one thousand rand

The average coach that works for GRS in Kimberley makes about R1000/ month (this is equivalent to USD 120 at the current exchange rate).  And although living in Kimberley is cheaper than the cost of living in the States, this is still not a lot of money.

For a while now, Trevor and I have been wondering what it would be like to live off of a coach’s salary and we have decided to stop wondering and give it a try. So, for the month of February we are each going to spend no more than R1000.

Here’s the break down:

Housing and water – Most coaches live with a parent or other family member and probably do not contribute money towards rental/ property costs, so Trevor and I are not going to “pay” for our housing either. On an interesting side note though, the intern house costs R4 290 to rent each month – an amount no coach could ever dream of paying. (Note: some coaches do contribute towards rent/ water costs and a common breakdown is likely R500/month for rent and R100/month for water.)

Electricity – Even though GRS usually pays for electricity at the intern house, this is something most coaches probably do have to pay for/ contribute towards.  Trevor and I are already pretty energy savvy and we only spend about R250/ month on electricity, so electricity for the month will cost us R125 each. 

Airtime (to make phone calls) – GRS provides interns with airtime in order to help us do our job, but it does not provide coaches with airtime, even though we expect coaches to call if they are going to be late or miss an intervention. So I’m calculating that I will spend R105 (what GRS gives me) on airtime this month. 

Transportation – GRS gives all coaches transport money so that they can take taxis to and from their interventions. If I were a coach, GRS would supply me with transport money, so I am not going to deduct any money for transport purposes. I do want to draw attention to two things though: the cost of petrol and the cost of transport. Petrol costs R11/ liter and a tank of gas in the Tazz (the smaller intern car) usually costs R550. A tank would cost me more than half my monthly budget. As for public transportation, to get from Galeshewe to town via taxi, it costs R8 (taxis are the only means of local public transportation). If an employee took a taxi to and from work every day (R16) and had a “steady” job in which they worked four days a week, they would have to spend R256/ month on transport (note that Trevor and I spend that much on electricity each month). Furthermore, most businesses in South Africa do not provide employees with transport money. Employees have to figure out whether or not they will use part of their salary to get to work. As you can imagine, most people opt to walk. I’ve walked from the intern house in to town (a distance of 3 km) and it usually takes 25 minutes to make the trip. Most township residents live at least twice as far from town as I do, which makes their walking commute at least an hour, one-way.

After deducting R125 for electricity and R105 for airtime, I am left with R770 to spend on food, alcohol (which all of the coaches somehow find the money to buy – I think they use their transport money), social activities and any other unforeseen expenses. There are 29 days in February, which means that I have a daily budget of R26.50 (or R8.80/ meal).

I feel confident that I will be able to live off of R1000 during the month of February. But I will definitely be making some changes. For one, I will not buy any ice cream this month; a one-liter tub costs anywhere from R40 – R60 and Magnum Ice Cream Bars (the most delicious ice cream bars I have ever had) cost R14 per bar! I also won’t be buying any peanut butter. It’s not that peanut butter is exorbitantly expensive; rather, the rate at which I eat it makes it exorbitantly expensive. Meat is also not going to frequent my dinner table this month. And as for fresh fruits and vegetables, cereals and hot sauce, I am really not sure if I’ll be able to afford them.

I will also have to tailor my social activities. Trevor and I developed quite a habit of eating at Panartoti’s every Thursday for the all you can eat pizza deal (R50), which we won’t be doing in February. Trevor and I also went to the movies last week (we saw the second Sherlock Holmes – it was awesome), which cost us each R39. And there are weekends when Trevor and I do go out with coaches and pop out money to buy food and/ or alcohol, which I know we’d both like to still try and do this month, but we’re not sure if we’ll be able.

It’s going to be an interesting month for sure. I’m looking forward to it though, and I hope you’ll keep checking in to hear how I am managing.