Cutting back?

[HavocXphere]

I'm a student and earn a pittance so I'm kinda pro at cutting back at finding deals but ever since i started going legal and playing legit games and buying music my budget dies. I don't want to pirate but it's means I can't save any cash.

I want a real job for the money but....everyones description of growing up sucks so far. Might study a little longer

Haha. Its not all bad. Like the first proper paycheque you earn "Holy sht so much money".

[Voicy]

Very interesting thread, thanks Neo.

I always wondered about the guys driving the Golf GTi's. I'm glad you switched to a Jazz (or any normal car for that matter). The GTi seems all that, but if every 2nd oke drives one, is it really worth it?

I was looking at upgrading my car to a Ranger / Sportage etc. but thought about it again. My car is under 100,000km on the clock, paid off in full (2yrs before i needed to) and costs me nothing on insurance & work pays for petrol, so it's doing what it needs to. Sure it's not fancy, but nothing is broken on it and it still gets me to where I want to be with my A/C on.

The takeaway thing sure does make a huge difference. It's just R30-40 here and there, but adds up if you do it every day. Over a grand if you eat takeaways everyday - and for what?

I'm trying to save up now to buy a house - which is bloody scary, seeing as the world is in a depression and I'm a single dude. So i'll be paying it off on my ace.

[Glordit]

Very interesting thread, thanks Neo.

I always wondered about the guys driving the Golf GTi's. I'm glad you switched to a Jazz (or any normal car for that matter). The GTi seems all that, but if every 2nd oke drives one, is it really worth it?

I was looking at upgrading my car to a Ranger / Sportage etc. but thought about it again. My car is under 100,000km on the clock, paid off in full (2yrs before i needed to) and costs me nothing on insurance & work pays for petrol, so it's doing what it needs to. Sure it's not fancy, but nothing is broken on it and it still gets me to where I want to be with my A/C on.

The takeaway thing sure does make a huge difference. It's just R30-40 here and there, but adds up if you do it every day. Over a grand if you eat takeaways everyday - and for what?

I'm trying to save up now to buy a house - which is bloody scary, seeing as the world is in a depression and I'm a single dude. So i'll be paying it off on my ace.

I never understood the attraction on a fancy car. I am happy with my 90's model Honda Civic 1.5 Automatic, and I will drive it till it's in the grave.

As for cutting costs, I earn so little working it retail so turning a penny thrice is what I must do. I have paid off all my debts to Edcon 0.3c in the green! I invest what's left (and from my investments I pay for my study fee's) after deductions, rent and internet. Pretty soon we will be ditching our telkom phone line for VOIP.

[Voicy]

I never understood the attraction on a fancy car. I am happy with my 90's model Honda Civic 1.5 Automatic, and I will drive it till it's in the grave.

As for cutting costs, I earn so little working it retail so turning a penny thrice is what I must do. I have paid off all my debts to Edcon 0.3c in the green! I invest what's left (and from my investments I pay for my study fee's) after deductions, rent and internet. Pretty soon we will be ditching our telkom phone line for VOIP.

mind expanding on what you invest in?

I'm fortunate to be debt free and have a great credit rating according to my broker, but i'm dumping all my savings into an invest. account to gather slow interest until I can use it for a proper deposit.

As for the fancy car thing, people are different and a lot of the people I work with will buy a car way out of their price range and balloon 40% of it just to be able to drive it off the showroom floor. To them the status is everything. To us, we just see the repayments and depreciation.

[Glordit]

mind expanding on what you invest in?

I'm fortunate to be debt free and have a great credit rating according to my broker, but i'm dumping all my savings into an invest. account to gather slow interest until I can use it for a proper deposit.

As for the fancy car thing, people are different and a lot of the people I work with will buy a car way out of their price range and balloon 40% of it just to be able to drive it off the showroom floor. To them the status is everything. To us, we just see the repayments and depreciation.

