cup of coffee could easily cost R20.00 at a coffee shop nowadays. When you multiply that by 21, the average number of working days in a month, that’s R420.00 you could be saving each month. If you only occasionally go out for a cup of coffee with friends and colleagues at work that could be part of your entertainment budget for the month.

2. Prepare your own breakfast/lunch/snack for work

Avoid last minute takeaway orders. A lunch could easily set you back R50.00 a pop and for that much money my husband and I could each have 2 delicious homemade meals! Utilising last night’s leftovers and getting creative with your sandwiches, who needs takeaways at work every day? Again, if you occasionally go out for lunch with your colleagues during the working week, make that part of your monthly entertainment budget.

3. Can you carpool or take the bus to work?

I wish I could! But none of my co-workers stay in the same area so carpooling is not an option for me. Taking the bus isn’t an option either – we’re nowhere near a bus route, but I so wish we were! Either of these options would save us a ton of money each month that we otherwise have to spend on fuel.

4. Drive with a light foot

Being gentler on the gas pedal both in the mornings and in the afternoons can save you quite a bit overall on your fuel consumption per month. You are also burning less fuel and thus reducing your carbon footprint. If possible, leave for work a bit earlier in the mornings, for example, so that you avoid the rush hour traffic and your car idling for long periods of time which consumes even more fuel.

5. Unplug appliances when you leave for work

This includes the microwave, the kettle, the TV, your laptop, in fact everything but the essentials such as your fridge. Even though you’re not using your appliances as long as they remain plugged in the wall, or the switch on the wall socket is on, they are drawing electricity.

6. Don’t go window shopping during your lunch hour

You might just be tempted to blow your budget. A packet of sweets here and a pair of shoes there and just that lovely top that you think you might need to wear next Saturday… you get the point. Is it worth blowing your budget over that? You’ll regret it, trust me on that one. Instead, stay in during your lunch hour and chat to your co-workers as you munch on your delicious, homemade leftovers that still taste so yum!

7. Don’t hang out with the smokers in the smoking section

Quit completely if you can, and in fact you should. Not only is smoking bad for your health but how much is a packet of smokes nowadays? Anywhere between R20.00 – 40.00. Do you want to be spending that much money every day? Let’s say a packet of cigarettes costs on average of R30.00. That’s R900.00 per month or a whole R10,800.00 per year that you could have in your savings account and not in someone else’s pocket!

8. Drinks after work?

While you don’t want to be a total Scrooge or an anti-social recluse, be intentional about your spending on this one. Have a drink instead of several. Or, have a glass of water or a glass of soda instead, there is no shame in that. Your real friends will understand that you are working towards specific goals, such as paying off your debt or saving money for your emergency fund, and will support you.

9. Avoid stopping at the supermarket on your way home

If you plan your meals ahead of time or have a bunch of homemade meals in your freezer waiting for you to defrost when you get home, there won’t be any need to venture into a supermarket when you’re tired and hungry and bound to buy a whole lot more stuff on a whim.

10. Switch off all the lights

How many of you remember your mom, dad, grandad, grandma, aunt and uncle going around the house, switching off all the lights in empty rooms and shouting that electricity doesn’t pay for itself? Well, they were right. Electricity didn’t pay for itself then and it sure doesn’t pay for itself now. You’re paying for it, so switch it off if you’re not using it.

What simple things do you do each day to help you save and stay on track with your monthly budget? Share your ideas in the comments below.

The post 10 Ways to Save Money Everyday appeared first on Frugal in SA.

Have you ever wondered whether it would be cheaper to buy something or to make it at home? I know I have. In fact, it’s something that’s almost always on my mind. I love to do things at home – to cook, bake, sew, crochet and I enjoy all sorts of DIY projects. So I always have to ask myself whether it would be cheaper to buy something or to make it at home. I have learnt, the hard way, that it is often cheaper to make something at home but that it’s also sometimes actually cheaper to buy it in the shops.

