Christmas offers are back again and for many, this is the season to spend huge chunks of money on the discounted prices. Probably you might have even written down all the goodies you want to acquire come early next month just before Christmas.
For the child in the village, it might be their once in a year chance to get some “new” pair of mutumba trousers or a mutumba dress. Shoes may be included in the budget; but if the parents` financial muscles don’t stretch enough, they might end up with a pair of the popular “CDF”open shoes which go for as cheap as 50/=.
Christmas is a good season for that village boy or girl because they also get a chance to have chapati on their menu albeit for just a day. A few bottles of soda may pass through their kitchen shelves, though these are meant for the parents and their adult friends. For the kids, their favorite “juice cola” will do for the quenching of their thirst for soda. In the mean time, the lucky ones will be having a nice time struggling with the bone marrow from bones of the 1/4kg of meat bought yester-night.
For the rural folks, christmas might be cheap and though relatively expensive to them, it might not compare with the extravagant experience in the towns and cities. From hosting of unending streams of friends and relatives, to crazy partying in club houses over the weekends, money flows out of people`s pockets so easily and so fast for them to realize that they are overspending.
The new gadgets in the town stalls need guys to buy them and definitely it is the guys in town to do the sho
pping. The vendors know too well that you are on a spending spree; and to entice you even more they put small discounts on their products to encourage you to spend that extra coin in their stall. The delusion of “cheap stuff” brought by the discounts stealthily creeps into your pocket and no sooner had you woken up from the illusion, than you find your pockets empty.
Massive traveling also forms part of the huge budgets people create in this festive seasons. There is always an aunt to be seen, a long time friend to be visited, a dad to take grandchildren to, a cousin to meet with after five years, and the list is endless. The short Christmas leave given to employed buddies makes it even worse since all these people must be met within that very short period of time.
For the effluent, that is the time to take a vocational trip to some sunny beach or a thrilling wilderness expedition. Here too money is spent generously with with little consideration to budgets.
After all is chewed and swallowed, January comes knocking with fees to be paid and bills to settle. A visit to the bank confirms your worst fears at that time of the year…not enough funds to finance all your urgent and crucial needs. A loan may follow with the accompanying interest costs; so what does all the short-term Christmas merriment reward you with? ….FINANCIAL DISTRESS!!!
Having good times is all that we want in life and money is meant to be spent. However un-calculated expenditure on short-term merriment might land you in more distress than fun. To avoid this, prior budgeting and sticking to your budgets in this festive season will help. More so, be rational and very objective in your spending and you will never regret.
Africonometrics 