Despite the shift in sentiment in the final quarter of the year, South African households are still cutting back their spending to get by, with downgrades to entertainment and shopping brands leading the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Old Mutual Savings and Investment Monitor for 2025, the financial priorities of South African households this year follow the same pattern as last year, with job security remaining the top concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Job security has been a primary concern for households since the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns tore through the economy in 2020\/21. Since then, workers have carried anxieties about their access to income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Worries over job security are most prominent among those earning between R8,000 and R15,000 per month, and aged between 18 and 29, reflecting starting positions and young people who are still growing their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, stresses are seen among 60% of households covered by the monitor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other financial priorities include cutting expenses (48%) and paying off debt (48%), while a little over a third of households focus on emergency savings and investments for their financial future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cutting expenses edges out paying off debt as the second-biggest priority, with those earning between R8,000 and R30,000 per month being the most likely to make cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Contrary to concerns about job security, younger households and salary earners don’t care much about this, with the focus being more concentrated among those aged 30 and above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Younger generations are less focused on expense control and paying down debt than other age groups, probably because they are less indebted with big-ticket items,” Old Mutual said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“They do, however, place relatively higher focus on building up safe savings and investments and helping out parents and other family members financially.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Old Mutual noted that while cost-cutting remains a top priority for South Africans, things appear less dire than in previous years, with households easing up on the cuts they make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, things like downgrading entertainment services or switching to cheaper brands have taken less prevalence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This has also been reflected by retailers in the country, who have noted a return to popular name brands among shoppers who had previously moved rather aggressively to more affordable house brands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, when looking at what households are cutting back on to save money, there is a clear reduction across all categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“These recovery trends show up in a more relaxed stance to cost-cutting, as we see further easing in consumers switching out for cheaper brands or cell phones, whilst the pause on major expenses has dwindled,” Old Mutual noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most popular tactics used to cut down expenses and save money are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A remarkable finding in the OMSIM 2025 is how crucial rewards programmes have become in helping households make ends meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the monitor, 67% of households are saving money through the use of rewards, with a sizeable 39% indicating that these schemes are critically important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These households say that they would struggle to make ends meet without rewards, or that the rewards are otherwise of significant importance to their monthly budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conversely, only 1% said that rewards were not important, with the balance (27%) at least acknowledging them as “nice to have”, especially for little treats and extras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Understandably, the use of rewards is of a higher priority for lower-income households, most prominent among those earning between R8,000 and R30,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is also more prominent among younger households and income earners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those earning over R60,000 a month, or who are aged 50 and over, find these programmes less crucial to the budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite the shift in sentiment in the final quarter of the year, South African households are still cutting back their spending to get by.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":700161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[24401,1110],"class_list":["post-846396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-cutting-expenses","tag-old-mutual"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846414,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846396\/revisions\/846414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Downgrade the rented property<\/th> OMSIM 2024<\/th> OMSIM 2025<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Switch to cheaper streaming<\/td> 32%<\/td> 29%<\/td><\/tr> Switch to cheaper supermarket brands<\/td> 30%<\/td> 25%<\/td><\/tr> Cutting down domestic help<\/td> 29%<\/td> 24%<\/td><\/tr> Cutting down cellphone and data<\/td> 27%<\/td> 23%<\/td><\/tr> Cutting gym subscriptions<\/td> 26%<\/td> 22%<\/td><\/tr> Putting major purchases on hold<\/td> 22%<\/td> 18%<\/td><\/tr> Maintain rather than replace big items<\/td> 22%<\/td> 18%<\/td><\/tr> Cashing in investments\/saving early<\/td> 15%<\/td> –<\/td><\/tr> Downgrade rented property<\/td> 14%<\/td> –<\/td><\/tr> Moving children to cheaper school<\/td> 13%<\/td> 11%<\/td><\/tr> Switching or trading down vehicle<\/td> 12%<\/td> 11%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Rewards have become critical budget savers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n