How to spend a windfall

One of the most revealing questions that was asked in the low-income household survey related to the manner in which respondents would spend windfall sums of $J1000, $J5000, and sometimes $J 10,000 if they were to receive them. What was interesting was to identify the priorities that low-income households applied when decisions had to be made concerning the most beneficial use of scarce cash resources. The answers received revealed some interesting differences between different kinds of heads of household. These are summarized in table 9.

Female heads of household were the least likely to make a choice relating to housing Improvement and the most likely to make a choice concerning an informal vending activity for purposes of income-generation. Some 53.1 per cent of female heads of household indicated that they would spend the money on income-generating activities focused on informal selling, compared with only 31.9 per cent of joint heads of household. This reflects the strong priority that female heads of household place on generating Income prior to committing themselves to consumption expenditures.

Table 9. Percentage of different types of household by choice Or expenditure of windfall of $3000

Type of expenditure	Type of household
	Female-headed	Male-headed	Joint-headed	Total
Informal sales, higgling, food vending	53	20	32	40
Improving housing	15	20	24	20
condition
Buy land or house	2	0	3	2
Shop. Restaurant. bar services	8	7	12	10
Savings	0	8	8	7
Livestock. fishing. farming	3	10	7	6
Immediate expenses - debt. sickness. Schooling	2	10	6	5
Buy means of transport or air ticket	4	12	1	4
Household items	2	3	3	3
Food	3	0	1	2
Dressmaking/ tailoring	2	3	0	1
Manufacturing furniture/crafts	0	1	1	1
Leisure - church. hobbies	0	1	0	0
Total	100	101	98	101

 

Just over 70 per cent of female heads of household indicated a preference for income-related expenditure, compared with 58 per cent of male heads and 53 per cent of joint heads. As Carmen said when referring to how to spend a windfall. "You have to spin it over, wash it- (i.e., make it earn more money rapidly).

Again, 15 per cent of female heads of household indicated that they would spend the money on improving their housing condition, compared with 19.6 per cent of male heads of households and 24.2 per cent of joint heads of households.