And this, in my experience, applies to all sorts of items, and not just meals, cakes, muffins, bread or jam but anything really that can be made at home: pillow cases, shopping bags, curtains, knitted blankets, bookshelves, cupboards, etc. The list is endless. Over the years, and in a quest to save money, I’ve made all sorts of things at home. While I’ve almost always enjoyed all my projects and creations, there were times when I realised only after I’d completed a project, that it would have actually been cheaper to have bought the item in the shops!

So before I make anything at home these days, I think about the following:

Materials

What are the materials that I would need and how much would these cost? While you don’t have to calculate the cost of each ingredient to the very last cent, it’s useful to at least gauge roughly how much each ingredient would cost you. Let’s say you’d like to make a pot of soup. Think about all the veggies you’d need to add to the soup and how much these would cost you. If you have all the ingredients at home already then you wouldn’t have to factor in the amount of money you’d spend going to the shops to buy it.

You might also want to think about how many meals you could get out of this pot of soup. If it’s, for example, 6 litres of chunky vegetable soup, then think about how much would that amount of soup cost you at the shops. Is it cheaper? The cost of materials is definitely one of the most important considerations, at least for me, when I’m deciding whether to buy an item or to make it at home.

Electricity

Use this nifty electricity usage calculator to check how much electricity your stove would use, let’s say, in the 2 hours you would be cooking that pot of soup, and add that to the total cost. Sometimes the cost of electricity can be the deciding factor. Most modern ovens use a lot of electricity and you’ll certainly notice this in your electricity bill at the end of the month. Factoring in the cost of electricity needn’t apply to cooking and baking only but also to any DIY project that would require you to use electricity, for example a sewing machine if you’re sewing pillow cases or an electric saw if you’re making a bookshelf at home.

My time

This is something I often forget to factor into the cost, especially if it’s a DIY project that would take quite some time to complete. It’s worth asking yourself if you’re going to be working on this project over the weekend and if so, would this prevent you from taking up extra work during that time and you would lose out on that bit of extra cash? We often buy things out of convenience, that’s true, but if we’re trying to save money we also need to consider if we would be losing out on any additional income if we decide to devote a couple of weekends to our DIY project. Ask yourself if it would actually be cheaper to buy the item in the shop and still have some money left over from the additional income you’ve earned to put towards debt repayment, for example.

My efforts

How difficult would this DIY project be? The more difficult and demanding the project, the more time you’re going to spend working on it and the more effort you’re going to have to put into it. If you’re juggling a number of things during the week, do you feel that you have enough energy and patience and commitment to see your project through? I am definitely starting to think about this more and more often when I’m deciding whether or not to make something at home instead of buying it at the shops. Sometimes, it really is just worth your while to buy an item if it means you could get some down time after a very stressful week at work, and especially if it’s an item you could actually get cheaply, or at least reasonably, in the shops.

Value

Now here’s something we don’t often take into account. It’s certainly something I never used to think about but nowadays I actually think about items in my life a lot less in terms of their monetary value. Instead I look for other value, possibly more sentimental value, and ask myself whether or not my DIY creation would add that kind of special value to my life, or to the life of someone I care about. To give you an example, a couple of years ago I spent several weeks crocheting a precious baby blanket for my nephew. Sure, I could have bought one in the shops, but I thought that a handmade blankie from his aunt would definitely be something with a lot more sentimental value in his later years! Well, at least I can only hope so…

How do you decide whether to make something at home or buy it at the shops instead?

Welcome to Financially Savvy Saturdays, a blog link up created just for personal finance bloggers! We want to read anything to do with personal finance here. Whether you’ve written anything from how you track your debt repayment goals to how to stop arguing about money, you’re invited to link-up.

Basically, if it relates to personal finance, we want to read it!

This weekend, we’re excited to welcome Natalija as our visiting co-host. Natalija blogs over at Frugal in SA where she writes about homemaking and living on a budget in South Africa!

Tweet about it. You can use #finsavsat when tweeting about the party!

Concerns about SEO? Recently many bloggers have decided to stop participating in events such as blog carnivals. If you’re worried about how participating in this link-up could effect your SEO, we’d encourage you to check out this article.

