South Africans are heading into the year-end festive period with less room in their budgets than a year ago. Spending over the “silly season” has climbed close to R300bn, but two interest-rate increases since May and rising fuel prices are eating into what households can afford.
Lender Wonga’s most recent Summer Spending Survey put projected spending over the 2025/26 festive season at more than R289bn. About 70% of respondents planned to spend more than their usual monthly outgoings on food, gifts and family gatherings. The survey drew on just over 10,000 respondents, who planned to spend an average of R6,299 each.
That total masks a more cautious consumer. Average planned spending per person fell R511 from the previous year’s peak, and just over 40% of respondents said they intended to spend less.
| Wonga festive survey | Projected total | Average per person |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | R204bn | R5,705 |
| 2020 | R210bn | R5,673 |
| 2021 | R250bn | R6,326 |
| 2023 | R224bn | R5,707 |
| 2024 | R284bn | R6,832 |
| 2025 | R289bn | R6,299 |
Food and drink take the largest share of festive budgets, at an average of R2,261 a person, followed by local travel and transport at R1,166 and gifts at R1,135. Many households are not travelling. Of the 73% of respondents staying home, 41% said they could not afford to go away.
How people pay for the season is shifting. About 22% planned to turn to credit providers, up from 20% in 2024. Another 21% planned to draw on stokvel savings, and 23% said they had saved through the year.
Bank card data from last year shows the same mixed picture. Discovery Bank clients spent an average of 20% more over the festive period than in other months, but only 5% more than in December 2024. Visa Consulting & Analytics recorded national festive spending growth of 7.9%, with nearly 90% of it still taking place in stores. Absa’s merchant data found consumers kept up festive activity but spent less on each shopping trip, as real purchasing power remained under pressure.
Retailers felt that strain. Retail sales rose 2.6% year on year in December 2025, the slowest growth since August, and spending on food, beverages and tobacco contracted by 5.6%.
This year’s backdrop is tighter. The Reserve Bank raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.25% on 23 September, taking prime to 10.75%. Monthly bond and loan repayments will rise for anyone on a variable rate. Headline inflation rose to 4.4% in August, while petrol rose R1.34 a litre and diesel R3.15 a litre in September. The economy contracted by 0.2% in the second quarter. The Reserve Bank has warned that inflation could breach 5% in the last months of 2026.
Wonga spokesperson Tina Manyanya said South Africans remained resilient but cautious. She noted that spending was becoming more deliberate, with consumers saving where possible and using flexible credit to get through the period.