When you don't know what is going on, you will be going on. There is alway an outcome to everything, one thing I like about numbers is that it calculates itself. Just keep spending anyhow without considering the needful and when you are out of cash, numbers will automatically remind you. That's when you chuck your hand into your pocket or go through your wallet and it's empty.
Many businesses go bankrupt due to lack of accountability. The paperwork is always a tedious thing yet needful. The few years in business has taught me the need to keep records and indeed it has not been easy. Through accounting comes readjustment to fit an environment, customers and clients alike. It is always a bad signal when you find out you are out of cash when expenses are on ground to keep business moving. You will be scrambling around and this is an immature act.
That said, I was just throwing in the business part of numbers as we are going to be focused on individuals. Let's turn back to ourselves. Coming home to my country there has been an economic shift that is choking, overspending is becoming a norm. Not actually because you are a careless spender but rather because of price hikes in goods and services. In the last one and a half years prices of goods over here have skyrocketed to 400% and some exceeding this.
This seems unending, the current news release is that the cost of living is going up or should I say has increased by an additional 15% starting this January. Of course this increment started during the Christmas season and has come to stay. The question now remains, how can one fit into the economy without wearing himself out by spending. This is where the call for figures recheck is important.
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Many of us are bad at numbers, most times the things we do and consider as cost saving are actually not. Using the food sector for an instance, There were times I felt buying food from eateries and restaurants was a means of spending more. It was by that time when prices of things were affordable but not now and as I said, many are yet to discover this.
There is a need to eat a balanced diet and it is costing much these days. Let me bring this article down to an average gentleman's expenses. How much is the cost of food at eateries? It depends but there are places you can find for a thousand Naira. Assuming you were to eat thrice a day, you could spend N3000 on food or let me summarize at N4000.
It's a pity that the highest currency in the country is N1000 and one will have to spend 4x of it daily just for feeding himself alone. This is the least you can get from a local restaurant, there are places you'll spend 4K, 5K and above just for a single meal.
Many will prefer cooking at home but as it stands especially as singles you will be running a big loss. How much will it cost you to bring down nutritious food? Let's say 5K with many manageables. You'll have to consider other factors, you'll have to spend money on gas and time too to get the food prepared.
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Adding to that, you sure know you won't want to eat same meal thrice a day, meaning you will still spend on snacks and to your surprise, an additional N1000 to N2000 is gone. Sometimes we wonder where our money is going, this is one of the directions.
Same goes with the issue of owning a car, if your work place isn't far and demands much urgency then it calls for a need to consider public transportation. Let's assume your transport to work or business premises is N1000 daily. How much is a liter of petrol currently? It is selling around N1050, how many liters will it take your car to convey you to and fro?
The loss here is very massive. You have to consider maintenance also. Our economy calls for number understanding and spending adjustment to fit in. This has been one of the discussions I had with my co-business partner. Sourcing for perfect replacement in spending is key because it is from here that profit is realized in business and extra buck is also left in the wallet for individuals.
Of course, my illustration above shows that some market will be booming as others face a decline, one of them will be the food sector which I will have to cover a lot in another article, till then.
To conclude, let me add, not ALL have that huge chunk of money to meet demands in the present economy and this costs for a lot of adjustment. Understanding economic trends and forgone alternatives will remain key. This economy is not planning to downsize any time soon, one needs to be very conversant with numbers, this will arrange your spending habits so that you don't over-overspend in an economy where overspending is now a norm.
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