Interested in co-hosting? We’d love to hear from you! Being a Financially Savvy Saturday’s co-host could help you increase your blog traffic and engagement! Plus, it’s fun AND easy. Want to find out more? Get in touch with us via brokeGIRLrich(at)gmail(dot)com or info(at)diseasecalleddebt(dot)com with any questions. Or if you’re ready to take the plunge, you can sign up on this Google doc.

If you’ve co-hosted before and enjoyed it, please consider doing it again!

Feature of the Week

As this week’s visiting co-host, Natalija has selected this post from last week’s blog hop to be this week’s feature – 13 Ways to Not Spend Money by The Mostly Simple Life!

Click here to read this great post!

If you submit a post, you could be featured in next week’s link up!

We do have a few rules for participation. Those who don’t follow the rules will have their link taken down and won’t have the chance to be featured.

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5. HAVE FUN!

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We have such lovely weather in South Africa most of the year, with lots of sunshine on most days. It really makes the most sense to air dry our clothes on a line outside. I always air dry our laundry and avoid the tumble dryer unless it’s an absolute ‘emergency’. And by ‘emergency’ I mean: it’s been raining every single day for a whole week and the clothes simply refuse to dry.

We had such an ‘emergency’ last month. Not only did it rain pretty much every day for about 2 weeks but if you’ve read my post When Murphy comes knocking on your door, you’ll know that the motor on our washing machine died on us last month as well and we were without a washing machine for over 2 weeks. As Murphy would have it, these 2 weeks coincided with the 2 weeks of rain! Because I had no washing machine at home, I had to use the laundromat and this in turn meant that I had a huge, huge heap of clothes to dry over each of the 2 weekends and I had no choice but to use the tumble dryer to make sure everything dried.

As a result of this whole debacle, our electricity bill increased by about R350.00 this month! So even though we didn’t have to pay for a motor replacement to our washing machine (this was covered by manufacturer warranty), we nonetheless had additional expenses – not only in electricity charges but for the use of laundromat services as well (we only washed each load, and with our own washing powder too, which makes it cheaper per load). So, all in all, advice to self from now on – do not tumble dry the clothes, even if it’s an ‘emergency’.

On that note, here are a few small reminders of why air drying laundry is good for our budget and our clothes.

Save on electricity costs

This goes without saying: air drying your clothes will definitely help keep your electricity bill in check. Sunshine is free! Taking your laundry out, hanging it up, then folding it again and bringing it back in will take a bit of time, yes, but at least your electricity bill won’t be very high at the end of the month. Our tumble dryer, for example, uses 2700 watts of electricity and it takes about 2 hours to dry a load of washing, costing us R9.00 per load.

Gentle on the environment

A tumble dryer can use up to 5700 watts of electricity, depending on the model and make, which is not only heavy on your pocket, but this much energy consumed would emit up to 3705 gr. of CO2 into the atmosphere per hour. That’s a lot of CO2 just to dry your clothes. If you regularly air dry your laundry and avoid using the tumble dryer, think about how much CO2 you will not be releasing into the atmosphere.

Sunshine is good for your clothes

UV rays may not be good for our skin but they’re certainly really good for our clothes! They kill bacteria and dust mites thus disinfecting our clothes without any additional chemicals. Sunshine also bleaches clothes naturally, lightens even the most stubborn of stains and takes away the damp from your clothes completely. I’ve also heard that air drying your clothes inside out, especially jeans, means that colours won’t fade as quickly.

Static

This is the one thing I really don’t like about using the tumble dryer – the static that hits me as soon as I open the tumble dryer door and start pulling my laundry out! There shouldn’t be any static on clothes that have been air dried for you to deal with.

More absorbent towels

Air dried towels seem to be more absorbent than towels that have come out of the tumble dryer, even if they are a bit stiff when you take them off the line. Ironing towels, however, will get rid of some of that stiffness for you and will not reduce absorbency. Air dried towels also seem to dry quicker after each use and can therefore be used for longer before being washed again.

Creasing

While it is true that air drying your clothes on the line will inevitably leave them creased and almost everything will need to be ironed, you can minimise creasing by shaking your clothes once or twice before hanging them up and doing so neatly – this really helps!

Do you prefer to air dry or tumble dry your laundry?

