Saving Tip #4: Staff

Domestic Worker


Most people here in South Africa have a domestic worker. I would never tell you to get rid of her as most of us need help with the house, especially with a full time job. Not to mention the emotional attachment you build with the lady who washes your underwear, but do you really need her everyday? Try cutting it down from 5 days a week to 3 days per week, just to do the big jobs like ironing and washing the windows etc.

To make up for the lost employee without working yourself into the ground try this:

Rope the kids into helping when she is not around. How? I hear you say:

• Make your own bed and make sure your kids make theirs too (good pocket money chore).
• Clean the bath when you get out or better yet, let the kids bath with bubbles or take a bubble bath yourself. (You can wash the bath half as often)
• Wash the dishes as a family after supper. One person stacks, another washes, one wipes the sides etc. Leave the dishes to drain, you can pack them away while you are cooking the next meal.
• Check that the kids have hung up their towels after bathing as well as their school uniforms when they get home.

These should help get you through the 2 days a week you have no help.

If you save R 180 per week you are essentially saving R 720 per month. If you use half of that saving to repay debts and save the other half you will never look back.

Garden service


During winter you should request your garden service to come fortnightly instead of weekly, this will half the cost, when the lawn does not require mowing.

Baby Sitter


If you are serious about saving you should already be decreasing the number of evenings you are going out. If you still need to go out occasionally or have to work an evening shift try this.

Offer to swap a babysitting shift with your neighbour. You will sit for them one evening and they can sit for you one evening. You can build up a sitting club along your road or within your complex. Your children can play with the neighbourhood children instead of being at home alone and never have to hire a sitter again!

Saving Tip #3:Vehicle

Lift clubs

• Set up a lift club if possible, it could even be just for dropping kids at school, E.g.: You drop and collect the neighbours kids on Monday and Thursday and they drop and collect yours on Tuesday and Friday. Every other Wednesday you swap. Save the extra 3 kilometres to the school 3 times a week. If you save 3 km’s 3 times a week you save 36km’s in a month which equates to 3 – 4 litres of fuel, not to mention wear and tear.
• Plan your trips so you don’t end up going twice in the same direction.

Vehicle Maintenance

• Service your car regularly, an unserviced car uses more petrol.
• Check your tyre pressure, under or over inflated tyres use more fuel.

Driving Tactics

• Drive with your windows closed. A slightly open window causes drag and increases your fuel usage.
• Stick to the speed limit – this is usually the most efficient energy saving speed for most cars (speed limits were after all introduced to help save petrol during the fuel crisis)
• Don’t accelerate fast or brake too hard. Both these practises increase fuel consumption. Rather try to stick to a constant speed.
• Only put petrol in your vehicle in the morning. Petrol expands with heat and thus when warmer, the pump will read 1 litre even though it has pumped just less than 1 litre of fuel.
• Never let your fuel level fall below half, evaporation increases when the tank is less than half full.
• When filling with fuel always ask the attendant (or take care for yourself) to fill the tank to the automatic stop only. Many people overfill the tank and when driving around corners suffer fuel loss. Look under your fuel cap, you will see the leak if you have overfilled. Not only that, much of that fuel stays in the pipe but has been charged for giving the next customer free fuel.

Walking

• If you need to go to the shop on the corner, take a family walk, not only is it good for money saving on fuel and wear and tear, but good for your health, weight, fitness and it gives you that hard to find quality family time. Last week we counted how many steps it took to walk to the shop, my little one learnt to count to 100 on the trip too! You can talk about colours, rainbows, clouds, road rules, road signs, shapes, anything, it becomes a learning excursion and the kids thrive on the attention paid to them, not to mention how great you feel for taking the walk and the saving on the environment!

Insurance

• Re-evaluate your insurance every year. Insurance companies never tell you that they are paying out less every year, but they put up your premium every year. Call your local car dealer, if you drive a Mazda call them, Toyota call them etc. ask for the book value of your vehicle (have the make, model etc with you) then call your insurance company and ask them to adjust you insurance policy to pay out the greater of the book value or the amount owed to the bank under finance. Your premium will most likely decrease, giving you a free saving. Remember to do this annually, close to the beginning of the year as this is when book values are established.
• Top up insurance is one of those great necessities in life. However, they only have to pay out if something happens and there is a shortfall on your normal insurance. Check with your insurance, there comes point where your ordinary insurance will be sufficient to cover what you owe to the bank. Remember you need top up insurance as long as the value of the car is less than the amount owed under finance. After that it is an unnecessary cost and you can cancel it without the loss of benefit.
• Check the price of insurance if you increase your excess amount…this sounds scary to some people but you can save up to 50% of the premium by increasing your excess. If you have a savings pocket or emergency saving fund, the extra excess with be no problem and you will save substantially on your premiums per month.
• Shop around, your insurance premium can vary considerably from company to company.

