Minimizing cost of living

Minimizing cost of living by low income earners

I’ll want to talk about minimizing cost in reference to civil servants who earn monthly salaries in most cases, what should the do to minimize cost especially when economic seems not to be strong?

Remember that I’m writing from a developing country where their economy isn’t also strong. Please pardon some of my ideas if it’s doesn’t apply to your location or country.

How does civil servants and other low income earners especially in Africa and other unstable economic countries of the world minimize cost?

There’re several ways you can minimize cost. First of all you have to still plan your expenses; very important just like we talked on budgeting. You have to be disciplined, design an attitude as to what you want and then what you need. By now you should know that there’s a difference between wants and needs. When you spend money on your need, it means you actually planning to succeed, but if you spend money on your want, it means that you can spend money on anything.

Needs are those eminent and fundamental to your existence, so if you don’t have enough money, you could concentrate on dealing with the needs you have. Secondly, you must plan a way of having alternative sources of income. Some of you that has known me to some degrees knows that I’m someone that love diversifying my source of income. As an accountant, I also engaged in agro activities like gardening and farming. I’m also an entrepreneur; An artisan who deals on aluminium cladding etc. I do all these because I must survive in an economic mismanaged country where I’ve found myself.

Having said all these, as a civil servant for example, if you have a space in the village, you can farm just as I’m doing, not just space at your village, you can as well apply it where you’re living if there’s space for that. You can do a little farming at your backyard if it’s possible; of course it is possible because I’m doing exactly what I’m saying here.

If you’re able to raise vegetables around your house, that reduces the pressure on your salary. Then you can also design a program on how you handle your family in terms of receiving visitors. For example, if you’re of a habit of when people come you go and buy bottles of beer 🍻 or even buy them in cartons, it’s good, but must consider you earning. You start doing your entertainments with little little things like peanuts 🥜, garden eggs and all that. These are all survival schemes that you can develop in order to minimize cost.

Eyes on your income

Everything that you do; your lifestyle has an eye 👁 on your income. As a civil servants, you should start saving from your first salary knowing that your salaries as civil a servant is numbered or is known. All things being equal, the highest you can serve is 35 or 60 years, which ever one comes earlier. Saving as earlier as possible will make things especially your retirement to not be as a matter of urgent for you. Let me stop here on what it takes to cut cost and conserve money.

In summary

You should always remember:

⁃ your attitude

⁃ Diversification by way of trying to do other things to raise money and lift pressure on one’s salaries.

What led to all this discussion is what happened or rather the experience that people are still going through this pandemic and the associated lockdown. Many people were not earning, many markets were shut down and a whole lot. And now that schools are reopened, students has gone back to school. But could you believe that there’re some people that their children hasn’t gone back to school because of financial challenges.

Christmas 🎄 is around the corner, and this is a time that families go to the market for shopping, some people shop a month or two before Christmas. If you go to the market now, if you haven’t understood the market, you’re likely to quarrel with traders because each time you go to the market, and after one week, you go back to buy the same item you’ll see inflation. Things are adding up to 50% above the prices per week in my country for example. All these could be traceable to the impact of covid-19.

How to survive this period of high inflation.

Well, it’s important to know that it’s a wrong approach to wait until emergency before planning on how to survive it. You plan for emergency in advance, that’s why we must understand the memos of financial literacy.

We must always plan for emergency. Covid is already with us and it’s only those that were prepared that will absorb the shock to a greater extent. It came to the world suddenly, but it’s only them that has been planing for their lives that may handle the associated pain to an extent. What do I mean?

Saving for the rainy day

As an individual and as family, always bear in mind that there’ll be a period of difficulties in the affairs of life and humanity, therefore be dropping something somewhere, gradually gradually for the rainy day so that if it hits you accidentally you’ll be able to absorb the sudden shock.

We’re talking of upcoming Christmas, for you to plan on going home on Christmas, ought to have started by January, though it’s not totally bad to start now; because from your earnings you should have known the level of your expenditure and your reserve, if it’ll be enough to take you home during Christmas. If it cannot take you home during December, you can now decide that by December you won’t travel.

Coming to Inflation

Inflation is as matter of more money chasing few goods; a lot of people want to buy but the goods aren’t there. Inflation is an economic issue. My advice has always been centered on the diversification of the economy as for government. Then for individuals, we should try to be productive, because if we produce, the the pressure on the few goods shall be diluted by the enormity of goods being produced.

I started example of some people that are civil servants. If you can farm, nothing says that you not farm. If you have gotten something from the farm that you cultivated, that would also reduce the pressure of demands in the market.

My wife most times goes to the market for few things like detergents and other few food items that we do not produce, but for vegetables, proteins, nuts 🥜 carbohydrates foods etc. we cultivate those which helps to curtail down inflation.

Entrepreneurship is the in thing nowadays, let’s see if we can find something to be producing to reduce the pressure on the available goods and services because government cannot do it alone, all of us must be involved one way or the other.