The post Air Drying Laundry Benefits Your Budget & Clothes appeared first on Frugal in SA.

For most of us, cell phone and landline costs can be quite a pricey little item on our budget sheet each month. Every now and then I come across a blog post suggesting that we ditch either the landline or the cell phone, or in some cases even both, in order to cut costs. I wish I could do without at least one of those but I’m just not that brave! I need a cell phone when I’m out and about and the most cost effective way of having internet at home is through an ADSL connection, and we need a landline for that (fibre is still way, way too expensive per month here). So, what are we to do if we want to save on our monthly phone bills?

To start off with, I wouldn’t pay for a cell phone contract each month. I now wish I didn’t have a contract and I wasn’t tied down to a monthly subscription payment but I am, and have been for several years. There’s always that upgrade after your two-year contract is up, and there’s always a new cell phone, a better cell phone, and so the cycle of cell phone contracts continues. While I can get out of this cell phone contract, I would have to pay the outstanding amount for my phone and there would be other charges involved as well as penalties for cancelling the contract, which all comes to quite an amount that I would have to fork out. And I just cannot afford to do that at the moment. Unfortunately, I last upgraded my phone at a point in my life when I didn’t quite think of a cell phone contract as a form of debt (which I do now) so I still have a number of months to go before my contract comes to an end.

But I can still quite clearly remember a time when I had a cell phone, paid for in cash, and a pre-paid contract and I was just fine. I didn’t have the flashiest of cell phones but the one I had served its purpose, and it served it well. So at what point did I decide I was going to get a cell phone contract and why did I decide to do it? If truth be told, I probably wanted a ‘nice’ cell phone. The problem was, I knew I could not afford to pay for it in cash but I figured I could afford the monthly payments. Big mistake, and one that so often gets us into all sorts of debt. Instead of focussing on whether or not we can afford the monthly payments we should rather ask ourselves if we can afford to buy an item for cash, and if the answer is no, then that is our answer – no to the item, and no to the monthly payments either.

So now the only way I can save on my monthly bill is to be extra careful about my cell phone usage. I make calls sparingly and I don’t go overboard with the data either, which I know can be quite a feat especially with smart phones that seem to gobble the data (and battery) at an unbelievably alarming rate sometimes. I use Whatsapp to send messages instead of sending regular text messages (SMS). I make calls on Whatsapp too but only if I’m connected to a Wi-Fi network and the person I’m calling is as well so there are no data or call charges – it’s basically ‘free’. Having Wi-Fi connections at home and at work certainly helps to keep my mobile data usage in check.

I also have a monthly limit of R100.00 over and above my monthly cell phone subscription plan which does help to keep me focussed on how much I spend each month. If you’ve read my post When Murphy comes knocking on your door you’ll know that I’ve had money deducted from that amount by a WASP service (without my knowledge or consent) several times this year, and this amount has not yet been refunded to me has now been refunded to me (very pleased about that!). I learnt, however, after a great deal of researching online, that this kind of fraud has happened to a lot of other people in South Africa. While I have thought of setting my voluntary call limit to an absolute zero in order to prevent any other service charging me fraudulently in the future, I just can’t bring myself to do it, in case my monthly minutes run out and I need to make a call in an emergency. So that will have to stay the same for now.

Our landline contract is a little bit easier to handle. It is a month-to-month contract which is absolutely perfect: if we ever need to cancel the subscription at a month’s notice we will be able to do that. The plan that we are on suits us just fine too – we know at what time during the day we can make free landline to landline calls and we make full use of that, without racking up additional charges (yes, I know, we do think about that…). And If I have to dial a cell phone number from home I prefer to use my cell phone as those calls are part of my monthly subscription plan. As long as I don’t exceed a certain number of minutes, I won’t be charged extra.

What do you do to save on your monthly phone bills? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The post How We Save on Monthly Phone Bills appeared first on Frugal in SA.

In the spirit of cutting down on our monthly expenses, I wanted to share with you a few more ideas which help us trim away those monthly expenses, literally!

