What would Magufuli do 

The hash tag #WhatWouldMagufuliDo has been trending on twitter this past week.  The new Tanzanian president, John Magufuli, has hit the ground running and made some changes, some of which have been to curb expenditure. The result on social media is a series of hilarious pictures and comments of what Magufuli would be doing in various scenarios. For example Magufuli would fry eggs on a spade instead of buying a frying pan, re-use toothpaste multiple times, turn the wheel barrow into a limo for the wedding day, kick the demanding girlfriend out of the car etc.  Many of these messages are in jest but the principles that are coming out of not just his actions but also the tweets are quite useful.  At the end of the day it is really about considering alternatives before you spend money. What Magufuli has been seen to already do in his few days in office is curb wastage. We can do that with our own expenses.   There are some good alternatives that we just do not think about. Here are some “WhatWouldMagufuliDo” options with our personal spending.

Buy your dry foods and household necessities in bulk.  Unga, sugar, beans, rice, detergents, soap etc. can be bought in bulk from wholesalers.  This is estimated to save anything from 10% to 30% off some of your expenses. However, because you do need to buy in bulk, you will need to have quite a bit of money at the point of purchase. Most items are sold in the large quantities. However this will save you from having to go to the supermarket for a major shopping event every month.  You not only save money you save time from running to the supermarket to buy 1kg of detergent every time it gets finished. Even if you feel you cannot find or go to a wholesaler, you can buy bigger quantities in your normal supermarket. Some even have wholesale options. This is also brand specific but generally the five kilogram pack of detergent is cheaper than the one kilogram pack when you analyse it on a cost per kilogram basis.   What you then also have to do is set boundaries with the usage of stuff in your house.  Just because there is more sugar, does not mean we take three teaspoons of sugar with tea as opposed to the usual one. Sometimes we not only shop inefficiently, we waste food.  How much food are you throwing away per day? Meals unfinished.  Don’t overcook.  And if there is food left over I am sure Magufuli would carry packed lunch as opposed to squandering three hundred bob per day buying food.  People drink water or juice and leave half of it in the glass. Especially if you buy water the cost of quarter or half a glass of water being left every time someone drinks water ends up being quite expensive. Magufuli may establish consequences for people who are wasteful (e.g. no juice for three days) or opt to use personal water bottles that can retain water for a few hours. You don’t tend to be wasteful when sipping water from a water bottle because you have it throughout the day and you can replenish as needed.

Families do not seem to eat together that much anymore. People are eating at different times, coming late from work or occupied with other gadgets such as TV, phones, social media etc.  Not only is this an important family practice (at least as often as you can) but it also saves money.  When one person is used to eating later than everybody else they tend to make independent decisions on what they eat.  Sometimes this involves buying your favorite fast food on the way home because you just don’t feel like eating the rice and beans that you know has been cooked that day. Wasteful living. Secondly when there are three meal cycles every evening, it means food is being heated a lot. In many cases it’s through the microwave as everybody warms their food plate at the time convenient for them.  The microwave is one convenient gadget that uses up a lot of electricity.  If you were to try and eat together, the food can be cooked or warmed just once with gas, and everybody serves then. Family bonding and savings at the same time. While we are on the topic of electricity usage we must mention the iron.  Do ironing in bulk.  Don’t heat up the iron just for one shirt then come an hour later for another shirt.  By letting it cool, you then have to use up a lot of electricity to heat it up again. I also don’t see Magufuli doing various cycles of ironing. Needless to say, energy saving bulbs should also be used in the house.

Since it is now officially the season, I must talk about entertainment expenses. Especially in December this escalates because of the social events.  The shopping, Christmas parties, travelling, eating out, going out etc. I suspect even Magufuli can get disrupted in December. That’s why I believe he would pay his essential bills and save first before the disruption comes.  Pay your rent, pay school fees, buy uniform, books, pay electricity, and put away your savings.  Then you can work with what is left. Do not spend what you do not have. Do not borrow or go into a deficit because of Christmas expenses. Do the important things. Leave everything else. You don’t have to buy everybody a gift and I’m sure you can come up with some Magufuli options on your own for that.  If not there are currently lots of examples on twitter.

Waceke runs programs on Entrepreneurship. Find her at waceken@centonomy.com| twitter @cekenduati| facebook.com/cekenduati