Financial Update – March 2, 2026

How Far Behind We Are With Rent (And the Reality We’re Facing)

It’s time for another monthly financial update.

Last month we hoped the next update might show some improvement. Unfortunately, when we look back at our numbers, the situation this month is not better, and not even the same — it’s actually worse.

As of 2 March 2026, here’s where things currently stand with our rent:

• January 2026 rent still owed: R3220

• February 2026 rent: R4500

• March 2026 rent: R4500 (which was due yesterday)

That means we are now significantly behind, and the stress of not knowing how long this can continue is very real.

For readers outside South Africa, the numbers roughly translate to:

• R4500 ≈ $279.72 USD

When several months begin stacking up like this, the pressure grows quickly. Our only regular stable income is Tony’s monthly SASSA pension of R2320. 

Naturally, we worry about how long our landlord will continue accepting late payments before asking us to leave. Maybe it’s next month, maybe it’s today. We have nowhere to go should we lose our home and NEED our online and other efforts to grow quickly, and work quickly, urgently.

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Our Online Income Efforts Are Moving… But Very Slowly

Much of our effort during the week goes into trying to build online income streams that might eventually support us.

However, progress has been slow.

YouTube Channel Growth

Our YouTube subscriber count is growing slowly, and our watch hours are also increasing slowly.

While this is technically progress, we still need many more subscribers and a lot more watch hours before we qualify for YouTube’s monetization program. Our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@beachy-south-africa

Reaching monetization would allow our videos to display ads and generate some income — something we are really hoping to achieve.

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Growing the Beachy Website

We are also continuing to build our website beachy.co.za

The long-term goal is for the site to:

• bring in more visitors through Google search

• generate AdSense revenue

• introduce people to our projects and products

However, the reality is that the site currently earns almost nothing from AdSense, mainly because we still need to add a lot more content and attract significantly more traffic.

Building a website audience takes time, but we are continuing to work on it.

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Tony’s Course-Making App (A Project We Really Believe In)

One of the projects we are particularly proud of is Tony’s desktop app for creating courses.

You can see it here:

https://beachy.co.za/course_studio/

It’s designed specifically for Windows users who want to create courses easily.

The app can be used to:

• create courses for personal learning

• design courses for students

• train staff or teams

• build courses to sell online

One of the things we really like about this software is that it includes three full PDF courses, which were actually created using the app itself.

These are included with the app purchase:

• How To Make Courses With AI Assistance (279 pages)

• How To Add Media to Your Courses (382 pages)

• How To Sell the Courses You Make (217 pages)

You can even try part of the app for free before buying it.

Despite all the effort that went into building it, unfortunately no copies have sold yet.

That part is quite discouraging, because we genuinely believe it’s a useful tool.

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Our “Big R5 Sale” This Weekend

Last weekend we also tried to earn some money through a very low-price sale in the parking lot of a shopping mall.

We advertised it as a “Big R5 Each Sale.”

For international readers:

• R5 is currently about $0.31 USD

We thought we had promoted the sale fairly well, and we brought a wide range of items, including:

• second-hand books

• DVDs and CDs

• crockery and glassware

• large balls of wool

• handmade copper-wire rings with sea glass

• handmade copper-wire rings with beads

• air plants mounted on driftwood and hung from the large tree we sell under

• and several other items we considered amazing bargains

Unfortunately, sales were very disappointing.

Here’s how the weekend went:

• Saturday: R155 (about $9.63)

• Sunday: R265 (about $16.49)

That’s the reality of trying to earn money this way — sometimes it simply doesn’t work out.

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Trying Our Best Not to Lose Everything

We are doing everything we can to keep a roof over our heads and continue living here.

Sometimes we joke (a little darkly) that the local street beggars probably earn more than we do, but in truth the situation does worry us a lot.

Tony cannot simply go out and take a normal job, and neither can I.

Tony has health issues that require me to be close by just about all the time, and I also have some health challenges of my own.

Because of this, the most realistic approach for us is:

• trying to sell items on weekends, and

• trying to build online income during the week

Right now, neither approach is working particularly well, but we keep trying, keep creating content. Growing, but really slowly.

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Everyday Life Is Becoming Harder

Another difficult part of our situation is simply day-to-day living.

Lately we’ve been eating a lot of very basic food, mostly things like:

• bread and margarine

• mielie meal

We’d really love to be able to add more chicken, vegetables, and fruit to our meals again — and maybe even a few small treats now and then.

Our pets also need attention.

Our cat seems to be losing weight, even though he is eating and using the litter box normally, which means he may need a vet visit.

Our two dogs also need flea treatment, which is another expense we are struggling to cover right now.

So yes… things are feeling a bit overwhelming at the moment.

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Looking Ahead to the Rest of March

Despite everything, we are still trying to move forward.

We continue working on:

• growing our YouTube channel

• building our website content

• promoting Tony’s course-making app and other apps

• creating digital products

• selling items locally whenever possible

Some months are discouraging, and this one definitely feels like one of those months.

But the only thing we can really do is keep going.

So… onward march, in the month of March.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why do you share monthly financial updates?

We believe in transparency. These updates allow people to understand our situation and follow our progress as we try to improve our finances.

What income sources are you trying to build?

Our focus is on growing online income through YouTube, our website, digital products, and software projects like Tony’s course-creation app and other apps

Why not rely on traditional employment?

Due to health issues and our circumstances, we need non-physically taxing work that can be done at home and/or selling of our physical items close to home, which is why we are focusing on online projects (global audience) and small local sales of physical items (small local audience).

How can people support your work?

Free support includes visiting and reading the pages of our site, watching our videos, subscribing to our YouTube channel, and sharing our content (from our website, our YouTube, our Facebook etc). Sharing our content helps to increase our visibility. Small cost support includes $2+ donation via our PayPal.me account and/or purchase a coffee for us and, for locals, to purchase our ridiculously inexpensive books and other items from us on weekends. Larger cost support includes purchasing our digital products from our shop

What is Tony’s course-making app?

It is a Windows desktop application that helps people create courses for personal learning, teaching, staff training, or selling online. It also includes three detailed PDF guides about creating and selling courses.