About seven years ago, and I remember this quite clearly, we were on a very, very tight budget. My husband went to have his hair cut one day and he had to fork out R100 at the barber shop for this. Not only did this seem expensive to us because we were on such a tight budget at the time, but this actually was expensive. So we decided to invest in hair clippers as soon as we could so that my husband could cut his hair at home. This particular set of hair clippers cost us about R300 back then. While they do need a bit of a clean and a bit of oil from time to time, they’re still used regularly to this day! Spending those R300 at the time has actually given us a saving of R8,400 worth of monthly hair-cuts that we would have otherwise spent at the barber shop over the past 7 years.

Two of our four pooches have long hair, and one of them in particular needs to have his hair cut every two months or so because his hair just grows so quickly. But they don’t enjoy going to the parlour and it’s always such a mission getting them to sit still while the professionals cut their hair! So we give them a haircut at home instead. Personally I think they just enjoy all the treats they get for sitting still at home! Although dog hair clippers will probably set you back a few hundred Rand to start with, with proper care they will last you a very long time. They have certainly been a worthwhile investment for us and our two long-haired pooches are much happier having their hair cut at home!

As for me and my hair, well, believe it or not, I’m really not that fussy. I will have a hair-cut at the salon probably about once a year, possibly twice a year if I I’m in the mood, but that’s really all that I need. What I also do sometimes, to save myself some money, though I must admit I haven’t done in a long time, is have my hair cut at one of L’Oreal training institutes. The hair-cuts are cheaper if done by a trainee hairdresser! The trainees are supervised at all times though so there’s really no need to worry. Check out their price list here and you’ll be surprised at how much cheaper your next hair-cut, blow-dry or colour could be.

One last thing which helps us trim away those expenses each month is: we don’t use a gardening service to mow our lawn. We do it ourselves. This is a huge, huge saver for us! Yes, I know it’s very convenient to use a gardening service and yes you can just relax on a Sunday and have someone else take care of it for you, but we’ve found that this is just such a waste of money – hundreds and even thousands of Rand over the years. Think about how much a gardening service will charge you per visit and multiply that by however many times a year you use a gardening service from your neighbourhood to see how much it actually costs you in the long run. In summer, you would probably need to have your lawn mowed once a week because it just seems to shoot up 5-10 centimetres, or more, each week.

We’ve decided that we would rather save all that money, invest in a good-quality lawn mower and an edge trimmer and mow our own lawn – probably one of the best things we’ve done. Investing in a manual push-mower, if this is an option for you, would be an even better idea as you wouldn’t be using any electricity to mow the lawn, so saving even more money while giving yourself a bit of a work-out over the weekend, for free!

If you’ve found these money-saving ideas useful, I’d appreciate it if you could share this blog post with others. And if you have any other tips on how to trim away those expenses each month that you’d like to share, please leave a comment below.

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If you’ve decided to give the Fiscal Fast a go for a couple of days, or a week or even a month, you’re probably wondering how on earth you’re going to find the motivation to survive those No-Spend days. Fiscal Fast is a term coined by Jeff Yeager from the Ultimate Cheapskate. It basically means that you abstain from shopping for a set period of time. Read about how it works in 3 simple steps here.

A Fiscal Fast can be done for a variety of reasons. Jeff Yeager’s reasons will be different from mine and mine will be different from yours – we all travel different paths. For you, it might just be an exploration into what not spending money actually feels like at first. Or you could be on a journey to getting out of debt, living below your means, sticking to your budget and putting each and every Rand you can find towards paying off your debt. Or you could be doing a Fiscal Fast after you’ve managed to get out of debt and in order to save more for a rainy day, or towards a specific goal.

Your reasons for fasting will determine how you feel about the Fiscal Fast as you go along. If you’re doing a Fiscal Fast for the first time because you’re intent on getting out of debt by, then your experience will probably feel a little uncomfortable at first. It will all be new for you. You might find yourself with a lot of time on your hands, feeling a bit deprived and possibly out of sorts at times. After all, we work hard for our money each month so we deserve to spoil ourselves. We only live once, right?

Such mantras used to pop up in my head too, all the time! But the desire to become credit-card debt free started popping up more and more often in my head too. That goal, for me, was stronger and more appealing than any handbag, any pair of shoes or any day at the spa could have ever been. I found that the more I thought about the goal I wanted to achieve by doing a Fiscal Fast, the easier it was for me to stay on track.

