I’ve taken stock of the impact of the recession, and I’m beginning to realize it’s had more of an impact than I first gave it…er…credit for. But as a matter of fact, it has been a smear on my life from the big stuff – where I live, how I live, relationships with loved ones – to the littler stuff, like daily phone calls, some of those smaller discretionary purchases we normally don’t think about. One thing is true though, the recession is taking a bite. Let’s take a look at those teethmarks.
I suppose you could argue that my girlfriend moving in with me had nothing to do with the recession, and there are a number of counterarguments that would be fairly valid. But also valid, perhaps equally valid was that close to the time she moved in, I’d communicated that I could no longer drive down to Bloemfontein each month. That in additional to R1500+ cellphone bills couldn’t carry on.
The other aspect was my landlady – everybody groan who knows this story – had recently downgraded from lady of the mansion, to squatter in the sauna and petty crook. This was due to her not being able to sell her mansion for a hundred million dollars, and kick up her heels in Mauritius while the rest of the world went to hell. Since that plan backfired, she decided, not content to be alone in her misery, to make my life a living hell. She reneged on her repayment of the deposit, she tried to scam me into buying her a new refrigerator and so on and so forth.
She herself was also a victim of crime, as were some friends of mine living about 1km away. In both cases items of value were stolen – jewellery and cellphones, indicating the criminals needed money, above all else.
My girlfriend came to Johannesburg after losing her job in Bloemfontein, and a couple of months later, lost her job in Johannesburg. According to her, the manager of the Bloemfontein job has since lost his job, and her co-worker in the Johannesburg job lost hers too. At the company where I work I have seen a slow one-way trickle out of the door.
In the first half of last year I was flown, all expenses paid, to South Korea, on a press tour. Earlier this year I was scheduled to visit Dubai. The trip was scuppered at the last moment, but it happened suspiciously close to the epicenter of a hole being ripped out of world finance, and Dubai made headlines as a place expats were abandoning in droves [going as far as leaving their cars at the airport].
Food definitely feels more expensive, as does insurance and water and lights [especially lights]. Internet bills will hopefully drift lower soon, and hopefully the light of illumination will be pointed, at full glare, on the absolutely ridiculous prices South Africans have to pay to make telephone calls. The highest rates in the world – why? And why do our banks do the same? Because there is a shocking lack of respect in South Africa by corporations and business people for the human condition. In a country with 40% unemployment, you’d think there would be more sensitivity to pricing? Instead, there’s food fight when it comes to collusion, and virtually every industry has been involved in price fixing – from food to pharmaceuticals.
My personal situation is that I have certainly seen some opportunities – besides Dubai – dry up. It has meant my overall choices have become limited.
I’ve also noticed a change in my consumption, especially impulse buying. Food choices are far more painstaking. I’m buying less meat and fewer soft drinks – although there’s a health argument for those choices too. My Oakley sunglasses that disappeared months ago haven’t been replaced. Possibly, this year, I won’t be making the trip to Sun City for the CANSA bike race. Last year I stayed with my girlfriend in the Palace of the Lost City.
So if I am feeling the squeeze, how have I responded, and how could you respond:
1. Curb your entertainment. I used to watch a movie a week, sometimes two. If you watch at a cinema like Rosebank that charges around R50 a ticket, that habit was costing me R800 a month. Your weakness might be music, or clubbing, or alcohol.
2. Eat healthy. It does pay. Meat is more expensive, and keeps you heavy. Fruit is cheaper and keeps you regular and doses you with vitamins.
3. Water works. I’ve lost a lot of the savings from not consuming softdrinks to buying bottled water. I’ve been visiting the water cooler at work more often find out where yours is, and use it.
4. Electricity is getting cooked. South Africans are very wasteful. It’s from a lifetime of cheap as dirt electricity. Guess what, there’s going to be less and less in the future, so even if you can afford it, you might not enjoy blackouts. Start to practice: WHEN NOT USING SOMETHING, TURN IT OFF.
5. I’m driving less. Definitely. Fewer long trips, and also, fewer short trips. I received a maintenance bill for over R10 000 and when I shrieked SHOCK HORROR the mechanic reminded me that every kilometer you drive is going to cost you roughly R1 in maintenance fees. It turned out that I was pretty much in the ball park after calculating how much I had spent on fixing the car and how much the odometer had rolled.
6. Finesse your partner in the art of finance. I failed. I tried to convince my girlfriend that we couldn’t afford R3500 curtains [lounge only] whilst she was trying to convince me what an exceptionally talented and tasteful homemaker she was. Now the bed I got as a birthday gift has been shoveled onto my name – there’s R6000 right there, from someone who wasn’t that sensitive to the recession unless it related to how it affected her. My thinking is for relationships to work you need someone who is at a similar level of maintenance and indebtedness as you. Unless you want to play the Golddiggers partner or Sugarmom.
In my situation, even after my girlfriend had lost her job, I offered her board and lodging. She may be right in the realisation that with her not having work, the stresses - that reality - would be even greater than they have been. That said, I believe we can still make choices in our relationships to be better people, less pre-occupied with our entertainments, our individual preferences, less greedy basically, and less selfish and more committed to sharing ourselves with one another [rather than our toys and decor tips].
7. The best things in life are free. Health is free, and I learned that Vitamin D is a great elixir of health, a shield against flu in winter. Want some of this magic stuff? Get out into the sun. Health and fitness is a wonderful quality to have in life, and it doesn’t need to cost anything. It is one of the secrets to happiness and looking and feeling as good as you possibly can.
Money pressures are behind a lot of the decisions we’re making, not because we’re forced, but because we feel we have little choice. Some of these new choices are to our benefit. Accept that. And at the same time, scobe for new opportunities. Now is a great time to take stock of your own life, and try to anticipate changes, so do your calculations. Stay ahead of the curve lest the calculations catch up with you, and leave you with nothing but the gnashing of teeth [which my dentist says I have started doing, in my sleep].
Please feel free to share [briefly] some of your experiences.
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