You’re about to go to bed as a notification flashes on your mobile screen. You see it’s a clearance sale, valid only until midnight. It occurs to you that it is probably the 10th invitation to spend to reach you today.

You resist the temptation to buy anything and you wonder if you are perhaps spending money without even realising it. So you open your banking app and look through your monthly debit orders. Within the first three line-items, you identify at least one subscription that you can’t even remember signing up for. You also seem to have been doing a lot of app purchases. You had no idea your money was going towards so many unnecessary expenses. So you decide to take action.

Facing up to your spending habits...

Resisting the onslaught of seductive advertising messages that tempt you into spending (overspending) isn’t enough. You need to dig a little deeper into your finances, almost like auditing yourself to see the unseen places your money is going.

July is National Savings Month and Coronation is encouraging South Africans to think about how they are spending their money, possibly on things that they really don’t need or without even realising they are doing it.

Head of Coronation Personal Investments Pieter Koekemoer says, “There are many hidden ways in which we spend our money unnecessarily.” He highlights memberships, subscriptions, free trials that automatically convert into billings after the first month, convenience shopping because your credit card details are saved online, or upgrading to newer models when you don’t really need to. 

“While it may take some effort to identify and close the tap on some of these running expenses, just take a moment to consider what you could do with that cash if you were to invest it. Allowing it to grow until such time that you can comfortably afford something that you really need. That is the real meaning of saving.”

To uncover saving in the true sense, visit www.coronation.com to see the bigger picture.