I also avoided the malls during all our Fiscal Fasts and I used that extra time to busy myself at home. I’d often find something that I’d been meaning to do for a long time but never got round to it, like a small project, or something that needed a bit of repair, and I worked on that. Paying whatever extra money we had towards our credit card debt first, and before we were tempted to spend it elsewhere, also helped us to stay on track. And bit by bit, I realised that it is true what they say:

“A change in bad habits leads to a change in life.” ~ Jenny Craig

A Fiscal Fast is not only an opportunity for you to work on changing your habits but also an opportunity for you to choose the kind of life you want to lead. So instead of seeing my circumstances as poor, I started seeing the opportunity that I’d been given to change my spending habits, and ultimately, to change my life for the better.

It’s during our Fiscal Fasts that I would also spend some time each day reading other people’s motivational stories about their journey to becoming debt-free. I may have at times commented on their blogs but I mostly just kept reading, and absorbing the fact that my husband and I weren’t the only ones who were struggling. Paying off debt, living life more frugally, more economically was sometimes a very lonely experience and we needed all the encouragement and support we could find.

The fact that there is a certain amount of guilt and shame associated with living life more frugally while trying to pay off credit card, or other kinds of, debt doesn’t help either. Consumer debt has become so commonplace and acceptable in our society today and especially the credit card has practically become a status symbol. Without it, we appear poorer, in our own eyes and that of others, when it should actually be quite the opposite!

As long as you keep your mind focussed on the reason(s) why you are doing a Fiscal Fast, and why you choose not to spend money which you don’t have, you will feel a lot braver and stronger and more motivated to stay on track. Whatever your reason may be, let that become your motivational mantra for the entire duration of your Fiscal Fast.

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Do you ever wonder what it would be like to go a whole week or a whole month without shopping? In a world where everything is geared towards buying, selling and shopping, how easy do you think that would be? If you have your heart and mind set on saving money and living life more frugally, more economically, then the idea of a fiscal fast might just appeal to you.

Fiscal fast is a term coined by Jeff Yeager from the Ultimate Cheapskate. It basically means that you abstain from shopping for a set period of time, usually a week but also longer than that, if you like. After all, who’s to say how long you would like to or should fast, that’s entirely up to you. The ultimate purpose of a fiscal fast is to help you save money. This money you could then put towards paying off a specific debt or stash it in your savings account for a rainy day.

Still interested? Here’s how it works in 3 simple steps:

1. Pay all the bills that are due, when they’re due: your rent/bond, municipal bill, insurance, medical aid, phone bill(s), etc. Set aside enough money to fill up your petrol tank or to pay for your bus fare. Pay whatever else you need to pay for that week or that month.

2. Do your grocery shopping either for the week or for the month as you normally would (read about how I save on our groceries each month here). Don’t be tempted to stock up on additional items just because you know you’re going to be ‘fasting’. You will get a chance to become creative in the kitchen and to use up whatever food is sitting at the far end of the top shelf of your pantry cupboard!

3. And the last, and most important, step is: don’t go shopping. If there is a medical emergency at home or you have a burst tyre or your pets have run out of food, you would, of course, attend to that immediately. But other than spending money on emergencies or your basic needs and that of your family and pets, don’t go shopping and don’t spend any money on anything else.

It’s as simple as that. Or is it?

I came across the term fiscal fast only recently. I didn’t even know that this whole idea had a name, and a catchy one at that too!  But it is something that I’d done time and time again and I’d never once, up to that point, thought of it as a ‘fast’. The idea of a ‘fast’ is appropriate though if you decide to look at the whole experience as an opportunity to resist the temptation of shopping and to reflect on the difference between a want and what truly is a need each time you see something or think of something that you’d like to buy.

Does the fiscal fast work? Well, that depends. How strong is your willpower? Personally, I like to take that time to be reminded of what I truly need as opposed to what I simply want but don’t actually need. That’s my ‘time out’. That’s my time to reflect and focus on what is important to me on this journey and to spend more time doing things that make a difference. I love our fiscal fast weeks and months, when we choose to do them.

