How load shedding boosted my savings goals

No blackouts for nearly 28 days today – is it safe to say ... and counting?

We've become so used to power outages that many of us have spent the past few weeks constantly on the edge and waiting for power utility Eskom to announce that rolling blackouts are back.

Nearly a month later, the lights are still on – uninterrupted. Phew!

One cannot over-emphasise the devastating effects the blackouts have had on livelihoods. They have crippled businesses and disrupted our lives. My parents taught me to find something good, no matter how bad the situation is. And when it came to blackouts, I did exactly that.

What rolling power cuts meant for me was more money in my savings account. And the higher the blackouts stage Eskom put the country on, the more money I would save. For more than a year from February 2023, I had been saving R10 every day when there was a blackout.

"I'd have the amount multiplied by whatever the stage of power cuts we were on any given day. This meant on days when blackouts hit stage 6, I was saving R60 a day. This boosted my savings.

Blackout-free days are so welcome as they bring stability to our lives, but in my head it had not registered that it had been so long without power cuts and what this essentially meant for my savings goals.

And then at the weekend it hit me – I have not been saving as much because there have been no blackouts. More than three weeks had gone by and I have not been saving as much because the lights have stayed on for so long.

Looking back at the last week of March and the first week of April 2023, the country was hopping between stages 2 and 4 of rolling power cuts. Based on this assumption, I have missed out on saving a few hundreds rand over the past three weeks. Having realised that this was hitting my saving goals badly, I looked for an option to increase my daily savings.

I'm already saving when it's sunny and when I sweat.

Effective from Saturday, I boost my daily savings by R36.50. This means a month, I will boost my savings by more than R1,000. So, you see, there is always a way of getting around anything, especially if, like me, you don’t want anything messing with ensuring you meet your savings target.

How we manage our finances is as easy as taking care of ourselves or doing our jobs. You just need to set your priorities straight, budget (and stick to it) and focus on the end goal.

mashabas@sowetan.co.za