Spending patterns during the festive season

This is definitely one of the reasons why this time of the year is called the silly season. It is a period to switch off, recoup, let go and a time for giving and that’s exactly when the overspending starts with absolutely no regard for what we refer to as ‘Janu-worry’.

We spend as if we don’t know that the long January month is coming.

The way ‘Janu-worry’ is so long in our minds and because most people are supposedly broke by then from festive spending?

It feels like this month is made up of a few months instead of days. For those who are employed full time, it feels like ‘Janu-worry’ month-end is way too far off.

The overspending is understandable to a certain extent – it’s driven by the laid back mentality most people have at this time of the year.

I know exactly how I’ve felt during the 20 years I worked in Jo’burg.

I always felt I had been working very hard for the whole year, seen very little of my family especially my mom and because of my mid-year’s fixed expenses – I would normally not have been able to spoil them. I would then use the festive season to spoil them which meant being in an exceptionally giving mood.

As much as all of this might sound justifiable; the festive spending patterns would almost always catch up with me in ‘Janu-worry’ of the following year.

The one thing I tried to do very well was to pay the full annual school fees for the year by the end of November each year.

I did this mostly for peace of mind and wanted to take advantage of the 15% discount my daughter’s primary school offered if the full annual fees were paid by then.

I also made sure that I bought schoolbooks and stationery as well as covered the books and had them ready for ‘Janu-worry’ by early December.

I would go as far as buying any school uniform items my daughter needed replaced as she kept on growing like a weed.

I would also try to leave some money behind from the December salary so that I could survive the ‘Janu-worry’ period; but I’m telling you I simply couldn’t get it quite right. I’m still a work in progress - even now.

I was talking to someone recently about what some people refer to as the December or festive spending budget – I’ve personally never had such.

All these years I’ve been working, I’ve just been winging it with whatever money I had.

I have a lot of respect for those who have such a budget because I’ve always made do with what I have and hoped for the best.

As much as we justify our spending during the festive time by saying we worked hard all year to deserve to spoil ourselves and our families, what is sad to see is parents not starting with the priority spending in December before using most, if not all, their money for luxuries associated with the silly season.

It’s sad to see people standing in long queues at loan centres after New Year’s Day because they don’t have money to survive ‘Janu-worry’.

I think black people have a winning formula in the stokvel business.

According to Business Insider SA: in 2020, there were 11,5 million stokvel members in SA and they saved an estimated R50-billion in that year.

These stokvels are a combination of burial societies, grocery or money clubs that are gradually growing into multi-purpose stokvels and looking to invest excess savings into bonds, unit trusts and property.

The problem with most stokvels is that people get their monies either at the end of November or early in December. They spend that money during the festive season and are left with nothing in ‘Janu-worry ’– and that is the most critical time of the year as kids are going back to school.

This savings model would work very well if some of the money was made available the week after New Year’s Day; to take care of essentials and so that people could have money to survive during this difficult month.

What I noticed over the years is that it normally took me at least the first four months of the year to recover from my festive overspending.

My budget has always been exceptionally tight between January and April of each year. If this is the case for everyone else, why are we not learning? Why do we make the same mistakes in December that we pay for so painfully in the first quarter of each year?

Hopefully some of you can relate to what I’m saying. If there are some who know what I’m referring to then I ask those who can and are willing to join me in my crusade.

Let’s learn from our past mistakes, let us be a good example to the young ones who come after us. Let us make the right financial choices and avoid the mistakes we’ve made since the time we started working. The solution is to plan better so that we can have better “Janu-worries” and brighter financial futures going forward.

For more info, contact me on: C: +27 (0) 68 029 8760 (Voice-Calls); C:

+27 (0) 78 675 1297 (WhatsApp) E: miranda@strangeconsulting.co.za AND Ora4117@gmail.com

Miranda Lusiba is the founding director of Strangé Consulting –a boutique PR agency specialising in communications, freelance writing, media relations, reputation management and media training. #Womeninbusiness

**Disclaimer: Miranda Lusiba & STRANGÉ CONSULTING retain all title, ownership and intellectual property (IP) rights to these columns and trademarks contained in all other information and supporting documents as well. This is in accordance with the SA: Copyright Act 98 of 1978 (amended) Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Act 38 of 1997.