Live each day as if it were end month

By VERONICA CHEROP

In the last few days of February, I heard people asking each other if salaries had been deposited in their accounts. They were in the red, they said, and literally counted days to the end of the month.

Under normal circumstances, this is called dangerous living. When you are single, this behaviour can be forgiven, but when you are raising a family, there is no excuse.

How are you going to explain to your children that they cannot have white tea because ‘daddy is broke since end month is a long way off’? One, the children will not understand such an excuse. Two, you are teaching them financial irresponsibility, which is tragic.

Adults must come up with ways of stretching their income, especially the kitchen budget, to take care of every day of the month as if it was end month.

The easiest and simplest way to do this is to draw up a budget for each day of the month. I know many families that have set a menu for each day of the week. With time, they know how much flour, for example, they will buy to take care of the number of times they will cook chapati every week. If chicken is eaten every Tuesday and Saturday, they know that this translates to eight or nine chickens every month, and set aside the money to take care of that expenditure.

This should be the case with every item on your regular expenditure.

For a better start to the month, do your bulk shopping at this time — that is, buy enough unga, cooking oil, rice and so on to last you until the next pay day.

Make it a habit to pay the house-help, and pay rent and other bills as soon as you get your salary. Then work with the balance to ensure it sees you through the month.

When budgeting, do not be too strict — such as accounting for every cent of your money. When buying foodstuffs, there are times when you make a saving, and there are days you do not get a good bargain. Therefore, it is prudent to make estimates on the higher, and if you make a saving at the end of the month, the money can go into the following month or take care of some other activity.

ERRANDS

Also, note that when you send your house-help for some items from the shop, she or he might exaggerate the cost. I remember for a long time I was asked for Sh45 for half a litre of milk, only to pass by the shop one day and discover that the real cost was Sh41. If you buy four such packets of milk every day, it means your house help is Sh20 richer, just from milk money, every day.

As you budget, consider miscellaneous spending. It is not always possible to do everything by yourself; there are times, and for many people it is most of the time, the house-help will run such errands for you, and pinch quite a lot.

Talking of budgeting, I know a colleague who has a small green book where she notes everything she buys. One day, she insisted on buying someone chewing gum worth Sh6, and then pulled out the small green book, where she noted the expenditure in a beautiful handwriting.

Now, this kind of expenditure tracking I consider unhealthy. Tracking the way you spend money is a good practice, it helps you sustain your lifestyle throughout the month, but noting every tiny thing is another story altogether.