This survey will not reflect the latest fuel and electricity increases along with normal inflation. The next quarter will be far more revealing and there should be a major squeeze happening by then on all household budgets.
I was chatting with a good friend yesterday who runs a business which has been growing consistently over the last 5 years. The last two months they have taken a knock and the business has slumped which he mentioned they had expected to happen months ago. One can understand where the economy is by looking for signals like this and it is worrying.
Over the last few months South Africa has had some major fuel hikes along with electricity hikes this month which directly impact consumers negatively. I have felt the pinch this month when filling up the car with fuel as the costs have doubled. The half tank which I do weekly is up an extra R400 ($25) which works out to an extra $100 monthly that I no longer have. The electricity will suck another $60 this month and besides the normal inflation I would guess this months living costs will be $300 more than June and we are the fortunate ones having funds.
The latest TransUnion Consumer Pulse Study for the second quarter of 2026 has noted a certain trend which basically highlights the obvious. The study noted that households were under a persistent strain with 43% stating they were better off than expected whilst 40% were worse off than expected.
July is going to be worse than June which I mentioned above so any financial trends happening in the last quarter will increase over the third quarter. Many households have started cutting the fat from their household budgets like the internet, cable television and even private medical. The private medical is a significant signal as we all know in SA this is a must have even though this has a major cost attached to this service.
What is interesting to see is that households who participated in this survey are actually planning on cuts and at least they are aware of the financial crisis that is looming. I think the majority of households know there is less money and act far too late thinking this will resolve itself without any intervention. These are the households who live on credit and end up in a financial mess and I would guess that is roughly 70% of households.
The survey predicted what the next 3 months will look like for households and I would go even further and say there will be far more drops a s percentage across the board with the debt increasing. We know the average household is spending over 60% of their take home pay on debt and this will only increase the pressure on those strained households.
When people start meddling with pension funds you know there is a problem as this is all about the now and not about the future. Many do not understand the implications of siphoning pension funds and what and how this will impact their future which is kind of scary. Ignorance is bliss until you find out and these households fiddling with their pension will find out.
