Experts warn it will be difficult for many households to cover basic January expenses. This is at a time when South Africans are still coming to terms with December’s overspending regrets. January has its never-ending list of responsibilities that come up, especially with children going back to school. What other better way of surviving this long month than affordable and wise shopping?
Preparing for January expenses is a tall order for South Africans living on a minimum wage, says Julie Smith, researcher at the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity group (PMBEJD).
“People try as best they can. Low wages offer no surplus. Surplus is generated by cutting back on basic expenses.”
Basic needs sacrificed
This means minimum wage earners are forced to sacrifice on basic needs, Smith explains. But even with this sacrifice, it will be highly unlikely for them to be able to cover January expenses.
“Households will borrow money to try and meet January shortfalls, particularly on education expenses,” Smith states.
He adds that South African households living on a minimum wage will get through January with difficulty.
“There is no other way. People have to eat. Families will go into deeper debt. Mothers will sacrifice their own nutrition so that children have something to eat. People find a way.”
Avoid luxury items
The manager of the Spar Shopping Centre in Melville, Gauteng Wellington Msimango, acknowledges that the month of January might not be the easiest for consumers, but believes that wise shopping can truly help them. He advises that they stay away from luxury foods and focus on what is best and needed at the time.
“I say that consumers should go for basic needs first and focus on them so that they can afford stationery for the kids. It would not be wise to buy luxury foods like snacks and sweets and big label beverages,” Msimango explains.
He names urgent items that families need to really focus on when doing grocery shopping this month, such as mealie meal, milk, bread, vegetables, fruits, tin food, sugar, gravy sachets and soups.
When planning a lunch box for the kids, he advises going with the children’s preferences as well to minimise shopping items.
“Some children don’t like eggs in their sandwiches, some don’t like fish or polony, so maybe if parents could cut on those and buy the healthy items that the children prefer, then they could last this month,” he says.
Shop wisely
When it comes to food, securing starches are likely to be the first priority for many households, Smith says. However, he warns that almost nothing is cheap.
“Families will secure the basic starches, oil, sugar, and salt. Note, [there is] no protein.”
PMBEJ’s basic food grocery list:
- Maize meal
- Rice
- Cake flour
- White sugar
- Sugar beans
- Samp
- Cooking oil
- Potatoes
- Onions
- Frozen chicken pieces
- Curry powder
- Stock cubes
- Soup
- Tea
- White bread or brown bread
If there is any money available, households will shop for affordable vegetables, Smith says. “And after that, eggs or cheap cuts of meat, but these will form a tiny portion on the plate. What is most likely is a plate of starch.”
Economist Dr Sifiso Ntombela agrees that wise shopping is possible and it is evident in the contents of the consumer’s shopping basket.
“Consumers would do best with gravitating towards cheaper meat portions, the likes of chicken, pork and tinned fish,” Ntombela says. “To balance it out, they should look at vegetables like cabbage, spinach and potatoes.”
Ntombela also suggests that consumers can look at different markets to be able to compare prices which would be affordable to them. He says that fresh produce markets can be considered, as well as open markets.
What about VAT-free items?
By law, South Africa has several food items that are VAT free. The VAT Act provides for the supply of certain so-called basic foodstuffs to be zero-rated.
VAT-free items in South Africa are brown bread, maize meal, samp, mealie rice, dried mealies, dried beans, lentils, pilchards/sardines in tins, milk powder, dairy powder blend, rice, vegetables, fruit, vegetable oil, milk, cultured milk, brown wheaten meal, flour, eggs, edible legumes, and pulses of leguminous plants.
There are calls to extend the list of items in order to include bone-in chicken, beef, tinned beans, wheat flour, margarine, peanut butter, and baby food among others.
Smith does, however, warn that there is a misconception that zero-rated foods are cheap. “They are not cheap.”
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