THE SPENDING DIARIES

Three women opened their wallets for us and gave us a peek at how much they spend in a month. The result? Funny, raw and surprisingly revealing snapshots of how money shapes identity, survival and joy.

- By Eulogi Rheeder

Money. We love to spend it, hate to think about it and almost never talk about it honestly. Yet it dictates so much of how we live what we eat, where we sleep, the choices we make for our children, even how we see ourselves. Behind every swipe of a card is a story: of childhood lessons that shaped us, partners who influenced us, or moments that forced us to rethink everything.

So we asked three South African women to share what they really spend in a month — the coffee runs, the Uber rides, the medical must-haves, the long-term savings, and the random splurges on plants, clothes or even garden gnomes. What emerges is more than a list of receipts. These diaries reveal the messy, funny, sometimes-painful truth of how money threads through our lives — not just as rands and cents but also as identity, survival and joy.

ZODWA'S MONEY MINDSET

Money has always been about survival for Zodwa.

She started earning at 12, working at her school tuck shop for R15 a week. 'My mom made me tithe 10% of it. I used to loathe doing so because I felt that I already had so little. But I loved earning. I think that's where my hustler side started.' That mix of drive and scarcity never left her.

In her teens, she joined a drama group and used her performance earnings to buy her own clothes.

'If I wanted something, I had to make it happen.

I learnt early on to be resourceful." By her 20s, she was performing abroad and earning well... until the pandemic stopped everything.

'No work meant no pay. I had nothing saved. I wasn't married or a mom yet, but that moment made me realise I couldn't keep winging it. I needed a plan.'

Zodwa was fortunate to be living with her partner then, who could support her when she was financially down and out. But that reckoning became her turning point. 'I started listening to Dave Ramsey religiously.