Saving Tip #2: Electricity

This is one of your large unseen expenses, especially with the latest increases and the expected future increases. You don’t always realise how much you use, and any saving in this department would be a good saving booster, not to mention an environmental saviour. Here is how to limit the amount of power you use.

Cooking

• If you need to get boiling water on the stove, boil the kettle and pour it into the pot, you will use 50% less power.
• Use the minimum amount of water in the kettle when you boil it. You do not have to fill the kettle every time you make a cup of coffee.
• If your fridge is empty, or close to empty, place a few bottles of water in it – these items store the cold and help keep your fridge temperature constant (it turns on and off less often thereby saving electricity).
• Also place water bottles near the top of the fridge, cool air travels down and will keep the fridge colder for longer.
• Break the habit of opening the fridge and staring into it undecidedly, this is a major electricity expense.
• Reheat food in the microwave, not on the stove.
• If you are cooking in the oven, place the food into the oven as soon as the light switches off, also keep the door closed as the heat escapes quickly.
• Use a pot which is the same size as the stove plate. Putting a small pot on the big plate wastes energy.

Vampire electronics

• Ensure all standby items are switched off at the plug, eg TV, DVD, Cellphone chargers, laptops, stereo’s, plug adaptors etc. These appliances use approximately 4% of your total electrical bill whilst not in use. To spot a vampire appliance look for a standby light or a remote.
• Switch off lights whenever you leave a room, be consistent with your children, if you complain because they left something on every time and make them return to switch it off, they start to remember to do it.
• Swap all your light bulbs for either LED globes or CFL globes, these draw 50% less power. They cost more initially but save in the long term as you only have to replace them every 5 years.
• Put outside lighting on a day/night switch. You only need the lights after dark after all.
• Add a timer to your pool pump. Your pool will stay blue with as little as 4 hours running time per day. Remember to run the pump outside of peak hours to avoid maximum demand rates.

Washday

• Hang your washing on the line instead of using your tumble drier. If you hang items correctly you can avoid ironing many cotton items.
• Only switch on your washing machine for a full load, a half load uses the same amount of water and electricity.
• Towels do not need to be washed daily, give each person in the house their own towel to use and hang up immediately, you can then wash them less often.
• Your iron draws a lot of power to heat up. Make sure you iron in batches, not 1 item at a time.

Heating

• Put a geyser blanket on your geyser.
• Switch off your geyser when you go to work, you don’t need hot water while you are not there, don’t forget to do it when you go on holiday.
• Add “Aerolite” in your ceilings to keep the temperature in your house stable. It will save on cooling in summer and heating in winter.
• Open any north facing curtains in winter, it will warm the house considerably.

Saving Tip #1:Shopping

Never shop without a shopping list.

Buy what is on the list and give yourself a small reward for sticking to the list. E.g. 1 item not on the list only per shopping trip. To make a list for the first time takes a little effort, but here is how to do it…

• Decide on the number of meals you eat at home in a month. Usually 1 meal per day.
• Split your list into categories, the isles in the shop are normally set out in this way too. Frozen foods, fridge goods, grocery items, snacks, cleaning materials, bathroom items are all excellent section headings.
• Tick off items as you add them to your trolley.

Shopping list guide here!

Shop less often

Buy for the whole month on 1 trip and by bread and milk weekly not daily. Every time you enter a store you are tempted to buy something extra, limit your excursions. This saves petrol too!

Dealing with Kids in the shop

If your children ask for sweets at the shop, tell them to spend their pocket money on it, they will quickly realise sweets actually cost money and will limit their spend for themselves. Buying sweets daily at the shop is an expense you should not be incurring.

Bulk Buying

Buy in bulk….some places like Fruit and Veg city offer larger quantities for lower prices, sadly the product does not usually last too long. Shops like Makro sell bulk goods at prices your local shop get them at. Shop for your neighbours or family too, when you go shopping split what you bought and swap with your friends or family, they need to buy too and if you can pay the lower prices and share the cost you all win. Take turns at going to the store and splitting the food. Try different things to see what works best for you.




Lunchtime

Buy lunch box items so you don’t give tuck money, this is expensive….add a days tuck money per week to your child’s pocket money and ensure they use their own money when they want tuck. Pack lunch for yourself everyday as opposed to buying lunch, treat yourself if you do by going out for lunch or supper once a month.