I invest in Property and Equity, with a company called Marriott. However my current portfolio is not a long term one, I simply just use it as a "storage" of sorts for my money otherwise I tend to spend it.

If you had invested R100,000 in the Marriott Property Equity Fund five years ago, you would have earned R41 562 in income (71.36% total return). You would have also enjoyed exceptional capital growth over the long term.

Their interest rates are quite good in the long term.

[Piesank]

I was talking about this with my roommate last night, he is getting into some extra cash and I told him he can splurge on himself one big item then save the rest, he was shocked when I told him I spent 2.2k on polarised Ray-Bans in 2010 but I told him I value the polarised glasses and that I have taken care of them and have used them for 3.5 years.

Moral of the story, taste and spending patterns differ, after also buying an xbox in 2010 I feel it is crazy to spend 1-2k per year on PC hardware but others see it as a good investment. . .

[GReeN_ORB]

It's actually the really small things that can help save a lot. Just cut R250 a month off my car insurance, cause I remembered to phone my broker and ask for an updated rate based on the age and mileage of the car. Same for the household insurance, make sure you've structured it in the right way, and that any all-risks stuff is still correct (the premium on these is really high).

Aside from that, looking to get onto a lower-end cellphone package (I don't phone a huge amount, so I have something stupid like 1200 free minutes left on my package), and rather buy a new cellphone, cash, every 2-3 years.

Other stuff like moving service providers for my internet (can get my line and an uncapped account through Afrihost for less than I'm paying for MWEB account alone - R500 pm saving). Cooking more than I eat takeout (I still have takeout, just once a week), freezing what's left over and having that.

I doubt I'll go as far as to trade in my car for something smaller (unless I get a Fiesta ST or something ), but the way this thing guzzles fuel, I might want to...

[Mister 44]

It's actually the really small things that can help save a lot.

Much truth in that statement.
I have two stepdaughters on university at the moment so I had to cut corners and for the first time in my life I drew up a budget.
In the past I've maintained that I don't need a budget because I don't buy crap just for the fun of it (Steam Sales excluded) and always pay my bills before I even do grocery shopping.
Well, after I did my budget, I realised that by cutting and changing just a few things, I could cover the university costs and pay R500 - R1000 each month extra into my home loan.

What I did (some have been mentioned already):
* Changed from uncapped to an Afrihost capped bundle because I never use more than 50gb a month.
* Swipe card instead of using cash (cuts down on banking costs).
* Pay at least half of every bonus/13th check into my home loan (it lowers the monthly repayment, but the trick is to keep paying the same amount regardless).
* Revised my insurance.
* When the time came for upgrade, I dropped my cellphone contract to a lower product.
* Cancelled some useless funeral cover.
* Stopped buying games before I've made a reasonable dent in my backlog.

All of the above result in small (less than R500) savings, but they add up.

[GReeN_ORB]

Much truth in that statement.
I have two stepdaughters on university at the moment so I had to cut corners and for the first time in my life I drew up a budget.
In the past I've maintained that I don't need a budget because I don't buy crap just for the fun of it (Steam Sales excluded) and always pay my bills before I even do grocery shopping.
Well, after I did my budget, I realised that by cutting and changing just a few things, I could cover the university costs and pay R500 - R1000 each month extra into my home loan.

What I did (some have been mentioned already):
* Changed from uncapped to an Afrihost capped bundle because I never use more than 50gb a month.
* Swipe card instead of using cash (cuts down on banking costs).
* Pay at least half of every bonus/13th check into my home loan (it lowers the monthly repayment, but the trick is to keep paying the same amount regardless).
* Revised my insurance.
* When the time came for upgrade, I dropped my cellphone contract to a lower product.
* Cancelled some useless funeral cover.
* Stopped buying games before I've made a reasonable dent in my backlog.

All of the above result in small (less than R500) savings, but they add up.

One of the most important things to do. Paying off your debt quickly makes a huge difference. Interest charges 4tl.

That R500 p/m that I save on my ADSL is going straight into my car repayments.