The tides are rapidly changing and in this unstable economy, everyone — regardless of social standing and class — must adapt to survive.
Adapting can be extremely challenging especially when the situation is an economic recession in a country with more problems than just the economy.
Here are some things to cut down on in order to make it out of this recession financially sane.
Generator usage
It’s bad enough the economy is crumbling faster than a cookie but how many Nigerians can recall a lenghty spell of uninterrupted power supply.
Our standby household generators have for years, been doing what the government cannot do for us.
Now that the situation is getting dire, generator usage should be restricted to specific hours and to take care of necessities.
Comfort can wait till recession is over and we are out of troubled waters.
Eating out
Anyone who actually cooks will know that restaurants serve overpriced, often unsatisfying food.
So instead of taking your hard earned money to pay for ‘fancy’ food, go to the market, buy raw food and head to the kitchen.
You’ll save so much money.
Driving walkable distances
The cost of fuel is higher than it has ever been in Nigeria’s history, so why not kill two birds with one stone while going for short errands.
Take a walk or go for a run while running your errand. Your body and pockets will thank you.
Bulk buying of groceries
Constant grocery shopping can be such a chore so we tend to buy in bulk.
However, a disadvantage of bulk buying is that some goods may expire or spoil before you get around to using them, hence cut your grocery shopping list down to necessities.
Get what you need and not what you think you will need.
New clothes and shoes
Your old clothes are perfectly fine!
Oh you think people have noticed you’ve had that shirt for a while? Frankly, it’s nobody’s business.
As long as your clothes are not obviously tattered, there is no use going cloth shopping every week to impress people and depress your bank account.
Hanging out
We all love spending quality time with friends and family but instead of going someplace where you’ll spend more than you budgeted for (more often than not), invite them to your house and plan activities everyone can participate in.
You’ll create a stronger bond and more lasting activities while saving money.
Vacations abroad
Also known as “the king of excesses”, vacationing abroad is officially a luxury at this point in time.
Why go and spend your hard earned ‘naira’ in a foreign country contributing to the growth of their economy while leaving yours in the backseat.
Stay at home!
DSTV subscription
You don’t need to pay for all the channels. It’s not a competition.
You hardly ever watch more than 15 of the channels on the premium package, so why the bother?
The smallest bouquet has news channels for the grown-ups and cartoons for the kids.
Water as opposed to juice and sodas
Some people think there is an award for living lavish. News flash: there isn’t.
Most of these processed drinks you desire to gulp down your throat with every meal are not even good for your health and they definitely cost more than water. Drink water, you’ll live longer.
Unnecessary phone calls
Restrict your airtime to calls with purpose (work, business).
There’s no need to ask your friend what he/she is eating or staying on a call for an hour discussing what nail polish color to wear to an event.
There are tons of instant messaging services. Embrace them.
Copyright 2024 TheCable. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from TheCable.
Follow us on twitter @Thecablestyle
Hummn! This is food for thought, no more unnecessary spending. Infact, this is change for real.
I think the cable lifestyle is right, things are really going out of hand, and we as a Nigerians need to limit our spending in respective of the position we are occupying in this country, u can imagine a bag of rice been sold for 22,000, that’s wrong , we really need to see to this change,
Who no know go know.the writer has hit the nail on the head..We shall survive if we hearken to some of the advise in the write up
The idea is of the writer is good. People should stop blaming the present government, this is part of end time events. God bless Nigeria
Change for real. God help Nigerians. Relief comes after hardship.
You spend what you earn. A nation that doesnt earn but spend will see recession. Its a wake up call. Get productive and export rather than imports and recycling stolen funds into the economy only for affluence instead of investing in agriculture etc. All we do is exotic acquisitions. However, the writer would have opted for; “PAY TV SUBSCRIPTION” rather than DSTV subscription. Why do you have to call someone to say hello and gist or aproko when the conversation will not yield funds in your account? Why do you have to spend so much on internet subscription only to read about celebs flaunting cars and jewelry etc? We need stop being wasteful and go conservative. The waste by our politicians also need be addressed cus they brought us into this mess.
I concur. A word is good enough for the wise.
Completely amazing and I love the writers mode of communicating such simple ideas. I wish only that this become like a national anthem. What If a critical mass can adopt these practically and technology start-ups start developing applications to make this lifestyle ‘chic’ and practical? Well .. Just dreams.
Thanks dear writer.. You rock!
Yes , we need to spend for necessity and to impress anybody in our spending