How to get the most out of your cashback programmes

It takes careful planning to ensure monthly incomes stretch to include all household expenses.

Budgeting is essentially a spending plan for the family. Even though most of us cannot afford to spend money on everything we want and need, it is important to prioritise our spending to focus on essentials, such as insurance, paying off a mortgage or saving for educational needs.

In navigating the tough economic times, consumers should not cut down on essentials if there are innovative options to make their money go further.

Here are budget tips to help you make your budget go further with cashbacks:

Shop for cashbacks

Be financially savvy and purchase from retailers that offer cashback rewards and in the financial services industry, this could be short-term, life and health insurance.

By making use of rewards programmes, you can receive a percentage of your spend back and be able to earn a competitive interest rate from the get-go.

Plan

Compile a realistic budget, as it will allow you to forecast expenditure and help with longer-term financial planning. This ultimately allows you to make realistic assumptions about your income and expenses and plan for future financial goals.

Moreover, by selecting an insurer that is linked to a rewards programme, you can afford to cover more of your insurance needs or increase your cover with the cashbacks or discounts you earn.

Use the loyalty card

Always make use of the rewards card when you shop, in order to accumulate the benefits and cashback points associated with it.

By shopping at retail partners such as Clicks, Makro, Pick n Pay and Dis-Chem, for example, cashbacks can be a welcome addition to cover some of the monthly expenses in your budget.

Save for emergencies

Although it is tempting to make use of rewards when they are available, it is advisable to instead save these for when budgets are constrained, or for important items that are often too expensive for a once-off payment.

So, when looking to budget correctly, it’s important to look for options that offer the most rewards.

These cashbacks can make household budgets stretch even further, allowing families to save more and do more.

Kleu is executive head of Momentum Multiply

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