Your 2019 Guide to help control your overspending on everyday things

You’d be surprised how many everyday items you can either economise on or cut out completely to help your overspending. Take bottled water as an example.

Although tap water is clean and safe to drink in most parts of South Africa, quite a few people nonetheless buy bottled water. They buy it not only because it is natural, but because many think it tastes better. However, water is water. Unless it is tainted id doesn’t really have a taste.

An alternative to buying bottled water

If you are someone who buys bottled water because you like the fact that it is filtered, you can always have an affordable water filter system installed in your home. Bottled water may not seem expensive, but when you add up how much you spend a year on it, you will probably be surprised.

Although the initial outlay of a water filter system will cost more than a few bottles, over time you will see a considerable benefit once you’ve recouped the initial outlay. What’s more, the saving goes on and on. It’s one of the easier ways to stop overspending.

Stop overspending on convenience foods

Convenience foods are just that – a great convenience. If you are a busy parent and time is of the essence, not having to spend too much time making meals can be attractive. But the convenience does come at a price, and that price isn’t just the financial cost.

Processed foods often contain more salt than they should, and this doesn’t do your health any good. Experts estimate that if South Africans reduced their salt intake, there would be an 11% drop in the number of deaths relating to heart disease.

South Africans consume on average, 8.5 grams of salt per day. The problem is not just a South African one, of course. If people worldwide reduced their salt intake down to 5 grams per day, it would prevent 1.65-million people across the planet suffering from cardiovascular illness each and every year.

Processed foods are a big part of the salt problem. Also, they don’t contain anywhere near the same levels of vitamins and minerals than fresh produce does.

Stop overspending on convenience foods and not only will your health prognosis be improved, but you’ll spend less as well. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to prepare fresh meals. You’ll find recipes for 30 quick and easy meals that only take 30-minutes to prepare on the essentials.co.za website.

You can find many online resources that offer help on how to stop spending money online. Some ideas are more obvious than others. For example, it is easy to overlook or ignore habitual behaviour.

Break some ingrained habits

Stopping off for a coffee on your way to or from work and buying lunch every day in the canteen at the office. These are the sorts of habits that are all too easy to adopt.

If you do them all of the time, you will spend a significant amount of money, and if you are going on a drive to stop overspending, they are precisely the type of things you can ditch. Wait until you get home for a coffee and take a packed lunch instead of buying canteen food. Easy to do and a whole lot less expensive