Cost Of Living In Kenya Highest In 5 Years, Here’s how You can Manoeuvre

The cost of living has hit a five-month high following the inflation measure for the month of August which came in at 8.5%.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, inflation has increased by 0.02% since the month of July. The rise also marked the third consecutive month in which the cost of living crossed the 7.5% limit mark.

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The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of the weighted aggregate change in retail prices paid by consumers for a given basket of goods and services also increased by o.4 per cent to Sh125.58 from Sh125.05 in July.

With such an increase, many are finding it harder and harder to get by especially, those living in Nairobi and other major towns.

Below are 6 ways you can tame the high inflation eating through your income.

Spend Less than You are Making

This is easier said than done.

If the cost of items that you regularly buy is going up and it surpasses your monthly income then cut back. Either buy items that are cheaper like generic brand items or stop buying things that you don’t need. 

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Spending less to survive the increased cost of living is difficult because no one wants to downgrade their standard of living.

The better solution would be to find ways to increase your income, but until you can do that you’ll likely need to tighten the belt and spend less.

Get Out of Debt and Consolidate Debt

To help survive high inflation you should work hard to get out of debt, especially credit card debt, car loans, payday loans, personal loans, and shark deals.

Paying off debt will greatly increase your purchasing power each month.

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Find Ways to Increase Your Income

Sometimes cutting back is just not enough. You need to go the extra mile and increase your income.

The trick here should be working extra hard to double your earnings but watch your spending too so that they don’t increase. Otherwise, there’s nothing you’ll be doing.

Cook Meals at Home and Eat Leftovers

Cooking meals at home, using food storage, not letting food go bad, and eating leftovers instead of going out to eat will help you save money for other expenses.

Cancel subscriptions

Subscriptions can be taking a big chunk of your income right under your nose. Do you really need that Netflix package while you still have a DSTV one?

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What about your internet subscription package? Why are paying for the highest package yet you are rarely in the house?

Until we start looking at our subscriptions critically and question whether we really need them, they’ll always shrink our income.

Do It Yourself

Finally, take time before paying for a service and ask yourself whether you can do it.

Do it yourself is the activity of doing or making something (as in woodworking or home repair) without professional training or assistance broadly.

With the internet, there’s a tutorial for almost everything.

Let’s start doing some of the things on our own to reduce expenditures because we are in a time of very high cost of living.