3 ways South Africans can handle the soaring cost of living

South Africans are having to deal with the hike in the repo rate and the increase in the petrol price, which came into effect today.

With these increases eating away at our pockets, consumers will be looking to cut down on unnecessary expenses or trim necessary monthly expenses to save as much money as possible.

Instead of making rash decisions which could negatively impact their financial future, people should look at making smart decisions that can benefit them in the long run.

Here are some tips to save money during these tough times:

1. Pay-as-you-drive motor insurance billing

The amount you spend on motor insurance monthly is one of the things you can control – so look into it and make it work for you, rather than having to work for your insurance.

Motor insurance in this day and age gives you the chance to save when you drive less. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, people are working from home more than ever. This has resulted in car mileage going down and a reducing the risk of them causing an accident. This is a golden opportunity to cash in or save on motor insurance.

Look into your options about car insurance, especially the providers that offer a pay-as-you-drive car insurance.

Keletso Mpisane at MiWay Blink says: “The pay-as-you-drive motor insurance model helps customers get better value because they pay in line with their actual risk profile. This gives them the added advantage of controlling their motor insurance expense throughout the month by monitoring their driving.”

2. Micro-investing

Micro-investing is the putting away small amounts of money towards short-term or long-term goals.

New online platforms give consumers the option of rounding up or add on to your transactions so that the extra cash goes into a linked investment account.

Platforms that allow people to do micro-investing are the digital-age version of saving in a jar the spare change from monthly purchases and then taking the full jar of change to the bank.

3. Save electricity

With the repo rate and petrol price hike, don’t let the cost of electricity impact your financial decisions.

Instead, people can take steps to reduce their electricity usage by taking care of their appliances or choosing the right appliances for their homes. Some of the ways that people can save electricity include doing maintenance checks on their refrigerators, calculating the energy cost of an appliance before buying and using appliance ratings as guidelines.