UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA (UNISA)
College of Economic and Management Sciences
⋄
Personal Financial Management
Assignment 02 — Semester 2, 2026
⋄
Module Code: FIN2602
Module Name: Personal Financial Management
Assignment No.: Assignment 02
Due Date: September 2026
Semester: Semester 2, 2026
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for FIN2602:
Personal Financial Management at the University of South Africa.
, UNISA | FIN2602 Personal Financial Management — Assignment 2
Question 1: Nandi’s Home-Based Bakery
Case study. Nandi is a 40-year-old single mother living in a rural community. She has always
enjoyed baking and wants to start a small home-based bakery to earn additional income and
improve her family’s financial wellbeing. She has saved R40 000 but is unsure whether this
amount will be enough to start the business. She is also concerned about budgeting and man-
aging her finances effectively.
Financial planning is the foundation on which any new venture such as Nandi’s bakery must be
built, since inadequate planning is one of the most consistently cited reasons why small, rural,
women-owned businesses in South Africa fail to survive their first years of operation (Donga
and Chimucheka, 2024).
1.1 Why Nandi should prepare a budget before starting her business
A budget is a financial plan that sets out expected income and expenses over a defined pe-
riod, and it gives Nandi a structured way of testing whether her R40 000 in savings is realis-
tic against the actual cost of opening a bakery. Once she lists every anticipated cost, baking
equipment, ingredients, packaging, electricity and transport, against her available capital, she
can see immediately whether a shortfall exists before she has committed any money, rather
than discovering it once trading has already begun.
A budget also creates the discipline needed to keep business money and household money
apart. Without this separation Nandi risks spending business capital on family needs, or the
reverse, which makes it impossible to judge whether the bakery is actually profitable. This risk
is well documented among rural women entrepreneurs in South Africa, where a lack of struc-
tured financial planning is repeatedly identified as a barrier to business sustainability (Donga
and Chimucheka, 2024).
1.2 Two factors Nandi should consider before starting her bakery business
Market demand. Nandi needs to establish whether enough people in her rural community are
both willing and able to buy baked goods regularly. This means assessing local buying power,
the products already offered by competing bakers or spaza shops, and the prices the commu-
nity can realistically sustain. A bakery with excellent products but no accessible market will not
survive on enthusiasm alone.
Page 1 of 8
College of Economic and Management Sciences
⋄
Personal Financial Management
Assignment 02 — Semester 2, 2026
⋄
Module Code: FIN2602
Module Name: Personal Financial Management
Assignment No.: Assignment 02
Due Date: September 2026
Semester: Semester 2, 2026
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for FIN2602:
Personal Financial Management at the University of South Africa.
, UNISA | FIN2602 Personal Financial Management — Assignment 2
Question 1: Nandi’s Home-Based Bakery
Case study. Nandi is a 40-year-old single mother living in a rural community. She has always
enjoyed baking and wants to start a small home-based bakery to earn additional income and
improve her family’s financial wellbeing. She has saved R40 000 but is unsure whether this
amount will be enough to start the business. She is also concerned about budgeting and man-
aging her finances effectively.
Financial planning is the foundation on which any new venture such as Nandi’s bakery must be
built, since inadequate planning is one of the most consistently cited reasons why small, rural,
women-owned businesses in South Africa fail to survive their first years of operation (Donga
and Chimucheka, 2024).
1.1 Why Nandi should prepare a budget before starting her business
A budget is a financial plan that sets out expected income and expenses over a defined pe-
riod, and it gives Nandi a structured way of testing whether her R40 000 in savings is realis-
tic against the actual cost of opening a bakery. Once she lists every anticipated cost, baking
equipment, ingredients, packaging, electricity and transport, against her available capital, she
can see immediately whether a shortfall exists before she has committed any money, rather
than discovering it once trading has already begun.
A budget also creates the discipline needed to keep business money and household money
apart. Without this separation Nandi risks spending business capital on family needs, or the
reverse, which makes it impossible to judge whether the bakery is actually profitable. This risk
is well documented among rural women entrepreneurs in South Africa, where a lack of struc-
tured financial planning is repeatedly identified as a barrier to business sustainability (Donga
and Chimucheka, 2024).
1.2 Two factors Nandi should consider before starting her bakery business
Market demand. Nandi needs to establish whether enough people in her rural community are
both willing and able to buy baked goods regularly. This means assessing local buying power,
the products already offered by competing bakers or spaza shops, and the prices the commu-
nity can realistically sustain. A bakery with excellent products but no accessible market will not
survive on enthusiasm alone.
Page 1 of 8