I also like the fact that fiscal fast weeks and months give us a chance to use whatever food we have in the freezer, fridge or the kitchen cupboards. I love to get creative in the kitchen and to make meals as I go along. Some of my frugal recipes come from our fiscal fast months! We sometimes use the Big Oven for ideas too. I don’t like to waste anything if I can help it so an opportunity to use whatever I have, and not waste it, really appeals to me.

Having said all of that, doing a fiscal fast for the very first time, for even a short period of time, can be a shock to the system. You are, effectively, working on changing your spending habits. If you’re even thinking of doing a fiscal fast at some point, chances are you have your reasons, like I have mine. Remembering those reasons when it all starts to feel a little uncomfortable during the fiscal fast week or month, is what helps keep me going.

Have you tried a fiscal fast week or month yet? What was your experience like? Do you feel that you’ve benefited? If you haven’t tried the fiscal fast week or month yet, would you like to give it a go?

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I love my slow cooker, and I use it often. I use it to cook stews and soups but also to roast meat: chicken, gammon as well as cuts of beef. In fact, I prefer the slow cooker to using either the oven or the stove on any given day. The question I most commonly get asked by both family members and friends is this: Doesn’t it cost more in electricity charges to cook a meal for 8 hours in the slow cooker as opposed to 2 or 3 hours using the oven or the stove?

The answer is: No. I actually save on my electricity bill by using the slow cooker, and here is how that works out.

The current electricity charges in South Africa, according to our latest municipal bill, works out to R1.62 per 1 kW (or 1,000 watts), and this amount includes VAT. I don’t think there’s any point in calculating the price without VAT because we, the consumers, end up paying for VAT in our bills anyway, so that is the price per 1 kW as far as I’m concerned.

An average oven uses 2000-2200 watts. A roast in the oven will generally take you about 3 hours until done. Using this nifty electricity consumption calculator here, you can see that it would cost you R3.56 per hour to use your oven which brings your total electricity charge for that meal to R10.68.

My slow cooker uses 380 watts of electricity, and most brands and types and sizes are very economical this way so chances are, yours is too – look at the bottom of the pot for the exact number. If I cook that same roast in the slow cooker, it would cost R0.61 in electricity charges per hour, and with 8 hours of cooking time, the total would still come to R4,88.

That’s half the price.

Let’s look at the bigger picture here. If you cook a meal in the oven or on the stove 10 times a month, roughly 3 hours at a time, your total electricity bill including VAT will come to R106.80 that month. If you choose to cook the same meals using your slow cooker, also 10 times a month, with 8 hours’ average cooking time, you end up paying R48.80 per month.

So, instead of paying R1,281.60 per year, you would only be paying R585,60, which gives you a saving of R696. That’s right – R696 that’s left in your bank account at the end of the year!

An added bonus to cooking meat in the slow cooker is that you can choose to buy cheaper cuts of meat. Those cheaper cuts will cook slowly for 6-8 hours at a time and will be as soft as any of the more expensive cuts you can buy in the shops by the time the meal is done.

As an example, shin meat costs R39.99 per kg on special at Meat World in Alberton these days. It has a bit of bone and a bit of fat, but it’s precisely that little bit of bone and fat that will actually give your stew the taste and the goodness it should have. I wouldn’t even think of paying double the price, or more, for the same amount of beef fillet to make a pot of stew.

Shin meat is actually the best beef stewing meat and it makes the tastiest stew precisely because it’s cooked in the slow cooker for 7 or 8 hours at a time. It has the chance to stew and turn into tender, tasty cuts of meat that you would expect to see in a pot of beef stew. Cooking the same cut of meat on a pot on the stove would never give you the same delicious taste!

Using the slow cooker is so much more economical and can help save you money on your household expenses each month. We bought ours a couple of years ago and it was not expensive. It might have cost us about R500 for a fairly large slow cooker. We really see it as a wise investment considering that it has probably paid for itself long ago and still continues to save us money each month.

Check out my recipe for Roast Chicken in the Slow Cooker here and the super, super healthy Chicken Broth in the Slow Cooker recipe here.

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