Miscellaneous expenses are bad news to many young Rwandan couples. Here you are striving to save or complete a particular project, yet it never gets done. Every time you are about to achieve a goal, something crops up and you have to take out some money meant for something else. This should not worry you as this happens almost to everyone, regardless of their income bracket. Even the very rich often find themselves grappling with previously unforeseen issues that eat into their budget. Some people never even go half way towards completing a project before something happens. Often the situation cannot be ignored or postponed. It has to be addressed immediately and it always has severe cost implications. When it comes to women and shopping then miscellaneous expenses are a norm. With the rapid and impressive growth of supermarkets in Kigali, these types of expenses are increasing especially with women who tend to buy things unplanned for once they step inside the supermarket. This can be dangerous as this diverts your wants to other things you did not plan for and eventually, you end up spending more than you planned for or you might end up not getting your most desired items. There are several ways you can curb or effectively handle these little devils. The most important is self discipline. Most of us can not resist a good deal. We throw caution to the wind whenever we think we have come across an once-in-a-lifetime offer. These offers are and will continue to be there and therefore there is no need to hurriedly enter a deal without critically thinking and planning for it. The battle to spend or not will have to be won within us. Adverts are a big influence on the way we spend our money. Eric Sebanani a Burundian living in Kigali is one of the many people who have been affected by this. He was planning to buy a second hand double cabin so that it facilitates him in his business of transporting potatoes from Kigali to Bujumbura. In the process of saving for his project, he sees adverts for branded computers going at 40 per cent discount and decides to buy it. Not that he was desperate, it was cheap. Sebanani had already saved Rwf 1,200,000 and he used Rwf 400,000 for his computer. Within a week his entire household electronics got spoilt by a power surge and he had to spend Rwf 250,000 to repair them. The following month his mother fell ill and he had to contribute Rwf 400,000 along with his siblings in order for their mother to undergo a medical operation. This automatically killed off his plans and he had to stop his business altogether because he had no savings with him to continue with his project. Sebanani accepts that his running out of business was out of his own making as he attended to unplanned expenses which was about to leave him in a deficit. He admits that if he could have had some self-control and not bought the computer and instead of replacing all the electronics at once, he could have chosen to start with the most essential. His mother’s illness therefore remained the only unforeseen and non-negotiable miscellaneous expense. With Sebanani’s example it is always advisable to have a contingency fund to sort out miscellaneous expenses. The size of this fund will depend on the past patterns of expense. Have a non-negotiable savings account that you never withdraw from. Further, assess the likelihood of miscellaneous expense requests sprouting up. If you are the only one working in a large extended family, like is in most cases in Rwanda, you have to make provisions for financial request. Plan to save when chances of issues that would derail you are minimal. Negotiate your way out of minor financial obligations. Don’t be deceived by offers, sales and peer influence. Amidst these temptations, you need to have strong self-control, solid fiscal discipline and above all be a judicious spender. Try and limit your saving period to a minimum. If you are saving for something for a whole year, things are bound to happen. But in a period of three to six months, you can close your eyes to many temptations, remain focused and achieve your goal. dedantos2002@yahoo.com
